Konoha in Great Chaos

Amidst the violent roar of explosions.

Countless Kikaichū were blasted away, their severed limbs scattered everywhere as insect ichor splattered about.

The air was thick with the foul, charred stench of bugs.

The ground was riddled with deep, jagged craters, looking as if the world had come to an end.

Within the black smoke, Aburame Ryoma knelt on the ground, weeping bitterly.

"It's over, everything is finished!"

The tens of thousands of mutated Kikaichū he had painstakingly cultivated had all been incinerated.

A brainwashing melody inexplicably echoed in his mind.

How shameful, all the bugs he had carefully raised were burned to a crisp!

Even the ancestral bugs passed down by his father were gone.

His Fire Release was simply too powerful!

What pained Aburame Ryoma the most was that, in order to save his own life, he had ultimately summoned even his mutated queen bug to block the fireball.

Even the queen bug was dead!

With the queen bug dead, he could no longer breed more insects.

The bloodline of these mutated Kikaichū was extinct!

The mutation rate for Kikaichū was one in several billion.

Most mutations were detrimental.

Only a tiny fraction of Kikaichū developed beneficial mutations.

He might never be able to cultivate a new mutated Kikaichū in his entire lifetime.

This loss was far too great!

Without his powerful mutated Kikaichū, his dream of proving the strength of the Aburame clan and becoming Hokage had also been shattered.

In this moment, Aburame Ryoma's heart died!

Damn it!

Everything was the fault of this naturally evil Uchiha brat; if it weren't for that guy, I could have become Hokage!

Aburame Ryoma raised his head in resentment, looking at Uchiha Kurohane, who stood on the rooftop, and locked eyes with him.

Uchiha Kurohane mocked him with disdain.

"Is this your 'thousands of troops'? Bugs are truly useless; even if there are ten thousand of them, they are still just bugs."

"These incompetent insects are a perfect match for someone like you who attacks girls!"

Hearing the bugs he worshipped most being insulted, Aburame Ryoma clenched his fists until they bled.

"Don't get cocky! Even if I don't have my bugs, I still have taijutsu!"

Aburame Ryoma formed a hand seal with one hand, and with a whoosh, he vanished from where he knelt on the ground.

It was the Body Flicker Technique!

Aburame Ryoma flashed in front of Uchiha Kurohane, thrusting a kunai toward his heart.

The strike was lightning-fast, everything happening in the blink of an eye.

It was too fast for anyone to react!

Slash!

The kunai pierced Uchiha Kurohane's heart.

Aburame Ryoma's expression twisted into one of wild joy as he shouted aloud.

"I hit him!"

But the very next instant, Uchiha Kurohane turned into a puff of white smoke and vanished.

"What? This is a Shadow Clone Technique?"

"You actually used a Shadow Clone to talk and pretend to be the real body?"

"You are too insidious—ah!"

The moment Aburame Ryoma spoke, he felt a sharp, stinging pain in both sides of his waist.

Uchiha Kurohane's real body had flashed behind him, driving two large Fuma Shuriken into his kidneys on both sides.

Double Kidney Strike!

One move to finish it, directly destroying both his kidneys.

There was a reason Uchiha Kurohane was so ruthless.

He recognized the purple mark on the right side of Aburame Ryoma's cheek and knew that he would later become Danzo's right-hand man.

When Danzo threatened Yakushi Nonō, he would be standing behind Danzo alongside Orochimaru.

Everyone says that Danzo is the only villain in the Hokage series.

But this claim is incorrect; those who do the bidding of a villain are called accomplices, and they are villains as well.

Therefore, this Aburame Ryoma, who followed along to threaten Yakushi Nonō, is also a villain.

Uchiha Kurohane intends to deliver him a preemptive dose of righteous punishment.

[Ji Ya~ Host has defeated Aburame Ryoma, achieving the title "Defeated the Genius of the Aburame Clan." The Kekkei Genkai Yatagarasu has leveled up, obtaining the entry "Yatagarasu: Main God Consciousness S."]

(Yatagarasu: Main God Consciousness: The crows summoned by the host and the clones no longer possess their own consciousness and are controlled entirely by the host. When not under the host's control, they will only perform simple, mechanical actions, and the autonomous movement capability of the clones will be reduced.)

Uchiha Kurohane was pleasantly surprised after seeing the ability description.

Previously, he could only issue commands to the crows and Shadow Clones from the shadows to direct their actions.

Because the Shadow Clones possessed intelligence, they could understand Uchiha Kurohane's commands well, and coordination was not an issue.

However, the crows' intelligence was far lower than that of humans, making it impossible to issue them precise commands.

He could only have them fly toward the enemy's rear, which meant Uchiha Kurohane could only appear behind the enemy, but he could not control the exact distance or position.

Furthermore, it took a certain amount of time for the crows to understand commands, which was equivalent to having a delay in control.

These time differences were not obvious when facing weak Genin, but they were fatal when facing Jonin or even more powerful ninjas.

Now that he could directly control the crows, the effectiveness of the Yatagarasu Substitute would be greatly improved.

In the future, he could directly control the flight position of the crows, and after Uchiha Kurohane swapped positions with a crow, he could launch an attack on the enemy immediately.

In a sense, the ability of the Yatagarasu now completely surpassed the Flying Thunder God!

Pop, pop, pop, pop~

Just then, over a dozen ninjas wearing Anbu uniforms and animal masks suddenly appeared on the nearby rooftops.

It turned out that the commotion from Uchiha Kurohane's battle was too great, alerting the Anbu ninjas.

They crouched on the roof, immediately observing the scene, and all gasped when they saw the pockmarked traces of the explosions.

The Anbu captain in the lead exclaimed with a trembling voice.

"It's an enemy attack!"

"We don't know the specific enemy, but at least a squad of enemies has invaded Konoha. Their whereabouts are currently unknown. Sound the alarm quickly and call for reinforcements!"

Boom, boom, boom!

Several Anbu ninjas nearby fired signal flares into the sky simultaneously.

The sky erupted with dazzling red firelight, and Konoha instantly entered a state of emergency war.

The Security Force and other Anbu immediately rushed toward the direction of the signal flares, while other Chunin and Genin were tasked with arranging for the evacuation of the civilians.

Because the war had always been fought on the outskirts of the Land of Fire, the villagers of Konoha had not been affected until now.

Suddenly realizing that war had arrived, they were terrified and became completely panicked.

Even though they had practiced before, everything was in chaos now.

The villagers bumped into each other on the streets like headless flies, screaming in panic, while others were so scared they knelt on the ground; the entire Konoha had turned into a mess.

Uchiha Kurohane was caught between laughter and tears and hurriedly explained.

"You've misunderstood; there is no enemy attack. I just had a fight with that guy."

The group of Anbu thought he was joking and looked at Uchiha Kurohane with angry eyes.

"This is a major matter involving the safety of Konoha; this is no time for jokes!"

"You were lucky to save your lives, so hurry up and hide!"

Aburame Ryoma, enduring his pain at this moment, shouted loudly.

"There is no invading enemy! It was he who used the Phoenix Sage Fire Technique to injure me!"

Pumpkin Head also cried out at this time.

"Lord Anbu, there is no enemy attack here! It was that Uchiha brat who attacked us; hurry up and capture him!"

Since Aburame Ryoma and Pumpkin Head were wearing Genin headbands, the Anbu felt very confused when they saw even Genin saying this.

"Are you saying that the craters on this street were caused by his Fire Release ninjutsu?"

"He is just a student; does he have that kind of ability?"

Aburame Ryoma said resentfully.

"He is an evil Uchiha brat! The ability of the Uchiha clan is just that terrifying!"

The Anbu looked at each other in dismay upon hearing this.

As battle-hardened ninjas, they had all witnessed the battles of the Uchiha clan.

Although the Uchiha clan possessed the Sharingan, could see through an enemy's movements, and were skilled in Fire Release, what truly made people afraid was actually their genjutsu.

If a Fire Release technique released by a child of the Uchiha clan had such great power, then no one would be afraid of the Uchiha's genjutsu anymore.

If everyone was about to be burned to death, who would still be afraid of genjutsu?

Everyone would have switched to fearing the Uchiha's Fire Release instead!