Intelligence Error, Annihilation

He didn't even know Jiraiya had come, nor did he care in the slightest—who would bother remembering the name of a piece of bread they'd eaten?

Did a piece of bread's identity as the Bread King make it inedible? Who cared what a piece of bread was called or what status it had?

And so, the incident where Jiraiya nearly got himself killed without even meeting Uchiha Yue was glossed over like this, and oddly enough, no one could find fault with it. After all, human imagination has its limits. Though they knew Uchiha Yue was strong, Jiraiya, as one of the top-tier powerhouses of the Ninja World, was no pushover either.

With some prior knowledge and proper precautions, it made perfect sense that he'd fight Uchiha Yue for three hundred rounds, lose by a single move, and end up crippled.

Within the Dead Silence Domain.

This Sunagakure jonin continuously refined the Chakra in his body, sprinting at full speed. He felt the Chakra steadily dissipating within him, did some quick calculations, and decided it wasn't a big deal, completely failing to notice that his complexion was growing paler and his speed was steadily dropping.

In his mind, if he couldn't find Uchiha Yue, as long as he escaped before his Chakra ran out, that would be fine—no big deal. He had no awareness that, besides the constant drain of Chakra, the heat, bioelectric currents, and chemical energy within his body were also diminishing.

But there was no helping it. Under normal circumstances, changes in the body like weakness, sluggish thinking, or slowed movements would be easy to detect. Not now, though.

His intelligence had already been drained. Humans, at their core, were nothing more than special machines made of flesh and blood, and the most crucial component was the brain. All his wisdom, all his thoughts, originated from that brain.

Now, with that brain lacking sufficient energy to sustain itself, merely keeping his thoughts running was a struggle—how could it easily detect the changes in his body like before?

At this moment, he was like someone under anesthesia, his hand already chopped off, yet still thinking it was there!

"Yah! No... wait? My body, my speed, my strength... how... how is this possible? I still have Chakra! My Chakra hasn't run out yet! How can this be?"

The Sunagakure jonin finally sensed something was wrong. He slowly stopped moving, his body swaying as he nearly stumbled. With a puzzled expression, he raised his hand to clench it into a fist. What had been a simple motion moments ago was now jerky and stiff, like a rusted machine, as he forced his fingers closed.

"No... this is wrong. This place doesn't just absorb Chakra—it absorbs other energy from the body too? Cold... so cold, so weak... no! I can't stay here! I have to leave!"

He looked up, finding the surroundings dim and hazy, but he still managed to roughly gauge the distance to the exit. It was nothing like he'd imagined. Based on his calculations, the Chakra in his body should have been enough to run to Konoha's gates and back, but he'd covered less than a tenth of that distance.

Yet, though humans are likened to flesh-and-blood machines, they aren't true machines. Even a real machine's efficiency drops when energy runs low—let alone a person.

Soon, after running back along the same path for a while, his knees gave way, and he collapsed entirely.

"Damn it! Body, move for me! GWAH!!! I command you to move!!!"

He lay on the ground, frantically driving his energy-depleted body, but how could limbs without power receive commands from the brain? How could they sense the brain's will?

No matter how immense his willpower, faced with such reality, he could only bow his head.

"Captain! No good—the captain's Chakra is depleted!"

At the edge of the Dead Silence Domain, the Sunagakure ninjas saw this and panicked. After a moment's thought, the chunin made a rough calculation, deciding the captain wasn't far. If he went in, he could bring him back.

Thinking this, he charged in.

"No! Don't come in! Don't come in! This place is... hell! GWAH! Don't save me—get out of here!"

The jonin looked up at his teammate running in, mustered his last strength, and screamed desperately. After that cry, he lost all power and collapsed completely. If he wasn't taken out in time, he'd die here like the surrounding plants, becoming an eternal human specimen.

But he didn't know that his voice never reached his comrade's ears—it dissipated the moment it left his mouth.

Sound, after all, is also energy.

"Captain, I'm coming to save you!"

His teammate ran over, just like the Konoha ninja who'd tried to save Jiraiya, and attempted to drag him away. After pulling him a few steps, with only a little more distance to go before escaping—

"Captain... I'm sorry. I have no strength left."

THUD!

Both bodies hit the ground.

Outside, seeing this, the genin stared at that final stretch, exchanging glances. Just that little bit left—only that little bit!

They could definitely save the captain! They had to save the captain!

Thinking this, they began using ninjutsu, but the moment their techniques manifested inside the Dead Silence Domain, they dissipated instantly. Watching their captain's faces grow worse by the second, someone, in desperation, charged in.

"Just... just a little more... hehe... I'll definitely... bring everyone... out alive! GYAAAH!!!"

A hand slowly emerged from the edge of the Dead Silence Domain, then fell heavily to the ground.

All the Sunagakure ninjas who'd come for this mission lay collapsed inside the domain. The last genin had tied his comrades together with their clothes, and though he was only one step away from pulling them all out of this hell, that step was like an impassable chasm, impossible to cross.

Whoosh~

A snowflake drifted down from the sky, landing on the genin's head.

"No... no... power, come out, come out! How could we die so pathetically? I have to... I have to..."

The intel was wrong!

It only said this domain had the terrifying ability to absorb Chakra—it never said it could absorb other energies too!