It took Hagoromo only a very short moment to realize—
He was about to hit the ground.
Then came the good news and the bad news.
The bad news was that his judgment was completely correct. He was about to slam into the earth.
The good news was that at least he could ensure he wouldn't land face-first.
Thankfully, he had already lowered Yatagarasu's altitude beforehand. Otherwise, this wouldn't have been a "light fall" at all—
from their original height, he would've been flattened on impact.
In those fleeting fractions of a second, the only thing Hagoromo could do was instinctively coat his body with a layer of defensive chakra to reduce the damage.
It wasn't that he lacked more advanced options.
They just weren't appropriate to reveal in front of this many people.
Thus, the highly conspicuous KamishiroHagoromo—who had just moments ago made a dramatic low-altitude return over the battlefield—suddenly lost the summoning beast beneath his feet.
The next instant, he came tumbling out of the sky, flailing awkwardly.
He became even more eye-catching.
Fortunately, he wasn't afraid of heights, nor did he scream in an undignified manner. Objectively speaking, he remained fairly calm.
A straight drop of seven or eight meters wasn't enough to cause serious injury to a shinobi.
From a biological standpoint, shinobi were a surprisingly durable subspecies of humanity.
"Thump!"
The sound wasn't dramatic at all—more like half a slab of pork being slammed onto a chopping board.
Hagoromo hit the ground, rolled, and kicked up a small cloud of dust.
Clamping his legs together, protecting his head, curling his body—
He executed the standard fall-breaking sequence perfectly before finally coming to a stop after rolling several times.
Hagoromo bared his teeth slightly.
The fall itself hadn't hurt much, but it aggravated the injuries he already had.
After cycling through an impressive range of facial expressions, he finally looked up.
That was when he noticed—
A foot, planted squarely in front of his face.
Good thing he'd stopped rolling when he did. Otherwise, he might've needed "help" to stop.
Help that would've likely come in the form of a boot to the ribs—or being kicked away like a football.
Because that foot belonged to Tsunade, dressed in full mission gear, the supreme commander of this battlefield.
Hagoromo had actually chosen his landing spot quite well.
It seemed the key figures—Tsunade, Minato, and the Third Hokage—were gathered here, likely conducting a post-battle discussion.
Once Hagoromo came to a stop, Tsunade calmly withdrew her foot, as though nothing had happened.
Due to certain female anatomical features blocking his view, Hagoromo—lying at Tsunade's feet—couldn't see her expression no matter how hard he craned his neck.
Still, he couldn't help suspecting that she had looked… slightly disappointed.
As if some unfulfilled wish had just slipped away.
Yes. He'd stopped just in time.
If he hadn't, Tsunade would definitely have punted him away.
"So," Tsunade asked evenly,
"how effective was the infiltration attack?"
Although the key figures were discussing serious matters, Hagoromo's dramatic landing compelled Tsunade to address him immediately.
The Third Hokage and Minato, however, didn't quite understand what she meant.
"He flew to Sunagakure," Tsunade explained,
"and carried out a sabotage mission using that flying, explosive-capable summoning beast."
This explanation conveniently covered for Hagoromo.
Though Tsunade didn't spell it out explicitly, hearing it from her made it sound as though Hagoromo had acted under orders—
not on a reckless whim.
Otherwise, he might've ended up charged with disobeying orders on the battlefield.
"Now that you mention it," Minato said thoughtfully,
"he really wasn't visible during the latter half of the battle."
Indeed, from that point onward, neither Hagoromo nor his summon had appeared in the sky. Minato had assumed the summoning had ended prematurely.
So he'd gone on a high-risk infiltration mission instead.
For someone so young to attempt that—
Hagoromo's nerve was impressive.
But had he succeeded?
Between Tsunade and Minato, Hagoromo's actions were quickly explained. Though the Third Hokage remained silent, the look in his eyes held a trace of expectation.
Hagoromo didn't answer immediately.
Nor did he respond to the Hokage's gaze.
First, he had something more important to do—
Get up off the ground.
Even though the conversation was serious, their eyes betrayed them.
They were all staring at him like he was some rare creature.
He hadn't wanted to play human falling meteor, you know.
Hagoromo climbed to his feet, expressionless, brushed the dust off himself, and glanced at the three of them.
Tsunade had remained in the rear commanding the battle, so she was immaculate.
Minato had fought on the front line, but given his style, not a drop of blood clung to him.
As for the Third Hokage—
He had already changed out of his battle attire and returned to his usual robes.
Otherwise, there was no way he could've stood before Tsunade while drenched head to toe in blood.
Despite the casualties, Konoha had won.
So everyone's expressions were relatively relaxed.
"Hagoromo?" Tsunade prompted again.
He snapped back to attention.
"Overall, the operation was successful," Hagoromo said quickly.
"The enemy had no effective anti-air measures. My main objective was to damage key facilities. However, due to a lack of detailed intelligence, I could only rely on visual judgment and intuition. I can't be certain of the exact results."
He deliberately left room for uncertainty.
After all, it would've been awkward if he'd blown up a bunch of unimportant buildings.
To his surprise, the Third Hokage immediately summoned an Intelligence Division shinobi.
After issuing a few instructions, the shinobi departed and soon returned with a map.
The Hokage personally spread it out and placed a pen into Hagoromo's hand.
"This is an intelligence map of Sunagakure," he said.
"It's not fully detailed, but it's largely accurate. Mark the locations you destroyed."
Hagoromo accepted the map, feeling slightly annoyed.
If you'd given me this earlier, my bombing would've been much more precise…
He had completely forgotten that his raid on Sunagakure had been a spur-of-the-moment decision.
After circling the damaged areas on the map, the Hokage's face broke into a smile.
"That settles it," he said.
"Some of these targets were insignificant, but many key facilities were destroyed. Given Sunagakure's losses on the battlefield—and the fact that the Kazekage has now seen his village partially crippled—there is only one path left to him."
He looked genuinely pleased.
Then, his smile faded, replaced by a tone heavy with meaning.
"The fighting on this front—
is coming to an end."
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