Crimson blood seeped through the gaps between the giant hand's fingers, staining Uchiha Genki's hands red.
Without changing expression, he finished the cruel act, then casually tossed the pair of bloody eyeballs toward Sarutobi Hiruzen below.
"Plop." The eyeballs landed by Sarutobi Hiruzen's feet, rolled a few times, and came to a stop.
"Hahahaha—!!" Uchiha Genki let out a madman's wild laughter, his voice brimming with vengeful delight. "Do you know, Sarutobi Hiruzen?
"This is the pain the Uchiha Clan members went through! This is the tragedy that befell countless families because of your leaders' decisions! Now it's your turn to experience it for yourself!"
Watching Sarutobi Hiruzen's hands tremble as he crouched down in disbelief and gently cradled the still-warm eyeballs in his wrinkled palms, tears mingling with bloody streaks pouring madly from his eyes, Uchiha Genki laughed even more maniacally.
"I'm going to... tear you limb from limb—!!" Genki's mockery and cruelty had thoroughly enraged the aged Hokage.
Sarutobi Hiruzen suddenly raised his head, eyes bloodshot, bloody tears streaming down his cheeks. He formed Hand Seals at incredible speed, desperately forcing the last remnants of chakra in his body into action. One Ninjutsu after another thundered toward the Susanoo Armor.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"
"Earth Release: Earth Flow River!"
"Lightning Style: Earth Run!"
...Even as his chakra ran dry and pain tore through his meridians, even as his body trembled from the strain, he didn't stop.
But no matter what Ninjutsu he used, no matter how powerful it was, it was utterly helpless and laughable against the seemingly invincible defense of the Perfect Susanoo. It couldn't even stir a ripple.
As Sarutobi Hiruzen stared on in utter despair, pain, and rage, Uchiha Genki turned Konohamaru into a second Fugaku Uchiha right before his eyes.
He gouged out his eyes, severed his hands and limbs, sliced off his nose, cut out his tongue, beheaded him, and tore out his heart... Every cruel action was like the sharpest knife, carving into Sarutobi Hiruzen's heart again and again.
He could only watch as his most beloved grandson was brutally tortured to death before his eyes, powerless to do anything.
Sarutobi Hiruzen went completely mad. Throwing his head back, he let out a shrill scream that sounded nothing like a human voice. Bloody tears poured faster from his eyes, chakra churned wildly through his body, and he slumped to the ground like a puppet with no soul.
But in Uchiha Genki's eyes, it was all so beautiful, so delightful.
He looked at Sarutobi Hiruzen, collapsed on the ground and utterly broken, and at the fear and despair in the eyes of the surrounding shinobi. Feeling the pleasure of revenge wash over his soul, he threw his head back again and let out a crazed laugh that shook heaven and earth.
"Hahahahahaha—!!!!"
His laughter echoed wildly through Konoha's night sky, filled with an endless desire for destruction and despair. It heralded that this calamity had only just begun...
Genki's earth-shaking, crazed laughter was like an ice-coated needle, stabbing viciously into Obito Uchiha's ears in the distance.
Hidden in the shadows, he felt every hair on his body stand on end. An indescribable chill ran down his spine, his scalp tingled, and even breathing became difficult.
It was over!
He'd completely screwed everything up!
The thought boomed through his mind like a hammer, leaving him dizzy.
Obito clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His face beneath the mask was deathly pale.
He had spent years carefully laying his plans. The core purpose behind the Uchiha Clan's extermination was simple: he feared that this clan of Sharingan-wielding geniuses would produce another powerhouse beyond his control, like Shisui Uchiha or Itachi Uchiha, and disrupt his plan to bring about the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Shisui's Kotoamatsukami could control another person's will, while Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan techniques were effective in both offense and defense and could even seal their targets. Both had once made him wary.
That was why he'd proceeded so cautiously, stirring up conflict between the Uchiha and Konoha and using Itachi to exterminate the clan. He'd thought that would settle everything once and for all, snuffing out any potential threats in the cradle.
But he'd never imagined that his actions wouldn't just fail to eliminate the threat—they'd personally given rise to a monster a hundred times more terrifying than Shisui or Itachi!
A lunatic who had completely slipped from his control, his reason devoured by madness!
Remembering what had just happened, Obito's heart sank.
The reason he'd done everything in his power to help Itachi earlier, even proposing that they join forces, wasn't because he wanted to save Konoha. He'd hoped to use Itachi's power, together with his own Kamui, to kill this unexpected "variable" while Uchiha Genki had only just awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan technique and his power hadn't yet stabilized.
He'd assumed that even if Genki's newly awakened Special Mangekyo was strange, it would have some exploitable weakness.
After all, even the strongest Mangekyo Sharingan techniques took time to master. But reality had slapped him hard in the face—this Uchiha Genki was stronger than anything he could have imagined!
His thousand-meter-tall Perfect Susanoo couldn't be breached by Jiraiya's Sage Art or Itachi's Totsuka Blade, and Obito's Kamui couldn't even begin to shake its defenses!
Obito had no way of knowing that, powerful as Genki's Ōkuninushi and Magatsunokami were by nature, they couldn't possibly have grown so rapidly under normal circumstances.
The souls he'd devoured in such numbers should have brought a devastating assault on his will. Anyone else would have suffered a shattered soul and died long ago.
But Genki had witnessed his mother and older sister die horribly before his eyes, and that unbearable grief had already broken him completely;
And then, by devouring their souls with his own hands, he'd extinguished any hope of bringing them back. That despair had crushed what remained of his reason.
Uchiha Genki was no longer a whole "person." He was only a shell filled with madness and hatred.
His power had surged so quickly because he'd forcibly amassed it by devouring countless souls. The price was the total obliteration of his humanity, leaving only an obsession with destroying everything.
What made Obito's scalp tingle and his back turn cold more than anything else were the words Genki had just screamed.
His target wasn't merely the destruction of Konoha!
He wanted to drag the entire Shinobi World—even the Shinobi Worlds of every parallel universe—into hell and destroy them all!
That went far beyond anything in Obito's plans!
He wanted to control the Shinobi World and create a "peaceful world" where everyone lived in a dream through the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
But if the entire Shinobi World was destroyed, with not a single living thing left, who would he cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi on?
Would all the plans he'd spent years making, all his Hidden Endurance, become a joke?
Cold sweat ran down Obito's temple, soaking the loose strands of hair on his forehead.
Before you continue