"Akaishi is dead. Hanzō of the Salamander is dead as well…"
Ōnoki sat behind his desk, muttering under his breath. His vacant eyes were fixed on the spread of documents before him, but his mind felt like a tangled mess of threads jammed into a knot. For the moment, he was utterly incapable of coherent thought, sitting there in a daze.
He wasn't alone in the office.
Standing before the desk was Kurotsuchi's father, Kitsuchi, who had just returned to the village. At his side stood Bunya, the trusted aide who had served as Ōnoki's deputy on the frontlines.
Although the war with Konoha had essentially ended not long after the Kannabi Bridge was destroyed, the Iwa forces stationed in the Land of Grass hadn't been able to simply vanish overnight. They'd remained in a standoff with Konoha for several more days, and only after a formal armistice was signed had they finally withdrawn.
Today, they had at last returned to Iwagakure.
Neither Kitsuchi nor Bunya went home first; instead, the two commanders came directly to the Tsuchikage's office to report.
But their report had been interrupted midway by the sudden arrival of devastating intelligence.
"Tsuchikage-sama, what exactly happened?"
Seeing his father staring blankly, hearing that muttered litany of names, Kitsuchi exchanged a glance with Bunya and saw the same horrified disbelief reflected there. At last, he could no longer contain himself and asked outright.
"…Hah."
Ōnoki let out a long sigh, the sound dragging him back from his dazed state. He lifted his gaze to Kitsuchi and Bunya, silent for two beats before speaking:
"I entrusted Akaishi with the task of eliminating the Koeda Clan traitors. He led a squad in pursuit of them into the Land of Rain… and fell in battle."
Kitsuchi was his son. Bunya was as close as a son, his most loyal confidant.
There was no need to hide the truth from them. And in any case… this matter, while not for public announcement, would have to be discussed at a council of the village's higher-ups—to plan Akaishi's memorial, and to decide what to do about the Koeda Clan.
Even a leader as absolute as Ōnoki couldn't shoulder this one alone.
"How… how is that possible? Akaishi-senpai… he was so strong!"
Kitsuchi could not accept it.
As the Tsuchikage's son, he had never lived up to the expectations of inheriting his father's immense power. Most of what skill he had, he had learned directly from Akaishi-senpai, even down to his fighting style, which mirrored the man's almost exactly. He knew better than anyone how formidable Akaishi had been.
Besides—
On land, even if Iwa shinobi couldn't win, almost no one could stop them from retreating. To be killed outright in the Land of Rain? That land was soaked in rain, yes, but it wasn't the boundless sea where one could vanish without a trace!
"This intelligence comes from Iwami. It reports that Koeda Kyoichi, the jōnin among the Koeda Clan, unleashed multiple high-level Earth Release techniques that his clan should never even have had access to—things like the secret art Camouflage Concealment Technique, or Earth Release: Gōriki Style… and on top of that, he apparently possesses a burst technique akin to the Sage Arts of Konoha's Jiraiya of the Sannin…"
Even as he spoke these words aloud, Ōnoki's face twisted.
His mind was storming.
He was baffled at how Kyoichi had mastered high-level Earth Release forbidden to the Koeda Clan. Could there be a spy among his own ranks?
He grieved for Akaishi, that loyal subordinate, his right-hand man. His death felt like losing an arm.
He fretted at the Koeda's growing threat. If even Akaishi, allied with Hanzō of the Salamander, had failed to wipe them out… how great a force would now be required to finish this task? Already, too much manpower had been lost to this one clan.
So many conflicting thoughts churned through him that he could not, for the moment, reach any decision.
"…And what about Hanzō?"
Seeing Kitsuchi drowning in grief, Bunya spoke up with another pressing question.
"The Koeda joined forces in the Land of Rain with a small group called the Akatsuki. This Akatsuki opposes Amegakure, so Akaishi contacted the Ame shinobi and persuaded Hanzō to cooperate with him in striking the Koeda and Akatsuki together. But instead… Kyoichi and the Akatsuki turned the tables and killed them both."
"How could that end in defeat?!"
Bunya blurted out in shock.
He had assumed Akaishi's death must have been at Hanzō's hands—that the Koeda and Ame shinobi had colluded to betray him. But the truth? Akaishi and Hanzō had teamed up… and still both perished.
How could such a thing be?
Kitsuchi too was left dumbstruck, his grief momentarily eclipsed by sheer disbelief.
"There's no point asking 'how.' In battle, anything can happen. Just as I never imagined my own master would perish in mutual destruction with the Second Mizukage… nor that the Second Hokage, 'the fastest shinobi alive,' would fall under pursuit by Kumogakure's Kinkaku Force. War defies reason. It defies logic."
Ōnoki shook his head heavily.
He too was shaken by the outcome—that Akaishi and Hanzō could join forces and still lose. But he forced himself to accept the senseless reality. War was often absurd.
Just as he still could not understand how the First Hokage could have been so monstrously strong.
How could a shinobi possibly wield such impossible power?
"Koeda Kyoichi… I've seen him a few times. A boy of fifteen, maybe sixteen. Talented, yes, but nothing extraordinary. How has he become so strong? Even Akaishi and Hanzō together couldn't stop him…"
Bunya muttered, voicing all the confusion and frustration tangled in his chest.
"…Perhaps he was hiding his true strength all along."
Ōnoki was silent for a moment before offering this meager explanation.
Then he shook his head and continued grimly:
"How Kyoichi grew so strong, that will have to be left to the Anbu to investigate. For now… we must decide how many troops to muster to annihilate the Koeda Clan once and for all!"
Abandoning the pursuit was unthinkable.
Too many had already been lost because of the Koeda. To let them go now would make Akaishi's sacrifice meaningless. Worse—if the Koeda allied with Sunagakure or Konoha, Iwagakure could suffer even greater losses in the future.
No, this could not stand.
The Koeda Clan had to be destroyed.