That single word, "Explode," was spoken so lightly, as if he were merely stating a fact.
The next second, a sudden change erupted.
The enormous sphere of rock suspended in midair did not explode with a thunderous boom, as everyone had imagined.
Crack... crack!
Fine fissures spread across the sphere's surface like a spiderweb.
Then strands of golden-red light seeped through the cracks, illuminating the rocky prison—an emblem of death and sealing—as if it were a sun about to break free of its shell.
A destructive, violent surge of Chakra was brewing inside the sphere, growing stronger and more intense by the moment!
"W-what is that?"
A Rain ninja kneeling on the ground trembled as he raised his head, too shocked by the scene before him to speak.
Beneath the sphere, Shimura Danzō, barely clinging to life, felt the power too. His one remaining eye flew wide open.
He recognized that surge!
This was... the last forbidden jutsu he had planted inside himself, meant to take his enemy down with him—the Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing!
So he hadn't been completely dead after all.
The Root shinobi who had been sucked into Devastating Planetary Destruction had activated the final trump card inside Danzō with their last breaths and Chakra, just before the rocks crushed them to pieces!
They would use their deaths to create an opening—an opportunity to drag the demon Uchiha Madara to hell with them!
"Ha... hahahaha..."
A wheezing laugh rattled in Danzō's throat as blood and chunks of his innards kept spilling from his mouth.
He summoned his last bit of strength and raised his head, his lone eye fixed on Lin Feng in the distance.
"Uchiha Madara... in the end... you still let your guard down..."
"Come with me... to hell!"
BOOM—!
The rocky sphere could no longer contain the frenzied energy inside. It suddenly swelled outward!
Black ink-like markings surged madly from its surface, turning into countless chains that sought to swallow and seal everything within a ten-mile radius!
"Not good!" Konan's expression changed drastically, and she instinctively tried to use Paper Release to shield Yahiko and Nagato beside her.
But Lin Feng simply stood there, gazing at the enormous orb of light about to erupt. His face showed not the slightest hint of emotion.
He merely raised the hand that wasn't holding the Gunbai and curled his fingers loosely toward the rock sphere, swollen to its limit.
"I told you I'd put on a fireworks show for you."
"Who said you could set them off yourselves?"
WHUM!
A force even more domineering and unreasonable than the Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing instantly enveloped the rocky sphere.
Space seemed to freeze in that moment.
The light about to burst forth and the black markings spreading wildly were like images in a film abruptly paused. They stopped dead in midair.
The mad grin on Shimura Danzō's face froze too.
How... could this be?
The ultimate forbidden jutsu, powerful enough to seal anything, had just... stopped?
"Boring trick."
Lin Feng offered a mild verdict.
Then his curled fingers clenched sharply!
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Only a crisp sound, like glass shattering.
"Pop."
The enormous rocky sphere, the violent sealing jutsu, the last struggles of dozens of Root elites, and Shimura Danzō's final ambition...
All turned to dust beneath that grip.
But that wasn't the end.
It was the beginning.
Countless burning rock fragments glimmering with golden-red light did not scatter in every direction. Drawn by an invisible force, they shot upward like a waterfall flowing in reverse!
They tore through the perpetually gloomy gray sky above Amegakure and soared toward the highest heavens!
At the peak of their ascent, all the fragments burst apart at once!
One blossom, two, three...
Hundreds, then thousands of "flowers" made of fire and stone bloomed brilliantly across the pitch-black night sky!
They shone so brilliantly, so brightly, that the sky over all of Amegakure lit up like broad daylight.
For the first time, this rain-drenched land was bathed in "light."
It was a grand, dazzling display of death-fireworks, meant for the strong alone.
Everyone in the canyon stared in stunned silence.
The surviving Rain shinobi tilted their heads back, mouths agape. They had even forgotten their fear, simply gazing blankly at a spectacle like a miracle, unlike anything they had ever seen.
Yahiko, too, looked up. He knelt motionless in the muddy water.
Bright flames illuminated his pale, despairing face. A hot tear slid from the corner of his eye and mingled with the rainwater on the ground.
He had once dreamed that one day, with his own hands, he could bring true light to this village.
He had never imagined that when that day finally came, it would be in such a... cruel and magnificent way.
These dazzling fireworks were the funeral for his ideals.
Konan stood beside him, the wings formed from paper hanging limply.
She didn't look at the sky. Her gaze remained fixed on Nagato beside her.
Nagato was looking up as well.
His Rinnegan clearly reflected the fiery flowers blooming and fading across the sky.
His face showed no fear, no grief, not even amazement.
There was only a feverish fervor, almost worshipful in its intensity.
So this was the power of a "god."
So destruction could be this beautiful.
So making the world feel pain could be such an intoxicating sensation.
Lin Feng slowly lowered his hand.
He didn't look at the fireworks in the sky or the ants who had been utterly subdued.
He simply slung the Gunbai over his shoulder, turned around, and walked back to Nagato.
At last, the grand fireworks in the sky came to an end.
The final sparks, too, went out in the cold rain.
The light faded, and darkness and chill once again enveloped the land.
It was as if everything that had just happened were merely a dream.
But the thick smell of burning and blood hanging in the air, along with the corpses strewn across the canyon, reminded everyone what had happened.
Lin Feng stopped in front of Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko.
Silence.
A deathly silence...
Suddenly, Lin Feng casually tossed something toward them. Three items landed in the muddy water.
They were three black cloaks.
Each cloak was embroidered with ominous clouds in red thread.
Yahiko's pupils contracted slightly at the familiar pattern.
It was almost identical to the symbol he had once designed himself for the Akatsuki.
But the clouds he had designed were white, symbolizing dawn and hope.
The clouds before him were blood-soaked crimson.
"Your ideals are dead."
Lin Feng's voice broke the silence.
"And it's time to throw away those clothes of yours, the ones that symbolize naivety and foolishness."
"From today on, you and your organization will be reborn."
He tapped the black-and-red cloud robes on the ground with the handle of his Gunbai.
"Pain is the soil in which the New World will grow."
"And the sky before dawn must be blood-red."
"Put them on."
"Let the entire Ninja World remember these ominous red clouds that bring pain."
Before you continue