Above the Hidden Stone Village, the red-cloud black cloak on Uchiha Feng burned with an eerie, demonic flame.
He looked like an emperor commanding fire, projecting an overwhelming presence that seemed impossible to oppose.
Among the four split bodies created by Shiraishi, Uchiha Feng had pushed his Kekkei Genkai to its absolute limit due to the Sharingan Orbs. His Mangekyo Sharingan was now just a single step away from reaching the Eternal Mangekyo realm.
At the same time, the collective consciousness network formed by Shiraishi and his various split bodies had manifested within the underground base as a colossal "Brain of Thought." This massive processor handled the vast majority of combat analysis and data simulation.
The entire battlefield environment of the Stone Village, alongside the movements of Onoki and the other Stone shinobi, was laid bare under its watchful gaze.
Uchiha Kaede took a half-step forward, hooking his left hand and flicking his wrist. A ghostly streak of crimson flame shot out, slithering low across the ground. Simultaneously, he swung his right arm in an inverse wrist-flick, hurling a dark solar fire toward his enemy's head.
Despite his advanced age, Onoki—who used his Earth Release to lighten his body weight and physical burden—arched his back slightly and leaped forward with explosive speed. He dodged the assault while gathering a brilliant silver light in his hands.
Boom!
The fireball detonated, sending streams of fire dancing wildly through the air. Onoki's clothes were torn at the chest, his flesh quivering from the impact.
However, thanks to his Earth Release-reinforced physical defense, his body was only slightly blackened. His defensive power was truly astounding!
This old man is even older than Hiruzen Sarutobi, but he can really put up a fight. No wonder he managed to withstand the bombardment of several humanoid puppets.
The Will of Stone was fundamentally about unyielding resilience, and Onoki's combat style perfectly embodied that very philosophy.
Uchiha Kaede's eyes flashed with a cold light. He instantly activated his Mangekyo ability, Land of the End. Black flames erupted across the sky, releasing an endless barrage of dark fire that rained down like a meteor shower.
Immediately after, Uchiha Kaede slammed heavily onto the ground. The earth shuddered violently as if struck by a gargantuan boulder.
In the blink of an eye, he used a Body Flicker Technique to appear right at Onoki's side, swinging his arm with crushing force toward the old man's body.
The massive clay golem beneath Onoki's feet extended its right arm. Leveraging its sheer height and reach, it slapped downward at Uchiha Feng's head with blinding speed.
With a thunderous explosion, the chaotic dark flames around Uchiha Kaede converged into a massive hand of fire. It forcibly halted the clay beast's arm in mid-air. Uchiha Kaede then condensed a ball of blood-red light at his fingertips, instantly shattering the giant creature's body into pieces.
"Dust Release! How is this possible..."
"Heh, Master Onoki. My Dust Release was taught to me by you personally, after all."
In that instant, Uchiha Kaede's voice morphed seamlessly into Deidara's. Onoki's consciousness wavered for a split second. Taking advantage of the lapse, a dark blade of fire pierced straight through Onoki's chest, spilling fresh blood across the ground.
"Deidara... You are Deidara..."
Though it felt like a genjutsu, Onoki knew with absolute certainty in that moment that it was Deidara's voice. He could not comprehend why his most prized disciple would be mixed up with a rogue Uchiha.
"Are you that desperate to know the truth?"
Having enhanced his chakra with the Hero's Water, Onoki was an incredibly formidable opponent. To break his battle state, Uchiha Kaede deliberately chose to unmask Deidara's identity to disrupt the old man's mental fortitude.
As expected, the moment Deidara was mentioned, Onoki's mental focus faltered. It was clear that he still held his former student in incredibly high regard.
In fact, when news of Deidara's death in the battle at the Rain Village first arrived, Onoki had locked himself in his room for days without stepping out.
When people grow old, their emotions become fragile...
"Old man, you shouldn't be acting like this."
Deidara's voice echoed once more. The moment Onoki looked up, Uchiha Feng's features gradually morphed, shifting bit by bit into Deidara's appearance.
Although Deidara had long since perished in the Rain Village, his consciousness had not fully vanished. Instead, it had become a direct component of the Brain of Thought, assisting in the daily management of Shiraishi's thought network.
"Who on earth are you?!"
Amid a roaring explosion, Uchiha Kaede caught Onoki's incoming fist with a single hand: "Your Super Weighted Rock Technique isn't nearly as heavy as it was before."
"Lord Tsuchikage!"
Seeing their leader's body run through by a sword and his fist locked down by the enemy, the surrounding Stone shinobi prepared to surge forward in support. However, Onoki snapped back to reality and barked a fierce command: "Stay back and watch! This is my battle!"
Onoki's aura turned razor-sharp once again. His body began to swell rapidly as chakra from the clay beast below fed back into him, causing his physical frame to grow stronger by the second.
"This is..."
Onoki let out a cold laugh. "Explosion Release is, boiled down, just an alternate application of Dust Release. Anything Deidara could do, I can do too..."
At this moment, Onoki seemed to revert to his younger years, turning into a blackened, fully grown man. He threw a straight punch forward. As Uchiha Kaede blocked it, a high-temperature explosion instantly erupted across his arm.
What?
Using a Body Flicker, Uchiha Kaede managed to evade further harm, but the sheer force of the blast had completely blown apart one of his arms.
Fusing Dust Release into his own body to act like an unstable atomic fission device?
In the original timeline, Deidara possessed a similar self-detonating technique. By using his heart's chakra pathways to mix Explosion Release chakra directly into his clay, his body would slowly turn black until it vanished.
His chakra would then condense into a black sphere before bursting into a blinding, expansive explosion that vaporized everything within its radius.
Yet Onoki's version was even more devastating. He was fusing Dust Release directly into his physical form, crafting an ultimate, self-destructive finishing move.
Before his consciousness fully faded away, he would remain locked in a continuous self-destruct cycle against Uchiha Feng.
As expected of a Kage. Every single one of them holds an unexpected trump card.
Hashirama Senju had his Golden Light Pure Land, and Onoki had the Hero's Water paired with a self-destructive Dust Release...
However, everything ends here!
Under the overriding properties of the Sharingan Orbs, Uchiha Kaede switched the Mangekyo in his right eye to an alternate Sharingan stored within the orb. An overwhelming dark energy instantly spread out across the surrounding world.
The dark energy, symbolizing death itself, merged with the black solar fire hanging in the sky, causing the very light to warp and mutate. The moment Onoki witnessed this technique, his expression twisted in sheer horror.
From that dark sun, he could sense an aura identical to his own self-detonating Dust Release—only it was vastly more intense and violent.
Trait: Dark Aura!
The combination of Land of the End and Dark Aura elevated the power of the black sun to its absolute zenith. With the destructive force of Dust Release further infused into the mix, it formed Uchiha Feng's ultimate killing blow.
The destructive capacity of this single sun was ten times greater than the Red Sun that had struck the Hidden Leaf Village in the past.
Uchiha Kaede then commanded the dark sun, hurling it directly down toward Onoki's position.
Onoki had no way to dodge. If he chose to evade, the remaining shinobi of the Stone Village standing behind him would inevitably be swallowed whole by the black sun...
Left with no alternative, Onoki looked up at the descending black sun. A faint smile crossed his face, and he charged straight into it head-on...
A colossal, dark mushroom cloud rose into the sky, illuminating the heavens above the Hidden Stone Village. Onoki had used the very last remnants of his strength to completely neutralize and shatter the dark sun.
Ultimately, Onoki dissolved before the eyes of the Stone shinobi, reduced to nothing but a cloud of dust.
"Grandfather!"
Kurotsuchi's final cry echoed like a single teardrop falling upon the blue stone of the village, splashing across the entirety of the settlement.
The fall of the Hidden Stone Village signaled the absolute collapse of the five great ninja villages' system.
The final countdown orchestrated by Shiraishi entered its second-to-last day. Following Onoki's death in battle, the new leader, Kitsuchi, followed the late Tsuchikage's final directives and chose to disband the village.
Shortly thereafter, the Daimyo of the Land of Earth officially issued a decree of unconditional surrender...
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