"Multi-Size Technique — Meat-Bullet Chariot!"
Refusing to die passively, Akimichi Torifu flooded his body with explosive Yang chakra. His frame swelled monstrously, jōnin vest ripping apart as his limbs folded inward—transforming him into a massive rolling black sphere that thundered toward Uchiha Soren.
Ancient tree trunks splintered like bamboo before a waterwheel. Nothing slowed him.
"So among the six, you lead in willingness to die for the cause," Soren remarked, watching the blazing sun-colored chakra coil around Torifu's bulk. Ordinary ninjutsu struck the rolling mass and dissolved like ripples against a mountain.
"Fire Style: Fire-Dragon Flame Orbs!"
Soren skipped the lesser Fireball. His Mangekyō Sharingan hummed.
Three serpentine torrents of flame—dragon-like and raging—erupted from his mouth. He split and guided them through the air, each taking a different arc to strike Torifu from left, right, and center.
Boom!
A shockwave blasted through the forest.
Soren's cloak snapped in the wind.
Juno burrowed deeper into his collar, save for two gleeful slitted eyes watching the incoming meat-ball.
Scattered fire danced across the trees.
Torifu's rolling mass slowed—
then with a roar:
"Super Multi-Size Technique!"
His body surged upward, ballooning into a towering twenty-meter giant. His weight alone could flatten a hill. Sunlight vanished beneath the immense shadow he cast over Soren.
"Super Palm Push!"
Two colossal hands unfurled—expanding again in a second ring, each palm large as a house. They pressed downward with crushing force, thickening the air until every breath became a struggle. Movement turned viscous. Even sound felt smothered.
"Impressive Yang arts," Soren murmured.
Juno blinked, unconcerned—her master always carved straight through danger.
"A shame you met the wrong enemy."
"Tenchō Risshon."
His left Mangekyō eye—the omniscient mapping ability—flooded his mind with spatial data.
His right eye allowed instantaneous relocation anywhere within that mapped space.
Two abilities. One perfect synergy.
Torifu's looming palms slammed down—
only to crush empty ground.
Soren appeared on the giant's shoulder.
"Impossible!" Torifu cried.
He attempted to cancel the technique, but his chakra was already locked into maintaining the twin crushing palms. His colossal form sagged under its own weight, leaving him open.
He had expected flanking attacks, brute force, burrowing maneuvers—
not spatial movement rivaling Tobirama's Flying Thunder God.
Every backup plan evaporated.
The death star above his head blinked.
Akimichi techniques offered overwhelming force—
but that force came with fatal openings.
If only his comrades of Yamanaka or Nara had been here…
If only he had the classic Ino–Shika–Chō trio…
Maybe—even against a Mangekyō Uchiha—there would've been a chance.
Torifu slammed the earth in desperation. The forest quaked. A funeral cloud of dust rose.
Soren drew his katana, wind chakra spiraling along the blade like a translucent ribbon.
"Uchiha Style: Wind-Cut Slash!"
A hair-thin streak of light flashed.
Torifu's neck erupted crimson.
His giant frame collapsed, shrinking back to normal as his life faded.
Like Kagami.
Like Danzō.
Torifu fell—beheaded.
Ascension Points acquired.
A system never accepted faked deaths.
"Lord Soren—the others fled that way," Juno chirped, licking his chin excitedly. The cat wouldn't spill the secret of Soren's spatial technique—but she would eagerly spread word of her master's overwhelming victory.
"Good. My Juno is attentive and capable."
"Meow~"
Soren used Earth Release to bury Torifu respectfully. Even distant as he was, Soren admired the Akimichi's resolve.
(And that Akimichi secret medicine… a man's essential overdrive. I must add it to my repertoire. The shinobi world never asked anyone to stay loyal to a single partner.)
"Hurry. Their trail stretches farther."
"They won't escape."
Focused again, Soren followed the chakra traces.
(Torifu won't survive.)
Hiruzen, Homura, and Koharu sprinted through the forest.
They heard nothing behind them.
No giant footsteps.
No breathing.
No roar.
They understood instantly.
The towering giant had fallen.
Faces hardened.
Each one gripped a single, grim truth:
Survival now depended on luck.
A silent exchange passed between Homura and Koharu.
If a sacrifice must be made, Hiruzen—future Hokage—had the best chance of reaching Konoha.
The realization stung.
Hiruzen, weighing comrades against village, made his decision.
"Scatter. Try to return to the village. Expose the Uchiha plot—claim the Uchiha colluded with the Cloud to murder our leaders. If the Senju line falls, the Uchiha will lose all power in Konoha."
He believed Danzō and Torifu would not have died in vain.
The group split—
Hiruzen racing toward the nearest road to Konoha's outpost,
Homura and Koharu veering into the deeper brush.
Soren read the split on the map of his Mangekyō as clearly as a scroll.
"Shadow Clone Technique."
Two clones chased Homura and Koharu.
The original pursued Hiruzen's chakra trail like a wolf tracking prey.
Soren stepped into the open path—
blocking Hiruzen's escape.
Ten kilometers ahead lay Konoha's garrison.
Safety.
Influence.
A place where Soren's mercy would turn into disaster for the Uchiha.
(No theatrics now.)
Hiruzen's expression flickered.
He gripped the vajra staff.
"Soren—must it end like this?"
"I was named Third Hokage. Let me go, and I'll ensure the Uchiha take their rightful place among Konoha's leaders. Your future could still include the Hokage seat."
He laid every diplomatic breadcrumb he could think of.
Soren paused.
Two new memories—his clones' memories—snapped into his mind.
A slow smile spread.
"I already cut down Homura and Koharu."
Hiruzen's face froze.
It was the expression of a man discovering his household had committed treason.
Soren's grin widened.
"You're the last of the escort. Best hurry—your lonely companions are waiting for you on the road to Yomi."
He tilted his head.
"And once I remove you… who else is fit for Third Hokage?"
"The Uchiha blade remains sharp."