You Want to Dance, Too?

Konoha, the Hokage Building.

The afternoon sun streamed through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows. It should have been the most languid, pleasant time of day, but now even the air felt so heavy it was suffocating.

Clatter.

The pipe slipped from Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's hand, bounced twice on his desk, then rolled to the floor. Expensive tobacco spilled everywhere, its embers flickering like the violent tremor in the eyes of the "Shinobi Hero."

"Uchiha... Madara?"

The four words scraped out of his dry throat, every syllable trembling from the depths of his soul.

Silence fell over the office.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Twelve figures appeared throughout the office in an instant, surrounding the uninvited guest. They were the Hokage's personal Anbu, Konoha's finest. But now, their fingers trembled slightly around their Ninja Blades, and hurried breaths rose and fell beneath their animal masks.

At the center of their encirclement, the man simply stood there with his arms crossed.

A wild, unruly mane of black hair spilled down, concealing half his cold, stern face. His dark red lamellar armor exuded the iron-and-blood scent unique to the Warring States era.

He hadn't released even the slightest trace of Chakra, yet the terrifying presence known as "Uchiha Madara" was like an ancient, savage beast slowly opening its eyes before them.

Even the dust motes dancing in the light seemed frozen with fear.

And yet, beneath that fearsome exterior—

"Holy shit! Holy shit! System, are you serious?! I get dropped into the Hokage's office right at the start, and I'm facing the Third Hokage and a whole squad of Anbu?"

Lin Feng's mind was frantically scrolling at three hundred words a minute, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it might leap out of his throat.

A second ago, he'd been fired up by Lord Madara's "dance" line on the screen. The next, he was standing here, surrounded by gleaming blades.

A flood of information continued surging through his mind. This body contained Chakra as vast as an ocean, and the eyes in its sockets held godlike power. He could switch freely between the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan and the Rinnegan.

But he wasn't Madara. He was Lin Feng.

[Warning: Host must maintain character. If you go OOC (break character), you will be erased by the laws of the world.]

The cold notification drenched Lin Feng's panic like a bucket of ice water. Then, an indescribable thrill surged through him.

The blood of a born performer was boiling.

This stage... was perfect!

If I'm going to act, I might as well go all out! As long as I'm not embarrassed, they're the ones who'll die!

Lin Feng slowly raised his head. His right eye, not hidden by his hair, snapped open.

Humm—

Splendid purple ripples spread in circles across his pupil, eerie and divine, as though they could suck a person's soul right in.

The Rinnegan!

Hiruzen's breath caught. He'd heard of these legendary eyes in ancient tales, but seeing them with his own eyes was far more terrifying than any description!

Lin Feng's gaze passed over the sharp blades around him and landed directly on Hiruzen's wrinkled face. He lifted his chin slightly and spoke in a voice that mingled the weariness of the ages with utter indifference.

"Monkey brat... are you questioning me?"

Boom!

The instant the words fell, an invisible pressure swept across the room.

Hiruzen felt as if an icy hand had seized his heart. That tone, that bearing, that arrogance that treated everyone else as beneath notice... It was too much like him! Exactly like the "Asura of the Ninja World" in Hiruzen's childhood memories!

"Level-one alert!"

Hiruzen roared, but he didn't even realize that his voice had begun to tremble. He knew full well that if the man before them really was Madara, these Anbu couldn't buy him even a single second.

"Empty threats!"

An Anbu Ninja wearing a tiger-striped mask could no longer withstand the suffocating pressure. His mental defenses crumbled first. He roared, trying to drown out his fear with his voice. "Third Lord! Don't waste your breath on him. Whoever he is, we should take him down first!"

"That's right! Some fake dares to act so brazenly in the Hokage's office!" another Anbu chimed in, already beginning to form Hand Seals.

Fools!

Hiruzen was just about to stop them when the surrounded man let out a faint chuckle.

It wasn't loud, but everyone heard it clearly. It carried the scorn of someone watching a clown perform.

Lin Feng's heart turned cold.

I was just wondering how to establish my authority, and now you're volunteering.

He didn't even raise an eyelid. His gaze merely swept over the Anbu who had spoken up first.

No Hand Seals.

No Taijutsu stance.

"Quiet."

Two words, delivered offhandedly.

The next instant—

Pfft!

Without warning, the chest armor of the Anbu Ninja about to charge caved inward as if struck by an invisible battering ram. He didn't even manage to scream. A spray of blood traced a ghastly red line through the air, and he flew backward like a kite with its string cut!

Crash!

He smashed through the office's thick wall and vanished beyond the building in a cloud of dust and rubble, his fate unknown.

Only deathly silence remained in the office.

The remaining eleven elite Anbu froze in place.

What had happened?

They couldn't see the attack! They couldn't sense any Chakra! They hadn't even seen him move!

A jonin, an Anbu veteran who'd seen countless battles, had just... disappeared?

An icy chill born of the unknown shot from the soles of their feet straight to their scalps.

Cold sweat instantly soaked Hiruzen's back. He'd seen it: at that moment, "Madara's" Rinnegan had flickered almost imperceptibly.

A dōjutsu! An invisible dōjutsu beyond anything they could comprehend!

Lin Feng was inwardly delighted. Limbo: Border Jail cleared the room without him lifting a finger. What a perfect trick for showing off.

But outwardly, he remained completely unfazed, as if he'd casually swatted a buzzing fly. He slowly turned his gaze back to Hiruzen, then took a step forward.

Thud.

The step landed like a mountain. It seemed to fall not on the floor, but on everyone's heart.

"Now," Lin Feng said, still calm, yet with an undeniable authority, "it's your turn, monkey brat."

He's locked onto me!

The mortal danger of being hunted by a natural predator made every pore on Hiruzen's body stand on end. But the entire village was behind him. He was Konoha's Hokage. He couldn't retreat!

"Form up!"

Hiruzen bellowed, his hands blurring as he frantically formed Hand Seals. "Whether you're real or not, you'll answer to Konoha today!"

"Answer to you?"

Lin Feng stopped, as if he'd heard the funniest joke of the century. His low laughter echoed through the ruined office, filled with disappointment in and mockery of this era.

He slowly extended his right hand, palm open, toward the people standing ready before him.

"The answer is... this rotten world no longer deserves to exist."

Chakra as vast as the sea awakened inside him. The desks, chairs, documents, and rubble in the office began to tremble violently and float into the air, defying all reason. An oppressive feeling, like the calm before destruction, filled the room.

Lin Feng's purple Rinnegan clearly reflected Hiruzen's horrified, despairing face.

At last, his lips curled into an arrogant smile that would make the entire Ninja World tremble.

"You all..."

"Want to dance, too?"