The instant the red Susanoo shattered, a terrifying shockwave exploded outward.
Hairline fractures spread across the plaza—visible even to the naked eye—while a storm of dust surged up like a tidal wave, swallowing everything in a choking haze.
Inside the collapsing Susanoo, Uchiha Itachi didn't even have time to react.
His body was flung out like a broken doll and slammed into the ground nearby. He spat out several mouthfuls of blood, his Mangekyō Sharingan—bloodshot, trembling—wide with disbelief.
How…?
How could Susanoo just… break?
"Who did that?!"
"Was the Susanoo… blown apart?"
"No way. That was Susanoo!"
A few seconds later, the Root operatives and the Uchiha shinobi finally snapped back to reality—and their faces turned ashen, like they'd seen a ghost.
This had to be a joke.
Itachi's Susanoo had only just manifested… and it was already destroyed.
Impossible.
"Wait… taijutsu?"
"That presence… I think I—"
Suddenly, Shimura Danzō—who had been silent—and the masked man hovering in midair both seemed to realize something at the same time.
Their expressions changed sharply.
Under the pale moonlight, a figure walked out of the dust—slowly, calmly, as if the chaos around him didn't exist.
Then—
The moment everyone saw his face…
Uchiha Fugaku froze.
Uchiha Itachi froze.
The masked man—Uchiha Obito—went rigid.
And every single Root operative and Uchiha shinobi on the scene widened their eyes in raw, instinctive terror.
"This is…"
Even the figures hiding in the darkness—Black Zetsu and White Zetsu—stared at the man in the plaza as if reality itself had cracked.
No.
That couldn't be him.
It was dead silent.
So silent it felt like time itself had stopped in the Uchiha district—leaving only the sound of ragged breathing.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the masked man suppressed the shock in his chest and spoke coldly.
"Uchiha Ren… very good. Very good."
"Seven years ago—the man wearing that white-beard mask… that was you, wasn't it?"
"And that mysterious voice just now… that was you too."
"The one who tore the air itself inside the Uchiha district… that was also you."
Ren's expression didn't change. He simply nodded.
"Yes."
"Everything you said is right."
"It was all me."
A collective inhale rippled through the plaza.
This time, it wasn't just stunned silence—people were genuinely afraid to breathe too loudly. Shinobi swallowed hard, throats bobbing, eyes shaking.
It was all Ren?
The shock hit like a hammer.
No one had imagined he'd hidden this deeply—so cleanly, so perfectly.
Root, especially, had never taken him seriously. Not once.
And as for the Uchiha… even on the night of the massacre, most of them hadn't even remembered there was a "Uchiha Ren."
His presence in the clan had always been too faint.
After the Nine-Tails incident, there were even times Fugaku himself nearly forgot that Ren had once used sheer killing intent to knock the Uchiha hardliners unconscious.
And now—
Ren had stepped forward and unveiled everything in one move.
The reversal was so violent it made people's minds reject it.
Ren, meanwhile, looked… relaxed.
Almost relieved.
"So good," he murmured, stretching lazily as if he'd just shaken off a long illness. "Finally… I don't have to pretend anymore."
Ten years.
A full ten years.
And in the end, the mask still came off.
If he'd already revealed himself—
Then Konoha was due for a change.
The ninja world was due for a change.
With that thought, Ren stopped holding back.
Humm—
In the next instant, a terrifying pressure burst from his body.
It wasn't Conqueror's Haki—
It was something else entirely. Something that belonged to Ren alone… the presence of a true monster.
Ever since fully unlocking and fusing the Whitebeard "template," the invisible force of his spirit had grown to a level even Ren couldn't accurately measure anymore.
Still, to avoid drawing the immediate attention of Sarutobi Hiruzen and the others, Ren kept it contained—pressing it down only over the Uchiha district.
After he finished here…
He would give the Third Hokage—and Konoha itself—a very big "surprise."
The air thickened.
It didn't just feel heavy—it felt solid.
Under that invisible pressure, Danzō, Itachi, the masked man, and Fugaku all felt a crushing weight settle onto their bodies.
As for the majority of Root and the Uchiha shinobi…
They could barely breathe.
Some weaker ones trembled so badly it looked like their bones were rattling—like even their souls were shaking.
"How strong… is he?"
"This is… terrifying…"
"What kind of monster is Uchiha Ren?"
At this moment, Danzō, Itachi, and the masked man had no expression left at all.
They stared at Ren in the plaza—as if staring at something that wasn't human—and deep down, it felt like they'd swallowed something foul.
They had thought they were standing at the top of the tower.
But Ren had been hiding for years—
And he wasn't on the tenth floor.
He was on the hundredth.
That gap… that suffocating, absolute gap…
It was impossible to accept.
But the truth was right there.
And whether they liked it or not—
They had no choice but to accept it.
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