Lord Fucheng, Dead

Explosion Release: Bloodthirsty Self-Detonation is an ability designed for mutual destruction.

It is a secret Explosion Release technique developed by the Iwagakure ninja Gari to prevent himself from being captured and interrogated under torture.

As long as he swallows a large amount of blood while in extreme pain, he can use that blood to replace hand seals and detonate all of his chakra.

Already heavily wounded and on the verge of death, Gari frantically drank his own blood.

Hopping on one leg, he charged toward Uchiha Fucheng!

"Art is an explosion!"

The power of nearly seventy or eighty Fire Release: Great Fireball Techniques stacked together into a terrifying force.

A massive mushroom cloud of an explosion rose into the air, centered on the Explosion Release ninja Gari.

Sand and gravel flew across the ground.

Everything within a hundred meters was ravaged by blue flames.

Mikoto and the others, who had already run quite far, stared blankly into the distance.

The terrifying explosion site was so dazzling that it was impossible to look at directly.

A horrific thought struck everyone's heart.

"Lord Uchiha Fucheng, could he have been..."

"Lord Fucheng!"

With a tearful voice, Mikoto tried to rush into the flames before they had even extinguished, disregarding her own life.

In the end, Uchiha Hezi barely managed to hold her back.

The survivors—Mikoto, Hezi, and Hatake Jiangyi—looked at the scorched earth spanning hundreds of meters and felt as if they couldn't breathe.

The three of them opened their mouths wide, gasping frantically, their hands clutching their throats as bloodshot veins appeared in their eyes.

The thin air caused the flames to begin to shrink.

Fortunately, they were at a distance.

Air currents from further away whipped up a strong wind, quickly bringing in more oxygen!

The three of them had not died in the explosion, but they had nearly died from the terrifying suffocation.

"What a terrifying ninjutsu!"

After regaining their breath, the three lay on the ground like fish pulled from the water, their bodies contorted as they greedily inhaled with all their might.

Weak and powerless, Mikoto looked at the sky with tear-filled eyes, whispering in a sorrowful tone, "Lord Fucheng sacrificed himself to save us!"

Hatake Jiangyi burst into tears.

Beside them, Uchiha Hezi even shed tears of blood.

A second tomoe slowly took shape in Uchiha Hezi's eyes.

[Follower marked, current loyalty 100%]

[Contract fulfilled, follower Mikoto successfully bound]

Feeling the notification in his mind, Fucheng looked with satisfaction at the three people collapsed on the ground.

It was not until the two-tomoe Sharingan in Uchiha Hezi's eyes had fully formed that Fucheng slowly stepped out from behind a giant rock further away.

"What are you crying for? Are you crying for me?" Uchiha Fucheng walked up to the three of them with a mischievous sense of humor.

"Ah! Ah?" The three struggled to sit up.

Seeing that Uchiha Fucheng was uninjured, they rubbed their eyes in disbelief.

"L-Lord, you didn't die?"

Mikoto didn't know why, but the moment she saw Fucheng, she felt as if the sky had brightened.

She couldn't help but feel a special, grounded sense of intimacy.

Uchiha Hezi was even more excited.

She forced herself to stand up despite the pain, "Lord Fucheng, you're alive—that's wonderful."

Hatake Jiangyi performed a full prostration, touching his forehead to the ground to salute Fucheng.

"Thank you for the rescue, Lord Fucheng. If not for you, I would have been reduced to nothing but bones." His sobbing, wailing voice was enough to make one sigh.

Seeing that none of them were seriously injured, Uchiha Fucheng felt relieved.

Fucheng comforted them, "This enemy was a member of Iwagakure's special Explosion Release unit, the elite jonin Gari. We were very lucky to win this time.

He was arrogant and underestimated us; otherwise, this elite jonin could theoretically have killed all four of us head-on."

Looking at the completely uninjured Uchiha Fucheng, Mikoto asked with concern.

"Lord Fucheng, how did you dodge the explosion? We thought you had sacrificed yourself in that massive blast."

Fucheng looked at this follower who had successfully bound to him, smiling at Misaka Mikoto with satisfaction.

"The person who released the Fire Dragon Barrage at the end was not my true body, but my Multi-Shadow Clone. Gari, the Explosion Release ninja whose eyes were injured by the Fire Style, did not discover my deliberate disguise."

"The panicked expression feigned by the clone made him dare to attempt mutual destruction with me. Having lost too much blood, he had already missed his last chance to discover the shadow clone."

At this moment, Mikoto's beautiful eyes shimmered.

Her eyes were filled with nothing but admiration and gratitude for Uchiha Fucheng.

She did not know that she had already been bound as Fucheng's follower.

From this moment on.

Her personal destiny was tightly fused with that of Uchiha Fucheng.

As the three of them consumed the Hemostatic Pill and Military Ration Pill, Uchiha Fucheng immediately took Mikoto and the others, who had recovered slightly, to get as far away from the explosion site as possible.

The massive explosion was highly likely to attract the attention of more ninjas participating in the battle.

With his chakra running low, Uchiha Fucheng's current strategy was to avoid conflict whenever possible.

Following the binding of Mikoto's follower status, a series of notifications appeared directly in Uchiha Fucheng's mind.

[Changed the destiny trajectory of Misaka Mikoto (Uchiha Mikoto)]

[Changed the destiny trajectory of Uchiha Itachi]

[Changed the destiny trajectory of Uchiha Sasuke]

"?!" Fucheng was surprised.

Even though he had also saved Uchiha Hezi and Hatake Jiangyi, the notifications only contained three Fate Dice related to Misaka Mikoto.

Fucheng pondered, "It seems that only the destinies of characters recognized by the system will yield corresponding rewards when changed."

Uchiha Hezi and Hatake Jiangyi were not within the scope of the system's rewards.

[Reward 1: Uchiha Mikoto's Fate Dice]

[Reward 2: Uchiha Itachi's Fate Dice]

[Reward 3: Uchiha Sasuke's Fate Dice]

Fucheng had a strange feeling of NTR-ing Uchiha Fugaku, the man who would have been the brother-in-law.

He had essentially taken Fugaku's wife and children in one fell swoop.

"Amitabha, my sins, my sins."

Once Fucheng received the three rewards, the guilt of "poaching" instantly vanished.

In the original timeline, Fugaku would father Itachi and trigger the clan-extermination disaster. Mikoto shouldn't be with him; I might as well take her for myself, Fucheng chuckled inwardly.

To hell with Uchiha Fugaku.

The current Mikoto was his, Uchiha Fucheng's, Mikoto.

Mikoto hadn't even reached the age of arranged marriage yet, so his preemptive strike didn't count as "poaching."

While maintaining a rapid retreat, Fucheng opened all three rewards in his mind.

His recognition value had increased a bit more this time.

However, he only had 10 points to allocate to the three Fate Dice.

"Sigh, a little gamble is for fun, a big gamble hurts the body—open, open, open!"

The three rewards ultimately yielded completely different contents.

Mikoto's die rolled a 4, which was an ability/skill reward, granting him Lightning Style aptitude.

After a tingling sensation across his skin, Uchiha Fucheng felt his ability to control chakra had strengthened significantly.

His mastery of Lightning Style chakra transformation had also improved drastically.

Fucheng thought to himself, "In that case, I can try to develop Lightning Style ninjutsu like Chidori or Chidori Current. Paired with the observational power of the Sharingan, the attack power will be much stronger than Fire Style."

Previously, Uchiha Fucheng possessed Fire, Earth, and Wind attributes; with Mikoto's reward, he now had an additional Lightning attribute.

If he could obtain the Water attribute as well, he would be like the Third Hokage or Jiraiya.

He would possess the talent of a ninja with all five elements.

As for Uchiha Itachi's Fate Dice, it luckily rolled a 5!