The entire City of Peace had already been swallowed whole.
A suffocating mist blanketed every inch of land, blotting out the sun and filling the air with a dead silence so oppressive it felt blasphemous. There wasn't even the sound of breathing—just a piercing chill that crept into the bones.
It was like the whole world had fallen into a hopeless darkness.
Inuzuka Tsume stood firm, covering the retreat for her two children. Beside her stood Aburame Shibi, doing the same for his own child. In that moment, he found himself strangely thankful that Shino had always had a naturally low presence—it gave him a better shot at survival.
The kikaichū were twitching restlessly, instinctively sensing danger, crawling back and forth in agitation. Every fiber of their tiny bodies quivered with unease. Shibi could feel it too—a heavy, suffocating dread clogging his chest.
It was pure malice. Bone-chilling fear. Endless grief and despair. And in the end, it all poured out in Inuzuka Tsume's furious roar.
"Uchiha Sasuke! You destroyed Konoha—wasn't that enough to quench your hatred?! Now you're hunting down your former comrades like dogs—aren't you afraid of karma?!"
Sasuke looked at the furious Tsume and the grim-faced Shibi, a flicker of mockery in his eyes.
"Karma?" he sneered. "When you eat chicken or butcher a donkey, they're innocent too. Do you ever worry about karma then?"
Compared to the burning rage in Tsume, Shibi still held onto his rationality. He didn't try to stop her from arguing with Sasuke—if anything, he welcomed it. Every second they could stall here, the children had that much more of a chance to escape.
He had a vague sense that Sasuke was wielding a power entirely alien to chakra—something darker, more devastating. Maybe this was just the beginning of something much worse.
Images of Shino as a child flashed through his mind. He clenched his jaw, resolve hardening in his eyes.
"I am the clan head of the Aburame," he muttered. "The spirits of my kin are watching from this soil. Soon I'll be buried alongside them... maybe that's the last shred of dignity I have left."
A breeze passed through—but it couldn't dispel even a sliver of the mist.
Tsume didn't waste too many words before launching herself at Sasuke.
But it was obvious she wasn't an idiot—her goal wasn't to defeat him but to stall. She fought cautiously, harassing him without going all-out.
The Inuzuka's secret techniques were all rooted in canine combat—a mutated form of taijutsu. Against Sasuke, it was a hopeless mismatch.
Her one-eyed wolfhound lunged to protect her, but the suffocating mist instantly coiled around its body like living tentacles.
Splurch!
The wolf collapsed with a wet thud, bursting open in a spray of pus and blood. Even in its final moments, it stared longingly at Tsume, eyes filled with sorrow. Then, darkness took it.
That dog had been her partner for years. With its death, Tsume's expression aged ten years in an instant, and her strength withered by half.
"Throw everything you have at me, it's still just a useless struggle," Sasuke said with mock sympathy, sighing dramatically. "You could've lived peacefully in this city. Why choose to side with Hiruzen Sarutobi and make an enemy of me?"
Tsume let out a cold laugh.
"You'll never understand. A true shinobi doesn't fear death—we protect something more important. When we first came to this city, sure, some of us thought of starting over... but you, this self-proclaimed Shogun, turned out to be a massive disappointment. You have not a shred of humanity left in you. You're not worth following!"
Sasuke's gaze darkened.
"Oh? And what about the old Konoha leadership? You all played deaf and blind while they trampled others. As long as the blade didn't fall on your necks, you ignored the pain of everyone else." His voice dripped with venom. "Everyone knew how cruel Root was. But all you did was pretend not to know, throw all the blame on Danzō, and continue feeding on the corpses of the innocent—while pretending you were still some kind of noble saints."
"As the last Uchiha, I will bring justice and equality to this world... by killing everyone equally."
"So lives mean nothing to you anymore? You're not afraid of destroying the entire shinobi world?" Tsume glared at him. "Then again, you're probably not even human anymore. Who knows what kind of monster is wearing your skin?"
Sasuke let out a low, dark chuckle.
"Human? What is that even supposed to mean?" he murmured. "Outside, we wear masks of sanity... inside, we burn with desires and despair we can't crush. Everyone has a monster locked inside. I just... let mine out."
"You see the end of the shinobi world. I see the beginning of a new age."
His Mangekyō Sharingan glowed crimson with manic intensity.
"That's the difference between us. After destruction... comes rebirth."
...
The words barely left his mouth when a spear of mist shot toward Tsume.
She dodged in an instant, chakra flaring to form a protective barrier around her skin. Someone had discovered it earlier—this chakra layer could resist the corrosive effects of the mist.
But if the thick, concentrated mist hit directly, that shield shattered instantly.
Dust exploded around her as she darted from place to place. Sasuke didn't seem in any rush—he toyed with her like a cat tormenting its prey.
"Being a shinobi means being a weapon of death," he said casually. "Dress it up with noble ideals, pretty words—it doesn't change the brutal truth. The Will of Fire might be passed on, but in Konoha, what gets buried the most are filthy secrets and the cries of the powerless."
"This twisted world, this distorted era... doesn't deserve pity. And now, I'm opening the door to a new one with my own hands!"
He sounded deep, philosophical even—but really, there was no need to overthink it.
Sasuke was just being dramatic.
He'd fused with a demonic parasitic spirit that stripped away most of his humanity, yet somehow preserved just enough of his original flair to still be "Sasuke."
And being dramatic was Sasuke's defining personality trait.
He was good at it. No—he excelled at it. And he took it very seriously.
As a professional edgelord, once he was done with his monologue, Inuzuka Tsume's time was up.
Suddenly, pain surged through her entire body. Her vision faded, and the last thing she saw was Sasuke's exaggerated, grinning face. Countless threads of mist wrapped around her, draining her chakra, her life.
She knew this was the end.
With her last strength, she collapsed beside her beloved wolfhound, making sure their bodies lay side by side.
"Next up... you," Sasuke said, turning to Aburame Shibi. "Don't worry—it won't hurt too much. Just grit your teeth a little."
Shibi was silent for a moment, then asked solemnly,
"That incident years ago... when Aburame Torune attacked Kumogakure—was that your doing?"
That shameful event had haunted the Aburame Clan. Raising insects inside one's own body had already made them socially isolated. Torune's bizarre, ethically twisted actions had tainted the clan's name even further. People began whispering that the Aburame were just a clan of perverts.
Sasuke gave him a cryptic look.
Truth was, he had no idea who actually did it.
So he said nothing.
Let Shibi die wondering.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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