Haruto had long stepped out of the meeting room where Tsunade and Inoichi were discussing business. They were slowly approaching a sixty forty split but Haruto didn't have the patience to wait.
And so Haruto sat there staring at the cloudy sky.
'Ha…'
With a deep sigh Haruto turned his head and looked at the little girl who was peeking at him from around the corner.
As soon as Haruto matched gazes with her she hid away.
So Haruto went back to pretending he was looking at the sky.
The girl peeked out again, slowly, as she looked at Haruto with a mischievous smile.
Haruto didn't look at her at all, but there was a smile on his lips too.
The little girl slowly slipped out of her hiding spot and carried herself to be behind Haruto. Soon her tiny hands wrapped around Haruto's eyes.
"Guess~ who~?"
Haruto's smile widened before-
PUFF!
-he vanished in a cloud of smoke.
The girl was rightly startled when all of a sudden a pair of hands covered her eyes and asked her the same question-
"Guess~ who~?"
"Waaa~!" Ino shouted out loud before pulling down Haruto's hands that practically covered half of her face. "How did you do that!?" she asked, bubbling with stars in her eyes.
'Shadow Clone jutsu…' Haruto thought but said something else, after all he couldn't let the magic die out in front of a child, "A magician never reveals his secrets young lady!"
Ino only became more emboldened, "As the young lady of the Yamanaka clan I command you to reveal your secrets to me!"
Haruto laughed, "Really? Then I will have to tell it to you won't I?"
"Yesh~!" Ino giggled, fumbling her words on purpose to look cute, it always worked on her father, so it should've worked on Haruto to by that logic since her father was the more powerful of the two.
"In that case you must know about Magic-" Haruto was about to say something else when suddenly-
'Huh? Why did it suddenly get so dark?'
'What happened to the sunlight?'
Haruto looked up at the sky.
The clouds had suddenly turned dark from the usual light white.
Suddenly a terrible feeling welled up inside Haruto.
"Tsunade-sama!" Haruto shouted.
However it seemed both Tsunade and Inoichi were a little too engrossed in their negotiations to have heard him.
"Tsunade!!!" Haruto finally shouted out loud as the clouds split apart.
"WHAT HAPPENED BRAT!!! CAN'T YOu SEE I'M BUS-" Tsunade paused, as she too realised the room had suddenly grown a little too dark.
It didn't take a second after that before Tsunade was standing right beside Haruto, looking right at the sky, her mouth agape and her hands trembling.
Inoichi followed next and he nearly collapsed when he looked at what was in the sky.
The sight was the same across the entire village.
Shikaku who was on his deserved break from village affairs, staring at the clouds with his son was currently frozen in shock.
Fugaku who was standing at the window in the Hokage office, who had been sitting at the desk worrying about his missing son just a few seconds prior, was now trembling with fright.
Jiraya who had come to the village to check on Naruto was currently frozen with fright as he looked at the sky.
Kakashi, who had been standing in front of the memorial stone, was frozen in bewilderment.
'What?'
Every shinobi in the village fell silent at once as the village fell into a dull mum.
That was when someone brave enough broke the silence and shouted out loud-
"RUN!!!"
***
"What is that!? Are you seeing what I'm seeing!?" Kushina screamed out loud in panic.
Minato was trembling.
Sakumo's mouth hung loose.
Hiruzen's mouth was open and he'd dropped his smoking pipe.
Tobirama's blood had drained from his face.
Mito had a prominent frown on her face.
Izuna's eyes were wide open.
Only Hashirama was a little calm as he spoke with a chill, "Madara… he's back."
Everyone then looked at Tobirama who was white as a sheet.
"What do we do now, Tobi?" Hashirama asked.
***
The silence of the village was broken as every person ran for their lives. The rush was so immediate and prominent that people cared not if they were stepping over land or another shinobi.
Friends easily disregarded each other and rushed towards the village exit. Enemies tripped each other to make space for their own survival.
It was hell on Earth.
None of them could still believe the magnitude of the problem that had befallen them.
'Is this divine punishment?' several shinobi thought.
Others thought back to the day of the Nine Tails rampaging throughout the village, wondering if the village would even survive this time.
Everyone looked up as they ran.
A meteorite was rapidly and silently falling through the sky.
Jiraya looked at the chaos around him and felt fear crawling down his spine. Kakashi cursed inwardly as he thought back to his rule of being a shinobi. Fugaku couldn't believe his time as a Hokage was about to end.
Inoichi didn't delay his moves any longer, he simply grabbed Ino and spoke to Tsunade quickly, "I can't help here Tsunade-sama."
Tsunade stretched her hand out to stop him but then her words got caught in her throat as Inoichi rushed away.
What was she to even say in a situation such as this?
Haruto who was still staring at the sky felt his hands tremble.
'Is this fear?'
'The fear of death?'
'Don't be afraid, Haruto-kun.' Haruto heard Unohana speak to him.
'But…' Haruto started, his voice trembling as he looked at the meteorite falling from the sky. 'What are we supposed to do against… that?'
Grindelwald spoke up, 'Vanishing a large chunk of the meteorite is possible… difficult… but possible.'
'And I can get rid of the rest.' Unohana said carefully as the two of them looked at each other.
However-
'WHAT!? IS THAT HOW LITTLE YOU TRUST ME!!! NO ONE IS SACRIFICING THEIR LIVES FOR ME!!' Haruto shouted back at the residents of the template inventory space.
Megumin, who was about to take over Haruto without telling anyone, froze.
'But… how will you get out of this predicament without our help Haruto-kun?' Unohana asked with a frown.
'Wait! Let me think!' Haruto said calmly.
However, Haruto wasn't given the time to think.
"Take Haruto and leave from here Shizune." Tsunade said quietly while looking at the meteorite with a firm resolve.
Haruto frowned.
'Should I just escape?'
Haruto then looked at the meteorite.
'Is it even possible to escape that thing?'
'The shockwave once it falls will be enough to kill everyone.'
But then an idea struck Haruto.
'Shinra, issue me a quick mission.'
As if understanding Haruto's intentions exactly, Shinra issued the exact mission Haruto was hoping for without asking him for the details.
"I'm not leaving!" Haruto shouted back at Tsunade causing her brows to twitch.
"You brat!" Tsunade shouted, hitting Haruto's head causing him to instantly crouch and hold it. "Goddamn it woman!! Can't you at least listen to me first!?"
Tsunade lifted her hand to knock out Haruto immediately to avoid wasting time when Shizune with a firm resolve said boldly, "Tsunade-sama, if you're not leaving, then I'm not leaving as well."
Tsunade froze.
Then she grabbed her head.
"Agh!!! Are you crazy!?"
The dialogue reminded Haruto of a certain short king, but this was not the time for that, instead he looked at Tsunade and said quietly.
"I have a plan."
***
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