Hagoromo, Minato, and the others spent the entire night atop Rashōmon, standing vigil like stone sentinels, observing the situation across the distance.
The explosion caused by detonating the Dragon Vein hadn't occurred just once. Several aftershocks followed, though none were even remotely comparable to the initial blast.
By the next morning, the Konoha group finally decided to approach from the air and conduct a closer reconnaissance—to see what had become of Lōran ( Tsuchigumo clan territory ), and whether the Dragon Vein had truly been destroyed.
At Queen Sāra's earnest request, they brought her along as well.
Why approach by air when faster methods existed?
The answer was simple:
Most of Minato's Flying Thunder God markers had likely been erased in the ultimate explosion. And even if some still existed, he had no desire to teleport directly into the heart of a blast zone.
Minato had absolutely no interest in self-detonation.
Even from that distance, in darkness, with only the naked eye, the sight from the previous night had been horrifying enough. No one could be certain what conditions were like at ground zero.
After a full night passed, once emotions had settled and the explosions had completely subsided, Hagoromo finally summoned his sixteen-point-one-liter, dual-row, ten-seat airborne summon—
The Yatagarasu—
And flew toward the former nation of Lōran ( Tsuchigumo clan territory ).
Only after reaching directly above the site did Hagoromo truly grasp the scale of the disaster.
If one hadn't known better, no one would believe that a city-state had existed here just the night before.
Because now—
There was not a single trace of man-made structures left.
What remained was a colossal circular crater, layered from outside to inside—
white to gray,
gray to black,
black to red—
Like a massive, open eye staring up from the earth.
"Core blast radius: fifteen kilometers."
"Secondary lethal blast radius: fifty kilometers."
"Overall affected area: exceeding one hundred kilometers."
"Blast depth: unmeasurable—exceeding one kilometer."
"All artificial structures annihilated. All life within the effective range presumed dead."
"Lōran ( Tsuchigumo clan territory )… has been completely erased."
Hagoromo recited the data calmly and precisely—
Yet inwardly, he was shaken to the core.
He'd even thought that if the detonation misfired, he might go down and "disarm" it manually.
He'd treated something on the scale of a nuclear weapon like an oversized firecracker.
Thank goodness he hadn't gone.
Thank goodness it detonated properly.
This was the kind of explosion that could turn plot armor into scrap metal.
Even now, the former site of the Dragon Vein still glowed a deep crimson. When the wind passed over it, the light flickered—eerily, like a blinking eye.
Everyone had severely underestimated the danger of detonating the Dragon Vein.
Honestly, blowing it up outright almost felt like a waste. They could've explored turning it into a throwable super-weapon—
If a village gets out of line, just drop it on their head.
The thought was… strangely exciting.
"Lower altitude, Hagoromo," Minato said. "Let's get a closer look."
Hagoromo almost asked if this thing had radiation.
But then he reconsidered—chakra, or chakra-adjacent energy, should count as a clean biological energy source, right?
Clean, renewable, and probably not radioactive?
…Probably.
They descended.
At 100 meters, the temperature was noticeably higher.
At 50 meters, the air was already scorching.
Ignoring the heat rising from below, Sāra knelt on Yatagarasu's back, carefully peering down. Kakashi stood behind her, alert—ready to catch her if she slipped.
Her expression was heavy with grief. Tears shimmered faintly in her eyes.
The city that held all her memories—of herself, and of her mother—was gone.
Sensing her sorrow, Hagoromo tried to comfort her:
"Sāra, you should actually be glad the Dragon Vein is gone. Otherwise, you'd be sleeping every night hugging a bomb. One bad night, and—boom—direct hit."
"Now the danger's been eliminated at the source. Your people have peace. You didn't really lose much—your title just changed from queen to town mayor."
"The status drop is huge, sure—but your authority isn't all that different."
Sāra: "..."
It turned out Hagoromo's way of comforting people was—
Extremely effective.
The tears in her eyes stubbornly refused to fall. Instead, she lifted her head and glared at him with open anger.
Her grief plummeted exponentially.
What he said wasn't wrong.
It was just spectacularly ill-timed.
At that moment, Minato vanished from the bird's back and descended to the ground. After remaining there briefly, he returned.
"The Dragon Vein's power has mostly dissipated," Minato reported. "There's still a trace left, but it's no longer usable."
"Even though we bear the sin of destroying a nation, the potential threat has been eliminated."
There was no joy of mission success in his expression. His emotions leaned closer to Sāra's.
Destroying a harmless nation weighed heavily on him.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
"Minato—Sand Village squad detected," Aburame Shibi reported suddenly.
Hagoromo followed his gaze and saw a small group of Sunagakure ninja moving within the blast zone.
That wasn't surprising.
Setting off fireworks at someone's doorstep on this scale—it'd be weird if no one came to investigate.
"Should we engage?" Akimichi Chōza asked.
If they attacked, the outcome wouldn't even be in doubt.
Minato alone was Kage-level. Shibi and Chōza were elite jōnin. Kakashi was on the verge of jōnin himself.
And then there was Hagoromo.
They could wipe that squad ten times over.
"No," Minato said. "The mission is complete. And Sunagakure is currently our ally."
"Hagoromo. Withdraw."
Yatagarasu was a large, low-flying target—easy to spot. The Sand ninja had already noticed it.
"Look—it's White Yaksha's bird!"
"It really is!"
"So this was his doing again?"
"What?!"
Many—if not most—Sand ninja recognized Hagoromo's summon.
After all, it had been publicly exposed before.
The Lōran ( Tsuchigumo clan territory ) Explosion Incident became the first event in shinobi history to be classified as a Level Ten Catastrophe.
Beyond the annihilation of Lōran ( Tsuchigumo clan territory ) itself, the blast affected the Land of Wind, Land of Rivers, Land of Rain, and the Land of Birds, among others.
The true extent of the damage was impossible to calculate. Environmental devastation was especially severe—the core blast zone would remain barren for decades.
Aside from Konoha, no other nation determined the true cause for a very long time.
In the Land of Wind, however, rumors spread endlessly. Some ninja swore that Konoha's White Yaksha had destroyed Lōran ( Tsuchigumo clan territory ) with his explosive bird.
The claim was widely dismissed.
The event was clearly beyond what a human could accomplish. Believing White Yaksha caused it made less sense than attributing it to a natural disaster.
Sunagakure, really—stop demonizing White Yaksha.
And stop dumping every disaster on his head. That's just unethical.
Still, the incident forced surrounding nations into heightened alert and repeated investigations.
The truth remained a mystery.
Later generations would call it
"The Disappearance of Suzumiya Lōran ( Tsuchigumo clan territory )",
or
"The Chernobyl of Lōran ( Tsuchigumo clan territory )."
As for Hagoromo and the others, they had already returned to the Land of Fire once the mission ended.
Perhaps stories of Lōran ( Tsuchigumo clan territory ) and the Dragon Vein would continue to surface in the future—
But they no longer had much to do with him.
PS: I've been releasing chapters daily . Honestly, it hurts seeing almost no support on Patreon after all that work.If you're enjoying the fic, even a little, supporting me would mean a lot. It helps a student stay independent .
complete fic (all chapters ) are already up on Patreon → patreon.com/Chakraflow789
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