The battle was over, but the stench of war was only beginning to ferment.
The Chunin Exams arena had been reduced to ruin. Entire sections of the spectator stands had collapsed, the ground was split by deep fissures, and the air was thick with the acrid smell of scorched stone mixed with the metallic tang of blood.
What was even worse were the traces left behind on the highest viewing platform—remnants of Ninjutsu so violent that simply approaching them was dangerous.
Iron Sand had melted into streams of liquid metal that flowed down the platform like molten waterfalls. Vast, perfectly right-angled voids marked the places where Dust Release had erased matter itself. Concrete walls were shredded into jagged blades by Wind Release, every surface sharp enough to maim.
And towering over all of it were the scars left by the Five Elements Great Barrage.
Scorched terrain still crackled with lingering arcs of lightning. Steel bars burned with stubborn flames. The air was unnaturally oxygen-rich, water droplets still carried residual electrical charge, and sections of the ground had vitrified into translucent crystal.
This was the battlefield of Kage.
Near the viewing platform, the scene was nothing short of hellish.
No one knew how many spectators had died in the aftermath, nor how many were still alive.
Medical ninja rushed through the chaos, their white robes quickly soaked with blood and dust. Their voices were already hoarse as they shouted instructions while moving among the wounded and the unconscious.
"Over here—he's still breathing!"
"Hemostat, now! The artery's ruptured!"
"Don't worry about me—save the children first!"
Hiroki stood on a relatively intact stretch of ground, silent amid the chaos. His Earth Grudge Fear arm had already retracted, hanging at his waist like nothing more than an ordinary ornament.
His Shadow Clones had dispersed once the fighting ended, and the flood of memories and processed data returning to him made his head throb faintly.
He didn't join the medical effort. It wasn't his domain. While he had copied usage experience for the Mystical Palm Technique, he had neither the remaining chakra nor the practical expertise to handle emergency treatment properly.
Instead, he focused inward.
One by one, he reviewed the data he had gathered, confirming his gains.
Scorch Release.
Human Puppet Technique.
These two alone were priceless. He had also successfully copied techniques from the Iwagakure ninja earlier.
Then—something caught his eye.
Target: Kirigakure Ninja — Bing (13 active processes)
Hiroki paused.
This was one of the processes he had terminated when clearing out the low-value copies. Normally, there should have been nothing noteworthy about it.
But the problem lay in the origin.
Hidden Mist Village had not participated in this Chunin Exam.
So why was there a Kirigakure ninja here?
Hiroki's brow creased slightly.
His memory raced through the exam invitations provided by ANBU. There had been no mention of Kirigakure at all.
Which meant only one thing.
That ninja had infiltrated Konoha deliberately.
For what purpose?
And more importantly—was he still alive?
Hiroki scanned the battlefield.
Ōnoki had retrieved the three Iwagakure ninja. Pakura and Sasori lay unconscious nearby. As for the Iron Sand user, he may have been killed by collateral damage, his body lost somewhere in the ruins.
As for the ninja from minor villages, some had been taken away by medical teams, others may have regained consciousness and fled. There was no way to account for everyone.
That made it worse.
An unknown Kirigakure ninja had infiltrated Konoha, and no one knew what he had seen—or what he intended to do.
And the name Bing…
It was disturbingly similar to Konoha-style codenames like Maoyi.
ANBU?
Hiroki made no outward reaction. He simply marked the information as High Priority and stored it in a folder labeled [Potential Threats].
The depths of this world ran far deeper than they appeared.
"Has it been confirmed?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was hoarse with exhaustion as he stood before a charred corpse—only the upper half remained.
Logically, there should have been no need to confirm the identity of someone he had personally killed.
But this was the ninja world.
No one ever assumed a Kage was truly dead without certainty.
"The Inuzuka and Aburame clans have both verified it," Danzo Shimura replied, his single visible eye sweeping coldly over the remains of the Third Kazekage—and over Rasa's desiccated corpse nearby.
"It's him. The scent and blood residue are consistent. The Third Kazekage is dead. The one beside him is his disciple—Rasa."
At the mention of Rasa, even Danzo's mouth twitched upward.
A personal disciple.
The inherited Magnet Release technique alone proved Rasa was a Kazekage candidate.
With the Third Kazekage dead, Rasa should have been the successor.
Instead, both had died—here, in Konoha.
Who, then, could support Sunagakure's future?
The deaths of both the Kazekage and his heir would almost certainly sever the inheritance of Magnet Release entirely.
Sunagakure was finished.
Danzo could already see it—without Kage-level figures in the next generation, the remaining oases of the Wind Country would be carved up by Konoha and Iwagakure, reduced to trade outposts and client states. Sunagakure would decline into a minor village… and eventually vanish.
The Land of Wind would fade with it.
The thought nearly made him laugh.
Hiruzen knelt and gently closed the Kazekage's still-open eyes.
"Bury him with the honors due a Kage."
"Tsk. Soft-hearted as ever," Danzo scoffed. "He invaded Konoha. He deserved his death. Hiruzen, this is a historic victory. Sunagakure lost two Kage-level combatants, and their future genius is gone. This is the perfect time to annex the Wind Country entirely."
"This is also when Konoha is weakest," Hiruzen snapped, rising sharply. "Do you think killing one Kage ends a war? Ōnoki escaped. Roshi is missing. The Land of Earth, the Land of Water, the Land of Lightning—they won't sit idle."
Danzo fell silent.
He knew Hiruzen was right.
The war wasn't over—not even close.
An injured ANBU stumbled toward them.
"Hokage-sama!" he gasped. "Uzumaki Mito-sama—her life force is failing! She forcibly released the Nine-Tails and has exhausted herself completely! She requests your immediate presence—for the final handover!"
Hiruzen's pupils contracted.
As expected… releasing the Nine-Tails at her age had been too much.
"Danzo—take over here," Hiruzen said immediately.
"Go," Danzo replied without hesitation.
Hiruzen turned—
"Hiroki! You're coming with me."
Before Hiroki could respond, the Hokage seized him and vanished in a Body Flicker.
Land of Lightning — Hidden Cloud Village
"What did you just say!?"
The Third Raikage slammed his palm into a reinforced alloy table, lightning bursting across his dark skin.
"Konoha killed the Third Kazekage during the Chunin Exams!? Hiruzen alone suppressed both the Tsuchikage and Kazekage!?"
"And a ten-year-old brat killed Sunagakure's Magnet Release successor!?"
The Jonin before him trembled.
"The intelligence confirms—"
"Then verify it again!" the Raikage roared. "Use every spy we have in Konoha. Move!"
Land of Water — Hidden Mist Village
A dark, damp chamber.
Several figures knelt.
"The youth named Sawada Hiroki incapacitated all non-Konoha examinees instantly," a Kirigakure ninja reported, terror etched into his eyes. "Later… he used Scorch Release to kill Rasa."
His voice shook.
Worse still—every Ninjutsu he had once known felt alien, erased.
Genji sat in silence for a long time.
"Copying Bloodline Limits again…" he murmured. "After the Sharingan, Konoha has produced another monster."
Beneath the chamber—
White Zetsu emerged.
"Madara-sama," it giggled, "that child has done something remarkable again."
Madara's Rinnegan opened, calm and cold.
"Keep watching him," he rasped. "Prepare Nagato. His parents may die now."
"The plan begins."
---------------------------------------------- To read chapters in advance go to P@treon - harsh07