Chapter 50: The Worst That Can Happen Is Restarting the War
"Hahaha!"
Looking down at Pakura's lifeless body, Mitani threw back his head and laughed.
He had personally sent Sunagakure's hero to her death.
Staring up at the thick veil of mist overhead, he roared,
"Hey! Did you see that?!
"I avenged you!"
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Hm?
Faint footsteps echoed from somewhere behind him.
Mitani frowned as the smile slowly vanished from his face. He turned toward the path Pakura had taken.
Through the dense mist, a lone figure was approaching at an unhurried pace.
"Who's there?"
The figure didn't answer.
It simply kept walking.
Mitani drew a kunai from his waist, his expression growing wary.
"Who are you?"
"Hmph..."
A quiet sigh drifted through the fog.
As the stranger stepped into view, Mitani's brows drew together.
"...Still too late."
Looking at Pakura lying motionless on the ground, Asuka could clearly sense that the last trace of life had already left her body.
He glanced at the sun slowly rising beyond the horizon before turning his emotionless gaze toward the Kirigakure shinobi.
"If you'd waited just a little longer before making your move..."
"...you might still have made it home in time for lunch."
Mitani blinked.
Listening to the man's incomprehensible muttering, he let out an irritated laugh.
"What the hell are you babbling abo—"
Before he could finish—
Asuka disappeared.
Mitani's pupils contracted violently.
So fast!
He hadn't even seen him move.
Instinctively, he tried to retreat.
Too late.
A hand clamped around his head.
BOOM!!
Asuka slammed him headfirst into the ground.
The earth caved in with an explosive crash, collapsing into a massive crater. Spiderweb cracks raced across the ground as dust and debris erupted into the air.
"Trash."
Asuka casually shook the blood from his hand.
He glanced at the headless corpse lying in the crater and spoke with quiet contempt.
"Pakura...
"...actually died at the hands of garbage like you."
"Hey!"
The Orange Cat rushed into the settling cloud of dust.
The moment it saw Asuka's expression—that distant, icy look, as though the entire world had been pushed beyond his reach—the words caught in its throat.
It...
It had been a very long time since it had seen him like this.
"...Are you okay?"
Hearing the concern in the cat's voice, Asuka gave a faint shake of his head.
"I'm fine."
"Take Pakura somewhere safe."
"I'll deal with the trash."
With that, Asuka glanced at the blood drying on his hand, drew the Kusanagi Sword he almost never used, and calmly walked toward the mountain pass.
The Orange Cat stared after him with wide eyes.
"Won't this cause trouble?"
"Hmph."
Without so much as turning around, Asuka merely waved a hand and kept walking.
Trouble?
If it really came to that...
The worst that could happen was another Ninja World War.
If Konoha ever chose to betray him...
Then he'd simply defect to Black Zetsu.
First, destroy the village.
Then destroy the shinobi world.
Finally...
Destroy himself.
If he won the gamble, perhaps he'd transmigrate into another world.
If he lost...
Then he'd play mahjong with the Sage of Six Paths in the Pure Land.
Watching Asuka's retreating back, the Orange Cat couldn't help twitching its whiskers.
As the preferred summoning beasts of the Uchiha Clan, they knew better than anyone else...
Not a single member of that family was normal.
After following Asuka for so many years, it understood his personality all too well.
The fake Uchiha Asuka—
Gentle.
Thoughtful.
Easygoing.
Kind.
The real Uchiha Asuka—
Frequently entertained the idea of destroying the entire shinobi world.
And whenever his emotions spiraled...
Those thoughts stopped sounding like jokes.
---
Before long, Asuka spotted a group of Kirigakure shinobi waiting ahead.
The moment Mitani's chakra signature vanished, they had realized something inside the mist had gone wrong.
They had immediately gathered their comrades and prepared to investigate.
But before they could enter...
The man inside walked out.
Carrying a sword at his side, Asuka emerged silently from the dense fog.
The Kirigakure shinobi immediately tensed.
One of them stepped forward.
His eyes swept over the Konoha forehead protector before locking onto the crimson tomoe spinning within Asuka's eyes.
"Konoha...
"An Uchiha?"
"..."
"I'll ignore you..."
Asuka muttered quietly.
"...if you ignore me."
Then, as though no one else were present, he slowly counted the people standing before him.
"One...
"Two...
"Three..."
He paused.
"Twenty-two."
"Hey! I'm talking to you!"
The instant the words left the man's mouth—
Asuka started walking.
Then he broke into a jog.
Then a sprint.
Faster.
Faster still.
Until he became nothing more than a blur racing across the battlefield.
"He's charging!"
"He's an Uchiha jōnin! We don't know how strong he is!"
"Watch out for the Sharingan!"
"Don't make eye contact!"
Bang!
The Kirigakure shinobi at the front raised an arm and blocked Asuka's punch.
Feeling almost no force behind it, he looked up with a smug grin.
"So this is an Uchiha jōnin?
"Pretty medioc—"
Why...
Am I flying?
His vision suddenly shot skyward.
Confused, he looked down.
Asuka was standing below him.
And opposite him...
A headless body remained standing where he had been only moments before.
Huh...?
I'm... dead?
Looking at the corpse whose neck had been severed by a flawlessly clean slash, the Kirigakure shinobi behind him unconsciously swallowed.
None of them had seen the strike.
One moment, their comrade had been alive.
The next...
His head was gone.
"Don't panic!"
One of the Kirigakure shinobi sneered.
"He's only one man."
To eliminate every possible risk, they had assembled an elite force.
Five jōnin.
Seven special jōnin.
Ten chūnin.
Against them...
There stood only a single Uchiha jōnin.
Could he possibly survive this?
"I've made up my mind," one of the Kirigakure shinobi said with a cruel grin as he drew a kunai. "After this, I'm hanging his corpse."
"This guy..."
Another shinobi leaned toward one of the special jōnin.
"There's something familiar about him. I could swear I've seen him before."
"Who cares?"
The special jōnin brushed the comment aside.
Gripping his kunai, he leaped high into the air and appeared directly above Asuka, driving the blade down with all his strength.
Clang!
Asuka raised his sword horizontally, effortlessly intercepting the strike.
His eyes flicked to the man's shark-like teeth.
Then—
Thud!
A kick slammed into the shinobi's stomach, sending him hurtling skyward.
Before he could recover, Asuka reversed his grip and slashed upward.
A deep diagonal gash ripped across the special jōnin's chest.
But...
The expected spray of blood never came.
Instead, water trickled from the wound.
Asuka raised an eyebrow.
"The Hōzuki Clan's Water Transformation Technique..."
"What an annoying ability."
As he spoke, he drove the Kusanagi Sword into the ground.
His hands blurred through a rapid series of seals.
Looking up at the airborne Hōzuki shinobi, he drew in a deep breath.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
A colossal fireball erupted from his mouth.
At that range, the Hōzuki shinobi was engulfed before he had a chance to react.
Sizzle!
The moment fire met water, thick clouds of steam exploded outward.
The steam merged with the already dense fog, reducing visibility even further.
Boom!!
A deafening explosion followed.
A torrent of flames swept overhead, and the searing heat instantly flushed everyone's faces.
Gulp...
One of the Kirigakure shinobi swallowed hard.
He stared blankly at the place where his comrade had been.
Nothing remained.
The man had been vaporized without a trace.
"...Aren't Water Release techniques supposed to counter Fire Release?"
"...And isn't Lightning Release supposed to counter Water Release?"
"...Where... where did he go?"
The surrounding mist churned like a restless sea, flowing back to fill the empty space left by the flames.
Within moments, visibility returned to what it had been before.
Everything looked exactly the same.
Except...
Two people were gone.
Swish!
A kunai wrapped with an explosive tag shot through the mist toward Asuka.
To the Sharingan, its trajectory was painfully obvious.
Without so much as glancing at it, Asuka caught the kunai by the handle...
...and hurled it straight back.
Boom!!
The explosion detonated in the middle of the Kirigakure formation.
Flesh and blood rained through the air as bodies were torn apart by the blast.
"Four."
Asuka's cold voice drifted through the mist as he quietly continued counting the dead.