After the Akatsuki members departed, the entrance to the underground cave fell silent for a long, unnerving time. The two Sunagakure ninja remained quietly prone in their hiding spot, observing.
An hour later, seeing that no one else was emerging from the passage, the two Suna ninja exchanged a meaningful glance. Then, one of them split off from his partner and hurried back to the town rendezvous point, situated over ten kilometers away, to deliver their report.
"What? Akatsuki only lost one person, and not a single member of the Divine Court came out?" In the town, after Baki had finished listening to the Suna ninja's urgent report, he quickly pressed for more details, his voice sharp with disbelief.
"Yes, Captain! We waited for a full hour and still didn't see a single Divine Court member emerge," the reporting Suna ninja affirmed, his tone certain.
After Tatsuya's three combat clones had escorted Guren away from the vicinity of the underground hot spring, they had directly utilized the Flying Thunder God Technique to swiftly transport Guren along a pre-determined escape route Tatsuya had established. Because of this rapid and unconventional departure, the two Suna ninja responsible for surveillance had not detected Guren and her escorts leaving the Moon's interior.
Hearing this, Baki's expression immediately turned grave. Could it be, he wondered with a sinking feeling, that the Divine Court was completely wiped out by Akatsuki this time? This news, if true, was far from good for the major hidden villages.
Following the battle at Yakugakure, when news of both Akatsuki and the Divine Court had first leaked out, it had immediately attracted the intense scrutiny of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. These two mysterious organizations, which had seemingly emerged from nowhere, were both incredibly powerful; even formidable global powers like the Five Great Villages dared not underestimate them in the slightest. The only silver lining in that precarious situation was the confirmed intelligence that Akatsuki and the Divine Court were hostile towards each other. With these two powerful organizations effectively keeping each other in check, the other forces in the ninja world could rest a little easier.
But now, if the Divine Court had truly been annihilated, then all the major powers would have to be extremely vigilant. Without the Divine Court to act as a counterbalance, Akatsuki would have far fewer reservations and far more freedom when dealing with them.
The implications of this thought were so dire that Baki could no longer sit still. He hastily called up two Suna ninja squads and hurriedly rushed towards the underground cave entrance. More than ten minutes later, Baki arrived with the two squads beside the underground hot spring, deep within the cavern system.
Carefully leading his men to the bottom of the hot spring, Baki and his team found the lifeless, massive carcass of the giant river crab, which had clearly been killed on the spot, and the spatial passage itself, which had been completely and utterly destroyed. This, Baki surmised, must have been done by the Akatsuki members when they left. When Guren and her escorts had departed, they likely hadn't dared to destroy the passage for fear of immediate pursuit by Akatsuki members. Nagato and his group, however, would have had no such compunctions and would have destroyed it without hesitation upon their own departure. Although Nagato likely knew that such an action might not necessarily trap the remaining Divine Court members on the Moon permanently, it was still beneficial if it could cause some significant trouble or delay for their adversaries.
Looking at the completely demolished spatial passage, Baki's face was very grim. After continuing to search the underground hot spring and the surrounding cave system with his men for two more arduous days, finding no further clues, Baki had no choice but to lead his Suna ninjas back to the Land of Wind.
A few days later, news of a major, cataclysmic battle between Akatsuki and the Divine Court on the Moon began to circulate like wildfire throughout the ninja world. Regarding this almost unbelievable news, the vast majority of political and military powers in the ninja world initially expressed strong disbelief. A battle on the Moon—the very idea sounded fantastical and unreliable.
But soon, astute observers and intelligence networks began to realize that there might be more to the rumors than initially met the eye. It was whispered that this startling news had first originated from Sunagakure, and, more compellingly, many powerful and sensitive individuals across the ninja world had indeed sensed the tremendous commotion and energy fluctuations of the battle at the time it was said to have occurred. After the news began to spread more widely, all Five Great Shinobi Villages maintained a conspicuous and telling silence regarding the matter. Observant individuals also noted that, shortly thereafter, all Five Great Shinobi Villages had, as if by common unspoken consent, dispatched covert personnel to the Land of Rivers to investigate and gather intelligence.
Moreover, even more explosive—and specific—news later emerged: Akatsuki had apparently won the lunar battle, and the mysterious Divine Court had been decisively suppressed and defeated by Akatsuki! These various pieces of news, one after another, stacked together, creating a compelling narrative that caused the entire ninja world to buzz with fervent discussion and speculation about the momentous event.
As the discussions and debates intensified, the ancient mythological legends concerning Hamura Otsutsuki leading a portion of the Otsutsuki clan to migrate to the Moon a thousand years ago were also unearthed from obscure historical texts and brought back into public discourse. Gradually, two questions began to dominate conversations in teahouses and marketplaces alike: What exactly is on the Moon? and Why did Akatsuki and the Divine Court engage in such a fierce and destructive battle up there? These topics became the most popular subjects for people to discuss in their leisure time.
As for Akatsuki and the Divine Court, the two enigmatic parties directly involved in the conflict, both organizations maintained their usual veil of mystery and operated with extreme discretion, making it all but impossible for outsiders to gather any concrete information or confirm any of the swirling rumors.
The only entity directly and unwillingly entangled by this matter was Yakugakure. The Five Great Shinobi Villages all, at one point or another, either directly or indirectly, approached Pakura, the Ta-kage, with pointed inquiries about the incident and her village's potential connections. To all these probing questions, Pakura uniformly and steadfastly gave a response of complete ignorance.
At the same time, Kagutsuchi and Suijin, who had been stationed in Yakugakure for some time, also vanished without a trace. Tatsuya, it turned out, had discreetly relocated them to the Land of Demons and the Land of Swamps respectively, further muddying the waters.
The news spread by Sunagakure, ironically, could be said to have greatly helped Tatsuya's strategic position. At this current stage, Tatsuya hadn't planned for a direct, all-out confrontation with Akatsuki anyway. After experiencing the brutal and costly battle on the Moon, he believed that Nagato and Obito wouldn't be reckless or "iron-headed" enough to continue seeking trouble with the Divine Court in the immediate future, and by extension, Yakugakure would also be spared their attention for a while.
At such a time, there was little strategic point in keeping Kagutsuchi and Suijin visibly present in Yakugakure. Their conspicuous absence would, paradoxically, make it easier for the major powers of the ninja world to believe the narrative that the Divine Court had indeed been severely suppressed in the Moon battle. A "severely weakened" Divine Court would no longer be regarded with the same level of heightened alert and intense scrutiny as before. This, in turn, would also serve to reduce some of_ the mounting external pressure on both Yakugakure and Tatsuya's Ansei Hall organization.
Conversely, Akatsuki, now perceived as the victor and an even greater threat, would inevitably become the primary focus of intense attention and concern for the major powers in the ninja world. Tatsuya believed that for a long time to come, Akatsuki would have no choice but to operate with even more caution and discretion than before, lest they draw the unified wrath of the Great Villages upon themselves.
Mount Myoboku. In the grand, sacred hall where the Great Toad Sage resided, the entirely yellow, ancient Great Toad Sage sat with his eyes closed upon a massive, ornate throne, currently deep in slumber. Outside the hall, Fukasaku, one of Mount Myoboku's most respected elders, walked in, accompanied by a distinctive-looking man. The man was tall and powerfully built, wearing a forehead protector with the kanji for "Oil" (油) inscribed prominently upon it. His long, spiky white hair cascaded down to his waist. It was none other than Jiraiya, one of Konoha's legendary Sannin.
"Great Lord Elder!" Leading Jiraiya to the center of the vast hall, Fukasaku approached the Great Toad Sage's ear and shouted respectfully, his voice echoing slightly in the chamber.
Hearing Fukasaku's shout, the Great Toad Sage slowly, ponderously opened his ancient eyes. His gaze briefly swept over Fukasaku, then shifted to settle on Jiraiya, who stood patiently in the center of the hall. With hazy, unfocused eyes, the Sage asked in a gravelly, distant voice, "Who… who comes before me?"
Hearing the Great Toad Sage's forgetful question, Fukasaku, standing beside him, clapped a small, webbed hand to his forehead in mild exasperation and quickly interjected, "Great Lord Elder, this is little Jiraiya! You asked me to bring him here, remember?"
"Oh! So it is little Jiraiya!" After hearing Fukasaku's reminder, a look of dawning realization spread across the Great Toad Sage's wrinkled face.
"Great Toad Sage," Jiraiya said quickly, bowing deeply and respectfully.
"Ah, little Jiraiya!" the Great Toad Sage intoned, his voice gaining a little more focus as he appeared to sink deep in thought. "In my dreams… I have once again foreseen the future of the ninja world."
"The future of the ninja world?" Jiraiya's spirits lifted instantly upon hearing these words, a spark of hope igniting in his eyes. "Great Toad Sage, please, tell me what you have seen!" he pressed eagerly. For all these long, arduous years, he had been tirelessly searching for the Child of Prophecy, guided by the Great Toad Sage's cryptic pronouncements. Twice before, he had believed with all his heart that he had finally found the one destined to save the world. But cruel reality had dealt him two harsh, devastating blows. Both of those he had believed to be "Children of Prophecy" had tragically died. This had, for a time, left Jiraiya deeply dejected and his spirit low. Now, hearing the Great Toad Sage speak once more of foreseeing the ninja world's future, Jiraiya naturally focused with every ounce of his being, determined to listen with utmost attention to every word.