Ōnoki's Warning

With a flicker, the scenery before Ōnoki's eyes flashed. When he opened them again, he had arrived in a village carved through mountains and surrounded by rocky peaks.

Inside the Iwagakure office, Ōnoki and the Iwa-nin who had been deeply trapped in Genjutsu returned to Iwagakure.

"What a desolate place. Setting up a chakra mark here was more troublesome than I expected. Can we talk now, Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki of Both Scales?"

At opposite ends of the rectangular conference table, Ōnoki sat at the head while Uchiha Huayue sat across from him, leaning back in his chair with a silent smile.

"Choosing to negotiate while being restricted like this... You truly are different from Uchiha Madara, brat. He never negotiated with others. There was only submission."

"I just didn't want to make things too troublesome. But there is something you misunderstand. This isn't a negotiation—it's a unilateral declaration."

The corner of Ōnoki's mouth twitched slightly, and his wrinkled old face darkened.

"I take back what I said earlier. You brat are exactly like Uchiha Madara—neither of you is willing to listen to anyone else."

"It's only a simple agreement. During this war, you are forbidden from personally taking part on the battlefield."

"If you violate it, you'll see some very serious consequences. I'm already tired of this war dragging on, so let the Third Great Ninja War come to an end soon."

At those words, Ōnoki sneered repeatedly and mocked him.

"A brat is still a brat. Even written agreements can be torn up at any time in the eyes of the great nations. What use is a mere verbal promise?"

Huayue slowly rose to his feet. With his back to the Iwa-nin, his quiet murmur filled Ōnoki with a faint sense of foreboding.

"The moment I leave Iwagakure, the agreement will take effect. If you dare participate in the Third Great Ninja War again... a parting gift will appear in your village."

"This is my farewell gift. It's over."

His figure vanished from the spot. The premonition in Ōnoki's heart grew stronger, as if some deeply concealed threat at his side were slowly baring its fangs.

Sage Art: Great Rasengan Ring.

In an instant, all sound fell silent.

Pure white light that devoured everything flashed outside Iwagakure. The terrifying radiance replaced the sun in the sky, as though that presence once hanging high in the heavens had fallen to earth.

A terrifying tremor shook heaven and earth. An unprecedented earthquake nearly brought the entire Iwagakure to collapse, only subsiding after a long while.

At that moment, the freed Ōnoki shot out of the conference room, his pupils trembling uncontrollably. His once unyielding fighting spirit seemed to have returned to the days of his youth, when he had faced that invincible figure, and was now on the verge of collapse.

"Father, outside the village... the roads leading out of the village have been blocked by mounds taller than rocky mountains. What is that crater?"

Ōnoki's son, Kitsuchi, asked in panic. At some point, a gigantic impact crater spanning thousands of square kilometers had appeared before Iwagakure, utterly devoid of life.

"What is this... Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Huayue, the God of Shinobi?"

He had thought that the fear which had faded with Uchiha Madara's death had returned at this moment to seize Ōnoki's aged heart.

"Father, didn't you personally head to the front lines?"

Faced with Kitsuchi's confusion, Ōnoki remained silent for a long time before slowly shaking his head.

"From today until the end of the Third Great Ninja War, I will not leave the village by even a single step. My son, Kitsuchi, remember this well."

"If you encounter an Uchiha ninja wearing a Three-Eyed Demon Fox Mask, run without hesitation. Never fight him head-on."

"That is a realm mortals cannot reach. I wonder how much of a headache Sarutobi Hiruzen will have when he learns of his existence. Uchiha and Konoha... hehehe..."

The smile on his aged face soothed the panicked Iwa-nin. Numerous Iwa-nin sprang into action, joining the effort to rescue the wounded.

Among the Iwa-nin, two greatly feared ninja stood atop a high peak, staring at the enormous crater. It looked remarkably familiar to them.

"Is that... a Tailed Beast Bomb? What do you think, Han?"

The burly man wearing a crimson conical hat, his entire body covered in armor, nodded slightly in agreement.

"Did another Ninja Village deploy Jinchūriki? I can't sense the presence of any other Tailed Beasts nearby. What exactly happened? Was this Ōnoki's doing?"

The purple-clad ninja with his red hair tied into small bundles, even his full beard red, gazed at the figure floating in midair with a thoughtful expression.

"Why don't you go ask him yourself?"

"Give me a break. You know I don't get along with that old man Ōnoki. If you expect him to say anything, you might as well go ask him yourself. Otherwise, you may not even know how you died, Han."

Roshi turned and left. Han's expression shifted several times, but in the end, he chose not to ask. Ōnoki was the Third Tsuchikage; how to handle this was his own problem to worry about. But...

"Even for a Tailed Beast Bomb, one of this scale would have to come from something at the level of the Eight-Tails or Nine-Tails. Kumogakure or Konoha? Which side was it?"

As the Five-Tails Jinchūriki, with Roshi being the Four-Tails Jinchūriki, they naturally understood Tailed Beast Bombs far better than anyone else.

"Why? Why didn't he throw it directly at the village? A technique with this kind of range could have completely flattened Iwagakure. Who was it?"

The wind howled as trails of dust rose into the air. That horrifying sight sent a deep chill through anyone who looked upon it.

At the border of the Land of Earth, a black cloak fluttered in the wind. Beneath the Three-Eyed Demon Fox Mask, a trace of contemplation flashed through his eyes.

Within the Inner world, upon pale blue water, an intricate crimson eye and a scarlet, eerie crimson eye stared each other down.

"Are you going to talk or not? What exactly are you hiding in your stomach?"

"Shut up. Even if you're an Uchiha brat, don't expect to pry a single word out of This Lord's mouth. Even Genjutsu won't make This Lord talk!"

The Black Nine-Tails was full of fighting spirit. Upholding the principle of confessing and spending life in prison, resisting and going home for the New Year, it stubbornly held out for ten minutes without uttering a word.

Fifteen minutes later, after the kind persuasion of Sage Art: Great Rasengan Ring, the Black Nine-Tails finally spoke.

"Damn it, you brat have gotten stronger again. Since you've asked so sincerely, This Lord shall mercifully tell you."

"Enough nonsense. Talk, now, or I'll show you my ultimate interrogation technique."

Huayue's face was full of impatience. Only then did the Black Nine-Tails reluctantly spit out a scroll of bamboo writing, its face filled with pain.

"This is a treasure from another world that came into this world together with This Lord..."