The monks trembled.
"The abbot… is dead…"
A ripple of panic spread through their ranks. In the next instant, they seemed to realize what their own fate would be.
They tried to resume chanting.
But one after another, their eyes widened in horror—
Their bodies no longer obeyed them.
They could not open their mouths.
They could not even shift their gaze.
The night sky was pitch black. The full moon hung high above, bathing the hunter's encampment in pale silver light.
Torches burned brightly across the open ground.
The Uchiha slowly clawed their way back to clarity, still dizzy as they looked between the cabin and Kazuki standing before them.
Shock.
Relief.
Then exhilaration.
On the stretcher, Tamao's pupils were unfocused. His voice was weak, but the first thing he said was not about himself.
"Big brother… can you make sure that family of three doesn't die here?"
"That man treated us sincerely. Gave us his best food."
"He's already miserable enough."
"And that baby… yeah, it's loud, but it's actually kind of cute."
Tamao's body was covered with wounds inflicted by Wind Release chakra.
The Buddhist chanting had tortured his mind.
And the moment he woke up, he began rambling—pleading with Kazuki on behalf of strangers.
"Alright," Kazuki said.
Tamao's eyes immediately brightened.
"Then… big brother, when you kill those bald monks, cut them a few extra times and put it on my tab."
"I'm not afraid of going to hell for killing monks. Put yours on my tab too!"
Kazuki gave him a flat look.
"…Focus on getting treated."
"Okay."
Tamao immediately shut his mouth.
Nono had not fully recovered her composure yet. For a brief moment, she even found the brothers' conversation strangely amusing.
But her hands never stopped working.
After swallowing the soldier pill, she crouched beside Tamao and spread her palm. Green medical chakra blossomed in her hand as she resumed treatment.
Kazuki's voice remained calm.
"How long?"
"Eighteen minutes."
Still dazed, Nono gave her estimate and glanced back toward the cabin.
The bodies inside.
The carnage.
Her eyes widened behind her round glasses.
Four of Konoha's top jonin.
Plus the Fire Temple's abbot.
All… dead.
Nono stared without blinking.
So her gamble had been correct.
If she had refused to cooperate—
She would likely be lying among those corpses.
The Uchiha looked at Kazuki, his white robes stained with blood, and finally released the breaths they had been holding.
Then their gazes drifted toward the cabin.
Their expressions mirrored Nono's shock before reality returned to them.
This was Kazuki.
The Uchiha who had dared to assassinate Danzo—
And succeeded.
If he could do that, then killing a few jonin…
What was there to be surprised about?
"The two with the waist sashes embroidered with the Fire Country crest," one Uchiha murmured, "they were probably from the Guardian Ninja Twelve, right?"
"Yeah," another replied hoarsely. "That monk was the Fire Temple's abbot. And the bearded man leading the pursuit… he was the Third Hokage's son."
The conversation faded halfway through.
Even saying the identity aloud made their stomachs tighten.
Izumi, Mikoto, and Nanpu's group had all recovered enough to stand.
Their eyes were complicated as they stared at Kazuki's back.
This man…
He had killed the Hokage's son.
The Fire Temple had mobilized in full force.
The Uchiha had believed they were doomed—
Yet once again, Kazuki had dragged them back from the edge of the abyss.
Izumi's beautiful dark eyes shone. Her admiration for Kazuki deepened into something heavier.
Mikoto's gaze flickered. Something tangled passed through her eyes before disappearing.
The Uchiha's quiet discussion reached Nono's ears.
Her hands suddenly trembled mid-treatment.
"The Third Hokage's son…?"
Nono turned her head and looked back toward the cabin.
Her eyes locked onto Asuma's corpse.
And now that she truly examined his face—
He did resemble Sarutobi Hiruzen.
A little too much.
"The Hokage's son is dead," Nono thought.
Her pupils trembled violently.
She knew exactly what that meant.
Hiruzen would erupt.
He would investigate.
He would dig up the truth with blood-stained hands.
And if anyone discovered that Nono had been present tonight—
Konoha might no longer have a place for her.
Not everyone knew that Asuma was Hiruzen's biological son.
But Nono did.
She wrestled with her thoughts—
Even as her medical chakra continued flowing into Tamao's wounds.
Then she saw something that made her throat go dry.
Kazuki… was walking toward the monks without hesitation.
The Uchiha, now fully recovered, moved with practiced coordination, forming a defensive ring around Tamao.
At the front of the clearing, along the rough mountain path—
Kazuki looked down at the seated monks.
Then his senses caught something.
Their minds were struggling violently, trying to break free from Yachiman's control.
Under the moonlight, one monk's face twisted against his will—
And then his neck exploded.
A pale, blood-smeared head forced its way out from beneath the skin at a grotesque angle, as though something had been growing inside him all along.
Its hair was the color of green algae.
Its face was plain, lifeless, and wrong.
Its pupils were dull and corpse-gray.
It stared at Kazuki with a smile that did not belong on anything alive.
Pop—pop—pop—
The same thing happened again and again among the monks.
The sounds were sharp and obscene—
Like melons bursting open.
Red and white matter splattered across the ground.
A sickening stench filled the air.
"Ghh… aaah…"
The monks, still bound by Yachiman's control, could not even scream properly as the parasites inside them awakened.
Only broken sounds scraped from their throats.
"What… what are those?!" one Uchiha shouted, his scalp going numb.
"How can something like that exist in the shinobi world?!"
Even the battle-hardened Uchiha felt their skin crawl.
Hands tightened around sword hilts.
The smell—sweet and rotten at once—made their stomachs churn.
Nono froze as well.
She had seen war.
She had seen death.
But this—
Was the first time she had witnessed something so grotesque.
Kazuki narrowed his eyes.
"White Zetsu…"
Through his perception, he could sense the creatures awakening inside the monks, greedily devouring their chakra.
When the monks had climbed the mountain, Obito—lurking nearby—had planted Zetsu spores inside them.
They had been nothing more than incubators.
"Go peacefully," Kazuki said quietly. "Move on."
His Mangekyo Sharingan rotated.
He seized the remaining chakra within the monks—what little White Zetsu had not yet consumed.
Boom—
Heavy, dull sounds echoed from inside their chests.
One after another, the monks died where they sat.
A form of "nirvana," at least in appearance—
Escaping the inhuman torment of being devoured alive from within.
And with that—
The Fire Temple fell.
But not all of them died before the incubation completed.
Some monks, possessing greater chakra reserves, finished the process before death.
One body birthed one White Zetsu.
Some birthed two.
Some birthed three.
They dropped to the ground with wet thuds, grinning like starving animals.
"Delicious chakra!"
"Uchiha!"
"Kill them all—taste that irresistible chakra!"
The White Zetsu surged forward, pale and naked, sprinting directly toward Kazuki.
They did not fear death.
They did not even understand it.
Far away, on a tree branch—
Obito watched coldly.
Behind the mask, the corner of his mouth curled upward in a warped smile.
He wanted to see how many waves of White Zetsu Kazuki could endure.
Even a Mangekyo Sharingan consumed chakra.
Eventually, Kazuki would run dry.
And when that moment arrived—
It would be the perfect time to strike.
…
In the clearing before the cabin—
"Protect Captain Kazuki!"
Nanpu roared, drawing his blade as his three-tomoe Sharingan ignited.
The other Uchiha followed immediately, charging straight into the swarm without hesitation.
There were only eleven of them.
And the number of White Zetsu far exceeded the number of monks—
Creatures twisted into something between human and monster by the chakra they had devoured.
The Uchiha collided with the wave.
In the very first exchange, they were swallowed by it—forced into brutal one-against-many combat.
Beside Nono and Tamao—
Izumi drew her sword.
Then she felt it.
A soft but firm hand on the back of her own.
She looked down.
Mikoto was holding her hand.
Mikoto's face was expressionless.
But the three-tomoe Sharingan had appeared in her eyes.
She took the sword from Izumi's hand and spoke quietly.
"This place needs someone to hold the line."
"I'll break into the melee."
Before Izumi could protest, Mikoto bit down on her resolve, discarding the calm composure of a clan leader's wife.
Her body blurred into motion.
She swept past Kazuki like a black shadow and entered the battlefield.
Steel flashed.
A White Zetsu's head spun into the air.
Mikoto had lived as a housewife for years—
But before that, she had been an Uchiha with three-tomoe Sharingan.
Kazuki watched her.
On her emotionless face he saw something chilling.
Resolve.
Not the resolve to win.
But the resolve to die if necessary.
He turned back toward Nono, whose eyes were still trembling.
His voice remained calm.
"You only need to keep treating him."
Nono nodded quickly and continued healing.
From those pale monsters, she felt death breathing down her neck.
If she wanted to survive tonight—
She had to rely on the Uchiha.
So she chose to trust Kazuki again.
Kazuki's Mangekyo Sharingan scanned the battlefield, tracking the White Zetsu approaching from all directions.
They ran like beasts.
Leaping and clawing with unnatural strength, eager to tear apart their prey.
Kazuki stood still.
The damaged sword in his hand—chipped and ruined—was driven into the ground.
Then he reached into empty air with his right hand.
Space rippled like water.
A long black blade appeared in his grasp.
It was darkness forged into steel.
Cold.
Silent.
Its presence made the night itself seem pale.
Under the moonlight—
The Dark Moon absorbed the light and returned nothing.
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