Behind him.
An earth-shattering boom drowned out the entire world.
A terrifying mushroom cloud rose into the sky, and Iwagakure was completely buried beneath that enormous meteor.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
No one was spared.
By the time Gekkō Raito returned to Kirigakure, the news had already spread like a plague throughout the Shinobi World.
Whether they were the daimyo of the Five Great Nations or wandering shinobi in remote villages.
Everyone who heard the news was scared out of their wits.
They had imagined countless outcomes, but never this one.
Iwagakure, one of the illustrious Five Great Shinobi Villages, was simply gone... There had not even been a clash between soldiers. Merely because it had angered that man, it had been erased in an instant.
The Sixth Mizukage of Kirigakure... was that terrifying!
"What did you say?!"
Konoha.
The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, had been drinking tea, but the intelligence shinobi's report shocked them into rising straight to their feet.
Horror covered their faces, not because the intelligence was too absurd, but because it was all too real.
Tobirama stared fixedly at the intelligence officer. "You just said... Iwagakure was destroyed?"
Neither could quite believe his ears.
That was Iwagakure! A major nation's shinobi village with deep foundations!
Even if Gekkō Raito attacked, surely the fighting would take ten days or a fortnight?
How could it have vanished in the blink of an eye?
"No... my lords, it wasn't destroyed. It was... erased."
Erased?
The word made both their hearts tremble.
"You can no longer find Iwagakure on the map. The shinobi, the civilians, even the mountain itself have all completely... disappeared."
The intelligence officer's voice trembled. He was clearly terrified.
Hashirama and Tobirama exchanged a glance, each seeing the turmoil