Misa didn't waste much time arguing with the half-awake Kaiji.
"We need to go for mission within 15 minutes, Pakura-sama ordered," she stated firmly.
Kaiji just nodded with a yawn.
While Misa left, Kaiji washed his face and went to take a bath.
Later, after getting ready, Kaiji came outside the inn where the team was waiting for him.
He saw that everyone was already prepared; only he was late.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
Pakura signaled for everyone to get ready to move towards Loran City once again.
They still needed to gain full details regarding the purpose of the Leaf Ninjas and that powerful chakra source which they had witnessed last night.
After a few hours of travel, they once again reached Loran City.
This time, it was in the bright daylight of the afternoon sun, with no sign of fighting, only the now ruined city, with half-buried and destroyed buildings and structures.
Upon entering the City, Pakura said, "We will ask questions to queen of City. She with her people probably be staying in safe area. Find where they are, and all will be gathered there."
The Genin nodded and started moving to find where the people of the city, with their supposed queen, might be.
There was no one to be seen outside these ruined structures.
They were probably in underground safe tunnels or chambers somewhere in the city.
Kaiji thought, 'That was a good decision that we didn't part take in fight last night, and in my guess, maybe people of City would already be gone or would be getting ready to go out of this place.'
Loran had now become a deserted wasteland, not a habitable place for Civilians to stay maybe aside from some bandit groups only.
Ryūmyaku was already sealed, so the people of the city had nothing remaining for them that could make their city back into a prosperous and thriving place.
Even without these incidents, Loran City might have been destroyed due to events of the Third Shinobi War as well, though that was just speculation.
The team individually tried to find the people of the city.
Later, after about 30 minutes, Renji found that the people of the city were together and were planning on migrating somewhere on the north side of the city.
The team then went to where they were gathered.
Pakura instantly recognized Sāra, who still had her long reddish-brown hair styled in a high ponytail like last night.
Though the team didn't clearly see her face, they recognized her appearance with her straight bangs across her forehead, slightly parted.
She had violet eyes, delicate eyebrows, naturally colored lips, and wore a strapless black dress with a light teal choker and a circular red pendant.
Even in this appearance not that of suited to Royalty, she looked stunningly beautiful.
Not only the male members, but even the female members of the team were left speechless for a moment.
Only those who weren't were Pakura and Kaiji.
Pakura didn't care about such superficial things, while Kaiji was more surprised about seeing survivors of the city.
There weren't just like 50, 100, or 200, but around 700 people here.
Some carried bags, kids and elderly walked with sticks, and some even carried normal standard weapons—
They were probably the guards of this now ruined city.
Where were they last night?
Knocked unconscious?
Maybe many were killed, they are also Survivors.
Now that he noticed, many were not only in rag clothes but also have bandages...
Probably after effects of last night's events.
But the main matter was that Kaiji was surprised at this number; he didn't expect this many people to survive.
"Loran City was a large city with easily more than 10,000 people; this number is still very low," Pakura said, replying to Kaiji's unspoken question, as if reading his mind.
Kaiji nodded, understanding her point.
Loran City, after the Daimyo's Capital where the Daimyo of the nation lived in his palace...
And then Sunagakure, the Hidden Sand Village, was the next largest place in the whole Land of Wind.
Sunagakure easily had more than 50,000+ of population, Shinobi and more of Civilians combined.
And the Daimyo's Capital had even more population, with approximately 100,000+ people.
Showcasing the vast difference in civilian power and scope compared to the Shinobi world.
Then, with Loran City coming third, it would easily have 10,000 residents, and now there were only around 700 survivors, which was indeed a huge loss for the city.
Sāra then came forward to the team, offered her greetings, and asked about their purpose, though she herself likely guessed the reason.
Pakura also didn't waste time talking in circles and directly asked, "I need full details of what happened here last time, why happened, who was behind it, and why a team from Hidden Leaf village was here."
Sāra nodded, even if she didn't want to talk, she was powerless now.
With Ryūmyaku sealed and the City turned to ruins, all she had left were her some wealth, her people and the power to control the now sealed Ryūmyaku.
Sāra was also accompanied by a few guards and citizens.
Kaiji, however, didn't recognize many but recalled two women from the movie, though not vividly and clearly.
One was a woman with medium-length brown hair that extended on each side of her face, and she wore a blue headband.
Another was also a woman with shoulder-length brown hair and dark eyes similar to that of Rock Lee's.
She had two markings under her eyes and a prominent front tooth, and she had a robust build.
Kaiji didn't remember their names but recognized that they were shown in the movie, whose family members were kidnapped by Mukade to work to assemble his puppet army.
Then, Sāra spoke and told all the details asked by Pakura.
•••