"Calm down, Kitsuchi." His voice was low, yet carried unquestionable authority. "Tell me everything you know, exactly as it happened. Don't leave out a single detail, especially... Uchiha Ling and that 'Susanoo.'"
Kitsuchi roughly wiped his face, fighting down his overwhelming emotions as he began to recount the events in fits and starts.
He started with how they had successfully surrounded Uchiha Ling, who had seemed gravely wounded. Then he described how the dark-red demon had risen from the ground, ignored every Earth Release defense, and slaughtered his men as easily as crushing ants. He told of the hopeless gap in their strength, and of the cold, indifferent look Uchiha Ling had worn as he slaughtered them, as if a god were gazing down at insects.
Finally, he described how the demon had vanished like a dream dissolving after they had completely broken, and how Uchiha Ling had left with a calmness that chilled him to the bone...
Kitsuchi's account was far more vivid—and far more brutal—than the cold intelligence reports. Every detail was like a dull knife, cutting again and again into Ōnoki's heart.
When Kitsuchi said that Uchiha Ling hadn't even spared the fleeing survivors a second glance, leaving as casually as if he had merely finished some trivial task, Ōnoki's eyes flew open.
The last glimmer of hope in his eyes went out completely.
He slowly walked to the window and looked once more at the world dyed red by the setting sun. The only sound in the office was Kitsuchi's stifled sobbing.
After a long while, Ōnoki turned around. His back seemed even more stooped than before, and the wrinkles on his face appeared to have deepened.
But his eyes had gathered something anew—not his old stubbornness or forcefulness, but the resolve to face reality and