Silence.
Deathly silence.
Everyone stopped moving.
They held their breath, staring at the slowly approaching boy with uncertainty and fear.
He clearly had not done anything.
There wasn't even the slightest chakra fluctuation coming from his body.
And yet, that trembling sensation, as if it came from the depths of the soul itself, made every person's hands and feet turn ice-cold.
At that moment, a civilian secretly pushed forward by the elders gathered his courage.
Relying on the unspoken rules that "the law does not punish the masses" and "ninja cannot attack civilians," he pointed at Uchiha Kai and cursed loudly.
"What are you looking at?! You little bastard from Konoha! You're not welcome here! Hurry up and crawl back to your—"
He never finished speaking.
Uchiha Kai smiled.
It was a pure smile.
One without the slightest emotion.
Like a god looking down at an ant.
He simply lifted his eyelids slightly and glanced at the civilian.
Puff!
Without any warning—
The civilian who had still been shouting burst apart like a punctured water bag, turning into a cloud of blood mist.
Red and white mixed together, scattering down in a rain that splashed across the heads and faces of the people nearby.
The warm liquid, thick with the stench of blood, instantly froze the surrounding civilians in place.
The fanaticism and anger on their faces were replaced by endless terror in an instant.
"Ah... AAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
Only after several seconds of delay did the screams finally erupt.
The entire scene instantly spiraled out of control.
The civilians fled backward in panic, scrambling and stumbling, afraid that they would be next.
As for the Kirigakure ninja—
Including Elder Genji and the council—
They were all completely stunned by that bloody scene.
He killed someone!
He had truly dared to attack a civilian!
And in such a cruel, bizarre way!
This was no simple warning.
This was naked slaughter.
"You... you demon!"
One elder pointed at Kai, his voice trembling, fierce on the outside but hollow within.
"Demon?"
The smile on Uchiha Kai's face grew wider.
He tilted his head, his tone innocent and cruel.
"He was noisy, so I cleaned him up."
"Is there a problem?"
He looked around.
Wherever his gaze passed, whether it was Kirigakure's elite ninja or the high-ranking elders, everyone subconsciously lowered their heads, not daring to meet his eyes.
"It seems you still haven't understood the situation."
Kai's voice was calm.
Yet it carried an unquestionable authority.
"From the moment you spoke your first disrespectful word to me, Kirigakure's survival was no longer in your hands."
"Whether you live or die..."
"Depends only on my whim."
As he spoke, he extended a soft white hand.
In his palm, a pitch-black chakra vortex quietly appeared and began rotating slowly.
An energy fluctuation even purer and more majestic than when he refined the Three-Tails radiated from it.
This was his own chakra.
The source power formed by fusing the power of the Divine Tree and the Six Paths.
Very soon, the vortex condensed into a purple pill overflowing with radiant light, as though it contained an endless sea of stars.
"Open your mouth."
He looked at Mei Terumi, who was still confronting Elder Genji.
His tone was casual, as if feeding a little cat.
Mei Terumi did not hesitate in the slightest.
She immediately obeyed and parted her red lips.
Whoosh!
The purple pill turned into a stream of light and flew accurately into her mouth.
BOOM!!!
A terrifying power ten times—
No, a hundred times stronger than before—
Exploded inside Mei Terumi's body!
If the previous blue pill had merely opened a door to the world of the strong for her...
Then this purple pill had pushed her directly onto a divine altar.
Mysterious purple patterns appeared across the surface of her body.
Her long wine-red hair moved without wind, dancing wildly behind her.
Her aura climbed step by step.
In an instant, she shattered the shackles of Kage-level strength and reached a completely new, unimaginable realm.
"This..."
"What kind of power is this...?"
Mei Terumi felt the unprecedented strength inside her body and was so shaken that words almost failed her.
She felt that the current her could easily crush her past self with a single finger.
And all of this—
Came from a pill casually condensed by the boy before her.
"Elder Genji..."
She slowly turned her head and looked at Genji, whose face was filled with horror.
Within her emerald eyes, only absolute coldness and indifference remained.
"The game is over."
"Boil Release: Skilled Mist Technique!"
She merely waved her hand lightly.
A vast cloud of acidic mist instantly enveloped the battlefield.
This time, the corrosive power of the Skilled Mist Technique was countless times stronger than before.
Elder Genji's expression changed drastically.
He pushed his Water Release defense to its limit.
But the instant it touched the mist, the chakra barrier around his body began hissing.
It dissolved at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"How could..."
Before he could finish speaking, Mei Terumi had already appeared in front of him.
A pale hand pressed lightly against his chest.
"Lava Release: Underworld Hound."
Puchi!
Elder Genji did not even have time to scream.
His entire chest was instantly pierced through and melted, leaving behind a massive smoking hole.
The old man who had controlled Kirigakure for decades collapsed to the ground with disbelief still written across his face.
His life force was gone.
"Clean up the trash."
Uchiha Kai's indifferent voice sounded in Mei Terumi's ears like the judgment of death itself.
"Yes, Master."
Mei Terumi answered respectfully.
Then she turned around and looked toward the council members, who were already terrified out of their minds and slumped on the ground.
There was no longer a trace of pity in her eyes.
A one-sided massacre began.
By the time the final elder collapsed into a pool of blood, the entire battlefield had been dyed red.
Mei Terumi was covered in blood.
Like an Asura returning from hell, she slowly walked before Uchiha Kai, knelt on one knee, and lowered her proud head.
"Master."
"The trash... has been cleaned up."
From that moment on, Kirigakure's old era came to a complete end.
And Uchiha Kai obtained his first ninja village—
One with vast resources, and one that now completely obeyed his command.
While the bloody purge in Kirigakure unfolded, in another corner of the battlefield, the atmosphere was so heavy it seemed frozen solid.
Uchiha Itachi stared fixedly at Future Sasuke's weathered face.
At that empty sleeve.
Those cold words echoed again and again in his mind.
"Second Brother... was killed by your own hand."
"I... personally... killed Kai?"
Itachi muttered to himself.
For the first time, cracks and confusion appeared on that eternally frozen face.
How was that possible?
He could not imagine himself ever raising a killing hand against that younger brother.
The one who always followed behind him.
The one who called him "Nii-san" in a soft voice.
The one who loved playing all kinds of pranks on him.
Yet always became impossibly reliable at critical moments.
In this timeline, Kai was his bottom line.
The existence he would protect no matter the cost.
For Kai, he could even abandon the so-called village.
Abandon that ridiculous peace.
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