Konoha was destined for a sleepless night.
Before that golden pillar of fire soaring into the sky, even the blood moon overhead seemed to recoil in fear, its glow dimming.
Scalding waves of heat surged outward from the Root Ruins in every direction. The dense surrounding forest withered instantly under the heat, spontaneously igniting into a crimson sea of flames.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
Even from hundreds of meters away, the arriving Konoha ninja had to combine their efforts to cast large-scale defensive ninjutsu, barely holding back the searing blast of air.
Against this hellish backdrop, Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi finally stepped onto the scorched earth, its surface melted into glass, accompanied by the heads of the Hyuga, Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka, and other major clans.
The ground beneath their feet was still scorching hot, making their soles sizzle.
But compared with the heat underfoot, the sight before them sent a far deeper chill through their bones.
The enormous, sinister Root base, once a seemingly bottomless labyrinth, had vanished completely.
In its place stood a vast crater, bubbling with dark red lava.
At the crater's edge, a headless corpse in Anbu attire lay alone on the ground. Though its head was gone, the familiar clothing and build made Hiruzen Sarutobi's pupils contract sharply.
That was... Uchiha Itachi!
Itachi, the man who had shouldered the task of exterminating his clan, whom he had regarded as Konoha's guardian in the darkness, had died such a gruesome death!
At the center of the Lava Lake, a nauseating stench of scorched flesh drifted through the air. It was the last trace left by the hundreds upon hundreds of Root ninja who had been vaporized in an instant.
As for Danzo...
Hiruzen Sarutobi could not even sense that familiar, sinister chakra.
What that meant needed no explanation.
"Danzo... Itachi..."
The hand with which Hiruzen Sarutobi gripped the Adamantine Staff trembled violently.
Anger, grief, terror, and a spiraling panic flooded the old man's heart all at once.
He lifted his head and fixed his gaze on the figure hovering in midair.
With one hand in his pocket and the still-burning Ryūjin Jakka resting on his shoulder, Chiya looked down on the gathered core of Konoha's ruling powers. His Mangekyō Sharingan, blending emerald green with golden radiance, looked eerie yet regal in the night.
"Chiya Uchiha!!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi finally erupted.
Powerful chakra infused his aged voice as it echoed through the night like a lion's roar:
"What have you done?! This is Konoha! The village where you were born and raised!"
"You destroyed Root, killed Danzo, a village adviser, and even brutally murdered Uchiha Itachi, who worked tirelessly for the village's peace! Do you have any idea how much damage you've done to Konoha?!"
Faced with the Hokage's roar, Chiya merely picked at his ear, looking thoroughly annoyed.
"Lord Hokage, has old age ruined your hearing? Didn't I just tell you? I was only taking out the trash."
"Trash?!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's beard trembled with rage. He stepped forward, unleashing the full imposing presence of the Shinobi Hero, trying to overwhelm this rebellious brat with both moral authority and sheer force of presence.
"Danzo may have used extreme methods, but he devoted himself wholeheartedly to Konoha! Root was the foundation protecting Konoha from underground! And Itachi was an outstanding ninja who thought like a Hokage!"
"For your own selfish desires, for that so-called family grudge, you slaughtered the village's vital fighting forces!"
At this point, Hiruzen Sarutobi drew a deep breath. His tone suddenly turned anguished, and tears even shimmered in his clouded eyes as he launched into his specialty: a sermon on the Will of Fire.
"Chiya... you've disappointed me so deeply."
"Wherever leaves dance, fire will burn. The fire's shadow will illuminate the village and allow new leaves to sprout."
"For the village's great tree to flourish, some darkness must exist, and some sacrifices are unavoidable! If the Uchiha Clan wasn't restrained, it would have sparked a civil war. Other ninja villages would have exploited our weakness, and all of Konoha would have been destroyed!"
"You should consider the bigger picture! You should understand sacrificing the individual for the greater good! That is the true Will of Fire! The Uchiha's glory should not be used to slaughter your fellow villagers!"
His speech was the very picture of righteous conviction, moving and heartfelt.
Had some passionate young man who knew nothing of the truth stood there, he might have dropped to his knees in shame and repented on the spot.
The surrounding Anbu ninja felt their blood stir. They tightened their grips on their weapons, their gazes toward Chiya growing even more hostile.
Even clan heads such as Hyuga Hiashi and Shikaku Nara, though they sensed something was wrong, had no choice but to remain silent under the crushing weight of the "village's greater good."
After all, this was the politically correct doctrine Konoha had instilled for decades.
And yet.
"Pfft..."
An utterly incongruous snicker interrupted the Third Hokage's impassioned speech.
Chiya covered his mouth, his shoulders shaking violently, as though he had heard the funniest joke in the world.
"Ha... hahahaha!!"
His laughter grew louder and louder, finally becoming unrestrained howling. Chiya doubled over, almost laughing himself to tears.
"Enough! What's so funny?!" Hiruzen Sarutobi snapped, his embarrassment turning to anger.
"I'm laughing at you, Hiruzen Sarutobi."
Chiya abruptly stopped laughing. His expression turned ice-cold in an instant, and his terrifying spiritual pressure, surpassing Kage level, crashed directly onto the Third Hokage like a mountain descending from above!
Boom!
Air surged outward. Several weaker Anbu behind the Third were forced straight to their knees by the overwhelming pressure!
"Don't make me sick, you old bastard."
Chiya pointed Ryūjin Jakka at the Third, his voice filled with undisguised contempt:
"This is your so-called Will of Fire?"
"Wherever leaves dance, fire burns forever? Such pretty words."
"But the way I see it, Konoha's reality is this-you rotten, stinking 'old leaves' cling to the branches and refuse to fall, desperately sucking nutrients from the roots and blocking every ray of sunlight!"
"To make your own flames burn a little brighter, you ruthlessly pluck the fresh shoots and throw them into the fire as fuel!"
"That's your Will of Fire! That's the sacrifice you want!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's face turned livid. "Utter nonsense! I've spent my entire life serving Konoha..."
"Serving?"
Chiya cut him off with a cold laugh, his words coming like rapid gunfire, each one striking where it hurt:
"White Fang served the village, didn't he? And rumors drove him to suicide. Where were you then? Watching!"
"Orochimaru experimented on humans and tortured ninja from his own village. You were his teacher. Did you really know nothing? You enabled him!"
"The Hyuga Clan was forced to hand over Hizashi Hyuga's body to appease Kumogakure. Where were you then, Hokage of the supposedly strongest ninja village? Making concessions!"
With every sentence Chiya spoke, his presence grew stronger, and Hiruzen Sarutobi's face grew paler.
Among the surrounding clan heads, Hyuga Hiashi in particular clenched the hands hidden inside his sleeves at the name "Hizashi Hyuga," digging his nails deep into his flesh.
That was the Hyuga Clan's eternal wound, and the greatest source of his resentment toward Konoha High Command!
"And then there's tonight!"
Chiya's voice suddenly rose, like the thunder of judgment:
"Why did the Uchiha Clan end up here? Because we wanted a coup? Or because you leaders spent decades suppressing us, excluding us, monitoring us, and isolating us without ever stopping?!"
"The Second Hokage drove us to the edge of the village, and you shut us out of the center of power."
"Was Danzo really the only one who ordered tonight's massacre?!"
Chiya's scarlet Mangekyō eyes bored into Hiruzen Sarutobi, as though piercing the filth buried deepest in his heart:
"Drop the act, Hiruzen Sarutobi!"
"Could Danzo mobilize the Anbu without your tacit approval? Would Itachi dare slaughter his entire clan without your indulgence?!"
"You knew everything, yet pretended you knew nothing. You hid in the Hokage's office, smoking your pipe, waiting for Danzo to do your dirty work and wipe out the Uchiha Clan. Then you'd step forward, make a few hypocritical condemnations, and carry on playing everyone's kindly Grandpa Third!"
"Your hands may be free of blood, but your soul is ten thousand times filthier than Danzo's!"
Boom!
Those words detonated in everyone's minds like a magnitude-ten earthquake.
Shikaku Nara looked up in horror. As an intelligent man, he instantly connected every clue.
That's right... if the Hokage truly hadn't wanted the Uchiha Clan Massacre, with his control over the village, how could he possibly have "arrived too late" only now?
How could the Anbu have noticed nothing of Danzo and Root's movements?
There was only one explanation-the Hokage had tacitly approved it!
The fear of sharing the same fate instantly spread through the hearts of the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans and the Hyuga Clan.
If Konoha could sacrifice the Uchiha for the "greater good" today, couldn't it sacrifice the Hyuga tomorrow? And the Nara the day after?
"Shut your mouth!!!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi completely lost his composure.
The mask of the "kindly elder" he had maintained for decades had been brutally ripped off by Chiya, thrown to the ground, and trampled to pieces.
He felt the gazes of the clan heads behind him, filled with suspicion and wariness.
This was a political blow he found even more intolerable than physical injury!
"You're poisoning their minds with lies! You cursed Uchiha brat!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi tore off his Hokage Ceremonial Robe, revealing the black combat bodysuit beneath, his killing intent laid bare.
With persuasion having failed and his mask shattered, force was the only way left to settle everything!
As long as he killed Chiya, history would still be written by the victor!
"There's no point in further discussion! Since you refuse to see reason, I can only purge this traitor on behalf of all the Hokage!"
"Summoning Technique: Enma!"
Poof!
White smoke burst forth, and an old monkey wearing a tiger-skin skirt and a Konoha forehead protector appeared out of thin air.
"Hiruzen, is this the Uchiha brat you mentioned?" Enma surveyed the surrounding lava hell, his gaze grave. "What terrifying destructive power... this is just like the Nine-Tails' Rampage back then!"
"Enma! Transform into the Adamantine Staff! Give it everything you've got. This is no ordinary opponent!"
The Third shouted.
"Understood!"
Enma instantly transformed into a thick black-and-gold iron staff, landing in the Third's hand.
With the divine weapon in hand, the Third Hokage's presence instantly reached its peak. Though aged, he was still the Hokage who had mastered all five chakra natures, known as the Ninjutsu Professor.
"Clan heads, fall back! Anbu Barrier Team, prepare!"
The Third barked his orders, then formed hand seals so quickly that his hands blurred.
"Chiya, since you don't want to talk, let me see whether those Mangekyō eyes of yours can withstand Konoha's wrath!"
"Ninja Art: Wali Sword (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique)!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The Third hurled an enormous shuriken, which instantly multiplied into thousands in midair, raining down on Chiya like a storm of steel.
Every shuriken was coated in razor-sharp Wind Release chakra!
Faced with this all-encompassing attack, the mockery on Chiya's face only deepened.
He did not even draw Ryūjin Jakka, merely lifting his left hand.
"Embarrassed enough to lash out, old man Third?"
"Want to shut me up? Too bad..."
"To my eyes, you're as weak as an old monkey who's lost all his teeth."
Humm!
The intricate Mangekyō pattern in Chiya's left eye rotated slightly.
Dark red chakra ribs formed instantly, followed by muscle and armor.
Susanoo: Third Stage!
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!
The storm of shuriken struck Susanoo's Crow Tengu Armor, producing nothing but a series of harmless sparks. They failed to leave even a single mark.
Chiya stood inside Susanoo's crystal, coldly watching Hiruzen Sarutobi below through the red chakra.
"If you want a fight, I'll play along."
"Perfect timing. I haven't had a chance to try out those rewards Danzo gave me."
"I'll make you, the 'strongest Hokage,' the first sacrifice!"
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