Faced with an opponent whose speed and raw offensive output had been compounded several times over, the final measure deployed by the Third Hokage was the Reaper Death Seal.
The Reaper Death Seal was a highly advanced, ultra-high-intensity sealing technique originally engineered by the Uzumaki clan.
By weaving the hand seals in the precise sequence of Snake - Boar - Ram - Rabbit - Dog - Rat - Bird - Horse - Snake and slamming one's palms together, the caster could directly summon the Shinigami (Death God).
Once manifested, the Shinigami would utilize its blade to sever the target's soul, dragging it directly into its abdomen to bind it permanently.
The exact volume of the extracted soul was dictated entirely by the mental output of the caster.
However, the exact millisecond the hand seals were finalized, the caster effectively established an absolute, binding contract with the Shinigami, surrendering their own soul as payment.
This meant that once the target's soul was fully consumed, the caster's soul would simultaneously be dragged into the Shinigami's stomach.
Within that void, the souls of the user and their victim would endure an eternity of absolute hatred, locked in endless, violent conflict, completely severed from the cycle of reincarnation.
This was the absolute strongest sealing art of the Uzumaki clan, reserved exclusively to execute a mutual double-kill against an otherwise unstoppable adversary.
Naturally, a specific methodology to undo this seal existed: by guiding the Shinigami to possess one's own physical vessel and slicing open its stomach, the sealed souls could be liberated, effectively breaking the seal at the cost of the liberator's life as a sacrificial offering.
Under normal circumstances, unsealing the Reaper Death Seal served no purpose other than allowing the bound souls to return to the pure land for reincarnation.
Before the emergence of advanced resurrection mechanics like the Reanimation Jutsu (Edo Tensei), very few people in the shinobi world paid any attention to the reversal of this technique.
Grip locking Uchiha Kaede's body, a flash of absolute, unforgiving ruthlessness manifested in the Third Hokage's eyes.
Simultaneously, countless specialized sealing chains erupted from beneath his feet, binding Kaede to his position with an iron grip.
"Heh, is this the same technique used to seal the Nine-Tails?"
The countless Sharingan dotting Kaede's flesh discharged an eerie, volatile light as he violently thrashed to shatter the bindings.
Yet, illuminated beneath that very glow, one side of the Third Hokage's face had already been severely charred into a blackened mass by the surrounding firestorm.
Even though his flesh was actively burning, the specialized chain sealing matrix the Third Hokage initiated was a unique formula handed down directly by the Uzumaki lineage.
As the Shinigami's spectral sickle slowly descended through the air, Kaede's vision and consciousness began to experience a sudden, violent distortion.
"You old bastard... you..."
Kaede's face turned completely livid. The Sharingan in his primary eyes erupted with a localized blast of blue flame, detonating directly against the Third Hokage's torso.
"Drag yourself down to hell along with me, Uchiha Kaede!"
The Third Hokage wasted no breath on useless sentimentality. Unlike his past encounter with Orochimaru, he harbored no complex emotional lingering; the Shinigami's blade slowly closed the distance toward Kaede's core.
"Lord Third!"
Several Anbu operators watched in absolute horror from below. It was glaringly obvious that their Hokage was deploying a forbidden sacrificial art to drag the enemy down with him.
The various heads of the Jonin sectors, including Nara Shikaku, could only observe the scene with an overwhelming sense of helplessness.
Tonight's Uchiha Clan Extermination campaign could be classified as an absolute, unmitigated tactical failure.
Although the village had technically succeeded in wiping out the Uchiha clan infrastructure, the desperate counterattack launched by the Uchiha prior to their demise had effectively bled Konoha dry.
On the adjacent sector of the battlefield, Unohana Retsu's Zanpakuto danced with lethal precision.
The gleam of her blade left continuous trails of white light, constructing a flawless, uninterrupted offensive net.
The sheer vacuum generated by her slashes produced pressurized wind blades that caused both Obito and Itachi to grow increasingly alarmed the longer they fought.
An almost mathematically perfect deployment of high-speed movement paired with an absolute mastery of swordsmanship—who on earth was this woman?
Furthermore, she showed absolutely no signs of physiological fatigue. Obito continuously utilized his intangibility to evade her vectors, but as the skirmish progressed, his instincts flagrantly screamed that something was amiss.
"Are you... Rei?"
A familiar trace of chakra fluctuation caused Obito to suddenly recognize the true biological owner of Unohana Retsu's physical vessel.
Unfortunately for him, Unohana had absolutely no cognitive data regarding that name; her sole response to Obito's query was an even higher velocity sequence of slashes.
No, that's impossible...
Rei never possessed physical capabilities of this caliber. Could it be that her internal system harbors the same Ice Style Kekkei Genkai blueprint as Rei?
Although it wasn't overtly pronounced, the chilling frost coating the edge of the blade and the mirage-like illusions that manifested intermittently forced Obito to become exceptionally cautious.
Evidenced by his actions, the numerous failures and structural setbacks he had endured over the recent years had completely stripped away the arrogant, overconfident demeanor he possessed at the start of his journey.
Locked in a continuous, unyielding assault that seemed entirely immune to exhaustion, Unohana's aggressive pacing successfully pinned down both Itachi and Obito.
Simultaneously, her focus drifted toward the specialized spiritual energy manifesting atop the crimson sun.
Rather than defining it as a "Death God," it was structurally closer to a specialized medium engineered to interface with spiritual entities.
Engaged in her high-speed dance against Itachi and Obito in the distance, Unohana naturally took note of the Reaper Death Seal deployed by the Third Hokage.
The Shinigami materializing within that formula was likely a specialized spirit-manipulation construct or a summoning medium unique to this world's system.
Regardless of the universe's baseline parameters, an established order must inevitably exist to maintain equilibrium between the mortal plane and the afterlife.
Within Unohana's original world, that checkpoint manifested as the Seireitei and the Soul Society; this world, conversely, operated on the blueprint of the Pure Land and the Shinigami summoning mediums.
In any case, it was a regulatory system designed to govern souls. Almost as if it actively perceived the nature of Unohana's gaze, a drop of spectral sweat inexplicably rolled down the forehead of the Shinigami hovering behind the Third Hokage.
Although they operated under entirely different cosmic parameters, the baseline aura of a supreme, sovereign deity emanating from Unohana's soul sent a violent jolt of alarm through the Shinigami of this world.
However, bound by the ironclad constraints of the Reaper Death Seal formula, it was forced to continue cooperating with the caster to execute the soul extraction within the designated timeframe.
The sealing scroll flared to life. Watching Uchiha Kaede's soul get forcefully extracted and bound into the scroll matrix, the Third Hokage's face turned deathly pale as he stared at the youth opposite him.
Uchiha Kaede's primary Mangekyo Sharingan gradually dimmed into a dull gray, and the countless Sharingan lining his flesh closed one after another.
Although the crimson sun remained suspended in the sky, the intensity of the spreading fires began to lose its momentum.
Did we... succeed?
Just as a faint, exhausted smile surfaced on the Third Hokage's face, signaling his intent to terminate his stance, a violent wave of scorching kinetic energy violently swept across the entire surface of the crimson sun.
Kaede's primary eyes snapped open once more. As the Mangekyo configuration spun rapidly within his irises, a chilling, mocking sneer curled his lips. "I am deeply textually sorry to disappoint you, Lord Hokage... but your Reaper Death Seal has critically failed."
How is this mathematically possible?!
Though his mind screamed to continue the struggle, the finalized terms of the contract could no longer be deferred. His physical systems collapsing entirely, the Third Hokage slowly overbalanced, falling limply to the ground...
"The Uchiha Kaede fractured into existence via the Heaven curse of the five Phantom is, from a structural standpoint, fundamentally distinct when it comes to the alignment of his physical vessel and soul.
The entity targeted and extracted by the Shinigami's seal was merely the original soul that was native to this specific Uchiha body. Therefore, the current Uchiha Kaede cannot be bound by that seal, because from a fundamental source level, he is not Uchiha Kaede."
Outside the perimeter of Konoha Village, Shiraishi observed the colossal crimson sun hanging in the sky, an enigmatic glint dancing within his eyes.
Although Kaede had successfully bypassed the absolute lethality of the Reaper Death Seal, the extraction process had nonetheless forcefully severed a portion of his baseline system, severely fracturing his soul structure and inducing a violent desynchronization between his consciousness and his physical vessel.
Atop the crimson sun, although Kaede had successfully survived the Third Hokage's final strike, he no longer possessed any meaningful surplus of reserves to continue personal engagements against Konoha's remaining forces.
The Sharingan Orb slowly uncoupled from his chest, reverting to its original baseline state. Simultaneously, Kaede pushed his Turbo Flame trait to its absolute absolute limit.
"Before I depart, Konoha shall receive my ultimate parting gift... Taste the true depth of the Uchiha's agony!"
At that exact millisecond, grotesque black sunspots erupted across the surface of the crimson sun. Under the horrified, paralyzed gazes of Konoha's surviving populace, the dark sun detonated violently in mid-air, unleashing a unique, highly volatile wave of chaotic chakra energy.
"This is disastrous... this energy signature..."
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