The Adventurous Gamer Ninja - Daichi Hekima [Vol. 02]

Chapter 394 - The New Quest and a Way Forward.

The Land of Earth – Northern Mountain Corridor

The skies above the rocky plateaus of the Hidden Stone Village churned violently, painted in eerie shades of black. Lightning bolts crackled through the thick clouds and illuminated the shadowed landscape in brief, stark flashes. Under the clouds several figures moved through the rugged terrain.

A group of sensor ninjas suddenly stopped in their tracks. Their leader, a seasoned Jonin named Takeshi, knelt and placed his palms against the vibrating earth. He closed his eyes, chakra flowing through the soil, reading the vibrations.

"What do you sense?" a Chunin named Asahi, asked urgently.

Takeshi's eyes snapped open with concern etched deeply into his face. "A massive chakra spike. More powerful than I've felt in years. Possibly... on the level of the tailed beasts."

Asahi exchanged wary glances with his teammates. "What? Are you sure?"

Before Takeshi could reply, a blinding flash filled the horizon. A pillar of pure lightning surged toward the heavens, piercing the heavy clouds and scattering sparks of electricity across the dark sky. The ground beneath their feet trembled violently and forced the ninjas to brace themselves against nearby rock formations.

"What in the hell was that?" shouted Asahi over the roaring thunderclaps.

"Send a flare—call for immediate backup," Takeshi ordered sharply, his voice thick with urgency. "Tell Lord Tsuchikage we need reinforcements right away."

The Chunin swiftly fired a flare that soared into the sky. It ignited brightly against the dark canvas above them, sending immediate danger signals to the rest of the village's scouting units.

—-

As the Hidden Stone ninjas reached the epicenter of the lightning blast, they stopped abruptly, momentarily rendered speechless by the horrifying sight before them.

"My god..." Takeshi murmured, eyes wide in disbelief.

Ahead, dawn's first rays washed over a sight that left even hardened Stone shinobi silent.

Where once had stood a minor spur of hills now were nothing more than a circular scar nearly half a kilometer wide. The solid terrain had been utterly obliterated, reduced to nothing but a massive smoking crater. The entire area looked as though a giant had punched a hole through the very earth itself, leaving a gaping abyss filled with scorched and charred rock.

A thin veil of smoke and vapor lingered above the blackened ground, still sparking with residual electrical energy. Deep fissures radiated outward from the crater and send stone and rubble in every direction.

"Fan out. Five-meter spread." Came the order from captain Takeshi.

'This whole land is completely destroyed.' thought another Chunin from the Hidden Stone as she pressed her fingertips against the ground. Even through her gloves she sensed heat pockets beneath the crust, like embers smoldering under ash.

She began running a chakra wave through the soil. "Sir... this whole valley is magnetized. Igneous content at several locations vitrified into obsidian. The temperature must have topped twelve-hundred Celsius here."

Takeshi carefully approached the edge, peering down into the void. "Impossible..." he breathed out, heart racing. "This kind of damage... It's even greater than the Four-Tails' Lava jutsu or Five-Tails' Steam techniques. What on earth could cause such destruction?"

One chūnin swallowed hard. "Maybe... Doesn't this look exactly like the after-math of a Tailed Beast Bomb."

Takeshi's eyes narrowed. "No. There's no lingering trace of Tailed Beast chakra here. But there is residue that bears high lightning polarity. Tailed-beast bombs completely erase everything without giving off any chakra natures. This is different. Something else did this—something we've never catalogued."