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"I'm giving you half an hour to pack all your personal belongings and destroy or take away any confidential documents and supplies that shouldn't be left here. Then depart immediately."

Shaoyu added.

"Yes!"

The group acknowledged the order again, then quickly scattered, each rushing toward their crude stations in the valley and efficiently beginning to pack.

They worked with great efficiency. Clearly, they had long been prepared to be transferred away at any moment.

Who the hell would want to stay in this godforsaken place?

Less than half an hour later, the thirteen of them had assembled before Shaoyu again.

Each carried a bulging but neatly bundled pack, their eyes filled with anticipation for the future and gratitude toward Shaoyu.

"Elder, we are fully prepared and ready to depart."

Nohara Daibi stepped forward as their representative to report.

"Mm. Be careful on the road. Once you return to the village, report directly to the Raikage's office."

Shaoyu nodded.

"Yes! Thank you, Elder! We shall take our leave!"

Nohara Daibi and the others solemnly bowed to Shaoyu once more. Then, without lingering, the thirteen figures shot away like arrows loosed from a bow, swiftly climbing the perilous path by which they had come. Before long, they disappeared into the mist above.

At the entrance to Hell Valley, only Uchiha Shaoyu remained, along with the endless roar of lava and shriek of wind rising from the depths below.

He turned around and looked deeper into the canyon, toward the region shrouded in thicker mist and a dark crimson glow. That was where the Chinoike Clan was imprisoned.

With Kumogakure's guard force withdrawn, the depths of Hell Valley were left with only the ceaseless natural roar and the faint, unsettling remnants of strange energy.

Uchiha Shaoyu concealed his presence and continued deeper along the hidden path the guards had left behind, heading toward the heart of the prison area.

The farther in he went, the worse the environment became.

Lava rivers grew denser, scorching heat waves warped his vision, and poisonous steam hissed from cracks in the ground. The faint scent of blood in the air also seemed to grow stronger, as though it had seeped into the rocks and dust themselves.

At last, he passed through a narrow passage formed by solidified lava, resembling a forest of grotesque stones. The view suddenly opened up before him, revealing a relatively spacious area.

It appeared to be a sunken basin enclosed by towering rock walls. The ground was fairly level, covered in gray-black volcanic ash and sharp rubble.

Along the basin's edge, against the rock walls, stood several extremely crude and dilapidated shacks or cave entrances. Their materials were a motley assortment: charred wood, rough stones, and even the bones and pelts of unknown beasts.

This was the place where the Chinoike Clan had lingered on in miserable survival for who knew how many years.

The air was steeped in despair, numbness, and a venomous hatred that sank into the marrow.

Shaoyu's appearance immediately drew attention.

He had not deliberately concealed himself.

Two men in tattered clothes, their faces haggard but their eyes exceptionally vicious, emerged from behind a shack. They seemed to be conducting a routine patrol.

When they saw Shaoyu, an outsider with neat clothes and an unfamiliar presence, they froze for a moment. Then, the numbness in their eyes instantly erupted into the mad hatred and killing intent of starving wolves spotting prey.

"An outsider?! One of Kumogakure's lackeys?!"

"Kill him!"

There was no questioning, no hesitation.

Years of imprisonment, inhuman treatment, and bone-deep hatred for Kumogakure had long since ground away all their reason and desire to communicate.

In their eyes, any non-clansman who entered this place was an enemy, a butcher who inflicted suffering upon them.

One of them rapidly formed hand seals, his chest suddenly swelling.

"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"

"Oh? After all this time, you can still use ninjutsu?" Shaoyu asked curiously.

A blazing fireball shot straight at Uchiha Shaoyu with a shriek.

Its power was not especially great, but within this cramped basin, it still carried some force.

The other man howled and charged in from the flank, wildly swinging a rusted kunai, his eyes crazed.

A tetanus blade, for fuck's sake?

A trace of helplessness flashed through Uchiha Shaoyu's eyes.

He had wanted to observe them first, perhaps even attempt communication. But their reaction was so intense and direct that peaceful dialogue was clearly impossible.

This Chinoike Clan had already been completely consumed by hatred and despair.

Facing the fireball and the charging attacker, Shaoyu merely shifted slightly to the side. Like a phantom, he evaded the fireball by a hair's breadth.

The fireball grazed his clothes and flew past, exploding against a rock behind him.

At the same time, his left hand reached out casually, accurately catching the wrist of the man lunging at him from the side. With a light twist—

"Crack!"

A soft sound of displaced bone was accompanied by a scream.

The man holding the kunai had his wrist dislocated, and the kunai fell from his hand.

Shaoyu pulled him forward with the motion, using him to block several shuriken the first ninja threw immediately after the fireball.

The shuriken sank deeply into his companion's shoulder and back, abruptly cutting off his scream.

Shaoyu released his grip, and the ninja used as a shield collapsed limply to the ground, groaning in pain.

The ninja who had used Fire Release saw his companion subdued in an instant. The madness in his eyes intensified, and he roared as he formed hand seals again, apparently intending to unleash stronger ninjutsu.

However, Shaoyu was faster.

He stepped forward, his body flashing like lightning as he closed in instantly. His right hand formed into a blade, and he lightly swept it across the side of the man's neck.

"Urgh..."

The ninja's body stiffened. His chakra circulation was forcibly interrupted, and his vision went black as he, too, crumpled to the ground.

The entire exchange lasted only two or three breaths, yet the two Chinoike ninja had already lost their ability to fight.

Shaoyu had not killed them. He had merely rendered them temporarily unable to move.

He wanted to see whether they would calm down, or whether other clansmen would come out to negotiate.

However, the ninja he had struck down first—the one with the dislocated wrist and shuriken lodged in his shoulder and back—forced himself to lift his head through the agony and hatred.

His gaze happened to meet Shaoyu's scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan, which had naturally remained active due to his rapid movements and response just now.

"Sha... Sharingan?!"

As though he had seen the most terrifying thing in the world, the ninja's pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints. His face filled with extreme horror and...

An even more blazing hatred.

"Uchiha?! You're Uchiha scum?! You actually came too?! Kumogakure's lackeys weren't enough—now you damned Uchiha have come to stomp on us too?!"

His roar echoed through the basin, filled with endless resentment.

That roar was like a fuse igniting a powder keg.

In an instant, more than twenty figures burst from the dilapidated shacks and caves.

There were men and women, young and old. Every one of them was ragged and emaciated, but without exception, their eyes burned with hysterical hatred and madness.

They held crude weapons: rusted swords and blades, sharpened wooden sticks, even nothing more than sharp rocks.

"Uchiha?!"

"It's the Sharingan! I saw it!"

"Damn it! Kumogakure imprisoning us wasn't enough—now even the Uchiha have come to kick us while we're down?!"

"Kill this Uchiha bastard! Avenge our dead clansmen!"

Like boiling filthy water, the crowd surged toward Shaoyu.

Among them, five pairs of eyes were particularly striking.

Their pupils were not normal in color, but an eerie dark red, as though formed from congealed blood. Their pupil shapes were also unlike those of ordinary people, carrying a twisted, sinister quality. They were clansmen who had awakened the Ketsuryūgan.

"So it really is... impossible to communicate."

Uchiha Shaoyu looked at this group of pitiful yet hateful people, completely consumed by hatred. They had no desire to hear any explanation and wanted only to tear him apart. The last trace of his willingness to communicate died away.

He had never been some softhearted saint. On his path as a fugitive, he had killed Konoha pursuers and Jashin Cult followers. For survival and his goals, he had never minded staining his hands with blood.

Since these Chinoike clansmen had chosen to become his enemies, with no room for reconciliation, then...

"If that is the case, then I'll grant your wish."

Shaoyu's voice was cold, devoid of emotion.

Faced with more than twenty frenzied people rushing at him, Shaoyu advanced rather than retreated.

The three tomoe in his left eye instantly shifted into a Mangekyō Sharingan. Strange bands of light flowed within it as immense ocular power and chakra surged forth.

"Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk."

"Come on, you little brats."

Shaoyu taunted them.

"Kill him!!!!!!"