To some extent, the clan leaders of these Great Ninja Clans had long anticipated this worst possible outcome, and even... acquiesced to its occurrence.
"What exactly... happened? How could Orochimaru..." Shikaku's voice was somewhat dry. He seemed to have recovered from his brief daze and asked urgently.
The Anbu, suppressing his grief, reported rapidly: "Orochimaru, disguised as the Land of Rice Fields' Daimyo and his attendants, suddenly attacked at the arena. His subordinates trapped Third Hokage-sama with the Four Violet Flames Formation and summoned the Edo Tensei bodies of the First Hokage-sama and Second Hokage-sama to join the battle... The fighting was extremely tragic. Third Hokage-sama, to protect the village, ultimately..."
"Edo Tensei... the First and Second Hokage-sama..." Shikaku gasped, finally understanding why someone as strong as the Third Hokage had been defeated so quickly.
Facing the Edo Tensei bodies of two legendary Hokages, even the entire Konoha attacking together would probably just be feeding them.
"What happened next? I remember Jiraiya-sama came back, didn't he?" Shikaku suddenly remembered that he had seen Jiraiya wandering around the village a few days ago.
"By the time Jiraiya-sama arrived, Third Hokage-sama was already beyond help. Moreover, other unidentified powerful enemies appeared on the scene, and the fighting escalated. Jiraiya-sama forcibly ordered Commander Yamato to escort Third Hokage-sama's remains back to the Anbu base. The situation at the arena is very chaotic right now!"
Just then, as if to confirm the Anbu's words, an indescribable wave of terrifying Chakra, full of violence and greed, swept in from the direction of the Hokage Rock like a tsunami!
Even from such a distance, this Chakra made all the Konoha's Jonin on the roof, including Shikaku, Hiashi, and Inoichi, feel their hearts leap with fright, their breathing momentarily stifled!
"This Chakra... has the Nine-Tails gone berserk?" Inoichi's expression drastically changed as he looked at Hiashi.
The terrifying memory of the Nine-Tails Attack twelve years ago instantly flooded back. Only a Tailed Beast could possess such terrifying Chakra.
Hiashi's Byakugan stared intently in the direction of the Hokage Rock.
Although the distance was too great to see through to the arena, in his field of vision, the sky above the Hokage Rock seemed to be rising several Chakra masses of different colors, madly colliding. The escaping Chakra turbulence twisted the air, interfering with his penetrating vision.
He slowly shook his head, his voice carrying a hint of uncertain surprise: "No... although this Chakra is equally vast and violent, it doesn't quite resemble the Nine-Tails from that night twelve years ago!"
Shikaku's heart sank to the bottom.
The situation at the arena seemed to be even worse than the worst-case scenario he had imagined!
Not only the Missing-Nin Orochimaru and the Edo Tensei bodies of the two former Hokages, but also unknown enemies that even Jiraiya found troublesome had appeared?
"We can't wait any longer!" Shikaku made an immediate decision, his voice sharp: "Inoichi, you stay here, command the remaining forces, coordinate with Choza, and make sure to eliminate all invading Otogakure's Ninja as quickly as possible and stabilize internal order in the village! Choza will need time to recover after releasing the Multi-Size Technique. You need to protect him!"
Inoichi nodded heavily: "Understood!"
Shikaku then looked at Hiashi: "Hiashi-san, the situation has changed. There may have been a major upheaval at the arena! You and I will each take three elite squads and immediately go to support! The others will continue to eliminate the remaining enemies!"
"Okay!" Hiashi didn't hesitate for a moment.
Whether out of his duty as a Konoha's Ninja or concern for his daughter's safety, he had to go.
Orders were quickly issued.
Shikaku immediately assembled a few of the strongest Jonin and Special Jonin, forming an elite squad of about twenty people, all at least Special Jonin.
The group no longer paid attention to the battlefield below, which was winding down. They pushed their speed to the limit, turning into blurry afterimages over Konoha's rooftops and ruins, racing towards the Hokage Rock.
The closer they got, the stronger the oppressive and sense of pressure in the air became.
Even without a Byakugan, ordinary sensory Ninja could detect the soul-shivering Chakra energy vortex ahead.
However, just as they were less than a kilometer from the Hokage Rock, a sudden change occurred!
In the sky behind the Hokage Rock, the area that had been rendered chaotic by various Chakra lights and smoke and dust was suddenly contaminated by a deeper purple-black!
Then, to the horrified gazes of Shikaku, Hiashi, and the other Konoha's Ninja, a behemoth over a kilometer long, composed entirely of solidified to the extreme purple-black Chakra, its appearance like a deep-sea oarfish, twisting its ferocious body, abruptly appeared in the high sky!
It had a giant mouth that devoured everything, with astonishing fangs in its upper jaw.
A purple-red Chakra Ball, over a hundred meters in diameter, with Chakra boiling inside like a volcano, was madly expanding at a visible rate, emitting Chakra fluctuations that made heaven and earth lose color!
"Wh-What is that thing?! An enemy's summoned creature?!" A Konoha's Jonin who had followed exclaimed in shock, his voice trembling.
Hiashi's Byakugan stared intently at the giant oarfish, veins bulging at his temples. In his field of vision, that massive body composed purely of high-concentration Chakra made his scalp tingle. He hissed: "No! That's not a summoned creature! It's Chakra! A highly compressed shaped Chakra Creation!!"
His words had barely fallen.
The next moment, the purple-red Chakra Ball in the giant oarfish's mouth suddenly blazed to its extreme!
That purple-red Chakra Ball, over a hundred meters in diameter, was spit from the giant oarfish's mouth, ferociously crashing down!
Almost simultaneously, below the purple-red Chakra Ball, a tiny, deep black light silently rose to meet the purple-red torrent of destruction.
The two made contact.
A flash of black light passed, followed by an extreme pure white that devoured heaven and earth!
That white light, carrying the sharpness to tear everything and the high heat to annihilate all, instantly erupted from the point of contact, filling every inch of space between heaven and earth!
Shikaku, Hiashi, and all the Konoha's elites around them only felt their vision blur. Their field of vision was instantly filled with endless white heat. A stinging sensation made tears flow uncontrollably. They instinctively narrowed their eyes, using their arms to desperately block in front of their faces.
Then, a low 'humming' roar, as if it would shatter their eardrums, skulls, and even their souls, mixed with a high-pitched, sharp shriek, rolled in from the center of the white light eruption!
Then came the earth-shattering shockwave!
Even from a considerable distance, that terrifying impact, mixed with white light, Chakra turbulence, scorching air waves, and countless building debris that had been smashed and then thrown again, still swept in from the Hokage Rock towards the village with overwhelming force!
"Find cover!!!" Shikaku roared with all his might, but his voice was barely a whisper in the terrifying roar.
He didn't need to remind anyone. The moment everyone felt the ground beneath their feet begin to toss violently like a small boat in a storm, and the devastating Chakra energy turbulence ahead bearing down like a tsunami wall, they made the most instinctive reaction!
Like startled lemmings, they desperately jumped down from the rooftops, rolling behind buildings along the street, or simply prostrated themselves on the ground, driving their kunai into the earth like nails!
Rumble—!!
The shockwave arrived!
At that moment, the world seemed to lose all other colors and sounds, leaving only endless trembling, roaring, tearing, and scorching white light.
Even though they were still some distance from the epicenter of the explosion, the buildings around Hiashi, Shikaku, and the others still teetered before the Chakra Turbulence and shockwave. Some trees were even uprooted.
The scorching air waves burned Shikaku's exposed skin. High-speed gravel, wood chips, metal fragments, like the most furious bullet storm, slammed against their cover with 'crackling' explosions. Occasionally, a Ninja would let out a grunt, clearly injured by a fragment that had gotten through.
Hiashi crouched behind a wall, struggling to raise his head, using his Byakugan to penetrate the wall, 'seeing' the violent turbulence and chaotic scene of the surrounding Chakra environment.
His heart was chilled.
'This kind of power... nearly a natural disaster. No, a divine punishment.'
No one knew how long had passed. Perhaps only a dozen seconds, but to Hiashi and the others, it felt like an eternity.
The desperate roar and tremors finally began to diminish and subside.
Shikaku, Hiashi, and the others struggled to crawl out from behind their respective cover, or struggled to stand from the rubble.
Everyone was covered in dust, their clothes torn, with more or less abrasions and burn marks on their bodies, their faces as pale as paper, their ears still ringing with a 'hum', temporarily deafened.
They looked around blankly. After the aftermath of the great explosion, many buildings below the Hokage Rock had been hit by falling trees and rocks. Even the roof of the Hokage Building had a large tree crookedly 'planted' on it.
Then, Shikaku quickly leaped towards the top of the Hokage Rock. Hiashi and the others followed suit without a word.
When the group stood atop the Hokage Rock, everyone froze. Their breathing stopped, their gazes staring blankly ahead.
Shikaku and the others' pupils trembled slightly. Some Ninja couldn't even help their legs going weak, sitting down on the ground.
"How... how is this possible..."
Ahead, there was nothing.
No towering arena circular buildings, no lush forest, no familiar buildings...
All buildings in the northern area of Konoha behind the Hokage Rock had been completely erased at this moment.
What came into view was a giant sinkhole.
Its diameter was estimated to exceed ten kilometers, perhaps even wider, because with Shikaku and the others' eyesight, they couldn't see the complete outline of the opposite side at a glance. They could only see the distant horizon twisted and blurred under the rising heat waves.
Looking down, the sinkhole was even deeper than they could fathom.
Several thick water columns shot out from faults in the rock layers at different heights.
They were the underground water veins cut off by the explosion.
The clear water, with white foam, roared into the bottomless abyss. During its fall, it was evaporated by the residual high temperature at the bottom of the pit into rolling white smoke, mixing with the blue-black smoke, carrying the smell of sulfur and scorched matter, rising from the cracks in the rock walls.
Together, they formed a rising, churning mist, permeating the sky above the sinkhole, adding to its apocalyptic desolation.
The air was thick with the pungent smell of ozone, the smell of scorched earth after rock melting.
The wind curled up from the depths of the sinkhole, carrying moist water vapor and scorching heat waves, blowing on their faces, but bringing no warmth, only bone-penetrating cold.
"Gulp." Shikaku unconsciously swallowed.
He had always been known for his resourcefulness and calmness, priding himself on being able to calculate most variables on the battlefield. But the scene before him, like a divine punishment...
He dared not imagine what the consequences would be if such an explosion occurred in the most densely populated, most building-concentrated central area of Konoha Village.
The answer was obvious.
An unprecedented sense of lingering fear and chill shot up his spine to the top of his head, making his fingers holding the kunai somewhat numb.
Not only him.
Beside him, the Konoha's Jonin and Special Jonin who had followed him… these elites who had seen life and death in missions and could face powerful enemies without changing expression… now also without exception revealed a nearly dazed expression of fear.
Some were as pale as paper, their lips trembling... some had sweat pouring from their foreheads, their bodies trembling slightly... some even subconsciously stepped back half a pace, as if moving further from the edge of the sinkhole would distance them from the unknown terror.
They might not fear powerful enemies or tragic sacrifice, but this completely unseen, divine punishment-like scene shook their confidence and courage as Ninjas.
What kind of enemy was fighting?
Was this really still a battle between Ninjas?
"Hinata..." Hiashi was the first to break free from this shock.
His instinct as a father, and his concern for his daughter's safety, burned awake his chaotic thoughts.
The veins bulged around his Byakugan. His field of vision instantly penetrated the permeating steam and smoke ahead, sweeping like the most precise radar over the area at the edge of the sinkhole.
Soon, he 'saw' it.
Not far from the edge of the sinkhole, dozens of Chakra reactions were gathered.