Stepping out of the medical wing, Tekka Uchiha hurried to catch up.
"Lord Saiki, the situation on the front lines currently—" he began to report.
Saiki raised a hand to cut him off. "Get straight to the point. Yagura's location, the deployment of the Seven Swordsmen, and where the Mist's main force is concentrated."
Tekka Uchiha snapped into professional focus immediately. "Yes. Yagura is currently stationed at the Mist's primary encampment, located on an island fifteen miles east of the coastline. The Seven Ninja Swordsmen are divided into three sectors, launching attacks in rotation. Their main strength is..."
He quickly mapped out the tactical landscape.
After listening, Saiki asked only one question: "What are the casualty figures for the Uchiha clan?"
Tekka fell silent for a moment, his voice low and heavy. "Thirty-seven dead. Sixty-three severely wounded. Lightly wounded... almost everyone else. The clan's elite has been cut by more than half."
Saiki's brow furrowed slightly at the numbers.
Although the Uchiha had once been his enemies, over the past two years under Fugaku's leadership, they had fought for the Leaf. They had fought for their comrades without retreating or betraying.
And now, they were nearly crippled.
"Fine. I'm going now," Saiki said, preparing to depart.
"Now?" Tekka was stunned. "But you just arrived. Don't you want to rest first—"
"No need." Saiki was already walking out of the camp. "The sooner I solve this, the sooner it ends."
In the heart of the forest, eight Konoha ninjas were circled back-to-back. They were covered in wounds, and their chakra was on the verge of total depletion.
They wore the Uchiha crest. This was clearly a reconnaissance squad sent out by Fugaku that had the misfortune of running into a Mist elite unit.
Surrounding them were thirteen Mist shinobi.
The three leading the group were exceptionally striking.
One was a young woman with long, auburn hair and emerald-green eyes. She was tall, her aura a blend of mature elegance and lethal beauty—the future Fifth Mizukage, Mei Terumi.
Beside her was a tall youth with spiky black hair and bandages wrapped around the lower half of his face, his eyes as fierce as a wild beast's—Zabuza Momochi.
The third was a middle-aged ninja wearing a specialized eye-patch, a faint chakra pulse radiating from his right socket—Ao. The Byakugan he had stolen from a Hyuga main house member turned slowly beneath the fabric.
"Give up your resistance," Mei Terumi said. Her voice was gentle, yet it carried a razor-sharp chill. "Your main force has already retreated. No one is coming to save you."
"The Uchiha do not surrender!" the squad leader rasped. His three-tomoe Sharingan spun in his eyes, but the glow was dim and flickering.
"Foolish pride," Zabuza sneered. He slowly drew the long blade from his back—not the later Executioner's Blade, but a custom-forged steel tachi. "Then I'll send you on your way."
Ao's Byakugan scanned the eight survivors. "Chakra nearly exhausted. Three have internal organ damage, two have shattered bones. We can end this in thirty seconds."
Mei Terumi sighed softly. "Do it."
The Mist ninjas wove signs simultaneously.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!"
"Water Style: Water Fang!"
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Wave!"
Multiple high-level ninjutsu were unleashed, shrieking toward the eight trapped Uchiha!
The Konoha ninjas gripped their blades, ready for a final, suicidal struggle.
But—
Every single jutsu, upon reaching a three-meter radius around the squad, struck an invisible wall.
There was no explosion. No impact.
The water dragons dissolved into harmless splashes. The lightning vanished into static. The earth collapsed, and the thick mist evaporated on its own.
It was as if an invisible hand had simply erased the reality of the attack.
"What?!" Mei's pupils contracted.
Zabuza gripped his hilt tight. "Who's there?!"
Ao's Byakugan whipped toward the depths of the forest. The stolen eye spun frantically, but... he saw nothing.
Or rather, he saw a "void."
There was clearly a person standing there, but in the vision of the Byakugan, that space was a blank white canvas.
It wasn't that the chakra was hidden; it was that the "thing" existing there had exceeded the Byakugan's capacity to perceive.
It was like a mortal staring directly at the sun—the eyes would be scorched, yet the sun itself would remain unmapped.
Footsteps echoed.
Saiki stepped out of the shadows. He was dressed in casual gear, a long tachi strapped to his waist.
His gaze swept across the field, lingering on Mei Terumi for a heartbeat.
"Miss Mei Terumi..." Saiki whispered to himself. "It's been a long time."
Mei shivered violently.
She remembered Saiki perfectly. Two years ago, during the Chunin Exams held in the Leaf, she had participated as a Mist Genin.
Saiki had been a mere child then, yet he had displayed strength and an... inexpressible aura that far surpassed his peers.
She remembered those eyes—calm as a frozen lake. She remembered the effortless way he had dismantled Kisame Hoshigaki.
And now, after a separation, he had matured into this.
His features were handsomer, his temperament more profound. More importantly... that "feeling" rolling off him was now overwhelming.
"Saiki... Shiroya," Mei whispered the name. "The... Monster of the Leaf."
"You flatter me," Saiki said flatly. "You eight can leave now."
He was speaking to the Uchiha ninjas.
They looked like they had been granted a divine pardon, yet they didn't dare move—the Mist still surrounded them.
"Stand down," Saiki repeated.
This time, his voice carried a weight of absolute, cosmic authority.
The eight Uchiha ninjas gritted their teeth and stumbled away through the gap the Mist ninjas had instinctively opened. The Mist shinobi themselves didn't even understand why they were moving aside.
Zabuza's face turned a thunderous shade of grey.
"Hey... brat. Aren't you a bit too arrogant?" He gripped his sword. "You think you can take all of us alone?"
Saiki didn't look at him. He looked at Mei. "You're very beautiful. So, I'll make an exception and give you a warning—take your people and leave. Go back to the Mist. You have already lost this war."
The casual dismissal ignited the Mist's fury.
"Arrogant!"
"Kill him!"
"The Mizukage will—"
"SHUT UP!" Ao suddenly shrieked.
The Mist ninjas froze.
Cold sweat drenched Ao's forehead. The "void" he saw through the Byakugan filled him with a primal, instinctual terror.
If the Byakugan couldn't see through it, and it clearly wasn't a sealing barrier, then the only answer was that the target's existence transcended the eye's insight.
What kind of man is invisible to the eyes of a god?
"Lady Mei," Ao's voice trembled. "Retreat... we must retreat immediately. This person... is not someone we can oppose."
Mei frowned. "Ao, what did you see?"
"I... I see nothing," Ao gave a bitter laugh. "My Byakugan... is useless against him. This can only mean one thing—his power has exceeded the capacity of the eye to comprehend."
The statement sent a chill through the Mist ranks.
The Byakugan, one of the Three Great Dojutsu, the eye that could see chakra networks and every movement within a kilometer... was "useless."
Saiki finally looked at Ao, his gaze landing on the eye-patch.
"The Hyuga Byakugan..." Saiki said softly. "It is a tragedy for it to be stolen by someone like you."
The moment the words fell—
Saiki vanished.
It wasn't a Body Flicker; it was pure physical displacement. He disappeared from the vision and perception of everyone present. One microsecond he was in place; the next, he was at Ao's side.
Ao didn't even have time to blink.
He felt a sudden chill in his right socket, and then... the world began to spin.
He saw his own headless body standing in the clearing. He saw his eye-patch torn away, and that precious white eye gripped in a pale, elegant hand.
He saw Mei's shocked face, Zabuza's horror-stricken eyes, and the paralyzed Mist ninjas.
And then, the darkness swallowed him.
"AO!!!" Mei's scream tore through the air.
Ao's headless corpse toppled slowly, blood geysering from the carotid artery and painting the autumn leaves.
Saiki stood by the body, holding the Byakugan, which was still warm.
He sensed the power within it and felt a flash of disgust.
"Filthy thing."
He closed his hand.
Poof.
The Byakugan was crushed into grey ash within his palm.
"YOU... YOU BASTARD!!!"
Zabuza's logic was incinerated by rage. He gripped his sword with both hands, Water Style chakra coiling around the steel as he transformed into a blue streak of light, charging Saiki!
"Water Style: Water Fang Slash!"
The strike carried the entirety of his strength and technique. He moved with extreme velocity, the blade shrieking as it cut the air!
Saiki didn't even grant him a direct look.
He simply raised his left hand, pressing his index and middle fingers together, and made a casual flick.
A thread of condensed white energy shot from his fingertips.
The line met the steel.
The reinforced ninja blade was severed as if it were made of wet paper.
The thread continued its forward momentum, passing through Zabuza's neck, his chest, and his waist.
Zabuza's forward charge died instantly.
He looked down at the broken sword in his hand, then at the microscopic red line opening across his torso.
"Im... possible..."
Those were his final words.
His body slid apart along the line, splitting into two distinct halves before crashing to the dirt.
Internal organs and blood soaked the clearing.
Silence.
A tomb-like, absolute silence.
The remaining eleven Mist ninjas were frozen like statues, their eyes dilated with shock and terminal terror.
Ao and Zabuza were the strongest among them. One had the Byakugan and decades of experience; the other was the "Demon" famous for his silent killing.
And yet, both had failed to survive a single casual move from Saiki.
It was like a man swatting two flies.
"Kill... KILL HIM!!!" someone shrieked, their voice breaking. "Avenge Lord Ao and Zabuza!!!"
Terror had mutated into a suicidal frenzy.
The remaining ninjas wove signs together, dumping every drop of their chakra into a combined assault!
"Water Style: Great Waterfall Jutsu!"
"Water Style: Water Dragon Biting Explosion!"
"Lightning Style: Angry Thunder Tiger!"
A kaleidoscope of lethal energy illuminated the forest, a literal wall of destruction racing toward Saiki!
This was a combined strike from eleven elites, enough to level a small fortress!
Saiki stood his ground. He didn't dodge.
Around his body, a faint, almost invisible white glow ignited.
The layer was so thin it looked like it would shatter at a touch.
But when the ninjutsu struck, it was like throwing pebbles into a bottomless well. Each technique triggered only a microscopic ripple on the surface before vanishing completely.
No explosion. No shockwave. No smoke.
It was as if the attacks had never existed in this reality.
"M-monster..." A Mist ninja dropped his sword, his spirit broken by the sight.
Saiki slowly raised his right hand, palm toward the sky.
Blue-white electricity condensed in his palm, fracturing into thousands of tiny, dancing arcs.
He had long ago mastered the highest forms of Lightning Style shape and nature transformation. With his current power, he didn't even need signs for this.
"Thunder Tremor."
BOOM!
The lightning in his palm exploded, transforming into eleven distinct bolts of blue-white energy that sought out their targets with sentient precision.
SQUELCH— SQUELCH— SQUELCH—
Eleven rapid, wet impacts followed.
Every bolt pierced a Mist ninja directly through the heart.
No screams. No struggles. The eleven bodies hit the ground simultaneously, their eyes vacant, their lives extinguished.
In the forest clearing, only Saiki and Mei Terumi remained.
And a landscape of corpses.
Mei stood trembling in place.
She looked at Ao's headless remains, at Zabuza's bisected shell, and at her subordinates who had been erased in an eye-blink.
Fury erupted within her like a volcano.
"Boil Release: Skilled Mist Jutsu!!!"
She opened her mouth and exhaled a massive cloud of high-temperature acidic vapor. Everywhere the mist touched, trees dissolved, rocks melted, and the very air hissed with a corrosive "Sizzle."
This was one of her Bloodline Limits—acidic steam capable of melting even Susanoo.
Saiki stood still, allowing the acid to envelop him.
The mist struck his white aura, and the "Sizzle" intensified, but... that was it.
The glow didn't dim. His clothes weren't even singed.
Seeing her Boil Release fail, Mei's rage deepened!
"Lava Release: Melting Apparition Jutsu!!!"
She wove signs again, spitting a thick, viscous, and highly corrosive acidic liquid from her alluring mouth. It looked like a stream of chemical waste.
This was her second Bloodline Limit—the Lava Release.
The acidic sludge slammed into Saiki, coating his white aura.
This time, the glow rippled once.
But only once.
The acid writhed and hissed on the surface of the energy barrier, yet failed to breach it.
Seconds later, the liquid lost its potency and slid harmlessly to the ground as mundane sludge.
Saiki looked down at the puddle of filth, then back at Mei.
"Miss Mei Terumi, your Lava Release," he critiqued. "It's a pity. It can't melt me. And it's quite disgusting."
The words were flat, yet they pierced Mei's remaining dignity like the sharpest blade.
She let out a roar, weaving signs for an even more powerful technique—
But Saiki moved.
One step. Ten meters. He was in her face.
Mei didn't even see the movement before she felt a sudden weight on her neck. A cold hand had clamped around her throat.
The grip wasn't crushing, yet it carried an irresistible will.
Her chakra, her strength, her very will to resist... it all dissolved like ice in the sun the moment he touched her.
She was utterly powerless.
Saiki hoisted her up, holding her like a kitten.
"Let's go," he said, his tone still neutral. "I'll show you... a more desperate battlefield."
He kicked off the ground.
The earth shattered, and they shot into the sky, leaping over the canopy and continuing upward. They trod upon a manifested cloud, hurtling toward the Mist's main camp.
Hoisted in the air, Mei watched the forests and coastline blur beneath them. She saw the massive Mist encampment appearing on the horizon.
The sea breeze carried the scent of salt, and a premonition of... the end of the world.
She finally understood.
Saiki wasn't taking her to a "battlefield."
He was taking her to a... massacre.