At Konoha's main gate, the massive wooden doors stood shut in the night, the fire emblem hanging above them gleaming coldly in the moonlight.
The Chunin guards, Izumo and Kotetsu, leaned against the gateposts with their arms folded.
They seemed to be dozing, but every muscle in their bodies was taut, chakra circulating silently through their pathways.
Their ears were pricked, catching any unusual sound within several hundred meters.
The entire village was under lockdown tonight. Their task was to ensure that not even a fly could leave-or enter-without permission.
Then they saw "it."
At first, it was only a tiny white speck moving slowly along the distant moonlit road.
Then its outline gradually became clear.
It was a tall, slender figure in a pure white haori, his black hair stirring faintly in the night breeze. His steps were unhurried, as leisurely as a stroll through his own courtyard after dinner.
A few paces behind him followed another figure wearing a Spiral Mask and a white robe patterned with black clouds.
The two appeared without any warning, without spatial fluctuations or an eruption of chakra.
They simply "walked" out of the depths of the night, abruptly yet as though it were only natural, and approached Konoha's gates.
"That's..." Izumo rubbed his eyes, thinking that staying up all night had made him hallucinate.
Kotetsu abruptly straightened, his pupils contracting sharply as his voice warped with sheer terror. "W-white robes... Las Noches?!
Enemy attack-sound the alarm!!!"
Shrill alarms instantly tore through Konoha's night sky! Not just in one location-every alarm barrier throughout the village had been triggered at once.
The piercing wails were like countless blades scraping against the eardrums and nerves of every villager in Konoha!
Inside the secret observation post, the crystal ball shuddered violently, its image instantly switching to