Kill Hanzo, Snatch Village Chief, A Grand Battle Royale!

Lin Feng's words were like a boulder cast into a stagnant pool, stirring up a thousand ripples.

The entire canyon fell into an eerie, deathly silence.

The surviving Amegakure ninja exchanged glances, their eyes filled with shock, fear, and a flicker of something else—a spark of greed, forcibly ignited.

Kill Hanzo the Salamander?

The "demigod" who had ruled Amegakure for decades?

And then... become the new leader?

The temptation was too great.

Great enough to make anyone forget their fear, forget their comrades, and forget that they had just been struggling on the brink of death.

"Gulp."

Someone, it was unclear who, swallowed hard.

That sound became the fuse that ignited the powder keg.

"Don't... don't listen to him!" a ninja who appeared to be a squad leader shouted, his voice trembling. "He's playing us! Everyone, don't turn on each other!"

His words sounded so pale and powerless.

Because someone had already moved.

A ninja standing closest to Hanzo flashed a look of viciousness, drew the short blade from his back, and lunged toward Hanzo's heart with a roar!

"Hanzo the Salamander's head is mine!"

Squelch!

However, before his blade could touch Hanzo, another kunai precisely pierced his throat from the side.

The attacker kicked his comrade's corpse aside and charged toward Hanzo with a ferocious expression: "Die! All of you, just die!"

The war had begun.

An ugly, bloody civil war devoid of any honor, centered around an old man kneeling and begging for mercy.

Comrades who had once fought side-by-side were now each other's greatest enemies.

They unleashed their most familiar jutsu upon the people they knew best.

"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!"

"Wind Style: Wind Scythe Jutsu!"

In an instant, a flurry of close-range jutsu erupted within the narrow canyon; screams, the clash of blades, and the wails of the dying filled the air.

They didn't even have a clear target; they simply attacked anyone who attempted to approach Hanzo with madness.

This was no longer a battle; it was a hunt.

The prey was the head of Hanzo the Salamander.

And every ninja was both a hunter and the prey of others.

"Stop! Everyone, stop!"

Yahiko's eyes were wide with fury. He wanted to rush forward to stop this absurd slaughter, but the moment he moved, Konan grabbed him tightly.

"Yahiko! Don't go over there!" Konan's face was as pale as paper, but her eyes remained exceptionally clear.

"But... but they are comrades!" Yahiko's voice was filled with pain and confusion. "Isn't that why we founded the Akatsuki—to stop them from killing each other like this?!"

"It's useless."

A cold voice came from behind them.

Nagato had appeared beside them at some point, his Rinnegan fixed unblinkingly on the living hell unfolding before them.

There was no pain on his face like Yahiko's, nor fear like Konan's.

There was only a calm that bordered on numbness.

"When the stakes are high enough, and when survival is threatened, so-called 'comrades' are nothing more than baggage to be discarded at any moment," Nagato said slowly, as if reciting a fundamental truth.

Yahiko whipped his head around, looking at Nagato in disbelief: "Nagato! How can you say such things? Have you forgotten? Our ideal is..."

"Ideal?" Nagato interrupted him. He turned his head, and those purple eyes made Yahiko feel a sense of unfamiliarity and a chill for the first time.

"Look, Yahiko."

Nagato raised his hand, pointing toward the chaotic battlefield.

"This is the result of your so-called 'mutual understanding'."

"This is human nature."

Yahiko looked in the direction he pointed.

A ninja had just cut down his comrade and was rushing toward Hanzo in a frenzy of joy, but before he could take two steps, his body was pierced by a stone spear that erupted from the ground beneath him.

Another ninja took the opportunity to use a Shadow Clone to distract the others, his true form already reaching Hanzo's back, raising his blade for the kill.

Yet, in the next second, dozens of shuriken flew in from all directions, turning him and his clone into a pincushion.

Betrayal, sneak attacks, lies, slaughter...

The ugliest side of human nature was being displayed to the fullest at this very moment.

Yahiko opened his mouth, but not a single word could escape.

He felt his world collapsing and shattering, piece by piece.

Lin Feng carried his Gunbai on his shoulder, watching it all with keen interest, as if he were enjoying a meticulously choreographed play.

He turned his head toward Nagato beside him, offering a soft commentary in the tone of a mentor.

"Do you see, Nagato?"

"So-called order is built upon absolute violence."

"Only when your power is enough to make everyone feel terror will they willingly follow the rules you have set."

"And so-called peace is not a beautiful dream that can be achieved through mutual understanding."

Lin Feng tapped his own eyes with the handle of the Gunbai.

"It must be watered with pain. Only when everyone has tasted true, bone-deep agony will they fear war from the bottom of their hearts and yearn for peace."

"Just like they are doing now."

A playful arc curled at the corners of Lin Feng's mouth.

"Every time they kill a companion, their pain deepens. When they finally step over the corpses of everyone else to stand before that old man, they will understand what a tragic price must be paid to obtain what one desires."

"This is your first lesson."

Nagato remained silent, the purple ripples in his Rinnegan swirling faster and faster.

He seemed to be ruminating on every word of Lin Feng's, branding these cruel "truths" deep into his soul.

On the other side, Hanzo the Salamander had been scared out of his mind.

He scrambled and crawled to dodge the ninjutsu and blades flying everywhere, letting out incoherent howls.

He wanted to resist, but the chakra in his body had long since stagnated from fear; he could not even perform the simplest Substitution Jutsu.

The "Salamander" poison gas he took such pride in, capable of killing anything, had become a joke in the face of absolute power and the madness of human nature.

"Pfft!"

A broken blade flew over and buried itself deep into his thigh; the sharp pain forced a scream from him as he collapsed to the ground.

Opportunity!

Every surviving Amegakure ninja's eyes turned bloodshot instantly!

"Kill!"

"He's mine!"

The remaining seven or eight ninjas pounced from all directions like sharks that had caught the scent of blood.

"Ahhh!"

Hanzo let out a final, mournful cry, waving his arms in a futile attempt to block the blades hacking toward him.

However, it was all in vain.

The flash of blades and shadows passed.

Blood stained the muddy ground red.

The chaotic battle, which had lasted nearly ten minutes, finally came to a halt.

An Amegakure ninja, missing an arm and drenched in blood, stood atop the pile of corpses, his foot resting on the head of Hanzo the Salamander, whose eyes remained wide open in death.

He gasped for air, looking around at his former companions, who had now all become cold corpses.

There was no trace of sorrow on his face, only a twisted, ecstatic joy at having survived the ordeal.

He had won.

He had lived.

He was the new leader of Amegakure!

He raised his head, looking toward the man standing in the distance like a god or demon with eyes mixed with awe and fanaticism.

Dragging his broken body, he walked over step by step, then fell to his knees before Lin Feng with a heavy thud.

He held the head in his hands high, his voice hoarse and agitated.

"Madara... Lord Madara! I did it! I killed him! I..."

His words came to an abrupt halt.

Because a massive weapon, shaped like a fan, had already settled gently against his neck.

Lin Feng lowered his head, looking down at this "victor" with those indifferent Rinnegan, as if watching a venomous insect that had struggled its way out of a poison jar, unaware of its ultimate fate.

"You did well."

Lin Feng's voice remained flat.

"You have proven with your actions that you possess a greater desire to survive than the others."

A fawning smile appeared on the victor's face, and he opened his mouth as if to say something.

"However..."

Lin Feng's tone shifted sharply.

"When did I ever say that the victor was you?"

The smile on the victor's face froze instantly.

"I only said that whoever could sever his head would live. And, become the new leader of Amegakure."

Lin Feng's voice carried a hint of mockery.

"Those two things are not necessarily linked together."

"You..." The victor's pupils constricted, a chill surging from the soles of his feet straight to his crown.

He finally realized that he—no, that everyone—had been played from the very beginning.

This man never intended to honor his promise at all!

He wanted to flee, but the Gunbai pressing against his neck felt as heavy as a mountain, rendering him unable to move.

Lin Feng stopped looking at him and turned his gaze toward the silent Nagato standing to the side.

"Nagato."

"Now, it is your turn."

Lin Feng used the handle of his fan to point at the victor, who was kneeling on the ground with a face ashen with despair.

"Kill him."

"From this day forward, you are the God of Amegakure."