Leaving Through a Sea of Fire, the Birth of an S-Rank Missing-Nin

Landing on mud carpeted with dead leaves, Ye appeared in a dense forest dozens of miles outside Konoha with Izumi and the three surviving orphans, space twisting alongside the glow of the Flying Thunder God.

Only the hurried breathing of the few survivors remained, while the night wind swept through the canopy.

Slumped on the ground, Izumi's legs went weak, and the tension in her shoulders and back finally eased. They had left that brutal battlefield behind.

Two figures cloaked in black emerged from the darkness, dead leaves crunching beneath their feet.

A faint gleam flashed across his lenses as Kabuto Yakushi adjusted the round glasses on his nose.

Yakushi Nonō bowed to Ye, her expression gentle as she stood beside him.

"Lord Ye, everything went smoothly. Rest assured."

Yet the end of Kabuto's sentence rose uncontrollably as he lowered his voice.

"You caused such a huge commotion that both the Anbu and Root were tied down. Their defenses were in complete disarray, with loopholes everywhere."

His fingers lightly pushed up his glasses as he continued.

"The two core machines from the research division, along with all those top-secret materials on the First Hokage Cells, have been packed up and moved. Nothing went wrong."

Ye gave a slight nod in response.

They would not be able to fill the gap he had left anytime soon. This operation had emptied out half of Konoha's biological research assets.

More than half of the Uchiha Compound had already burned to ash, while the flames in Konoha continued spreading beneath the night sky, only dozens of miles away.

All life had vanished from Uchiha Itachi's face as he sat at the edge of the ruins, leaning against a broken stone pillar.

Pain made his chest convulse. Every breath tugged at his wounds, and broken bones pierced his internal organs. Several of his ribs had been completely shattered by Ye.

He could no longer see clearly. Everything before him had become a blur of overlapping images, the consequences of excessive mental exhaustion arriving one after another. His ocular power had been drained dry—those Mangekyō Sharingan he had once been so proud of.

Itachi stared blankly ahead, utterly motionless.

Several Hyuga elders stood nearby with livid faces. A pale arm covered in Sharingan lay in a pool of blood, making their stomachs churn with nausea.

Stripped of all his former arrogance, Danzo lay collapsed in the mud, allowing everyone to scrutinize him.

Blood seeped through the gaps between his fingers into the filth. His nails had already torn off, while Itachi's fingers dug deeper and deeper into the earth.

He had slaughtered his clan and slaughtered his parents, believing he had borne every sin in exchange for preserving the upper echelon's reputation and securing the peace Konoha had promised.

But now, it all seemed like nothing more than an absurd tragedy.

The higher-ups he had desperately defended had treated the Uchiha as experimental subjects and squeezed profit from their comrades. They were nothing but this sort of people.

The truth Ye had exposed before everyone had completely negated his sacrifice.

Still, his fingers continued clawing deeper into the soil. Then Itachi shut his eyes tightly, bent over, and vomited a mouthful of black blood as the stench of it surged up his throat.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat slumped on the ground not far away.

In that brief span of time, he seemed to have aged ten years. He no longer even had the strength to reach for the Ruyi Jingu Bang.

At last, dawn arrived, sunlight piercing through the clouds.

Yet all of Konoha remained steeped in a stifling atmosphere. The rising sun brought little warmth.

Countless ninja hawks carrying urgent intelligence soared into the sky toward the four great nations of Wind, Lightning, Earth, and Water, as the doors of the Barrier Team were thrown fully open.

A top-secret wanted notice was also issued at the fastest possible speed, spreading throughout the Shinobi World.

The boy in the wanted poster wore a cold, stern expression, with not the slightest regard for rules visible on his face.

A line of bold black characters stood out beneath the portrait.

Uchiha Ye. Bounty: five hundred million ryo. Dead or alive. Maximum danger level. Classified as an S-rank missing-nin.

Once the news spread, every faction in the Shinobi World could no longer remain still.

Inside the Raikage Building in Kumogakure, Land of Lightning.

A thick arm slammed heavily onto the solid wooden desk, cracking its surface on the spot.

Violent Lightning Release chakra flickered across his shoulders and back as scraps of paper drifted from between his fingers. Fourth Raikage A had crushed the wanted notice.

"A Complete Body Susanoo at fourteen? He even took on the Third head-on and cut off Danzo's arm?"

Another corner of the desk collapsed beneath his fist as A laughed in fury.

"Those old fossils in Konoha forced a monster like that to defect with their own hands!"

Iwagakure, Land of Earth.

Ōnoki floated in midair with one hand supporting his waist, the other pressing down on a photograph on the table.

Ye's wanted portrait lay beside it. In the photograph, Konoha's Hokage Rock had been split in half.

Ōnoki narrowed his old eyes, looking back and forth between the two photos as he let out one cold laugh after another.

"Hiruzen Sarutobi has truly gone senile. Leaving this kind of fighting force out there is going to ruin the balance of the entire Shinobi World."

His eyelids lifted slightly as a finger tapped the string of bounty numbers.

"Five hundred million ryo? This kid's one life is worth who knows how many Asumas."

The upper echelons of the four great nations fell silent one after another, each already beginning their own calculations.

To any ninja village, a super missing-nin with a Mangekyō Sharingan and no moral limits was a massive variable capable of throwing the entire situation into chaos.

Deep within the forest, morning mist still lingered among the trees.

Kabuto set aside the tedious task of sorting the scrolls in his hands and looked upward, quietly speculating about their next move.

Standing on a thick tree branch, Ye's gaze passed over the layered sea of forest and settled on the distant horizon.

"Lord Ye, the entire Shinobi World is staring at that five-hundred-million-ryo bounty now."

Kabuto smiled broadly, his fingertips resting against the edge of his glasses.

"Our informants in Konoha have sent word. Those higher-ups are tearing into one another, and the situation has completely turned into a mess."

He raised his head toward Ye and asked in a low voice.

"Are we returning to the underground base next?"

Ye studied the bloodstained map, considering their next move. His gaze swept past Konoha's borders and stopped on the waters at the edge of the map.

"We'll return to the base and recover first."

Killing intent slowly stirred in Ye's eyes as he put away the map.

"Take stock of what we have, then we'll make a trip to the coast."