A Place to Watch the World Shatter

The peaceful starry sky rose and fell in the rippling waves.

The sea of stars reflected on the lake's surface like a scattering of jewels.

By the lakeside, Ning Qi roasted dog meat, wiped down his longsword, and quietly waited for something.

Hanabi held a twig and poked the bonfire with great interest. Once its tip caught fire, she tossed it into the flames, then broke off another bundle of twigs and continued poking.

After repeating this several times, she finally looked up and asked,

"Is Brother Neji all right?"

Ning Qi nodded and casually said,

"That sword strike was one he had to take."

Hanabi did not understand why Neji had to suffer that strike, but she feared Ning Qi might find her annoying if she asked too many questions in a short time. So, she decided to ask again after lighting five more twigs.

The wind swept across the lake, raising faint ripples. After lighting the third twig, she noticed that Ning Qi suddenly stood up beside her.

"What is it?" Hanabi asked curiously.

"The meat's done. Divide it up," Ning Qi said, then took his longsword and walked toward the dark forest not far away.

Dividing the meat.

This was the first order Hanabi had received after leaving Konoha. In order to show that she was useful and could help Ning Qi, she carefully used a kunai to scrape the steaming dog meat piece by piece onto two lotus leaves.

"All of this is for Brother Ning Qi."

"And this is mine."

She felt rather proud of herself.

Footsteps sounded, and Hanabi turned her head. Brother Ning Qi had returned.

The wind carried a thick scent of blood. His longsword had been stained a deep crimson, yet Ning Qi himself was spotless and perfectly clean.

Hanabi had already grown used to that smell. Looking up at Ning Qi, she said,

"I've divided the meat."

Her tone rose with expectation in her eyes. Ning Qi complied and stroked her head, praising her,

"Not bad."

Having received approval from someone she valued, Hanabi was extremely happy. She smiled sweetly.

"Do you want to see fireworks?" Ning Qi casually asked after sitting down.

"Yes!" Hanabi nodded repeatedly.

"Then finish eating, and I'll teach you." Ning Qi placed some of the meat from his lotus leaf onto Hanabi's.

After finally finishing her meal, Hanabi followed Ning Qi's demonstration and formed the hand seals one by one. Yet after she finished, she saw no change around them.

She looked blankly at Ning Qi, who shook his head.

"Let the bullets fly for a while."

After Explosive Tags were ignited, they needed several seconds before they exploded.

Ning Qi looked into the distance, and Hanabi followed his gaze.

That was the direction of Konohagakure.

After a moment of silence.

A sudden gust of wind pressed down countless branches around them.

The next second.

A blaze bright enough to illuminate half the night sky suddenly erupted.

Hanabi's eyes widened.

Then came a violent rumble. Countless fish leaped from the lake, and Ning Qi was quite satisfied with the effects of hundreds of thousands of Explosive Tags detonating at once.

As expected of a creation Gen'o had made by gathering most of the Heat-Haze Village's wealth and pouring in time and effort.

If he had not already detonated them separately several times before, the visual spectacle of a million Explosive Tags exploding at once would surely have been an art form as well.

Although Konoha had largely completed its population evacuation and supply transfer, as Ning Qi had said before, killing was not the goal. Breaking people's hearts was.

A simple bombing attack would only make Konoha's people unite against an external enemy.

Ning Qi was certainly the culprit, but when the first sound that triggered an avalanche came from within Konoha itself, it would provide the internal factions with the perfect pretext to attack one another. The so-called Will of Fire would naturally become a joke in the face of actual losses.

The corpses of those Root shinobi in the forest could prove that this farewell fireworks show was not Ning Qi breaking the rules. Rather, Konoha itself had developed internal disagreements, and Ning Qi's counterattack had merely been forced upon him.

This would create a new breach for Konoha's division.

Danzo really had not made him wait in vain.

Ning Qi smiled.

After suffering such humiliation, nearly losing his life, how could Danzo possibly not send people to watch Ning Qi?

Once he sent people over, the situation would no longer remain under Danzo's control. The Explosive Tags buried throughout Konoha had all detonated, and Ning Qi could already imagine how lively tomorrow's Konoha high-level meeting would be.

After watching the fireworks, Ning Qi used the bonfire's light and a kunai to carve a deep slash across his forehead protector.

It was like a turning point in fate.

From a shinobi.

To a rogue shinobi.

Ning Qi looked at the forehead protector in his hand.

He had made that cut quickly, but this chapter of his life had not gone as smoothly as that stroke.

From the moment the Caged Bird Seal had been branded onto him.

To wiping out the Hyuga clan, and now defecting from Konoha.

This process had taken Ning Qi a full ten years.

Ending the deeply entrenched ruling system of a thousand-year-old clan in ten years, weakening a powerful shinobi village in ten years—viewed that way, Ning Qi's efficiency had still been quite high.

Though the Caged Bird was still etched upon his forehead.

And the eagle soaring through the skies still faced the risk of being caught and returned to its cage.

No matter what, this was already tremendous progress.

Achieving this much in ten years meant he could not ask for more.

To truly remove the Caged Bird Seal, Ning Qi would still need to make further efforts.

[Essence collected: 96.7%]

This line of small text still floated across Ning Qi's retina.

This was the current amount of essence in Ning Qi's Byakugan after he had exterminated the Hyuga clan. He was still 3.3% short of advancing the Byakugan to its final stage.

During the extermination of the Hyuga clan, Ning Qi had only absorbed the Byakugan of branch family members. The main family's Byakugan had all been preserved—more than twenty pairs in total, of varying purity, but still enough to easily push the entire Byakugan's progress to 100%.

The reason he had not directly raised the Byakugan to 100% while exterminating the Hyuga clan was that advancing his Byakugan would leave Ning Qi weakened for a period of time. Konoha had still been in chaos then, and with the Uchiha Rebellion imminent, the Byakugan's weakened period would have made Ning Qi miss out on many benefits.

"However, I can soon prepare for the final stage of advancement."

Ning Qi smiled faintly.

He did not know how long the weakened period after advancing the Byakugan to its final stage would last, but that did not matter. He would find somewhere safe and remain there until the Byakugan completed its advancement.

And the method of removing the Caged Bird Seal lay within the final stage of the Byakugan.

What kind of ability would the final-stage Byakugan awaken for him?

Ning Qi looked forward to it greatly.

"Let's go." After putting on his forehead protector, Ning Qi extinguished the bonfire.

"Where are we going?" Hanabi looked at the slash on Ning Qi's forehead protector, not understanding what it meant.

She did not dare ask, but when she noticed the faint smile on Ning Qi's face, she felt that he should be in a fairly good mood.

Does Brother Ning Qi like fireworks that much?

Hanabi pondered.

"To a place where we can sit and watch the world shatter."

Ning Qi said.

One tall and one short, the two of them crossed the lake and walked onward beneath the starlight.