Chapter 371: The Hero Appears
"Sorry, I understand now."
Konan bowed her head and admitted her mistake. After the Animal Path's reminder, she realized that her earlier choice could have exposed Nagato's location and endangered him.
Still, she was concerned about one thing—why had the Six Paths suddenly lost control earlier?
"Are you alright?" Konan asked.
"I'm fine," said the Animal Path, and then added, "Naruto isn't in the village. I'm going to use that. You should leave."
With that, chakra was drawn out of the other five Paths, and they all collapsed.
Konan was clearly worried, but Li Yao—disguised as Nagato—had made up his mind. She could only retreat.
A thousand meters above Konoha.
Li Yao's Tendō Pain hovered in the sky, gazing down at Konoha. It was no mere village—it was practically a city. From what Li Yao sensed, there were over 200,000 souls living within its borders.
That population was close to that of a small city in his previous life.
So far, between the battle with Nagato's Six Paths and the summoned beasts, five to six thousand had died. Including Li Yao's earlier attack, the total was barely six or seven thousand.
Unlike other towns in the Land of Fire, every resident in Konoha possessed chakra—even civilians. It was just that their chakra was too weak to make them ninja.
Their physical resilience was decent, too. So while Konoha looked like a ruined wasteland, the actual death toll wasn't high.
At least from Li Yao's perspective.
"But now, the real slaughter begins."
Li Yao's Tendō clenched his fist. A terrifying pressure swirled around it, compressing outward force like he was crushing raw energy.
That was precisely what he was doing.
He had compressed immense repulsive force into his fist, containing it so it didn't disperse.
Only Li Yao's chakra control made this possible—not even Madara could do it.
Thanks to his absolute chakra control, he could combine the Rinnegan's attraction and repulsion powers in terrifying ways.
The earlier slash that bisected the entire village horizontally was one such example: compressing repulsion into a thin ring, then releasing it in a circular wave like a Wind Release slash.
The thread that sliced Kakashi in half used the same principle—only with gravitational force.
Now, he was compressing massive repulsion again, but this time in a new way—like an air cannon made of pressure, forming a bomb of pure force that would explode on impact and decimate the surroundings.
He didn't know the exact scale of the damage it would cause.
But it certainly wouldn't be weaker than Nagato's original Chibaku Tensei.
"Stop!"
"Pain!"
Below, Tsunade, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, saw Li Yao's Tendō raise his fist. She didn't know what was coming—but her instincts screamed danger.
"Don't do it!"
"Damn it!"
Inside the interstitial space, Jiraiya stood helplessly, shouting in anger.
"This is bad! Protect yourselves!"
"Use Earth Release to defend—quick!"
"Run!"
The Konoha shinobi who noticed Li Yao's movement all reacted in panic. Everyone realized a devastating large-scale jutsu was incoming and scrambled to act.
Chaos erupted across the village.
On the eastern wall of Konoha, Shima the toad gazed at the panic below. She didn't need an explanation—she understood what was happening.
At that moment, another toad landed behind her.
"You're summoning Naruto, right? Got it."
Shima's eyes sharpened. No words were needed—she understood the message from Mount Myōboku. She immediately began weaving hand seals.
Meanwhile, in the sky—
Li Yao's Tendō raised his fist and hurled it down at Konoha.
BOOM!
The world exploded.
"Shinra Heavenly Fist!"
BOOM!
The entire village detonated like an overinflated balloon. Earth roared, air pressure exploded, stones blasted outward in all directions.
RUMBLE!
The shockwave of debris surged like a tsunami. Konoha's towering outer wall shattered. Blood and bodies were swept away by the wave of pulverized stone, crashing toward the outskirts.
"What was that sound?!"
Ten kilometers outside the village, Team Guy—returning from a mission—heard the detonation and felt the tremor in the ground. Their expressions changed at once.
"That's… no—it's the village!"
"Hurry back!"
Might Guy turned toward the village. He had already been feeling uneasy after seeing so many birds fleeing from Konoha. Now, hearing this explosion, he couldn't stay calm.
Neji, Tenten, and Lee also realized something was terribly wrong.
The four of them raced toward Konoha at full speed.
"Not bad."
In the sky, Li Yao's Tendō looked down.
Compared to Nagato's Shinra Tensei in the original story—which didn't even destroy the village wall—this time, the entire outer wall was gone, and rubble had piled up over a hundred meters beyond the village.
With one attack, Konoha's surviving population—except for the tens of thousands deep within the Hokage Rock shelters—had been almost completely wiped out. Even those in underground bunkers had mostly died.
Only thanks to Katsuyu shielding a portion of the population were some spared. Without that, the death toll would've been even greater.
But even with Katsuyu's help, only about 70,000 of Konoha's original 200,000 residents remained.
Fortunately, most survivors were ninja. At least some of Konoha's power had been preserved.
But with casualties this high, there was no need to count bodies. Just looking at the massive crater, like an asteroid impact, made Tsunade collapse in despair.
"Unforgivable!!!"
"Absolutely unforgivable!!!"
Sakura was in just as much anguish.
"What is this…?!"
"How did it come to this…?!"
She stared blankly ahead. The Konoha she once knew was gone. All that remained was a giant hole.
Despair flooded her heart. And the first person who came to mind wasn't Sasuke—it was Naruto.
"Naruto, please… come back soon!"
"I'm begging you—Naruto!"
She fell to her knees, tears of sorrow and helplessness pouring down her cheeks as she screamed for Naruto.
And as if answering her desperate cry, a puff of white smoke rose in the east side of the crater.
"What perfect timing…"
"Heh… No, it wasn't luck. It was me."
As Sakura called out, Naruto appeared like a hero, answering the people's desperate hopes—just like fate had written it that way.
Only… it wasn't fate.
High above, Li Yao's Tendō smiled. It wasn't destiny—it was design.
Without him, Naruto wouldn't have arrived in response to Sakura's cry.
"But now that the protagonist has appeared, it's my turn too."
"Sage Chakra… I've been waiting."
Elsewhere, on a mountaintop, Li Yao had cast a genjutsu to control Konan, then created a shadow clone to guard his main body.
He himself entered the interstitial space using Spirit Possession—and flew straight toward Naruto.
(END CHAPTER)
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