"Pssh... psssh... pssshhh..."
"Crack... crackle... crack-crack-crack..."
As Chiba stepped into the scorched earth still radiating heat, wisps of white vapor mixed with traces of black smoke rose before him amid crisp cracking sounds and the hiss of steaming heat.
They slowly rose from the stump of a split but unfallen tree directly ahead of him—a giant among the trees in the forest, thick enough that three children could barely wrap their arms around it, its lower half already covered in scorch marks.
The trees surrounding this patch of charred ground had been ignited by the searing heat. Flames crackled around their roots now.
Yet they showed no sign of spreading. They only burned inward toward this scorched patch, forming a blazing circle like a ring of fire that neatly enclosed the blackened earth.
"Turning to ash really was impossible..."
As he took in the scene before him, Chiba's gaze eventually settled on something. A faint, indescribable smile touched his lips as he murmured softly.
There, in his eyes, was a young man seated against the half-charred tree, his entire body giving off wisps of white heat. Fragments of solid black Chakra rose from him, turning into strands of black smoke that dissipated into the air.
It was Uchiha Nobuhiko!
But at this moment, the last layer of Uchiha Nobuhiko's Susanoo armor had already peeled away and evaporated, turning into black smoke that vanished into the air.
The Susanoo mode had been released! His head hung limply to one side, with no trace of life detectable from him. It was as if his life, like that final strand of black smoke Chiba had watched disappear, had also dissipated into the air.
Then, it was time to confirm it.
However, as he looked at the seemingly dead Uchiha Nobuhiko, Chiba's expression gradually