Outside the shelter's perimeter.
From a high opening in the inner wall.
Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, Sakura, Kiba, Shino… and the others crouched by the railing, gazing at the noisy crowd of evacuees below.
They had already been driven back several times by Konoha shinobi, ordered to return to their respective clan shelters.
But each time, they slipped out together again, eager to know what was really happening outside.
"Is that Uchiha Sasuke?"
Choji pointed toward the crowd of civilians in the shelter's lower section, where Sasuke sat quietly in a corner.
Everyone looked over.
Sasuke sat alone, isolated.
Ever since the Uchiha clan massacre, he hadn't returned to the academy.
Sakura and Ino exclaimed at the same time:
Sakura had originally been just a Konoha civilian, but because of Ino's family connections, her own family had been placed in the clan shelter as well.
"What about his brother?" Kiba asked curiously.
Shikamaru's expression darkened. With a sigh he said, "His brother… who knows? After the Uchiha massacre, Sasuke lost all the privileges of being from a noble clan… this village really doesn't care about feelings."
"I heard people say Konoha is under siege by other villages because the Uchiha were wiped out. Our strength was weakened…" Kiba muttered.
"I heard that too. They say it's the fault of the Third Hokage and the higher-ups," Choji said in his simple way.
Shikamaru quickly shot Choji a sharp look, lowering his voice:
"Talking about this is pointless. Let's just hope the war ends soon."
The group fell silent.
"Everyone, my kikaichū are acting strangely. They seem to have sensed a terrifying energy nearby," Shino said.
He stretched out his right hand. From his sleeve, his insects squirmed uneasily, refusing to crawl onto the back of his hand as if facing a deadly threat.
Before anyone could respond—
From the shelter's main gate, waves of dark energy spread like black mist.
From within the mist, countless purple tendrils shot forth—smooth, whip-like, and incredibly fast.
They easily snared every Konoha shinobi hiding in the shadows.
"What the hell is that thing?"
"It looks like a snake—but not quite!"
"Go back! Return to the clan shelters!"
Shikamaru's eyes went wide. At the very first sign of danger, he spun around and led the others in a desperate sprint back.
The rest followed, fleeing at full speed.
At the shelter's central lower section.
The civilians, upon seeing a "monster" suddenly appear inside, fell into total panic.
"Foreign shinobi have broken in!"
At this moment, no one cared about the authority of Konoha's great clans. All they could do was grab their loved ones and flee deeper inside.
The shelter descended into chaos.
The Konoha shinobi entangled by the purple tendrils quickly began to unravel—falling into madness, despair, depression, and other waves of negative emotion.
One by one, they dissolved into dark chakra, devoured by the Zero-Tails as nourishment.
From behind the white mask of the Zero-Tails, Shinno slowly emerged, his upper body rising above it.
High above, he gazed down at the utterly chaotic civilians with a cold, mocking smile:
"Run… Every time the world is consumed by war and people's hearts give birth to darkness, the Zero-Tails descends upon the shinobi world. It feeds on that darkness, grows without end, until the shadows rule all… Hahahaha!"
His laughter echoed throughout the shelter.
The Konoha shinobi, each ensnared by hundreds of writhing tentacles, wore expressions of sheer terror.
They had never seen such a horrifying monster before. Even the Nine-Tails, back then, at least had the form of a beast.
But the creature before them… its main body's head was covered by a white mask engraved with the kanji for "Zero". Its lips split open grotesquely, teeth tearing across its face in a disturbing, unnatural way.
In just an instant, it split into hundreds of tentacles, wrapping around them, forcing negative emotions to swell and multiply within their hearts.
When Shinno's voice finally stopped—
A series of explosive bursts echoed.
The Konoha shinobi were crushed by Zero-Tails' tentacles, pulverized into blood-mist, bursting apart in midair.
In an instant, the stench of blood filled the air, entrails scattering everywhere, splattering across the civilians who hadn't escaped in time.
Countless shrill and agonized screams rang out, laced with helplessness, madness, and overwhelming terror.
In the eyes of Shinno, the so-called Physician of the Ninja World—
The entire center of the shelter was drowned in darkness, darkness born from the negative emotions festering in human hearts.
Zero-Tails greedily devoured the dark chakra.
"Not enough, not enough, not enough!"
Shinno roared, controlling Zero-Tails to swing one massive tentacle toward the upper wall.
The Hokage Rock trembled.
In an instant, a massive hole was blasted through the upper wall, sunlight spilling into the shelter.
That opening directly connected to the refuge caves where the civilians of Konoha's great clans were hiding.
At that moment, the lower passage was jammed with civilians, shoulder to shoulder, the entrance clogged.
"I have children with me—let us through!"
Those trapped outside screamed and wept desperately.
Many stumbled in the chaos, trampled to death in the crush.
Sasuke, hiding in the corner, leaned against the wall, his young face tense as his cold eyes observed the scene.
These Konoha civilians, because of the strict enforcement of the Konoha Police Force, had always treated the Uchiha with hostility.
After the night of the Nine-Tails, even more so.
Sasuke swallowed down his anger.
He turned his face toward the monster—only to find it had vanished.
Sasuke's pupils contracted.
His heart pounded violently.
It felt as if he were deep beneath the sea, and a great white shark that had been right in front of him suddenly disappeared. The terror was bone-chilling.
When he turned again—
Sasuke sensed something amiss. Jerking his head upward, he saw swarms of shinobi from the Three Great Villages flooding through the shattered upper wall.
The civilians who had been trying to squeeze into the tunnels now fled in a mad rush.
On the lower level, within the sea of panicked people, Shinno—having retracted Zero-Tails—looked upon the invading shinobi of the Three Great Villages with a smile.
He had deliberately shattered the upper wall to lure them here, to slaughter Konoha's clan civilians.
To bathe the place in despair.
Shinno's smile widened.
In his eyes, the negative emotions born from those arrogant Konoha aristocrats would refine into an even more exquisite dark chakra.
From the higher levels of the shelter—
A Cloud shinobi suddenly shouted in delight:
"Here! The Sarutobi clan is here!"
"Kill every last one of them!"
"Force Konoha into a decisive war with us!"
The shinobi of the Three Great Villages charged in like tigers among sheep, beginning a frenzied slaughter.
Shrill, despairing screams echoed without end.
The clans of Konoha, who had believed that unlike the ordinary civilians, they were safe within the inner wall's shelter, now found themselves trapped in what had become their prison.
These nobles tried to flee downward, but every passageway had already been clogged by civilians who hadn't had time to evacuate.
"Since I've got nothing better to do, I might as well add to the atmosphere of despair myself!"
With a cold laugh, Shinno once again transformed into a mass of black mist, revealing the Zero-Tails within the crowd.
The black mist spread.
The Zero-Tails twisted its serpentine body, filling half the entire shelter, as if some demonic god had descended.
And at this very moment, it manifested directly before Sasuke.
Sasuke's face went pale, his breath caught, and he trembled as he gazed up at that massive, ghastly white mask inscribed with the character Zero.
From the inner wall above, behind the railing, Sakura saw what was happening below and cried out in desperation.
Hearing that familiar voice, Sasuke forced himself to suppress the fear in his heart. His single-tomoe Sharingan flared in his eyes, resisting the crushing weight of the dark chakra.
"Oh? Is that a Sharingan?"
Shinno's eyes lit up.
The Zero-Tails' hideous mouth split wider as it drew close, intending to devour this child and drag him back for study.
But in the next instant—
With a thunderous crash, a colossal dark-red, fully manifested Susanoo descended from the sky, like a falling star from the wastelands.
It spread its dark-red wings wide, both hands gripping a massive blade wreathed in searing crimson flames.
As it plummeted down—
Its sword split open the rock faces!
The flaming blade drove straight into the Zero-Tails' serpentine head.
Rumble—Rumble—Rumble—
Half the entire shelter collapsed, the stone faces of the First and Second Hokage shattering into fragments that rained down like a storm. Get full chapters from NoveI-Fire.ɴet
Sasuke shielded his eyes with both arms, retreating backward. Beyond him, the blue sky opened up; the ground had already crumbled into a sheer cliff.
His heart pounded, his breath nearly stopped, and with a mix of awe and exhilaration, he whispered:
The Susanoo knelt on one knee.
Its armored boots pinned the Zero-Tails' head, while its flaming chakra blade was driven deep into the creature's neck.
Inside the crystalline core of the fully manifested Susanoo, Uchiha Yu stood, his gaze coldly fixed upon the Zero-Tails below.
Then, with a sidelong glance at the shelter's inner wall, he saw the Sarutobi clan's corpses strewn in rivers of blood, and said in a low, grim voice:
"That… is my entertainment."
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