An oppressive, suffocating silence hung over the Konoha Gate.
After effortlessly crushing Ino-Shika-Cho's final counterattack, the hundred-meter-tall "All Things in the Universe: Wooden Susanoo Demon God" did not press its advantage and slaughter the defeated survivors who had already lost the will to fight.
It slowly turned its enormous body.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
With every step, the earth shook violently, as though struck by a magnitude-ten earthquake. Its enormous wooden feet crushed streets and houses as it headed toward the very center of Konoha-and its highest point.
Every surviving Konoha ninja, along with the villagers peering outside through gaps in their shelters, held their breath as their eyes followed the crimson demon god.
Where was it headed?
Soon, everyone had their answer.
When the Susanoo stopped, it stood facing the row of enormous stone faces carved into the sheer cliff, overlooking the entire village.
Hokage Rock.
The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.
Those four enormous sculptures were Konoha's symbol, the embodiment of the "Will of Fire," and a sacred monument that every villager considered utterly inviolable. For decades, no matter what crisis befell the village-whether the Nine-Tails' Rampage or the wars of the Shinobi World-those four sculptures had stood firm, giving everyone an endless sense of security.
As long as Hokage Rock remained, Konoha would endure.
Everyone believed that.
Yet tonight, Chiya Uchiha, the avenger who had returned from hell, controlled a demon god that resembled the First Hokage's Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands, yet wore the sinister armor of the Uchiha, and coldly regarded those four faces.
"What an ironic sight."
Amplified by the Susanoo's chakra, Chiya's voice thundered in everyone's ears.
"Look at those four stones."
"The First founded the village, yet failed to stop the divisions from forming."
"The Second invented countless forbidden techniques, yet turned his blade on his own people."
"The Third..." Chiya sneered. "A mouth full of virtue and morality, a belly full of depravity. In the end, he died reaping the evil he had sown."
"As for the Fourth, he sacrificed his life for the village, yet the village treated his son like a monster and subjected him to endless abuse."
Chiya commanded the Susanoo to slowly raise its right hand, which held the "Giant Soul-Cutting Blade."
Golden flames blazed wildly along the blade, hundreds of meters long, staining half the night sky a savage, ghastly gold.
"Is this your so-called Will of Fire?"
"Is this the faith you worship?"
"As far as I'm concerned..."
Chiya's gaze suddenly sharpened, his killing intent boiling over.
"They're nothing but a pile of worthless, rotten stones!"
"A new era has no need for these old tombstones cluttering up the view!"
"Stop!!!"
In the distance, Kakashi Hatake, who had just regained consciousness, let out a heart-wrenching scream at the sight.
That was his teacher's statue! That was Konoha's spiritual pillar!
It couldn't be destroyed!
Countless villagers knelt with their hands clasped, sobbing and pleading, "Please, no! That's Lord Hokage! That's our god!"
"A god?"
The smile on Chiya's lips grew even crueler.
"There are no gods in this world."
"And if there is one, it's me!"
"Now... shatter!!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Chiya gripped the hilt with both hands and commanded the Perfect Susanoo, powerful enough to cleave heaven and earth, to strike viciously at Hokage Rock-
A horizontal slash!
Vrooom-!!!
A golden wave of flaming sword energy, thousands of meters long, swept outward in a fan.
That strike was as fast as it was ferocious.
The air tore apart. Space warped.
Under the horrified gaze of tens of thousands of eyes throughout the village, that golden line sliced into Hokage Rock's necks with absolute precision.
Time seemed to freeze.
One second.
Two seconds.
There was no explosion, no rumbling.
Only a teeth-grating crack of splitting stone came from the cliff.
Then came a sight that everyone in Konoha would remember for the rest of their lives-a nightmare that would haunt them forever.
The First Hokage's majestic head slowly shifted and slid. The Second Hokage's stern head began to tilt. The Third Hokage's hypocritical head lost its support. The Fourth Hokage's youthful head fell under gravity's pull.
With that single strike, all four enormous stone heads were-
Decapitated!
Rumble-!!!!
At last, the delayed roar erupted.
Tens of thousands of tons of boulders tumbled from the hundred-meter-high cliff with enough momentum to destroy everything. They collided in midair and broke apart, becoming a terrifying rain of stone that smashed into the streets and buildings below Hokage Rock.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The earth groaned, and dust blotted out the sky.
Hokage Rock, once the symbol of Konoha's greatest glory, was reduced to four bare neck stumps, their surfaces as smooth as mirrors.
It was the most brazen insult to the "Will of Fire."
It was the utter trampling of Konoha's dignity.
"Ah..."
Inside a shelter, an elderly man stared with his mouth agape, meaningless choking sounds escaping his throat. Then his eyes rolled back, and he fainted from sheer outrage.
"Hokage Rock... collapsed..."
"The village... is finished..."
Countless ninjas' knees buckled as they fell to the ruins, their weapons slipping from their hands.
When the Third had died in battle, they had still burned with the desire for revenge.
When the advisers had been killed, they had still felt uncertainty about the future.
But now, with Hokage Rock's collapse, the backbone of their spirit had broken completely.
Their faith had collapsed.
Their spirits had died.
All their pride, all their resolve, had been reduced by Chiya's single slash to the dust of the past.
[Ding! Congratulations, host! Epic achievement unlocked: Faith Shatterer!] [You have destroyed Konoha's spiritual symbol! You have broken the will of tens of thousands of people!] [Kill points +200000!] [System evaluation: This slash hurt them more than killing them would have. Just what I'd expect from you, host-ruthless and merciless!]
Listening to the system's praise in his mind, Chiya stood atop the Susanoo's head and nodded in satisfaction at the four bare cliff stumps before him.
"That's much easier on the eyes."
With a casual gesture, he dispersed the enormous chakra Zanpakuto in his hand.
The Susanoo's gigantic body slowly dissipated, becoming crimson motes that filled the sky.
Chiya drifted down to the top of the Hokage Building's ruins.
He turned his back on the devastated village and its despairing, weeping inhabitants.
"Listen."
Chiya's voice was not loud, but it carried clearly through the deathly silent village.
"From today onward, don't ever mention the Will of Fire to me again."
"From now on, there is only one will here."
Chiya turned, his uncanny eyes gleaming through the dust with a chilling light that gripped the soul.
"And that is-my will."
No one dared object.
No one even dared breathe loudly.
Even Kakashi could only lower his head helplessly, clenching his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his flesh and blood streamed down.
He knew that the Konoha which had once been warm and full of sunshine had died completely tonight.
In its place came a new era ruled by Chiya Uchiha, filled with iron-fisted brutality and fear.
"Since I've already torn down the landmark..."
Chiya did not stop there. His gaze fell on the red, domed building beneath his feet.
The Hokage Building.
The place where missions were issued, where the Hokage worked-Konoha's heart.
"There's no point keeping this building, either."
Chiya drew an Explosive Tag from his clothes-or rather, he had no need for an Explosive Tag at all.
He simply extended a finger, and a wisp of golden flame ignited at its tip.
"Ryūjin Jakka Ember."
He flicked his finger.
That tiny flame drifted gently onto the Hokage Building's roof.
Whoosh-!
It was like throwing a match into a fuel depot.
The entire building was instantly engulfed in golden flames!
"Burn. Burn it all clean."
Chiya watched the building warp in the sea of fire, watched the flag bearing the character for "fire" turn to ash, without the slightest ripple in his eyes.
"Out with the old, in with the new."
"Still..."
Chiya turned toward the Uchiha Clan Compound, where two "survivors" remained who were still of some use to him.
"Before I build a new world, I need to collect my 'luggage.'"
Chiya flickered, activated Flash Step, and vanished.
He left only the burning Hokage Building and the four decapitated faces of Hokage Rock behind him, forming an exquisitely beautiful tableau in the night called "Apocalypse."
[Konoha · Deep inside the shelter]
This was the central area originally intended to protect the villagers. Now, it was packed with people.
Fear, despair, and sobbing rose in endless waves.
"Waaah... Hokage Rock collapsed... are we all going to die?"
"That Chiya Uchiha is a devil! He's a devil!"
"Someone, save us... what about the Five Great Nations? What about the Daimyō?"
Among the crowd, a little pink-haired girl clung tightly to her mother, trembling.
Sakura Haruno.
Through the shelter's ventilation window, she had seen the flames soaring into the sky outside, and the crimson giant that had effortlessly severed the mountaintop.
At that moment, though she was too young to understand any grand principles, a profound sense of helplessness was etched into her bones.
Was this... what ninjas were like?
Before power like that, we didn't even have the right to breathe...
She was not the only one.
Ino Yamanaka, Hinata Hyuga, Shikamaru Nara... these once-carefree children of the "Konoha 12" were forced to grow up that night.
They had witnessed their parents' crushing defeat and the collapse of their faith with their own eyes.
And the name of the man responsible for it all-Chiya Uchiha-would loom over their childhoods, and even their entire lives, as-
Their darkest shadow.
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