Chapter 4 – Total Annihilation! In a rotting world, naivety is a capital crime.
"Hiss—"
An icy needle pierced flesh, dragging coarse thread behind it, forcibly pulling the gaping wound across his chest shut.
No anesthetic.
Yahiko ground his teeth; cold sweat mingled with rain as it rolled off his forehead. Shirtless, he worked with a practiced precision that wrenched the heart, as though mending an old coat rather than his own body.
When the crude stitching was done, he shrugged back into the blood-soaked black cloak emblazoned with red clouds, eyes dark and grim.
On a plank bed nearby, Nagato lay unconscious, face-down.
Several black rods jutted from his back, too dreadful to remove; his legs were charred black. Had Konan not acted in time, he would have lost them for good.
'A Hell-mode start…'
Yahiko leaned against the window, watching the endless rain, mind racing.
As a transmigrator, his advantages were painfully awkward.
He now owned this body, yet possessed no so-called omniscience. His memories of Naruto stopped at the early arcs; everything beyond that was a pitch-black void.
Without future knowledge, how could he survive in a Ninja World where everyone cheated?
Yahiko clenched a fist; behind him the phantom of a red-and-white lattice flickered.
[King Crimson].
That was his trump card.
In a world ruled by Chakra, no one knew of Stands, let alone concepts like "time erasure" or "future sight."
To a Ninja, the unknown is death.
'As long as intel never leaks, King Crimson is an unstoppable first-strike kill.'
Yahiko's gaze sharpened. So what if he lacked plot armor? With fists hard enough, he would write the script himself!
Bang!
At that moment the door burst violently open.
Cold wind and rain surged in.
Yahiko spun around, pupils shrinking.
Only Konan stepped inside.
Soaked to the bone, hair plastered across her pallid cheeks, she looked hollow, a puppet stripped of its Soul.
"Konan?"
A premonition exploded in Yahiko's chest. "Why only you? Where are Kyusuke and Daibutsu?"
At those names, lifeless tears burst from Konan's eyes.
"G-gone…"
She slid down the doorframe to the muddy floor, hands over her face, and wailed:
"All of them—gone!!"
"I reached the safe-house… only a note from Kyusuke on the table; fearing a trap, he led the others to the valley as backup…"
"Halfway there I found their bodies… so much blood… everyone, everyone was there…"
Boom!
Yahiko's mind detonated.
Those vivid faces from memory—Kyusuke always shouting "for peace," the honest Daibutsu… all dead?
"Ugh… aah!!"
A hoarse roar sounded behind him.
Nagato, roused by the crying, eyes blood-red, struggled to rise.
"I'll save them—let go of me!!"
"Stay down!"
In one stride Yahiko pinned Nagato to the bed, a palm like iron on his shoulder.
"You want to die too? Look at yourself!"
His voice was icy. "Nagato, face reality."
"The Akatsuki is down to the three of us."
The air seemed to freeze.
Only the rain outside and Konan's broken sobs remained.
A long while.
Yahiko drew a slow breath; a savage crimson glint flashed in his eyes.
"Stop crying, Konan."
He turned, strode to the doorway, black cloak flapping.
"Lead the way."
"Even if it kills us, we won't let our brothers rot in the wild."
…Border of the Land of Rain, a nameless barren hill.
Muddy earth was dug up, then filled again.
Thirteen crude mounds stood skewed in the rain.
No tombstones—only simple wooden plaques bearing familiar names.
Yahiko knelt before Kyusuke's grave, hands caked in mud.
The violent digging had torn his freshly sewn wound; crimson seeped through the bandage, dripping from the black cloak into the puddle.
But he felt no pain.
Only cold.
Bone-biting cold.
Konan knelt behind him, long out of tears. Nagato leaned against a dead tree, nails clawing bark until they bled.
This was the price.
The price of naïvely believing people could understand one another.
"Everyone…"
Yahiko gently traced the rough wood, voice hoarse yet eerily calm.
"I was wrong."
"I once thought sincerity could move even Hanzou the demi-god."
"How laughable that seems now."
He rose slowly, letting the rain wash the blood from his face.
When he lifted his head again, the warmth and sunlight once in his amber eyes were gone, replaced by an unfathomable abyss.
Since the world kissed him with pain, he would return the kiss—with pain.
"In this Hell, weakness is original sin; naivety is a death sentence."
Yahiko turned to the two friends who remained and, facing the storm-filled sky, issued a declaration from the depths of Hell:
"From today, the old dream-chasing 'Akatsuki' is dead."
"I will bring peace to the Land of Rain—and to the entire Ninja World."
He clenched his fist; behind him the grim red-and-white phantom roared to the heavens!
"But this time, not with words."
"With power—absolute power!"
"Whoever Stands in my way, I will kill!"