The moment he heard those words, Uchiha Obito's instincts screamed danger.
He couldn't win—absolutely couldn't win!
A boy with the Rinnegan was already terrifying enough, and now Uchiha Madara had shown up? This wasn't a fight—it was suicide!
"Kamui—!"
The tomoe in Obito's Mangekyō Sharingan had only just begun to spin, the warped air of space-time distortion just starting to appear—
And in the next instant—
BANG!!!
His entire body was slammed into the ground like a rag doll!
The earth cracked open, dust exploding upward as a spiderweb of fractures spread out in an instant.
Through the haze of debris, half of Obito's mask was shattered, revealing blood at the corner of his mouth and eyes wide with shock.
Kamui hadn't gone off in time!
No—he hadn't even been given the chance to use it!
"H-How… how is this possible…?"
Madara pressed one hand firmly on him and said,
"Don't move, brat."
Obito's face went pale. The crushing force on him was so immense that even the ground beneath him groaned and splintered under the pressure.
Ryota walked forward at an unhurried pace, looking down at the man pinned so completely to the earth that even Kamui was useless. His voice was calm and deliberate.
"If you hadn't just raised a hand against me…"
"I might have considered letting you lead the Uchiha Clan."
He paused, the faint smile at the corner of his lips fading. His eyes, once holding a glimmer of pity, now shone with a suffocating chill.
"But now…"
Turning away, he led Ais toward the distant Uchiha Clan Grounds.
There was no anger in his tone, no compassion—only a verdict of absolute denial.
"You won't get that chance."
The moment the words left his mouth—
BANG!!!
The ground shook again, the spiderweb cracks widening.
Madara plucked one of Obito's eyes from its socket, slipped it into a cloth pouch, and tossed it to Ryota. He shook the blood from his hand.
On the ground, Obito's head had been reduced to a pool of gore.
The man who had sparked the Fourth Great Ninja War in the original timeline, the one who had orchestrated the Akatsuki and the Project Tsuki no Me from the shadows, the man who clung his entire life to the false dream of "a world with Rin"—
Now lay dead at the hands of the very mentor who had once saved him.
The irony was almost cruel. Saved by Uchiha Madara back then—erased by Uchiha Madara now.
"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
Whoosh—
A torrent of flames like a crashing ocean poured from Madara's mouth, completely engulfing Obito's body.
All around, silence.
Only the crackling roar of fire whispered into the night, the air thick with the stench of scorched flesh and clotted blood.
This was the smell of human remains burning to carbon under an unrelenting blaze.
When the flames had consumed the body that had once upended the entire shinobi world, Madara finally lifted his head, glanced toward Ryota, and then vanished into the night like a shadow.
The fire still licked at the earth, but the battle was over.
Standing at Ryota's side, Ais tilted her head slightly, her gaze drifting to the smoldering remains behind them.
Ryota noticed the shift in her expression and spoke softly.
"Do you… think I'm cruel?"
Ais shook her head without the slightest hesitation.
"Ryota said it before—this is the shinobi world. A cruel place."
"Just like… the Dungeon."
She paused.
"They… are all monsters."
Ryota blinked, momentarily caught off guard.
So this doll-like princess really did have an unusual way of thinking.
He reached out and ruffled her hair.
"That's right."
"This isn't our world."
"Here, there are only enemies—no allies."
[Ding—Main Quest, Phase One: Completed!]
[Quest Objective]: Take control of the Uchiha Clan
[Quest Rating]: Perfect Completion!
[Reward Settlement—]
Reward 1: +300,000 Chakra Capacity
Reward 2: +10% Special Nine-Tails Chakra, Sage Jutsu Chakra, and Hashirama Cells
Reward 3: Golden Gate can now carry 1–2 companions
Reward 4: +10% Kokugan progress
[Ding! Daikokuten Unlocked!]
The mechanical voice came swiftly and vanished just as fast.
The next moment—
Ryota's pupils contracted sharply!
A strange, alien energy stirred from somewhere deep within his soul, awakening like molten lava surging in his eye sockets.
It wasn't the pulse of the Rinnegan, nor the churn of Kurama's chakra, Sage Chakra, or Hashirama Cells within his body.
It was an indescribable dominating will, condensing in his eyes into a pattern governed by some unknown law.
It sent an icy shiver through the heart—an instinctive fear of something beyond comprehension.
The sensation lasted only a few seconds.
When the energy finally settled, a thin golden film coated Ryota's right eye. If one looked closely, eight faint triangular marks circled the pupil of his Rinnegan.
This was the Kokugan.
"Didn't expect… it would be this."
Ryota took a moment to search his mind for the memories tied to this eye.
The Kokugan—a dōjutsu originating from the Ōtsutsuki Clan, classified among the god-tiers.
It possessed two known abilities: Sukunahikona and Daikokuten.
The one he had unlocked this time was the latter.
Put simply, Daikokuten was a time-stopped subspace. It could store objects and retrieve them at will—
Similar in concept to Kamui's pocket dimension, yet fundamentally different.
Anything drawn into Daikokuten, if alive, would be forced into a time-stop state.
Inside, time was completely frozen—consciousness halted, movement sealed, energy stilled—like being locked forever in a bubble of unmoving reality.
That was what made Daikokuten one of the most inescapable sealing abilities in existence.
Even more terrifying was its long-range visual transmission feature.
Anything within Ryota's line of sight—skills, weapons, even people—could be transported into Daikokuten's frozen dimension with nothing more than a glance.
Control through the eye, sealing by the gods.
One glare, and the enemy would be bound for eternity.
What surprised Ryota was that he had unlocked Daikokuten at only 10% Kokugan progress.
So what would happen at 100%?
Would the Kokugan evolve into a god technique that could rewrite the very laws of time? Or something divine enough to suppress the entire world with a single gaze, nullifying all things?
For a long moment, Ryota said nothing.
Not because he was shaken—but because, for the first time, the unknown filled him with anticipation.
This power was too strange, too far beyond the reach of mortals.
"Kokugan… just how far can you go?"
Murmuring to himself, his gaze fell upon a rock in the distance.
In the next second, the rock vanished soundlessly from the world, as though erased from existence.
In truth, it had been drawn into Daikokuten's still dimension, where time had sealed it away forever.
No cost, no burden.
The moment the thought surfaced, Daikokuten activated.
Ryota's lips slowly curved upward, a glint of something almost playful flashing in his eyes.
Ais, standing beside him, seemed to sense the change in him as well.
She tilted her head slightly but didn't ask.
Because to Ais, no matter how much stronger, stranger, or more distant Ryota became, it was only natural.
He was never someone you could simply call a "monster" to begin with.
Ryota's gaze shifted suddenly toward the distance. After a moment, he smiled and said,
"…Word just came back from Deva Path—Danzō is dead."
Ais gave a soft "Mm," as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.
And in that instant, Ryota finally understood something.
—In the Main Quest, the so-called control of the Uchiha wasn't just about taking the seat of clan head.
More importantly, it was about bringing a complete end to the "deadlock" that threatened the very survival of the Uchiha Clan.
Not just unifying them internally, but wiping out every hidden cancer—like Danzō, Itachi, and Obito—root and all.
"…As expected, my system is as exacting as ever."
He murmured the words without the slightest trace of dissatisfaction—in fact, there was a note of appreciation in his tone.
Because only such "exacting" standards were worthy of his ambition and the future he envisioned.
This wasn't some simple dungeon raid.
It was the step-by-step takeover of the world—reshaping the balance, smoothing out the folds of fate.
The true road of a ruler.
…
Meanwhile, inside the Hokage Building in Konoha…
Sarutobi Hiruzen's pipe clicked softly as he puffed on it, pacing back and forth across the hall.
The Third Hokage's eyes were filled with fatigue and unease.
The repeated tremors from the direction of the Uchiha Clan Grounds had set all of Konoha trembling.
He had an ominous feeling in his gut but couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong.
Just then, hurried footsteps echoed from outside the hall.
"They're finally here."
He spun around abruptly and, without even waiting for the person to enter, strode straight toward the door.
The door swung open. A ninja in full ANBU gear saw Hiruzen and hesitated without speaking.
"Speak!"
"…Lord Danzō is confirmed dead."
The ANBU operative paused.
"Root… is nearly annihilated."
Clatter!
Hiruzen felt as though his head had exploded with a deafening boom, the pipe slipping from his fingers and hitting the floor.
His body staggered, and he had to grab the wall to steady himself.
"What did you say?!"
His eyes went wide, his voice breaking from the surge of emotion.
"Danzō… is dead?! Root… gone?!"
The ANBU lowered his head in silence—yet his silence was already the clearest answer.
It was as if Hiruzen's heart had been gripped by an iron claw, leaving him briefly dazed.
He drew several deep breaths before fixing his gaze on the operative.
"…Was it the Uchiha?"
The ANBU hesitated for a moment before slowly shaking his head.
"…We can't get inside."
"The Uchiha's presence… has completely changed."
There was a strange, almost inexplicable fear in his voice.
"The moment our people entered the clan grounds, it was like stones sinking into the ocean—not a single trace of them came back."
"Then how do you know Danzō's dead?"
The ANBU answered quietly,
"One of Root's own escaped from inside. He said Lord Danzō had failed, the plan had collapsed."
"The moment he said it… he died."
Silence fell over the hall like a heavy shroud.
Hiruzen returned to the Hokage's seat, sinking into it with a frown so deep it seemed locked in place.
"So Danzō really did make his move…"
"But after he went in… he never came out."
"What on earth happened… inside the Uchiha Clan?"
His voice wasn't even directed at anyone—more like he was asking himself.
A suffocating sense of danger crept along his spine like a venomous snake.
Feeling restless, he reached for his pipe, only to realize his long-time companion was now nothing but shattered fragments on the floor.
After a moment's thought, he looked to the ANBU operative before him.
"Go—"
"Summon the heads of every major clan in Konoha. All of them."
"…Yes, sir!"
Only after the ANBU had fully disappeared did Hiruzen slowly rise, walking to the window to gaze toward the silent, dark stretch where the Uchiha Clan Grounds lay.
—Danzō was dead.
The news weighed heavier than he had imagined.
Though they had often disagreed, Hiruzen knew all too well that Danzō was Konoha's true "shadow."
He had done countless dirty jobs, borne endless blame, and handled innumerable matters the Hokage could not openly touch.
Many grim but necessary decisions had been carried out by him.
Danzō stood in the shade of Konoha's great tree—an indispensable existence.
And now Root was gone as well.
That Danzō had spent decades honing had been obliterated, dying alongside him within the Uchiha's territory.
No matter the truth, no matter what had really happened inside… with the bodies lying there, with Root destroyed, the Uchiha Clan could never escape suspicion.
"Damn it…"
Hiruzen's teeth ground together as he cursed under his breath.
This was no longer the simple matter of the Uchiha planning a coup.
This was shaking the very foundation of Konoha's power structure.
"We can't hesitate any longer."
Settling back into the Hokage's seat, his eyes turned to ice.
"The Uchiha's blood must be spilled at the foot of the Hokage Rock!"