"Elder Chiyo."
"Elder Ebizo."
Hearing the final instructions from Chiyo and Ebizo, many of the Sand shinobi felt their eyes turn red.
For a moment, some of them were even tempted to throw away the shame of survival and choose a final, desperate battle to the death.
"Retreat."
But Chiyo and Ebizo saw through their thoughts at a glance. With a single command, "Retreat", they crushed every ember of that suicidal resolve.
"Yes."
Maki, Yashamaru, and the others stared deeply at Chiyo and Ebizo, as if they wanted to carve the two elders' faces into their memories forever.
Then, no one knew who stepped back first, but soon more and more Sand shinobi followed.
Chiyo and Ebizo's calm acceptance of death could not change the fact that they were the defeated.
But compared to the Cloud shinobi who had once been dragged away by the Third Raikage, those dead-eyed, hollow husks, Maki and the others, though frightened and awed, somehow managed to preserve a sliver of the Will of Wind.
"There is one thing I never quite understood… until now. To have lived in the same era as you, what a tragedy, yet also a strange kind of fortune."
After watching the two thousand Sand shinobi leave, Chiyo turned toward Garp and let out a quiet sigh.
"I originally thought that after you crushed the old era, the age belonging to you would finally be over. Yet I never expected… you were still alive.
The era of the Hidden Villages… heh…. Is this truly the era of the Hidden Villages?"
Ebizo suddenly laughed, a long, drifting laugh filled with confusion, desolation, and doubt.
Pfft….
The two siblings seemed to share a silent understanding.
The moment Ebizo's laughter faded, they looked at each other.
Then Chiyo flicked two fingers, and two of the Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu swung their blades, piercing her and stabbing through Ebizo's heart at the same time.
"..."
Watching the two of them face death so calmly, even joking until the last moment, so vastly different from Rasa, Garp said nothing. He simply gazed at them with steady eyes.
From beginning to end, his expression, his gaze, did not ripple in the slightest.
Perhaps his heart was made of iron.
Perhaps, to him, Ebizo and Chiyo were merely enemies.
Perhaps he had experienced far too many scenes just like this, too many to count.
Ever since the Warring States Period, countless shinobi and samurai had fallen before his fists in similar fashion, meeting the same end.
"A puppeteer should die by the hands of their own puppets."
"To challenge a hero and die… We have no regrets. I just wonder, after the Warring States Period and the Hidden Village era… how many more eras of the shinobi world you intend to dominate before the legend of the Iron Fist finally ends."
As Chiyo and Ebizo collapsed, they whispered their final thoughts. Their lives, already flickering like dying candles in the wind, were completely extinguished.
"How many eras will I dominate, hmm? I have no idea either."
Hearing Ebizo's final mumble, Garp's eyes flickered with a trace of confusion and curiosity.
He really didn't know.
Once, he thought that living into Naruto's generation meant the end of his era and his legend.
But now, he was over ninety years old, yet still looked like a man in his early thirties.
And as the years passed, his body showed no signs of aging at all.
In fact, day by day, he continued to grow stronger, his physical power and vitality rising without limit, as though he had no end.
Just like Danzo said, his strength and presence now surpassed even his peak during the old era.
"Come out.
Surely you don't think such a cheap, low-grade ninjutsu could escape these eyes of mine?"
Garp narrowed his eyes slightly and spoke casually toward the empty desert where nothing should have existed except sand and three corpses.
Rustle…
The sand beside Chiyo and Ebizo's bodies suddenly shifted before a Sand shinobi, forehead protector gleaming, gradually rose from beneath.
"The rest of the Sand fear me, yet you, after barely escaping death under my fist, didn't tuck your tail and flee back to the village. You actually dared to appear before me again?"
Garp looked him over with mild amusement. The shinobi felt both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
"I fear you too… That's exactly why I refuse to lose even the courage to at least gather Elder Chiyo and Elder Ebizo's remains."
Under Garp's gaze, the Sand shinobi trembled uncontrollably.
"Interesting. A brave Sand shinobi. State your name."
Muffled static like distortion.
Hearing it, Garp couldn't help but chuckle.
"Baki, Jonin of the Hidden Sand."
Baki took a deep breath, forcing himself to stay calm, suppressing the terror in his chest as he declared his name.
"Baki of the Sand. Are you always this brave?"
Garp watched him with a playful expression.
"…"
Baki could only squeeze out a smile uglier than crying.
The last person Garp teased like this not only died but was force fed a mound of gold dust before death.
Now it was his turn. How could he not panic?
"All right, enough teasing. Take your Kazekage and elders' bodies and get out of here."
Seeing the man who would someday be praised in the Sand as having the bearing of a future commander on the verge of tears, Garp lost all interest in messing with him.
He simply waved a hand, dismissing him and allowing him to take away the bodies of Chiyo, Ebizo, and Rasa.
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