"Kawa-nii!"
A call full of surprise and dependence suddenly pierced the suffocating silence. Hyuga Kawa turned his head at the sound.
He saw Naruto Uzumaki abruptly break free from Iruka's still-shocked embrace. Like a fledgling bird returning to its nest, he bolted over without hesitation.
He plunged into the blood-scented area and tightly hugged Kawa's leg.
"Naruto?" Kawa looked down at Naruto's face, which was alight with worry and joy.
The icy coldness and sharp severity in his eyes melted and receded visibly, like spring snow meeting warm sunlight.
The ferocious, chilly demeanor on his face was replaced almost instantly by the familiar gentleness everyone knew.
"Whew..." Kawa exhaled, revealing a genuine, warm smile. He reached out and lightly ruffled Naruto's blonde hair. "I'm glad you're okay."
This natural transition, the change in expression and tone, made it seem as if the person who had just coldly and crushingly executed a powerful enemy was someone else entirely.
Kawa raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the people in the shelter. With an appropriately concerned look on his face, he asked gently, "Is everyone... alright?"
"Shizune-senpai, how are the casualties? Do you need any more help?"
The familiar tone and attitude dissipated the fear among the crowd. People snapped back to their senses.
"N-No, we're fine!"
"Lord Kawa! We're okay!"
Replies came in, but the tone was inevitably laced with restraint.
Their gazes were still fixed on Kawa, but the emotion in those eyes had quietly changed.
If before it was respect and affection.
Now, that respect was overlaid with awe and burning admiration for his power.
A person of great renown who is kind and gentle is certainly loved.
However, a true powerhouse with the strength to sweep away all threats is the one who can provide them with the most solid, unshakable sense of security.
A leader who is as cold and ruthless as the deepest winter to his enemies, yet as gentle as a spring breeze to his comrades, is the perfect leader in most people's eyes.
The image Kawa presented now undoubtedly fit that description.
"Kawa."
Shizune also recovered from her shock. She looked at Kawa with mixed emotions, though mostly with the relief and comfort of surviving a catastrophe. She said, "We are severely lacking in medicine and equipment."
"Alright," Kawa nodded. "Tally the headcount and the resource shortage. I'll figure out a way."
His gaze swept across the room again, looking at the injured, the civilians, and the ninja who were watching him with burning eyes.
"Everyone," Kawa raised his voice slightly.
"The crisis is not yet completely over, but please trust that as long as we are still standing here, we will never let the enemy hurt..."
Before he could finish, a sound of laughter suddenly broke out.
"Heh... heheheh..."
The faces of everyone present changed instantly. Their gazes shot toward the cracked rock wall, toward the virtually unrecognizable "corpse" embedded in the stone!
There, En Oyashiro was folded at an extremely unnatural angle. His breathing was shallow and fading, barely perceptible, and blood continued to gush out.
But he wasn't completely dead. A weak, hoarse laugh, intermittent like a leaking bellows, wafted from his mouth.
"You... you think... it's over?"
He struggled to lift his head. The shattered sunglasses on his ruined face finally slipped off and fell to the ground, revealing the long, thin black rod piercing his nasal bridge.
That black rod was emitting an extremely faint chakra fluctuation.
The fluctuation seemed to be transmitting some sort of message.
En Oyashiro had called in a bombing strike.
"None of you... will escape."
The twisted, insane smile on his lips widened. His lips moved, and he used his last ounce of strength to utter a curse-like voice: "All of you... will perish with me..."
The instant his voice fell, as if to confirm his vicious curse.
Sensing something, everyone, including Kawa and Naruto, abruptly looked up at the ceiling of the shelter!
Almost simultaneously with their gaze.
BOOM!!
A terrifying explosion erupted from directly above the shelter!
A column of searing white energy, thick enough to blanket the entire shelter, pierced through the heavy rock layers like a spear hurled by a god, violently thrusting into the underground space!
The light instantly devoured everything!
In Naruto Uzumaki's deep blue eyes, there was only the white that filled his entire vision, consuming all color and shape.
He didn't even have time to register any sound. He only felt a searing torrent, strong enough to melt steel and vaporize rock, surge towards him like a tsunami!
The shadow of death, cold and real, clutched at his throat!
Just as the pure white light was about to completely engulf him, Hyuga Kawa fiercely turned around, pulled the stunned Naruto into his embrace, and positioned himself between the boy and the intense light.
"No..."
Naruto's eyes snapped wide open, his pupils shrinking. Blood vessels spread across his eyeballs. A surge of unprecedented helplessness and terror washed over him, almost drowning him.
Why am I so weak?
Why do I need others to protect me?
Why can't I do anything against an enemy like this?
In that instant, a memory slammed into Naruto's mind.
It was from a combat class at the Ninja Academy, right after he had lost to Sasuke Uchiha yet again.
He was sitting on the ground, watching Sasuke's retreating back, his fists clenched, his nails digging into his palms.
"Sensei," he had asked in his mind, "What do I have to do to gain the same power as Sasuke?"
However, the voice in his head did not answer him directly.
Instead, another, more impatient voice replied.
It was the voice of Kurama, the Nine-Tails.
"It's instinct," Kurama said without hesitation.
"Instinct?"
"That's right, instinct!" Kurama continued. "The instinct to completely crush! To kill! To bite down! To chew the enemy to shreds!"
"That deepest, most primitive, purest desire for slaughter and will to survive—I don't see any of that in you."
"You always fight with logic, but against pure power, logic is useless."
"You clearly yearn to wield my strength, yet you are afraid, locking me down with chain after chain."
"How can you truly master my power like that?"
The memory receded like a tide.
The chord of logic that Naruto had always kept tightly strained finally snapped.
BOOM!!
In the depths of his bloodshot eyes, a savage crimson color surged out. Nine-Tails Chakra erupted from his body!
Alongside the "Nine-Tails Chakra," the golden chains that bound his "instinct" also burst forth.
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