"Cough, cough, cough... I'm still alive?"
Ōnoki's consciousness had been slumbering in darkness when he felt a gentle force slowly lifting him, until he finally opened his eyes.
The first people he saw were the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, and Shin Uchiha beside her.
Ōnoki struggled to lift his swollen eyelids. Understanding dawned on his face, and he spoke to Tsunade in a feeble voice:
"So it was you, Lady Fifth Hokage. You're the only person in the shinobi world who could have saved me."
The moment he saw Tsunade, Ōnoki understood everything.
Naturally, Ōnoki knew just how serious his injuries were.
Against Madara Uchiha's Tengai Shinsei, Ōnoki alone had stood no chance.
Even after exhausting every ounce of his strength, he had failed to save Iwagakure. His chakra had nearly run dry, and he had lost consciousness.
Only Tsunade's treatment had saved him. Without it, Ōnoki would never have woken up.
Yet after waking, Ōnoki did not thank Tsunade right away. Instead, he turned his head with great difficulty to look at his granddaughter beside him and asked in a strained voice:
"Kurotsuchi, how much did Iwagakure lose?"
Kurotsuchi had been waiting beside him all along. Her pretty little face was covered in dust, and her large, dark eyes had long since lost their former sparkle.
Hearing her grandfather's question, Kurotsuchi seemed to have finally found someone to lean on. She burst into tears, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed:
"Grandpa, we... more than half of Iwagakure has been destroyed. Even my dad... he was crushed to death under that enormous meteor while protecting the villagers."
At that point, Kurotsuchi could no longer go on. Had Ōnoki not been injured, she would already have thrown herself into his arms.
A profound grief flashed through Ōnoki's eyes when he heard her