At this point, some of the utterly despairing civilians had simply given up on running.
The tsunami was over two hundred meters high, and it had already surged inland—its height reduced by only a few dozen meters at most.
At this rate, even if the entire Kazama City were swallowed, the wave wouldn't diminish much at all.
Most of the people living here were ordinary civilians without chakra. No matter how fast they ran, they could never outrun a wall of water like this.
So rather than waste what little strength they had left, many simply sat down on the ground and waited for death.
Only a small number knelt in prayer, desperately hoping that someone—anyone—would come to save them.
Ironically, most of them were praying for the Hokage to appear, descending from the heavens to rescue Kazama City.
What they didn't know was that the current Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was already overwhelmed and barely holding things together himself. He had no time—nor the capacity—to come here.
Even if Hiruzen did arrive, whether his strength would be enough to contend with such a catastrophic tsunami was questionable at best.
Compared to Arata, Hiruzen's perception and speed were far inferior. Saving civilians along more than ten kilometers of coastline was simply impossible for him.
Even with a large number of ANBU under his command, this wasn't a situation where numbers mattered. Their speed was nowhere near Arata's, and it was entirely possible that before they even arrived, the areas meant to be rescued would already be underwater.
As for the ninja squad stationed in Kazama City—
They had long since scattered in the face of disaster.
Being assigned to such a prosperous coastal city meant those ninja were all direct subordinates of the Hokage. And Sarutobi Hiruzen had always been notoriously lax in managing his men.
Otherwise, figures like Danzō—or privileged second-generation elites like Sarutobi Shinnosuke—would never have risen as they did.
The moment those ninja saw the monstrous tsunami approaching, any thought of protecting civilians vanished. As "honored ninja," their own lives clearly mattered more.
Besides, even the strongest among them was only a jōnin. Against a disaster of this magnitude, simply surviving was already uncertain—rescue was out of the question.
As the civilians of Kazama City watched the stationed jōnin lead over a dozen ninja away, murmurs immediately spread through the crowd.
"Hey… wasn't that Sarutobi Kōji? Why is he leaving with the squad?"
"What do you expect? He's one of the Hokage's direct subordinates. Of course saving himself comes first."
"Hah… we're just civilians. To those great ninja, we're nothing more than ants."
"Honestly… aside from Hashirama-sama, has there ever really been anyone who truly cared about the common people?"
"I heard the recently rising Arata-sama is different—he even dared to stand against the Hokage for civilians."
"What a pity… Arata-sama doesn't seem to be nearby. Even if he wanted to help, it's probably too late…"
"This tsunami… how could something like this even form? Did the Land of Fire anger the sea god or something?!"
...
Having already abandoned all hope of escape, the only things left for them were to curse the Hokage in quiet bitterness—or pray for a miracle.
Then—
Just as despair reached its peak, a ripple distorted the sky above.
Space itself twisted violently.
And a tall figure emerged.
Among the civilians below, a few well-informed people who closely followed current events instantly recognized him.
"Look! That's Arata-sama!"
"He's covered in lightning—there's no mistake! It's Arata-sama!"
"Thank goodness! Arata-sama heard my prayers—he's here to save us!"
Arata glanced down at the crowd below. Then, counting quickly through his enhanced perception, he let out a quiet sigh of relief.
He had arrived just in time.
Kazama City had a population of a little over ten thousand. At present, more than nine thousand nine hundred were still alive—meaning no more than a hundred had perished.
That number might not sound large, but peace in the shinobi world had only lasted a short time. The Warring States Period had ended less than thirty years ago.
Civilian populations hadn't had much time to recover. Even after the establishment of nations, conflicts between countries never truly stopped.
A city's population now was nowhere near what it would be in the peaceful era after the Third Great Shinobi War—let alone comparable to the world Arata came from in his previous life.
And along the eastern edge of the Land of Fire, Kazama City was the closest settlement to the sea.
It was inevitably the first area to be hit.
Other villages and towns were farther inland. Some of them might not have been touched by the waves yet—there was still time to save them.
Arata had been hovering in the air with his back to the civilians. As he turned around, his face came fully into view.
Among the kneeling crowd, some young girls couldn't help but feel their hearts stir at the sight of his striking appearance.
Arata, however, had no time to care about such things.
Descending into the crowd, he spoke immediately:
"Everyone, stay calm. I'm going to transfer you to a safe place. Once you're there, do not move around."
He wasn't joking.
The Nine-Tails was still inside the Kamui dimension. If these people started screaming and panicking inside, and accidentally woke it up…
A single tantrum from that ill-tempered beast could wipe them all out.
Of course, Arata had safeguards in place. He wasn't about to let civilians and the Nine-Tails interact freely without restrictions.
The moment he spoke, the crowd erupted into murmurs.
Only a small number of people had truly believed Arata would come to save them.
After all, shinobi of Arata's caliber were practically gods in their eyes—figures who usually couldn't care less about civilian lives.
Yet today, Arata was different.
He had come for them.
Braving a catastrophic tsunami just to save people who were, in the grand scheme of things, utterly insignificant.
That single act alone won him the hearts of everyone in Kazama City.
Unfortunately, as a border city, Kazama City had no right to participate in Hokage elections.
Otherwise, every single vote would have gone to Arata without hesitation.
Seeing the crowd grow restless, Arata knew he couldn't waste any more time. He still had other towns to reach.
Without hesitation, he activated Kamui.
This time, he used it at full power.
The entire city of Kazama was enveloped.
Whether someone was wandering the streets or hiding at home waiting for death—it made no difference. Everyone was pulled into the range of Kamui.
Compared to Obito—who could at most teleport something as large as the Nine-Tails—Arata had enveloped an entire city.
If he wished, he could crush all of them to death with spatial distortion alone.
As the entire city was swallowed by the eerie twisting of space, panic spread again. Some people even tried to flee the area.
But against a space–time ninjutsu of this level, resistance was meaningless—especially for ordinary civilians.
In an instant, nearly ten thousand people were completely immobilized.
Then—
Darkness swallowed their vision.
And in the blink of an eye, they found themselves in a dimly lit world unlike anything they had ever seen.
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