Sasuke followed behind Chiya. In his eyes, which still held traces of childhood innocence, the terror was slowly giving way to an almost pathological hunger.
He looked at the soil beneath his feet, burned into glass, and the black embers drifting through the air. Just seconds earlier, dozens of vicious wandering ninja had stood here, intent on murder and robbery, eager to trade Chiya's head for a bounty.
Now, not even their bodies remained.
In this shinobi world where the strong devoured the weak, life was so cheap, yet power... was so alluring.
"Stop daydreaming."
Chiya did not turn around. Even the rhythm of his footsteps remained unchanged. Ryūjin Jakka was already back in its sheath, as though that world-shattering strike had never happened.
"The road to hell is still long. If you can't keep walking already, I don't mind leaving you here as fertilizer."
Sasuke shuddered, an instinctive reaction to the shadow of death. He clenched his teeth and stopped looking at the ashes on the ground. Instead, he fixed his eyes on Chiya's back, forcing his stiff legs to move as he desperately hurried after him.
Uchiha Izumi walked silently at the rear. With her Three-Tomoe Sharingan active, she vigilantly monitored their surroundings, looking every bit the dutiful maid. But her once-gentle eyes now held nothing but a deathly chill.
Under the moonlight, the three retraced a stretch of the main road outside Konoha toward the village entrance-because Chiya wanted to retrieve something and, while he was at it, leave this village one final glimpse of his back.
[Konoha · Before the Collapsed Gates]
Konoha's main entrance was no longer the imposing gateway of old, flanked by the enormous statues of the two guardians, A-Un.
It was the entrance to hell.
The massive red torii had been burned to charcoal. Its crossbeam had snapped and lay jutting diagonally into the earth. Deep craters and cracks littered the ground, scars left by the battle between Susanoo and Ino-Shika-Cho.
On both sides of these ruins stood dense crowds of people.
Not enemies.
Survivors.
Hyuga Hiashi stood on the left with the Hyuga Clan's elite.
Shikaku Nara stood on the right, his face pale as his clansmen supported him.
There were also the Aburame Clan, the Inuzuka Clan... and the chūnin and genin fortunate enough to have survived the catastrophe.
No one spoke. No one formed hand seals. No one even dared rest a hand on their ninja tool pouch.
Thousands of ninja stood silently on either side of the road, like subjects seeing off their sovereign-or lambs watching the Death God leave.
Tap, tap, tap.
Footsteps approached from the distance.
A stir passed through the crowd, then quickly subsided. Everyone instinctively lowered their heads or averted their eyes, afraid to look directly at the man emerging from the darkness.
With Sasuke and Izumi in tow, Chiya swaggered down this "walk of fame" paved with fear.
Behind him, the Hokage Building still burned fiercely, its towering flames staining half the sky bloodred.
Farther away on the cliff, the four bare, severed necks of Hokage Rock stood like a colossal mockery, silently ridiculing Konoha's sixty years of false prosperity.
The air reeked of burning, mingled with faint sobs and wails drifting from the distant civilian shelters.
It was nothing short of an apocalyptic painting.
And the artist who had painted it was strolling through his work with an indifferent expression.
Gulp.
Hyuga Hiashi swallowed.
As Chiya passed before him, a terror rising from the depths of his soul made even his Byakugan sting. He saw the chakra within Chiya blazing like the sun, and the indifference of someone who regarded all living beings as ants.
He was grateful he had knelt early.
Looking at Ino-Shika-Cho across the road, then at the advisors reduced to ash, Hiashi felt for the first time that even being this demon king's dog was better than becoming a heap of dust no one cared about.
"Ch-Chiya..."
Kakashi stood at the edge of the crowd. He alone had not lowered his head.
As he watched Sasuke following behind Chiya with a dark, brooding gaze, a profound helplessness welled up within him.
He wanted to rush forward and stop them, to snatch Sasuke back, to demand where Chiya intended to take this child.
But he could not move.
Not because he feared death, but because he knew that, as he was now, he was not even worthy of making Chiya draw his blade. Charging forward would accomplish nothing except getting himself killed and provoking this demon god whose fury had only just subsided.
Take care... Sasuke.
Kakashi could only repeat those words silently, his lone exposed, listless eye filled with dejection.
Chiya paid no attention to the complicated gazes around him.
To him, these supposed elites of Konoha were nothing more than weeds by the roadside.
Only when he reached the wreckage of the shattered gates did he slowly stop.
The tension instantly reached its breaking point.
Everyone held their breath, terrified that this walking calamity might suddenly change his mind, turn around, and unleash another blast of Ryūjin Jakka.
But Chiya did not turn.
He stood with his back to them, his back to the village that had raised him-and betrayed him.
The night wind lifted his long hair, revealing the hard lines of his profile.
"What are you all standing here for?"
Chiya's voice was soft. He made no effort to raise it, yet in the deathly silence, every person heard him clearly.
"Waiting for me to treat you to a midnight snack?"
No one dared answer.
Hyuga Hiashi steeled himself and stepped half a pace forward. Bowing slightly, he spoke in a trembling voice:
"Lord Chiya... we... we are here to respectfully see you off."
"Respectfully see me off?"
Chiya chuckled, his laughter brimming with undisguised mockery.
"Fair enough. The scourge is finally leaving. You really should set off some firecrackers to celebrate."
Cold sweat poured down Hyuga Hiashi's back. He bowed even lower, not daring to contradict him.
Chiya raised his head and glanced at the cool moon overhead. The moonlight was beautiful tonight. Unfortunately, the blood on the ground had sullied it somewhat.
"Enough. Spare me the empty formalities."
Chiya waved a hand as though shooing away a swarm of flies.
"Go home."
"Scrub your necks clean, and look after this mess."
With that, he stepped forward, ready to leave the gates behind for good.
But just as he was about to cross beyond Konoha's boundary, something seemed to occur to him, and his steps briefly paused.
That single pause made the hearts of the thousands of ninja behind him skip a beat.
Chiya did not look back.
He merely angled his face, sweeping the ruins behind him with a sidelong glance, and left his final words in Konoha:
"Don't bother seeing me off."
"There's no need for regrets, and no need to rush into rebuilding some bullshit new order."
Chiya's voice grew cold, carrying a suffocating authority as it thundered through the night:
"Because..."
"The next time I return will be when I unite the shinobi world."
"When that time comes, whether it's the Five Great Nations or the Akatsuki..."
"They will all kneel at my feet and look up to the one and only-Fire Emperor!"
BOOM!!!
With those words, reiatsu more violent than anything before erupted from Chiya's body, becoming an almost tangible shock wave that swept backward!
"Ngh!"
"Ah!"
Hyuga Hiashi, Shikaku Nara, and the others in the front row could not withstand the sheer pressure. They grunted as they were forced several steps back, nearly falling to their knees.
When they raised their heads again...
There was no one left beyond the gates.
Only that audacious declaration still echoed in the air, and two deep tracks of footprints, seemingly scorched by flames, remained on the ground as proof that the man had been there.
"Unite... the shinobi world..."
Shikaku Nara leaned against a crumbling wall, gasping for breath, his eyes filled with horror.
Had anyone else said those words, he would have thought them insane.
But if it was Chiya Uchiha...
The man who had severed Hokage Rock with one slash, burned the Advisors Council to ashes with a single blaze, and treated tailed beasts like pets...
"Everything is changing."
Shikaku stared into the pitch-black depths of the forest and murmured to himself.
"The world of shinobi really is about to change."
[Outside Konoha · Ten Kilometers Away]
Far from the village's clamor, the forest had regained its usual tranquility.
Chiya walked at the front, seemingly in a rather good mood.
[Ding! Congratulations, host, on completing Main Quest: First Stage: Konoha's Destruction!] [Calculating achievement rewards...] [Killed the Hokage, Danzo, and the advisors: kill points +300,000!] [Destroyed Hokage Rock and the Hokage Building: kill points +200,000!] [Inflicted severe psychological trauma on Konoha's villagers: kill points +150,000!] [Won the allegiance of Sasuke Uchiha and Uchiha Izumi: special bond bonus obtained!] [Current total kill points: 774,000!] [Ryūjin Jakka Bankai (Zanka no Tachi) unlock progress: 55%!]
"Seven hundred and seventy thousand kill points..."
Chiya looked at the number on the system panel, red light flickering in his eyes.
It was a fortune.
Enough to redeem things he had never dared dream of before, or raise his reiatsu another level.
"System, redeem [Death God System · Reiatsu Training Room (Intermediate)] and [Hakuda · Shunkō (Beginner)]."
"Use all the remaining kill points to strengthen my physique. I want this body to withstand half of Zanka no Tachi's heat."
[Ding! Redemption successful! Enhancement commencing...]
A warm current instantly flooded his entire body. Chiya felt every cell cheering as his strength swelled at a visibly astonishing rate.
He clenched his fist, crushing the air in his palm with a sharp crack.
"What is it, Big Brother Chiya?"
Hearing the sound, Sasuke instinctively asked from behind him. Although he was still afraid, beneath that fear there was now a trace of blind adoration for the strong.
"Nothing."
Chiya relaxed his hand without turning around.
"I was just thinking that, if we're going to unite the shinobi world, we'll need somewhere to settle first."
"Somewhere to settle?" Izumi asked in confusion. "Aren't we going to another shinobi village?"
"Another shinobi village?"
Chiya scoffed. "That's where the prey stays, not where the hunter lives."
He stopped and took out the Space Fragment he had previously "burned" off Obito-the system-rewarded Kamui Fragment-along with a Shinobi World Map.
His finger slid across the map, passing the prosperous Land of Fire and the desolate Land of Wind before finally stopping on a small nation wedged between three great nations, where rain fell all year round.
The Land of Rain.
The country known as "the place where the shinobi world weeps."
And the Akatsuki's headquarters.
"We're going here."
Chiya planted his finger firmly on Amegakure's location.
"The Land of Rain?" Sasuke glanced at the map and frowned. "What's so good about a little country like that?"
"Because there's someone there who calls himself a 'god.'"
Chiya put away the map, the desire for battle rising in his eyes.
"And it's been raining in that country for far too long."
Chiya raised his head and looked at the gloomy sky, as though he could already see that red-haired man with the Rinnegan and black rods embedded all over his body.
"I really don't like rain."
"So I'm going to take all the rain there..."
Chiya rested his hand on his sword hilt, an arrogant smile curling his lips:
"And evaporate every last drop."
"Sasuke, Izumi."
"Pick up the pace."
"We're going to seize some territory, and while we're at it... teach that so-called 'god' what true power is."
Whoosh!
Chiya suddenly accelerated, becoming a streak of black lightning as he vanished into the depths of the forest.
Sasuke and Izumi exchanged a glance. Though they had no idea who the "god" Chiya spoke of was, watching that supremely arrogant figure, they could only grit their teeth and desperately follow him.
Behind them, Konoha's fires gradually died out, becoming the dust of history.
Ahead, an even greater storm was silently gathering over the Land of Rain.
Before you continue