Kakashi appeared on the screen immediately afterward, still wearing his mask.
He lowered his eyes, and when he spoke, the self-reproach in his voice was deep enough to weigh the air down.
"Fifth Hokage, I am deeply sorry about this... I failed to guide him onto the right path."
Tsunade shook her head at once. Her expression was grim, and when she answered, there was even a trace of open disrespect in her tone.
"What does this have to do with you? Blame the Third Hokage. Blame that old bastard. If it weren't for them..."
She stopped abruptly there.
But the resentment and accusation in those unfinished words had already been made brutally clear to everyone listening beneath the sky.
If it weren't for them... then how could a person capable of destroying the entire ninja world ever have appeared?
Lingering fear and fury were woven into every syllable Tsunade spoke.
Kakashi remained silent at her side.
Tsunade drew in a long breath and forced herself back under control. In the next instant, the decisiveness of a Hokage reappeared in full.
"Notify the ANBU. Recall Team Hawk immediately."
She paused.
Then her eyes sharpened, hard as blades, and she issued an order so shocking that it made the whole ninja world hold its breath.
"And one more thing... convene a Five Kage Summit."
"We will address the crisis of the world's destruction."
"Yes!"
Kakashi accepted the order without hesitation, then vanished at once to carry it out.
That left Tsunade alone in the office.
She walked slowly to the window and looked out over the flourishing village of Konoha. Her voice dropped until it was almost no more than a whisper, yet beneath the strange authority of the sky, every corner of the ninja world still heard it with perfect clarity.
"I only hope... there's still time."
"The fate of the ninja world depends on you now... Team Hawk."
As if to give the world a moment to absorb that devastating revelation, the image on the screen shifted.
Konoha's ANBU were shown mobilizing in urgent waves. Black-clad figures flickered over rooftops one after another, silent and swift, their movements filling the air with a tension so sharp it felt like the edge of a drawn blade.
Yet that brief pause did not calm anyone.
If anything, it made the pressure worse.
A storm was coming, and now the entire world could feel its shadow drawing nearer.
"The ninja world is facing destruction?"
"What is Team Hawk?"
"Did she mean the Third Hokage and the others? What exactly did they do to create a monster capable of ending the world?"
"A Five Kage Summit... my God. Just what kind of enemy could possibly force all five Kage to join hands?"
Speculation spread like a plague.
Fear. Shock. Anger. Suspicion.
Every corner of the ninja world was soon thick with those emotions.
Compared to this looming future catastrophe, even the annihilation of the Uchiha clan began to feel strangely small.
A vaster shadow had descended from the future itself, stretching over the entire world and squeezing at every heart with suffocating force.
***
In the Hokage's office of the present day, Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at the sky in stunned silence.
Tsunade's undisguised accusations echoed in his ears. He stood frozen where he was, so dazed that he did not even notice the pipe in his hand had long since gone out.
"I... I created a monster that will destroy the world?"
He spoke as if asking himself, bewilderment and injustice written all over his face. The absurdity of it was so great that for a moment he almost could not process it at all.
"How could that be? How could I possibly have done something like that?"
He turned the matter over and over in his mind.
Ever since taking office, yes, he had made compromises. He had allowed darkness to exist in places where light could not easily reach. But from beginning to end, his stated purpose had always been the same: the stability and prosperity of Konoha.
The suppression of the Uchiha? That had been to prevent a possible coup.
His tolerance for Danzo? That had been because certain filthy tasks could not be handled openly.
But how had any of that become tangled up with the destruction of the entire ninja world?
The more he thought about it, the more impossible it seemed.
And yet, beneath the impossible, another truth pressed down on him with terrifying weight.
He would never be able to explain it away.
The sky had broadcast this before the whole ninja world. Whether he himself believed it or not no longer mattered. The others would believe it. The Kage of the other great villages would certainly believe it.
And once they did, every bit of blame would fall squarely onto Konoha.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, in that instant, became the target the entire world would point at.
***
Exactly as expected, the other great ninja villages reacted at once.
The revelation of a Five Kage Summit and a world-ending crisis had shaken them, yes, but after the initial shock, they immediately seized on something else with even greater enthusiasm.
This was a perfect chance to attack Konoha.
In the Hidden Cloud, the Fourth Raikage's furious roar nearly blew the roof off the room.
"Damn you, Hiruzen Sarutobi! You created this disaster, and now you're dragging the entire ninja world into it with you!"
His face was twisted with rage. Whether that rage was genuine, political, or both hardly mattered anymore.
"Spread the word immediately! Let the whole ninja world know exactly what kind of scourge Konoha's Third Hokage is!"
In Sunagakure, the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, let out a cold sneer.
"As expected of hypocritical Konoha. Its rot has clearly gone all the way to the core."
He gave orders on the spot for the intelligence department to push one message as hard as possible: that Hiruzen Sarutobi had fostered a world-destroying monster with his own hands.
It was not enough to defend Sunagakure's interests. He also intended to smear Konoha's name as thoroughly as he could.
Over in Iwagakure, Onoki did not hesitate either.
The old Tsuchikage understood opportunities when he saw them.
"Emphasize to the public that the coming crisis stems from Konoha leadership's foolish decisions," he ordered. "Make it clear that Iwagakure is only an innocent bystander that will be dragged into the fire. Every shred of responsibility belongs to Hiruzen Sarutobi and Konoha."
Within moments, the media machines of the ninja world lurched into motion at full force.
Truth no longer mattered.
Not really.
With the future itself serving as supposedly ironclad evidence, and with every village deliberately fanning the flames, the title of "creator of the world destroyer" was on the verge of being nailed permanently to Hiruzen Sarutobi's back.
***
In a narrow alley outside a casino, Tsunade slammed a fist into the wall hard enough to split it with a spiderweb of cracks.
"I knew it," she snapped through clenched teeth. "I knew something huge must have happened. Otherwise, why the hell would I ever go back and become Hokage?"
She was breathing hard now, chest rising and falling violently.
Shizune, still holding Tonton in her arms, looked at her with concern. "Lady Tsunade..."
Tsunade said nothing at first.
She only stared upward at the image in the sky, staring at the future version of herself whose face was etched with weariness and despair so real it made her stomach turn.
That expression did not belong to someone who had merely inherited a troublesome office.
It belonged to someone standing at the edge of catastrophe.
"For me to look like that... and for it to take summoning all Five Kage..."
Her voice dropped, filled with anger and dread.
"Damn old man, just how much mess have you people made this time?"
Then, with a bitterness so sharp it was almost childish, she spat out the thought that truly bothered her most.
"Damn it. Isn't this just ruining my life?"
***
In a small town in the Land of Fire, Jiraiya was no longer smiling.
The playful grin and bloody nose from moments earlier were gone as if they had never existed. In their place was a solemnity so deep it made him seem like a different man altogether.
He looked up at the sky, thoughts turning over at frantic speed.
"A crisis that will destroy the ninja world... the Child of Prophecy..."
In his mind surfaced the words of the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku.
One of his disciples would bring about enormous change. That disciple would become either the hope that saved the world... or the calamity that destroyed everything.
Jiraiya's heart sank.
Could it be one of his students?
Nagato?
Minato?
He shut his eyes for a brief moment, then shook his head hard.
"No. There's still too little information."
When he opened his eyes again, they had turned razor-sharp.
"I need the truth. I need to know exactly who this so-called World Destroyer is... and what connection they have to the Child of Prophecy."
At that moment, Jiraiya understood something very clearly.
Wandering the world and writing books would no longer be enough. If he wanted to keep the future from collapsing into disaster, then he would have to act. He would have to investigate, intervene, and place himself directly into the current of events.
***
Within the mysterious hidden space, Yin An watched the system panel in front of him with obvious satisfaction.
Across that surface, emotional energy surged in pulsing tides.
Shock. Fear. Doubt.
The whole ninja world was providing it for him in abundance.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"The groundwork is done," he murmured. "Now it's time to warm the audience up properly by bringing Team Hawk and this so-called World Destroyer onto the stage one after another."
As soon as the words left his lips, the screen overhead changed again.
The new image that unfolded was a magnificent complex half-buried in snow and ice: the Land of Iron.
Inside a solemn meeting hall, five high-backed chairs stood in an arc, each one carrying the weight of supreme authority.
They represented the summit of power in the ninja world.
And the moment the five future Kage began to appear one after another, their faces displayed with crystal clarity beneath the sky for all the world to see, a fresh wave of uproar and disbelief swept across the land.