บท 51: Explosion

"Ugh, what a headache!" Shikaku unconsciously massaged his temples.

This internal conflict was driving him crazy. Who the hell should he support?

On one side, he had Luo Lei, a ruthless assassin, and on the other, Jiraiya, none other than one of the legendary Sannin.

Whomever he chose, he was sure to piss someone off. There was no way to come out of this unscathed.

Jiraiya, already in a bad mood, saw everyone's excited faces and felt his irritation growing.

What's the meaning of all this?

What, without Luo Lei they can't defeat the Iwagakure army?

'Besides, Luo Lei's Kekkei Genkai has brutal side effects. If he loses control, he could even wipe out his own people. And it seems these people don't care about dying at the hands of that guy.'

Suddenly, something clicked in his head. "Wait a minute... The side effects of his Kekkei Genkai?"

Jiraiya changed his expression and decided to play that card.

"It's beneficial to have Luo Lei, but don't forget that his Kekkei Genkai has side effects. If he loses control, he could turn against his own."

"Surely everyone remembers what happened on the Kikyoyama battlefield, right?" he added, seeking to reinforce his argument.

A deathly silence fell over the tent.

The smiles and euphoria that had flooded the atmosphere just moments ago vanished in an instant.

It was as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over the crowd, suddenly extinguishing all enthusiasm.

The faces of those present transformed. Joy gave way to a mixture of concern and bewilderment.

Although Konoha's high command had tried to minimize certain events that occurred in the Battle of Kikyoyama, they were not naive.

They knew well that most of the Konoha ninjas who participated in that fateful battle had maintained an unsettling silence.

Luo Lei's presence was, without a doubt, a considerable strategic advantage. However, it also represented a latent threat, a time bomb that could explode at any moment, turning against its own.

In a matter of seconds, the atmosphere in the tent turned heavy and somber.

The excitement and jubilation that had reigned moments before vanished as if they had never existed.

"What do we do now?" one murmured.

"Knowing Luo Lei-sama, if something doesn't sit right with him, he'll rush into battle without thinking twice. He's unpredictable," said another.

A middle-aged kunoichi added, "Luo Lei-sama... is like a forbidden jutsu. If we're not careful, he could go out of control at any moment. And when that happens..."

The silence that followed was heavy, laden with tension.

Everyone exchanged glances, some biting their lips, others with clenched fists.

After a few seconds that seemed eternal, the atmosphere filled with uneasy murmurs. The gravity of the situation was reflected in every worried face, in every furrowed brow.

It was evident that everyone understood how delicate the matter was, and the danger that lurked behind the apparent advantage of having Luo Lei.

A dry and barely audible laugh escaped Jiraiya's lips. "Hm..."

Observing the scene, his face remained impassive, but inside, however, he exhaled a sigh of relief.

"Good thing I reacted in time," he thought, feeling the tension in his shoulders begin to dissipate.

Luo Lei's appearance had been on the verge of disrupting all his plans.

A spark of hope ignited within him. There was still a chance, a small window for things to go according to plan.

"Now it all depends on you, Minato," he murmured with pride. "I trust you'll know how to seize this opportunity. Show everyone what you're made of on the battlefield."

"Why don't we let Luo Lei-sama rest in the camp?" someone suggested, breaking the silence.

Suddenly, the ANBU's expression transformed, a mixture of astonishment and fear crossing his face. "When Luo Lei-sama was in ANBU, he preferred isolation, hiding from everyone," he said, his voice trembling slightly. "But now... on the battlefield, it's as if he's unleashed something within him. Deep down, he's an unpredictable lunatic."

"The battle of Kikyoyama proves everything, we can't risk..."

Suddenly, the words froze in his throat.

An overwhelming sense of danger invaded him, so intense it almost left him breathless.

Danger! Extreme danger!

His sixth sense, honed by years of missions, burst into alarm. Every cell in his body began to tremble frantically, screaming at him to flee, to move, to do something.

It was as if an invisible hand was squeezing his heart, pumping adrenaline through his veins.

'How... how is this possible?' he thought, panic growing inside him.

The last time he experienced such visceral terror was during a suicide mission, surrounded by elite Iwagakure squads. On that occasion, only Minato's intervention had saved him.

But this... this was different. They were in the heart of the Konoha camp, the safest place for him in the entire Land of Grass.

The idea of an attack here was inconceivable, absurd.

And yet, the fear was real. So real he could taste it.

'Who could be so reckless... so powerful as to attack here?' he wondered, his body tense like a wire about to snap.

"Wait a minute!" Jiraiya's voice filled with urgency resonated.

"Not good, not good..." Minato muttered, his eyes widening as he sensed the imminent danger.

Both their expressions changed drastically. They opened their mouths to warn, to shout an order, but the words froze in their throats.

It was too late.

Suddenly, a screeching sound cut through the air, followed by a blinding flash.

FZZZT!

Two laser beams of intense, burning red burst into the tent.

The energy beam zigzagged through the air with terrifying precision.

It was as if it had a life of its own, a predator seeking its prey.

The ANBU's eyes widened in disbelief.

The laser moved as if it had a built-in tracker, aiming directly at him.

'How is this possible? Why me?' The thought crossed his mind in a fraction of a second.

Time seemed to slow down.

Before he could even think about dodging, before his muscles could tense for movement, the laser hit him.

BOOM!

A deafening explosion shook the tent. A shockwave of searing heat swept through the space, hurling objects and bodies through the air.

The smell of ozone and burned flesh filled the air, mixing with cries of surprise and pain.

Amidst the chaos, where the ANBU had been before, now there was only an empty space, surrounded by smoldering debris.

"Not good..." Jiraiya muttered, over the crackling of flames and screams of panic.

"Everyone get out of the way!!" Minato roared.

Shikaku shouted in a hoarse voice: "Get out of the tent, hurry, get out of the tent!" His mind now blank, dominated by survival instinct.

Chaos broke out in a matter of seconds. Acrid smoke filled the air, making breathing difficult and clouding vision. The heat was unbearable, as if they were inside an oven.

No one had time to think, to analyze, to plan. Instinct took over, driving them all towards safety.

In a matter of seconds, everyone found themselves outside the tent, panting and coughing in the fresh night air.

BOOM!

A deafening roar tore through the night.

The tent that served as Konoha Camp's command center vanished in an instant, consumed by a blinding fireball.

Where it once stood proudly, now only ashes dancing in the air remained, mixing with a cloud of dust rising into the night sky.

The shockwave of force was brutal, sweeping through the camp, knocking down smaller tents and sending unsuspecting ninjas to the ground.

"Enemy attack... enemy attack!!"

The alarm cry broke the momentary stupor.

In a matter of seconds, the entire camp vibrated.

The eyes of hundreds of ninjas were fixed on the place where their command center once stood.

Their faces, illuminated by the glow of the flames, were masks of disbelief and horror.

"What the hell happened?" a chūnin murmured.

"It's... it's impossible," another stammered, trying to process what he was seeing. "Nobody could... nobody would dare to attack the very heart of our camp."

But the truth was there, undeniable and relentless.

Swish! Swish!

The sound of moving at high speed filled the place, one after another, the Konoha ninjas began to move.

In a matter of minutes, the area around the destroyed command post was filled with ninjas.

Some were searching for survivors among the rubble, others were forming a defensive perimeter.

Who had been capable of penetrating their defenses?

How had they managed such a precise and devastating attack?

And the most terrifying of all: Was the enemy still among them?

________

Hundreds of meters from the command post.

Yūgao found herself paralyzed by what she had just witnessed. Beside her, the ANBU who had guided Luo Lei to the camp was equally stunned.

The Konoha ninjas in the vicinity were petrified.

No one dared to move, not even breathe too loudly, as if the slightest sound might draw Luo Lei's attention and potentially his wrath upon them.

Seconds before, they had witnessed how from Luo Lei's eyes, a beam of pure energy had emerged, a beam of red light.

The destination of that beam was Konoha's command post.

In an instant, the structure that represented the center of operations in the Land of Grass turned into a fireball.

It exploded.

In a corner of the camp, three young ninjas observed the scene in amazement.

An Uchiha, with his short black hair and distinctive blue and orange sweater, was the first to break the stunned silence:

"Kakashi, did you see that?" he whispered, his eyes wide open behind his goggles. "His eyes... they can shoot rays. It's even crazier than our clan's Sharingan."

Rin Nohara, her short brown hair swaying in the smoke-laden breeze, intervened with a trembling voice, "We should move away. The command post... it seems to have been completely destroyed. This is serious."

Kakashi Hatake, his normally expressionless eyes now full of surprise, murmured: "Why is Luo Lei-san so powerful now? His way of acting has completely changed. Attacking the command post..."

A shock of recognition ran through Kakashi.

As Sakumo Hatake's son, he knew Luo Lei, his father's apprentice, well. He remembered the times he had asked him for training advice, the conversations they had shared.

After being transferred to the Kikyoyama battlefield, Luo Lei changed completely and was out of control.

This Luo Lei, destructive and seemingly out of control, was a stranger to him.

"Do you know him, Kakashi?" Obito asked, surprised.

With a sigh of exasperation, he replied: "He's my father's apprentice, a genius as renowned as Minato-sensei."

"Genius?" Obito puffed out his chest. "I'm a genius too. You'll see, someday I'll surpass them both."

"Idiot," Kakashi muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Hey! You want to fight?" Obito challenged.

Rin, always the voice of reason, interrupted the familiar argument: "Guys, enough. Look, Minato-sensei and Jiraiya-sama are here."

________

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