Chapter 40: Heavy Casualties

Just as Hiruzen Sarutobi was about to arrive, he flung both hands forward.

Several kunai shot toward the shadow clone by the window, attempting to force him to stop maintaining his jutsu.

Every second he could shorten the jutsu’s duration meant saving countless important documents.

Obviously, the Third Hokage was overthinking it.

The documents in the office had already been reduced to ashes long ago.

Still, his attack had the desired effect.

Sensing the danger, the shadow clone immediately stopped the jutsu and formed the release seal.

Poof!

A cloud of smoke erupted.

The next second, the kunai Hiruzen had thrown pierced straight through the smoke.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

They embedded themselves in the already-burning floor.

Hiruzen quickly reached the window where the shadow clone had been standing.

Looking at the office engulfed in flames, his face turned ashen.

He never could have imagined that what he had just fought was only a shadow clone.

Everyone knew that shadow clones were weaker than their original.

One shadow clone had already burned down his office.

If the real Naruto had done it, wouldn’t he have burned down the entire Hokage Building?

Hiruzen put those thoughts aside and formed a series of hand seals.

"Water Style: Water Wave!"

A massive torrent of water surged forward.

Hissssss!

Water and fire collided, filling the office with a huge cloud of steam.

A moment later, the flames inside the office were extinguished.

Hiruzen quickly changed his hand seals and released a Wind Style jutsu, dispersing the steam throughout the room.

He jumped through the window and swept his gaze across the completely burned-out office.

Nothing was left.

Books, records, even some highly classified documents—

All of them were gone.

Hiruzen walked forward with a grim expression.

At the former location of his desk, only a few faint crystals could be seen among the ashes.

Even the crystal ball he used for surveillance was gone.

Hiruzen’s heart burned with rage.

Who was behind this?

Did they steal any documents?

Were they the same people responsible for the explosions throughout Konoha?

What were they after?

Judging from the explosions, the entire operation had clearly been planned for years.

But for what purpose?

Hiruzen furrowed his brows.

He had absolutely no idea.

"Hokage-sama!"

At that moment, several ANBU who had finally noticed the abnormality at the Hokage Building arrived.

The moment they saw the destroyed office, their pupils contracted.

One of them immediately dropped to one knee.

"This subordinate deserves death!"

Hiruzen waved his hand.

"What is the current situation with the explosions in Konoha?"

"The explosions have stopped. Nearly half of Konoha has been damaged. The old district suffered the most explosions and sustained the heaviest damage.

"The areas near the Hokage Building, the Uchiha compound, the Hyuga compound, and the other major clans are largely intact."

The ANBU gave a brief report.

"Nearly half of Konoha..."

Hiruzen fell silent for a moment.

It was obvious why the major clans had suffered little damage.

The enemy had probably feared being discovered by the clans’ guards and had therefore avoided planting explosive tags near them.

Aside from the Nine-Tails’ attack six years ago, when had Konoha ever suffered destruction on this scale?

"Phew..."

Hiruzen slowly exhaled.

Then he asked,

"What about the casualties?"

"The casualties..."

The ANBU hesitated.

He seemed reluctant to say it.

Perhaps this was why the other ANBU had been unwilling to report it themselves.

Hiruzen’s expression hardened.

"Speak!"

The ANBU lowered his head.

"We can’t give an exact number yet, but we estimate that the casualties have exceeded ten thousand."

"Hiss!"

Hiruzen drew in a sharp breath.

His vision suddenly went dark.

His chest tightened, and his body swayed.

For a moment, he nearly collapsed.

More than ten thousand casualties!

How many people did Konoha have in total?

The Third Hokage felt as though his heart were bleeding once again.

...

Ninja Academy.

Naruto’s heart stirred.

A faint smile appeared at the corner of his lips.

The first shadow clone had completed its mission perfectly.

The crystal ball had already been hidden somewhere safe.

The second shadow clone had voluntarily dispelled itself the moment Hiruzen arrived.

Its mission had also been completed perfectly.

The Hokage’s office had been burned to the ground, and so many classified documents had been destroyed.

That alone would give the Third Hokage a massive headache for quite some time.

A few seats away, Yamanaka Ino pouted and occasionally glanced toward Naruto and Hinata.

She thought Hinata was being incredibly fake.

You’re the heiress of the Hyuga clan. Why are you pretending to be so helpless?

It was only an explosion!

Nothing even happened to you!

And yet you’re making Naruto comfort you for more than ten minutes!

Girls naturally tended to admire heroes.

Even at the age of three, Yamanaka Ino had been incredibly curious about Naruto, the boy who had helped bring victory to Konoha during the war.

When she learned that he was around the same age as her, her curiosity only grew.

She had even cried and begged her parents to let her meet this so-called Uzumaki Naruto.

Ordinary villagers feared jinchuriki because of their ignorance.

As a descendant of the Yamanaka clan, Ino naturally wasn’t afraid of a jinchuriki.

If anything, she was even more curious.

Unfortunately, her parents had never been willing to take her.

Three years had passed, and those childhood memories had already become blurry.

But she had never expected to end up in the same class as the Uzumaki Naruto she had once been so fascinated by.

The moment she saw him walk into the classroom, she hadn’t known his identity.

She had simply thought he looked pretty handsome.

Once she learned who he was, however, the halo surrounding him made him look countless times more handsome in her eyes.

Now, seeing Hinata constantly whimpering in Naruto’s arms, Ino practically wanted to run over and give that attention-seeker a couple of smacks.

Sakura, who was sitting beside her, had also been extremely frightened earlier.

Now that she had recovered, she noticed Ino’s unhappy expression and the way she was gritting her teeth.

Unable to hold back, Sakura asked,

"Ino, what’s wrong?"

Ino subtly gestured toward Naruto and Hinata.

Curious, Sakura turned to look.

Then she whispered disdainfully into Ino’s ear,

"They’re shameless. Doing that in front of everyone."

As she spoke, Sakura glanced at Sasuke nearby.

A tiny voice inside her heart screamed:

Damn it! I want to lie in Sasuke’s arms too! Why couldn’t I have been sitting next to him?!

Ino had no idea what Sakura was thinking.

She muttered indignantly,

"Exactly. Hinata is so good at pretending. Naruto is just too innocent."

"Hehe, don’t tell me..."

Sakura suddenly caught on.

She giggled several times, giving Ino a teasing look.

Ino’s close friend had seen right through her feelings.

Her face flushed, but she didn’t deny it.

Instead, she subtly straightened herself.

The two girls quickly reached an agreement and began whispering into each other’s ears, relentlessly complaining about Hinata.

Neither of them realized what was happening on the other side.

"Naruto-kun, can you let go of me now? You’ve been holding me for too long. Everyone is looking."

Hinata’s face was bright red.

She kept asking Naruto to let her go, but he continued holding her.

She didn’t dare struggle, afraid of upsetting him.

"Alright."

Naruto’s hearing was sharp enough to catch the whispered gossip of the two girls.

He had no choice but to release Hinata.

He then casually rolled his neck from side to side.

Pretending it was completely unintentional, he happened to meet Ino’s gaze.

He smiled and gave her a small nod before looking away.

Ino’s face instantly turned bright red.

PS: Judging from Konoha’s map, even an estimated population of over one hundred thousand would probably be the upper limit. Losing around one-tenth of the population already counts as catastrophic casualties.