Witness and pawn

The feast was about to begin.

But before enjoying this feast that would sweep across the shinobi world, Chiya had one last trivial matter to attend to.

Standing outside the burning Konoha Gate, he glanced back at the village engulfed in chaos and darkness, a cold smile curling his lips. Then his figure flashed. Rather than leave, he doubled back like a ghost, setting foot once more on that cursed land-the Uchiha Clan Compound.

Since he had decided to destroy the old order completely, leaving certain "promising" pawns in this ruined village would be a waste.

[Uchiha Clan Compound · Deep within the ruins]

This was the heart of the deathly silence.

The once-bustling streets were deserted, with only the wind stirring dead leaves and flakes of dried blood across the ground. In the front courtyard of the clan head's residence, a small, thin figure knelt on the ground, his hands clawing desperately at the dirt, his nails split and bleeding.

Sasuke Uchiha.

The boy who should have awakened in a hospital, been brainwashed by the Third Hokage, and ultimately become Konoha's "loyal dog" was instead trembling in the cold night like an abandoned stray.

With Chiya having destroyed Hokage Rock and burned down the Hokage Building, Konoha's medical and Anbu systems had collapsed. No one had time to spare for this "Uchiha orphan."

Although Kakashi wanted to help, he was busy rescuing the injured from the rubble and maintaining order. He could not be everywhere at once.

"Wah... Brother... Dad... Mom..."

Broken sobs escaped Sasuke's throat. His inner world had utterly collapsed. He hated Itachi, hated Chiya, and hated this Konoha that could not protect anyone. But most of all, he hated his own weak, useless self.

Tap, tap, tap.

Those familiar footsteps sounded again.

Every step seemed to land on Sasuke's heart.

Sasuke jerked his head up. Through his tear-blurred vision, he saw that nightmarish figure once more.

Chiya Uchiha.

He approached with the moonlight behind him, his black robe snapping in the wind, the long sword at his waist radiating suffocating heat.

"What? Haven't cried enough yet?"

Chiya stopped before Sasuke and looked down at him. His gaze held neither sympathy nor pity, only an almost cruel scrutiny.

"You've disgraced the entire Uchiha Clan."

Sasuke shuddered. His instinctive hatred urged him to rise and fight to the death, but the terror gripping his body left him unable to move.

"Kill... kill me..." Sasuke forced the words out through clenched teeth.

"Here we go again."

Chiya shook his head impatiently. "Are you that eager to die? What would dying accomplish? Would you go cry to your parents in the Pure Land? Or visit that useless Itachi, whose head I cut off?"

At the name "Itachi," Sasuke's pupils contracted sharply. His one-tomoe Sharingan flickered into view within his formerly black eyes, looking extremely unstable.

"I originally planned to leave you with that useless Kakashi."

Chiya crouched and reached out, roughly gripping Sasuke's chin as though inspecting merchandise, forcing him to meet his eyes.

"But I've changed my mind."

"If I leave you in Konoha as it is now, you'll only become worthless, or the remnants of Danzo's Root will slice you up for research."

"And besides..."

A demonic smile spread across Chiya's lips.

"If you simply die, or live out some mediocre life, wouldn't that deprive me of so much 'fun'?"

"Stand up, Sasuke."

Chiya released him, stood, and took a step back, extending a hand toward Sasuke. But it was not a helping hand. It was an invitation to hell.

"Since you don't have the courage to die, come with me."

"Leave this hypocritical haven behind and see what real hell looks like."

"Bear witness to my conquest."

Chiya's voice was full of temptation, every word striking precisely at the part of Sasuke that craved power most.

"Keep your eyes wide open. Watch how I use this sword to trample this rotten shinobi world beneath my feet, how I reach a summit even your brother could never imagine."

"If you want revenge, if you want to kill me, then follow."

"Survive in my shadow and draw on my strength until the day you believe you can challenge me."

Sasuke stared blankly at Chiya.

At that moment, his tears stopped.

The fear remained, but another, stronger emotion overwhelmed everything else-an extreme hunger for power.

If I don't follow him, I'm just an orphan waiting to die.

If I follow him... perhaps one day I can wield that same power to cleave mountains and burn everything!

Trembling, Sasuke struggled to his feet. He did not take Chiya's hand. Instead, he fiercely wiped the tears and snot from his face with his sleeve, a vicious resolve showing in his eyes like that of a wounded wolf cub.

"I... I'll go with you."

"As long as I can get stronger... as long as I can kill you..."

"I'll go, no matter what kind of hell it is!"

"Good."

Chiya nodded in satisfaction. "Looks like you're not beyond saving yet."

"Keep up, foolish little brother."

Chiya turned and headed toward another part of the compound. Sasuke stumbled after him. Though his steps were unsteady, he never once looked back at the place he had once called "home."

[Uchiha Clan Compound · A secluded street]

Chiya did not leave immediately. Instead, he stopped before a seemingly ordinary house.

This was the district where the Uchiha Clan's civilians lived, and it had been one of the areas hardest hit by the massacre.

Yet a faint sound of breathing still came from inside this house.

It belonged to a "wild card" Chiya had deliberately spared.

"Come out."

Standing in the courtyard, Chiya spoke calmly.

A moment later, the door creaked open.

A girl in casual clothes emerged, her long hair somewhat disheveled. Her face was paper-white and her eyes were red and swollen. Clearly, she had just suffered a severe emotional breakdown.

Uchiha Izumi.

The tragic girl who had loved Itachi deeply, only to be brutally murdered by Obito in the original story.

But the previous night, when the Masked Man had been about to attack her, a slash of sword energy from Chiya had driven Obito back and saved her life.

This was not salvation, however, but another form of imprisonment.

"L-Lord Chiya..."

Looking at the man before her, Izumi trembled instinctively. She knew what had happened. She knew Itachi had betrayed the clan, and that Chiya had killed Itachi, killed the Hokage, and destroyed the village.

In her eyes, Chiya was now a capricious demon god.

"Good. You're still alive."

Chiya looked her up and down, his gaze as cold as though he were assessing the wear on a tool.

"Your talent may fall short of Sasuke's, but after experiencing that despair, your eyes... seem to have evolved?"

Izumi instinctively activated her Sharingan.

Her original three tomoe now spun with unusual intensity, faintly showing signs of merging together.

It was the embryonic form of a Mangekyō Sharingan!

Learning that the man she loved was her clan's murderer, then learning that he had been killed-this double psychological blow was the finest catalyst for a member of the Uchiha Clan.

"Very good."

Chiya nodded, a red glint flashing in his eyes.

"That fool Uchiha Itachi killed you for his so-called 'greater good.' But I kept you alive."

"Do you know why?"

Izumi shook her head, her voice hoarse. "I... I don't know..."

"Because you have value."

Chiya walked up to Izumi and reached out to straighten her disheveled hair. The gesture seemed gentle, but his tone was bone-chilling.

"Your very existence is the greatest mockery of Itachi's hypocritical greater good."

"And you have the potential to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan."

"In this world, power is everything. Since you survived, forget about living some ordinary life caring for a husband and children."

Chiya withdrew his hand, his voice growing stern.

"From today onward, you are no longer a Konoha ninja, nor anyone's lover."

"You are my maid."

"And my tool."

"I will teach you how to use those eyes, and how to kill."

"In exchange, your life belongs to me. Whatever I want you to do, you will do. Even if I tell you to die, you will die without hesitation."

"Do you understand?"

Izumi stared blankly at Chiya.

A maid? A tool?

Her former self might have felt humiliated. But now, her heart was empty. Her family was gone, her beloved had become a demon and then a corpse, and the village had been destroyed.

She was like a wandering soul with nowhere to go.

And Chiya had given that wandering soul a home-even if that home was hell.

"Yes... Lord Chiya."

Izumi lowered her head. Though her voice was faint, it carried a resignation that bordered on surrender.

"Good."

Chiya turned, sweeping his wide sleeve.

"Bring Sasuke. We're leaving."

[Outside Konoha · Forest road]

The moonlight was bleak.

The three of them walked brazenly out of Konoha's territory.

At their head was Chiya Uchiha, clad in black, with a long sword on his back.

Behind him followed Sasuke Uchiha, his face grim and his eyes full of hatred.

Last came Uchiha Izumi, her expression numb, like a doll.

This strange group looked particularly eerie in the forest late at night.

"Wait... there's someone ahead!"

Uchiha Izumi suddenly gave a quiet warning. As a former Chunin, she still retained her sensory abilities.

Sasuke also clenched his fists nervously, watching the shadows among the trees ahead.

"No need to be nervous."

Chiya did not even pause, continuing forward at the same unhurried pace. "They're only a pack of hyenas drawn by the scent of blood."

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

As Chiya finished speaking, dozens of dark figures shot out of the forest, blocking their path.

These people either wore no forehead protectors or had deep scratches across them. Their faces were vicious, and they made no attempt to conceal their killing intent.

They were wandering ninja and bounty hunters.

Of course, advance scouts from Kumogakure and Iwagakure were mixed in among them, disguised as bandits.

"Heh heh heh... looks like the intel was true."

The burly, scar-faced man at their head swept his greedy gaze over Chiya, Sasuke, and Izumi.

"Konoha really is finished. Even the Uchiha brats are running away."

"Tsk, tsk. That's a few hundred million ryo walking right there! Especially those eyes!"

Scarface pointed at Chiya with a savage grin. "Hey, brat! Leave your head and those two living Uchiha here! I'll make your death quick!"

The dozens of ninja around him burst into laughter, their weapons gleaming coldly. To them, he was merely a young master fleeing with two burdens in tow-meat on the chopping block.

Sasuke went pale with fear.

Their killing intent was overwhelming, more terrifying than that of any teacher he had seen at the Ninja Academy.

"Chiya... what do we do?" Though Izumi had activated her Sharingan, her voice trembled in the face of so many enemies.

Yet.

Chiya merely stopped walking and slowly raised his head to look at Scarface.

"A few hundred million ryo?"

Chiya sighed, as though lamenting certain people's intelligence.

"So, in your eyes, the Death God's scythe can be measured in money?"

"What?" Scarface froze.

"Since you love money so much, go spend it in hell."

Chiya's right hand settled lightly on Ryūjin Jakka's hilt.

He did not draw the sword.

With just a gentle push of his thumb, he exposed an inch of the blade.

"Ryūjin Jakka: Torch."

Boom!!!

In that instant.

No one saw how Chiya struck.

All they saw was a golden flash, like a sun rising from the earth, instantly illuminating the forest.

Then a terrifying wave of heat, thousands of degrees hot, swept forward in a fan with Chiya at its center!

"Aah!!"

"What kind of fire is this?!"

"Help!!!"

The screams had barely begun before they cut off.

In that golden blaze, the dozens of bounty hunters who had been so arrogant just moments before were instantly vaporized, without even a chance to form hand seals!

No bodies.

No blood.

Only black ash fluttered through the air, like a fall of black snow.

In that instant, a hundred-meter-long corridor was burned clear through the forest ahead.

The ground was scorched into glass, and the trees turned straight to charcoal.

An instant kill!

An utterly absolute instant kill!

Sasuke and Izumi stared blankly at the scene, their mouths hanging open, completely unable to think.

Was this... Chiya's power?

Was this... the strength of the man who had brought Konoha to its knees?

Before such power, numbers, tactics, ambushes... all of it was a joke!

"Let's go."

Chiya slid that inch of exposed blade back into its sheath with a crisp click.

He stepped over the still-smoking ashes as though walking down a red carpet and continued forward.

"Stop gawking."

"This is only the beginning."

Chiya's voice drifted back from ahead, carrying a shiver-inducing excitement:

"There's plenty more 'trash' waiting for us to clean up along the road ahead."

"Sasuke, Izumi."

"Keep up."

"If you fall behind, you might just get burned to ashes."

Sasuke shuddered and hurried after him on stiff legs. As he watched Chiya's retreating back, the fear in his eyes deepened, but his thirst for power burned even more fiercely.

If only I could have that kind of power too...

If only I could reduce my enemies to ashes with a wave of my hand...