Noah crouched beside the body, turning it over with casual interest.
He didn't need long.
A fragment of the man's tongue—partially exposed from the violent impact—bore the unmistakable markings of a sealing technique. Subtle, but there.
That confirmed it.
"Of course," Noah muttered. "Figures."
He straightened, brushing his hands off, then lifted his gaze toward the village beyond.
For a moment, he just looked.
Tree-lined streets. Layered rooftops. The carved faces of past leaders watching over everything like silent guardians.
"It's a nice place," he said quietly. "Really."
A faint smile followed.
"Shame it won't last the day."
And then he vanished.
—
The crowd outside the Hokage Tower hadn't dispersed.
If anything, it had grown louder.
Demands echoed through the street, voices stacking over one another in a chaotic rhythm.
"We can survive anything else… but Noah Vale has to die!"
Even Hiruzen, standing at the center of it all, felt the pressure closing in.
Behind him, Danzo Shimura watched with a thin, satisfied smile.
Everything was proceeding exactly as he intended.
His operatives had already been dispatched.
By now, Noah Vale should be dead in some forgotten corner of the village.
Problem solved.
—
Then came the sound.
A strange, brittle cracking.
Sharp. Repetitive.
Out of place.
"What is that?" someone muttered.
The noise grew louder.
More distinct.
Like stone under impossible strain.
People turned, searching for the source.
And then they saw it.
High above the village—at the carved mountain where the Hokage faces stood—something was… wrong.
Very wrong.
A figure stood there.
Small.
Insignificant, compared to the mountain.
One hand buried deep into the stone.
Noah.
His fingers were sunk into the forehead of the Third Hokage's monument.
And he was pulling.
The mountain answered with a scream of cracking rock.
A deep, grinding rupture that rolled through the air like thunder.
The entire formation began to shift.
Not crumble.
Not collapse.
Move.
"No… no way…"
"What is happening?!"
Panic rippled outward.
The ground trembled.
The carved faces—symbols of the village's legacy—tilted, broke free, and rose.
Not just the surface layer.
The entire mass beneath it.
A colossal section of earth and stone tore itself from the mountain, uprooted in one impossible motion.
Dust exploded outward as the mass lifted higher.
Hundreds of meters across. Hundreds more in height.
A chunk of the world itself, wrenched free.
And Noah held it.
From a distance, he was barely visible.
A speck beneath something vast enough to blot out the sky.
But the truth was undeniable.
He was carrying it.
—
For a moment, the village forgot how to breathe.
Some thought it was a miracle.
Others thought it was the end.
Ninja saw it for what it was.
Power.
Raw. Absolute. Beyond anything they could measure.
Even Orochimaru, watching from afar, felt his thoughts stall.
"This… isn't technique," he murmured.
This wasn't skill.
This wasn't strategy.
This was force.
—
Movement broke the paralysis.
Ninja surged forward, racing toward the mountain's base.
"Stop him!"
"What is he doing?!"
Hiruzen ran with them, voice cutting through the chaos. "Noah! Stand down!"
Noah glanced down.
And smiled.
Then he moved.
With a sharp exhale, he hurled the entire mass downward.
—
The sky fell.
Stone screamed through the air, dragging a storm of dust and wind behind it.
The pressure alone crushed movement, pinned bodies in place.
People couldn't run.
Couldn't think.
Couldn't do anything but watch.
The village—their home—about to be erased in a single impact.
Ninja formed hand signs instinctively, trying to respond.
Trying to stop the impossible.
But even as they moved, the same thought spread through all of them:
How do you stop something like that?
—
It hit.
Or rather—
Something hit it.
A violent shockwave exploded outward as the falling mass shattered mid-descent.
A single point of impact.
A single force pushing back.
The massive structure fractured, breaking apart into a storm of debris that rained across the village.
Buildings crumpled.
Walls collapsed.
The ground split.
Even reduced, the destruction was catastrophic.
—
Above it all, Noah hovered, watching.
Below, a figure stood amid the wreckage.
Muscles strained. Skin flushed. Energy burned off him like steam.
Might Guy.
He looked up, fury blazing in his eyes.
"What did you just do?!"
Noah tilted his head slightly, amused.
"Starting strong, huh?" he said. "Going all out already? That explains how you managed to stop that."
His tone was almost approving.
Almost.
Then he began to descend.
Slowly.
Casually.
—
The surrounding ninja closed in, forming a loose perimeter.
Tense. Ready.
Waiting.
Noah touched down lightly.
"You're asking what I'm doing?" he said, glancing around. "Did anyone tell you your people tried to kill me a few minutes ago?"
Several faces tightened.
Of course they hadn't.
"Was that Danzo?" someone muttered.
Guy's stance shifted slightly. "So this is retaliation?"
Noah shook his head.
"No."
His smile widened.
"Even without that, I was going to do this anyway."
Silence fell.
Heavy.
Uncertain.
"I didn't come here for revenge," Noah continued. "I came here to end this place."
No hesitation.
No pretense.
Just truth.
A few people flinched.
Others stiffened.
Kakashi stepped forward slightly, eyes locked on him. "This is about Sasuke, isn't it?"
Noah glanced at him.
"Partly."
Then, without warning, the space around him twisted.
Kakashi's eye snapped wide.
Kamui.
The distortion locked onto Noah—
—and passed through him.
Like trying to grab a shadow.
Kakashi staggered slightly, blood slipping from his eye.
"…Intangibility," he breathed.
Noah stood untouched.
Watching.
Unbothered.
"You've got a lot of tricks," Kakashi muttered under his breath. "Would've been nice if the book mentioned that."
Noah chuckled softly.
"Where's the fun in that?"
—
Around them, the village burned.
And this was only the beginning.