Elsewhere, by the time Teizawa reunited with Kakashi and the others, night had already fallen.
Campfires were lit one after another amid the ruins.
Orange flames danced in the gathering darkness, illuminating exhausted, somber faces.
Konoha, Kumogakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, Sunagakure...
The survivors from the different villages sat around the fires in small groups.
No one spoke.
Only the crackle of burning wood echoed through the night wind.
Teizawa spotted Kakashi immediately.
He sat alone in a corner far from the others, his back resting against a tilted slab of stone.
His left eye was tightly shut, and the skin around the socket was badly bruised.
The blood had already dried, but it still looked especially gruesome beneath the flickering firelight.
His face was almost translucent with pallor.
His remaining right eye was half-open, staring vacantly into the darkness ahead.
His Sharingan was clearly gone.
Teizawa understood at once.
It seemed his clone had succeeded.
He walked over, an appropriate amount of concern appearing on his face.
"Kakashi, what happened to you?" His voice carried both urgency and outrage. "Who did this?"
Kakashi raised his head and looked at the concern written all over Teizawa's face. A bitter smile tugged at his lips.
"The Akatsuki."
His voice was hoarse with exhaustion.
"A man in a black cloak wearing a spiral mask. He could use Wood Style."
Teizawa's fist clenched sharply, his knuckles cracking.
"The Akatsuki... They've gone too far!"
His voice rose and carried through the night.
"Once we return, Sunagakure will place a bounty on the Akatsuki and issue a warrant for them throughout the entire shinobi world. That masked bastard too. We won't let a single one of them escape!"
He gritted his teeth, his jaw tightening like iron.
"They dared to attack someone from Konoha, which means they attacked an ally of Sunagakure. We're going to settle this debt!"
Kakashi stared at him.
A complicated light flickered in his remaining eye.
He opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but ultimately swallowed the words.
Not far away, Darui stood with his arms crossed and his brows furrowed.
"Everyone..." His voice was not loud, but it reached every person present. "Has anyone seen Yugito?"
Everyone froze.
Yugito, Kumogakure's Two-Tails jinchuriki, had not been seen since the battle ended.
Darui had already questioned everyone.
No one knew where she had gone.
His expression grew darker by the second.
His gaze swept across face after face, searching for an answer.
All he received were blank shakes of the head and evasive looks.
Teizawa's heart skipped a beat.
"Don't tell me..."
He did not finish the sentence, but everyone understood.
Had the Akatsuki captured her?
Before today, some of them might have doubted it or hesitated to accept such a conclusion.
But now...
The Six Paths of Pain and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path had both appeared before their eyes.
The evidence was undeniable.
No one doubted the intelligence Teizawa had provided any longer.
The Akatsuki's objective was the Tailed Beasts.
They would not spare a single jinchuriki.
Darui's fists clenched until his knuckles cracked.
Veins bulged across his forehead.
For the first time, his usually languid face twisted into a savage expression.
"Damn Akatsuki..."
He forced the words through clenched teeth.
Teizawa's brows drew together as well.
Yugito...
He truly did have some interest in that woman.
She was beautiful, proud, and powerful.
She was also the jinchuriki of the Two-Tails.
If he could bring both her and the Two-Tails back to Sunagakure, they would be an enormous asset.
But now she had disappeared.
That most likely meant she had fallen into Obito's hands.
Just thinking about the face hidden behind that spiral mask irritated him.
That bastard was like a rat hiding in a sewer.
Whenever he could not win, he ran away, only to return later and cause more trouble. He was unbearably annoying.
But now that Teizawa had obtained Kakashi's Sharingan, Obito would not be escaping the next time they met.
Just then, Gaara emerged from the darkness.
Several Sunagakure ANBU followed behind him, carrying a body wrapped in white cloth.
Gaara stopped beside the campfire and looked at Teizawa with a grave expression.
"Kazekage-sama..."
His voice was soft, but every word carried weight.
"I found this."
One of the Sunagakure ANBU pulled back the white cloth.
Everyone turned to look, then froze.
Akatsuchi's face instantly went deathly pale.
Roshi...
Iwagakure's veteran shinobi and the Four-Tails jinchuriki lay on the ground before them.
His entire body was a sickly bluish-purple, and his skin was shriveled like a dried orange peel. His eye sockets were sunken, and his cheekbones protruded sharply.
He looked like a mummy whose organs had all been hollowed out.
His chest did not rise or fall. His lips were dry and cracked, while his half-open eyes had long since lost their focus.
The condition of his body was strange.
He had not died from injury or poison.
Something had forcibly drained away his life force.
"This..." Akatsuchi's voice trembled. "Who did this?!"
Gaara shook his head.
"Following the One-Tail's guidance, I found an underground prison beneath Amegakure."
"There were signs that someone had been held captive there, along with many lingering chakra traces."
He paused.
"But the Four-Tails was already gone. Only the jinchuriki's body remained."
Everyone inhaled sharply.
So the Akatsuki truly had been responsible for the Four-Tails' previous disappearance.
They had captured Roshi, extracted the Four-Tails, and killed him.
Then they had discarded his body in that prison like a piece of garbage.
Who would be next?
The Five-Tails? The Six-Tails?
Or perhaps someone standing here right now?
And the Two-Tails had already disappeared. Could it be that she had suffered the same fate?
Teizawa lowered his head and stared at Roshi's body.
He remained silent for a moment before sighing inwardly.
This stubborn, proud old man had once been the haughty and formidable jinchuriki of the Four-Tails.
Who would have thought he would be the first of the nine jinchuriki to die?
"We must inform Tsuchikage-sama about this as soon as possible." Akatsuchi gritted his teeth, every word filled with hatred. "The Akatsuki must pay!"
Teizawa nodded in agreement.
"The Akatsuki truly cannot be allowed to continue existing."
His gaze moved from Akatsuchi to Darui, then finally to Kakashi.
"I propose that we hold a Five Kage Summit soon. First, to discuss how we should deal with the Akatsuki. Second, to decide what should be done with Amegakure and the Land of Rain."
Darui was the first to nod.
"Kumogakure will attend."
Akatsuchi took a deep breath.
"Iwagakure will attend."
Kakashi remained silent for a moment.
"Konoha will attend."
Mei giggled softly.
"Of course Kirigakure will attend as well."
And just like that, the proposal to hold a Five Kage Summit was accepted.
The representatives of each village dispersed to prepare for their departure early the next morning.
The night deepened, and the campfires gradually died out.
Only a few piles of dark-red embers remained, glowing faintly in the night wind.
The survivors from the different villages wrapped themselves in blankets and lay down in small groups.
Some quickly began to snore. Others tossed and turned. A few simply stared blankly at the night sky...
Teizawa sat on a rise overlooking the temporary encampment.
In the distance, Gaara stood at the edge of the ruins.
He stared at the enormous crater where Amegakure had once stood.
Sand flowed slowly around him like a silent river.
After several days of unusual silence, he suddenly spoke. His voice was so soft that it nearly vanished into the night wind.
"Kazekage-sama... What do you think Roshi was thinking when he died?"
Teizawa paused.
"I don't know."
He shook his head.
"Perhaps he was wondering whether his life had been worth living."
Gaara fell silent.
The sand flowing around him alternated between quick and slow, mirroring the turmoil within his heart.
Teizawa knew what he was thinking.
Such was the fate of a jinchuriki.
Feared by others.
Used by others.
Then, in the end, dying alone in some dark underground prison, just like Roshi.
Without even anyone there to recover their body.
Teizawa rose and walked over to him.
"Don't think too much about it," he said softly. "You're different from Roshi."
"You have a village, a family, and friends. You have people who are willing to risk their lives for you."
Gaara looked at him, the dim red glow of the embers reflected in his pale green eyes.
His lips moved as though he wanted to say something.
But in the end, he swallowed the words.
(End of Chapter)
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