The Grim News Arrives: The Raikage Really Is Dead! Konoha's Higher-Ups Are Dumbfounded!

On the evening of the third day, the setting sun was as red as blood, casting Konoha's buildings in a bleak, savage hue.

The entire village, from civilians to shinobi, went about their lives as usual.

Yet within Konoha's center of power, the Hokage Building was shrouded in a suffocatingly strange atmosphere.

Even the ANBU patrolling the perimeter could sense the restless agitation of the higher-ups today.

Everyone was waiting.

Waiting for an outcome.

A "prophecy" that a twelve-year-old boy had declared at the meeting three days ago—so absurd it was practically mythical, yet it had lodged in their hearts like a vicious thorn.

"Lord Hokage, this is already the third day."

Inside the Hokage Office, Shimura Danzō paced back and forth with a dark expression. Irritation and barely restrained killing intent flickered in his single eye.

"Other than routine patrols, Kumogakure's forces along the border have shown no unusual movements. As for the Land of Earth, our ANBU have received no intelligence regarding any large-scale military deployment by the Third Raikage."

He abruptly stopped and fixed his gaze on Senju Tobirama behind the desk.

"That brat is a complete fraud! Or perhaps he simply wants to use such a cheap trick to toy with Konoha's higher-ups!"

"I suggest we immediately lift his house arrest and hand him over to Root! I have a hundred ways to make him pay for his arrogance!"

Danzo's tone was brimming with bone-deep hatred for Uchiha Xuan.

In his eyes, Uchiha Xuan had not only humiliated him at the meeting three days ago, but had also made him look like a clown before the Second Hokage.

If he did not crush that brat in his hand, where would Shimura Danzō's dignity go?

Senju Tobirama ignored Danzo's shouting.

He merely sat there quietly, his eyes closed and his hands folded on the desk, like a statue devoid of emotion.

Yet beneath that calm exterior, his heart was far less steady than it appeared.

Three days.

For three entire days, the image of that Uchiha brat in the meeting room kept surfacing in his mind: those eyes that seemed capable of seeing through the future, and that chillingly certain tone.

"I predict that within three days, A, the Third Raikage, will battle ten thousand Iwagakure shinobi and die of exhaustion..."

Those curse-like words lingered in his mind like an inescapable spell.

Reason told him that this was absolutely impossible.

What kind of person was the Third Raikage?

He was one of the Ninja World's peak combatants, on par with Senju Tobirama himself!

A monster known to possess the "strongest spear" and the "strongest shield"!

Even against ten thousand shinobi, if he could not win, could he not escape?

How could anyone in this world foresee the life and death of a powerhouse of that level?

And even state the manner and location of his death so precisely?

Absurd!

Ridiculous!

Yet as a battle-hardened shinobi, his keen instincts kept warning him.

What if... somehow...

What if that brat was telling the truth?

"Shut up, Danzo." Tobirama finally opened his eyes, a flash of irritation crossing his red pupils. "The time has not come. Until midnight, no one is to touch him."

"Lord Hokage!" Danzo still wanted to argue.

Just then.

"Caw—!"

An incredibly shrill eagle cry, carrying an air of extreme urgency, suddenly tore through the evening calm from above the Hokage Building.

It was followed by hurried footsteps, frantic to the point of chaos.

Bang!

The door to the Hokage Office was violently shoved open.

Hiruzen Sarutobi did not even have time to knock before stumbling inside.

His already haggard face, worn down by days of tension, was now utterly bloodless, pale as paper.

In his hand, he tightly clutched a small intelligence scroll stained with several drops of blood. His entire arm shook violently beyond his control.

"Tea... Teacher..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was terrifyingly hoarse, as if his throat were stuffed with sand. Every word seemed to be squeezed through clenched teeth.

"Ku... Kumogakure... Kumogakure has..."

Seeing his most prized disciple looking as though he had seen a ghost, Senju Tobirama's heart skipped a beat.

An unprecedentedly powerful sense of dread washed over him like icy water, soaking him to the bone.

"What happened, Hiruzen?! Calm down! Speak properly!" Tobirama shot to his feet and barked.

Danzo frowned as well. "Sarutobi, what kind of disgraceful display is this?! What happened to Kumogakure? Did they launch an attack?"

"N-No... not an attack..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi swallowed hard and raised his hand with difficulty, offering the bloodstained intelligence scroll to Senju Tobirama.

His eyes were filled with indescribable shock and terror, as though what he was handing over was not intelligence, but a judgment from hell.

"It... it's top-priority emergency intelligence..."

"It just came back... from the border of the Land of Earth..."

"Kumogakure... something happened..."

Senju Tobirama snatched the scroll away.

Even his hand was trembling slightly.

He drew a deep breath and abruptly unfurled the scroll.

The contents were brief, only a single line.

It had been written in Konoha's most urgent intelligence code.

Senju Tobirama's eyes swept over the code, rapidly deciphering it in his mind.

However, when he understood its meaning—

The Second Hokage, who had weathered countless storms of blood and steel and remained unshaken even if Mount Tai collapsed before him—

Seemed to have all strength suddenly drained from his body as he froze in place.

His eyes were locked on the words on the scroll. His red pupils contracted violently, as if he had witnessed the most horrifying sight in the world.

"Teacher... what does it say?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked tremblingly.

Danzo noticed Tobirama's abnormal reaction as well. He hurried forward, craning his neck to see the scroll's contents.

"What happened?!"

Senju Tobirama did not answer.

His lips trembled slightly, as though he wanted to say something, but no sound came out.

The scroll silently slipped from between his powerless fingers.

With a soft slap, it fell onto the polished floor.

A breeze blew in through the window, slowly unfurling the scroll and exposing the translated words that were too horrifying to behold.

"A, the Third Raikage, covered his companions' retreat at the border of the Land of Earth, facing ten thousand elite Iwagakure shinobi alone."

"After three days and three nights of battle..."

"He died of exhaustion."

"Kumogakure's army has been completely routed and has retreated to the Land of Lightning."

The meeting room sank into a silence even more deathly than it had been three days ago.

Only the wind outside continued to howl.

Shimura Danzō stared at the words on the scroll. His single eye opened wider and wider, nearly bulging from its socket.

"Th-This is impossible..."

As though he had seen a ghost, he staggered backward step by step, nearly falling to the ground.

"This is absolutely impossible! It's fake! It's Kumogakure's scheme! It's a genjutsu!"

He screamed hysterically, as though that was the only way to conceal the bone-chilling terror deep in his heart.

Hiruzen Sarutobi closed his eyes in pain.

He recalled the Uchiha boy's calm yet certain expression in the meeting room three days ago.

"I predict that within three days, A, the Third Raikage, will die of exhaustion on the battlefield in the Land of Earth..."

Not a single word differed!

Not the slightest detail was wrong!

This... this was no longer something a human could do!

This was a god!

This was the will of a god!

"W-What kind of monster is he?" Hiruzen Sarutobi muttered.

As for Senju Tobirama, who had remained frozen in place—

He slowly turned his head.

His gaze passed through the windows of the Hokage Office toward the Uchiha Clan Grounds.

In one of the rooms in that direction—

That twelve-year-old boy whom he had ordered placed under house arrest, whom Danzo had slandered as a spy—

Was using a terrifying power he could neither understand nor resist—

To ruthlessly trample Konoha's entire upper echelon, and this village acclaimed as the strongest in the Ninja World—

Beneath his feet!