Despair

"HAHAHAHA—!!!" Genki threw back his head and laughed maniacally, his voice shaking the heavens and the earth. It brimmed with the thrill of his surging power and the desire to destroy everything. "I'm stronger! I've become stronger! Who can stop me now?!"

Below, the Konoha Ninja had already crumbled into utter despair.

They had witnessed Fugaku Uchiha's brutal death with their own eyes, watched Sarutobi Konohamaru get tortured to death, and seen the Third crippled and rendered powerless. Now they had watched Itachi Uchiha get forced to kill his own younger brother, only for the body to be crushed into pulp and the soul devoured.

One tragedy after another had pounded against their mental defenses like a heavy hammer, utterly crushing their last shred of hope.

The dense barrage of Ninjutsu had long since stopped. The thirty thousand shinobi seemed to have had all their strength drained away. Some collapsed onto the ground, clutching their heads and crying out in despair;

some stared blankly up at the sky, their bodies trembling uncontrollably;

others were so terrified that they collapsed and soiled themselves, unable even to find the strength to stand.

Despair spread through the crowd like a plague, pressing down on everyone until they could barely breathe.

Now, Jiraiya was the only Kage Level fighter left in Konoha.

Fukasaku and Shima had been gravely injured and could no longer fight;

Sarutobi Hiruzen had been crippled, reduced to a lamb awaiting slaughter;

Itachi Uchiha was dead, his soul destroyed;

the other Jonin and Chunin had already suffered devastating casualties, and those who remained had completely lost the will to fight.

Jiraiya stood motionless, Senjutsu Chakra still surging around him, yet his face was etched with profound helplessness.

He looked at the frenzied figure in the sky, at those terrifying Seven-Magatama Mangekyo Sharingan, and at the collapsed shinobi below. A sorrow unlike anything he had ever felt welled up in his heart.

He had tried every Senjutsu he could think of, yet none could even break through his opponent's defenses;

Fukasaku and Shima's genjutsu had been effortlessly broken, and they had even been gravely wounded in return.

Every attack seemed utterly feeble before Genki, like an egg thrown against a rock.

"It's over... Konoha is finished..." A Jonin slumped onto the ground and muttered hoarsely, his eyes filled with despair. "We're no match for him... No one can stop him..."

His words were like a fuse, igniting everyone's despair in an instant.

More people began to sob and wail. Some even gave up resisting and turned to flee frantically toward the edge of the village, only to be knocked to the ground by the pressure radiating from the Susanoo Armor, left to await death in despair.

Jiraiya clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his palms, blood dripping between his fingers.

He wasn't willing to give up, but there was nothing he could do.

The monster before him had grown so powerful that it surpassed everything the Shinobi World understood. There was no way Jiraiya could stand against him alone.

In the sky, Genki's gaze swept slowly over the broken Konoha Ninja below, the mockery and cruelty in his eyes growing ever more pronounced.

He controlled the thousand-meter-tall Susanoo Armor and slowly strode toward the center of Konoha once more.

Every footfall made the earth tremble violently, as if counting down to Konoha's destruction.

The shadow of ruin had completely engulfed the entire village. Not a glimmer of hope remained.

"Bzz—"

A flash of crimson light flickered in the night sky. The next moment, under the numb, despairing gazes of everyone present, Genki controlled the thousand-meter-tall Black Susanoo Armor and slowly raised the Eight-Handled Sword that pierced the heavens once more.

The blade sliced through the air with a piercing whistle. He had no target in mind and paused without hesitation. Driven by nothing but pure, frenzied destruction, he brought down this indiscriminate slaughtering strike.

In his eyes, everything in front of him was now just an "obstacle"—the shinobi fighting to the death, the civilians fleeing in panic, the ruined buildings. All of it deserved to be erased.

Only one howling obsession remained in his mind: destroy everything!

"Shhk—!"

The several-hundred-meter-long black blade swept across the area, reaping its victims like the scythe of death through a field of wheat.

With a single casual strike, dozens, even hundreds, of shinobi were sliced in half by the blade's chakra. Blood sprayed like fountains; severed limbs and shattered ninja tools whirled through the air, landing in a sticky mire of gore.

Those lucky enough to escape the blade itself were smashed against the walls by the shockwave it unleashed. Their bones shattered, blood spilling from their mouths as their lives were snuffed out.

Even more despicable, he showed no intention of sparing the powerless civilians hiding in their homes.

The Susanoo Armor's enormous foot trampled over the houses like an insect-crushing boot. The wooden buildings collapsed instantly. Terrified cries rose from within, but lasted only an instant before the muffled crash of the giant foot drowned them out, leaving nothing but a ruined heap of mangled flesh.

Time flew by amid unrelenting terror. In less than five minutes, the Sarutobi Clan's ancestral grounds, once the source of their glory, were utterly destroyed by Genki's own hand as Sarutobi Hiruzen watched in despair.

The elderly Hokage had been abandoned in a corner of the ruins. The agony of his severed hands and feet had long since faded into numbness. All he could do was stare through tear- and blood-filled eyes as his clansmen fell one by one, familiar homes were leveled, and the symbols of his clan's legacy were cleaved to dust.

He wanted to scream, to fight back, but could only manage a faint whimper. Pain churned within him like lava, yet he no longer had the strength to let any of it out.

At last, the final Sarutobi clansman fell into a pool of blood. The entire Sarutobi Clan was wiped out, without a trace left behind.

But Genki's slaughter did not end there.

He controlled the Susanoo Armor and turned without hesitation, striding toward the ancestral grounds of the Mitokado Clan and Utatane Clan, beside the Sarutobi Clan's territory.

The tremors of its giant feet rang out like the drums of death, drawing closer with every step to these two clans, whose legacies were just as ancient.

"No! Stay away from my clansmen!"

"Fight to the end! Protect our home!"

The shinobi of both clans roared in despair and unleashed Ninjutsu with the last of their strength. Yet their attacks were still as useless as tickles against the Susanoo Armor's black plating.

Countless heartrending cries echoed through the night—the roars of men, the wails of women, the shrieks of children, all blending into a dirge of despair.

Tens of thousands of shinobi launched a sweeping assault, yet they could not even slow the Susanoo Armor's advance.