Three questions wrapped tightly around Kakashi's heart, leaving him lost and speechless.
Before he could ask, Sogetsu turned away, waved his hand gently to the others, and said in a faint voice.
"I hope to meet you all again—in the new world."
The next moment, his figure vanished before their eyes.
"Will there really… be a new world?"
Kakashi muttered in confusion as he gazed up at the endless blue sky, letting out a quiet sigh.
After leaving the Konoha squad, Uchiha Sogetsu hummed softly to himself as he walked toward Iwagakure.
In truth, his plan was simple—far less complicated than it might have seemed.
After all, the more complex a plan, the easier it was for mistakes to appear, wasn't it?
Under the influence of the King of Angels's authority, he had planted fragments of "War" deep into the Sea of the Collective Subconscious of the entire shinobi world.
A chess piece he had placed long ago was finally beginning to move.
That piece was none other than Ōnoki of Both Scales.
From the very beginning, Sogetsu had clearly seen the ambition hidden deep within Ōnoki's eyes. All it required was the right push, and that ambition could be transformed into action.
Soon, the transformed Iwagakure came into view.
Once, the village had been hidden among towering mountains, a place surrounded by endless rocky cliffs. Now those mountains had been leveled to the ground.
The village itself seemed to have leapt across a timeline, reshaped into a modern landscape.
Steel towers rose like a forest of iron, blending into a style that felt like an odd fusion of eras.
As Sogetsu stepped into the village, he was greeted by the sight of a massive stone statue, easily a hundred meters tall. It was of an old acquaintance—Ōnoki.
But the inscription beneath did not call him Tsuchikage. Instead, it declared him the Great Emperor of Stone, the First Consul, the Rock Emperor—Ōnoki of Both Scales.
"Interesting."
Sogetsu's eyes lingered on the monument with amusement.
The inscription recounted Ōnoki's life—his so-called greatness, how he shattered the chains of the past, how he remade Iwagakure into a new era, and how he would soon lead his people to crush every hidden village and achieve true unification, eternal peace.
"The ceremony isn't bad. Looks like I won't need to worry too much," Sogetsu murmured, chuckling softly.
At first, he thought he might have to lend a hand. But clearly, Ōnoki had managed quite well on his own.
As Tsuchikage, Ōnoki had gradually reshaped the entire village according to the Black Emperor's advancement ritual. Order, law, artistic style—everything from the inside out had been rewritten.
The so-called Rock Emperor, First Consul… if you didn't know better, you might think you had stepped into Rome.
Across the Land of Earth, the smaller nations once under the daimyo's control had now been absorbed completely by Ōnoki.
"Hm. At this point, it seems only one step remains in Ōnoki's ceremony."
Sogetsu glanced across Iwagakure, noticing the masses of citizens being driven to construct the Black Emperor's nine mausoleums.
The ascension ritual for the Black Emperor required having one's own kingdom.
His name and the title of Emperor had to be inseparably tied together, becoming common knowledge among the people.
He also needed to establish a set of strict and complex rules, ones that defied normal order, from architecture to governance.
Finally, he had to drive his people to build nine secret tombs resembling pyramids.
Then, inside one of those tombs, while the vast majority of the population participated in corresponding sacrificial ceremonies scattered across different cities, he would drink the Sequence 0 potion and ascend as the "Black Emperor."
But of course, not now!
Chakra surged wildly around Uchiha Sogetsu, forming into a towering Susanoo warrior a hundred meters tall.
He gazed at the peculiar building in the center of Iwagakure, clearly sensing Ōnoki's presence inside.
The corner of his lips curled into a faint smile.
"Let me give you a little trouble, Ōnoki."
The next moment, the colossal Susanoo drew its massive blade.
Boom—!!!
The sword swept across, sending out a visible shockwave.
High-rise buildings within several hundred meters were sliced clean in half by the sword aura.
The roaring blast shook the skies as clouds tore apart above.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
"Help!"
"A m-monster!"
"Someone has invaded—evacuate quickly!"
Panic erupted throughout Iwagakure.
Countless civilians screamed and fled in terror.
Controlling the Susanoo, Sogetsu swung the giant blade again, the strike carrying a terrifying storm that seemed powerful enough to destroy the heavens and the earth.
"Stop—!!!"
A furious voice suddenly erupted from the strange building at the village's center.
The sword that was about to crash down twisted unnaturally, its destructive force abruptly redirected elsewhere.
Boom!!!
The mountains surrounding Iwagakure were flattened by the redirected shockwave, leveled in an instant.
Sogetsu's eyes narrowed slightly as he fixed his gaze on the figure stepping out of the building.
That figure was wrapped in countless shadows, radiating chaos and twisted laws of reality.
"Ōnoki of the Both Scales!"
Sogetsu stared at him, his voice deep.
"I am the Fourth Hokage of Konoha—Uchiha Sogetsu!"
"Uchiha Sogetsu… brat."
Ōnoki's forehead bulged with veins, his voice filled with fury.
"You dare step into my kingdom and slaughter my people? I'll bury you beneath these mountains for eternity!"
How could he not be enraged?
One of the pyramids he had painstakingly built was destroyed—by his own hand.
It turned out that the sword that had just been "twisted" veered off course in a moment of urgency and struck the newly built pyramid tomb.
Not only was the pyramid tomb destroyed, but countless villagers also suffered heavy losses.
Even worse, the village's buildings and citizens were left dead or injured, a disaster that could slow down his ascension ceremony!
"Onoki, prepare to die!"
Uchiha Sogetsu feigned anger, quickly forming hand seals. Within hundreds of miles, the raging wind seemed to be sucked away in an instant. "Forbidden Technique: Demon-Suppressing Culinary Blade!"
"Pathetic mortal!"
Onoki's gaze hardened, and his words seemed to be the source of chaos itself. The very order of the area appeared completely overturned.
As the wind dissipated, a bewildered Uchiha Sogetsu still couldn't understand why his jutsu had failed.
"Curious, are you?"
Onoki stepped forward, standing directly before him. He grabbed Sogetsu's head and shouted in fury, "Let me tell you, Uchiha Sogetsu—you are nothing but a mortal! And I am about to take the final step to become the supreme 'God!'"
Boom!
With that, Onoki crushed Sogetsu's Edo Tensei body with sheer force.
Watching Sogetsu, who still struggled to reform, Onoki let out a cold laugh. He then manipulated his chaotic powers to interfere with the structure of the Edo Tensei, fundamentally altering the effect of the jutsu.
Thus, the Edo Tensei Uchiha Sogetsu was simply wiped out!
"Edo Tensei… Uchiha Sogetsu."
Still seething, Onoki sneered, "Konoha, when I complete the ritual, your end will come!"
*******
Support me on my patreon and read upto 20 early chapters.
https://www.patreon.com/c/Unique_Writer