"Uchiha's appeal to the Hokage has failed. The entire Uchiha Clan has been annihilated... Uchiha's appeal to the Hokage has failed. The entire Uchiha Clan has been annihilated..."
Just as the Four Kage passed through the Uchiha-exclusive passageway, a mechanical, icy female voice repeated the announcement through Konoha's village-wide broadcast system. The sound pierced through the rain curtain and echoed above every street. It seemed to carry some kind of curse, making every villager who heard it stop in their tracks and look toward the thick smoke rising from the Uchiha Clan Territory.
The Third Mizukage stopped and listened to the broadcast with his head raised, then suddenly burst into laughter. "Hahaha! Looks like we don't need to do anything now! Everyone in Konoha knows that the Third Hokage abandoned the Uchiha and watched them perish!"
His laughter sounded especially piercing in the empty forest. The Third Kazekage frowned slightly, while Ōnoki hovered in midair with a terrifyingly grim expression.
"Third Mizukage, is this really funny?" Ōnoki's voice rasped like sandpaper. "The Uchiha were actually able to plan this far ahead. Do you think they're really dead?"
"Do you think I can't tell the difference between a physical Clone Technique and a flesh-and-blood human body by touch?" The Third Mizukage frowned and replied coldly.
"True, this is puzzling, but the people we killed were real." The Third Raikage shook his head. "Even if the bodies could be faked, those Sharingan couldn't have been, could they?"
The Third Kazekage manipulated Iron Sand to rise to Ōnoki's level. "Tsuchikage, you're probably overthinking it. This should be the effect of some barrier the Uchiha set up. After all, Uchiha Naruto Chronicle showed that the conflict between the Uchiha and Konoha was no small matter. It makes sense that they had been guarding against