Yuto's clone stepped over the bloodied floor of the second level, his giant sword, Kaito, dragging faintly behind him with a low metallic scrape. The blood dripping from its wide edge painted the floor in thick crimson trails. Without even glancing at the carnage around him, his free hand glowed faintly with sealing chakra. He moved in silence, placing his hand above each fallen enemy and drawing their lifeless bodies into his system's inventory one by one.
"Six down... Too easy," he murmured in a cold, distorted voice, enhanced by a minor chakra manipulation to mask his tone. His head tilted slightly as he approached the stairwell.
Reaching the wall beside the staircase, he calmly placed a hand on it and concentrated. A pulse of chakra traveled through his palm as dozens of nearly invisible chakra orbs—tiny and shaped like ants—seeped into the wall. They slithered silently through the cracks and gaps, emerging onto the third floor undetected.
Each chakra ant latched onto a ninja pouch.
"Chakra Switch," Yuto's clone whispered.
In a rapid chain of flashes, he exchanged places with the pouches one by one. The star village shinobi didn't even have time to react. He appeared behind them in a blur, slicing their throats, stabbing vital points, and snapping necks with the silent grace of a seasoned killer. Their bodies dropped soundlessly.
Yuto stepped over the last body, flicked his sword to the side to shake off the fresh blood, and sealed the corpses into his inventory.
'The less bodies I leave behind, the more Meteorite chakra I will have.' he thought coldly.
The fourth floor met the same fate. Chakra ants. Instant switch. Merciless strikes. Not a single scream.
Soon, Yuto stood beneath the fifth floor—the chamber that held the meteorite. He narrowed his eyes, then instead of attacking, he activated Earth Style: Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu and silently burrowed around the chamber, emerging in the sixth floor above.
His Kamigan whirred with power behind his smiling white mask.
"Let's clean the rest before I return to the main course," he muttered.
Floor after floor—sixth to tenth—fell like dominoes.
Slashes. Switches. Stealth. Silence. Sealing.
The tower was being hollowed out from the inside like a rotting tree, and no one had even sounded the alarm.
Then finally, Yuto stepped onto the fifth floor, his boots echoing slightly against the stone as he walked into the meditation chamber.
Twenty star village ninjas stood in a protective formation. Three of them—clearly the strongest—stood in front of the glowing meteorite, which was now sealed inside a powerful fuinjutsu barrier. Their eyes narrowed at the sight of the masked figure.
"So, you're the bastard behind all this!" one of them shouted. "Don't think you'll leave alive! Hoshikage-sama is on his way, you're trapped!"
Yuto's sword gleamed as he casually swung it in a wide arc, slinging the blood to the ground. His laughter was low, reverberating eerily through his mask.
"You should worry more about surviving the next minute," he said with cold amusement. "I was going to walk into that old man's house myself... but now? You've saved me the trouble."
"Who are you?!" another ninja demanded.
"That doesn't matter," Yuto replied, voice still altered and unreadable. "Apart from you twenty... only the Hoshikage, four of his elite guards, and those five bridgekeepers still carry meteorite chakra. Once I'm done here, they're next."
The tension spiked in the room. The star shinobi gritted their teeth, trying to suppress the fear creeping into their hearts.
Behind his mask, Yuto's Kamigan picked up chakra signatures rapidly closing in.
'Hoshikage and his goons are on their way... I need to wrap this up quick.'
His hand raised and pointed toward the group of defenders.
"Poison Release: Erosion Mayhem."
A wave of deep violet chakra exploded outward in a circular blast, the gas crackling and hissing as it swept across the room. The twenty ninja quickly formed a new defensive formation, pooling their meteorite-enhanced chakra to form a combined barrier that shielded them from the wave.
Yuto observed it, impressed.
"Huh... Solid barrier. Nice glow," he chuckled.
Raising his sword, he began channeling pure solar energy into its blade. The golden glow intensified until it almost hummed.
"Let's see how much pressure you can take..."
He slashed forward, unleashing a narrow, high-pressure beam of solar energy. It collided with the barrier, which trembled violently under the dual assault of poison and solar heat. Cracks began to spider across the protective dome.
The defenders groaned, sweat beading on their foreheads as they poured more chakra into holding it together.
But suddenly, the pressure vanished.
One of the defenders blinked. "Did it stop—"
His words caught in his throat as he realized his pouch had vanished.
A blink later, Yuto was there.
"Too slow," he whispered.
He swung Kaito once—five ninja dropped dead, their bodies cleaved cleanly. Yuto's other hand slammed against the meteorite's base, commanding his inventory to store it.
The meteorite vanished—along with the barrier.
"You bastard!" one of the shinobi roared.
Yuto turned to face the remaining fifteen. They had backed up, visibly shaken, eyes wide with fear.
The masked clone tilted his head.
"You can run now if you want," he said. "But I don't plan to let anyone leave this tower."
Behind the mask, his Kamigan flared with crimson power, the symbol of a merciless decision.
'I chose this path... now I'll walk it without flinching.'
A thunderous explosion echoed through the fifth floor as the Hoshikage and his four Anbu operatives burst into the room. Their eyes darted around, prepared for a fight—but what they saw rooted them in horror.
The chamber was soaked in blood. Twenty elite star village shinobi—each a master of the meteorite chakra—lay in pieces across the floor, bodies sliced in half or worse. Blood pooled like a crimson lake beneath their corpses.
Standing in the center, surrounded by death, was a lone masked figure.
Yuto's clone.
Calmly, he pressed his hand to the blood-drenched floor. Glowing sealing symbols spread outward from his palm. In the blink of an eye, the bodies and even the blood shimmered into nothingness—vanishing as they were sealed into his inventory.
The floor was clean once more.
Yuto's clone slowly rose to his full height and turned toward the new arrivals. His Kamigan flared behind the mask, radiating invisible pressure.
The Anbu moved, but they were too late.
A surge of Genjutsu chakra burst from Yuto's eyes.
The four Anbu froze in place mid-step. Their bodies trembled, and then their eyes rolled back as they collapsed to the ground like lifeless puppets.
"Don't blink," Yuto said coldly, voice low and distorted. "Or you die before you even see me move."
The Hoshikage gritted his teeth, fists clenched. "You dare slaughter my people, invade my land... and now face me without fear?"
In a flash of violet light, his body was engulfed in radiation chakra. The floor cracked beneath his feet as he launched into the air, soaring through the broken ceiling and into the sky.
"Mysterious Peacock Technique!" he roared.
Feathers of chakra formed behind him like wings, glowing with radiant energy. The sky above the tower darkened as he conjured a massive chakra dragon, spiraling around him with destructive intensity.
Yuto's clone didn't move.
He turned his head toward the unconscious Anbu.
"First things first," he muttered, kneeling beside them. His hand glowed green as he pressed it to each chest in turn. Chakra flowed out from their bodies and into his palm. Their strength drained away instantly, but he left the meteorite chakra untouched—he had other plans for that.
Each one was killed silently, and their bodies sealed into his inventory.
With the Anbu handled, Yuto slowly walked out of the tower, his Chakra now replenished. His eyes lifted to the sky where the Hoshikage floated mid-air, glaring down at him like a deity of judgment.
"A chakra dragon, huh..." Yuto said, tilting his head. "Just like that villain from your village... but he's already gone. Sloppy technique."
The dragon roared as it launched itself at him, spiraling downward in a wave of blistering heat and chakra destruction.
Yuto remained still.
Then, he pointed his hand forward.
The moment the dragon got close, a ripple of chakra flared from his palm.
"In you go," Yuto said quietly.
With a shimmer, the entire chakra dragon froze midair—and vanished.
Sealed.
Stored inside his inventory like an object.
'This is why I'm different from those other Isekai fools with systems,' he thought coldly. 'Why wouldn't I use the inventory in combat? It's the perfect tool. Though the timing has to be right. Otherwise the storing function fails and I get hit by the attacks.'
The Hoshikage's eyes widened in absolute disbelief.
"W-What... you absorbed it?!"
That moment of hesitation was fatal.
Yuto's Kamigan locked onto the man's chakra signature. His eyes flicked to the Hoshikage's hat, fluttering in the wind atop his head, a chakra ant attaching itself to it.
"Chakra Switch."
In the blink of an eye, Yuto vanished from the ground—and reappeared mid-air, right in front of the Hoshikage, having swapped places with the hat.
"You blinked."
SHING!
Kaito flashed once.
The Hoshikage's head separated from his shoulders before he could even scream. His body tumbled from the sky as Yuto calmly caught the falling head and sealed both into his inventory.
He turned slowly and looked down at the village, while floating in the air using the solar energy on his feet.
People had gathered below, staring up in fear and disbelief. Some screamed. Others just trembled in place. The sight of the masked figure floating where their Hoshikage once stood made their blood run cold.
Yuto didn't say a word, as everyone who saw him fell to the ground due to Genjutsu, their memories of him killing the Hoshikage permanently destroyed from their brain since they were just civilians.
He turned and vanished with a flicker.
A second later, he appeared on the star village's bridge—the final destination.
The five gatekeepers had been expecting him.
"You're not getting past us!" one shouted as they surrounded him, forming a defensive circle.
But Yuto didn't even draw his sword. Instead, he pressed his hands together and sent a pulse of solar chakra through his body.
"Solar Pulse: Inner Flare."
A wave of disorienting heat and energy radiated from him, scrambling their senses and burning their chakra networks temporarily.
"Agh—my chakra!" one cried, clutching his head.
Yuto moved through them like a phantom.
Each one dropped within seconds, precise slashes and strikes ending their lives with surgical efficiency.
The bridge was now silent.
The masked clone looked around once before muttering, "The job is done, boss."
He sealed his mask and sword into his inventory and slowly began to dissolve into smoke.
Puff.
Far away, in the snowy region of the Land of Iron, the original Yuto flinched slightly as he walked through the cold terrain, pacing behind the bickering girls.
A wave of memories crashed into him—the blood, the killings, the screaming chakra, the silent deaths.
For just a moment, his eyes looked hollow.
'So much death... all by my hand...'
He clenched his fists.
'No. I chose this. I won't let emotions rule me. That's how mistakes are made.'
And with that, he pushed forward, leaving the past behind him—for now.