Ulquiorra Descends

The arriving Anbu members relayed the Hokage's orders.

Strangely, Uchiha Ryūha accepted them without resistance.

"I'll defect after the attack is over. That'll deal an even bigger blow to the Third Hokage."

It would also give him a chance to flesh out the backstory of the force he'd invented.

More importantly, he'd have a perfect alibi.

There was no going back.

The conflict between Konoha and the Uchiha Clan was irreconcilable.

He couldn't exactly slaughter every last member of the Hokage's faction, and becoming a rogue ninja would make it easier to stir up trouble.

With that thought, Uchiha Ryūha summoned the system panel.

[Karma Points: 21000]

[Current long-term mission: Change the course of the original story. Karma Point rewards will be granted based on the degree of impact.]

[Main mission: Become the true leader of the Uchiha Clan (Current progress: 90%)]

"If I summon Zaraki Kenpachi to bundle them all up and take them away, that should count as taking control, right?"

The moonless night sky was ink-black, and thick clouds shrouded all of Konoha in a stifling silence.

The ordinary households had long since turned off their lights and gone to sleep.

Only a few lights still glimmered in the homes of ninja clans, where the on-duty ninjas studied their scrolls.

Or where a mother waited for her husband or son to return.

No one noticed that above the dense forest on the village's northeastern outskirts, an area designated as a "forbidden zone,"

the air had begun to warp unnaturally.

At first, it was only a faint ripple in the breeze, like the shimmer of heat rising on a summer day.

But soon the ripple began to widen and deepen, like an invisible mirror struck by tremendous force, its surface webbing with cracks.

The cracks spread without a sound.

Then—

"Crack."

A faint sound, like shattering glass, rang out in the silent night sky.

Space above the forest had been torn apart.

A huge, irregular black rift had opened.

Inky darkness, viscous as tar, flowed along its edges, while within lay an even deeper void, one that seemed capable of swallowing all light.

The rift slowly widened, like a demonic eye from the abyss, coldly gazing down at the forest concealing countless secrets.

Root Headquarters was built underground beneath this forest.

Fifty meters underground, in Root's command room.

The oil lamp's flame suddenly flickered violently.

Shimura Danzō, who had been bent over his desk reviewing documents, abruptly looked up. A glint flashed in his single eye.

In an instant, he sensed it—that heart-stopping pressure coming from above.

It wasn't Chakra.

It was a force more primal, colder, and steeped in death.

"Someone!" Shimura Danzō barked.

Two masked Root ninjas appeared in the room with the Body Flicker Technique and dropped to one knee.

"There's an abnormal energy signature on the surface. Send people at once—"

Before he could finish,

"BOOM—!!!!!"

The entire underground base shook violently!

It wasn't the rhythmic swaying of an earthquake. It was as if an invisible giant hand had seized the base and shaken it with all its might.

Dust sifted down from the ceiling, cracks split the walls, and the oil lamp toppled over.

The instant its flame went out, the command room plunged into darkness.

"Enemy attack—!!!"

A piercing alarm blared through the corridors on every level of the base.

The well-trained Root ninjas had entered combat readiness within three seconds.

Countless shadows poured out of rooms, training grounds, and laboratories, racing toward the emergency passage to the surface.

But as soon as they burst out of the passage, they all froze in place.

The forest was gone.

Or rather, the forest they knew, riddled with barriers and traps,

had been replaced by an eerie sight.

At the center of the black rift, every tree, rock, and patch of earth within a radius of several hundred meters had taken on a bone-white hue.

It wasn't snow or frost, but something more complete: a "draining of color."

As if the life, color, and even existence itself of the entire area had been forcibly stripped away and replaced.

Pale earth, pale dead trees, a pale sky.

And in the center of that pallid expanse, before the rift, stood a man.

No—perhaps he couldn't be called a "man."

His skin was so pale it was almost translucent, gleaming coldly against the darkness.

His short, dark green hair was combed neatly back, revealing a smooth forehead and a pair of eyes... so hollow they sent chills through the soul.

His irises were emerald green, with two dark green tear-shaped markings at the corners of his eyes.

They should have lent him an eerie beauty, but the utter lack of feeling in his gaze made him terrifying.

A fist-sized hole pierced straight through his chest. Its edges were smooth and bloodless, filled with nothing but pure void.

He wore a white robe that fell to his ankles, cinched at the waist with a wide black sash.

He stood there without moving.

Yet every Root ninja who saw him felt an instinctive, uncontrollable terror well up from the depths of their soul.

It was the most primal shudder of prey at the bottom of the food chain, facing an apex predator.

Ulquiorra Cifer.

One of the Espada, a Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande who ruled over "nothingness." He had now descended upon this place.

He slowly raised his eyelids, his emerald gaze sweeping over the humans frozen below.

Wherever his eyes fell, the air seemed to congeal, and even the wind stopped blowing.

"This," he said calmly, his voice utterly flat yet clear in everyone's ears, "is the target location."

As his words faded,

"Kill—!!!"

The Root ninjas had undergone brutal training, and after a brief moment of fear, their bloodlust overwhelmed everything else.

The first twelve Root Jonin to charge out attacked all at once!

There were no shouts or exchanges, only coordination honed to perfection.

Six charged straight ahead, unleashing a storm of Kunai, Shuriken, and poisoned Senbon that sealed off every possible avenue of escape.

Three circled around from the flanks, their Hand Seals already complete. "Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"

"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"

"Lightning Release: Earth Flow!"

The final three leaped into the air and pressed their hands to the ground. "Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"

The pale ground instantly turned into a muddy swamp, meant to restrict the enemy's movement.

A perfect combined attack.

Enough to kill an elite Jonin in an instant.

Ulquiorra didn't even look at them.

He simply stood still until the moment the attacks were about to hit—

His figure blurred for an instant.

In that moment, he "disappeared."

It wasn't an afterimage from the Body Flicker Technique, but a more complete, more impossible "disappearance."

Then, in that same instant, he reappeared in the very center of the twelve Root ninjas.

"Sonido."