The Death of Hiruzen Sarutobi

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

Uchiha Yue laughed, and the next moment, several chains surged from the ground, burrowing into Hiruzen Sarutobi's body.

"No!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi roared, struggling, and when he found he couldn't break free, he gave up resistance, lowered his hands, and began driving the Chakra inside him, staring fixedly at Uchiha Yue.

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

"Hiruzen Sarutobi, now is the time for you to die!"

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

"No, you're the one who dies! Reaper..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi suddenly lifted his head, his Chakra pushed to its absolute limit, now was the moment to—

Pfft!

The next moment, the sound of flesh and blood bursting rang out. Before Hiruzen Sarutobi could finish his words, his body exploded on the spot, crushed to death by Uchiha Yue at the final moment of the Reaper Death Seal's activation.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, dead!

At the moment of his death, he didn't even know Uchiha Yue's name. All he knew was that this upheaval had been caused by Shimura Danzō and Uchiha Itachi, and had even occurred under his tacit approval.

If he had known, who could say whether he would have regretted it?

However, there was no if. Shimura Danzō, Uchiha Itachi, Hiruzen Sarutobi—they were all dead now.

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

Uchiha Yue released his grip, then slowly began to float upward, rising into the sky.

"Well then, come, world, welcome the end! Heh heh!"

Uchiha Yue lowered his head, staring coldly at the world beneath his feet. The next moment, he raised his hand, and a golden ring slowly materialized from his palm.

Susanoo's second divine artifact, the Energy Ring.

The Energy Ring began to slowly rise and expand, slipping over this massive form. The next moment, the space beyond Uchiha Yue's temporary absorption range dimmed slightly, and moonlight flowed toward him like running water, while the surrounding temperature dropped even further.

The Energy Ring had no offensive capability; its only effect was to enhance his own energy absorption. While the Energy Ring was active, he couldn't move, so it wasn't exactly a powerful divine artifact.

"Power! Haha, surging in endlessly! Hahaha!!!"

Uchiha Yue felt the unceasing surge within him, his Chakra growing vaster and more turbulent, and he laughed.

His absorption and devouring of energy had no upper limit. The more energy he devoured, the more his body would begin to evolve automatically under the stimulation of immense power, growing stronger and stronger—whether in strength, speed, total Chakra reserves, or even lifespan—all of it endlessly increasing, wildly increasing, violently increasing, fiercely increasing, surging forward without end.

It wasn't just light energy; even some of the heat in the air could be absorbed. Within the range of his energy field, even the energy inside other ninja could be drained.

As he continued to absorb, the surrounding environment grew colder and darker. And because there was no upper limit, as he kept devouring, the Ninja World would grow colder and colder, the sunlight scarcer and scarcer, until it became a planet completely devoid of light, sealed in bitter frost.

Uchiha Yue's mere existence had already become a disaster—an ever-growing, ultimate calamity that, if never destroyed, would eventually annihilate all life on this planet.

However, no one had yet realized this future. At this moment, Konoha's ninja were rapidly evacuating the village's residents, leading them to flee Konoha.

The Hokage had already fallen. Such a monster was beyond their ability to defeat. Other than fleeing, they had no choice.

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

"What do we do? Let's go find Lord Jiraiya, find Lady Tsunade—Konoha still has hope!"

"Also, investigate, investigate thoroughly—what the hell happened? And what about the Uchiha Clan?"

"The Uchiha Clan seems to have been wiped out, apparently destroyed by Lord Danzo!"

"Sharingan—I saw it. Inside that giant was a Sharingan! Could it be that a member of the Uchiha Clan, driven mad by the clan's annihilation, awakened the Sharingan and turned into this?"

"It's all Shimura Danzō's fault! If that old bastard hadn't targeted the Uchiha Clan, Konoha wouldn't be in this state now!"

These ninja evacuated Konoha's civilians, discussing among themselves. As they talked, they quickly pieced together what had happened. Once they understood, they were filled with boundless rage. Many knew that Shimura Danzō was a beast who did inhuman things. If not for the Hokage backing him, he would have been killed long ago for his deeds.

That was one thing, but no one had expected that this old beast would stir up such a disaster this time, bringing such a terrible, terrifying crisis upon Konoha, even causing the Hokage to die in battle. And even after the Hokage's death, that monster was still completely unharmed.

They had no way to deal with that monster either. This was an even more horrifying catastrophe than the Nine-Tails' night, directly forcing them to flee Konoha.

They had even lost their homes—when had they ever been so humiliated?

And all of this was the doing 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 mincemeat. But now, it was too late to say anything—it was meaningless. They had completely become homeless dogs.

"Maybe we could try to persuade that monster. After all, he was once a Konoha ninja. Maybe under our persuasion, he'd realize his mistake? Then we wouldn't have to leave Konoha."

At that moment, a Hyuga Clan ninja spoke up.

As soon as he said this, the other ninja looked at him with an indescribable expression, as if looking at an idiot. Seriously, were you a fish? Did your memory only last seven seconds?

Coming up with an idea like that—had you forgotten that guy had killed so many ninja, even the Hokage? A monster like that clearly no longer cared about Konoha. How could he possibly realize his mistake through persuasion?

"Maybe it could work. How about you give it a try?"

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