A pipe dream. The shinobi who had proposed negotiations understood this himself. The Hokage was dead, dozens of villagers had been killed. How could a monster that had committed such a thing be pacified with a few meaningless phrases?
And yet...
"Try it."
A shinobi from the main Hyuga clan approached the speaker, his forehead free of the shameful "Caged Bird" seal. He regarded his clansman with a cold, expressionless gaze.
"Elder!" the man bowed his head respectfully.
"It was your idea. Then it's yours to carry out," the elder ordered. His voice was as icy as his gaze.
"Me?" The shinobi from the branch clan was taken aback, jabbing a finger into his chest in disbelief. Him? To persuade him?
"You. Go. Immediately."
The elder's nod left no doubt. He didn't care about this man's life. A hundred lives from the branch family weren't worth even one from the main family—such was the clan's unspoken philosophy. The "Caged Bird" seal wasn't just a defense of the genome. It created slaves, scapegoats, human shields, who were thrown into the thick of things without hesitation.
And now a chance to save themselves at the cost of just one pawn presented itself. Of course, the main family would take it. After all, it wasn't their place to die.
"Yes..." The shinobi's face twisted, but meeting the elder's unyielding gaze, he gritted his teeth and stepped into the darkness.
Very soon, he felt the world around him change. With every step, the air became thin and icy, chilling him to the bone. It wasn't just the cold—the atmosphere itself seemed to suck the warmth, chakra, and life itself out of him. The first snowflakes began to fall from the sky—in the height of summer.
"What power... He's a monster..."
The shinobi looked around. Everything was plunged into impenetrable darkness, which not even the moonlight could dispel. Raising his head, he could barely make out a blurred silhouette in the sky, shrouded in myriad streams of otherworldly light.
"He... he's not moving..."
Something was wrong. His instincts screamed danger. The shinobi shook his head and began to slowly back away. Suddenly, he realized: the cold zone wasn't static. It was expanding, and at a terrifying speed. An icy sweat, unlike the cold around him, pierced his back. At this rate, the anomaly would soon engulf all of Konoha.
If they didn't leave the village, they would all perish. Their strength would simply drain away, and they would fall dead without even putting up a fight.
"No! We must warn! Everyone! We can't delay!"
He turned and broke into a run. Fortunately, he hadn't gone too far. Another few dozen meters and he might not have had the strength to return. And what about the mission? The monster hung in the sky, unreachable and indifferent. What kind of persuasion could there be?
His report spurred panic. The evacuation, already chaotic, turned into a mad dash.
—The Uchiha clan... nii-san...
Uchiha Sasuke, lost in the crowd of refugees, looked up at the darkening sky. The world had collapsed. Everything he believed in had been revealed as a lie. The brother he admired was a murderer. A hated brother, likely no longer alive. And now what? The hatred that had burned through him for years had lost its purpose.
He felt nothing for Yue. Only emptiness. After all, Yue had avenged the clan by killing his so-called brother.
"Move! Hurry! Drop your things, get out of Konoha, now!"
Shinobi scurried along the edges of the refugee column, urging the crowd on with desperate cries.
Meanwhile, a squad specializing in barrier techniques reached the edge of the anomaly. Gathering all their strength, they erected a protective dome, hoping to slow the spread of the darkness and buy precious minutes.
For a moment, the icy zone froze, hit by an invisible wall. A sigh of relief caught in the shinobi's throat. Their chakra gushed from their bodies like water through a broken dam. They were devastated in a matter of seconds. The barrier faded.
Exhausted, drained of even a drop of energy, the ninja collapsed to the ground, and the darkness immediately began to engulf them. Only the quick reactions of their comrades, who pulled them out of the anomaly, saved their lives.
"Run! He can't be stopped!" " they croaked, their eyes filled with animal terror. "This isn't human! We can't do anything! Run!"
Driven by these frantic cries, the last of the villagers abandoned the village.
"Heh..." Uchiha Yue, floating in the sky, watched the panicked flight below. He wasn't angry. On the contrary, his lips curled into a cold, distant smile. "Run, ants. Run with all your might. But how can you escape fate? The fate of this world is sealed. Yours, too."
He stood in a halo of unearthly light, feeling a boundless, all-consuming power fill him to the brim.
...
"Damn it!" Obito roared, clutching his remaining hand. His face was blacker than night. "Where did he come from?... Who is he?!"
He called White Zetsu over, unceremoniously cut off his hand, and reattached it to his wrist.
"Obito, how's it going? The Uchiha clan was destroyed? Hm? What happened to your hand?"
The figure of Black Zetsu emerged from the ground before him. Before he could finish speaking,...