What I'm setting off isn't fireworks, it's your lost youth

That single word, "Detonate," was spoken lightly, as if he were merely stating a fact.

The next second, a sudden change occurred.

The massive sphere of rock suspended in mid-air did not explode with the thunderous roar everyone had anticipated.

Crack... crackle...

Fine, dense fissures spread across the surface of the sphere like a spiderweb.

Immediately following, wisps of golden-red light seeped out from the cracks, illuminating the rock cage—a symbol of death and sealing—until it looked like a sun about to break from its shell.

A destructive, violent surge of chakra brewed within the sphere, growing stronger and more intense by the second.

"W-what is that?"

An Amegakure ninja kneeling on the ground raised his head, trembling, rendered speechless by the sight before him.

Beneath the sphere, the dying Shimura Danzo also sensed this power, his only remaining left eye widening abruptly.

He recognized this fluctuation!

This was... this was the final forbidden technique he had planted within himself for a mutual destruction—the Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing!

So, he hadn't died completely.

Those Root ninjas who had been sucked into the Devastating Planetary Destruction had used their final lives and chakra at the very moment they were crushed by the rock to activate this final trump card within Danzo!

They intended to use their own deaths to create an opportunity—a chance to drag the demon Uchiha Madara down to hell with them!

"Haha... hahahaha..."

A sound like a broken bellows wheezed from Danzo's throat as blood and fragments of his internal organs poured from his mouth.

He used his last ounce of strength to lift his head, his single eye fixed intently on Lin Feng not far away.

"Uchiha Madara... in the end... you were still too careless..."

"Come with me... to hell!"

BOOM!

The rock sphere could no longer withstand the violent energy within and suddenly expanded!

Black ink patterns surged wildly from the surface of the sphere, transforming into countless chains intended to completely devour and seal everything within a ten-mile radius.

"No!" Konan's expression changed drastically, and she instinctively moved to shield Yahiko and Nagato beside her with her Paper Release.

However, Lin Feng simply stood there quietly, watching the massive ball of light on the verge of eruption, his face devoid of even a ripple of emotion.

He merely raised the hand not holding his Gunbai and made a light, grasping motion toward the rock sphere that had expanded to its limit.

"I said I would let you watch a fireworks display."

"Who gave you permission to light it yourselves?"

Hum!

A power even more overbearing and unreasonable than the Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing instantly enveloped the rock sphere.

The space seemed to solidify in that moment.

The light on the verge of erupting and the wildly spreading black ink patterns stopped abruptly in mid-air, like a movie frame hit with the pause button.

The frenzied smile on Shimura Danzo's face froze as well.

How... could this be?

The ultimate forbidden technique capable of sealing anything had just... stopped?

"Boring tricks."

Lin Feng commented indifferently.

Then, his grasping fingers suddenly clenched inward!

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

There was only a crisp sound, like glass shattering.

Pop.

That massive rock sphere, that violent sealing technique, the final struggle of those dozens of Root elites, and the last ambition of Shimura Danzo...

Under that single clench, they were all reduced to dust.

But this was not the end.

It was the beginning.

Countless burning rock fragments, shimmering with golden-red light, did not scatter; instead, pulled by an invisible force, they surged into the sky like a waterfall flowing in reverse!

They tore through the perpetually gloomy gray canopy of Amegakure and flew toward the highest reaches of the firmament!

At the moment they reached the apex, all the fragments suddenly burst!

One, two, three...

Hundreds upon thousands of "flowers" made of flame and rock bloomed brilliantly in the pitch-black night sky!

They were so radiant, so bright, that they illuminated the entire sky of Amegakure as if it were broad daylight.

This land, shrouded in perpetual rain year-round, welcomed "light" for the very first time at this moment.

A grand and magnificent display of deathly fireworks, belonging only to the strong.

Everyone in the canyon was stunned into silence.

The surviving Amegakure ninja tilted their heads back, mouths agape, having forgotten even how to feel fear; they simply stared blankly at this spectacle, a miracle they had never seen in their entire lives.

Yahiko also looked up, kneeling in the muddy water, motionless.

The bright firelight reflected off his pale, despairing face, and a scalding drop of liquid slid from the corner of his eye, mingling with the rainwater on the ground.

He had once dreamed that one day, he could use his own hands to bring true light to this village.

He never expected that when this day finally arrived, it would be in such a... cruel and magnificent way.

These brilliant fireworks were the funeral for his ideals.

Konan stood by his side, her paper-constructed wings hanging limply.

She did not look at the sky; her gaze remained fixed on Nagato beside her.

Nagato, too, was looking up.

His Rinnegan clearly reflected the flowers of flame that bloomed and withered in the sky.

There was no fear on his face, no sorrow, not even astonishment.

There was only a near-obsessive, pilgrimage-like fervor.

So, this was the power of a "god."

So, destruction could be this beautiful.

So, letting the world feel pain was such an intoxicating sensation.

Lin Feng slowly lowered his hand.

He did not look at the fireworks in the sky, nor did he look at the ants who had been thoroughly conquered.

He simply shouldered his Gunbai, turned around, and walked back to stand before Nagato.

In the sky, the grand fireworks finally drew to a close.

The last sparks were extinguished in the cold rain.

As the light faded, darkness and chill once again shrouded the land.

It was as if everything that had just happened was merely a dream.

But the thick, acrid smell of burning and blood permeating the air, along with the corpses scattered throughout the canyon, reminded everyone of what had just transpired.

Lin Feng's footsteps stopped in front of the three of them: Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko.

Silence.

A deathly silence...

Suddenly, Lin Feng flicked his hand, tossing three items that landed in the muddy water.

They were three black trench coats.

On the coats, ominous, floating clouds were embroidered in red thread.

Yahiko's pupils constricted slightly at the sight of the familiar pattern.

This design was almost identical to the logo he had personally designed for the Akatsuki.

However, the clouds he had designed were white, symbolizing dawn and hope.

But the clouds before him were a blood-red, as if soaked in gore.

"Your ideals are dead."

Lin Feng's voice broke the silence.

"The clothes you wore before, which symbolized naivety and absurdity, should be discarded."

"From today on, you, and your organization, will be reborn."

He tapped the Black Red-Cloud Robes on the ground with the handle of his Gunbai.

"Pain is the soil that nurtures a new world."

"And the sky before the dawn must be the color of blood."

"Put them on."

"Let the entire ninja world remember these ominous red clouds that bring pain."