Killing Intent Laid Bare

Deep within the forest, the fog grew thicker. Ancient branches and leaves blotted out the daylight entirely, leaving the woods as dark as dusk.

The shrill howls of strange beasts rose one after another. Rotten branches and foul-smelling bogs covered the ground, and traces of earlier battles lay everywhere-broken ninja tools and mottled bloodstains. Savagery and danger filled every inch of space.

Countless teams maneuvered cautiously through the woods, keeping one another in check and probing each other. None dared launch an all-out attack, fearing unnecessary conflict and, even more, accidentally disturbing that white-robed god who stood above everyone present.

Only along Team 7's path did an aura of slaughter suddenly erupt.

Three Otogakure squads burst out from both sides of the dense fog. Black robes billowed, their presence sinister, pitch-black chakra coiling around them as they sealed off the entire path ahead.

It was a death trap meticulously arranged by Orochimaru.

It targeted neither Naruto nor Sakura and did not touch Lin Chen in the slightest. Every trace of killing intent, every attack, and every restraining barrier locked precisely onto Sasuke Uchiha.

"Sasuke Uchiha."

The leading Otogakure jonin wore a cold, sinister expression. His voice was hoarse. "Lord Orochimaru has said that today, we will help you break free of all your shackles."

As his words fell, dozens of forbidden barriers shot into the air. Gray-white screens closed into place, completely cutting off sound between the inside and outside, blocking sensory detection, and obstructing the Konoha ANBU's surveillance.

This small patch of forest became an utterly isolated, private killing ground.

Naruto instantly stepped in front of Sakura, his expression tense as his hands rapidly formed hand seals. "They're from Otogakure! Be careful! They're after Sasuke!"

Medical chakra flared in Sakura's palms. Her gaze sharpened as she quickly scanned the enemy formation, ready to provide support and emergency treatment at any moment.

But the next second, a cold figure strode straight past them.

Sasuke stood silently before the enemy formation, his back to Naruto and Sakura. His black hair whipped freely in the forest's chill wind, and the deathly still aura around him suddenly surged.

"Stay out of it."

His indifferent, icy words held not a trace of emotion, severing all the protection and bonds his teammates offered.

Naruto stiffened, a sudden ache rising in his heart. He spoke urgently. "Sasuke! We're teammates!"

"Teammates?"

Sasuke gave a quiet chuckle, cold and mocking, steeped in bone-deep obsession and sorrow.

"Can teammates give me strength?"

"Can teammates erase that damned gap?"

"Can teammates let me catch up to that one-of-a-kind figure?"

Three questions in succession, each word cutting to the bone, tore apart the warm bonds that had held Team 7 together until now.

Naruto was at a loss for words, his pupils trembling. All his passion and steadfast conviction seemed utterly pale and laughable before those icy questions.

Sakura's eyes stung slightly. Watching Sasuke's lonely, cold back, she felt the panic and helplessness within her intensify. She knew clearly that the boy before her no longer belonged here at all.

Without waiting for an answer, Sasuke stopped paying attention to the two behind him.

He slowly raised his head, his scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan snapping open. Blood-red and pitch-black intertwined in his eyes, and a savage aura swept across the entire area.

The next instant, the Cursed Seal on his neck erupted with a blinding black-purple light!

Sizzle-

The eerie sound echoed through the woods. Pitch-black markings spread wildly at a visible pace, instantly crawling over his neck, cheeks, arms, and torso until dense forbidden patterns covered his entire body.

Violent, icy, destructive dark chakra erupted, savagely tearing through the surrounding air and whipping dead branches and fallen leaves into the sky.

He no longer suppressed it, no longer held back, no longer feared losing control.

He willingly accepted the Cursed Seal, willingly embraced the darkness, willingly sank into the abyss.

Black chakra scoured every part of his body, tearing through flesh and meridians. Extreme pain swept through him, yet his face did not twist in the slightest. There was only utter indifference and fervor.

Pain.

The greater the pain, the clearer my mind.

The greater the pain, the firmer my resolve in this path.

Konoha's gentleness, his bonds with his teammates, the bright ninja way-none could give him the slightest strength to break free of fate.

Only this world-destroying darkness could lead him onto an entirely new path.

A path to the summit that Lin Chen had never walked, that no one had ever trodden, with depravity as its foundation and forbidden power as its stairway to heaven.

"Attack."

Sasuke spoke lightly, his tone calm yet laden with bloodthirsty killing intent.

The Otogakure shinobi's expressions tightened. In an instant, every one of them unleashed lethal attacks. Pitch-black forbidden technique chakra condensed into blades and claws as they launched a frenzied assault on Sasuke.

There was no probing, no holding back. Every move was meant to kill, leaving no escape.

Yet faced with the lethal attacks filling the air, Sasuke neither dodged nor evaded. There was not a trace of fear in his eyes, only utter indifference and a madness that seemed to vent everything within him.

He had long since discarded a ninja's balance between attack and defense, along with any limits on holding back. This battle was never about passing the trial or fighting over scrolls. It was about taming the darkness, tempering forbidden power, and tearing apart the last bright bond within his heart.

The instant the Cursed Seal went completely berserk, pitch-black markings saturated his flesh. His physique, speed, explosive strength, and destructive instincts all broke through the limits of a genin, violently surging to near-jonin level!

Afterimages burst and crossed. Pitch-black, brutal chakra coated his fists and limbs as the Uchiha's once intricate, elegant ninjutsu system was discarded entirely. There were no elaborate hand seals, no precise control, no tactical maneuvering-only the most primal, cruel physical domination and destructive impacts remained. Every strike carried a savagery that sought to shatter everything, every move aimed to kill, every technique laden with bloodthirsty killing intent. He had become a dark asura freed from his shackles.

The sharp cracks of breaking bones, bursting flesh, screams, and wails rang out endlessly within the barrier.

Naruto stared blankly at Sasuke, who had utterly lost control and succumbed to darkness on the battlefield. His whole body went cold, his hands and feet trembling. For the first time, an overwhelming sense of unfamiliarity rose within him.

This was not the Sasuke he knew.

This was a ferocious beast that had broken its shackles and fallen into darkness, living only for power.

Sakura clenched her hands tightly, her fingertips digging deep into her flesh, her heart filled with helplessness. She wanted to stop him, to bring him back, but she knew clearly that she no longer had the power to turn things around.

Deep in the shadows, Orochimaru concealed himself, watching the blood-soaked boy slaughtering at the center of the battlefield through a gap in the barrier. His emerald snake eyes brimmed with a fervent smile as he murmured:

"Perfect... absolutely perfect."

"Discard the light, sever all bonds, nurture slaughter through pain, and affirm your path through darkness."

"Lin Chen crushed his righteous path. Then I shall reshape his demonic path."

"This dark blade of the Uchiha will one day cleave the skies of the Shinobi World."

High above the clouds, Zetsu's shadowy image slowly drifted. His faint voice held a hint of amusement. "His mindset has completely transformed, and his fighting strength has surged. Konoha's genius has fallen completely into becoming a pawn of darkness... Lord Pain's predictions have never been wrong."

Within the barrier, the slaughter continued.

Sasuke was drenched in blood, his clothes torn, his flesh laid open, yet the darkness in his eyes grew ever purer, his killing intent ever sharper.

He enjoyed the thrill of his surging strength, intoxicated by the peak intensity of that boiling darkness.

Every clash, every loss of control, every descent took him farther and farther from the Konoha boy he had once been.

And as this dark slaughter unfolded, the thick fog in the forest slowly parted.

The white-robed boy walked slowly through the dim sea of trees, his steps unhurried and his expression indifferent, silently coming to stand outside the barrier.

Through the fragile forbidden screen, he quietly looked down at Sasuke, who fought drenched in blood within, utterly lost in himself. His eyes held neither joy nor sorrow, neither regret nor pity. Not even the slightest ripple or stirring arose.

This high-level barrier, which left the Konoha ANBU helpless and blocked all detection, was as thin as a cicada's wing in his eyes, unable to withstand a single blow. With a mere thought, he could instantly shatter the entire formation and end this farce.

But he could not be bothered to act, nor could he be bothered to interfere.

He watched indifferently as Sasuke drowned in darkness, affirming his path through pain, his obsession boundless; as Orochimaru's schemes came true step by step; as the people of the Shinobi World struggled futilely within their low-level game.

Let Sasuke succumb to darkness to his very bones, let his obsession reach the heavens, let him stop at nothing and seek his path bathed in blood.

To him, all of this was ultimately nothing more than the deluded struggles of ants, an ant foolishly trying to shake a tree.

Sasuke thought that by abandoning the light for darkness and embracing forbidden power, he could forge an entirely new path to the summit and close that dimensional gulf that loomed like an impassable chasm.

Yet he did not know that whether he followed a righteous path of light or a demonic path of darkness, so long as he remained within the Shinobi World's low-dimensional game, he would never touch even the hem of a god of the heavens.

His descent into darkness, his depravity, his obsession, his willingness to stop at nothing-from the very beginning, it had all been nothing more than an attempt at self-redemption doomed to futility.

Darkness or light, it made no difference.

From the moment obsession arose in Sasuke's heart and he dreamed of catching up to a god of the heavens, all his struggles had already been doomed to futility.