Jade!

What Sora said was a bloody fact.

The Third Raikage's valor was unmatched in the shinobi world, but plunging deep behind enemy lines to rescue an encircled force had always been a gamble. Yet the Advisory Council's decisions and the delays in rear support had undoubtedly been the greatest drivers behind this disastrous defeat!

"Lord Sora!"

Samui spoke urgently, her eyes filled with pleading.

"Now isn't the time to assign blame. The Third and more than a thousand of our comrades are in grave danger! Please..."

Sora did not look at Samui.

His gaze fell upon the intelligence scroll Dodai had brought, as though he could see through the paper and glimpse the hellish scene of corpses and blood in the Heavenly White Mountains.

"The exact location and numbers of the remnants, the enemy's troop deployment, and the Third's current condition. I want the most accurate intelligence."

Dodai jolted as if a drowning man had seized a piece of driftwood.

He forced himself to calm down and delivered his report at a rapid but clear pace.

"The Third is leading the troops and is about to break out of the Heavenly White Mountains, but according to the last intelligence Lord Troy sent back before being gravely wounded, fewer than eight hundred are still able to fight!"

"The main force of Hidden Stone is commanded by Akatsuchi, and they still have at least seven thousand men! Every major pass has been sealed off, and they've used a large number of Earth Release shinobi to alter the terrain, forming a massive encirclement! As for the Third... Lord Third is still fighting, but his chakra has been severely depleted, and he is already showing signs of exhaustion..."

"Heh."

A cold curve lifted at Sora's lips, the most merciless mockery of the Hidden Cloud leadership's disastrous decision-making.

Moloi's eyes were vacant.

In a situation like this, there was no ending but death.

Even if Sora's combat power was unparalleled and he possessed godlike speed, there was no longer enough time.

Unless...

Within the Heavenly White Mountains.

The infernal flames of war still burned with their final embers of despair.

Inside the valley, the murky air was suffocating.

The pungent stench of blood, the rotten reek of festering wounds, and the rank odor of excrement mingled together into a poisonous miasma enough to shatter an ordinary person's will.

Faint campfires flickered, casting twisted, dancing shadows across the cave walls and illuminating the numb, agonized, near-collapse faces within.

Painful groans continued without end like background noise, low and stifled.

Missing arms and broken legs had become commonplace. More fatal were the internal injuries caused by Earth Release and explosions.

There were not enough medical shinobi.

There was not enough medicine.

Some of the gravely wounded lay upon the cold stone, their wounds blackened and ulcerated as flies buzzed around them. Their hollow eyes stared at the cave ceiling, waiting for death's release.

A young medical shinobi futilely pressed against a comrade's collapsed chest. Tears mixed with sweat and dripped down, until he could only let go weakly and watch that faint breath fade away completely.

This was war.

Real war!

At the center of the cave, atop a relatively flat boulder, the Third Raikage sat leaning back, his face ashen and his lips dry.

His labored breathing sounded like a worn-out bellows. The imposing presence that had once stood as lofty as a mountain was now thoroughly worn down by exhaustion.

He was too tired.

"Third..."

A weak voice came from behind him.

It was Troy.

The magnetic-release genius was in terrible condition.

During the earlier battle of attack and defense, he had done everything he could to hold back the Hidden Stone shinobi, but he had still been severely wounded. Half his body had nearly been smashed apart by a massive stone fist.

His breastbone had collapsed, his internal organs had ruptured, and his entire left arm had suffered a comminuted fracture.

Only his unyielding will and the efforts of the medical shinobi had barely kept him alive.

His face was bloodless, his lips dark purple. Every breath came with a grating sound from within his chest that set one's teeth on edge, like a broken bellows leaking air. His one remaining eye struggled to open a slit, its gaze murky yet carrying an unusual calm.

"Save your strength, Troy."

The Third Raikage's voice was terribly hoarse, carrying a tremor even he had not noticed.

"Retreat, Third."

Troy shook his head. Looking at the Raikage he revered most, he voiced his thoughts once again. "With your strength, even if there are countless Hidden Stone shinobi, you can still escape from here."

"The village needs you. Hidden Cloud's future needs you. You can't be buried here along with useless people like us."

"Shut up!"

The Third Raikage growled.

"You are the village's elite, my comrades and brothers. You want me to abandon my own brothers and flee alone? Don't be ridiculous!"

"We are brothers, comrades... cough, cough, cough." Troy stared fixedly at the Raikage. Amid his violent coughing came one final plea. "But you are different. You are the village's backbone, the torch and dawn that guide us!"

"The village can live without us, but it absolutely cannot... cough, cough... Just, just do it for the village..."

"The village..."

The Third Raikage looked into Troy's pleading eyes, then swept his gaze around.

Some of the young ninjas were silently weeping. Some stared blankly ahead. Others gripped their broken weapons tightly, though their bodies trembled faintly.

They had heard Troy's words. A faint desire to survive flashed through their eyes, only to be covered over by even firmer conviction and resolve.

But to the Third Raikage, this sight was like a sharp needle driven deep into his heart.

"No! Absolutely not!"

"I will never abandon you!"

RUMBLE—!!!

Outside the valley, the earth shook once more.

Loose stones rattled down as Hidden Stone launched another wave of attacks.

The Third Raikage took a deep breath.

His gaze fell upon a tattered map nearby. From their location, a narrow mountain passage led directly beyond the Heavenly White Mountains.

White Stone Gorge!

As long as they crossed White Stone Gorge, they could break out of Hidden Stone's encirclement. They could escape!

"I'll lead you out, and then we'll live!"

"Break out? And where do you think you're going?"

All at once, a pillar of light that reached from heaven to earth tore through the valley's rocky ceiling. The entire world fell silent as their last position was completely exposed.

Under the sunlight, a small figure floated high in the sky, arms folded across his chest. His white robe snapped in the wind, while the conical hat engraved with the character [Earth] proclaimed his identity.

The Third Tsuchikage of Hidden Stone Village in the Land of Earth, wielder of Bloodline Selection—Onoki of the Two Scales!

At last, the jewel of the Land of Earth had personally arrived on the battlefield.

His small frame contained blazing ambition. His sharp eyes pierced through space, locking coldly onto the Third Raikage in the center of the valley.

"A!"

Onoki's voice, amplified by chakra, rang clearly across the entire battlefield with the declaration of a victor.

"Your struggle is nothing more than futile resistance. Beneath the weight of stone, the scales of victory will belong only to us!"

"Onoki—!!"