Hinata allowed herself to cry: for herself, for the villagers, for her comrades, for lulling Marunomi into a false sense of security. Her situation was certainly dire, but a fight wasn’t over until you gave up or died. In the meanwhile, she needed information from Marunomi.
“W-w-what did you m-m-mean about s-s-sacrificing the village?”
“Ah, at this stage destroying the Behemoth’s Tongue would’ve doomed the Hidden Village of Food.” Marunomi beamed. “I’m actually pretty proud of that! See, breaking the pillars in the wrong order shifted the Melting Pot, and that formed a bubble in the barrier to protect the surviving pillars from both the inside and the outside. So now it can only be undone with the Behemoth’s Tongue. If you and Pinky hadn’t hesitated, everyone in the village would’ve been trapped in there and died meaninglessly! Now they can still become a meal.”
“B-b-but how can that beam break the barrier?”
“You still hope to steal it from me!” Marunomi laughed pleasantly. “You don’t look that gutsy. But I respect that! OK, I’ll give you a shot.” Marunomi looked around theatrically and then leaned in close to whisper. Her breath tickled Hinata’s ear.
“You noticed each pillar has an indentation below a slot? You fill the indentation,” Marunomi audibly patted her belly, “which will open two more slots. You have to insert the Tongue in the center slot while channeling chakra inside those two slots. That’ll complete a circuit.” Marunomi sat back up. “So even if you get the Tongue, you’ll need my belly if you want to finish the Melting Pot! But you won’t be rescuing anyone anyway.” Marunomi shifted to smother Hinata with her belly.
