The Fall of a Genius? Karma Cycle

Rain poured down in sheets as Chiyo stood amid a battlefield littered with corpses, the bloody patterns in his Mangekyō Sharingan slowly turning.

Rainwater washed the blood from his face, but it could not wash away the stench of death hanging in the air.

"Yomi Higan!"

Chiyo murmured softly. His Sharingan vision pierced through the curtain of rain and locked onto the figure rapidly retreating in the distance.

His Dōryoku erupted once more, and the six-petaled Manjushage pattern bloomed fiercely in his eyes.

Invisible ripples of death spread outward from Chiyo. Wherever they passed, the Rain Ninjas' bodies withered rapidly like stripped bark.

Terrified screams rose one after another, only to stop abruptly in an instant.

Hanzō's figure suddenly halted. To his horror, he discovered that his arm was aging at a visible rate.

His skin wrinkled, his muscles shriveled, and his life force was being frantically drained away.

"What kind of ninjutsu is this?!"

As his voice rang out, his body immediately exploded into countless droplets and merged into the torrential rain.

Chiyo frowned, his Sharingan swiftly sweeping the area.

"A Water Clone?!"

Chiyo's gaze sharpened.

He rapidly scanned his surroundings. His Sharingan's insight clearly captured the trajectory of every raindrop, yet he could not find Hanzō's true body.

"As expected of the 'Demi-God.' Truly cunning..."

Rain slid down Chiyo's forehead, mixing with the blood flowing from the corners of his eyes before dripping into the mud.

His back remained straight, like an upright spear.

The patterns in his Sharingan flickered through the rain.

Hanzō's figure re-formed not far away. This time, his hand seals became exceptionally slow and heavy.

"To force me to use this move..."

Hanzō's voice suddenly became low and hoarse.

"Uchiha brat, you should feel honored."

His hands suddenly came together, and the pooled water on the ground began to boil.

Three Water Clones split out from the rainwater, forming a triangular formation around Chiyo.

Each clone began forming different hand seals.

"Summoning Jutsu, Ibuse!"

"Boom—!!!"

Amid a deafening explosion, thick smoke and mist shot into the sky.

The ground shook violently as a gigantic salamander over twenty meters long burst from the earth. Its grayish-brown, slime-covered skin gleamed with an eerie sheen in the rain.

Corrosive mucus dripped from the sharp Poison Fangs in its gaping mouth, burning hissing pits into the ground.

"Roar!!!"

Ibuse let out a deafening roar, its thick tail sweeping toward him.

Chiyo used the Body Flicker Technique to evade. The ground where he had stood was smashed into a crater ten meters wide.

The moment he landed, the poison glands on Ibuse's back suddenly fired dozens of arrows of venom!

Flames collided with the venom in midair, evaporating into a purple poisonous mist.

Chiyo channeled chakra into his feet and leaped fiercely into the air, his Mangekyō Sharingan locking onto Hanzō's true body atop Ibuse's head.

Yet just as he was about to activate his Dōjutsu, the pooled water beneath his feet suddenly transformed into chains and wrapped around his ankles.

"A Water Clone trap? When did he..."

Ibuse's enormous tail was already whistling toward him.

Chiyo's feet were tightly bound by water chains as Ibuse's massive tail came roaring in with a tearing gust of wind.

The shadow of death loomed over him, yet a cold curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Got you..."

The bloody patterns in his Mangekyō Sharingan abruptly bloomed, the six-petaled Manjushage pattern radiating an eerie light through the rain.

"Yomi Higan!"

Invisible ripples of death suddenly spread outward from Chiyo.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment. Raindrops hung suspended in midair, and the entire world was dyed a sickly dark red.

The first to be struck was the enormous salamander sweeping toward him.

Its slime-covered grayish-brown skin rapidly shriveled and cracked at a visible rate, while its originally ferocious eyes instantly turned ashen.

"Hiss..."

Accompanied by a scalp-numbing sucking sound, Ibuse's huge body began to rapidly contract.

Its muscles shriveled and its bones twisted. In less than three seconds, the massive creature became a dried husk and collapsed to the ground like a rag.

The three Water Clones let out shrill screams at the same time.

Their bodies twisted and distorted like punctured water balloons, their moisture forcibly sucked away by some irresistible force.

"No... way..."

One of the clones struggled to reach out a hand.

Before it could finish speaking, all three Water Clones exploded at once, turning into countless droplets that scattered down.

Every droplet shattered into several fragments the instant it hit the ground.

Just then.

A mass of rainwater gathered in the air and took form. Hanzō emerged behind Chiyo like a ghost.

The Chain Sickle in his hand glinted with an eerie blue chill, clearly coated in deadly poison, as it slashed down toward Chiyo's neck.

"Die, Uchiha brat!"

Hanzō's true body wore a savage grin. The poison on the sickle was enough to kill Chiyo instantly.

Chiyo deliberately shifted his body slightly, his gaze calmer than ever.

The instant the sickle touched his skin, the Dōryoku in his other Mangekyō Sharingan erupted.

"Karma Cycle!"

The icy sickle pierced through Chiyo from his shoulder blade to his abdomen, and time seemed to freeze.

Hanzō could clearly feel the blade slicing through flesh. The poisoned edge pierced through the young Uchiha's defenses without resistance.

He watched Chiyo cough up a mouthful of blood and stagger forward.

Hanzō did not immediately pursue. Instead, he slowly pulled out the sickle and allowed the poison to spread through Chiyo's body.

Looking at the young man kneeling on the ground, a trace of regret unexpectedly appeared in his eyes.

Hanzō's hoarse voice echoed through the rain.

"Your Dōjutsu and your talent are both unprecedented in my life.

Perhaps you might even have become the next Madara Uchiha."

"What a pity..."

Chiyo struggled to raise his head. His Mangekyō Sharingan was still turning stubbornly, though the spreading poison had already begun to blur his vision.

"But..."

Hanzō shook his head, rain dripping from the edge of his Bamboo Hat.

"Something like combat experience is ultimately not something talent can make up for."

He slowly approached, the chains dragging across the ground with a piercing scrape.

"You thought you had seen through my Water Clones? I merely let you see through them on purpose."

Hanzō stopped in front of Chiyo and looked down upon the moment this genius fell.

"The real killing move is always hidden where you cannot see it."

Chiyo's fingers dug deeply into the muddy ground, while the patterns in his Sharingan continued struggling to flicker.

"You need not feel resentful."

Hanzō raised his sickle, pressing its tip against Chiyo's throat. A trace of weariness appeared in his eyes.

"To force me this far, you have every reason to be proud. You were even stronger than those three from Konoha, but..."

His voice suddenly became incomparably cold.

"The fall of a genius often happens in an instant."

Just as the sickle was about to slice open his throat, the surrounding environment suddenly changed.

When his vision returned, Hanzō's eyes widened.

He was now half-kneeling before Chiyo Uchiha, and the sickle in his hand had fallen far away.

He felt the poison sac in his abdomen rupture, its venom successfully invading his organs and entrails.

His chakra was disrupted and could not be mobilized. His back was covered in his own thick blood.

Wasn't this the position where he had stabbed that Uchiha?

How could this be?!

"This... is impossible?!"

Hanzō stared at Chiyo Uchiha with wide eyes.

Then he coughed up a mouthful of black blood, and his face rapidly turned gray.

Chiyo slowly approached and looked down at him.

"Hanzō, how do your blade and poison feel?"

Hanzō fell to his knees, his consciousness gradually growing hazy.

His poison sac had ruptured. Even he himself could not withstand this poison.

That Uchiha actually...

He struggled to lift his head, staring fixedly into Chiyo's eyes.

Was it these eyes?

"What exactly are these eyes..."

"A dying man has no need to know so much."

Chiyo said coldly.

Hanzō wanted to say something else, but a kunai pressed beneath his throat.

With a forceful slash, he could no longer make a sound.

His body crashed heavily to the ground, splashing mud and water everywhere.

The "Demi-God" of Amegakure had fallen.

Chiyo did not let his guard down. He took out a kunai.

He went through the battlefield and finished off every ninja not eroded by Yomi Higan. Only after confirming that there was not a single living person left did he finally let out a long breath.

He had not used his Mangekyō Sharingan many times just now.

Yet even those few uses had left him with side effects that made his vision repeatedly go dark.

The Mangekyō Sharingan slowly faded, returning to normal black eyes.

Chakra gathered beneath his feet as he rapidly withdrew.

Amid the rain, his figure gradually disappeared into the distance.