Kirigakure retreated.
Yagura and his group had suffered devastating losses, and their condition had fallen to rock bottom. They were no longer a match for Konohagakure's forces.
All they could do was fight while withdrawing, struggling toward the coastline through the howling winds and torrential rain.
Once they realized that something catastrophic had happened to their temporary headquarters, Kirigakure's scattered detachments in the surrounding area began rushing back one after another.
But as they arrived, Konoha's reinforcements converged from every direction almost simultaneously.
By then, however, the balance of power had already been completely reversed by the destruction of Rinkai City and the death of the Three-Tails jinchūriki.
The first to return were the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, led by Suikazan Fuguki.
Though unwilling to accept defeat and eager to continue fighting, he could see that Konoha's momentum was at its peak, while Kirigakure's forces—especially those who had been stationed at the headquarters—had completely lost their fighting spirit.
Grinding his teeth, he could only order a full retreat, directing his men to cover Yagura's withdrawal toward the coast.
Fortunately, a typhoon was still sweeping through the region. Torrential rain poured from the sky, and the weather had become unimaginably harsh.
Konoha's shinobi struggled to adapt to such extreme conditions.
Kirigakure's, on the other hand—raised amid wind, rain, and crashing waves—were far more at home in this environment. It was especially well suited for unleashing Water Release techniques.
The irony was hard to miss.
It had been this very typhoon that allowed Higashino Shinichi to borrow the might of heaven itself, annihilating Kirigakure's temporary headquarters and leaving three thousand comrades dead or wounded.
And now...
That same typhoon had become the final barrier shielding their battered survivors as they escaped.
Heaven was impartial. It showed favor to neither side.
Originally, Konoha had repeatedly attempted to seize the Three-Tails jinchūriki's corpse.
But Kirigakure—Yagura above all—fought desperately to stop them, forcing every attempt back through sheer determination.
The two armies clashed all the way from the ruins of Rinkai City to the coastline.
Towering waves crashed ashore as sheets of rain lashed the battlefield. The roar of ninjutsu and the clash of steel were torn apart by the howling wind, while the blood of both sides stained the road a deep crimson.
Only when part of Kirigakure's reinforcements stationed in the Land of Waves arrived and jointly cast a massive Hiding in Mist Technique, swallowing the entire shoreline and nearby waters in dense mist, did Kirigakure finally manage to break away from the battle.
What they left behind, however, was a shoreline littered with corpses.
Blood dyed the sand and reefs crimson, only to be washed away again and again by the raging wind and pounding surf until not a trace remained.
A short while later...
The ruins of Rinkai City.
The rain still fell in torrents, but the wind had noticeably weakened.
Standing atop one of the few elevated platforms still mostly intact, Shinichi slowly surveyed the city that had been reduced to rubble.
Minato stood beside him.
Earlier, after only a brief rest in the rear, Shinichi had swallowed several secret medicines—likely concocted by himself—before stubbornly insisting that Minato bring him back.
Unable to change his mind, Minato had no choice but to comply.
"Shinichi," Minato said gently, his gaze following the boy's across the ruined city. Thinking he was grieving over Rinkai City, he carefully chose his words. "A city can always be rebuilt. Once the Daimyō learns what happened here, I'm sure he'll understand. This wasn't your fault. It's simply the price of war."
Shinichi slowly shook his head.
"Minato-senpai... that's not what I'm thinking about."
"What I'm thinking is..."
He suddenly raised his right hand, bit his thumb, and performed the Summoning Technique.
A massive cloud of white smoke exploded amid the pouring rain.
From within it emerged an enormous slug over thirty meters tall, its translucent body gleaming even beneath the storm.
"Why, it's Shinichi-chan."
The slug lowered her head, her soft voice carrying its usual warmth.
"Is something the matter?"
As she spoke, she slowly turned her enormous body and looked around.
There were no enemies left.
Konoha's wounded had already been properly cared for.
She couldn't help feeling puzzled.
There didn't seem to be anything here that required her assistance.
But Shinichi's next words completely caught her off guard.
"Katsuyu-neesan, there are still quite a few Kirigakure shinobi alive beneath these ruins. Could you please treat them and do your best to save as many as possible?"
The strike Shinichi had unleashed by harnessing the power of the typhoon had indeed been devastating, destroying the entire city in a single blow.
But much like the future Shinra Tensei, the wider the area of effect, the less concentrated its destructive power became at any single point.
Aside from those at the center of the impact and the surrounding area—who had died almost instantly—a considerable number of Kirigakure shinobi had merely been knocked unconscious by the shockwave or buried beneath collapsing buildings.
Now they lay trapped beneath layers of rubble.
Some unconscious.
Some gravely wounded.
Some too weak to struggle.
There were only a few possible fates awaiting them.
They could slowly die beneath the cold ruins.
They could be discovered later by Konoha shinobi and finished off.
Or they could end up on an operating table as research specimens.
Even the luckiest among them would merely be imprisoned in Konoha, subjected to repeated interrogations while waiting in a windowless cell for the slim chance of someday being exchanged in a prisoner swap.
But cases like that were exceedingly rare.
Without a prisoner exchange, death remained their most likely end.
Katsuyu froze for a moment.
She lowered her soft antennae and carefully looked at Shinichi.
After confirming that he wasn't joking...
"I understand," she replied crisply.
The instant her words fell, her enormous body split into countless palm-sized slugs.
Like a living white tide, they spread across the ruins in every direction, slipping through cracks in the stone and piles of broken masonry in search of every faint trace of life.
"Minato-senpai..."
Shinichi asked with a faint smile, "Aren't you going to ask why I'm doing this?"
Minato withdrew his gaze from the countless little Katsuyu and gently shook his head.
"I believe you have your reasons, Shinichi."
"Heh."
Shinichi chuckled softly.
Then he stepped forward, walking across the waterlogged rubble.
Minato followed beside him as the two continued through the ruins shoulder to shoulder.
"A few months ago, Jiraiya-senpai asked me a question—"
As they walked, Shinichi spoke in an even tone.
"How can we create a peaceful world where people truly understand one another and war no longer exists?"
"At the time, I didn't answer him directly. Instead, I asked everyone present a question of my own..."
"What is the true nature of a shinobi?"
Minato's footsteps faltered for a moment.
His brows knit together as he fell into thought.
Before he could arrive at an answer, Shinichi spoke again.
"A tool for killing."
"That was my answer."
"A shinobi is a tool for killing."
Minato's lips parted slightly.
In the end, he simply nodded in silence.
"But I believe..."
"Even if shinobi are fated to kill, we must never abandon the last shred of compassion we possess."
Shinichi came to a stop, quietly watching the tiny Katsuyu clones moving busily through the ruins before continuing.
"On the battlefield and during missions, shinobi fight for their respective villages, risking their lives until one side falls. That's the duty both sides have accepted."
"But once we strip away that shell called 'shinobi,' we're all simply people."
"Whether they're from Kirigakure or Konohagakure, those lying beneath the rubble and those standing above it are no different at their core."
"Once victory has been decided and the fighting has stopped, treating wounded enemies isn't so much about saving the enemy..."
"...as it is about saving ourselves."
"Saving the last trace of humanity that still remains within us after endless killing."
"And it's that final shred of humanity..."
"...that keeps us from becoming nothing more than tools made solely for slaughter."
With that, Shinichi continued forward until he stopped before a collapsed, slanting wall.
He raised one hand.
Countless gentle currents of wind poured from his palm, like countless invisible hands, carefully lifting away layer after layer of broken stone, shattered beams, and warped wooden planks.
As the ruins were gradually peeled away, a corner hidden beneath them slowly came into view.
A young girl lay there.
She wore a long blue robe, and her reddish-brown hair fell in long crisscrossing curls.
She was sprawled face-down in the muddy water, most of her body pinned beneath a collapsed stone slab.
Her youthful face was smeared with mud and streaked with blood.
Her lips were pale.
Her eyes were tightly shut.
She looked no older than eleven.
"Besides, Minato-senpai..."
Shinichi turned toward Minato and continued, "Killing was never meant to be our destiny as shinobi."
...
'Am I... going to die?'
Feeling her body growing colder by the second, the girl's consciousness became increasingly hazy.
The darkness before her eyes deepened as she silently wondered.
By now, every sound around her had disappeared.
All that remained was a distant, endless ringing in her ears, as though the entire world were drifting farther and farther away.
The girl's name was Terumī Mei.
She had turned eleven less than two months ago, yet she had already been promoted to chūnin several years earlier and was widely recognized throughout Kirigakure as one of its brightest young prodigies.
Despite her young age, she had already mastered Fire, Lightning, Earth, and Water Release.
Many of the village's senior shinobi had even remarked that she would one day become a true master of all four.
Although she was still a child, the prolonged stalemate on the battlefield and Kirigakure's growing manpower shortage had led to the young prodigy being drafted into the war just over a month earlier.
Fortunately, she had never been assigned to frontline combat.
Her duties were limited to logistics and escort missions, so she shouldn't have been anywhere near Rinkai City.
But fate had other plans.
After Kirigakure captured the city, Mei arrived as part of the first logistics convoy delivering supplies.
The very next day, sensing that something was wrong, Commander Yagura immediately ordered all logistical transport operations suspended to prevent Konoha from tracing their supply routes back to Kirigakure's logistical headquarters.
As a result, Mei and the rest of the first convoy were temporarily forbidden from leaving Rinkai City.
They were to remain there until the situation stabilized before returning with the next transport team.
Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that only a few days later...
Such a catastrophe would descend upon them.
Even now, Mei still had no idea what had happened.
The last thing she remembered was seeing a streak of azure light flash across the horizon.
Then—
A deafening explosion swallowed everything.
After that...
There had only been darkness.
And the suffocating sensation of cold rubble and shattered beams slowly burying her alive.
Now her eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
Her consciousness slipped away bit by bit, as though the next moment she would sink forever into a darkness from which she would never awaken.
Then...
She vaguely heard a faint sound.
A moment later, something soft and slippery pressed gently against her body.
Warm, soothing energy slowly seeped into her through the point of contact.
'Is... is someone from the village here to save me?'
Feeling that warmth gradually flowing into her body, Mei drowsily wondered.
A little strength slowly returned to her limbs.
Little by little, feeling returned to her body.
Before she could think any further, however, the rubble pinning her down slowly began to rise.
Light pierced through the widening gaps, shining across her mud-stained face.
One slab after another was lifted away.
Then a clear, youthful voice came from above her.
"Besides... killing was never meant to be our destiny as shinobi!"
Mei struggled to force her eyelids open and looked weakly toward the source of the voice.
Her vision wavered several times through the curtain of rain before finally coming into focus.
A tall, slender figure stood before her, turning to say something to the person beside him.
The rain blurred his outline.
She could only make out black hair...
And an exceptionally calm pair of eyes.
'He's... really handsome...'
The thought drifted into her mind on its own.
Then the rain thinned slightly.
Her vision finally cleared.
Mei saw his face.
Her heart seized.
The blood in her body seemed to freeze in an instant.
"H-H-H-Higashino Shinichi!!!"
Her eyes rolled back.
She promptly fainted.
...It's her?
Recognizing the girl's familiar attire and unmistakable hairstyle, Shinichi raised an eyebrow in genuine surprise.
He had never expected that the woman destined to become the Fifth Mizukage in the original timeline...
...would appear here of all places.
Terumī Mei—
The gifted young kunoichi who, in another timeline, should have grown up safely, awakened two Kekkei Genkai, and ultimately ascended to the position of Mizukage.
If Shinichi hadn't decided on a whim to rescue the wounded Kirigakure shinobi buried beneath the ruins...
She likely would have been silently entombed beneath this forgotten city, never to be found.
Still...
This was an unexpected stroke of luck.
For the vast, long-term plan taking shape in Shinichi's mind, a future Mizukage was a remarkably valuable piece on the board.
Of course, it was far too early to think about that.
But now that the seed had fallen into his hands, there was no reason not to plant it.
Suppressing those thoughts for the moment, he stepped forward and knelt beside her.
A gentle green glow of chakra illuminated his palm as he laid it over her wounds.
After giving her some basic treatment, he took several pills from his pouch and fed them to her.
Only after her breathing gradually became steadier did he look up at the young medical shinobi who had already hurried over and stood waiting for orders.
"Ryōkage, she's yours. Take her away and treat her injuries properly."
"Yes, Captain Shinichi!"
The young medic responded immediately.
He had served under Shinichi as a medical shinobi ever since the Southwestern Front. Later, he had followed him through countless life-and-death battles as part of Shinichi's battalion on the Northeastern Front, making him one of Shinichi's longtime subordinates.
Although he couldn't help wondering why they were saving an enemy, he asked no questions.
An order from his captain was enough.
He immediately set to work.
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---