"Hahaha—this is priceless!" Uchiha Yue laughed, and chains erupted from the ground, coiling into Sarutobi Hizashi's body.
"No!" Hizashi roared, struggled, and, unable to break free, resigned himself. He focused his chakra and glared at Uchiha Yue.
In the next instant, Hizashi fell into Yue's grasp. Scarlet eyes bored into him.
"Sarutobi Hizashi, now is your time to die!" Uchiha Yue intoned, ready to crush him.
"No—you're the one who dies! Corpse—" Hizashi shouted. He had pushed his chakra to its limit and, in that final moment, a sickening sound of flesh tearing filled the air. Before his words finished, his body ruptured; Yue squeezed the life out of him on the spot.
Sarutobi Hizashi—dead.
At the moment of his death he never learned Yue's true name. All he knew was that this catastrophe stemmed from Shimura Danzo and Uchiha Itachi, and that he had, in some way, been complicit. Regret came too late.
"Heh—did you really think I wouldn't see through you?" Yue released the corpse and began to rise slowly into the sky.
"Come, world—welcome the end!" he called, and golden light gathered in his hand.
Yue activated Susanoo's second artifact: the Energy-Gathering Ring. It swelled and enveloped his colossal form. Outside the ring, moonlight seemed to drain toward him like a tide, and the air chilled.
The ring had no offensive power; its only function was to amplify his absorption. While it was active Yue could not move, but the artifact greatly increased his capacity to siphon energy.
"Strength—keep coming! Hahaha!" Yue exclaimed as the surge of power within him accelerated. The more energy he consumed, the more his body evolved—strength, speed, chakra reserves, even lifespan rose without limit. He absorbed not just light but ambient heat and the chakra of nearby shinobi.
As his field expanded, the environment grew colder and darker. With no upper limit, this hunger could, in time, freeze the world and snuff out all light—a planetary calamity born from Yue's existence. No one yet imagined such an end. For now, Konoha's shinobi rushed to evacuate civilians.
"Hokage-sama has fallen—this monster is unbeatable. Evacuate everyone!" they shouted.
"What do we do? Hokage died in battle!" others cried. "We must warn Jiraiya and Tsunade—Konoha still has hope."
"What about the Uchiha?" someone asked.
"It looks like the Uchiha were wiped out. Danzo did this," came the reply.
"They triggered the clan. The Sharingan awakened in someone and everything went to hell."
The evacuation poured out with anger toward Shimura Danzo. Many suspected Danzo had orchestrated this atrocity; if Hizashi had known what would happen, he would have stopped Danzo long ago. Now it was too late.
"Maybe we can reason with him—he's still one of our shinobi," a Hyuga suggested.
The room fell silent. The others stared as if he'd lost his mind. After all, the monster had slaughtered Konoha's forces and the Hokage—how could persuasion do anything?
"Try it, then," a Nara finally snapped, and the Hyuga fell quiet.