"Let's see which is tougher-your Death God, or the edge of my Zanpakuto!"
Chiya's arrogant declaration of war echoed through the burning Wooden World, every word a taunt aimed at fate.
In stark contrast, Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart had sunk into utter despair.
He stood in the shadow of an enormous root, drenched in blood. The radiance of the "Shinobi Hero" that had once shone in his clouded old eyes had gone out, replaced by the dead gray of despair.
I lost.
Completely and utterly.
Conventional methods can't kill this monster.
The Five Basic Nature Transformations? That golden demon blade "ate" them all. Hand-to-hand taijutsu? Even Enma, with his indestructible diamond body, had his chakra drained dry by that terrifying Wood Release. As for recovery? With the First Hokage's cells, Chiya's wounds heal faster than a blink. That immense vitality makes him practically a tailed beast in human skin!
"Hiruzen..."
Beside him, the old Enma, who had released his transformation, clutched his chest. His voice was weak and grave. "This kid's strength defies all reason. If you don't retreat, you'll die here."
"Retreat?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi gave a bitter laugh and swept his gaze around him.
Everywhere he looked was hell.
Most of the once-elite Anbu Ninja now hung from the branches, their fate unknown. The heads of the Hyuga, Nara, and other clans were still struggling to hold on, but Chiya's battlefield-wide reiatsu and Wood Release had driven them into a corner.
Farther away lay the burning village and its terrified inhabitants.
Where could he possibly retreat to?
He was the Hokage, the root that sustained these leaves. If even he fled, Konoha would truly be finished.
"Enma, go."
Hiruzen Sarutobi drew a deep breath and slowly straightened his hunched back, as though it took every ounce of strength he had left.
"Hiruzen! What are you doing?!" Enma's eyes widened in horror. He knew that look in his old partner's eyes all too well. It was the same look the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, had worn when he went to his death!
"Konoha can no longer stop this Uchiha demon."
"If strength cannot defeat him, then all I can do... is drag his ambition and his soul into hell with me!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi shoved Enma away and formed a distinctive opening hand seal.
"Shadow Clone Technique!"
Poof! Poof!
Two clouds of white smoke burst forth, and two clones of the Third Hokage in black combat gear immediately charged out.
They used no defensive measures. Like two suicidal cannonballs, they roared and hurled themselves at Chiya high atop the trees.
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!" "Earth Release: Earth Flow River!"
The clones recklessly poured out the last of their chakra, trying to obstruct Chiya's vision-even if they could buy only a single second!
Meanwhile, Hiruzen Sarutobi's real body remained where he stood. He closed his eyes and shut out every distraction.
His hands slowly began forming seals.
These were no ordinary ninjutsu seals.
Each one demanded an enormous expenditure of the caster's mental strength and life force.
"Snake..."
As the first seal formed, the air, which Ryūjin Jakka had heated to a blistering temperature, suddenly turned eerily cold.
"Boar..."
An icy wind sprang up from nowhere. It did not come from nature; it seemed to blow through cracks in the deepest underworld, carrying a bone-piercing chill that dimmed even the flames on the surrounding trees.
Standing atop a tree, Chiya casually shattered the incoming Fire Dragon Flame Bullet with a slash. His gaze immediately locked onto the Third Hokage's real body below.
"Hm?"
Chiya raised an eyebrow. The reiatsu within him was exceptionally sensitive to this chilling presence.
This feeling... isn't chakra?
"Ram..."
"Hare..."
The Third Hokage did not form the seals quickly, but every movement carried the weight of some ancient ritual. As the sequence progressed, the space behind him began to visibly distort.
A spine-chilling pressure enveloped the entire battlefield.
Watching from a distance, Hyuga Hiashi abruptly activated his Byakugan. A moment later, he froze as though he had witnessed something utterly horrifying, cold sweat instantly soaking his back.
"What... is that thing?!"
Through his Byakugan, he saw an enormous mass of densely concentrated chakra appear behind the Third Hokage, brimming with an ominous presence. No, it was not merely chakra. It was... some higher-dimensional existence!
"Dog..."
"Rat..."
The final seal was complete!
Hiruzen Sarutobi slammed his palms together and snapped his eyes wide open. The blood pressure even split the corners of his eyes, sending two trails of bloody tears down his face.
"Forbidden Technique: Reaper Death Seal!!!"
Boom!!!
A soundless thunderclap exploded in the depths of everyone's soul.
Time seemed to stop at that instant.
Behind Hiruzen Sarutobi, the distorted space shattered completely.
An enormous, spectral figure slowly emerged.
He wore a white burial shroud, with disheveled white hair, a blue face, and bared fangs. His features were as hideous as an evil spirit's. He held a short blade crosswise between his teeth and clutched a string of eerie prayer beads.
The Death God!
The Death God of the Naruto World-visible only to the caster and those about to die!
"Woooo..."
The icy wind howled as though countless tormented souls were weeping.
With the Death God's arrival, the temperature throughout the Root Ruins plunged to freezing. This was the true presence of death. Even Ryūjin Jakka's Torch could not fully dispel this chill from the Pure Land.
"So this is... the Reaper Death Seal?"
Chiya looked down at the spectral figure, his Mangekyō Sharingan spinning furiously as he tried to decipher this power.
An ordinary ninja-even a Kage Level fighter-would probably have felt nothing but fear at that moment.
But Chiya was different.
Possessing the power of the "Soul Reaper system," he could see this Death God's true form more clearly than anyone.
"You certainly look... distinctive."
A cold smile curled Chiya's lips, but his body tensed.
Because he sensed a threat.
A genuine, potentially fatal threat!
"Roooaaar!!"
The spectral Death God let out a soundless roar, then slowly extended his withered, skeletal hand.
That hand passed through Hiruzen Sarutobi's abdomen without causing the Third Hokage any physical harm.
But this was only the beginning.
"Aaaaargh!!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi let out an agonized scream. It was the pain of his soul being torn apart and offered to the Death God as a sacrifice.
"I've got you... Chiya Uchiha!"
Enduring the excruciating pain, the Third Hokage jerked his head up. His once-clouded eyes now shone with a frightening brightness as they locked onto Chiya's soul.
The next second.
The Death God's hand extended from Hiruzen Sarutobi's chest. Seemingly ignoring the distance between them, it stretched hundreds of meters in an instant, lunging at Chiya atop the tree like a white python!
Fast!
Too fast!
This was not a physical attack at all-it was a grasp governed by causality!
Chiya was just about to use Flash Step to evade it when he discovered that his body seemed pinned in place by countless invisible chains.
[System warning! High-risk sealing jutsu targeting the soul detected!] [Warning! This technique involves the power of laws. Physical defenses are ineffective!] [Warning! Host, immediately...]
Thrust!
There was no time to react.
The Death God's hand had already passed through Chiya's Susanoo and his flesh, seizing the luminous spiritual body within him-his soul!
"Ngh!"
Chiya grunted, his face instantly turning deathly pale.
An unprecedented wave of nausea washed over him. It felt as though he had been thrown into a spinning washing machine, or as though an icy hand had clamped hard around his heart.
A pull!
A violent, wrenching pull!
He could clearly feel that enormous hand forcibly dragging his soul out!
Once his soul left his body, no matter how powerful his Wood Release regeneration or Ryūjin Jakka's attacks were, he would be nothing but an empty shell!
"Haha... hahahaha!"
At the sight, Hiruzen Sarutobi let out a shrill, crazed laugh from the ground below.
Blood poured from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Extreme pain twisted his face until he looked even more like an evil spirit than the Death God behind him.
His life force was draining rapidly, his skin visibly shriveling, yet the fierce satisfaction in his eyes reached its peak.
"I've caught you... I've finally caught you!"
"Chiya Uchiha! Weren't you so arrogant? Didn't you call yourself a god?"
"Before the Death God, you're nothing but a mortal!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi stared fixedly at Chiya, maintaining the Snake seal as he roared with the last of his strength:
"This is Konoha's final trump card! This is a Hokage's resolve!"
"Your ambition! Your power! And that sinful soul of yours!"
"I'll drag them all into hell! We'll struggle and fight inside the Death God's belly, sealed away forever... forever!!"
Boom!
With the Third Hokage's furious roar, the Death God's arm suddenly pulled harder.
Chiya's body shook violently. Half of a translucent blue figure-Chiya's soul-had already been forcibly dragged out of him!
Death was a hair's breadth away.
This was a true dead end!
In the original story, this forbidden technique had sealed half the Nine-Tails' chakra, followed by the First and Second Hokage brought back through Impure World Reincarnation. It was a truly inescapable, law-based killing move!
And yet.
Just as the Third Hokage thought victory was assured, just as the surrounding Konoha Ninja began to look as though they had escaped certain death.
The man whose soul was being extracted.
Chiya, poised on the brink of life and death.
Slowly... raised his head.
His face was pale, and cold sweat covered his forehead, but his eyes... those Mangekyō Sharingan were so calm that they inspired fear.
No.
It was more than calm.
Deep within those eyes burned a fighting spirit even hotter and more frenzied than before!
"Sealed away forever?"
Chiya's voice was hoarse, sounding as though he had forced it through clenched teeth.
But he neither begged for mercy nor panicked.
He reached back and gripped Ryūjin Jakka at his waist, squeezing so hard that his knuckles turned white.
"Old Third, haven't you gotten something wrong?"
"This so-called Death God of yours..."
Despite the agony of his soul being torn apart, Chiya forcibly halted its extraction-and even pulled it back!
Hummm!
A surge of blue reiatsu terrifying enough to make space tremble erupted from Chiya's body. It was no longer mere chakra, but pure soul power belonging to the Soul Reaper system!
"A monster that only dares to hide in the gutters and eat souls thinks it deserves to be called a Death God?"
Chiya slowly drew Ryūjin Jakka.
Golden flames no longer covered its blade. Instead, it was wreathed in terrifying black-and-red fluctuations capable of severing spiritual bodies.
He looked at the hideous spectral figure behind the Third Hokage, his lips stretching into a cruel grin:
"Before this Zanpakuto of mine..."
"Even a god will kneel!!"
Before you continue