I want to... swear allegiance to you!

Moonlight poured down through the gap in the dome, illuminating the half-remaining ruins and making them appear utterly desolate.

The children gradually stopped crying.

They all raised their heads cautiously, their red and swollen eyes looking at the tall young man standing in the moonlight.

They didn't know where he came from, or what his purpose was.

All they knew was that the man before them was stronger than the leader of the Root.

In this world where strength reigns supreme, the strong are the ones who decide everything!

In their eyes as they looked at Kou, besides instinctive fear, there was only deep bewilderment.

Bathed in moonlight, he calmly gazed at the few surviving children before him, whose fates he would decide.

After a moment of silence, he slowly began to speak:

"Although this question seems unnecessary, I'll ask it anyway."

Knock's gaze swept across each child's face, and he asked in a calm, soft voice:

"Do you... have anywhere left to go back to?"

The children reacted differently to Kou's question.

The short-haired girl on the left calmly shook her head, her eyes devoid of any extra emotion.

The boy leaning against the wall lowered his head, his shoulders began to tremble slightly uncontrollably, and his jaw clenched tightly.

A child, curled up in the shadows, closed his eyes in agony, digging his nails into his arm, blood seeping from beneath his skin.

There was also an older boy who neither cried nor bowed his head. He just stared intently at the blood-soaked ground behind him, his eyes filled with deep hatred.

"One was an orphan who was bought and sold, three were orphans whose entire families were wiped out, and the remaining few were orphans who were forced to kill their own relatives with their own hands..."

"Sigh, this is really not surprising at all."

He took in the expression of each child and instantly analyzed their current situation.

He crossed his arms and looked intently at the children before him, his voice a few decibels deeper than before:

"Let me make this clear first: I have no intention of taking your lives."

As Kou finished speaking, the children's tense shoulders visibly relaxed a little.

However, some children showed a hint of doubt in their eyes.

After a few breaths, the doubtful gazes gradually subsided, as if they had figured something out.

The incredibly powerful man before them wouldn't need to fabricate any lies if he truly wanted them dead.

However, what Kou said next caused their expressions to change abruptly.

"However, I will erase all your memories of tonight."

Looking at the children before him, he said in a calm tone:

"Only after this step is completed will I feel at ease letting you leave."

At this point, he seemed to suddenly remember something and added "thoughtfully":

"Oh, of course, if any of you don't want the memories of being locked up here, I can help you erase them as well."

I'm quite confident in my skills, so you can rest assured.

As he spoke, Kou revealed a very gentle smile.

But there was no room for negotiation in that smile.

He wasn't asking for their opinions; he was issuing a notification.

While Kou would try his best not to harm innocent people, matters concerning his own intelligence and safety are a different story...

Putting everything else aside, I would never do something as foolish as letting these children go without doing anything.

He will completely erase all memories of tonight from their minds, ensuring that no irreversible damage is caused to their brains!

However... if someone is too resistant, I won't rule out the safest option.

"Although it might be a little uncomfortable."

Thinking of this, a hint of killing intent flashed in Kou's deep black eyes.

The children sensed the faint but palpable killing intent in the air, and their expressions changed instantly.

Even though they aren't even considered Genin yet, having survived the Root's death selection process, they've developed an almost instinctive sensitivity to killing intent.

Almost simultaneously with sensing the killing intent, the children, who had initially looked troubled, all nodded in agreement.

He observed the children's reactions and nodded in satisfaction.

However, just as Koto reached out to the child closest to him, preparing to use the Great Memory Erasure Technique he had secretly learned in Konoha's Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force to completely erase everything from the children's minds that night,

A hoarse shout suddenly exploded in the empty ruins!

"I... I don't want to!!"

The hand that was tapping stopped in mid-air.

The faint smile that had been on his face vanished in an instant.

The children, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, turned around in horror to look in the direction from which the voice had suddenly come from.

A boy who looked to be eight or nine years old stood up from the back row, meeting everyone's gaze.

He was tall among the children, and his left sleeve was torn from the shoulder, revealing a bare arm covered with scratches that were still bleeding.

The boy met Kou's indifferent gaze, and his whole body trembled slightly involuntarily.

He suppressed the fear welling up from the bottom of his heart and walked tremblingly to Kou.

Kou didn't speak, but simply stared down at him coldly.

An even stronger killing intent than before silently emanated from Kou's body.

To him, it was just an ordinary aura, but to the child in front of him who wasn't even Genin, that killing intent... was like being in hell!

The boy groaned and knelt heavily on the ground.

His forehead was covered in cold sweat, and his knees trembled uncontrollably.

But he still forced himself to raise his head and look directly at Kou with his eyes filled with fear and pain.

"I... I don't want to forget!"

Feeling the oppressive aura emanating from Kou, the boy suppressed his fear and whispered in anguish:

"My parents died by our own hands so that my brother and I could live."

"My brother, also in order to save my life, deliberately died at my hands during tonight's chaotic battle..."

At this point, the boy seemed unable to suppress his emotions any longer, and he growled in a trembling voice:

"I don't want to forget them, I absolutely cannot forget them!! I can't forget them even if it kills me!!!"

After the boy's hoarse shouts faded, a heavy, deathly silence fell over the ruins.

The other children also lowered their heads.

Their lips were pressed tightly together, and their eyes began to well up with tears again.

Clearly, many of them were in similar situations to this boy.

"Idiot."

The cold sound of the knock broke the brief silence.

Your loved ones' greatest wish is for you to live.

Looking at the boy kneeling before him, his tone offered no comfort, only merciless sarcasm:

"If you truly care about their deaths and don't want their sacrifices to be in vain, then you should live on no matter what..."

Even if it means going against my own heart, I must live on!

"If you can't even understand such a simple principle, even if I let you leave alive tonight, you won't last long in this Ninja World."

Kou whispered mercilessly, slowly lowering his arms from his chest, his tone returning to its previous calm, devoid of any extraneous emotion:

"I really don't want to kill you, but that doesn't mean I won't."

"If you really don't want your memory erased, I respect your decision and won't force you."

At this point, Kou paused deliberately for a moment, looked directly into the boy's eyes filled with struggle and fear, and solemnly said:

"But if you insist on your own way... I can't guarantee you'll survive tonight."

Hearing Kou Na's words, which brooked no discussion, the hesitation on the faces of the other children vanished in an instant.

Almost instinctively, they lowered their heads again, ready to accept the instructions.

Hearing Kou's resolute words, the boy's body trembled violently.

He lowered his head and remained silent for a moment, then slowly, with his still trembling fingers, picked up the blood-stained Kunai from the ground.

Looking at the stubborn boy in front of him, a dark and ambiguous light flashed in his eyes.

"So... it's come to this after all?"

He sighed deeply in his heart, and calmly moved his hand to the hilt of the sword at his waist.

The angle at which the blade would fall had already been calculated in my mind.

This cut won't hurt too much...

However, just as Kou was about to draw his sword, the boy suddenly raised his hand.

The Kunai in his hand reversed direction; the tip no longer pointed at Kou, but turned towards himself.

Seeing this unexpected scene before him, his movement to draw his sword paused slightly.

The boy was clearly unaware that he had just escaped death.

He simply continued with his actions, slamming the Kunai in his hand into the ground!

"Clang!"

The blade pierced the crack in the ground, producing a crisp hum.

"I... don't want to die, and I don't want to forget my family."

The boy raised his head, meeting the gaze of the man who rarely showed a hint of confusion, and said in a sincere and loud voice:

"Therefore, there's only one thing I can do!!"

As he spoke, the boy knelt heavily on the ground, his forehead slamming into the ground with a resounding thud.

The banging was so forceful that a patch of bright red blood immediately seeped from the temple.

But as if he felt nothing at all, he lay on the ground, using the last of his strength to shout:

That is to... swear allegiance to you!