"Shut up!" Ōnoki whipped around, his furious shout making Kurotsuchi jump.
"An opportunity? This is a death warrant!" Ōnoki's aged face was grave. "Issue the highest-level alert immediately! Get every member of the Barrier Team into position and have them reinforce and improve the village's defensive barrier around the clock! I want the skies over Iwagakure to withstand the moon falling on us!"
He no longer felt any pleasure at another village's misfortune. Before such world-destroying power, any of the Five Great Shinobi Villages was nothing more than a slightly sturdier target.
"Grandpa, isn't Deidara in the Akatsuki?" Kurotsuchi suggested, reluctant to give up. "We could contact him and have him look into that 'Pain'..."
"Fool!" Ōnoki cut her off without mercy.
"Do you think that's someone you can probe through favors and self-interest? When a person's power reaches that level, no outside force can shake his will. Any attempt to pry into his affairs could bring utter destruction upon the village! What we need to do now isn't provoke that sleeping lion, but build our own walls higher and thicker!"
Kurotsuchi hunched her shoulders under his scolding and dared not speak again.
Just then, a shinobi appeared with the Body Flicker Technique. "Reporting to Lord Tsuchikage: an envoy from Kumogakure is outside the village requesting an audience."
Ōnoki rubbed his aching lower back and waved a hand. "Have Kitsuchi receive them. Remember, observe all the formalities. Offer sympathy, but not a single word of any substantive commitment."
"Yes, sir!"
Sunagakure, the Kazekage's council chamber.
Under the dim yellow light, the oppressive atmosphere made it hard to breathe.
Granny Chiyo leaned back in her chair, her body withered and frail, her eyes shut tight. Yet her trembling eyelids betrayed the turmoil within her.
"Sasori... my grandson..." she murmured, her