Susanoo cloaked in fire-now that's a "warm" welcome!

Rumble-!!

The earth groaned, and the air burned.

Chiya controlled the scarlet Susanoo, its massive chakra blade perfectly fused with Ryūjin Jakka. It became a flaming slash dozens of meters long and cleaved savagely into the ground beneath Konoha!

There lay the entrance to Root.

The underground base of the man known as the "Darkness of Konoha," where countless crimes and filthy secrets lay hidden.

Crack-szzzz!

The defensive barrier over Root, maintained day and night by dozens of elite members of the Barrier Team, was as fragile as a sheet of paper before that blade.

It did not even have time to shatter. The heat simply "melted" it!

The barrier formula's runes twisted in the air, blackened, and finally vanished.

The thick rock strata were sliced apart with ease. Orange-red magma flowed along the cut, illuminating the once pitch-black night sky.

"Who's there?!"

"Enemy attack! We're under attack!!"

"The barrier's down! Notify Lord Danzo!"

Countless masked Root ninja poured out from every corner. Well trained, they still radiated a chilling murderous intent.

Yet when they looked up at the sky, all that murderous intent froze into terror.

Above the shattered ceiling, a "red sun" descended.

It was an enormous red skeletal giant, cloaked in golden-red flames.

Chiya stood within Susanoo's brow, Ryūjin Jakka in his hand radiating suffocating waves of heat. He looked down at the antlike Root ninja beneath him, a cruel smile curling his lips.

"Good evening, you filthy sewer rats."

"You love hiding in dark, damp places so much, you'll get rheumatism. I brought you a little 'warmth'!"

Boom!!

Susanoo slammed into the central plaza of the Root Base.

A massive shock wave, laden with scorching air, instantly blasted away the surrounding ring of buildings. Rubble flew, and the dust had barely risen before the heat burned it into crystalline particles.

"It's an Uchiha! That's the Uchiha's Susanoo!"

A Root squad leader screamed shrilly, "Everyone, scatter! Form up! The target is an S-rank rogue ninja. Kill on sight!"

"For Lord Danzo! For Konoha!"

Root's brainwashing was certainly thorough. Faced with power like that of a god or demon, not one of these death-sworn operatives backed down.

"Secret Insect Technique: Insect Sphere!"

Several Root ninja from the Aburame Clan attacked first.

They flung open their sleeves, releasing thousands upon thousands of black kikaichū. Their scalp-prickling buzz filled the air as they attempted to devour Chiya's chakra.

Behind the insects stood mental-sensing ninja from the Yamanaka Clan, along with several elite assassins skilled in Lightning Release and Water Release.

"Naive."

Chiya watched the swarms hurtling toward him without so much as lifting an eyelid. He merely uttered a brief phrase:

"Heat Affection."

This was not a Shikai move of Ryūjin Jakka, but a suppressive field Chiya created by combining his immense spiritual pressure with the scorching heat spilling from his Zanpakuto!

Humm!

The air within a hundred-meter radius of Chiya suddenly grew thick and heavy.

Extreme heat was compressing the air!

Screee-!!

The once-ferocious "insect cloud" suddenly erupted in shrill pops the instant it came within ten meters of Chiya.

Then a shocking sight unfolded.

Thousands upon thousands of kikaichū spontaneously combusted!

There was no open flame. That invisible "heat pressure" alone set these chakra-dependent insects burning from the inside out.

Crackle, pop...

Countless burning insect corpses rained down.

"No!! My insects!"

The Aburame Clan ninja screamed in anguish. Their kikaichū were bound to their hosts' lives, and the backlash from the swarm's instant annihilation made them spew blood.

But it was not over yet.

With a thought from Chiya, the flames covering Susanoo surged.

Whoosh-!

The clothes and hair of the Aburame ninja, still vomiting blood, instantly became fuel.

"Aaaaaah!!"

Their screams echoed throughout the underground base. They became human torches in an instant, collapsing after only a few steps. They writhed in the flames, charred, and finally became heaps of unrecognizable charcoal.

"M-monster..."

The Root ninja behind them finally felt fear.

This was not a battle at all!

It was a massacre! An attack from an entirely different plane of power!

The heat their opponent radiated just by standing there had already inflicted devastating casualties.

"Don't panic! Mind Body Switch Technique!"

An elite member of the Yamanaka Clan hiding in the shadows seized the moment when Chiya was "distracted." Forming hand seals, the ninja aimed at Chiya and unleashed the clan's secret mental technique.

Controlling his mind for just one second would let the surrounding comrades tear him to pieces!

That invisible mental energy instantly crossed the distance and plunged into Chiya's sea of consciousness.

And then...

There was no then.

"Aaaaaah!!!"

The Yamanaka Clan ninja suddenly clutched their head, eyes rolling back and foam spilling from their mouth. Two trails of bloody tears flowed from the corners of their eyes.

Their brain had been cooked.

The moment their mental energy entered Chiya's sea of consciousness, what they saw was not an ordinary ninja's mental world, but a blazing, majestic sun!

It was the will of Ryūjin Jakka's blade spirit-the overwhelming power to incinerate all creation!

A mortal mind had tried to stare directly at the sun? The only possible outcome was utter annihilation!

"Too weak. Far too weak!"

"This is Root? This is the strength Danzo is so proud of?"

Chiya laughed wildly and made Susanoo take a step forward.

Thud!

The entire underground base shook violently again.

By now, the Root Base had become a gigantic oven.

The ventilation system had long since melted in the heat, and oxygen was rapidly being consumed. The surrounding walls began to glow red and soften, while the metal railings along the floor melted outright into streams of molten iron.

Ordinary Root ninja began struggling to breathe. Every breath seared their lungs, and their exposed skin began blistering and ulcerating.

"Water Release! Hurry, use Water Release to cool it down!"

"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"

Several ninja skilled in Water Release desperately tried to create water.

But before their techniques could take shape, the water they spat out vaporized in midair into scalding steam.

Hiss-!

Dry roasting became a "sauna"-a lethal sauna heated to several hundred degrees!

Scalding steam instantly spread through the area. The ninja who had barely been holding on were burned until their skin split and flesh tore. Screams rose one after another, turning the place into hell on earth.

Chiya stood at the center of the sea of fire, basking in those despairing wails. The Mangekyō Sharingan in his eyes slowly rotated, greedily recording it all.

The kill points on the system panel climbed frantically.

[Ding! Killed one Chunin. Obtained a trace amount of chakra!]

[Ding! Killed one Special Jōnin. Plundered secret technique: Insect Wall!]

[Ding! Large amounts of fear detected. Ryūjin Jakka compatibility increased by 1%!]

"That feels good."

Chiya took a deep breath. To him, the air filled with the stench of burning was like sweet nectar.

He lightly swept Ryūjin Jakka through the air, dispersing the steam before him.

"About time you came out, old dog."

Chiya's gaze pierced the layers of heat waves and fixed on the deepest part of the base. "Can you still sit there while your men die like vermin?"

"Shimura Danzō!"

Chiya roared the name, his voice laden with spiritual pressure.

Boom!

The stone doors shattered beneath the sound wave.

As the dust cleared, a group of ninja with distinctly stronger auras slowly emerged.

In their midst stood an old man leaning on a cane, half his face wrapped in bandages. His expression was dark, and his lone eye stared fixedly at Chiya.

Shimura Danzō had finally appeared.

As he surveyed the charred corpses strewn across the ground, his usually impassive face twitched slightly.

These were death-sworn operatives he had spent decades and countless resources training! Yet in just a few short minutes, he had suffered such devastating losses!

"Chiya... Uchiha!"

Danzo spat out the name through gritted teeth, striking his cane hard against the ground. "I thought Shisui Uchiha and Uchiha Itachi were the greatest threats. To think the one hiding the deepest was an unremarkable fellow like you!"

Even now, Danzo remained arrogant.

In his eyes, however strong Chiya might be, he was still only a young Uchiha.

He possessed the First Hokage's cells, an entire arm of Sharingan, and even Shisui's Mangekyō!

He had no reason to lose!

"You dare provoke the Konoha High Command and slaughter ninja from your own village!"

Danzo rebuked him with righteous indignation. "You truly belong to the inherently evil Uchiha Clan! Teacher Tobirama was right. The Uchiha are the source of all unrest!"

"If you are allowed to live, the Shinobi World will surely descend into chaos!"

"All Root personnel, heed my orders! Capture this fiend at any cost! I will personally gouge out his eyes and turn him into a living specimen!"

At Danzo's command, the dozen or so Root elites behind him-the bearers of the infamous "Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal"-drew their ninja blades in unison.

Chiya smiled at the sight.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!"

"Danzo, oh, Danzo. Death is staring you in the face, and you're still wearing that nauseating, sanctimonious expression."

Chiya stopped laughing. His gaze instantly turned icy, and he pointed the tip of Ryūjin Jakka straight at Danzo's brow.

"You want to gouge out my eyes?"

"Perfect. I've taken a liking to that arm of yours, and that... right eye that never should have belonged to you!"

The red Susanoo around Chiya swelled once more. Its skeletal upper body instantly sprouted flesh and armor, becoming an even more imposing, partially completed Perfect Susanoo!

"Since you love collecting Sharingan so much, let me show you the Uchiha Clan's divine power!"

"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"

"Torch!!"

Chiya formed no hand seals. He simply swung his blade.

Ryūjin Jakka's flames fused perfectly with the Uchiha's Fire Release.

In that instant, all Danzo could see was an endless expanse of red.

"Wood Release: Wooden World... no! Retreat!!"

Danzo's startled cry was swallowed by the towering sea of flames.