The water dragon roared as it charged toward Chiya.
Just before it reached him, however, it passed through empty air.
Chiya’s figure vanished like a ghost.
The afterimage left behind by the Body Flicker Technique traced an elegant arc through the curtain of rain.
“Three-Tomoe Sharingan, activate!”
His crimson eyes looked particularly eerie beneath the rain.
The three tomoe spun rapidly, capturing the trajectory of the enemy’s ninjutsu in their entirety.
Chiya’s hands moved swiftly through a sequence of seals.
Chakra surged through his body.
“Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!”
An identical water dragon rapidly formed beside him.
Roaring, it surged toward the Rain shinobi.
The water dragon crashed into the formation, instantly sending several Rain shinobi flying.
Their screams were drowned out by the pounding rain.
The other Konoha shinobi were not nearly as fortunate.
Caught completely off guard, they scrambled to respond, only to be driven into desperate positions by wave after wave of Water Release techniques.
A Chūnin was struck directly by a water dragon and slammed violently into a tree trunk.
He coughed up blood.
“Damn it!”
Chiya gritted his teeth and swept his gaze across the battlefield.
Orochimaru stood not far away.
A cold glint flashed through his golden slit pupils.
He rapidly threw a shuriken toward the enemy and formed hand seals.
“Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!”
The single shuriken multiplied.
Countless shuriken filled the air, transforming into a dense rain of blades that descended upon the Rain shinobi.
Immediately afterward, Orochimaru bit his finger and slammed his palm against the ground.
The earth shook violently.
Several enormous snakes burst from beneath the soil, opening their jaws as they lunged toward the enemy.
The Rain shinobi hurriedly scattered.
Their formation was instantly disrupted.
However, the shinobi of Amegakure appeared to have anticipated this.
They quickly reorganized.
Working together with remarkable coordination, they performed a combined ninjutsu.
“Water Release: Water Wall!”
A massive wall of water rose into the air, blocking the incoming shuriken and giant snakes.
At the same time, Hanzō finally moved.
Standing high above the battlefield, he formed hand seals.
Purple poisonous mist mixed with the rain and spread toward the Konoha shinobi.
One Konoha shinobi accidentally inhaled the poison.
His face immediately turned blue.
He collapsed to his knees, foam spilling from his mouth.
Then another shinobi fell.
And another.
The Konoha side was plunged into an instant crisis.
Orochimaru glanced at the fallen Konoha shinobi.
“Useless.”
His cold eyes were filled with killing intent.
He understood the situation.
They had clearly walked into an ambush.
The Konoha forces simply couldn’t defeat the enemy under these circumstances.
And now Hanzō himself had appeared.
Orochimaru’s eyes shifted.
Eventually, they settled on the only Konoha shinobi still standing.
Chiya.
“Chiya-kun…”
“Take care of yourself.”
At this moment of crisis, Orochimaru understood that he could barely protect himself.
How could he possibly worry about Uchiha Chiya?
Preserving my own life comes first.
Life really is far too fragile.
The thought only strengthened Orochimaru’s obsession with eternal life.
He bit his finger and pressed it against a summoning scroll.
White smoke erupted.
When it cleared, Orochimaru’s figure had already transformed into a cloud of smoke and vanished.
Chiya knew.
Orochimaru escaped.
He held his breath.
His Sharingan spun rapidly as he desperately searched for an opportunity to retreat.
But the Rain shinobi’s attacks only grew fiercer.
Poison techniques.
Water Release.
Under Hanzō’s influence, they surged forward like a relentless tide.
“This is bad…”
Chiya’s heart sank.
One Konoha shinobi after another collapsed.
Less than five minutes later, Chiya was the only Konoha shinobi still standing.
Running away?
I’m afraid that’s no longer an option.
Several Rain elite shinobi locked onto him and charged.
“You’re the last one.”
“Uchiha of Konoha…”
“Die!”
The leading Rain shinobi grinned viciously as he swung his kunai.
Chiya took a deep breath.
His expression suddenly became cold.
You’ve chosen death.
It’s time to show you what I can really do.
A terrifying aura exploded from his body.
Rainwater around him was blasted outward.
Chiya’s eyes changed.
The three tomoe twisted.
They merged.
And finally—
A six-petaled blood-red spider lily pattern appeared in his eyes, with a Rinnegan-like pattern at its center.
“What happened to that Uchiha?!”
“His eyes!”
“Weren’t they Three-Tomoe Sharingan just now?”
“How did they become like that?!”
“Is that also a Sharingan?!”
The Rain shinobi charging at the front suddenly froze.
Their pupils contracted.
They had never seen eyes like these.
The crimson light seemed capable of swallowing the soul itself.
“Yomi no Higan.”
Chiya’s voice was like the whisper of the Grim Reaper.
Blood vessels stood out around his eyes.
His dōjutsu activated.
An invisible wave spread outward from Chiya.
It was as though countless invisible hands suddenly seized every Rain shinobi around him.
Their movements stopped.
The expressions of terror on their faces froze in place.
Then—
Something horrifying happened.
The Rain shinobi at the front suddenly released an inhuman scream.
His skin visibly cracked and turned gray.
A strand of white hair fell from his temple.
His eyes shriveled until they resembled two dried brown raisins.
His body withered rapidly, as though every drop of vitality had been drained from him.
“AAAH!”
Terrifying screams erupted across the battlefield.
One after another, the living shinobi were drained of their life force.
Within mere seconds, they had become dried corpses.
They collapsed helplessly onto the ground.
Silence descended over the battlefield.
A nearby Jōnin wearing a gas mask collapsed onto the ground.
The sound of his teeth chattering could be heard beneath the mask.
His forehead protector had long since been knocked away.
“What kind of ninjutsu is this?!”
“How can it possess such terrifying power?!”
“This…”
“How is this possible?!”
“So many elite shinobi…”
“They died just like that?!”
The remaining Rain shinobi felt terror spreading through their bodies.
Even Hanzō’s breathing suddenly stopped.
He could feel the terrifying pressure radiating from Chiya.
Those eyes.
The six-petaled spider lily surrounding a Rinnegan-like pattern.
Hanzō stared at Chiya’s eyes.
Cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
It was as though he had seen something truly horrifying.
Those eyes…
Could they be…?
Hanzō’s expression changed dramatically.
“Retreat!”
He issued the order without hesitation.
There was even a trace of panic in his voice.
“Cover me!”
“Get us out of here immediately!”
The Rain shinobi didn’t understand what had frightened their leader.
But Hanzō’s orders were absolute.
They quickly regrouped and began retreating into the rain, protecting Hanzō as they withdrew.
Chiya raised his head.
His gaze locked onto Hanzō and the others.
“Trying to run?”
“Too late.”
“Yomi no Higan!”
Blood began flowing from the corner of Chiya’s eye.
It ran down his cheek.
An invisible force surged along his line of sight and shot directly toward Hanzō’s group.
Hanzō suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
The images of those dried corpses flashed through his mind.
His expression hardened.
He looked toward one of the shinobi beside him.
Then—
He swung his sickle.
The blade pierced straight through his subordinate.
“Gah!”
The shinobi let out a terrible scream.
Hanzō immediately pulled the body into the path of the incoming attack, using his own subordinate as a shield.
In the distance—
CRASH!
Trees began collapsing.
One enormous tree after another withered as its life force was drained away.
The rain continued to fall.
But it could not wash away the smell of blood hanging in the air.
Not only had the shinobi been drained.
Even the surrounding trees were beginning to wither under the influence of Chiya’s dōjutsu.
Hanzō ran even faster.
He was the leader of Amegakure.
The shinobi world regarded him as one of its strongest figures.
He paid close attention to the great bloodline clans of the major villages.
Especially the Senju and Uchiha.
They were among the most powerful clans in the shinobi world.
And now—
Hanzō saw something in Uchiha Chiya.
A shadow from the past.
A shadow that reminded him of Uchiha Madara.
After all…
That man from the Uchiha clan—
Madara.
Back then, apart from Hashirama himself, almost no one had been able to stand against him.
“Faster!”
“Faster!”
At this moment, Hanzō had none of the composure befitting the so-called Demigod of the Shinobi World.
He was running for his life.
Desperately.
Like a hunted animal.
“Hanzō!”
“You can’t escape!”
Chiya’s voice rang out through the rain.