The cheers shook the heavens, echoing through the clouds.
In the firelight that had reduced the two advisers to ashes, the atmosphere before the Konoha Gate grew unnervingly strange.
Most of the cries of "We follow Lord Chiya alone!" came from terrified low- and mid-ranking ninja and civilians who had been stirred up without knowing the truth. But at the heart of the crowd-where the three clan heads, Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, and Akimichi Chōza, knelt-the air was deathly still.
Shikaku Nara remained on his knees, his forehead pressed to the ground.
His body trembled.
Not from fear, but from a chill that pierced his bones and... grim resolve.
As the most intelligent man in Konoha, Shikaku ran through countless thoughts in that instant.
Submit?
No. Impossible.
Chiya's remark that "a dog never stops eating shit" had not merely condemned the advisers. It had also passed judgment on everyone like them who had benefited from the old order.
Chiya Uchiha was an extraordinarily arrogant and brutal dictator. He did not need allies. He needed slaves.
If they did not resist, he would sooner or later find excuses to chip away at the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans and purge them, just as he had done to Root.
Rather than kneel and wait to die, we should...
"Inoichi, Chōza."
Through the shadows connected along the ground, Shikaku sent his two old comrades an extremely subtle signal.
It was an understanding forged through decades of fighting together-death before surrender!
"Chiya's guard is down right now. He thinks he's scared us out of our wits."
"This is our only chance."
"For our clans, for Konoha's future... we'll fight him to the death!"
Just as Chiya turned to enjoy the cheers greeting him like a newly crowned king...
Everything changed!
Shikaku Nara, who had been prostrate on the ground, suddenly raised his head. His usually listless, dead-fish eyes blazed with a sharpness they had never shown before.
"Now!!!"
His furious roar thundered out, instantly drowning out the cheers around them.
"Ninja art: Shadow Imitation Technique-full restraint!!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The shadows that had lain quietly in the firelight instantly transformed into dozens of monstrous black tentacles. They raced across the ground at an unbelievable speed, coiling around Chiya's feet before climbing his legs and locking him firmly in place!
At the same time...
Inoichi Yamanaka, who had already prepared himself, swiftly formed a heart-shaped hand seal and aimed it at Chiya's back.
"Mind Body Switch Technique!!"
An invisible surge of mental energy crossed the distance in an instant and charged straight into Chiya's brain. He did not hope to control Chiya. He only needed to disrupt that monster's mind for a single second!
Under their cover, the true killing blow came from the seemingly cumbersome fat man.
"Multi-Size Technique: Human Bullet Tank!!!"
Akimichi Chōza let out a deafening roar.
His body expanded dozens of times over in an instant, becoming an enormous ball. Then that giant ball of flesh began spinning at high speed, hurtling toward the shadow-bound Chiya with enough momentum to pulverize everything in its path!
The Ino-Shika-Cho!
Konoha's strongest coordinated formation!
Restrain, disrupt, kill!
Even a Kage-level fighter caught off guard by this combination would die on the spot!
"These are our bonds!!"
Veins bulged on Shikaku Nara's forehead as he poured out his chakra without reserve, holding the shadows tight. "Don't underestimate Konoha's ninja, you bastard!!"
Beyond the Ino-Shika-Cho, the elite jonin who had been kneeling nearby also found their last spark of courage ignited by this sudden counterattack.
"Attack with Lord Shikaku!"
"Kill him! Avenge Lord Hokage!"
"Kikaichū: Insect Sphere!"
Shibi Aburame remained silent, but his attack was merciless. Black kikaichū filled the sky like a storm cloud descending upon a city, attempting to devour Chiya's chakra.
"Fang Over Fang!"
Tsume Inuzuka and her ninja dog, Kuromaru, transformed into two raging whirlwinds, cutting off Chiya's flank.
For a moment...
The light of ninjutsu illuminated the night sky before the Konoha Gate.
This was the pinnacle of coordination among Konoha's conventional forces, the final, desperate stand of clans fighting for their survival!
Every attack targeted the black-haired boy in black standing beneath the gate.
At the sight of those deadly attacks sweeping in from every direction, the watching civilians screamed and scattered.
Did it work?
Shikaku Nara stared fixedly ahead.
His shadow had successfully connected to Chiya, and he could feel the weight of the boy's body. Inoichi's mental attack had struck its target, and Chōza's Human Bullet Tank was already upon him!
Yet...
At the very instant that enormous ball of flesh was about to crush Chiya into pulp...
Shikaku Nara saw Chiya's face.
The boy was actually smiling.
It was neither the bitter smile of someone cornered nor the panic of someone caught by surprise.
It was... the mocking smile of someone watching a swarm of ants put on an earnest performance at his feet.
"So this is what you call... your final trump card?"
Chiya's voice was frighteningly calm, carrying clearly through the tumult of the battlefield.
He did not even try to break free of the shadows.
He merely raised one hand slowly, without so much as drawing his sword.
Hummm!!
A despair-inducing wave of chakra erupted from Chiya.
"Nice teamwork."
"Unfortunately..."
"Susanoo: initial form!"
Boom!!!
Dark red chakra surged from Chiya's body like a volcanic eruption.
This time, it was not the perfect form, nor even the skeletal form. Only a few enormous ribs radiating palpable heat materialized out of thin air, shielding Chiya within.
Yet those few ribs were as unyielding as a barrier dividing the world itself.
Bang!!!
Akimichi Chōza's Human Bullet Tank, powerful enough to smash through city walls, slammed into the dark red ribs.
A tremendous crash rang out.
The earth split, and dust billowed everywhere.
Then a sight that shattered everyone's hopes unfolded.
Those seemingly flimsy ribs had not budged! Not even a single crack appeared!
Akimichi Chōza, on the other hand, bounced away like a rubber ball striking a great wall of steel. His enormous body shrank out of the Multi-Size Technique in midair before crashing heavily into the nearby ruins. He vomited blood, his fate unknown.
"Chōza!!" Inoichi Yamanaka cried.
But it was not over.
"Mind Body Switch Technique?"
Chiya snorted coldly, the Mangekyō Sharingan in his eyes turning slightly.
"Trying to invade a mind before the Mangekyō? You're showing off before a master!"
"Break!"
A savage surge of ocular power instantly rushed back through the mental link.
"Gah!!"
Inoichi Yamanaka screamed, blood pouring from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth as he toppled backward, rigid. In an instant, Chiya's reiatsu, brimming with murderous intent, shattered his mental world!
In the blink of an eye, two of the Ino-Shika-Cho had fallen.
Only Shikaku Nara remained, still controlling the shadows.
"How is this possible... how can he be this strong...?"
Despair filled Shikaku's face.
His shadow was still connected to Chiya, but he felt as though he were restraining not a person, but an erupting volcano!
The dark red chakra of Susanoo began burning back along the shadow connecting them!
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!
"Aah!!"
Shikaku watched golden flames ignite in the shadow at his feet and race toward him along its length!
"Do the bugs want to join the fun too?"
Without sparing Shikaku a glance, Chiya turned toward the Aburame insect swarm and the Inuzuka Fang Over Fang sweeping in from his flank.
"Shinra Tensei? No, that's Pain's trick."
"I prefer... something straightforward."
The Susanoo ribs surrounding Chiya suddenly thrust outward!
Boom!!
A red shock wave carrying searing heat swept out.
The kikaichū filling the sky were instantly burned to ash, drifting down like black snow.
Tsume Inuzuka and her ninja dog were hurled away by the shock wave, smashing through a stone pillar of the Konoha Gate before collapsing in pools of blood.
In a single breath...
They had all been defeated!
Konoha's vaunted Ino-Shika-Cho, together with the elite fighters of the other clans, had launched a coordinated killing assault-and they had not even earned the right to make Chiya draw his sword!
Chiya slowly dispelled Susanoo's ribs.
He stood at the center of the devastated battlefield, his black hair whipping in the wind, like an invincible demon god.
Step by step, he approached Shikaku Nara, who had already collapsed on the ground.
Shikaku's shadow had been burned through, and the chakra backlash had left him completely unable to fight. He raised his head and looked at the boy before him, the light in his eyes extinguishing entirely.
This was the gulf between them.
This was absolute power.
Before this man, their so-called tactics, coordination, and bonds... were all nothing but a joke!
"Against absolute power, numbers mean nothing."
Chiya repeated the words as though pronouncing an immutable truth.
He reached out and grabbed Shikaku's hair, forcing Konoha's strategist to look up at him.
"Shikaku, you really are clever."
"You guessed I would purge you, so you chose to strike first."
"But you're also very stupid."
"Because you miscalculated one thing."
Chiya leaned down, his scarlet eyes like an abyss.
"Did you think I was the Third Hokage? Or Danzo?"
"Did you think I would play political games with you? Balance one faction against another?"
"No."
Chiya released him, letting Shikaku fall to the ground.
He straightened and looked around at the Konoha ninja and civilians who were already stupefied with fear.
"I'm here to overturn the table."
"Since you're so fond of these boring games about bonds, since you're so reluctant to let go of that rotten old Konoha..."
"I'll show you what true despair looks like."
Chiya flung his arms wide.
Boom!!!
The chakra that had settled surged wildly inside him once more.
This time, it was no longer a handful of ribs, nor a half-bodied skeleton.
Within the towering pillar of red light, a red demon god vast enough to blot out the moonlight began rising slowly before the Konoha Gate!
Muscles grew!
Armor covered its body!
A tengu mask took shape!
In just a few seconds, a hundred-meter-tall Perfect Susanoo stood upon the earth of Konoha.
Like a crimson mountain, it gazed down at the antlike beings beneath its feet.
"The game is over, Konoha."
Chiya stood within Susanoo's crystal, his voice rolling like thunder from the heavens.
"Now comes judgment."
Before you continue