The torrential rain poured down without end.
Chiya stood amid the battlefield littered with corpses, the blood-red pattern of his Mangekyō Sharingan slowly rotating.
Rainwater washed the blood from his face, but it could not dispel the stench of death hanging in the air.
“Yomi no Higan.”
Chiya whispered the name of his dōjutsu.
His Sharingan pierced through the curtain of rain and locked onto the figure rapidly retreating into the distance.
His ocular power erupted once more.
The six-petaled spider lily pattern in his eyes seemed to bloom violently.
Invisible waves of death spread outward from Chiya.
Everywhere they passed, the bodies of the Rain shinobi withered like trees stripped of their vitality.
Terrified screams rose one after another—
Then abruptly stopped.
Hanzō’s figure suddenly staggered.
To his horror, he discovered that his arm was beginning to age before his very eyes.
His skin shriveled.
His muscles wasted away.
His life force was being violently drained from his body.
“What kind of ninjutsu is this?!”
As his voice rang out, his body suddenly exploded into countless droplets of water, merging into the torrential rain.
Chiya frowned.
His Sharingan rapidly scanned the surroundings.
“A Water Clone?!”
His gaze sharpened.
He quickly searched the entire area.
The perception of his Sharingan captured the trajectory of every raindrop, yet he could not find Hanzō’s true body.
“As expected of the so-called Demigod…”
“Quite the slippery one.”
Rainwater streamed down Chiya’s forehead.
Mixed with the blood flowing from the corner of his eye, it dripped into the mud.
Yet Chiya’s back remained straight, like an unyielding spear.
The pattern within his Sharingan flickered ominously beneath the rain.
Then—
Hanzō’s figure reappeared in the distance.
This time, his hand seals were unusually slow and heavy.
“To force me to use this technique…”
Hanzō’s voice suddenly became low and hoarse.
“Uchiha brat, you should feel honored.”
His hands slammed together.
The water covering the ground suddenly began to boil.
Three Water Clones emerged from the rainwater, forming a triangular formation around Chiya.
Each clone began forming a different sequence of hand seals.
“Summoning Technique!”
“Salamander!”
BOOM!!!
A deafening explosion erupted.
Smoke and water vapor shot into the sky.
The ground shook violently.
A gigantic salamander, nearly twenty meters long, burst from beneath the earth.
Its gray-brown skin was covered in slime that glistened eerily beneath the rain.
Its enormous mouth opened wide.
Sharp fangs dripped with corrosive venom, burning holes into the ground with a sizzling sound.
“ROAAAR!”
The salamander released a thunderous roar.
Its massive tail swept toward Chiya.
Chiya used the Body Flicker Technique to evade.
The spot where he had stood was smashed into a crater nearly ten meters across.
The moment Chiya landed—
The poison glands on the salamander’s back suddenly fired dozens of poisonous darts.
“Fire Release!”
Flames collided with the venom in midair, evaporating it into a cloud of purple poisonous mist.
Chiya poured chakra into his feet and launched himself upward.
His Mangekyō Sharingan locked onto Hanzō’s true body standing atop the salamander’s head.
But just as he prepared to activate his dōjutsu—
The water beneath his feet suddenly transformed into chains and wrapped around his ankles.
A trap created by the Water Clones?
When did they—?
The salamander’s enormous tail was already sweeping toward him.
The water chains held Chiya’s legs firmly in place.
The salamander’s tail came crashing toward him with enough force to split the air.
The shadow of death descended.
Yet the corner of Chiya’s mouth curled upward into a cold smile.
“Got you…”
The blood-red pattern in his Mangekyō Sharingan suddenly bloomed.
The six-petaled spider lily radiated an eerie crimson light beneath the rain.
“Yomi no Higan!”
VMMMM—!
Invisible waves of death suddenly expanded from Chiya.
For an instant, time itself seemed to freeze.
Raindrops hung motionless in midair.
The entire world appeared to be stained with a sickly dark-red hue.
The first target was the enormous salamander charging toward him.
Its slimy gray-brown skin rapidly shriveled and cracked.
The vicious light in its eyes immediately faded beneath a layer of lifeless gray.
“Hsssss…”
Accompanied by a horrifying sucking sound, the salamander’s enormous body began shrinking at an incredible speed.
Its muscles withered.
Its bones twisted.
Within three seconds, the gigantic creature had been reduced to a shriveled hide.
It collapsed limply onto the ground like a piece of discarded cloth.
At the same time, the three Water Clones released anguished screams.
Their bodies twisted and distorted like water balloons being punctured.
The water within them was forcibly drained by some irresistible power.
“No… this is…”
Before the clone could finish speaking—
All three Water Clones exploded simultaneously.
Countless droplets scattered through the air.
Every droplet shattered into several smaller fragments the instant it struck the ground.
And then—
A mass of rainwater suddenly gathered in midair.
Hanzō’s figure emerged behind Chiya like a ghost.
The chain sickle in his hand glimmered with a cold blue light.
It was clearly coated in deadly poison.
He swung it downward toward Chiya’s neck.
“Die, Uchiha brat!”
Hanzō’s true body wore a vicious grin.
The poison coating the sickle was enough to kill Chiya instantly.
Chiya deliberately shifted his body slightly.
His gaze was calmer than it had ever been.
The instant the sickle touched his skin—
The ocular power of his other Mangekyō Sharingan erupted.
“Causality Reincarnation!”
The cold sickle pierced through Chiya’s back and shoulder, emerging through his abdomen.
Time seemed to freeze.
Hanzō clearly felt the blade cutting through flesh.
The poisoned edge had passed through the young Uchiha’s defenses without resistance.
Chiya coughed up blood.
His body staggered forward.
Hanzō did not immediately pursue him.
Instead, he slowly pulled the sickle free and allowed the poison to spread through Chiya’s body.
He looked at the young man kneeling before him.
For the first time, a trace of regret appeared in Hanzō’s eyes.
“Your dōjutsu…”
“Your talent…”
“Both are beyond anything I have ever witnessed.”
“You might even have become the next Uchiha Madara.”
“What a pity…”
Chiya struggled to raise his head.
His Mangekyō Sharingan continued rotating stubbornly, even as the poison spread through his body and blurred his vision.
“But…”
Hanzō shook his head.
Rainwater dripped from the edge of his hat.
“Battle experience is something talent alone can never replace.”
He slowly approached.
The chain attached to his sickle dragged across the ground with a grating sound.
“You thought you had seen through my Water Clone.”
“But I deliberately allowed you to see through it.”
Hanzō stopped in front of Chiya and looked down at the fallen genius.
“The real killing blow is always hidden somewhere you cannot see.”
Chiya’s fingers dug deeply into the muddy ground.
The pattern in his Sharingan continued to flicker stubbornly.
“Do not die with regrets.”
Hanzō raised his sickle.
The tip rested against Chiya’s throat.
A trace of weariness appeared in his eyes.
“To force me this far…”
“You have every right to be proud.”
“You are even stronger than the Three Legendary Sannin of Konoha.”
“But…”
His voice suddenly became ice-cold.
“A genius can fall in an instant.”
The instant the sickle was about to cut through Chiya’s throat—
The world around them changed.
When Hanzō’s vision finally returned, his eyes widened.
He was now kneeling in front of Uchiha Chiya.
His sickle lay several meters away.
Then Hanzō felt something.
His poison sac had ruptured.
The venom was spreading through his internal organs.
His chakra was disrupted and could no longer be properly mobilized.
And his back—
His back was covered in his own thick, sticky blood.
This position…
This is where I stabbed that Uchiha.
How?!
“This…”
“Impossible?!”
Hanzō stared at Uchiha Chiya with wide eyes.
Then he coughed up a mouthful of black blood.
His complexion rapidly turned gray.
Chiya slowly walked toward him.
He looked down at Hanzō from above.
“Hanzō.”
“How do my blade and poison feel?”
Hanzō collapsed onto his knees.
His consciousness was gradually fading.
His poison sac had ruptured.
Even he could not resist the venom under these circumstances.
This Uchiha…
He struggled to raise his head.
His eyes remained fixed on Chiya’s.
Could it be these eyes?
“These eyes…”
“What exactly are they…?”
“A dying man doesn’t need to know that much.”
Chiya’s voice was cold.
Hanzō tried to say something else.
But a kunai pressed against his throat.
Chiya drew it across with force.
Hanzō could no longer make a sound.
His body collapsed heavily into the mud, splashing water in every direction.
The “Demigod” of Amegakure had fallen.
Chiya did not lower his guard.
He took out a kunai.
One by one, he approached the Rain shinobi who had survived the effects of Yomi no Higan and finished them off.
Only after confirming that not a single person on the battlefield remained alive did he finally release a long breath.
He had not used his Mangekyō Sharingan many times.
Yet even these few activations had already produced a severe backlash.
His vision darkened repeatedly.
Slowly, the Mangekyō Sharingan disappeared.
His eyes returned to their ordinary black color.
Chiya gathered chakra beneath his feet.
Then he rapidly withdrew from the battlefield.
Within the curtain of rain, his figure gradually disappeared into the distance.