Tera no longer knew how much time had passed.
Living had become unbearable.
Hunger. Suffocation. A deep, bone-melting exhaustion.
His limbs felt weak—though that hardly mattered anymore, since he no longer had any.
He was on the verge of collapse.
At first, he thought he would starve to death.
But every time he was about to cross that line, Hyūga Akira would pour water mixed with food scraps down his throat, forcibly keeping his broken life going.
He wanted to die.
More than anything.
"Uu… ugh…"
Tera opened his mouth and let out hoarse, broken sounds. He couldn't take it anymore. He just wanted release.
Akira saw the struggle in his eyes.
Calmly, he picked up Tera's severed tongue and began stitching it back together—while also repairing his lungs.
During this time, Akira's medical ninjutsu had even leveled up once.
"Aa… ah…"
Tera tried to speak, but the numbness in his mouth made it impossible to form words.
"Take it slow. No rush," Akira said patiently, waiting for him to adjust.
After a while, Tera finally regained enough sensation in his tongue. Breathing smoothly again gave him a fleeting sense of rebirth.
"Wo… wo shuo… rang… wo si…"
His speech was slurred and distorted, hard to understand.
But Akira nodded in satisfaction.
Once he fully adapted, his words would become clear.
Truth be told, this hadn't been easy for Akira either.
Food wasn't an issue—his inventory had more than enough to last for months.
Chakra, however, was a serious problem.
Closed Room Swim didn't consume much chakra per moment, but it drained continuously, day after day.
Fortunately, Akira wasn't using other jutsu. Even so, he'd had to rely on Greater Mana Potions to keep going.
Despite using them sparingly, both bottles were now gone.
He was at his limit.
And at last—Tera was about to talk.
Just as Akira finally exhaled in relief—
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two sharp objects burst out of nowhere, piercing straight through the two Nen fish.
The fish let out faint cries, dissolving into white particles before fading away completely.
Without the Nen fish sustaining him, Tera's face relaxed.
Life finally left his body.
[EXP +18,879]
Akira immediately scooped up the three dropped items into his inventory.
At the same time, he formed twin blades in his hands and spun around—
Clang!
He blocked another sharp object that burst from the shadows. The force slammed him back against the wall; the attacker's strength was far greater than his own.
The next instant—
His figure vanished from the sealed underground chamber.
Aboveground.
Akira stood with both blades drawn, scanning his surroundings.
No follow-up attack came.
The attacker had already withdrawn.
He ran his fingers along the blade and picked off a tiny fragment, rubbing it between his fingers.
"…Wood."
Akira's gaze darkened.
Though his interrogation had been interrupted, he no longer needed answers.
Everything was clear now.
In the current ninja world, there were only two entities capable of Wood Release.
Uchiha Madara and Black Zetsu—two ancient schemers.
And it definitely wasn't Madara who had acted.
If Madara had made a move, Akira wouldn't have been given any chance to survive.
That left only one possibility.
Black Zetsu.
That also explained how Tera had always known Akira's location.
A White Zetsu must have been tailing him the entire time, relaying information.
How Black Zetsu and Tera were connected, Akira didn't know.
But one thing was certain—
He was now on Black Zetsu's radar.
"…Is it because of Nagato?" Akira muttered.
That was the only explanation he could think of.
He wasn't an Uchiha.
He wasn't a Senju.
He had nothing to do with those two—except for having taught Nagato.
Jiraiya had also trained the three orphans, yet Black Zetsu hadn't targeted him.
Was it because Jiraiya was strong… and Akira wasn't?
Was there no justice in this world?!
Even if Black Zetsu was the one who acted, the one pulling the strings was undoubtedly Uchiha Madara.
Madara was bound to the Gedo Statue, unable to move, relying entirely on Black Zetsu to act for him.
Akira clenched his teeth.
"Uchiha… Madara!"
He hadn't provoked them in any way. All he'd done was give Nagato some guidance.
And yet this?
For now, his level wasn't high enough to "farm" Madara.
So he'd carve this grudge into his memory.
Turning around, Akira sprinted toward the city.
The cave wasn't far—after about ten minutes, he reached the city where he'd first entered the Land of Rain.
But—
Flames raged within the city. Thick black smoke rose into the sky. Entire districts had been reduced to rubble.
"…What happened here?"
Standing atop the city wall, Akira stared in disbelief.
He rushed toward Nagato's home.
By the time he arrived, it was nothing but ruins.
Activating the Byakugan, he scanned the wreckage.
Several Konoha shinobi lay motionless among the debris.
But there was no sign of Nagato's family.
Akira frowned.
"When did they leave…?"
He couldn't tell what had happened to Nagato's parents—but with Madara lurking in the shadows, the outlook was grim.
"…The timeline's been accelerated."
With a sigh, Akira knew it was too late to look for Nagato now. He had no idea which direction the boy had gone.
All he could do was hope Nagato survived.
Just then, two figures dashed in from the distance and stopped in front of him.
"A Hyūga?" one of them said warily.
"We didn't hear about any Hyūga reinforcements."
Both Konoha ninja eyed him cautiously.
With Transformation Jutsu so common, trust between shinobi was thin.
Akira looked them over—one was from the Inuzuka clan, the other had no visible clan crest.
"I'm from Hiruko's unit," Akira said.
"Shinobi ID: 005188. Hyūga Akira."
"Hiruko's unit?"
The two exchanged looks. "Commander Hiruko already returned to Konoha."
Akira blinked.
…What?
He'd only been gone a short while—how had Hiruko already been replaced?
He pointed at his eyes, the veins around them bulging clearly.
"This should be proof enough, right?"
That was precisely why they hadn't attacked him on sight.
"Come with us to the frontline camp," the unmarked ninja said, clearly the leader.
"No problem," Akira nodded.
He needed to find out what had happened anyway.
He'd only interrogated Tera for less than a month—
Yet it felt like the world had completely changed.
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