By then, Sunagakure had long since become a hell on earth.
The black flames of Amaterasu swept everywhere, killing ordinary people on contact.
Faced with such power, ordinary Chunin and Genin had already lost all will to fight. Their faces filled with terror, they either collapsed to the ground, trembling all over, or scrambled about, trying to escape.
The immense Thousand-Armed Kannon statue seemed to carry boundless heavenly might. As its overwhelming presence bore down on them, ordinary people could not even think of raising their heads to look up at it.
An invisible pressure held everyone's bodies and minds in a crushing grip, making even breathing difficult. Countless people's limbs stiffened and their minds shattered.
Without the barrier's protection, fierce winds swept sand across the entire settlement. Most of the houses began to collapse, the walls shattered, and cracks covered the streets.
Countless civilians fled, crying and screaming, while the old, the weak, women, and children collapsed to the ground. Desperate sobs, terrified screams, the roar of collapsing buildings, and earthshaking crashes intertwined, as though coalescing into the most hopeless dirge.
A thousand meters underground, Kakuzu curled up in the dark soil, chilled to the bone, his robes soaked through with cold sweat. At that moment, he shut off all his senses and carefully suppressed every trace of his presence, wishing he could melt into the deepest reaches of the earth.
Through the vision provided by his black thread tendrils, Kakuzu watched the towering Thousand-Armed Kannon outside, clad in Susanoo Armor, and watched Sunagakure crumble inch by inch, on the verge of destruction. Nothing remained in his heart but endless terror and cold.
There was no escape.
No escape at all.
*That hypocrite, Hashirama Senju... in the end, he had joined forces with Madara Uchiha to settle accounts with