Out in the woods, far from the cabin—
A masked man stood on a branch with his arms folded, staring through the eyeholes at the commotion inside. He sighed softly.
"Konoha shinobi are finally starting to look like something."
"Otherwise, they wouldn't even qualify as pawns."
"So go on—test him for me."
"Let me see what cards Uchiha Kazuki still has… with only twenty to thirty percent of his Mangekyō chakra left."
He frowned.
"Just… that chanting is unbearable."
…
In the open space by the cabin entrance, several torches were planted in the ground.
Under the night sky, the firelight was dim and wavering.
Nono crouched low, green medical chakra flowing from her hands as she treated Tamayū's wounds.
Compared to Doctor Nake, she was healing through the interference of the sutra resonance—and she didn't even need to unwrap the bandages.
Nearby stood only Izumi and Mikoto now.
The rest of the Uchiha were not here.
At first, when Kazuki abruptly chose to turn back, no one understood why.
Now they did.
Kazuki had come back to lie in wait for this female medical shinobi—
Only to collide head-on with Konoha's pursuit squad.
That kind of encounter didn't require Kazuki to make a decision.
The Uchiha's killing intent surged on its own.
They had already decided: this Konoha squad would die here.
"This level of Wind Release…" Nono murmured, staring at Tamayū's injuries, shocked by the force behind the technique that caused them.
And even more shocked that Tamayū had endured the lingering damage without a sound.
"How long?" Nanpū demanded, impatient.
Izumi and Mikoto kept glancing up at the monks on the roof, then back toward the lone figure inside the cabin.
For some reason, under the weight of the chanting, their thoughts felt tugged and stirred into agitation.
"With full-body Wind Release trauma like this," Nono said, sweat forming on her brow, "even if I'm the one treating him, the fastest would still be half an hour."
"If you want him healed in ten minutes…"
"You'd need to bring Lady Tsunade—the one from legend."
She continued pouring medical chakra into Tamayū while forcing her mind steady against the sutras.
Her original mission here was an assassination.
She'd needed to preserve her condition.
But now she understood: this fleeing squad was the Uchiha—one of Konoha's great clans.
If she refused to help, she wouldn't have a good ending either way.
Besides—
The young Uchiha leader had promised compensation.
And Nono was willing to try solving this peacefully.
As for the person she was supposed to kill…
She could delegate that to these Uchiha later.
Either way, it wasn't a loss.
And from the very first moment she met that pursuit squad, she'd felt instinctive disgust.
Their methods were wrong.
Their hearts were worse.
Not far away, Kurenai watched the scene inside and outside the cabin, her heart pounding as she clenched her fist.
If Kazuki lost—
She would act immediately.
Even if all she could do was help him escape.
After that… what would happen to her?
Kurenai hadn't thought that far ahead.
She didn't dare.
She was afraid her resolve would waver.
Inside the cabin—
"ROAR—!"
The massive wolf—like a three-headed hellhound—howled.
Its claws smashed down, splintering the floor into debris.
Its powerful limbs exploded with force as it lunged first, three gaping maws snapping toward Kazuki.
Kazuki's Mangekyō tracked the attack path in advance.
He moved like a flash—rabbit-quick and hawk-sharp—appearing beside Jaeger, snatching him up and retreating backward in one smooth motion.
The bite missed.
Without hesitation, Kazuki hurled the stunned Jaeger out through the side window.
Then he turned—alone—against Asuma's four-man ring.
At the same moment—
Around the cabin, six black silhouettes shot upward.
Three-tomoe Sharingan glowed in their eyes.
Their bodies twisted midair as their ninja blades angled down toward the monks on the roof who were chanting sutras.
The Uchiha had been waiting nearby.
Steel flashed.
But the chanting did not stop.
From among the monks, the Fire Temple's head priest—Chiriku—rose to his feet.
His face was stern, brows thick and fierce.
He raised his right hand and pressed his left downward as he recited in a low voice—
"Welcoming Descent: Thousand-Handed Slaughter!"
In an instant, chakra surged within him.
Golden Buddhist radiance spilled outward, enveloping the monks and condensing into a bodhisattva avatar—hands clasped, eyes kind, as if granting salvation to all beings.
The world turned gold, bathed in sacred light.
Then—
Before the Uchiha's blades could reach flesh, the bodhisattva avatar twisted—
And countless arms erupted from its side.
Fists hammered down like a storm.
In the Uchiha's three-tomoe vision, the glowing punches were too dense.
Even the Sharingan couldn't offer a safe dodge line.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The blows landed in a relentless barrage.
Each of the six took what felt like a hundred hits in a breath—
And were smashed to the ground like severed kites.
"Pff—!"
One Uchiha hit the earth, drove his blade into the ground to steady himself, and clutched his chest as he spat blood—forcing his eyes toward his companions.
The others were badly hurt too.
All six bodies were stamped with fist marks.
Some areas caved slightly.
Skin split.
Blood soaked their clothes.
Chiriku dropped from the roof.
"Amitābha."
"Lay down your blades."
"We can perform rites for your dead and grant them passage."
He stood before the six Uchiha, imposing and unyielding.
He had no intention of letting these fugitives go.
The sutra resonance stopped.
The night fell quiet again.
The remaining monks descended from the roof and formed a line behind Chiriku—heads lowered, palms together.
No monk besides Chiriku dared meet the Uchiha's eyes.
All of them stared at the ground, cautious and tight, as they advanced.
The six Uchiha gritted their teeth.
They had underestimated the strength of the reinforcements.
As the chanting ended, everyone's minds began to clear.
Just as Nono, Izumi, Nanpū, Mikoto—and even Kurenai—started to breathe again—
The sutras returned.
Louder.
Heavier.
As if the heavens themselves were chanting.
Everyone looked around.
From the dark tree line, countless monks emerged, heads bowed, reciting in unison.
Burn marks of vows dotted their scalps.
Their robes were all the same black-and-white Fire Temple style.
One hundred and seventy of them.
Their voices became a surging river—unceasing, overwhelming.
Chakra-laced sound crashed into the senses.
To anyone not prepared, it was like demonic noise drilling through the skull.
"This is… the entire Fire Temple!" Izumi shouted, her eyes wide, covering her ears.
Mikoto's face went pale.
Her head throbbed.
Under the piercing chant, the urge to bury her head in the dirt rose violently.
Even Nono—gentle as she was—finally snapped.
"I can't focus…!"
"Someone—please—shut them up!"
She could no longer concentrate enough to continue medical chakra.
Kurenai and the mother and child beside her suffered as well, swaying with dizziness and pain.
"Bald monks—!!" Tamayū tried to roar through the torture, but his voice vanished into the flood.
Despair rose inside the Uchiha.
There were simply too many enemies.
Fire Temple monks were famous across the shinobi world.
Individually, they were no weaker than shinobi.
And Chiriku himself was unmistakably jōnin-level.
Now the entire Fire Temple had mobilized.
Tonight, they might all be buried here.
Inside the cabin—
The candlelight flickered like something sinister.
Asuma's lips curled into a smile as he stared at Kazuki.
This—
This was the real reason he dared to strike at an Uchiha fugitive squad.
His greatest leverage.
Asuma and his three teammates looked completely unaffected by the chant.
Because when they met up with the reinforcements—
Chiriku had implanted sealing formulas on them that rendered them immune to the sutra resonance.
Tap.
Chiriku stepped over the threshold and entered the cabin, his gaze calm and cold as it fell on the handsome young Uchiha.
"Amitābha."
One versus five.
Kazuki's face turned pale.
Outside, the chanting continued, tearing at his mind.
With only thirty percent of his Yin chakra remaining, his Mangekyō could no longer maintain focused control.
If he had full reserves, this battle would have ended long ago.
He steadied his thoughts.
Then Kazuki's lips lifted slightly.
He forced his will to resist the chanting that clawed at his nerves.
His right hand flipped.
From his storage space, he produced a red pill the size of a longan—glossy, deep crimson like a bead of fire.
He shoved it into his mouth and swallowed.
This—
Was his leverage.
The same leverage he'd relied on to wipe out the Uchiha Police Force with ease.
He had once possessed three.
Now only one remained.
Far away in the forest, the masked man endured the shrieking sutras as well.
His pupils tightened as he watched Kazuki swallow the pill.
His eyes narrowed.
"So that's your final card."
Inside the cabin—
Heat surged across Kazuki's skin.
Orange-red curse markings bloomed over his face—sinister patterns crawling like flame.
His life force began draining rapidly, converting into pure chakra.
Cells split and metabolized at insane speed.
His mental power climbed.
His Mangekyō's Yin chakra swelled—filling, rising, stabilizing—
Until the sutras no longer shook him.
His gaze turned calm again.
Deep.
Contemptuous.
He looked at the five before him like they were already dead.
The one who gave him the pill had warned him:
A masterpiece—an energy conversion drug developed by perfectly fusing curse seal power.
It could amplify chakra strength, recovery speed, mental power, and physical force tenfold.
Ten minutes.
That was all.
And the price was only one thing:
Life.
Three pills existed.
Each consumed would cost one-third of the user's lifespan.
If all three were used, the user would be left with—at most—ten years to live.
Kazuki didn't care.
As long as he escaped Konoha alive, the shinobi world offered countless ways to extend life.
Sensing danger—
"ROAR—!"
The Inuzuka jōnin's fused three-headed wolf struck first again.
Chakra exploded.
It launched upward, three maws opening wide, fangs flashing as it dove to tear Kazuki apart.
Kazuki didn't dodge.
The curse markings vanished from the surface, sinking fully into his body.
He held the hilt with one hand.
Sheathed the blade.
The killing light withdrew.
His eyes closed.
He stepped forward—lowered his stance—
And then—
A draw.
A single point.
Absolute perfection.
Moonlight-bright sword radiance poured out like a silver river spilling from the heavens.
It cleaved straight through the center of the three-headed wolf's massive body.
The three gaping mouths froze mid-snarl.
He… only swung once.
The left and right heads watched their body slide apart—clean, smooth, perfectly even—
Before their thoughts fell into eternal darkness.
Their final emotion stopped on one thing:
Fear.
Boom—
Blood mist burst outward.
The night air shuddered.
And in that moment, Asuma's smile finally tightened—just slightly.
The blade is named Dark Moon…
Had not yet even arrived.
Want More? Get up to +60 Extra Chapters on Patreon!
➤ https://www.patreon.com/aureliusstudios
➤ +300 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter Drop!
Thanks for the support!