"By offering my soul as sacrifice… your soul shall be offered to the Shinigami!"
Above the Hokage Tower in Konoha, Senju Tobirama's hand seals finally came to a stop. Dense waves of cold, ghostly energy drifted around his body.
His voice echoed like something rising from the depths of the underworld—harsh, chilling, and tinged with madness.
It spread across the silent sky above Konoha.
Behind him, the phantom of the Shinigami fully solidified.
The terrifying figure glanced down at Tobirama. On its twisted and grotesque face, a greedy expression slowly emerged.
The massive skeletal hand beside it tightened around the short blade of the Reaper, lifting it high as Tobirama's soul was offered as the sacrifice.
Then Tobirama suddenly pointed forward.
Directly at Uchiha Kai.
A low vibration spread through the air.
In that instant, the entire village of Konoha was swallowed by a chilling, deathly presence that defied description.
There was no earth-shattering explosion, no thunderous blast.
Only an overwhelming sense of fate.
As though anyone targeted by the Reaper's blade would inevitably be taken away—without negotiation, without escape.
A cold wind swept across the entire village.
Whether living creatures, plants, powerful shinobi, or ordinary civilians, everyone felt a violent tremor deep within their souls.
It was instinct.
Primal fear.
Orochimaru swallowed hard behind the battlefield. A flicker of longing and fascination appeared in his snake-like eyes.
"So this… is the Reaper Death Seal."
"So this is the Shinigami."
"The power that crushes everything from another dimension…"
"How delicious."
"If one could use another soul as the substitute price… and make the Reaper act…"
At that moment, a seed was planted deep within Orochimaru's heart.
A seed that one day might attempt to trick the god of death itself.
In the distance, the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, Yugito, suddenly let out a startled scream.
"Meow—ROAR!"
Halfway through the cry she realized her mistake and quickly turned it into a powerful roar.
But the blue chakra cloak around her body began to fluctuate violently.
In the next second it shattered completely.
Her half-tailed beast transformation collapsed as if facing a natural predator, and she dropped to the ground instinctively.
In her mismatched eyes remained only one thought.
Run.
Run away.
Get as far away as possible from that shadow.
Near the front of the Hokage building, Ōnoki's face turned pale as he felt the oppressive aura.
"The Shinigami… the Reaper Death Seal…"
"This is bad."
The old Tsuchikage had only just managed to float back into the air when his body immediately dropped again.
Ever since arriving here today, he seemed to be trapped in an endless loop of falling, standing up, flying, and falling again.
Beside him, the Fourth Raikage, A, frowned.
"What kind of technique is this? Even I feel a chill running through my body."
As a master of physical combat from Kumogakure, the Raikage had always been extremely confident in his durability.
Losing to Uchiha Kai earlier was one thing.
That kid was a monster.
But now—
A mere phantom had appeared, and yet it made his entire body feel unbearably cold.
Even the hairs on his skin stood upright.
Ōnoki glanced at him and sighed.
"Young people…"
"This technique truly touches the taboo of the soul."
"Once the Reaper Death Seal is activated, both the caster and the target will have their souls devoured by the Shinigami."
"There is no turning back."
Then he added quietly,
"As long as a being has a soul, it cannot escape the Shinigami's seal."
After saying that, he looked toward Kai again with a complicated expression.
He had only just begun to make up his mind about that boy…
…and now the boy was about to be taken away by the Shinigami.
For a moment, he didn't know what to feel.
"Kai!"
In the distance, Uchiha Fugaku's Mangekyō Sharingan spun wildly.
His ocular power was pushed to its limit.
He tried to capture the trace of the Reaper's blade and stop it.
But the moment he focused his gaze, his vision seemed to freeze.
All he could do was watch helplessly as the Shinigami raised its blade.
The weapon ignored space.
Ignored distance.
Like a strike of absolute inevitability carrying the law of "certain hit," the blade slowly descended toward Kai.
As the close friend of the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, Fugaku understood this technique very well.
And precisely because he understood it—
He panicked.
Grinding his teeth, he burst forward, trying to throw himself in front of Kai.
In Fugaku's knowledge, this was the only way.
But before he could even get close, a violent gust suddenly knocked him aside.
In the next instant, his body froze completely.
"…What is this?"
He looked down and saw black chains wrapped tightly around him.
For a moment, he was stunned.
Then he recognized the familiar cold aura flowing through the chains.
Kai.
Fugaku's eyes widened.
He never expected that Kai would still have the spare strength to stop him at this moment.
But suddenly, the Mangekyō in Fugaku's eyes flickered.
Fragments of the future appeared before him.
Seeing those scenes, the anxiety in his heart gradually calmed.
Even something strange emerged.
In that brief glimpse of the future—
Kai was completely unharmed.
Instead…
The Shinigami seemed to be roaring in anger.
"…How is that possible?"
Fugaku muttered.
"Could it be that this so-called god of death… is actually a joke?"
He shook his head and forced himself to relax.
It sounded absurd.
But perhaps it wasn't impossible.
At that moment—
The Shinigami's blade finally descended.
It ignored the brilliant divine aura radiating from the Light Susanoo.
Like the hand of death reaching out from hell, it stabbed directly toward Kai at the core of the Susanoo.
The blade moved slowly.
Almost lazily.
Yet in one moment it was still in the Shinigami's hand—
And the next moment it had already pierced through the seemingly indestructible crystal light of the Susanoo.
Now it stood directly in front of Kai.
Inside the Shinigami's abdomen, Tobirama's Edo Tensei face twisted slightly as his soul burned as the sacrifice.
But his icy blue eyes remained unchanged.
"Finally over… brat."
Perhaps there was a trace of regret.
Or resolve.
It was over.
Everything was over.
That evil Uchiha boy would soon become a sacrifice alongside him—both their souls devoured by the Shinigami.
Though…
The thought of sharing the afterlife with an Uchiha soul left Tobirama feeling somewhat uncomfortable.
But just as the blade was about to touch Kai—
Kai moved.
Looking up at the Shinigami, the boy smiled faintly.
"Body of Light."
He was curious.
If his body was like sunlight itself…
How much of it could the Shinigami actually touch?
The four calm words fell like droplets into icy water, clearly heard by everyone present.
Then—
They saw sunlight descend upon Kai.
A layer of radiant brilliance surrounded his body, rippling softly.
It wasn't some strange mutation.
It was the purest form of light.
In that instant—
Kai's body completely dissolved into the sunlight above him.
Assimilated.
Transformed.
And at that very moment—
The Shinigami's blade struck down precisely where he had been.
Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon -> [email protected]/SorenSwiftTL (replace @ with a)