This guy...
He still hadn't gone all out, even now!
Looking at Uchiha Yuzuru standing there so effortlessly, Ōnoki finally lost all strength and collapsed onto the ground.
At that moment, he looked like a frail old man at the end of his life, with none of the vigor and pride he once had.
Everything he had clung to his whole life now felt like nothing more than a joke.
In the distance, the Iwagakure shinobi stared blankly at the gigantic Susanoo that pierced straight into the sky.
They swallowed with difficulty, feeling as if every last bit of spirit had been drained from their bodies.
"So that's the man Lord Tsuchikage was fighting?"
"Even a Tailed Beast would probably look like a kitten in front of that demonic giant."
"No wonder Lord Tsuchikage told us to surrender. Even if all of us charged together, we probably still wouldn't be a match for Uchiha Yuzuru alone."
"This time... Lord Tsuchikage is probably finished."
Unlike the Iwagakure shinobi, the ninja on Yuzuru's side wore nothing but excitement on their faces.
Especially the Uchiha clan.
This was the might of the Uchiha clan's Mangekyō Sharingan!
Who in the entire shinobi world could possibly have the courage to stand before such power?
Seeing the envious looks from the comrades around them, the Uchiha clan members proudly straightened their backs.
The Uchiha clan...
Was the noblest clan in the shinobi world!
"Ōnoki, is there anything left that you can't accept?" Yuzuru asked, waving a hand and dispersing the Susanoo before looking down at him.
Ōnoki shook his head gloomily. "I've exhausted every option. You win."
"Kill me."
If Uchiha Madara had once left an indelible shadow in his heart, then Yuzuru had now made him fully understand reality.
Even if he were given another hundred years, he still would never gain the power to defeat the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Some things were decided from the very moment one was born.
Put simply...
Ōnoki had been beaten into submission.
Looking at the old man sitting there waiting for death, Yuzuru gave a quiet snort. "When did I ever say I was going to kill you?"
Ōnoki looked up in confusion. "Isn't that how you've always treated your enemies?"
"Besides... I was fighting with the full intent to kill you just now."
At those words, Yuzuru suddenly threw his head back and laughed.
"Hahahahaha... Ōnoki, an elephant doesn't care about the provocation of ants, and the bright moon doesn't worry about fireflies stealing its light."
"That fight just now? It was just a bit of entertainment."
Hearing that answer, Ōnoki felt even more miserable.
For a moment, he couldn't even tell whether Yuzuru was mocking him on purpose or not.
After shaking his head, he still said, "The village is already gone. What face do I, as Tsuchikage, still have to keep living?"
"Tsuchikage?" Yuzuru raised a brow and smiled. "Ōnoki, from the moment you lost, you stopped being Tsuchikage."
"The current Tsuchikage of Iwagakure is Kitsuchi."
"So stop clinging to your title. Right now, you're just an old man with a bit of strength left."
Only then, during their conversation, did Ōnoki realize that the hundred-thousand-strong army Yuzuru had gathered had already entered Iwagakure without issue.
And Kitsuchi had been elevated as the new ruler of the village.
Now Ōnoki was even more confused. He looked at Yuzuru and asked, "Why do I feel like you're treating me far too well?"
"Is there still something this old man has that you can use?"
Yuzuru patted him on the shoulder and said flatly, "You're overthinking it. I just think you're not a bad old man. Back when the Uchiha clan was wandering in exile, aside from Kirigakure, which had already cut off all contact with the outside world, you were the only one who didn't show hostility toward us."
Ōnoki stared at him in disbelief. He had never imagined that such an unintentional act back then would become the reason he was now allowed to live.
As he had originally seen it, he had simply not wanted to act rashly before properly gauging the strength of the Uchiha clan.
For a moment, his heart was filled with complicated emotions.
So Kitsuchi being allowed to live... was probably connected to this too.
In the end, he could only sigh.
"Uchiha Yuzuru... you're really a man impossible to see through."
"I only hope that under your rule, the people of the shinobi world can live prosperous lives."
"You already control the most fertile lands, and yet you've still gone out of your way to do so many thankless things. In that regard, you're better than I am."
Yuzuru shrugged and said slowly, "Within the Uchiha clan, there is a stone tablet. On it are records personally left behind by the Sage of Six Paths."
"This world... isn't made up of only the shinobi world."
Ōnoki never expected Yuzuru to suddenly say something like that.
He asked in shock, "What do you mean?"
The smile faded from Yuzuru's face as he looked at him seriously.
"According to what is recorded on the tablet, the progenitor of chakra was a woman named Ōtsutsuki Kaguya."
"Blessed by humanity, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya gave birth to two children. The elder of them was the Sage of Six Paths."
"Later, the Sage of Six Paths and his younger brother joined forces to seal away Ōtsutsuki Kaguya. Do you know why?"
Hearing such a secret so suddenly, Ōnoki felt as though his thoughts had frozen.
In all the legends passed down through the shinobi world, the Sage of Six Paths had always been revered as the first god, the one who founded Ninshū and taught humanity how to refine chakra.
But now, Yuzuru was telling him that the Sage of Six Paths was the son of a woman named Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, whom he had never even heard of, and that he even had a younger brother.
And the two of them had joined hands to seal their own mother!
If Yuzuru had any reason to lie to him, Ōnoki would have dismissed all of this as absurd nonsense.
He hurriedly asked, "Why did they seal Ōtsutsuki Kaguya?"
Yuzuru answered slowly, "Because Ōtsutsuki Kaguya descended from another planet deep in the cosmos. In order to resist being hunted down by her own kind, she raised humans like livestock and turned them into weapons that obeyed her every command."
"So..." Yuzuru's voice turned low, "the enemies I have always seen are those people from other planets. They are extraordinarily powerful. Only by unifying the shinobi world can we gain the strength to stand against them."
Everything sounded so outrageous that Ōnoki couldn't help asking, "Is everything you're saying true?"
Yuzuru pointed to his eyes.
"These eyes do not lie. When the time is right, I will tell everyone the full truth."
"Before that... help me build the shinobi world."
Now that the shinobi world was on the verge of unification, once the external conflicts disappeared, internal strife would inevitably arise across such vast lands.
He could suppress it by force if necessary.
But it would be far easier to establish a common enemy for everyone instead.
Only with a shared enemy would everyone willingly devote themselves to building the shinobi world.