Chapter 41: Ōnoki's Wrath
"You may have no business with Konoha, but you've offended *me*," Tenchi said, his voice cold with anger.
"Lord Tsuchikage! Are you alright?!" The Tsuchikage's personal guards burst into the room.
"Young man, as far as I recall, this is our first meeting. I don't see how I could have offended you," Ōnoki said, waving a hand to calm his guards while keeping his eyes locked on Tenchi.
"You'll understand when I mention a place. The Land of Rice. Does that ring a bell?" Tenchi continued to stare down Ōnoki, completely ignoring the guards surrounding him.
"Oh, the Land of Rice. Isn't that within Konoha's sphere of influence? What does it matter if I develop some assets there?" Hearing the name, Ōnoki understood Tenchi's purpose, but he was utterly dismissive of the complaint.
Seeing Ōnoki's nonchalant attitude, Tenchi's anger grew. "You secretly invaded a sovereign nation, an act that could be seen as starting a war. I might have overlooked it if I hadn't seen it, but now that I have, I *will* intervene."
"And most importantly, because of your actions, my teammates are lying injured in bed. For that reason alone, don't you think you owe me an explanation?"
"So, you came all this way because your little friends got hurt? Spare me the talk of war. Since when did Konoha become the world's peacekeepers?" Ōnoki crossed his arms, his voice thick with mockery.
"Ōnoki, forget the rest. Regarding my injured teammates, what do you intend to do about it?" Tenchi pressed, his impatience growing. He was deliberately provoking a reaction.
"Do about it? You, a mere Konoha ninja... I don't know how you slipped in here, but you're alone. Do you really think you can leave this room alive?" Ōnoki gave a sharp wave of his hand. The guards immediately closed in, encircling Tenchi completely.
Tenchi looked at the circle of armed guards and smirked. "So, the great Tsuchikage, now that you're in power, you have no regard for human life? You'd kill on a whim?"
"Hmph! I've never had a high opinion of Konoha ninja. I'll kill you here today, and even Sarutobi won't dare to do a thing about it, you arrogant brat!" Ōnoki declared. He held no respect for a village he considered dishonorable.
"Destroy him!" Ōnoki ordered.
The guards obeyed without hesitation, lunging at Tenchi with their kunai drawn. They were elite fighters, bound by absolute loyalty to their Kage.
As they attacked, Tenchi stood perfectly still, his eyes shifting into the pattern of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
The guards, seeing him make no move to defend himself, assumed he had accepted his fate. Their kunai stabbed toward his body.
"Got him!" one ninja thought triumphantly, but his victory was short-lived.
"You're celebrating too soon," Tenchi said, a calm smile on his face.
The other guards, undeterred, also thrust their kunai into him.
*Clang! Clang! Clang!*
Instead of the sound of tearing flesh, the kunai made a metallic clinking noise as they passed straight through his body without leaving a mark.
Tenchi was using the intangibility of Kamui.
"What's going on? Why didn't he fall?" The guards pulled their weapons back, staring at each other in confusion.
"This brat is strange, daring to come alone... The kunai passed right through him. What kind of ninjutsu is this?" Ōnoki muttered, his analytical mind working. He had spotted the anomaly immediately.
"Your turn is over. Now it's mine. Enton: Kagutsuchi." Tenchi summoned the black flames of Amaterasu. The flames morphed into sharp, spear-like spikes that shot out, impaling every single guard in the room.
In an instant, the entire Tsuchikage guard squad was eliminated. The black flames did not extinguish but continued to burn, consuming the bodies until not even ash remained.
"What terrifying black flames..." Ōnoki was shocked by the swift and utter annihilation of his guards. The fact that the flames left no trace was deeply unsettling.
"You've killed my guards. That should be enough. Leave now, and I will let this matter drop," Ōnoki said, trying to regain control of the situation. He hadn't fully deciphered Tenchi's intangibility and thought it prudent to let him go for now.
"Heh. You make me laugh." Tenchi's smirk widened. "You order me killed, then tell me to leave? Ōnoki, I don't know if you're naive or just simple-minded. You don't get to decide when this ends."
"Then what do you want? Don't push your luck. This is Iwagakure. I haven't figured out your trick yet, but all powerful abilities have a limit. I don't believe you can use it forever. Push me, and I will bury you under the weight of my entire village!"
"Crowd tactics? Hehe." Tenchi's smile turned sinister. "Ōnoki, let me jog your memory. Who did you and the Second Tsuchikage meet on your way to Konoha to discuss an alliance? Do you think *that man* was afraid of crowd tactics?" He was deliberately invoking the deepest, most humiliating shadow in Ōnoki's past.
!!! Ōnoki's face contorted, turning pale and then dark with rage. That man. The one who could not be ignored. The one who had crushed his teacher and himself, grinding their pride into the dirt under his heel.
"Too bad... you're not him," Ōnoki spat out, his voice venomous. He finally realized why this young man looked so familiar. The resemblance was uncanny—the same arrogant, undeniable presence.
"It seems you remember," Tenchi said, his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan blazing as he stared directly into Ōnoki's soul. The scarlet eyes seemed to glow with an inner fire.
"That's it! That's it! Those eyes! That arrogant face! Uchiha Madara! It's you! It has to be you! Today, I will reclaim the dignity I lost!" The phantom of Uchiha Madara in Ōnoki's mind superimposed itself over Tenchi. Consumed by past humiliation, his rage completely overwhelmed his reason.
"Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!"
"Uchiha Madara! Die!" Ōnoki unleashed his ultimate technique, the Kekkei Tōta that combined Earth, Wind, and Fire natures to disassemble matter at a molecular level. He aimed it directly at Tenchi.
"So, his rage makes him see me as Madara. Madara truly is the ghost haunting Ōnoki's heart." Tenchi watched the Dust Release attack come and felt no fear. With Kamui, he had nothing to worry about.
A white, transparent cubic energy field enveloped Tenchi and then disassembled. His form vanished completely. The floor beneath him was also erased, leaving a perfectly square crater.
"Hahaha! Uchiha Madara! Where is your arrogance now?! The 'unignorable one' was eliminated by me today!" Ōnoki laughed maniacally, believing he had won.
As Ōnoki celebrated, Tenchi's figure slowly reappeared, unharmed. The moment the attack landed, he had simply shifted into the Kamui dimension.
"You're... unharmed?! How is that possible?! I hit you!" Ōnoki stammered, his disbelief shattering his momentary triumph.
"Ants will always be ants, foolishly challenging a power they cannot comprehend."
"Susano'o!"
A massive wave of blue chakra erupted from Tenchi, cracking the walls and floor of the office. The skeletal frame of the Susano'o began to take shape around him.
"This! This is...! It can't be!" The horrifying memory resurfaced with paralyzing clarity. Watching the skeleton form, the shadow in Ōnoki's heart rose once more. "No! This is impossible!"
The upper body of the Susano'o solidified into its second form. Tenchi rose into the air as the construct's legs began to form.
***ROAR!***
The colossal figure grew, its head slamming through the roof of the Tsuchikage's building. With two powerful punches, the Susano'o shattered the rest of the roof, its form continuing to expand until it stood 600 meters tall, towering over the village.