The Hokage's Warning and the Ino-Shika-Cho Clan's Pledge of Allegiance

The corridors of the Hokage Building were filled with an air thick with dust, charcoal, and a faint scent of blood.

Shikaku Nara followed behind the ANBU wearing a pure white Mask. Every step landed on the cold floor tiles, producing a hollow echo.

The sunlight pouring in through the windows had been fractured by the ruins of the building, stretching his shadow long and thin. It twisted and swayed with every step he took, just like his troubled state of mind.

This is troublesome...

Shikaku sighed silently in his heart.

As Konoha's top strategist, he had spent his entire life dealing with all kinds of "troublesome" matters. But never once had he felt such powerlessness from the depths of his bones as he did today.

That man, Baishi, could no longer be described as merely "troublesome."

He was a storm, an earthquake, a natural disaster capable of overturning the entire existing table of the Shinobi World—table and all.

In the face of an absolute natural disaster, every scheme seemed pale and laughable.

The ANBU ninja stopped outside the door of a room that had been temporarily cleared out. He knelt on one knee and silently made an inviting gesture before merging into the shadows once more, as if he had never appeared.

This had apparently once been a records room. The scent of old paper and ink still lingered in the air. The room had been emptied for the time being, leaving only a simple wooden table and two chairs in the center.

Baishi was not seated behind the table. He was not even wearing the Hokage Haori that symbolized supreme authority.

He wore only a simple black combat outfit. With his back to the door, he stood before the only intact window, slowly wiping a pitch-black Kunai with