The Death of Hiruzen Sarutobi

"Ha ha ha, are you joking at a time like this?"

Uchiha Yue laughed. The next moment, several chains burst from the ground and drilled into Hiruzen Sarutobi's body.

"No!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi roared and struggled. After realizing he could not break free, he gave up resisting, lowered his hands, and began circulating the Chakra within his body as he stared fixedly at Uchiha Yue.

The next moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi fell into Uchiha Yue's grasp, those scarlet eyes staring at him coldly.

"Hiruzen Sarutobi, the time for you to die has come!"

Uchiha Yue's voice rang out just as he was about to crush Hiruzen Sarutobi to death.

"No, the one who will die is you! Reap..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi suddenly raised his head. The Chakra within him had been pushed to its limit. Now was the moment...

Splat!

The sound of flesh bursting rang out. Before Hiruzen Sarutobi could finish speaking, his body exploded. At the final moment before the Reaper Death Seal could activate, Uchiha Yue crushed him to death on the spot.

Hiruzen Sarutobi died!

At the moment of his death, he did not even know Uchiha Yue's name. The only thing he knew was that this upheaval had been caused by Shimura Danzō and Uchiha Itachi, and had even arisen with his tacit approval.

If he had known, would he have regretted it?

However, there were no what-ifs. Shimura Danzō, Uchiha Itachi, and Hiruzen Sarutobi were all dead now.

"Heh heh, did you think I couldn't tell what you were trying to do?"

Uchiha Yue released his grip, then his body slowly rose into the sky.

"Come on, world. Embrace the end! Heh heh!"

Uchiha Yue lowered his head and looked indifferently at the world beneath his feet. The next moment, he raised a hand, and a golden ring of light slowly emerged from it.

Susanoo's second divine artifact: the Energy Ring.

The Energy Ring slowly rose and expanded, encircling that enormous body. The next moment, the area beyond Uchiha Yue's current absorption range dimmed slightly. Moonlight flowed toward him like water, and the surrounding temperature began to drop.

The Energy Ring had no offensive power whatsoever. Its sole effect was to enhance his energy absorption. While it was activated, he could not move, so it could not be considered a particularly powerful divine artifact.

"Power! Ha ha, it's pouring in without end! Hahaha!!!"

Feeling the ceaseless, increasingly vast and surging Chakra within his body, Uchiha Yue laughed.

There was no upper limit to his absorption and devouring of energy. The more energy he devoured, the more his body would automatically evolve under the stimulation of that immense power, becoming increasingly stronger. Whether it was strength, speed, total Chakra reserves, or even lifespan, all of it would continuously increase—wildly, explosively, endlessly.

It was not just light energy. He could even absorb some of the thermal energy in the air. Within the range of his energy field, he could absorb even the energy inside other ninjas' bodies.

As he continued absorbing energy, the surrounding environment would become colder and darker. Moreover, because there was no limit, as he continued devouring, the Ninja World would become increasingly frigid, receiving less and less light, until it completely became a planet without any illumination, frozen over by bitter cold.

Uchiha Yue's mere existence had already become a disaster—an ultimate calamity that would continue growing and, if it could not be destroyed, would eventually wipe out all life on this planet.

However, no one had realized that future yet. At that moment, Konoha's ninjas were rapidly evacuating Konoha's residents and leading them away from the village.

The Hokage had already fallen. They could no longer defeat such a monster. Other than fleeing, they had no choice.

"What do we do? The Hokage has died in battle!"

"What do we do? Go, let's find Lord Jiraiya and Tsunade! Konoha still has hope!"

"Also, investigate! Investigate this thoroughly! What exactly happened? And where is the Uchiha Clan?"

"The Uchiha Clan seems to have been exterminated. It seems Lord Danzo was the one who destroyed them!"

"The Sharingan—I saw it! Inside that giant was a Sharingan! Could it be that a member of the Uchiha Clan suffered such an enormous shock because of the clan's extermination that his Sharingan awakened and turned him into this?"

"It's all Shimura Danzō's fault! If that old bastard hadn't wanted to lay hands on the Uchiha Clan, how could Konoha have become like this!"

As the ninjas evacuated Konoha's civilians, they continued discussing the situation. As they talked, they quickly pieced together what had happened. Once they understood, they were consumed by rage. Many of them knew that Shimura Danzō was less than human, a beast. If not for the Hokage backing him, he would have been killed long ago for the things he had done.

That had been one thing in the past, but no one had expected that old beast to cause such a massive disaster this time, plunging Konoha into such a grave and terrifying crisis, even getting the Hokage killed in battle. That alone would have been bad enough, but that monster was completely unharmed.

They had no way to deal with that monster either. This was a catastrophe even more terrifying than the Nine-Tails' Night, one that had directly forced them to abandon Konoha.

They had even lost their homes. When had they ever been so miserable?

And all of this was the fine work of that old beast Shimura Danzō!

If they had known this would happen, they would have wanted to find Shimura Danzō in advance and chop that old bastard into minced meat. Unfortunately, it was too late to say any of that now. It no longer meant anything. They had completely become homeless dogs.

"Maybe we can try persuading that monster. He is, after all, a ninja of Konoha. Perhaps if we persuade him, he'll realize his mistakes. Then we won't have to leave Konoha."

At that moment, a ninja from the Hyuga Clan spoke up.

The other ninjas looked at him with strange expressions, as though they were looking at an idiot. Seriously, are you a fish? Do you only have seven seconds of memory?

How could he come up with such an idea? Had he forgotten that guy had killed so many ninjas, even the Hokage? A monster like that clearly no longer cared about Konoha. How could he possibly realize his mistakes through persuasion?

"Maybe it could work. Why don't you go try?"

A ninja from the Nara Clan looked at the Hyuga Clan ninja and spoke. The Hyuga Clan ninja immediately fell silent.