"Its target will be Konoha's Hokage Rock!"
Uchiha Gen'yō's icy voice echoed over the deathly silent battlefield like a judgment from the deepest hell. Every word became a heavy hammer, smashing mercilessly against the hearts of all the survivors.
That terrifying, bottomless crater, more than five hundred meters in diameter, resembled an eye of nothingness that the earth had opened to stare at the sky, silently telling of the divine punishment that had just taken place.
"Cough, cough, cough."
Hiruzen Sarutobi lay collapsed on the ground, coughing violently. Each cough brought up great mouthfuls of blood and fragments of his internal organs.
His cloudy old eyes stared blankly at the crater, then at the fewer than a hundred defeated survivors behind him, every one wounded, every one utterly dispirited.
Konoha's elite were gone, just like that.
A single move had forcibly erased them from this world.
"Haha, hahahaha."
Hiruzen Sarutobi laughed. His laughter was hoarse and dry, more anguished than weeping, filled with endless self-mockery and despair.
"It's all over. Konoha is finished."
The will, pride, and convictions of this Third Hokage, once hailed as the "Professor of Ninjutsu" and the "Shinobi Hero," had all been crushed to pieces by that Kamui Shuriken, along with the lives of those hundreds of Konoha elites!
There was no longer any light in his eyes.
"Uchiha Gen'yō."
Obito, who had remained hidden at the edge of the battlefield and was likewise shaken to his core by that world-destroying strike, stared fixedly at the white figure high in the sky.
The Mangekyō Sharingan beneath his mask spun wildly as he tried to analyze the principles behind that move.
He applied Kamui's spatial teleportation ability to Susanoo's physical attack?
That understanding and application of Kamui went far beyond anything I knew! Who was this man? Why did he have such a terrifying understanding of my Kamui?!
For the first time, Obito's faith in Madara Uchiha's grand Eye of the Moon Plan wavered as never before. He had seen an absolute, uncontrollable variable capable of crushing every scheme and plot!
"My, my, what an impressive power."
Obito's figure slowly emerged from the shadows. Clapping his hands, he spoke in a deliberately casual tone. "But making such a spectacle will disrupt my precious plan. How about we talk?"
Yet Uchiha Gen'yō could not even be bothered to look at him. Those cold, strangely shaped Mangekyō Sharingan cast a slight glance his way.
"You?"
Gen'yō spat out that single syllable, filled with contempt and disdain. "A pathetic worm hiding behind a mask thinks he's worthy of talking to me?"
"You..."
Obito's body abruptly stiffened, and towering rage surged from the depths of his heart. This was the first time anyone had ignored and humiliated him so blatantly!
"You seemed quite interested in Shisui from my clan earlier?"
Uchiha Gen'yō's voice suddenly turned mocking. "What? You're not fighting anymore? Or is that Space-Time Ninjutsu you're so proud of nothing but a joke before him?"
"You!"
Obito clenched his fists, and the space around him began to warp slightly with his fury. In the end, however, he did not attack. Reason told him that the man before him was a monster he absolutely could not provoke lightly. The Kamui Intangibility he took such pride in would probably be of no use against this man!
"Hmph. We'll meet again."
Obito snorted coldly, leaving those parting words to save face. His lone eye took a long, deep look at Uchiha Gen'yō, as though to carve that figure into his soul. Then the space around him twisted into a vortex, slowly swallowing his body.
"Remember, next time we meet, spare me that shoddy acting."
Just as he was about to disappear completely, Uchiha Gen'yō's voice drifted over. "Obito Uchiha."
Buzz!
The spatial vortex shuddered violently, and Obito vanished without a trace in an instant. But the shock and killing intent that erupted from him at the very last moment lingered clearly in the air. Evidently, the name "Obito Uchiha" had acted like a key, opening the Pandora's box in the deepest recesses of his heart!
Only after dealing with that fly did Uchiha Gen'yō turn his gaze back to the devastated battlefield below. He slowly descended from the sky and walked, step by step, toward Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had already been reduced to a broken wreck.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Every step seemed to land on the hearts of all the surviving Konoha ninja. They backed away in terror, watching this man who resembled a demon god, not even daring to breathe loudly.
"Do you want to kill me?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi raised his head and looked at Gen'yō with hollow eyes.
"Kill you?"
Uchiha Gen'yō laughed, his laughter utterly derisive. "Hiruzen Sarutobi, you think too highly of yourself. Your life is worthless to me."
He walked up to Hiruzen Sarutobi and looked down at him. "A living, mentally broken 'Shinobi Hero' will deal a far greater blow to Konoha than a dead 'Third Hokage' whom people mourn. I'll make you watch with your own eyes how you led Konoha into the abyss, step by step. I'll make you spend the rest of your life in endless regret and pain. That is the best gift I can give you."
A strike at the heart! Words aimed nakedly at destroying his spirit!
"Pfft!"
Hearing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi was shaken to his core. He spat out another great mouthful of blood and slumped completely.
Uchiha Gen'yō stopped looking at him. Instead, he turned and issued an order to the Uchiha clansmen, who had already been utterly stunned.
"All right, the exercise is over. The trash left here will be your spoils. Remember, leave only a few alive to carry the message."
"Yes, Lord Gen'yō!"
"Roar!"
The instant they received the order, the Uchiha clansmen, who had held themselves back for so long, erupted in earthshaking roars! The red light of Mitsudomoe gleamed in their eyes as they pounced like tigers released from their cages upon the Konoha stragglers who had completely lost the will to fight!
Another one-sided massacre unfolded. Uchiha Gen'yō simply watched in silence until only the few deliberately spared survivors remained on the battlefield, along with Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had been helped to his feet by his subordinates and resembled a walking corpse.
"Go back."
Gen'yō's voice rang out again. "Tell everyone still alive in Konoha. Tell the daimyo of the Land of Fire. Tell the entire Shinobi World. We Uchiha have returned."
With that, he turned and led his divine legion, which had completed its final transformation through the blood of Konoha ninja, away from that hell of carnage without looking back. Only those few surviving Konoha ninja remained, trembling where they stood.
After a long time, an Anbu ninja asked Hiruzen Sarutobi beside him in a shaking voice, "Lord Hokage, what should we do now?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly raised his head. He did not answer, merely staring vacantly in the direction the Uchiha Clan had departed. His lips trembled as he asked, in a voice only he could hear, a question that could shake the very foundations of Konoha.
"Were we wrong from the very beginning? Tell me, who was Konoha's cancer all along? Who was truly evil?"