The afterglow of the setting sun dyed the back mountain of Senju a deep crimson.
The evening wind howled at the edge of the cliff in the dense forest.
Kenya leaned against an old locust tree, shirtless, crunching on a freshly washed cucumber with its blossoms and thorns still attached.
Cool and crisp, it's incredibly comforting to eat.
"Shh, shh, shh..."
The sound of light footsteps drifted slowly from the shadows deep within the woods.
With his hands tightly tucked into his pockets and his head bowed, Sasuke Uchiha walked step by step to the edge of the cliff.
He no longer had the arrogant Uchiha clan.
Her black bangs covered half of her eyes, and her expression was extremely complicated, faintly revealing a deep-seated confusion and struggle.
"What? You little shrew, you deliberately chose a time when no one was around to sneak over and come find me."
Kenya bit off half a cucumber without even lifting his eyelids.
"You came here crying because I shattered your dream of Hokage?"
Sasuke's body stiffened slightly.
He took a deep breath, raised his head, and stared intently at Kenya's powerful body that gleamed with an ebony sheen.
" Orochimaru... said some things to me when he attacked me in the Forest of Death."
Sasuke's voice was soft, yet it carried an almost obsessive longing:
He said that the Sharingan possesses an ultimate evolutionary form that transcends common sense.
"Only by obtaining that ultimate Dōjutsu can one truly step into the realm of gods and kill that man."
Sasuke gritted his teeth, his nails digging deep into his palms:
"Tell me, Senju Kenya... is the ultimate power of the Sharingan really real?!"
For Sasuke, who carries the Sasuke of the blood feud that wiped out his clan, power is the only reason he lives.
The Sharingan has been his only faith for the past thirteen years.
However.
Upon hearing this, Kenya felt as if he had heard the biggest farce of the century.
"Pooh!"
Kenya spat the cucumber butt he was eating onto the ground.
He crossed his arms and gave the stubborn little brat a disdainful look.
"Ultimate form? You mean the Mangekyō, or the Rinnegan?"
"You dare to take Orochimaru's Mangekyō Sharingan who hasn't even touched the Mangekyou Sharingan?!"
Kenya chuckled and launched a barrage of words, akin to a devastating attack.
"Your Uchiha Clan's brains have been completely ruined by this so-called ' Red Eye '!"
"You're risking your entire fortune and your life on those two meatballs in your eye sockets, thinking they can take you to the heavens?!"
"The death of one person unlocks One-Tomoe, the death of one's parents unlocks Mitsudomoe, and the death of the entire family unlocks the Mangekyō!"
"The louder they cry, the higher their combat power? What kind of third-rate, clichéd melodrama premise is this?!"
Kenya's blunt truth was like a series of invisible slaps, making Sasuke's face turn red and white in turns.
"In my eyes, eyes are ultimately just accessories for seeing where you're going!"
Kenya pointed to his eyelids, his tone rough yet down-to-earth:
"If the enemy throws a flashbang at you or throws a handful of lime powder at you, no matter how good your eyesight is, you'll be blinded on the spot!"
"Excessive use of Chakra leads to vision deterioration, and overuse results in blindness. Is this the supreme bloodline you're so proud of?!"
"The only things that can truly fight alongside you to the very end are your own bones and muscles!"
Kenya slapped his own hard, iron-like pectoral muscles hard, making a dull metallic "bang."
"Health is the most important asset!"
"If you could develop a body of black iron skin that even Susanoo n't cut through!"
"If someone stabs you a thousand times, it won't even scratch your skin. What do you care if they use Fire Style or Amaterasu? One slap and even a god would kneel down and call you 'father'!"
Sasuke was completely stunned by the scolding.
He stood there, stunned, as the worldview in his mind, built on the supremacy of the Sharingan, was being brutally smashed open by Kenya.
However, deeply ingrained ideas are not so easily shaken.
Sasuke clenched his fists, stubbornly raised his head, and retorted:
"But this is Kekkei Genkai! How could a mortal body possibly compare to the eyes of a god?!"
"Gods?"
Kenya sneered, finally losing all patience to waste words with him.
"Stand still, open your titanium alloy dog eyes wide and let me see clearly!"
Kenya, wearing flip-flops, slowly Earth Flow to a stone wall at the edge of the cliff.
That is the tallest solid granite cliff on the back of Senju Mountain.
It is a hundred meters thick and incredibly hard; even Ninja Blade can only leave a white mark on it.
Kenya stood half a meter in front of the mountain wall.
There were no Hand Seals, and not a single trace of Chakra was mobilized.
He didn't even take a deep breath.
He simply tucked his right fist to his waist, and pure physical power erupted!
"Buzz!"
A deep, pure black Armament Haki instantly hardened his entire right arm!
The next instant.
With Kenya blank expression, Quan Mi threw a straight punch at the solid granite mountain wall in front of him, which was a hundred meters thick, without any particular expression!
"Boom--!!!"
A deafening, sky-ripping, violent roar suddenly exploded!
The entire back mountain jolted wildly up and down for a split second!
There was no obstruction or flying debris as I had imagined.
It is permeated with pure, extreme violence.
That solid granite cliff, hundreds of meters high and incredibly thick.
Like a fragile block of tofu, it was blasted into a huge, straight hole several meters in diameter by Kenya's seemingly casual punch!
"Call--!"
The raging mountain winds from the other side of the cliff rushed back through this straight passage, which was hundreds of meters deep!
Kenya shook his unscathed right hand, and the dark gold Haki slowly faded away.
He turned around and looked down at Sasuke Uchiha was already trembling with fear and frozen in place.
"Did you see that?"
Kenya, with his pipe between his teeth, exhaled a puff of smoke, his tone as indifferent as if he were swatting a mosquito:
"What Sharingan? What fancy Ninjutsu? I can pulverize them all with one punch."
"Stop thinking about those crooked and evil practices that involve wailing and lamenting all day long."
"Follow me diligently and wholeheartedly practice Taijutsu, harden your muscles, and make your bones heavy!"
Kenya extended a finger and poked Sasuke hard on the forehead:
"Once you've mastered this, you'll be able to smash the heads of people like Danzo and Orochimaru with just one hand!"
The biting mountain wind that cut through the mountain whistled and lashed against Sasuke's pale, youthful face.
Looking at the bottomless, pitch-black hole in front of me.
Sasuke's blood, dormant for many years, boiled and burned fiercely at this moment!
There is no need to bow to the darkness, nor to steal someone else's eyes.
It turns out that a purely physical body can indeed possess the power to kill gods!
All the confusion, hatred, and obsession found an unprecedented outlet at this moment!
Sasuke's eyes lit up, and he nodded emphatically, preparing to begin his hellish push-up training.