[Border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water · Primeval Forest]
The darkness before dawn was the deepest of all.
This forest rarely saw visitors, but tonight, a murderous tension filled the air. Countless shadows darted through the treetops, startling flock after flock of roosting birds.
These were the advance reconnaissance forces from Kumogakure and Iwagakure.
Though the call for the Fourth Shinobi World War had yet to officially sound, the two shinobi villages had noses keener than wolves. The moment they learned of Konoha's internal strife and the Hokage's death, the Raikage and Tsuchikage had dispatched this combined force of five hundred elite ninja without hesitation.
Their mission was simple: probe, sabotage, intercept and kill.
Any Konoha ninja they encountered, whether delivering messages or fleeing disaster, was to be killed on sight!
"Captain, there's movement ahead!"
A sensory ninja from Kumogakure suddenly stopped and lowered his voice. "Three people. Their chakra signatures... are strange. One is very strong, and the other two are very weak. They're heading toward us."
"Three people?"
The Jonin leading the Kumogakure force was a burly, dark-skinned man named Darui. He grinned viciously and licked his lips.
"If there are only three, they're probably strays driven out of Konoha."
Beside him, a Jonin from Iwagakure's Explosion Corps snorted dismissively. "I heard Konoha's a complete mess now. Even Hokage Rock collapsed. These three are probably some noble brats who grabbed their valuables and ran."
"Whether they're young nobles or ninja, since they've walked right into our sights..."
The Kumogakure Jonin drew a finger across his throat, his eyes gleaming with murderous intent.
"Let's send them to their graves! Their money and ninjutsu scrolls are ours!"
"Everyone, spread out! Prepare the encirclement!"
Rustle!
The five hundred ninja instantly scattered like phantoms, concealing themselves among bushes, rocks, and shadows. They cast an inescapable net and quietly waited for their prey to enter the trap.
A few minutes later.
Chiya walked into the ambush with Sasuke and Izumi, his pace unhurried.
Sasuke kept his hand pressed tightly against his ninja tool pouch, his nerves stretched taut. As a prodigy of the Uchiha Clan, he keenly sensed the faint killing intent hanging in the air around them.
"Chiya... something's wrong."
Sasuke lowered his voice and scanned their surroundings warily. "It's too quiet. There aren't even any insects chirping."
Izumi activated her Sharingan as well, its three tomoe slowly rotating. "I feel it too. There are chakra signatures all around us... a lot of them. At least several hundred!"
Several hundred!
Hearing that number, Sasuke instantly went pale. He was only seven, after all. Even after surviving the night of the massacre, he still felt an instinctive fear when faced with an ambush by a regular military force.
"What are you afraid of?"
Walking at the front, Chiya did not even pause.
He looked as though he were strolling through his own backyard. He even reached out, plucked a leaf from beside the path, and gently blew across it at his lips.
"They're just a bunch of small fry skulking in the shadows."
"Since you're here, stop hiding. Come out for some fresh air."
Chiya casually flicked the leaf from his hand.
Whoosh!
Infused with reiatsu, the delicate leaf instantly became a projectile sharper than a kunai. With a shrill whistle, it shot toward a towering tree to the left.
Squelch!
"Aah!!"
A scream rang out. The leaf pierced the throat of an Iwagakure ninja hiding in the tree trunk, and his corpse fell heavily from the tree.
"We've been exposed! Attack!!"
Now that they had been discovered, the Kumogakure Jonin hesitated no longer and gave the order.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
In an instant, the silent forest erupted into chaos.
Countless shadows surged out from every direction. A dense barrage of kunai and shuriken rained down, followed by flashes of ninjutsu in every color-the blue of Lightning Release, the brown of Earth Release, the red of fire release...
A concentrated attack from five hundred elite ninja!
A barrage like this could destroy a small town in an instant!
It's over...
Watching the attacks blot out the sky, Sasuke closed his eyes in despair. There was no way to dodge an assault this dense!
And yet.
"These are the great nations' elite?"
Chiya stood where he was, not even bothering to raise his eyelids.
He simply drew Ryūjin Jakka from his waist.
"Perfect. I'll test my blade on you."
"Ryūjin Jakka: Fire Rejection!"
BOOM!!!
A violent surge of golden flames erupted outward in a sphere centered on Chiya!
The incoming kunai and shuriken melted into molten iron the instant they touched the wall of fire. Then even the molten iron evaporated into nothing.
As for the ninjutsu...
Lightning Release? Burned straight through! Earth Release? Scorched into magma! Water Release? Vaporized into white mist before it could even get close!
"What?!"
Darui's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. The combined attack of five hundred people could not even break through his opponent's defense?
"That... that's Uchiha fire?!" the Iwagakure Jonin shouted in terror. "Quick! Get some distance! Use Earth-Style: Earth Wall..."
"Too late."
The flames dispersed, revealing Chiya's ice-cold face.
He gripped the hilt with both hands and raised the sword high overhead.
Unlike before, Ryūjin Jakka's blade did not unleash an ocean of flames. He forcibly compressed all the fire around the blade, forming a forty-meter-long greatsword of highly condensed, solidified flame!
This was the new move he had mastered after strengthening his body through the system before leaving Konoha-a slash that compressed flames to their absolute limit.
"Since you love overwhelming people with numbers so much..."
"You can all die together."
His gaze indifferent, Chiya mercilessly brought his sword down toward the densely packed army of ninja ahead.
"Ryūjin Jakka: Swordsmanship: Blazing Sword!!"
HUM-!!!
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Only a faint sound, like fabric being torn.
A fan-shaped wave of golden sword energy instantly swept across the entire forest ahead.
Time seemed to stop at that moment.
Those five hundred ninja, whether Jonin or Genin, whether hiding behind rocks or standing atop trees...
In that instant, every one of them froze in place.
Then.
Whoosh-!
Starting with the first row of ninja closest to Chiya, their bodies rapidly crumbled and dispersed in the golden light, as though they had been built from sand.
There was no blood.
It evaporated the instant it spilled.
There were no screams.
Their vocal cords had already carbonized before they could vibrate.
The scene was breathtakingly beautiful, yet unspeakably cruel.
It was like an artist gently sweeping an eraser across a canvas.
Swish!
Within a thousand meters ahead, every living thing, tree, rock, and trap... vanished.
All that remained was a scorched, glassy plain, still radiating heat.
One slash.
Five hundred elite ninja, annihilated!
"Gulp..."
Standing behind Chiya, Sasuke and Izumi stared blankly at the miraculous scene before them.
The forest that had been filled with battle cries moments ago was now so quiet that not even the wind could be heard.
Ahead of them lay emptiness. Everything was gone.
"Is... is he even human?"
As Sasuke gazed at Chiya's back, the admiration in his eyes turned into the fervor of a devoted believer.
This was the power he wanted to pursue!
This was absolute violence that stood above everything else!
[Ding! Congratulations, host! You annihilated the Kumogakure and Iwagakure advance forces in a single strike!] [Killed 20 Jonin, 150 Chunin, and 330 Genin!] [Achievement unlocked: Army Reaper!] [Kill points +250,000!] [Assessment: In the most brutal way possible, you have delivered a blood-soaked introduction to the entire Shinobi World!]
Chiya felt little excitement.
As his strength grew, killing small fry like these no longer brought him much satisfaction.
He slowly sheathed his sword.
Click.
The crisp sound of the blade sliding home was especially grating across this deathly silent wasteland.
Chiya stepped over the scorching ground and continued forward as though nothing had happened.
"Let's go."
"This was just the appetizer."
As he walked, he summoned the system panel in his mind.
As he crossed the border of the Land of Fire, the red dot representing the main quest finally appeared clearly on the system map.
[Current objective: Amegakure] [Key figures: Nagato (Pain), Konan] [Quest rewards: Rinnegan analysis progress +10%, vast quantities of kill points, ???]
Looking at the coordinates flickering amid the curtain of rain, Chiya's lips curled into an amused smile.
"The Akatsuki..."
"Collecting tailed beasts? Creating peace?"
"What an adorable bunch of idealists."
Chiya stopped and looked northwest. Though countless mountains and rivers lay between them, he could almost smell the damp mustiness that lingered there year-round.
"I'm bored with Konoha."
"Killing a bunch of useless fools who only know how to fight among themselves gives me no sense of accomplishment."
Chiya turned and beckoned to Sasuke and Izumi, who were still standing behind him in a daze.
"Next..."
"It's time to visit Amegakure and discuss world peace with that fellow who calls himself a 'god.'"
"I'd really like to know..."
A bloodthirsty red gleam flashed through Chiya's eyes.
"When his Shinra Tensei meets my Zanka no Tachi..."
"Which of us will send the other flying?"
[Three days later · Underground Black Market]
If the upheaval in Konoha had been an earthquake, then the annihilation of this five-hundred-strong allied force was a tsunami.
A vast swath of names on Kumogakure's and Iwagakure's ninja rosters went gray in an instant.
And the intelligence brought back by the sole witness-a scout who had survived by hiding deep underground and had been driven mad with terror-consisted of just one sentence:
"Fire... golden fire... everything burned away..."
As this intelligence spread, the wanted poster that had originally offered a bounty of five hundred million ryo was updated once again.
[Shinobi World: Extremely dangerous individual update] Name: Chiya Uchiha Alias: Flame Emperor Threat level: ??? Latest feat: Instantly killed five hundred allied Kumogakure and Iwagakure ninja in a single strike using extremely brutal methods. No survivors. Latest bounty: One billion ryo! (Jointly issued by the shinobi villages of the Five Great Nations. Dead or alive!)
This wanted poster was plastered across every corner of the Shinobi World.
From that moment on, the name "Chiya Uchiha" no longer belonged merely to a rogue ninja from Konoha.
He was the Shinobi World's nightmare.
Unbound by any shinobi village, devoid of moral limits, and possessing the power to destroy the world, he was-
The Emperor of the Shinobi World!
Meanwhile, this "emperor" was entering the land of perpetual rain with his two little followers in tow.
The rain soaked his black robe, but could not quench the twin flames of ambition burning in his eyes.
"The Land of Rain. We're here."
Chiya looked at the city ahead, filled with steel pipes and towering structures, and lightly rested his hand on his sword's hilt.
"Pain, come out and greet your guests."
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