Shizune dropped to her knees in the mud with a plop, the little pink pig in her arms squealing in fright.
Sweat covered her face, and her clothes were drenched through by the cold rain, water dripping from her hair.
"It's not about borrowing money... Lady Tsunade... something happened to her!"
Shizune wiped away tears in panic, her fingers digging desperately into the mud, her nails packed with black grime.
"When that meteorite came down just now, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path underground suddenly went berserk."
"Lady Tsunade was evacuating civilians near the edge of the ruins when one of that wooden monster's roots suddenly burst out of the ground..."
Shizune's voice trembled, thick with tears.
"It wrapped Lady Tsunade up and dragged her in! And that root... it's absorbing chakra! Absorbing it incredibly fast!"
Yoru's originally indifferent expression instantly darkened.
He frowned, his gaze like icy spikes as he swept toward the direction Black Zetsu had fled.
"That lump of mud moves pretty fast."
"Big Brother Yoru, that old hag got captured! We have to save her!"
Naruto jumped up and shouted. Steam began rising from his golden Nine-Tails cloak again, warping the cold air around him with heat.
He rubbed his nose and yelled loudly.
"She's the Fifth Hokage, at least. Getting sucked dry as fertilizer by some rotten tree root would be way too embarrassing."
Sasuke snorted coldly. He did not sheathe the Kusanagi Sword, and traces of purple-black lightning still flickered along its tip.
"What does this have to do with us?"
He shot Shizune an icy glance.
"The Leaf Village's Hokage, dead or alive—what does that have to do with the Stone Village? At worst, they can replace her with someone more obedient."
"Shut up, Sasuke."
Yoru cut him off coldly, his leather