Reaping of the Black Reaper

Rock's pupils suddenly contracted.

All he saw was a black, distorted afterimage flash past from the bottom of a crater a thousand meters away.

The next second, a terrifying sense of danger that made his scalp tingle came from behind him.

He did not even have time to turn around or form hand seals. Relying solely on his battle-hardened instincts, he violently twisted his center of gravity to the left.

"Pfft!"

A faint sound, so slight it was almost negligible.

Rock's body froze in place.

Slowly and with difficulty, he lowered his head.

A pure black palm, as though carved from obsidian, had passed straight through the right side of his chest.

Dark red, almost tangible steam still curled around the edges of that hand. It was the lingering heat of magma.

There was no blood.

The flesh around the wound, along with his organs and bones, had been shattered into their most primitive particles by that tyrannical Armament Haki and terrifying heat at the instant of impact, then completely vaporized and annihilated.

"You..."

Rock opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But Yan had already pulled back his arm.

Like a sand sculpture that had lost its support, Rock's body toppled backward weakly. Even in death, his eyes, wide with utter terror, still reflected that black figure calmly shaking off blood that did not exist from his hand.

Captain of the Iwagakure Demolition Corps, Rock.

Killed in action.

From the moment Yan vanished to the moment Rock's corpse fell, the entire process had taken less than half a second.

The surviving Iwagakure and Amegakure ninjas around them had not even recovered from the shock of having their faith shattered.

Not until Rock's lifeless corpse slammed heavily into the ground with a dull thud.

Dead silence.

After a brief silence came a complete collapse, like mountains crumbling and seas roaring.

"The... the captain is dead?"

"O... one hit?"

"Run! Run for your lives!"

An Amegakure ninja was the first to let out a hysterical scream. He threw away his kunai and, like a rabbit scared out of its wits, scrambled madly in the opposite direction from Yan.

His actions were like a fuse, instantly igniting everyone's survival instincts.

Discipline? Formation? A ninja's honor?

Before the Black Reaper, a godlike demon, all of it became pale and laughable.

Their only thought now was to run!

The farther from that monster, the better!

For a moment, dozens of figures scattered like startled birds, fleeing in all directions in disgrace.

"Trying to run?"

Yan's voice was not loud, yet it was like a precise carving knife, etching itself clearly into every fleeing person's eardrums.

His legs bent slightly.

Black Armament Haki spread beneath his feet like a tide.

"I said not one of you is leaving."

"Boom!"

The ground beneath his feet exploded.

Like a cannonball launched from a catapult, he became a streak of black light and instantly caught up to the two Iwagakure ninjas running at the rear.

He did not even use any ninjutsu.

He simply threw two punches.

The two Iwagakure ninjas were covered in heavy Earth Style armor, a defensive ninjutsu the Hidden Rock Village took great pride in.

Yet before Yan's fists wrapped in Armament Haki, that layer of Earth Style armor was even more fragile than paper.

"Bang! Bang!"

Two dull explosions.

The two elite Iwagakure jonin did not even have time to scream before their upper bodies were blasted into a mist of blood in midair.

The reaping had begun.

Yan's figure moved through the chaotic battlefield like a ghost.

He abandoned his former broad, sweeping style of fighting, where he would casually use Meteor Volcano to scour the battlefield.

That was too wasteful.

Now, he was a walking humanoid tank. An incomparably efficient, utterly ruthless killing machine.

Every punch and every kick was precise and lethal.

"Earth Style: Rock Iron Cannon Technique!"

In despair, an Iwagakure ninja turned back and fired dozens of rock cannonballs as hard as steel from his hands.

Yan neither dodged nor evaded, allowing those cannonballs to strike his pitch-black armor.

"Clang, clang, clang—"

A rapid series of dense impacts, like rain striking banana leaves.

The rock cannonballs, powerful enough to smash through city walls, shattered and flew away the instant they touched the Armament Haki.

Yan was completely unharmed.

Step by step, he walked toward the Iwagakure ninja, whose face had gone deathly pale.

"Y... You stay away!"

The ninja backed away in terror, even forgetting to flee.

Yan extended his right hand.

Black Armament Haki extended and coiled forward along his arm like a venomous snake.

Armament Haki: Infusion!

"Pfft."

The black Haki condensed into an invisible, indestructible spear and effortlessly pierced the ninja's heart.

"Too weak."

Yan withdrew his Haki and headed toward his next target.

He was like the most discerning gourmet tasting a brand-new dish.

He reveled in this new power, this pure, unreasonable union of offense and defense.

The Magma-Magma Fruit gave him devastating area-wide destructive power.

Armament Haki, meanwhile, gave him unstoppable point-penetrating power.

Combined, the two had turned him into a monster without a single weakness.

"Water Style: Water Wall!"

Several Amegakure ninjas joined forces to create a massive, rapidly spinning wall of water, attempting to block Yan's path.

Yan could not even be bothered to look at it.

His right arm transformed into magma.

Dark red, boiling magma covered his pitch-black Armament Haki armor.

One half was scorching heat that devoured all things; the other was indestructible blackness.

"Hell Hound."

He threw a punch.

The massive water wall was vaporized into a huge hole the instant it touched his fist.

The force of the punch did not diminish.

It directly blasted the three Amegakure ninjas behind the water wall, along with their terrified expressions, into nothingness.

A massacre.

This was a one-sided massacre without the slightest suspense.

In just five minutes.

The battlefield fell silent once more.

Dozens of elites from Iwagakure and Amegakure now remained only as severed limbs scattered across the ground and grotesque charred marks left by magma.

Yan stood in the center of the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, slowly dispelling the Armament Haki covering his entire body.

That extreme blackness receded like a tide, revealing his fair, unblemished skin.

His chest rose and fell slightly.

Not from exhaustion.

But excitement.

[Ding—]

[The host has annihilated the joint ambush of the Iwagakure Demolition Corps and Amegakure Assassination Corps with overwhelming force.]

[Achievement obtained: Proof of Calamity!]

[Reward: Magma-Magma Fruit evolution progress +5%! Current evolution progress: 90%!]

[Reward: Armament Haki proficiency increased to 100/100! Automatically advanced to: Intermediate Armament Haki!]

[New ability unlocked: Armament Haki: Infusion (Fully Mastered)—Haki can be projected from the body and infused into weapons, or used for medium-range piercing and cutting attacks.]

[New ability unlocked: Armament Haki: Internal Destruction—Haki can be driven into an enemy's body to directly destroy their organs and bones, ignoring external defenses.]

Yan looked at the rewards on the system panel, and the corner of his mouth pulled into a shape devoid of any smile.

He lowered his head and glanced at the corpses on the ground, no longer recognizable as human.

"Cleaning up the battlefield is always the most troublesome part."

He muttered to himself, then raised both hands.

Dark red light flared once more.

Atop a tower several miles away.

Konan's purple eyes reflected the distant ruins that had been completely leveled, as well as the black figure standing over them like a demon god.

The knuckles of the hand gripping her paper umbrella had turned faintly white from the force of her grip.

"..."

Obito, standing beside her, had also put away his frivolous demeanor.

Through the single hole in his spiral mask, his Mangekyo Sharingan stared fixedly at Yan. The shock in his eyes was nearly spilling over.

A sea of explosive tags, spatial compression... Even Uchiha Madara at the height of his power would not have dared take attacks of that level head-on with his body.

What kind of monster is that guy...?

"It seems..." Obito's voice had become hoarse and dry. "We need to completely reevaluate him."

"Even Nagato's Almighty Push probably... couldn't repel that black 'armor.'"

Konan said nothing.

She merely raised Uchiha Yan's threat level another three ranks on the list in her mind.

Directly alongside Uchiha Madara.