Shizune let out a sigh and hurried over.
"Tsunade-hime, wake up. The Land of Demons has sent an emergency distress letter."
Tsunade had still been half asleep a second ago, but her eyes turned sharp in an instant as she snatched the letter.
After handing it over, Shizune turned to Akira.
"Akira, this is bad. This time, the trouble may be even worse than the Akatsuki."
Akira closed his book, stepped to Tsunade's side, and scanned the contents. His brows tightened at once.
"Mōryō? How did that thing surface again?"
Mōryō was a fiend from another realm, a calamity first summoned by a group of mad shinobi who had dreamed of ruling the world.
The most disgusting thing about it was that its physical body could not truly be killed, and its strength was unreasonable even by monstrous standards.
It could also summon an undead host called the Ghost Army, which, put simply, was a legion of unbreakable stone soldiers.
Akira personally felt that calling them anything like the terracotta warriors from his previous life was giving them too much dignity. They were basically just piles of animated rock.
That said, none of that changed the fact that Mōryō possessed the power to bring about the end of the world. If Naruto hadn't benefitted from outrageous protagonist luck later on, the whole world might have ended right there.
A monster that had once nearly driven the Five Great Nations into despair had somehow ended up getting erased by a single Rasengan. Even now, that outcome still felt absurdly convenient.
After reading the letter, Tsunade set it down with a grim face.
"Shizune, sound a level-one emergency alarm immediately. Summon every active shinobi in the village."
Shizune froze for half a beat, then snapped to attention.
"Yes, Tsunade-hime!"
She turned and rushed out like a gust of wind.
Tsunade's expression had rarely been this serious.
"Akira, it looks like the ninja world is heading for another catastrophe."
"Back then, the priestess of the Land of Demons exhausted her life just to seal that thing away. If Mōryō is back now, then someone has definitely tampered with the sealing altar."
Tsunade knew very well how terrifying Mōryō was.
In the past, its Ghost Army had erased multiple small nations in a single night.
It had been the kind of monster even Konoha's ninja had been unable to deal with properly. Physical attacks were useless, ninjutsu had almost no effect, and in the end it had taken the priestess sacrificing herself just to barely seal it.
The death toll from that disaster had exceeded any of the Great Ninja Wars.
Those lifeless stone creatures had been killing machines that never tired.
The Land of Demons, though only a small nation with no ninja of its own, had survived in this brutal world entirely because it possessed the priestess line capable of sealing Mōryō.
That was also part of the silent understanding among the Five Great Nations. No one dared touch the Land of Demons, because no one wanted to be responsible for unleashing Mōryō and dragging everyone into disaster.
That nation's military was made up entirely of samurai, existing solely to guard the priestess.
Akira, who had always enjoyed digging into strange histories and forgotten lore, knew this chapter of history well.
It really was the kind of thing that could give even the leaders of the Five Great Nations nightmares.
In fact, when he had first read those historical accounts, he had almost wondered whether the Mōryō described there was even the same creature he remembered.
Judging by the strength recorded in the old texts, that was not something a half-trained Naruto should ever have been able to handle.
That priestess from back then had almost certainly been at peak Kage level, maybe even beyond that, and only with jutsus specifically designed to counter Mōryō had she managed to drag it down with her.
Sadly, each generation of priestess had been confined to the Land of Demons to guard the seal, like a golden bird trapped in a cage.
And because the Land of Demons was a nation of samurai, with none of the shinobi world's territorial ambitions, it had remained quiet and self-contained.
It was nothing like the tiny Land of Rain, where Hanzō had risen and suddenly believed he could challenge the world. During the Second Great Ninja War, he had actually fought three great nations in turn and beaten them back.
Hanzō's title of "Demigod" hadn't been empty hype. He had carved it out with blood and steel.
At his peak, Hanzō had absolutely stood at the top end of Kage level. Unfortunately, he had withered in the end, hiding in comfort and dying a miserable death at Pain's hands.
The priestess of the Land of Demons had probably stood on roughly the same level as the Hanzō of old.
But since the Land of Demons had only samurai aside from the priestess, it had never possessed the strength or ambition to stir up greater conflict.
Akira looked at Tsunade.
"What exactly did the Land of Demons ask for?"
Tsunade sighed and rubbed her temple.
"They're asking us to send elite ninja to personally guard the priestess, and they've also sent requests for aid to the other major hidden villages."
Akira paused.
That was different from what he remembered.
In the original version, hadn't they only asked Konoha? Why did this now sound like the opening move of a world war?
Tsunade gave a bitter smile.
"Right now, every village is playing its own political game. Kumogakure is the only one that actually sent help. The others are pretending not to hear."
Akira thought about it for a second and immediately understood.
The Land of Demons was right next to the Land of Fire. It had little to do with the other great nations, so naturally they were happy to sit back and watch.
Even at a time like this, the politicians still couldn't stop playing games.
"Honestly, I'm a little surprised Kumogakure sent anyone."
By geography alone, Kumogakure was the farthest from the Land of Demons. It was unusual for them to involve themselves.
Tsunade pictured the overly muscular Fourth Raikage in her mind.
"He looks crude, but every now and then he makes a decision that forces you to take him seriously."
Akira smiled faintly.
"That explains why Kumogakure has so few defectors. That brute actually has remarkable cohesion as a leader."