Akatsuki's Moves and a Visit from the Land of Demons

Night.

The vast palace was almost silent.

A lantern hanging in the corner cast a gentle glow.

Behind the drapes, a young woman slept.

She seemed trapped in a nightmare. Her lovely face tightened, her slender fingers clutched the bedding beneath her, and faint murmurs escaped her lips.

"No, no, no..."

As her murmurs grew more urgent, a clear ring suddenly sounded through the empty palace.

The sound jolted her out of the nightmare.

But something strange happened when Yu Zhi opened her eyes. Her black pupils quietly contracted, gradually giving way to a spreading violet haze.

At the same time, a blood-soaked scene flooded her senses again. She watched a stranger die from a third-person perspective.

Countless vicious bone spikes pierced straight through the stranger's chest.

Then, as maniacal laughter filled that bloody world, she saw the face of a young man about her age. He seemed to be...

The vision shattered.

The young woman finally broke free of the nightmare, but a fine sheen of cold sweat had formed on her forehead.

She sat up, struggled to suppress her fear and shock, and called toward the palace doors.

"Someone! Come quickly!"

On the fifth day after the attack on Kumogakure,

every faction watching Yogakure and Kumogakure had learned the outcome of the war through its own channels:

[The Land of Lightning has been overrun. Kumogakure has been razed. The Fourth Raikage's whereabouts are unknown. The Eight-Tails Jinchuriki appears to have been controlled by the Sharingan and turned into a guard dog for the Demon Hidden Village.]

"After this battle, there are no longer Five Great Shinobi Villages."

Looking at the Anbu report in her hands, Tsunade felt her chest tighten. When she finally spoke, disbelief and fear colored her words.

When the conflict began, everyone had