Chapter 236: The Eve of Destruction
Meanwhile, far out in the unforgiving expanse of the Land of Wind's desert.
Baki ran. His chakra had long since been depleted, burned away in the frantic, desperate sprint back towards Sunagakure. He ran now relying solely on raw willpower, his muscles screaming, his lungs burning, pushing his raw physical strength far beyond its limits.
The coarse sand kicked up by his worn sandals stung his eyes. The relentless sun beat down, reflecting off the dunes with blinding intensity.
The four elite Jōnin behind him were in even worse shape. Their lips were cracked and bleeding. Their eyes, unfocused and sunken deep into their sockets, stared blankly ahead. They were running almost instinctively now, driven only by the primal need to keep pace with their commander, Baki.
[Don't stop!] Baki's mind screamed, a mantra against the encroaching exhaustion.
[Absolutely cannot stop! Must deliver the message! Must warn Lord Kazekage!]
"Faster! Just a little faster!"
Baki roared frantically in his heart, squeezing out the last, burning dregs of strength from his exhausted body. His vision swam.
Finally. Finally! At the very edge of the shimmering horizon, distorted by the heat haze, the massive, familiar outline of Sunagakure's protective rock walls appeared in their sight.
"We're… We're here!" one of the Jōnin croaked, his voice raw.
"We… are back!" another sobbed, tears cutting paths through the grime on his face.
His subordinates behind him let out hoarse, broken cries of joy and utter relief. They had made it.
Baki didn't stop for a second. He didn't slow. Fueled by adrenaline and sheer desperation, he pushed past the outer gates, ignoring the startled cries of the guards, rushing through the familiar sandy streets towards the Kazekage's central building as if he had gone mad.
"Emergency military intelligence!!" His voice was a shredded roar.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!!"
Baki shoved aside all the guards who tried to stop him along the way, using his last ounce of strength to kick open the heavy, reinforced door to the Kazekage's private office.
Boom!
The door crashed inwards, splintering off its hinges.
Inside the office, Fourth Kazekage Rasa, Granny Chiyo, and Ebizō, who had been huddled in tense discussion, suddenly leaped up from their seats. They stared at the doorway in shock, weapons half-drawn.
"Baki?!" Rasa's pupils constricted instantly. [Back already? So soon? This is bad...]
"It… it failed…"
Baki stumbled into the room, collapsing onto his knees on the cool stone floor, gasping for breath like a landed fish.
"Lord Kazekage… our plan… the delay tactic… has completely… failed…"
Granny Chiyo's aged face darkened instantly, her brief hope turning to ash. She sharply demanded, her voice tight with fury, "What happened?! Did Konoha refuse to negotiate? Did Akira dismiss you?!"
"No…"
Baki struggled, painfully, to lift his head. His face, streaked with sweat and sand, was filled with utter despair.
"It's not that they refused to negotiate…"
His voice cracked.
"It's that they… they never intended to negotiate at all! It was a farce!"
He began repeating Uchiha Akira's words, the cold, final pronouncements burned into his memory, verbatim.
"Konoha unilaterally terminates all alliances with Sunagakure."
"From now on, we are enemies."
"You, Sunagakure, only have two choices."
"First: Surrender. Disband Sunagakure. All ninja will be incorporated into Konoha, becoming Konoha's… 'Clan of Sand'."
"Second…"
Baki's voice trembled violently now, recalling the chilling finality in Akira's eyes.
"Completely disappear from the Ninja World."
As Baki's final, devastating words fell.
The atmosphere in the entire office instantly solidified. The desert heat seemed to vanish, replaced by an icy dread.
Rasa's body swayed violently. He staggered back, catching himself on the edge of his desk, his face utterly pale. He almost collapsed to the ground.
[Annexation... Or annihilation...]
"ARROGANT!!"
Granny Chiyo finally reacted, breaking free from her extreme shock. She let out a hysterical, enraged scream, her small, frail body trembling with fury.
"Who does he think he is?! The second coming of the God of Shinobi?!"
"He wants Sunagakure to disappear?! Then let him pay for his arrogance with his LIFE!!"
Rasa closed his eyes, his face a mask of utter despair.
[Is Sunagakure… is it truly going to be destroyed in my hands…? Is this my legacy?]
No!
The thought roared back, a cornered beast's defiance.
Absolutely not!
He, Rasa, even if he dies today, even if the entire village burns around him, will absolutely not become the eternal sinner of Sunagakure!
[Since all schemes have failed… since diplomacy is useless… since the other side intends to simply crush us with absolute, overwhelming power… then…]
[Then… we will use the most insane methods! We will deliver the most painful, most unexpected counterattack!]
[Even if it means… mutual destruction!]
Rasa suddenly opened his eyes. The despair was gone. His gaze was filled only with a terrifying, suicidal madness!
"Pass on my orders!" His voice was no longer weak; it was sharp, brittle, like cracking glass.
"Abandon all illusions! Abandon all hope of negotiation or survival through conventional means!"
"Sunagakure, effective immediately, enters the highest, final level of war status!"
"All ninja – Jōnin, Chūnin, Genin, even Academy students capable of holding a kunai – regardless of gender, age, or youth, arm yourselves! Go to your designated defensive posts! Now!"
He slammed his fist on the table.
"Tell them! Behind us is our home! Our families! There is NO retreat! Fight until your last breath!"
"YES, LORD KAZEKAGE!" Maki braced himself, pushing through his exhaustion, responding hoarsely.
"Wait!" Rasa called out as Maki turned to leave.
Rasa's gaze became incredibly cold, devoid of all emotion save for a chilling, fatalistic resolve.
"Maki. I'm giving you one last, critical mission."
"Go to the deepest isolation zone in the village. Section Zero."
His voice dropped to a whisper. "Bring that thing to the front line."
Maki's body suddenly trembled violently!
[Isolation zone! Section Zero!]
[That thing!]
He instantly understood what the Kazekage was referring to!
The Village's only ultimate weapon! Their uncontrollable ace in the hole!
The Jinchūriki, Gaara!
At this time, Gaara, due to his increasing instability and frequent partial transformations, had been assigned by Rasa to live in a specially sealed, isolated area deep beneath the village, heavily guarded and monitored.
"Lord Kazekage!" Baki whispered, horrified.
"Are you planning… are you truly planning to use the Feigned Sleep Technique on Gaara?!"
[Inorin's Note: The Feigned Sleep Technique (狸寝入りの術, Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu) is a specific jutsu used by Gaara (often forced upon him) that puts him to sleep, allowing the Tailed Beast Shukaku sealed within him to fully emerge and rampage.]
"That's too dangerous! It's suicide! Once Shukaku completely rampages, it won't distinguish friend from foe! Let alone Konoha, even our entire Sunagakure could be…"
"I DON'T CARE!"
Rasa slammed his hand on the table again, roaring like a madman, his eyes wild!
"I only want results! I only want Konoha to bleed!"
"Uchiha Akira isn't trying to annex us?! Isn't trying to erase us?!"
"Then let him see! Let him see what kind of price he has to pay to swallow Sunagakure!"
"I want the Tailed Beast's uncontrollable wrath to fully erupt within Konoha's military formation! Let Shukaku tear them apart!"
His voice dropped again, filled with venom. "This is an order!"
Rasa stared directly at Baki, his eyes bloodshot, pupils dilated.
"If necessary, Maki… even if it means sacrificing the entire Sunagakure… Konoha… Uchiha Akira… must be buried with us!"
Baki stared back, seeing the abyss in his leader's eyes. There was no room for argument. This was the final, desperate command.
"…Yes, Lord Kazekage."
Maki closed his eyes, accepting the horrifying order. He bowed and turned, his steps heavy, to carry out the village's potential self-destruction.
A moment later.
Piercing alarm bells began to shriek through the sky above Sunagakure, a sound not heard in years.
Countless Sunagakure ninja poured into the streets. Carrying the previously distributed ninja tools, emergency rations, and soldier pills, they began to gather at their assigned rally points.
Fear was palpable in the air. But beneath it was a grim, hardened resolve.
They were scorpions, born and bred in the harshest desert, struggling to survive in the Ninja World's most barren land.
They might not be strong compared to Konoha. They might be facing impossible odds.
But their venomous stings, their willingness to fight and die for their home, were enough to make any enemy who dared to underestimate them pay the ultimate price with their lives!
Two days later. Dawn broke over the Land of Wind.
Outside Sunagakure.
An army of two thousand elite Konoha ninja stood silently on a high sand dune, about five kilometers outside the massive rock walls of Sunagakure.
They had advanced rapidly, silently, under the cover of darkness, bypassing the now-abandoned outer defenses.
Looking into the distance, Sunagakure resembled an ancient, wounded beast nestled within its protective shell of massive rock walls, quietly lying in wait, emanating an aura of desperate defiance.
"All troops halt! Maintain vigilance in place! Defensive formations!"
Nara Shikaku, acting as temporary commander-in-chief in Akira's absence, ordered loudly, his voice carrying clearly over the assembled shinobi.
Instantly, the disciplined Konoha ninja quickly formed tight, interlocking defensive formations, their eyes warily watching the distant Village, weapons ready.
A tense, heavy atmosphere of impending battle permeated the air, thick enough to taste. The calm before the storm.
Uchiha Kenji, standing near the front line, took a deep breath. He carefully took out the special, three-pronged kunai engraved with complex sealing formulas from his thigh pouch.
[Inorin's Note: This describes a Hiraishin Kunai (飛雷神クナイ), marked with the seal for the Flying Thunder God Technique (飛雷神の術, Hiraishin no Jutsu), a space-time ninjutsu famously used by the Second and Fourth Hokage. It allows instantaneous teleportation to the marked kunai.]
He poured his chakra into the kunai without hesitation!
Buzz—!
The seals on the kunai instantly burst forth with dazzling, bright blue light.
The next second.
Under the collective gaze of the two thousand Konoha shinobi.
Space seemed to warp and shimmer above the glowing kunai.
Two figures slowly materialized, walking out of the distortion as if stepping through a doorway.
It was Uchiha Akira, clad in his white and red Hokage battle robes, his Rinnegan impassive.
Beside him, radiating power and confidence, was Tsunade, her long blonde hair flowing in the desert wind, the Strength of a Hundred Seal glowing ominously on her forehead.
[Inorin's Note: The Strength of a Hundred Seal (百豪の印, Byakugō no In) is an S-rank sealing technique used by Tsunade. It stores vast amounts of chakra, which can be released for immense power and instantaneous regeneration.]
Akira glanced towards Sunagakure, his expression unreadable.
"Well then…" he murmured, his voice calm, yet carrying the weight of impending doom.
"The war… has begun."
On the defensive ramparts of Sunagakure, the scene was one of desperate, crowded readiness. People were packed shoulder-to-shoulder.
A dense army of ninja, like a swarming, agitated ant colony, covered every inch of ground that could be stood upon – walls, rooftops, open plazas.
A rough estimate showed at least eight thousand people! Perhaps more.
This was Sunagakure's last resort; they had poured every last drop of their Village's strength into this defense. Arming every ninja capable of fighting, regardless of age or rank – Genin standing alongside veterans, medics clutching kunai – and gathering them here for a final stand.
Each person's face, young and old, was etched with a mixture of fear, grim determination, and a cornered animal's madness.
Behind them was their home. Their families. Everything they knew.
There was no retreat.
When Uchiha Akira's and Tsunade's figures appeared out of thin air, materializing like gods of war in front of the Konoha army formation, this desperate, volatile atmosphere was instantly ignited to its absolute extreme!
"THEY'RE HERE!"
"IT'S THE HOKAGE!"
"KONOHA SCUM!"
"PREPARE FOR BATTLE!!"
The Sunagakure ninja let out earth-shattering, defiant roars. Various ninja tools – kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, puppet scrolls – were clutched tightly in their hands. Chakra began to surge wildly, visibly, throughout their bodies, a chaotic wave of desperate energy.
They waited only for Rasa's order to charge out and meet their doom head-on!
However, at this crucial moment, the Konoha army formation remained eerily, unnervingly quiet.
The two thousand elite Konoha ninja simply stood in their perfect formations, their faces calm, disciplined, showing no intention of launching a charge. They merely watched. Waited.
Uchiha Akira's gaze calmly swept over the heavily fortified Village ahead, over the dense, roaring figures packed onto its walls. He saw their fear. He saw their defiance. He saw their desperation.
It meant nothing.
He turned around slowly and issued an order to the two thousand elite Konoha ninja behind him. An order that left everyone – Konoha and Suna alike – utterly bewildered.
"All troops. Stand by in place."
His voice was calm, carrying easily over the wind and the distant roars.
"Without my direct command, no one is allowed to step one foot off this sand dune."
As his voice fell.
The Konoha ninja present were all stunned into silence.
[What did he mean?]
[Stand by? Here?]
[With a major battle imminent? With the enemy right there?]
[He was ordering two thousand elites... to stand still? To do... nothing?]
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