As evening settled in, the setting sun cast a warm glow over the Hokage Rock. Wisps of smoke rose from chimneys, and streetlights flickered to life one by one, illuminating hurried ninja heading home and children chasing each other with laughter.
Sarutobi Hiruzen stood by the window, his wrinkled eyes tracing the familiar scene. Only those who'd lived through war could truly value peace. This unchanging view of Konoha, a decade in the making, was his life's greatest achievement—one he'd never tire of.
Meow!
The flimsy office door was kicked open, slamming against the wall with a bang. A tall, burly man strode in.
"Old man, how'd you know I was back?"
The man wore a headband with the kanji for "oil" etched on it, his white hair cascading down to his waist. Red face paint adorned his cheeks, and he wore a red overcoat over a brown ninja outfit, wooden clogs on his feet, and ninja guards on his hands. A large scroll hung from his back. It was Jiraiya, returned from his travels outside the village.
Behind him, Suzaku stood respectfully by the door, head slightly bowed in greeting.
Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Sannin, was Hiruzen's personal disciple and the mentor of the Fourth Hokage. His accomplishments, experience, strength, and status were impeccable. After Orochimaru's defection, Hiruzen had offered him the Hokage position, but Jiraiya declined, citing his mission to hunt Orochimaru, and had been wandering ever since.
Even so, he could return and claim the Hokage title whenever Hiruzen stepped down.
But now, there was a new variable.
Suzaku glanced at the thought of Hikari, whose prodigious talent complicated things. Jiraiya could take the Hokage seat now without issue, but if Hiruzen delayed retirement by a year or two, the situation might shift dramatically.
Click!
Suzaku dutifully closed the door behind them.
Inside, Hiruzen slowly turned to face his disciple. Jiraiya's towering, muscular frame radiated strength, but faint lines now marked his cheeks. The once-young lecher was fast becoming an old one.
"You've been spotted lurking on the bathhouse roof with that beat-up telescope of yours. Ninja have been reporting it to me for ages. You're not young anymore—show some restraint!" Hiruzen scolded, his face stern and righteous, as if anyone unaware of his true nature might actually buy the act.
Jiraiya, who knew better, smirked and muttered, "I'm just gathering material for my new book. Be honest, old man—did you spot me while peeping at the bathhouse with your crystal ball?"
Cough, cough!
Caught off guard, Hiruzen coughed into his fist, quickly changing the subject. "Are you leaving the village again after this?"
"Yep!" Jiraiya closed his eyes, a sleazy grin spreading as he stretched his arms wide, as if embracing the world. "My dream is to charm every beauty out there. Staying in Konoha won't cut it!"
"What a grand dream," Hiruzen remarked dryly, returning to his desk and lighting his pipe. The flame and smoke blurred his weathered face, but his sharp eyes gleamed undimmed by age. "Enough chit-chat. Let's get to business."
The room fell silent.
"The wheels of fate are turning. The ninja world is on the brink of unprecedented change!" Jiraiya's expression turned serious, his arms wide as if encompassing the entire world.
Hoo~
Hiruzen exhaled a cloud of smoke, squinting at Jiraiya's dramatic, almost prophetic demeanor, half-believing, half-skeptical.
The Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku often had bizarre dreams, some eerily accurate. Jiraiya's accidental reverse-summoning to Myoboku had been foretold, and the Sage had even prophesied that Jiraiya would take a disciple who'd bring either peace or destruction to the world.
Initially, everyone thought it was the Fourth Hokage. But now…
"Is the Child of Prophecy here?" Hiruzen asked.
"Don't know." Jiraiya shook his head, his face clouded with confusion. "Five years ago, the Great Toad Sage woke from a deep sleep, saying it saw a strange light."
"Light? What kind of light?"
When it came to cryptic prophecies, even Hiruzen felt out of his depth. You couldn't fully trust them, but you couldn't dismiss them either. The Sage's prediction about Jiraiya's Myoboku visit had been spot-on.
"A light that enveloped the heavens and earth, outshining even the sun and moon."
Hiruzen waited for more, but Jiraiya fell silent. "That's it?" he asked, incredulous.
"Uh, yeah." Jiraiya scratched his head, embarrassed. The Toad Sage's prophecy was so vague it felt more like a dream than a vision. "After that, the Sage lost its foresight. It kept saying the future was shifting too drastically to predict. Then, a month ago, it said a great change was coming to the ninja world, with Konoha at its center, and told me to return."
Dropping the prophetic act, Jiraiya laid out the facts plainly.
Click!
Hiruzen took a long drag from his pipe, his mind racing. A month ago was a critical time: news of the Five Village Joint Chunin Exams had just broken, Team 7 returned from the Land of Waves, he discussed exam plans with Hikari, and Danzo defected, handing over forbidden jutsu and the Root to Hikari as a peace offering.
Danzo and Hikari weren't likely to upend the ninja world. The key had to be this unprecedented joint exam.
"There's something fishy about the Chunin Exams," Jiraiya said, having caught up on village affairs. "Normally, only Sand and smaller nations join, but Cloud, Mist, and Stone suddenly jumped in, traveling thousands of miles to participate. Something's off."
"Could someone be planning to stir trouble during the exams?" Hiruzen mused, narrowing his eyes. He mulled it over but shook his head. "The exams draw too many powerful ninja. With all five Kage present for the third round, no one would dare cause a scene."
"Maybe Cloud has ulterior motives," Jiraiya suggested, singling out the least trustworthy of the five nations.
Hoo~
Smoke poured from Hiruzen's nostrils as he nodded, agreeing Cloud was suspicious. Mist and Stone only joined after Cloud, and five years ago, Cloud had tried to abduct a Konoha ninja.
His thoughts froze. That timing aligned with the Toad Sage's prophecy. Could Cloud's actions have triggered this future upheaval? Did the Child of Prophecy die in a Cloud attack?
But what was this "all-encompassing light"?
Hiruzen glanced out the window. The sunset painted the sky red, casting a warm, even glow over Konoha, like an old, peaceful photograph.
Heh.
He chuckled, shaking his head. Prophecies were unreliable, lacking specifics. Even if this overwhelming light existed, he wouldn't—
Zing!
A gray light flashed before his eyes. Hiruzen's wrinkled eyelids blinked, and his smile froze as he stared out at Konoha.
"What the—"
Jiraiya bolted to the window, peering out.
At the end of the central street, a strange gray light erupted, engulfing buildings, crowds, shops, streets, the back mountains, and the earth. Even the sunset's glow was swallowed by the gray.
"The light—it's here!" Jiraiya's voice trembled.
Hiruzen couldn't scold his disciple's panic. The gray light grew brighter, like a lifeless sun rising over Konoha, its endless rays surging toward the Hokage Building. There was no time to react or resist. Jiraiya and Hiruzen could only watch as the infinite light consumed everything.
A woman's piercing scream echoed through Konoha's streets, quickly drowned in the overwhelming clamor.
At the same moment, Naruto, training with Kazama Yue at the training grounds; Gai, running upside-down through the streets; Sasuke, surrounded by lightning in the Uchiha district; Kakashi, engrossed in the latest Icha Icha Paradise—countless Konoha ninja and civilians looked up, shielding themselves with their arms as the gray light engulfed them, inescapable.
The strange light grew ever grander, swallowing the forests and lands for dozens of kilometers around Konoha.
In the primordial forest outside the village:
"What is that?" Karin, her red hair and eyes trembling, stared at the sky, her wave-patterned headband glinting. The Grass Village ninja traveling with her gaped in unison.
A gray light, stretching for who-knows-how-many kilometers, blotted out the sky like a gray sun.
Among the crowd, two female ninja in conical hats stared at the deep gray sun, their hearts in turmoil.
"That's coming from Konoha, right?" The one-eyed ninja, her gaze sharp and narrow, turned to her pale-skinned companion. Though she suspected the answer, she needed confirmation.
Orochimaru, disguised as a female ninja, shot a glance at the "Darkness of the Shinobi." "You're asking me? Didn't you just escape from there?"
Danzo's single eye flared with killing intent, his hidden Mangekyo spinning wildly, but he held back from using Kotoamatsukami. One use, and Orochimaru might attack Konoha. A second, and he'd probably conquer the world.
Snorting, Danzo turned back to the distant light, his deep gaze reflecting the gray, lost in thought. If Konoha's been destroyed…
"Hey, Grass Village ninja! Any idea what's happening in Konoha?" A bold female voice rang through the forest.
Danzo and the others turned toward the sound.
A blonde ninja with a giant folding fan slung over her shoulder sat on a tree branch, her blue eyes looking down at the Grass Village group. Her Sand Village headband glinted in the light.
"It's Sand—" a Grass ninja began.
"Pfft, big deal!" another scoffed. Though Grass Village knew they were outclassed by the major nations, their young genin brimmed with unwarranted confidence. Even some village elders dismissed the great nations, dreaming of uniting the ninja world with legendary artifacts.
The Grass ninja were a bit clueless. To avoid exposure, Orochimaru and Danzo subtly shielded the group, prioritizing their hidden identities for now.
Karin, sensing danger, shrank back into the crowd. Spotting the two "female ninja" hiding, she eagerly joined them. The weak stick together to survive!
Temari frowned down at the Grass ninja, their defiant murmurs annoying her. Clearly, they knew as little about the gray light as she did.
Whoosh, whoosh! The sound of rustling leaves announced the arrival of Sand's main force.
"Temari, what's going on?" A ninja in a black combat outfit with a khaki jounin vest leapt to her side. White cloth wrapped his head, covering his left face, with two red marks on his right. It was Maki, Sand's lead jounin for the mission.
Behind him came a red-haired boy with a sand gourd and an "ai" tattoo on his forehead—Gaara, radiating menace—followed by Kankuro, his face painted and a puppet strapped to his back, leading the other Sand genin.
The Grass ninja, cowed by Sand's aggressive arrival, fell silent.
"They probably don't know what that gray light is either," Temari said, pointing at the distant glow, her eyes subtly meeting Maki's.
As a conspirator in the "Konoha Crush Plan," she felt uneasy. Releasing the One-Tail to wreak havoc in Konoha, then launching a frontal assault, seemed recklessly simplistic.
She didn't know the full plan, assuming her father had deeper strategies. But with this sudden upheaval in Konoha, the plan's success was now in question. She glanced at Gaara's cold expression, her gaze softening with worry. If the plan could be canceled, her brother wouldn't have to face Konoha's dangers.
Maki shook his head, staring at the gray light. "We can't rush into that light. We'll wait until it fades, then check Konoha. If—"
With Grass ninja present, he didn't finish his sentence.
He knew how flimsy the Konoha attack plan was. If that gray light had destroyed Konoha, it could be a massive boon for Sand.
The Sand ninja stood on the treetops, gazing toward the light, ignoring the Grass ninja below. Their lead Grass jounin quietly wiped sweat from his brow.
As a minor village ninja, he only matched major village ninja in chakra reserves—every other skill fell short. He knew from experience.
Eight years ago, as a cocky genin prodigy, he'd come to Konoha for the Chunin Exams. A no-name Konoha ninja crushed him instantly. He thought the guy was a hidden genius until he saw that ninja get obliterated by kekkei genkai and secret-technique users. The world was vast.
The forest fell quiet, dozens of ninja from different villages craning their necks, some anxious, some hopeful, all staring toward Konoha.