The two jinchūriki in particular were utterly shocked. As jinchūriki themselves, they naturally understood the full destructive power a Tailed Beast could unleash. At maximum output, a Tailed Beast could devastate an area with a radius of around ten kilometers.
But that kind of devastation only meant wiping out everything within that radius—at most turning the land into a barren wasteland.
If one wanted to sink a stretch of the shinobi continent over ten kilometers wide beneath the sea, then the battlefield itself would likely have to be blasted down by several hundred meters in elevation!
That was something even they, as jinchūriki, could not accomplish at full power. Even in full Tailed Beast transformation, it was still impossible.
If even two Kage-level jinchūriki couldn't do it, then the elite jōnin and the higher-ups present—most only at jōnin level—had even less chance. They had never seen a shinobi capable of such a feat.
However, a small number of people over thirty suddenly showed looks of horror. They had witnessed something similar before.
More precisely, they hadn't necessarily seen it firsthand, but they had seen or heard of the ruins left behind by that earth-shattering battle.
The Four-Tails jinchūriki Rōshi and the Five-Tails jinchūriki Han were both strong, but they were still young—only eighteen or nineteen. They had merely heard of that legendary battle and had mostly forgotten it by now.
Only those who had truly lived in that era could understand how far-reaching its impact had been.
Take Konoha alone—if not for that battle, the man who once stood at the pinnacle of the shinobi world would not have been gravely wounded, rarely fought afterward, and died only a few years later. Other nations might never have had the chance to rise.
As for the other participant in that battle—the monster feared by the entire shinobi world—he vanished completely afterward, giving all nations room to breathe.
That's right. The battle everyone was thinking of was the Battle at the Valley of the End, and the two men were naturally Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama.
Their clash had brought unimaginable destruction to the entire shinobi continent.
The once-prosperous northern region of the Land of Fire even lost a town. The terrain there sank hundreds of meters, forming the Valley of the End and its towering waterfall.
It was said that area had originally been endless forest and flat land. Just their battle alone reshaped it into that terrifying landscape—proof their strength had already surpassed what most people could even imagine.
It was sheer luck the fight hadn't broken out by the sea. Otherwise, the Land of Fire might have lost a huge portion of territory to the ocean.
Even though the land didn't sink, it was now only a scenic ruin. Fertile soil once fit for towns and agriculture had become uninhabitable wasteland.
And now, if the battle between Arata and that mysterious figure could sink over ten kilometers of the shinobi continent within the Land of Fire beneath the sea, then their clash was undoubtedly on par with the Valley of the End!
After a long moment of shock, Han spoke first:
"You're saying Arata's strength isn't just early Super-Kage level… but the peak of Super-Kage!?"
Madara and Hashirama had been gone from the world for years. Many had never seen them fight, but every village still had estimates of their power.
In Iwagakure's assessment, both were at the peak of Super-Kage, hailed as the strongest in history aside from the Sage of Six Paths who founded ninshū.
Hearing this, many people swallowed nervously. They had suspected it, but no one dared say it aloud.
The phrase peak Super-Kage alone carried overwhelming pressure.
Especially for Ōnoki, seated at the head. In his youth, he had accompanied the Second Tsuchikage to meet the domineering Uchiha Madara. The helplessness he felt then had shaken his entire ninja way, turning him from a hot-blooded shinobi into a scheming politician.
He had lost the boldness and responsibility expected of a Tsuchikage.
Now, hearing Han's words, fear once again crept over Ōnoki's face. Memories of Madara resurfaced.
That nightmare of a man had taught him that the gap between people sometimes couldn't be bridged by effort. In front of such monsters, his strength and talent were nothing—like a clown's.
That was why, after receiving detailed intelligence, he had immediately convened this meeting. The appearance of a peak Super-Kage monster, if mishandled, could put the Land of Earth at a permanent disadvantage.
If war with the Land of Fire continued, they might inevitably face Arata—a monster possibly at peak Super-Kage level. Just the thought killed any will to resist.
The countermeasure Ōnoki wanted to propose was extreme:
Withdraw entirely and retreat back to the Land of Earth, abandoning their current advantage.
Such a bold—and humiliating—decision would never be accepted easily. That was why he had to reveal all intelligence so everyone understood what they might face.
At first, even Ōnoki couldn't believe it. Arata was only 19. Madara and Hashirama had likely been over 30 when they reached their peak.
That meant Arata's talent surpassed even those two. His future achievements might exceed theirs.
It was hard to accept—but facts were facts.
Fujisaki was the village's most steady and reliable ninja, with an excellent intelligence record. Otherwise he wouldn't have been sent to the Land of Fire. His reports had to be trusted.
Recalling Fujisaki's intel, Ōnoki realized that during Arata's battle, their own battlefield had experienced unusual tremors.
At the time, they assumed it was a normal earthquake—common in the shinobi world. But combined with the new intel, it was clear:
Those weren't earthquakes. They were aftershocks from Arata's battle with the mysterious figure.
Thinking back, the clash between Madara and Hashirama had produced similar aftershocks. Even at the borders of the Land of Earth, strong tremors had been felt.