It was evening, and the setting sun slanted across the village.
The Hokage Rock was dyed in warm color. Smoke rose from the eaves of houses. Streetlamps lit up one after another, illuminating the ninja hurrying home and the children laughing as they chased each other through the streets.
Deep wrinkles lined the corners of Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes as he stood by the window with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing outside. Only someone who had lived through war could truly understand the value of peace. The scene before him had stayed almost unchanged for ten years, and it was the greatest achievement of his life. He could look at it forever and never grow tired of it.
Bang!
The not-so-sturdy office door was kicked open. It slammed against the wall with a loud crack as a broad-shouldered man strode in.
"Old man, how did you know I was back?"
The man wore a forehead protector with the kanji for "oil" written across it. His white hair flowed all the way to his waist.
Red markings ran beneath his eyes. He wore a red outer robe over brown shinobi clothes, wooden sandals on his feet, arm guards on both forearms, and a giant scroll on his back. It was Jiraiya, freshly returned from outside the village.
Behind him, Suzaku stood respectfully by the door, head slightly bowed as if in greeting.
As one of the Legendary Sannin of Konoha, Jiraiya was not only the direct disciple of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, but also the teacher of the Fourth Hokage.
Merit, seniority, strength, identity. His qualifications were perfect in every way. After Orochimaru defected, the Third had once intended for Jiraiya to inherit the position of Hokage, but Jiraiya had refused under the pretense of hunting Orochimaru and had continued wandering the world ever since.
Still, no matter how many years he had spent traveling, the moment the Third stepped down, Jiraiya could return at any time and take the Hokage's seat.
Though now, there was a variable.
Suzaku thought of the astonishingly gifted Konome Taketori. If Jiraiya wanted to become Hokage now, there would naturally be no problem. But if the Third dragged things out for another year or two, a lot of matters would become much harder to predict.
Click.
Suzaku dutifully shut the door behind him.
Inside the room, Hiruzen slowly turned to look at his disciple.
Jiraiya's tall, powerful body still looked full of strength, but faint lines had already formed on his face. In the blink of an eye, the little lecher he used to be was on the verge of becoming an old lecher.
"I've had ninja reporting to me about how you keep squatting on the roofs of women's bathhouses with that damned telescope of yours.
"You're not getting any younger either. You should learn some restraint."
Hiruzen spoke in the tone of stern moral instruction, his face full of righteous seriousness. If someone did not know his true nature, they might actually be fooled by the act.
Jiraiya, who knew him far too well, was having none of it. He curled his lip and muttered:
"I was gathering material for my new book. Be honest, old man. You saw me while you were peeping into the women's bathhouse with your crystal ball, didn't you?"
"Ahem, ahem…"
Caught dead to rights, Hiruzen quickly coughed into his fist, then pretended nothing had happened and smoothly changed the subject.
"Now that you've come back to the village, are you staying?"
"Nope."
Jiraiya shut his eyes and spread his arms wide, a thoroughly indecent grin on his face.
"My dream is to sweep up every beautiful woman in the world. How could I possibly stay in Konoha?"
"What a grand dream indeed."
Hiruzen casually mocked his disciple's fantasy, then returned to his seat and lit his pipe. Firelight rose together with the smoke, blurring the aged lines on his face. Only his eyes remained sharp and bright, no less keen than they had been in his youth.
"Enough nonsense. Let's talk business."
The room fell silent at once.
"The wheel of fate is turning, and the structure of the shinobi world is about to undergo a transformation unlike anything before."
Jiraiya's expression turned solemn. He spread his arms as if he meant to embrace the entire world.
"Hoo…"
Hiruzen exhaled a cloud of smoke and squinted at Jiraiya, who looked every bit the sham mystic. He was only half convinced.
The Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku often had bizarre dreams. It had even foreseen that Jiraiya would accidentally arrive at Mount Myoboku through reverse summoning.
It had also once prophesied that Jiraiya would eventually take on a disciple who would bring great change to the world, either peace or destruction.
At first, everyone had thought that prophecy referred to Minato Namikaze. Sadly…
"So the Child of Prophecy has appeared?"
"I don't know."
Jiraiya slowly shook his head, equally puzzled.
"Five years ago, the Great Toad Sage suddenly woke from its sleep and said it thought it had seen a strange light."
"A light? What kind of light?"
When it came to all this mystical prophecy business, even Hiruzen felt helpless.
It was the sort of thing one could neither fully trust nor completely dismiss. At the very least, the Great Toad Sage had indeed accurately predicted Jiraiya's arrival at Mount Myoboku.
"A light that blanketed heaven and earth, one so vast even the sun and moon were hidden beneath it…"
After a while, Hiruzen realized he was still waiting for the rest.
"That's it?"
"Uh… yes."
The self-styled sage Jiraiya looked awkward. The Great Toad Sage's prophecies were maddeningly incomplete. Half the time they sounded less like prophecies and more like dreams that made no sense.
"After that, the old toad lost the ability to foresee things clearly. It kept saying the future was in upheaval and could no longer be read. Then, a month ago, it spoke again. It said the shinobi world was about to change, and the source of that change was in Konoha. It told me to return and deal with it."
He stopped pretending to be mysterious and explained everything plainly in just a few sentences.
Thunk.
Hiruzen took a deep pull on his pipe, his thoughts spinning wildly.
A month ago was a very important point in time.
That was when news of the Five Nations' joint Chunin Exams had first arrived. Team Seven had just returned from the Land of Waves, and he and Konome had started discussing the arrangements for the exams. It was also around then that Danzo had defected, and Hiruzen had handed both the forbidden techniques and Root over to Konome as a gesture of reassurance.
Danzo and Konome should not have been enough to bring transformation to the entire shinobi world. The true key probably lay in the unprecedented super-scale exam itself.
"I think there's something fishy about these Chunin Exams."
Jiraiya had been back in the village long enough to know about the Five Nations' joint exam.
Under normal circumstances, only Sunagakure and a few small villages took part. Yet Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and Iwagakure had all suddenly barged in, crossing vast distances and seas to participate. There was obviously something wrong here.
"Could someone be planning to stir up trouble during the exams?"
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes as he considered the possibility, but after thinking it through twice, he shook his head.
"The exams will gather too many strong shinobi. All Five Kage will be present during the third stage. No one would dare cause trouble then."
"Could Kumogakure have some special agenda?"
Jiraiya likewise did not believe anyone would be foolish enough to start trouble in Konoha at such a time. Naturally, he singled out the one village with the worst reputation among the Five Great Nations.
"Hoo…"
Smoke continued to pour from Hiruzen's nostrils as he slowly nodded. He, too, felt Kumogakure was suspicious.
Kirigakure and Iwagakure had only agreed to join after Kumogakure had done so. And five years ago, Kumogakure had also attempted to seize from Konoha…
At that thought, Hiruzen suddenly froze.
That point in time seemed to correspond eerily well with the Great Toad Sage's prophecy. Could Kumogakure's actions have altered the future?
Could it be that the Child of Prophecy in the dream had died during Kumogakure's attack?
But he did not remember seeing any heaven-filling light back then.
Almost subconsciously, Hiruzen looked out the window.
The evening glow had painted the sky red. A soft golden light spread evenly across the village, making Konoha look like an old photograph filled with quiet peace.
He gave a faint, amused shake of his head.
Prophecy was too vague. There was no specific time, no place. Even if such a sky-swallowing light really existed, he would probably never…
Flash!
A streak of gray swept across his vision. Hiruzen blinked once. Then, staring out at Konoha, the smile on his face froze solid.
"That…"
Jiraiya rushed to the window and looked out.
At the far end of the central street, an eerie gray light suddenly flared into being. Buildings, crowds, shops, roads, the mountain behind the village, the earth itself, even the crimson evening sky, all were swallowed by gray.
"The light… the light is here!"
Jiraiya's voice trembled.
For once, Hiruzen could not mock his disciple's panic.
The gray light grew brighter and brighter, as though a dead-gray sun had risen out of nowhere in Konoha. Endless radiance surged toward the Hokage Tower. There was no time to react, no way to resist. Jiraiya and Hiruzen could only stand there and watch as the boundless light devoured everything in the village.
The shrill scream of a woman rang out somewhere in the streets before it, too, was drowned in the tide of sound.
At the same moment, Naruto, training under Kazama Kōshi at the training ground, Might Guy, who was sprinting upside down through the streets, Sasuke, surrounded by crackling lightning in the Uchiha district, Kakashi, who was engrossed in the newest volume of Icha Icha Paradise, along with countless other ninja and civilians in Konoha, all abruptly looked up.
Faced with the swallowing gray radiance, they instinctively threw up their arms to shield themselves, but none of them could escape being engulfed by it.
At last, the strange light covering Konoha swelled even further, spreading out to consume the forests and land for dozens of square kilometers around the village.
In the primordial forest outside Konoha.
"What… what is that?"
Karin, wearing a Grass Village forehead protector with a wave-like symbol that looked carelessly drawn, stared into the sky with trembling red eyes. The Grass ninja traveling with her were equally stunned.
The enormous gray sphere stretching across the heavens looked like a gray sun.
Among the group were two female ninja wearing straw hats. As they stared up at that dark gray sun, their hearts churned violently.
"That's the direction of Konoha… isn't it?"
One of them, a one-eyed kunoichi with narrow, shadowy eyes, turned to the unnaturally pale ninja beside her. She already knew the answer, but still wanted confirmation.
Disguised as a female ninja, Orochimaru shot the person beside him a sideways glance.
"You're asking me? Weren't you the one who just ran out of there?"
His single eye burning with killing intent, Danzo glared viciously at Orochimaru. The Mangekyo hidden beneath his wrappings spun furiously, yet he did not dare use Kotoamatsukami. One use had nearly pushed Orochimaru into attacking Konoha. If he used it again, who knew, perhaps the lunatic would try to unify the entire world.
He let out a cold snort and kept staring into the distance, the deep gray reflected in his eye as no one could tell what he was thinking.
If Konoha had already been destroyed…
"Hey! You Grass ninja, do you know what happened to Konoha?"
A clear female voice rang out through the forest.
Danzo and the others immediately turned toward the sound.
A blonde kunoichi carrying a giant folding fan sat on a branch with one leg hanging down. With blue eyes, she looked down at the Grass ninja group from above. The Sand forehead protector on her brow gleamed in the light.
"It's Suna…"
"There's nothing special about them."
A small commotion broke out among the Grass shinobi. As a small village, they knew full well they were inferior to one of the Five Great Nations, yet young genin always tended to possess a strange sort of blind confidence.
And it was not only genin. Many high-ranking figures in small villages also looked down on the Five Great Nations, some even dreaming of unifying the shinobi world with nothing but legendary treasures.
Kusagakure had always been a little lacking in self-awareness. To avoid exposing themselves too early, Orochimaru and Danzo, both old schemers to the core, quietly kept the rest of the group in front of them.
Since Konoha's exact situation was still unknown, both of them had decided to protect their current identities first.
As a living healing tool, Karin also sensed something was off. After glancing around, she shrank deeper into the crowd. Spotting the two disguised kunoichi hiding there, she brightened and hurried over to them.
The weak had to huddle together if they wanted to survive.
Temari looked down at the Grass shinobi. Hearing the dissatisfied muttering below, she frowned slightly. It seemed they did not know what the gray light was either.
Whoosh, whoosh!
More figures cut through the forest. The main body of the Sand team had arrived.
"Temari, what's going on?"
A shinobi in a black combat outfit with a sand-colored jonin flak jacket landed beside her. A strip of white cloth was wrapped around his head, one side of his face covered by a white bandage, while the other side bore two red markings. It was Baki, the jonin leading Suna's team.
Behind him, Gaara, with his red hair, gourd, and the kanji for "love" on his forehead, along with Kankurō, whose face was painted all over, and the rest of the Sand genin, quickly gathered.
When the Grass ninja saw the aggressive-looking Suna force arrive, the earlier muttering stopped immediately.
"They probably don't know what that gray light is either," Temari said, pointing toward the distant glow, while secretly exchanging a loaded glance with Baki.
As one of the few who knew of the "Konoha Crush" plan, unease filled her heart.
Releasing Shukaku to wreak havoc inside Konoha and then launching a frontal attack with a large force had always felt recklessly crude to her.
But she did not know the whole plan, and assumed their father had deeper reasons.
Now, with whatever had happened in Konoha, whether the plan could still be carried out smoothly had become another question entirely.
She turned her head to look at the cold-faced Gaara, her expression softening with worry. If the plan could be called off, then her little brother would not have to face the dangers waiting in Konoha.
Baki kept staring at the gray light in the sky, shaking his head.
"We absolutely cannot rashly enter that gray zone. We wait for it to disperse, then we investigate Konoha. If…"
He did not finish the sentence. There were Grass shinobi present.
To begin with, he knew better than anyone how crude the attack plan truly was. If Konoha simply happened to be wiped out by this gray radiance, it would be nothing short of a godsend for Sunagakure.
The Suna ninja stood on the branches, watching the distant light in silence and no longer paying attention to the Grass team below.
The leading jōnin of Kusagakure, whose name hardly mattered, quietly wiped the sweat from his brow.
As shinobi from a small village, even when their chakra quantity reached jonin standards, their actual combat ability still fell well short of the elite ninja of the major villages.
How did he know?
Eight years ago, he too had come to Konoha as a participant in the Chunin Exams. Back then, he had been an ambitious young genius, only to meet some unknown Konoha ninja and get instantly crushed and eliminated.
At first he had thought he had simply encountered one of Konoha's hidden prodigies. Then he watched that same Konoha ninja get instantly defeated in turn by members of bloodline clans and secret technique families, and only then did he realize how vast the world truly was.
For a while, the forest fell silent.
Dozens of ninja from different villages stood beneath the canopy, staring toward Konoha.
Some were worried.
Some were hopeful.
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