Minato and Lobo were still waiting in place for Hoshiyomi's good news. While the boy and the wolf idly chatted, Minato suddenly paused and said:
"Sensei is coming back."
Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, a figure appeared not far from Lobo, startling the wolf so much it nearly attacked on instinct.
Only after seeing that it was Hoshiyomi did Lobo breathe a sigh of relief, looking at Minato with a hint of admiration.
On the other side, Minato glanced at the spot where Hoshiyomi had appeared. His sharp eyes noticed immediately—it was the exact location Hoshiyomi had used to evade the Three Jewels Suction Crushing earlier.
A smile crept onto his face. Just as he had guessed, his sensei's space-time ninjutsu wasn't without pattern—the reappearance point was precisely where he had vanished to avoid the Three Jewels Suction Crushing.
Having confirmed this, he felt even more confident about learning space-time ninjutsu in the future.
At this time, Lobo also spoke to Hoshiyomi:
"Minato's talent for space-time ninjutsu is truly extraordinary. He could already sense your arrival just now. It seems he's almost ready to start learning it."
Hearing this, Hoshiyomi instinctively ruffled Minato's blond hair.
"Don't worry. Once this war is over, I'll give you all the records on the Flying Thunder God to study. For now, let's head back to camp."
On the way back, Minato couldn't suppress his curiosity and asked:
"Sensei, how did the pursuit go? Did Sunagakure's Elder Chiyo… die?"
A flicker of regret flashed in Hoshiyomi's eyes. He briefly recounted what had happened afterward, ending with a cold sneer:
"Although I didn't manage to finish off Chiyo, the destruction I left behind will be enough to make them hurt for a good while."
He wasn't exaggerating. Before leaving, he had unleashed that mutated version of Mountain-Splitting Earth-Cracking Slash, pouring more than eighty percent of his chakra into it. That was no joke.
Though he couldn't really be called a "standard shinobi" and usually lacked ninjutsu training, his chakra reserves had been strengthened multiple times by the system. His amount of chakra was easily on the high end, even compared to Kage-level shinobi.
Even someone like Orochimaru might not outmatch him in chakra volume. Throwing out eighty percent of that at once—even after deducting what was lost to transmission and dispersal—was still equivalent to the power of two full S-rank techniques.
That Mountain-Splitting Earth-Cracking Slash, powered by nearly eighty percent of his chakra, erupted like a fountain of fire in the midst of the Suna forces. The exact number of shinobi in that unit was unknown, but heavy casualties were unavoidable.
...
Land of Rain, Sunagakure Main Command Camp
At a forward sentry post, a young shinobi spotted two small figures in the distance, trailed by a cluster of black dots. His face lit up with excitement as he shouted toward the camp:
"Elders Chiyo and Ebizō have returned—"
But as he clearly saw the number of people behind the two elders, his voice faltered. What had begun as excitement dwindled until he could no longer continue.
He remembered all too well: just two or three hours ago, when Elder Ebizō had marched out, the number of shinobi under his command had been nearly double what he saw now.
Hearing the sentry's call, many Suna shinobi had emerged with smiles, ready to greet and celebrate the elders' return. But when they looked at the half-empty ranks behind them, their expressions froze stiff, mirroring the young sentry's own.
As Chiyo and Ebizō approached with grim, thunderous expressions, not saying a single word, everyone in the camp was so terrified they didn't even dare breathe loudly.
And yet, their eyes couldn't help but be drawn again and again to Chiyo's ruined arms—both severed—and the blood-soaked clothing she still wore…
My heavens… what happened to Lady Chiyo? How could she be injured so badly?
And Lord Ebizō's expression as well… what on earth happened?
Weren't they leading the army to surround and annihilate Konoha's commander?
Could it be…? For an instant, a wild thought sprang into the minds of every Suna shinobi present. Could it be that Konoha's commander actually managed to break out of the encirclement?
Part of them wanted to deny it—such a thing was impossible, even a madman wouldn't dare say it. And yet, their rational minds whispered that there was no other explanation.
Only after watching the two elders step inside the command tent did they finally let out the breath they had been holding. They turned to the dejected survivors and pressed for answers: what exactly had happened out there?
Inside the command tent, the third Suna elder had still been waiting happily for good news. But when he saw the siblings walk in with expressions like they'd just lost their mother, he nearly jumped in fright.
"L-Lady Chiyo?! What happened to you?"
Who was Chiyo? The Kazekage's advisor, the number three figure in Sunagakure. Aside from the Kazekage and the One-Tail's jinchūriki, she was the only Kage-level powerhouse in the village!
In all his decades of life, he had never once seen Chiyo in such a pitiful state. Could Konoha's Silver Moon really be that strong—to force Chiyo into this condition?
Chiyo said nothing. She simply stepped inside the command tent, pulled down the flap behind her, and then spat out a mouthful of old blood.
It was a mixture of blood from her internal injuries and blood she had coughed up from sheer anger. In her nearly fifty years of life, this was the first time she had ever been so humiliated.
Thinking back to the looks in the eyes of those outside, she felt that her old face had been utterly disgraced today.
Fortunately, Ebizō still retained his composure. He immediately took out the scroll containing puppet materials and began helping his sister repair her arms, all the while saying:
"Sister, don't let your anger ruin your health. Quickly repair your hands and rest. If something were to happen to you…"
But Chiyo waved her hand to interrupt him.
"Enough of that talk. I know my own condition well. That sword wound looks severe, but in truth it's not fatal. In fact, I should be grateful to that boy. If not for this incident, I might have continued letting hatred blind me, making decisions that harmed Sunagakure. Today, that youngster… actually woke me up."
The third elder, hearing that Chiyo wasn't mortally wounded, let out a sigh of relief, though he couldn't help but ask curiously:
"So what exactly happened during this mission?"
Once Ebizō confirmed his sister was fine, he turned and gave a rough account of events. At last, he sighed heavily and said:
"I originally thought that with three layers of strategy woven together, Gekko Hoshiyomi would surely die today. But of all the calculations I made, I failed to account for this—he's even mastered the most mysterious and elusive of all techniques: space-time ninjutsu."
The third elder didn't dwell on whether Hoshiyomi had really mastered space-time ninjutsu. His focus was on the destruction Hoshiyomi had wrought in the end. His voice trembled as he asked:
"You mean to say… before leaving, that Gekko Hoshiyomi unleashed a large-scale jutsu that killed more than half of the six hundred men you brought with you?"
Ebizō nodded, his expression full of sorrow as he let out a deep sigh, looking as though he had suddenly aged over ten years.
The third elder nearly collapsed at the confirmation. In the past six months combined, Sunagakure hadn't lost even 500 shinobi in total.
But today alone—out of 700 men sent out, fewer than 400 had returned. In a single day, over 300 Suna shinobi were dead…
The pain of loss was unbearable.