"Ugh."
How cloying.
Yun Muyan suddenly felt that he would rather fight this damned old man.
With a disgusted and indignant expression, he took two steps to the side, pulled out the short sword that had been knocked away earlier from his feet, and returned in front of the old geezer.
He neatly chopped down the thing he had always dreamed of killing, then wiped the blood from his hands with the opponent's sleeve, and finally exhaled a turbid breath.
Having taken care of everything that needed to be done, he raised an eyebrow at the young man: "Let's go." Before his words fell, he had already walked quite a distance.
The young man quickly followed, still feigning innocence: "I haven't said anything yet."
"Saving me isn't just so I can work for you, is it?"
"Ah, our Ayan is so smart."
Yun Muyan muttered in a low voice: "Don't call me so intimately, it's disgusting."
"That's how we show we're good friends," the young man said with a grin, leaning closer, "Why don't you call me that too?"
"Then what's your name?"
"I…"
The young man's fingertips touched the mask on his face, and he was silent for a long time.
It wasn't until the two emerged from underground, precisely at the moment the last ray of sunset disappeared below the horizon.
The world lost its last trace of light, and then, the stars gathered into a brilliant Milky Way, dominating the night sky.
He stood upright under the infinite stars, holding his hands out, as if welcoming the cheers of all living beings in the world.
"My name is Jin."
"Jin, as in ashes."
"I am an evil spirit born from the ashes of others' burning."
"Revenge and battle are my mission."
"Until the entire hypocritical and rotten Ninja World is burned to ashes, I will not stop."
"Yun Muyan, be my companion."
He extended his hand to the person who was also enveloped by darkness and unable to stop struggling, with the starlight of the heavens as witness.
"After the great fire extinguishes, I will create a new world from the ashes."
"Sounds interesting."
Yun Muyan felt that he had finally encountered something amusing in his boring and cruel life, and reached out to grasp the hand of his first friend.
Suddenly remembering something, he smacked his lips and asked: "Just in case, let me understand first, how many of us are there right now?"
Jin raised his hand and made a 'V' sign, happily replying: "Two people."
Yun Muyan closed his eyes, his intuition telling him that the future was bleak.
"With just this, you still want to create a new world?"
"We're just starting, you know. When we grow bigger and stronger, you'll be the vice-leader."
"That's more like it. So what do I do now?"
"You go stay with an organization for a while… I still have some trouble to deal with here…"
"Tsk, can you even do it…?"
…Watching Yun Muyan leave with a White Zetsu, heading towards their destination, Jin leaped from the top of the giant tree, landing lightly, and squinted at the shadow of a large tree to his front left.
A nearly ethereal black humanoid figure emerged from it, nodding at him.
"As a separated will of Lord Madara, why are you always so sneaky?"
Jin's face, hidden behind his mask, held a playful expression as he teased: "Could it be, Black Zetsu, that you are the darker part of his Lord Madara's heart?"
Black Zetsu did not answer this question, but professionally conveyed the order: "Lord Madara said to return quickly once things are done. He doesn't have much time left and needs to teach you many things urgently."
"I feel Lord Madara can still last for many years."
Jin — or rather, the sub-personality performed by Uchiha Naraku — slowly reverted to his original appearance, his looks also regressing to his youth.
The youthful disguise earlier was a special transformation jutsu that wouldn't reveal any Chakra abnormalities nor be easily broken. Its only drawback was that it could only transform into different age stages of himself.
However, for him, this was just right.
Black Zetsu urged helplessly: "You'd better hurry, I can't help you if Lord Madara gets angry."
"Alright, alright."
Naraku stomped on the ground, and another White Zetsu emerged from beneath his shadow, twisting and deforming its body to wrap around his clothes, carrying him as they used the Mayfly technique to move rapidly towards the Mountain Prison… Meanwhile, at the cliff where Uchiha Naraku fell.
Uchiha Entō and Uchiha Fūyō arrived, travel-worn, and gasped at the sight of the cliff that had clearly collapsed and broken not long ago.
The area for several hundred meters was completely ruined and desolate, with overturned soil and rocks scattered chaotically across the ground.
It was as if countless beasts had burst forth from deep underground, churning the earth into the current state of collapse and disarray.
A massive gap at the distant cliff edge, like a mark left after being violently smashed, spoke of how enormous and terrifying the perpetrator must have been.
It had been nearly a week since the incident, so remaining clues were likely scarce, but the Uchiha had their own methods to find traces left by their clansmen's Chakra.
Entō unrolled a scroll; the intricate incantations on the paper, stimulated by residual Chakra, seemed to come alive, moving and swirling everywhere.
"First Lightning Release and Fire Release… then…"
Fūyō, meanwhile, summoned his Ninja Cat, Hiyori, asking her to help confirm the scent.
Although Ninja Cats' sense of smell was slightly inferior to Ninja Dogs, it was still much stronger than humans, and Hiyori's sniffing talent was exceptional even among Ninja Cats.
"It's here, meow~"
Hiyori trotted to a spot near the cliff, pawing at the dirt a couple of times to indicate Fūyō should look there.
"There's the smell of blood, meow~" Hiyori explained, peering over the edge of the gap, "And it's very strange, it suddenly started here, and then abruptly disappeared at the very edge there, meow~"
"Blood traces disappearing… consistent with the report of falling off a cliff."
Fūyō thought of the perpetually melancholic young man meeting his end here, and felt a heavy stone pressing on his chest, a constant, dull ache.
He shook his head, temporarily casting aside the worries, and continued to ask in a deep voice: "Where were the others at that time?"
Hiyori sniffed carefully, then moved to a spot two or three steps away: "Here, it seems someone was heavily injured and fell down, meow."
Entō walked over, and seeing the text on the scroll suddenly become chaotic, his eyes darkened abruptly.
"According to the mission report, only the captain, Naraku, and the target were fighting here. If the one who fell was the captain, how did the mission target, after being captured, force Naraku to jump off the cliff?"
"You mean the injured person was the mission target?"
Fūyō's breathing grew rapid, his heart pounding like a drum in his chest, as he realized a truth terrifying for the Uchiha.
"Naraku… he was assassinated by his companion, the captain…"
After a brief moment of chaos, the runes transformed into a swarm of tadpoles, circling into a whirlpool on the yellowed scroll page, slowly rotating.
Even though the realization of the truth had profoundly shaken him, Entō instinctively analyzed the clues displayed by the scroll.
"Not a Five Elements Release, but vast, intense—"
"This is… Dōjutsu Power (Pupil Power) unique to the Uchiha…"
"Mangekyo?!"