Being a rogue ninja is worse than being Hokage.

And this despair, as previously stated, exists in two forms.

"Our attempt to break through the enemy's encirclement has failed! Everyone... everyone is being forced to retreat and move towards this place, which is the center of the battlefield!"

Since they cannot escape the battle, they have no choice but to concentrate their forces and fight back.

Can the Allied Shinobi Forces' all-out attack really bring about change?

The fearful ninjas looked at the Five Kage who were still fighting. For the first time since the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, founded the village and established the "Kage" system decades ago, the Five Kage, who stood at the pinnacle of all ninjas, put aside their past grudges and joined forces to fight together.

However, the result was not satisfactory.

If Naruto Uzumaki represents the despair of the Allied Shinobi Forces on the edge of the battlefield.

Sasuke Uchiha, who single-handedly fought against the Five Kage and the Allied Shinobi Forces in the center of the battlefield, represented another source of despair for the Allied Shinobi Forces.

Uchiha Sasuke—he now stands atop the head of that terrifying humanoid summoning beast, looking down upon the Five Kage with absolute power.

Even after fighting Uchiha Sasuke for so long, the Five Kage couldn't remove him from the top of the Gedo Mazo!

As the Allied Shinobi Forces suffered repeated defeats, Sasuke Uchiha became so preoccupied with the Five Kage that he stopped paying attention to them altogether.

His heterochromatic eyes, formed by the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan and the Rinnegan, one red and one purple, keenly sensed the abnormality around him.

It was a yellow figure that appeared instantly beside Uchiha Sasuke using the space-time ninjutsu Flying Thunder God Technique.

He was the only one allowed by Sasuke Uchiha to stand shoulder to shoulder with him, and he was also the other ninja in the Allied Shinobi Forces' despair—Naruto Uzumaki!

Naruto's sudden appearance plunged the entire Allied Shinobi Forces into a deathly silence.

Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki, who were previously on opposite sides of the battlefield and were unable to deal with the Allied Forces, are now together, and the already slim chance of victory has been completely wiped out.

Sasuke ignored the changing mindset of the Allied Shinobi Forces and simply asked Naruto, who had appeared beside him, "Are the Allied Shinobi Forces already within the range of the jutsu?"

"No problem, let's use Earth Explosion Star."

Naruto replied.

He stared at Sasuke's purple Rinnegan, while Naruto's own eyes, which had been transplanted from Uchiha Shisui, had now transformed from three-tomoe Sharingan into four-cornered shuriken-shaped Mangekyou Sharingan.

"The war is over."

Facing the assembled Allied Shinobi Forces, Naruto declared his intention to end the war.

He leaped down from the top of the Gedo Mazo towards the location of the Five Kage. Sasuke, who had been on top of the Gedo Mazo since he summoned it, finally left the Gedo Mazo and followed closely behind Naruto.

Sasuke focused his eye power into his Rinnegan, condensing a highly compressed black sphere of chakra in his hand, and then threw it toward the Gedo Mazo!

An astonishing scene unfolded before the eyes of the Allied Shinobi Forces: the enormous size of the Gedo Mazo was being drawn in by the black sphere, which absorbed it. The rocks on the ground also defied gravity, enveloping the Gedo Mazo, which was being drawn in by the black sphere, into a giant rock sphere!

And so it hung high in the air above the battlefield!

That was Sasuke's Planetary Devastation, powered by the Rinnegan!

In the distant past, the Sage of Six Paths created the moon using the Six Paths: Chibaku Tensei.

Although Sasuke did not use Six Paths: Planetary Devastation, it was still sufficient for his needs.

He and Naruto did not intend to create a real moon, but only a pseudo-moon that could illuminate the entire battlefield like a real moon.

The chakra of the six and a half tailed beasts inside the Gedo Mazo overflowed as the false moon was formed by Chibaku Tensei.

Although it is a pseudo-moon, it has achieved the same effect as the moon.

The next moment, the bright false moon suddenly turned dark red, and that ominous red light was the Mangekyou Sharingan with the four shuriken eye patterns reflected on the false moon.

That Mangekyou Sharingan originated from Uchiha Shisui, the complete Kotoamatsukami!

Its name is—

—Limited Tsukuyomi: Kotoamatsukami.

……

Chapter 97 The Final Mission (Part 1) [Interlude: Sakura's Arc]

Inside Konoha Hospital, the smell of disinfectant mixed with the stench of blood filled the air.

Sakura Haruno took off her blood-stained medical gloves and casually wiped the sweat from her forehead.

She had just used her palm magic to stabilize the condition of a seriously injured person.

"Next wounded soldier," Sakura called out towards the door, her voice hoarse.

She has lost count of how many patients she has treated. At first, she consciously tried to count, but as the number of patients approached a numbing figure, she stopped paying attention to their suffering and mechanically treated one patient after another who was wheeled into the emergency room.

The brief exchange of patients in the emergency room was the only time Sakura could rest.

She swallowed the soldier's ration pills to regain her strength, then closed her eyes, indulging in a few seconds of mental blankness.

When the emergency room door was pushed open, Xiao reopened her eyes, and it seemed that those few seconds had truly made her feel refreshed again.

But instead of a stretcher, it was Nara Shikamaru, dressed in a ninja vest, with a solemn expression, who entered through the door.

"Shikamaru?" Sakura frowned, glancing at the empty space behind Shikamaru before asking, "Where are the wounded?"

"Sakura, we have a mission." Shikamaru didn't answer Sakura's question, but simply stated his purpose: "The acting Hokage wants to see us."

At a time like this?

At a time when Konoha is riddled with wounded and medical resources are in dire need, even able-bodied ninjas are joining the rescue efforts?

A bad feeling suddenly filled Sakura's heart.

She paused for a moment before continuing, "I understand."

Sakura followed Shikamaru out of the hospital, passing through the devastated streets of Konoha. The collapsed houses and charred trees silently testified to the disaster.

Sakura's fists clenched involuntarily—all of this was caused by Naruto and Sasuke.

The faces of the Hokage of each generation on the Hokage Rock are now severely damaged, and the temporary Hokage office is set up below the rock face.

"I brought Sakura with me."

Shikamaru and Sakura entered the Hokage's office one after the other.

Nara Shikaku, who was appointed acting Hokage in a time of crisis, stood in front of a simple desk, with Yamanaka Ino beside him, her expression complex.

"Sakura Haruno reporting for duty. Mr. Shikaku, how did the Five Kage Summit go?"

After Konoha was attacked, Sakura stayed at the hospital to work and had no extra time to learn about what was happening outside the hospital.

But at least she knew about the Five Kage Summit... Konoha was facing an unprecedented crisis. The delicate balance that the five great nations had maintained since the Third Shinobi World War had been broken, and Konoha had to find a new way to rebalance its position with the other great nations.

Judging from Nara Shikaku's current expression, Sakura couldn't guess whether the outcome was good or bad.

"The situation is urgent, so I'll be frank."

Nara Shikaku gestured for the three of them to approach the desk.

On the desk was an unfolded map of the ninja world. Shikamaru, Ino, and Sakura all focused their attention on a prominently marked spot on the map, where they heard Nara Shikaku explain the results of the Five Kage Summit.

"Naruto and Sasuke stormed into the Five Kage Summit and announced the start of the Fourth Shinobi World War."

Although Ino and Shikamaru looked uneasy, they had clearly known something about the situation beforehand and were mentally prepared.

Only Sakura's face showed an expression of disbelief...

"But why are those two doing this—!"

Sakura instinctively questioned Nara Shikaku.

She wanted to know why Sasuke and Naruto did this. Konoha had already paid the price for causing them so much pain, so why did they have to go to such lengths to become enemies of the entire ninja world?

"Sakura, calm down."

Ino reached out and put her hand on Sakura's shoulder, gently comforting her.

"I just... don't understand what they're doing."

Sakura said that she seemed to have never understood Sasuke and Naruto's thoughts.

In fact, Sakura Haruno is a very intelligent girl, and her intelligence is recorded as one of her characteristics in her own ninja file.

But when facing Sasuke and Naruto, she always becomes helpless, and the characteristics she has always been proud of are never able to be used.

"This is a summary of the Five-Image Conference."

Shikamaru timely handed Sakura the information scroll. When everyone was swayed by emotions, Shikamaru was always the calmest and made the best choices.

The scroll he handed to Sakura contained a detailed record of everything that happened at the Five Kage Summit, enough to answer Sakura's questions and allow her to adjust her emotions without being disturbed.

Sakura, trembling slightly, took the scroll and began to read it.

The scroll contains details of Sasuke and Naruto's intrusion into the Five Kage Summit, and how, after the two defeated the Five Kage and revealed that they possessed even greater power, the Five Kage made a decision that would change the future of the ninja world—facing a greater threat, the five great nations formed the Allied Shinobi Forces with little resistance...

"Kumakuya discovered their tracks at the Mountain Tomb." Nara Shikaku pointed to the mark on the map that the three of them had noticed. "Before the Allied Forces assemble, the five great nations will send assassination squads. Konoha will send the three of you to form a special mission team."

At this point, Nara Shikaku hesitated for a moment, briefly abandoning his official demeanor as acting Hokage, and revealed a hint of apology to the three, saying, "I'm sorry, Konoha can't find a better team right now."

Shikamaru, who had been staring intently at the location of the mountain grave on the map, suddenly spoke up: "But isn't this a bit strange? Naruto is always good at hiding his tracks, yet after he and Sasuke declared war on the ninja world, at such a crucial moment before the war, his hiding place was found by the Hidden Cloud Village..."

"This is very likely a trap." This was Shikamaru's deductive conclusion.

“I know, but even knowing it’s a trap, we have to go,” Nara Shikaku explained. “Their threat has exceeded the limits of tolerance. The Kumogakure ANBU will move at dawn tomorrow, the Iwagakure demolition squad is on its way, and the Sunagakure and Kirigakure will also be taking action.”

Ino gently held Sakura's trembling hand and said, "Konoha's sensory ninjas have also confirmed that there is indeed a powerful chakra reaction there."

"In other words, even if this is Naruto's trap, it is at least where he and Sasuke were hiding... and it is worth trying to eliminate."

Shikamaru picked up the second half of the sentence that Ino was unwilling to say to Sakura.

Then Shikamaru spoke up again:

“Sakura, you don’t have to go on this mission. As Tsunade’s disciple, your medical skills are irreplaceable for Konoha now… and even for the five great nations that form the coalition.”

When Shikamaru hinted that he hoped she would give up the mission, Sakura simply looked up at the dilapidated Hokage Rock outside the window.

Three years ago, Naruto said he wanted to become Hokage, but he not only brought pain to Konoha, but now he and Sasuke have become public enemies of the ninja world.

Life's unpredictability left her helpless; Sakura took a deep breath...

“I accept the mission,” she finally said, her voice calmer than expected.

Nara Shikaku nodded: "Shikamaru will lead this mission. You have one hour to prepare for the mission, and then we will officially begin the mission!"

As they walked out of the office, the setting sun cast long shadows of the three of them.