Hiruzen Sarutobi had once been certain of victory. He had pulled Sunagakure and Kumogakure into an alliance, forged a three-way coalition, and marched to crush Konoha - convinced he could seize the Hokage's seat again and prove his ambition was more than a fading legend. In his mind, the village had simply strayed from the "rightful" path, and he was the one destined to drag it back.
But now…
Reality ground that certainty into dust.
He stared at himself - bloodied, battered, and humiliatingly overwhelmed - while Chiba stood before him like a calamity wearing a human face. He watched the forces of Sunagakure, an entire army of trained shinobi, fail to even slow the writhing mass of Ryūchi Cave serpents Chiba had summoned, let alone the ice-and-snow dragon riders that tore across the battlefield with merciless precision. Each scream, each crushed formation, each desperate retreat carved deeper into Hiruzen's ribs until the cold reached his bones.
Was this truly how it ended?
A total defeat - so complete it left no room for dignity, no room for excuses. Would he really fail to reclaim the Hokage's throne even at the very end? Would his story close not with a final triumph, but with a miserable collapse - body broken, will extinguished, name reduced to a cautionary tale?
Fragments of the past flashed through him: the village, the title, the years he'd spent convincing himself that what he wanted was "necessary." The weight of that obsession - power, legacy, control - tightened around his heart until it hurt to breathe. Regret didn't soften him. It only sharpened the bitterness.
"No… it's not over yet!"
"I haven't lost - NOT YET!!!"
With a roar that sounded like he was trying to shatter fate itself, Hiruzen wrenched his hands back around the Kongō Nyoi staff and brought it down again, violently, as if the force alone could crush the inevitability closing in.
For a fleeting instant, even Chiba's gaze shifted - something like restrained acknowledgment in his eyes. A man who could cling to authority with this kind of madness, who could keep standing when every rational thought screamed to kneel, was - by a warped measure - remarkable. To charge forward knowing the outcome was failure, knowing the price was death, and still refuse to bow… that was the stubborn pride of a true warlord.
But admiration did not mean mercy.
Chiba raised the icy blade in his hand, intercepting the descending strike with a crisp, ringing impact that jolted through the air like cracking glass. Then his counter came - brutal, clean, inevitable. A surge of monstrous strength snapped through his body and sent Hiruzen flying, his frame whipping backward as if the battlefield itself had rejected him.
" - PFF!"
Blood burst from Hiruzen's mouth, hot against the winter-chilled air, splattering onto the torn earth. He forced his feet under him anyway, lungs burning, vision wavering - but pride still kept him upright.
"Ninpō: Shuriken Kyodai-ka no Jutsu - 'Giant Shuriken Technique'!!!"
The moment the words left his throat, the air filled with heavy, slicing pressure. Enormous, pitch-black shuriken manifested - an offensive melded from shadow replication and enlargement - spinning with lethal momentum. The blades screamed as they tore forward, each one capable of cutting through squads, each one meant to overwhelm even a massive opponent by sheer volume and weight. It was an attack Hiruzen had once used against an enemy of terrifying scale - an arsenal thrown in a single breath.
Yet Chiba didn't flinch.
He merely lifted a hand.
A pulse of extreme, deathly cold surged outward, not like wind but like a judgment. Frost detonated across the air itself, and the giant shuriken froze mid-flight - caught as if time had clenched around them. Ice crawled over every edge, every curve, locking the weapons into brittle statues. Then, one by one, they dropped with dull, powerless thuds, scattering across the ground like discarded scrap.
Hiruzen's jaw tightened until it trembled.
"Katon: Karyūdan - 'Fire Dragon Flame Bullet'!!!"
"Doton: Doryūdan - 'Earth Dragon Bullet'!!!"
"Fukugō Ninjutsu: Doryū Enryū - 'Earth Dragon Flame Flow'!!!"
Flames and earth erupted together - two dragons roaring into existence at once, their bodies coiling as they surged forward. The fire dragon's heat warped the air; the earth dragon's mass churned the battlefield, ripping chunks of ground free as it barreled ahead. Where the two met, the attack fused into a devastating torrent - an inferno guided by the relentless force of earth, meant to swallow everything in its path and leave only scorched ruin.
Chiba answered with the same frightening simplicity he'd used all day: one method to break all methods, one constant to crush every variable.
His arm rose. His intent shifted.
The fire died as if suffocated by the void - snuffed out by the same extreme cold that had frozen steel in midair. The earth dragon didn't even reach him. Ice devoured it from the front like a spreading curse, hardening the entire construct in an instant before it crashed down and shattered - splintering into frozen fragments that exploded into powder across the ground.
Hiruzen landed heavily, forcing himself upright with shaking legs. His breathing came in ragged pulls, each inhale scraping his lungs raw. At this point, it wasn't only his injuries - his chakra was nearly gone, his body hollowed out by exhaustion. The strength to keep fighting seeped away no matter how fiercely he tried to hold it.
And Chiba… Chiba looked like a hunter playing with wounded prey.
He didn't finish it. He could have - easily. Instead, he waited, letting Hiruzen claw for a miracle again and again, only to be pushed back into despair each time. It was cruelty dressed as patience, and it made Hiruzen's humiliation feel endless.
On the other side of the battlefield, the situation was collapsing just as violently. With the Kazekage Rasa grievously wounded by the White Snake Sage, Sunagakure's morale cracked. Chiyo and Shizuka - locked in their own relentless struggle - offered no relief. The elite of Sunagakure were trapped, unable to break free from Ryūchi Cave's serpents to mount any coordinated rescue. Above all of it, Chiba's senjutsu-infused Ice Release and those ice-and-snow dragon riders rampaged through ranks like a storm given form, tearing lines apart with terrifying speed - like wolves among sheep, like blades through mist.
Sunagakure's army splintered into chaos, formations shattered, retreat turning into rout.
And the serpents… the serpents were worse.
They fought with the mindless ferocity of creatures that didn't care about dying. They hurled themselves into shinobi, fangs tearing flesh, bodies coiling and crushing, swarming without hesitation. Even hardened veterans - men and women who had lived through bloodshed - felt their stomachs twist as fear rose in their throats. Not because they hadn't seen death… but because they were watching something that didn't fear it at all.
Before long, the battlefield delivered a cruel truth: it looked like Chiba stood alone, yet he had driven Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Kazekage Rasa, and all of Sunagakure's forces into catastrophic defeat.
Hiruzen stared at the carnage and finally released a long, bitter breath - something between a sigh and a funeral prayer.
"So… I really can't defeat you…"
"Mizukage-sama."
"But even so… even if this is the end… I'll give everything I have left - at the very least…"
"I'LL TAKE YOU DOWN WITH ME!!!"
In that instant, the despair in his eyes vanished as if it had never existed. What remained was pure burning hate - wrath and obsession igniting into something feverish and terrifying, his gaze blazing like a wildfire fed by his own ruin.
Chiba's expression shifted slightly.
Mutual destruction.
So he really intended to use it.
A forbidden technique tied to the Uzumaki clan - an execution that could drag any enemy into death alongside the caster. A jutsu so absolute it didn't bargain, so final it didn't forgive.
Shiki Fūjin - "Dead Demon Consuming Seal."
If Hiruzen had any method left to guarantee a shared grave, it was this. Even Orochimaru - who styled himself as unkillable - had once been terrified of it, because "immortality" was never as absolute as arrogance claimed. A body could persist, yes… but soul and flesh were not the same thing. Orochimaru's survival depended on shifting his soul into new vessels, extending his life by replacing the shell - but if Shiki Fūjin truly took hold, the soul itself would be seized and sealed away, dead beyond recovery.
Orochimaru's soul, frayed by repeated transfers, had always been more fragile than he pretended. That was why he could be beaten, sealed, broken by those who understood where his weakness truly lay.
A technique that could make even Orochimaru hesitate… wasn't something ordinary shinobi could face without trembling.
Even the Kyuubi - an existence of pure terror - had been sealed by Minato Namikaze through this very jutsu, half its chakra dragged away into the abyss.
And then -
Clap.
Hiruzen slammed his hands together, and the battlefield seemed to cinch tight, like the world itself had drawn in a single, sharp breath. This was no longer a contest of strength or tactics. This was a decision - his final trump card, his forbidden last resort.
Shiki Fūjin - "Dead Demon Consuming Seal."
From the moment he chose it, Hiruzen's death stopped being a risk and became a certainty. Whether he managed to drag Chiba into the Pure Land with him or not, the seal would collect its price all the same.
Chiba exhaled softly, almost like pity.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi… so you really are going all in."
"Once you use Shiki Fūjin, no matter what happens, you're already doomed."
Hiruzen's eyes widened, shock slicing through his fury.
"Y-You… you know this technique?!"
"How - this is the Uzumaki clan's secret art! Even across the entire shinobi world, only a handful of people - "
Chiba chuckled, as if the answer amused him.
"I told you long ago. I know everything. You just refused to believe it."
"Besides, Shiki Fūjin is terrifying - sure. But you still have to catch me."
"And even if you do… you'll need the strength and focus to tear my soul out and bind it. Those two requirements - right now - you don't have either."
Hiruzen snarled, wanting to deny it, wanting to crush those words beneath pride and rage, but truth didn't bend for willpower. His body was failing. His chakra was thinning to embers. Even his fingers trembled around nothing but stubbornness.
"Mizukage - Suigetsu Chiba!!!" he barked, voice hoarse and vicious. "Since I've decided to use this technique, I already accepted death!"
"But when I die… I'll drag you down with me - no matter what it takes!!!"
"Even on the road to the underworld… we'll keep fighting!!!"
Chiba's smile narrowed, almost teasing.
"You've lived long enough, old man."
"But I'm still young."
"My future is limitless. Why would I die alongside someone like you - "
He stopped.
Something brushed the edge of his senses - subtle, deliberate, the kind of presence that thought it could hide behind the chaos. Chiba's gaze shifted, sharp as a blade turning toward a new target.
"Hmm?"
"If you're already here," he said coolly, his voice carrying across the field, "why keep skulking around like a turtle hiding its head?"
Hiruzen stiffened, startled, eyes snapping toward the same direction.
"Who's there?!"
A beat later, several figures stepped from a concealed corner near the battlefield's perimeter - moving with the ease of men who believed they had arrived at the most convenient moment possible. Hiruzen's gaze locked onto the man at the front, and his blood seemed to cool inside his veins.
"Y-You…"
"Danzō?!"
"You're supposed to be dead!!!"
Shimura Danzō had been "dead" since the day of the lightning raid on Konoha - at least, that was what the world believed. Only Chiba had known the truth: Danzō had survived by using Izanagi, rewriting his fate at the cost of his eye. Hiruzen had swallowed the lie like everyone else, and now it sat in his throat like poison.
Danzō didn't answer immediately. He simply regarded Hiruzen with chilling calm, then spoke as if discussing the weather.
"Hiruzen… it's only been a little over ten days."
"And yet it feels like we've crossed the boundary between life and death."
"Funny, isn't it?"
Hiruzen's face darkened, anger simmering under exhaustion.
"If you're alive, why didn't you come to me?!"
"You know we need every ounce of strength to take back Konoha - to take back our position!!!"
Danzō's mouth twisted into a cold sneer.
"Our Konoha? Our position?"
"Hiruzen Sarutobi… stop saying it like it ever belonged to me."
"When did Konoha become mine?"
"When did you ever let me sit on the Hokage's seat - even for a single day?"
Something tightened in Hiruzen's expression, like old rot finally exposed to air.
"So it's true… you've always harbored this ambition."
"And you've resented me for a long time."
Danzō's eyes didn't flicker.
"Good. At least you understand."
Chiba watched the exchange with open interest, like a man enjoying a play whose ending he already knew. His gaze slid past Danzō to the two men in black behind him - unmistakable. The infamous "immortal duo" of the Akatsuki: Hidan and Kakuzu. Beside them stood two men wearing Root masks - what remained of Danzō's loyal subordinates, Fū Yamanaka and Torune Aburame.
Chiba's lips curled.
"Shimura Danzō," he said lightly, "why don't you introduce the two men behind you to the Hokage?"
Danzō fell silent.
Hiruzen frowned, suspicion sharpening into something ugly.
"Danzō… who are they?"
Chiba let out a low laugh.
"Looks like he's not eager to say it."
"Then I'll do it for him."
"If I'm not mistaken… you two are Akatsuki members, aren't you?"
Hidan and Kakuzu snorted and pulled down their black hoods, revealing their faces without the slightest shame - like everyone else's outrage was just noise. Whatever restraint Hiruzen had left snapped clean.
"Shimura Danzō - YOU…" His voice shook with fury. "You were secretly colluding with the Akatsuki behind my back?! What are you trying to do?!"
Danzō's voice stayed flat, almost contemptuous.
"At this point, it doesn't matter if you know."
"Hiruzen Sarutobi… what I've always wanted is the Hokage title."
"You can't pretend you didn't realize."
"But you never let go - not even a finger's width. You kept me buried underground, doing your filth for you."
"You stood in the sunlight as Hokage, while I lived like Root itself - hidden in darkness, cleaning up after you, doing the dirty work."
"Now you've been driven out."
"You're not Hokage anymore."
"So the Hokage's seat… belongs to me."
Hiruzen's jaw tightened until it looked like it might crack.
"So that's it."
"You waited until I was forced out, then reached out to the Akatsuki to help you climb into the Hokage's chair?!"
"Shimura Danzō… I underestimated you!!!"
Danzō didn't deny it. If anything, he sounded almost satisfied.
"You always looked down on me."
"But it doesn't matter now."
"I hired the Akatsuki. The plan was simple - when you and Mizukage Chiba both ended up wounded, they'd tip the scales for me."
"But now I see the truth."
"You're already finished."
"So next… all we have to do is drive off Mizukage Chiba, and Konoha - along with the Hokage's throne - will be mine."
Chiba watched the fracture spreading through them with relaxed patience, then tilted his head as if remembering something pleasant.
"Ah, right…"
"I remember something. When you two came to Konoha to assassinate me, didn't you mention you had just killed a Konoha elite jōnin?"
"A bounty worth thirty-five million ryō."
"What was his name again?"
Hiruzen's entire body jolted. Akatsuki. Konoha elite jōnin. Thirty-five million. The pieces assembled themselves before he could stop them, and dread drove a nail through his chest.
No.
Don't -
Hidan shrugged carelessly, and Kakuzu answered with the indifference of a man reciting a payment ledger.
"猿飞阿斯玛."
"Yeah. That sounds right."
The world went white around Hiruzen - not from chakra, not from jutsu, but from shock so violent it drained his face of color. Rage, hatred, grief, nausea - everything crashed into him at once, too heavy to breathe through.
"Asuma…" His voice broke. "Dead…?"
"My last… my only son…"
"Killed by you?!"
They didn't soften. They didn't care.
"Yes."
Hiruzen's scream tore into the air, raw and broken, grief and hatred fused into something savage. His hands shook, not with age, but with a pain so deep it made the battlefield feel meaningless.
Chiba, mercilessly precise, pressed the blade deeper.
"Shimura Danzō… did you know about this?"
Danzō froze - just for a moment.
Then said nothing.
Hiruzen didn't need another word. Understanding hit like steel through bone.
"DANZŌ!!!"
"You knew they killed Asuma - yet you didn't report it to me!"
"Instead, you stood with them - worked with them - turned on me - just to steal the Hokage's seat from under my feet?!"
In that moment, Hiruzen's hatred for Danzō, Hidan, and Kakuzu swelled so high it eclipsed even his hatred for Chiba. Chiba had shattered him in battle - but these three had shattered what was left of his heart. He stared at them with eyes like dying coals, burning hotter the closer they came to going out.
"Danzō…" he rasped.
"And you two executioners who killed Asuma…"
"I'LL MAKE YOU ALL PAY WITH YOUR LIVES!!!"
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