[Nightfall: 1 Hour]
Inside the institute's conference room were projections of Tsunade, Onoki, and others. On the other side were projections of daimyo and government officials from various countries, Oda Ieyasu, Tokugawa Shingen, and more.
Everyone looked grave as they listened to Samui explain the current situation, "…The temperature is dropping."
"At the current rate, it's estimated that within forty-eight hours, the world's average temperature will fall to zero degrees."
Killer B scratched his head and asked, "Cooling down… wouldn't burning more firewood do the trick?"
The shinobi world has no shortage of undeveloped forests.
Send out village ninja, cut down a batch of trees, distribute some to each village, and just get through these few days of cold, right?
Anyway, Kaitian-3 was still under construction. Once the rocket launched, they'd go to the moon with Ryosuke and scatter Toneri and the Otsutsuki clan's ashes across space.
"If it were just losing sunlight… that would indeed be the case. We have plenty of ways to ignore the effects of cold in the short term. The key issue is..."
The image on the large screen in the conference room changed, showing a miniature of the moon and the shinobi world.
"The moon is too close."
Samui gently pushed her glasses. In her usually cool eyes was worry she couldn't hide, "According to calculations by institute experts, due to the sharp increase in lunar gravity, coastal regions will experience super tides over twenty meters high, submerging most coastal cities."
"At the same time, the moon's gravitational pull will cause continuous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions along the edges of tectonic plates. Over time, this process will gradually move inland."
"Tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and extreme low temperatures… humanity is about to face its greatest crisis."
After thinking for a moment, Tsunade asked, "From now until the level of natural disaster you're describing, how long will it take?"
"Seven days."
Tsunade asked again, "How long until Kaitian-3 can launch?"
"Nine days."
That answer plunged everyone into silence.
Tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes would drive people from their familiar homes, and once they left, losing the shelter of buildings, the cold would come for them.
This had already gone beyond the scope of a "natural disaster."
Weather forecasts could cover a radius of one hundred and fifty kilometers, ensuring a habitable environment within that range.
But even if Ryosuke flew nonstop through the sky, he couldn't protect the entire planet.
The New Moon could freely alter gravity within a three-kilometer range, but it couldn't reach the moon fifty thousand kilometers away and push it aside.
Plainly speaking, this wasn't a battle between Ryosuke and Toneri.
It was a battle between humanity and the laws of the universe.
Toneri used the legacy left by his ancestors, the moon, and leveraged the immense power of the Tenseigan to pry open the forces of cosmic physics.
"Damn alien bastard! F*ck!"
An irritable shout from A came through Killer B's side.
But it was also everyone's inner voice.
With a ninja's physical conditioning and cultivation, even if the world truly fell apart, most could find ways to survive, endure nine days, wait for Kaitian-3 to launch, kill Toneri, and the disaster would naturally end.
The ones who would truly die were innocent civilians.
After cursing a few times, they gradually fell silent. They weren't here to vent emotions. Every second wasted meant someone might die in a sudden earthquake or tsunami.
In the silence, everyone's gaze unconsciously turned toward Ryosuke, seated at the end of the long table.
In Ryosuke's hand was an apple, floating above his palm. Feeling their eyes on him, he didn't avoid them. He raised his head, met their gazes, and said softly, "Twenty-four hours."
"You figure out how to protect the people of your villages and countries."
"I'll figure out how to deal with the sun-blocking panel in the sky."
Tsunade, Killer B, A, Mei Terumi, Onoki, Oda Ieyasu, Tokugawa Shingen… and Samui, who was hosting the meeting in the conference room, everyone stared blankly at Ryosuke. They couldn't imagine any solution in this apparent dead end.
The only method they could think of was,
Move as many people as possible to inland, flat regions far from fault zones, and forcefully endure nine days.
As for those who couldn't reach safe zones, or who died to earthquakes or cold along the way…
It could only be said that fate varies from person to person.
This plan would kill many, one million, two million, perhaps even more.
But there would still be hope to start over.
Yet Ryosuke had said, "Twenty-four hours. Can you do it? That's not an easy task."
His voice was calm as he confirmed it again with everyone.
A pushed Killer B aside and stared straight through the projection at Ryosuke, who sat there with a peaceful expression.
This was truly the sky collapsing and the earth shattering, yet his expression didn't change.
A had imagined Ryosuke might rage at Toneri, might urge everyone to protect civilians, or might even give up in despair.
But he hadn't expected that when the so-called Kage and daimyo all fell silent, Ryosuke would shoulder the hardest, heaviest responsibility alone, and then turn around to worry about whether they could accomplish the "simple" task of protecting civilians.
"Big brother, big brother!"
Killer B pushed A hard. "What's wrong with you? The meeting's already over."
A snapped back to reality and realized the remote conference had ended and the projections were gone.
He slumped into his chair, feeling drained all over. Looking at his worried brother, he let out a light sigh. He had always prided himself as a dominant ruler of a region, farsighted and powerful, leading Kumogakure to new heights.
But compared to Ryosuke… A no longer felt any resentment.
"I lost."
"And I lost fair and square."
———
Samui closed the meeting.
During the meeting, some people had been too shocked, others trusted Ryosuke. Not a single person asked Ryosuke what his specific method was. Unable to suppress her curiosity, Samui asked, "So, what method are you talking about?"
"I don't know." Ryosuke answered honestly.
"You don't know?!" Samui's tone shot up.
Ryosuke nodded.
Weather forecasting and the New Moon couldn't cover the entire globe, and Ryosuke didn't have the ability to fly in space. For the moment, he truly couldn't think of any solution.
Samui pointed at the screen that had just shut off. "Then why did you..."
"Because they need hope."
Ryosuke walked to the window, looking out into the darkness, and said, "Once they panic, ordinary people in their territories will suffer."
"B-but that time is way too short! You could've said two days, three days..."
Samui's mouth hung half open. She couldn't finish the rest.
Because she understood the reason, no matter how well the major ninja villages protected people, by the second or third day, mass deaths would begin.
Find a way to break the deadlock within twenty-four hours.
This wasn't just Ryosuke's promise to the villages and nations, it was also the deadline he set for himself.
"If…"
Samui's voice trembled slightly. "If you still can't find a solution by then, what will you do?"
Ryosuke pointed at the sky.
"I'll grab a rocket booster and fly up there."
"You'll die!"
Short distances might be manageable, but fifty thousand kilometers, extreme cold, radiation, lack of oxygen in space… Ryosuke would very likely die in the vast cosmos.
Ryosuke chuckled softly and tapped his wrist.
"Relax. There are still twenty-four hours. I need to go see someone first."
"Who?"
"Nakajima Taishi."
The scientist who had betrayed the institute.
Ryosuke said, "I want to use him to talk to the leader of the Kara organization. That leader did everything possible to stop us from going to the moon even before Toneri appeared. He must know something."
A few minutes later, Nakajima Taishi stood before Ryosuke. On the way, he had already heard the current situation from Samui. After seeing Ryosuke, he said without hesitation, "I'll help you."
No mockery, no scolding, no extra words, just that simple sentence.
In scientific research, one often has to make choices between different research paths with limited resources.
When a research path develops errors or flaws, the remaining team members must do everything they can to fix it and push the research back on track.
Mocking and kicking someone when they're down, that's what shrewish women at the village entrance do.
At the end of the day, Nakajima Taishi had no personal grudge against Ryosuke. He opposed the moon landing to protect the shinobi world, and now he was helping Ryosuke for the same reason.
Nakajima Taishi dialed a secret number. After multiple transfers and coded phrases, he handed the phone to Ryosuke.
Ryosuke took the phone.
From the receiver came a man's low voice.
"Hello, Ryosuke."