Sarutobi Hiruzen jerked his head around. From the clearing smoke, Ryota emerged slowly, flanked by Ais and Lefiya.
He froze completely, his whole body trembling.
Hiruzen's eyes locked onto the three figures walking toward him, especially the black-haired boy in the lead.
Countless thoughts tore through his mind.
He remembered Ryota's declaration of war between the Uchiha and Konoha.
He remembered Shimura Danzō's death—even with his Kage-level strength—and the Root annihilated within the Uchiha Clan Grounds.
Back then, Hiruzen had thought it was just the Uchiha struggling again, that this new clan head had gone mad.
But now…
That massive fox, bellowing wildly yet deliberately sparing the Uchiha Clan Grounds, was tearing apart the defensive lines of Konoha's great clans.
That was the Nine-Tails!
Not genjutsu. Not a puppet. A real Tailed Beast with overwhelming chakra, capable of leveling everything in its path.
And that beast… was obeying the boy's orders.
"...Impossible..."
Hiruzen muttered, the muscles on his face twitching violently, his reason beginning to crack.
"The Nine-Tails is still sealed in the jinchuriki… how could you possibly…?"
"Don't tell me… you can control the Nine-Tails?!"
"No, no! That's impossible—it's impossible!!"
He staggered back step by step, his worldview shattering, his lifelong beliefs crumbling before his eyes.
When he looked up again, all trace of the Hokage's composure was gone.
In its place: shock, fury, and chaos he couldn't accept.
His voice broke into a roar:
"Who the hell are you?!"
Ryota only answered with a mocking smile.
"Didn't I already say?"
"I'm the head of the Uchiha Clan."
Hiruzen sucked in several deep breaths, then suddenly seemed to understand.
"I get it now… the Nine-Tails—it's your doing!"
"Just like the rampage years ago… you want to destroy Konoha too, don't you?!"
Ryota shook his head.
"Destroy Konoha? You're flattering yourself."
He raised his hand, pointing off into the distance.
"Konoha will be my territory from now on."
"In fact, the entire shinobi world will be mine to command."
"Delusional!!"
With a furious roar, Hiruzen sprang into the air.
Behind him, the specter of the Reaper grew sharper and sharper.
"I will never let you destroy Konoha!!"
At that moment—
The surviving Konoha shinobi all looked up at the figure rising skyward.
At last, they understood the Hokage's resolve.
"Lord Hokage is moving… thank goodness!"
"No… that's the Reaper Death Seal… a jutsu that trades life for life…!"
"Lord Hokage is going with the resolve to die!!"
Nearby, Hyūga Hiashi and Nara Shikaku also sensed the anomaly in the skies. Their eyes met, both reading the same shock in the other's gaze.
"…The Reaper Death Seal?" Hiashi muttered.
"He's going to follow the Fourth's example… life for life."
Shikaku's eyes darkened. As Konoha's strategist, he understood what this meant all too well.
The Hokage's death would leave a vacuum.
Before, at least Danzō had been alive.
Even if the Third had fallen, Danzō could have temporarily seized authority, stabilizing the situation.
But now?
With Danzō dead and the Third about to follow—
Konoha would be left with only fragmented clans and a generation of unprepared youths.
The village would collapse into chaos.
Shikaku's fists clenched unconsciously, veins bulging on the back of his hand.
Hiashi's expression turned grim. Even with his stern, hard nature, he couldn't ignore the severity.
The Hokage's seat, once empty—especially now, under both internal turmoil and external threat—would shatter Konoha in an instant.
"…We have to stop him." Shikaku said quietly.
"Even Lord Hokage cannot die right now."
But Hiashi only shook his head bitterly.
"It's too late… the Reaper Death Seal is already complete."
Above them, Hiruzen's hands finished the last seal.
The Reaper's phantom form had fully manifested, its arms spread wide, reaching for the Nine-Tails.
"The only thing left—" Hiashi's voice was heavy, "is to protect Lord Hokage until he completes the seal!"
"As long as the Nine-Tails is sealed, the Uchiha will lose their trump card. Then we can wipe them out in one stroke!"
"Only then… will Lord Hokage's death mean something!!"
Shikaku stayed silent for a moment, then finally nodded.
"…Understood."
He swung his arm down.
"Cover Lord Hokage!!"
"Block any interference from the Uchiha—no matter the cost!!"
"Yes, sir!!!"
"Yes!!!"
The elites of every clan surged forward like a tide, charging straight for the Nine-Tails.
Chakra flared, dozens of jutsu filled the sky.
To them, it was a scene of tragic determination.
To Ryota, it was nothing but a swarm of fools.
Standing amid the firelight, he grinned.
Not with mockery. Not with pity. But with the cold detachment of someone who had already seen through everything.
"With just these people, they think they can oppose me?"
He stepped forward, and the Nine-Tails responded instantly to his will, lashing out in a frenzy.
"These so-called elites chose to hunt the Uchiha… then their fate can only be to turn into dust."
"Not everyone is worthy of receiving my Falna."
In the distance, the Konoha forces charged the beast with suicidal resolve.
But Ryota's gaze never lingered on them for even a second.
His eyes fixed on the airborne Hiruzen, already nearing his limit.
"…But first, let's deal with you."
A glint flashed in Ryota's eyes.
Kokugan.
"So, the Reaper Death Seal, huh?"
"Who's sealing who… that's still up for debate."
He whispered:
"—Daikokuten."
BOOM!
In midair, Hiruzen's body froze as though something had forcibly severed his connection to reality itself.
Shhhk—
No struggle. No scream.
Just an eerie, razor-thin sound.
And then, before the eyes of all…
Sarutobi Hiruzen vanished.
Without warning. Without even the faintest ripple of chakra.
As though he had never existed.
The battlefield froze.
Countless shinobi stopped mid-handseal, their fingers stiff in unfinished jutsu.
Hiashi's eyes went wide, forgetting that his Byakugan was still active.
Shikaku's kunai halted mid-swing.
Every clan head—Yamanaka, Aburame, Inuzuka—stared blankly at the empty sky.
That had been the Third Hokage's place.
That had been where the Reaper Death Seal was in motion.
And now… nothing.
No Hiruzen.
No Reaper's shadow.
No trace at all.
Gone.
How long did the silence last? No one knew.
It was as if time itself had frozen.
Until finally, Shikaku forced his head to turn, his face pale, his throat dry as he rasped:
"…Where's Lord Hokage?"
The words were quiet, but they crashed into every heart.
Hiashi clenched his teeth, shaking his head slowly. His Byakugan chakra surged to the limit, veins crawling like webs at the corners of his eyes.
His voice was low, trembling with undisguisable fear.
"…I can't see him."
"I… can't see anything at all."
"His chakra, his body—not a trace remains."
"It's as if… he was completely erased from this world."
Even Hiashi's pride couldn't hide the tremor in his voice.
Because everyone knew—the Byakugan was not an ordinary sensory technique.
It was one of the highest-level Kekkei Genkai.
It could see through, track chakra, perceive every detail within a kilometer.
And yet now—he saw nothing.
This wasn't "concealment" or "hiding."
This was true disappearance.
The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was gone.
No mark. No shadow. Erased by some force beyond the shinobi world's laws.
All eyes turned, as if pulled, toward the boy still standing at the edge of the ruins.
Ryota's eyes still shimmered with a black, unfathomable glow, his expression cold and divine as he looked down at them all.
In the deathly silence, his voice rose, like the whisper of death itself:
"Even now, you're still clinging to thoughts of your Third Hokage?"
"Perhaps you should worry more about yourselves…"
And then—
ROAR!!!
The Nine-Tails' bellow shook the battlefield.
Its massive head reared, eyes locking onto the dense mass of Konoha forces.
Chakra swelled violently, condensing into its maw.
Between its jagged fangs, a black sphere slowly spun into form.
The Tailed Beast Bomb.
The true art of destruction.
Hiashi's face drained of color.
"No! It's the Tailed Beast Bomb!! Retreat—retreat now!!"
Shikaku's expression also darkened. This wasn't any ordinary jutsu.
This was a weapon that could obliterate mountains, erase entire villages.
Everyone realized it. Even the clan heads and elite forces were nothing but ants before this.
"Retreat! Everyone retreat—now!!"
"Move!!"
Shinobi scattered in all directions, leaping desperately away.
But Ryota's expression never changed.
"Do you really think you can run?"
"Death… is the only release you'll get."
SHHRRKK!
The air itself split as the Tailed Beast Bomb tore free.
Wherever it passed, the land and sky warped.
This time—
No Fourth Hokage's Flying Raijin.
No Third Hokage's Reaper Death Seal.
No power remained to stop it.
Its target—
The heart of the fleeing crowd.
"Run!!!"
"Find cover!! Anything—!!"
"It's the Tailed Beast Bomb!!"
Their screams echoed across the battlefield.
But none could outrun the judgment of the King of Tailed Beasts.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The explosion swallowed the land whole.
A cataclysmic shockwave rolled out, ring after ring of destruction flattening everything in sight.
The air itself tore apart.
The ground split open, fire and dust churned together with blood into a colossal mushroom cloud that blotted the sky.
The cries of pain lasted only seconds—before silence.
The central battlefield was gone, reduced to a vast crater of scorched earth. Not a single corpse remained whole.
This was no battle.
This was a massacre.