The water dragon roared toward Chiya, but in the instant before it reached him, it struck nothing.
Chiya's figure vanished from where he had been standing like a phantom. The afterimage left by the Body Flicker Jutsu traced a clean arc through the curtain of rain.
"Three-tomoe Sharingan, open!"
The crimson eyes looked especially eerie in the rain. The three tomoe spun at full speed, tracing and recording every path of the enemy's jutsu.
Chiya's hands moved quickly through the signs. Chakra surged through his body.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu!"
An identical water dragon condensed rapidly at his side and roared back at the Rain-nin.
The water dragon slammed into the group, scattering several Rain-nin in an instant. Their screams were swallowed by the sound of the rain.
The other Konoha ninja, however, were not so fortunate.
Caught off guard by the sudden attack, they scrambled to fight back, but were driven into a desperate position by one Water Release jutsu after another.
One Chunin took a water dragon head-on and was slammed hard into a tree trunk, coughing up blood.
"Damn it!"
Chiya clenched his teeth and swept his gaze across the battlefield.
Orochimaru stood not far away. A trace of cold intent flickered in his golden slit pupils.
He quickly flung shuriken at the enemy, then formed rapid signs and said in a low sharp voice.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Countless shuriken split off from the originals and broke apart in the air into a dense rain of blades that poured down on the Rain-nin.
Immediately after, he bit his finger and slammed his palm against the ground.
The earth shook violently. Several giant snakes burst up through the soil and lunged at the enemy with their jaws wide open.
The Rain-nin scrambled to dodge. Their formation broke apart in an instant.
However, the ninja of Amegakure seemed to have prepared for this.
They adjusted their formation quickly, working in practiced coordination as they performed a combined jutsu.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
A massive wall of water rose up and blocked the shuriken and the snakes.
At that same moment, Hanzo finally moved.
He stood on high ground, forming hand signs.
Purple poison mist mixed into the rain and came rolling down over the Konoha group.
One Konoha ninja accidentally inhaled the mist and immediately turned pale, collapsing to his knees and foaming at the mouth.
One after another, ninja fell. The Konoha side of the battlefield was plunged into a desperate situation in an instant.
Orochimaru swept his gaze over the fallen Konoha ninja.
"Useless."
Within that cold stare was nothing but killing intent.
He understood. This was clearly an ambush they had walked into, and the Konoha people here simply could not match the other side.
And the one in charge of Amegakure had even come himself.
Orochimaru shifted his gaze and let it settle on the last one still standing. Chiya.
"Chiya-kun, you are on your own now."
With disaster closing in, Orochimaru knew that he could barely protect himself, let alone look after Uchiha Chiya.
Preserving himself was the only thing that mattered.
'Life really is too fragile.'
Orochimaru thought to himself. His desire for eternal life burned even more intensely.
He bit his finger and pressed it against a summoning scroll. When the white smoke cleared, Orochimaru's figure had dissolved into it and vanished.
Chiya knew. Orochimaru had run.
He held his breath. His Sharingan spun furiously as he searched for an opening to retreat.
But the Rain-nin's assault only grew fiercer. Poison techniques, Water Release, one after another.
Under Hanzo's direction, they came like a tide.
'This is bad...'
A sinking feeling hit Chiya.
He watched as one ninja after another went down.
In less than five minutes, not a single Konoha ninja remained standing except for Chiya.
Running was not going to be an option either.
Several elite Rain-nin had locked onto him and were closing in fast.
"You are the last one left, Uchiha of Konoha. Time to die!"
The Rain-nin at the front grinned and swung his kunai.
Chiya drew a deep breath. His eyes turned cold in an instant.
'You have all chosen your own deaths.'
'It is time to show them what real ninjutsu looks like.'
A terrifying aura erupted from within him. The rain around him was blasted apart and flew in all directions.
Chiya's eyes transformed suddenly.
The three tomoe twisted, merged, and finally formed into the pattern of a six-petal crimson spider lily. The Rinnegan marking at the center of the flower radiated a light that seized the soul.
"What is wrong with this Uchiha?!"
"His eyes! Were they not three-tomoe Sharingan just now? How did they become this?"
"Is this still a Sharingan?!"
"..."
The Rain-nin charging at the front felt their pupils contract sharply. Their feet stopped without them meaning to.
They had never seen eyes like these. That crimson light felt as if it could swallow a soul whole.
"The Far Shore of the Yellow Springs!"
Chiya's voice came out like a whisper from death itself. His eyes were filled with veins of red.
The eye technique activated. An invisible wave spread outward from Chiya in all directions, like an unseen hand that seized the Rain-nin around him all at once.
Their movements stopped dead. The expressions on their faces froze at the moment of terror.
Then something strange happened.
The Rain-nin at the very front let out a sound that was not quite human. His skin cracked and turned grey at a speed visible to the eye.
By the time the first strand of white hair fell from his temple, his eyes had already dried and shriveled into two brown husks.
His body seemed to have had every trace of life drained out of it. It withered rapidly.
"Ahh!"
A series of piercing screams rang out. With no warning at all, in the space of a few seconds, living ninja had been drained completely and reduced to desiccated corpses, falling lifelessly to the ground.
The battlefield went utterly silent.
A Jonin wearing a gas mask who had been standing nearby collapsed to the ground.
From beneath the mask came the sound of teeth chattering.
His forehead protector was nowhere to be found.
"What kind of jutsu is this? How can it have this kind of power?"
"This... this is impossible!"
"All those elite ninja, just gone like that?!"
"..."
The remaining Rain-nin felt fear spreading through them.
Hanzo's breathing suddenly stopped.
He felt the bone-chilling pressure coming off Chiya.
Those eyes in front of him, six spider lily petals surrounding the Rinnegan marking.
He stared hard at Chiya's eyes. Cold sweat had broken out on his forehead.
It was as if he was looking at something terrifying.
"These eyes... could they be that?!"
Hanzo jolted in shock.
"Retreat!"
Hanzo gave the order without hesitation, and his voice carried a trace of unease.
"Cover me! Leave this place immediately!"
The Rain-nin did not understand why, but the leader's order was not something to question.
They gathered quickly, covered Hanzo, and fell back into the depths of the rain curtain.
Chiya raised his head. His gaze locked onto Hanzo and the rest of his group.
"Trying to run? Too late."
"The Far Shore of the Yellow Springs!"
A trickle of blood ran from his eye and dripped down his cheek.
An invisible surge followed the line of his sight and struck directly at Hanzo and the group with him.
Hanzo suddenly felt a chill run down his back. He thought of how those ninja had died just moments before.
Something hardened inside him. He looked at the subordinate beside him, and with sudden force swung his scythe.
He cut through his own subordinate and used the motion to pull the body behind himself as a shield.
"Ahh!"
A piercing scream tore out from the subordinate.
Hanzo's pupils shook.
From the distance came the heavy crashing sound of trees falling. The trees whose life had been drained were rotting and collapsing one after another.
The rain kept falling, but it could not wash away the smell of blood that hung in the air.
People had been drained dry. Even the massive trees around them had been affected, turning withered.
Hanzo's feet moved even faster as he ran.
Hanzo was the leader of Amegakure, regarded by ninja everywhere as the peak of the ninja world.
He paid particular attention to the bloodline clans of the major villages, especially the Senju clan and the Uchiha clan, the top-tier clans of the ninja world.
In Uchiha Chiya at this moment, Hanzo saw the shadow of Uchiha Madara from years past.
After all, that Uchiha Madara of the Uchiha clan, in his time, had no equal except for Hashirama.
"Faster, faster!"
At this point there was not a trace of the demigod's bearing left in him. He was running for his life, as desperate and wretched as a dog.
"Hanzo, you cannot escape."