However, the flame of hope had barely ignited in Mei Terumi's heart before an even colder, crueler "fact" extinguished it.
After a brief moment of surprise and an exchange of glances with Sasuke, Shino Aburame quickly reacted.
We absolutely cannot let them cling to any illusions!
Shino adjusted his sunglasses and called out, his tone casually matter-of-fact, almost as if to say, "Do you even need to ask?"
"No idea." He first offered a vague answer, then delivered a more devastating "fact":
"We smashed the Mizukage Building outright."
He paused briefly, as though recalling the scene, then added in a clear, cold voice:
"He might have... died in the rubble."
Those words struck every Kirigakure ninja who heard them like a sledgehammer to the heart.
Had Shino and Sasuke been the only ones saying this, they would never have believed it.
But now, there was also this godlike giant. Its mere presence silently confirmed Shino's words.
"He's just a dead man. If you need to, I can send you to meet him."
Sasuke had also caught on by then.
Regardless of whether Genji had actually been in the Mizukage Building, regardless of whether he had evacuated or hidden himself beforehand, at this very moment, in Shino and Sasuke's account, when they needed to completely crush the fighting spirit of Kirigakure's remaining forces-
Genji had to be dead!
He had to have died in the rubble of the "smashed Mizukage Building"!
In the bluntest, most direct way possible, that claim snuffed out the last shred of belief among Kirigakure's remaining forces that their leaders were still alive, and so was their hope.
Whether Mei Terumi believed it or not, whatever the other Kirigakure ninja might suspect, faced with the news that "the Mizukage Building was in ruins" and "the invaders themselves