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The air snapped back into focus around him.
One moment, Indra was a fading voice inside the Hulk's human form. The next moment, he crashed back into his own chest like a falling star hitting the ground. His lungs burned with a sharp ache, his muscles tightened all at once, and the world rushed back in a wave of sound and smell and heat.
Two days had passed on Uzumaki Island while he was gone. One hour had passed in the Hulk world.
He opened his eyes.
The same beach stretched out before him. The same cracked stone lay scattered across the ground. The same blood stained the earth. The same twisted and broken bodies lay where they had fallen. The sky hung heavy overhead, and the wind smelled of salt and iron. The distant sea crashed against the shore in a steady rhythm that did not care about anything.
Around him, Manda's massive coils were coiled lazily on the sand, his scales catching the thin light. The three Snake Princesses lay curled a short distance away, their reptilian eyes half-closed and their tongues flicking at the air. The air smelled of damp scales and old blood.
Indra sat up slowly.
His veins burned with green.
It was not chakra. It was not natural energy. It was something stranger and hotter, humming under his skin and twisting through the channels of his body like a second pulse. The gamma energy he had soaked in during his time in the Hulk's body had not left him at all. It had fused into him, sliding along his chakra pathways and his muscles and his bones.
"Master Indra," a voice hissed softly, full of reverence.
He turned his head toward the sound. One of the Snake Princesses lifted her head, her slit pupils locking onto his face.
"You are awake."
Indra flexed his fingers, watching the green shimmer beneath his skin for a heartbeat before it faded away. The sensation of the Hulk's power still clung to his bones. The memory of that massive green frame echoed in his muscles.
He looked past the serpent at the corpses scattered across the ground.
Konoha headbands were on them. Leaf symbols marked their armor. The familiar uniforms were torn and smeared with blood.
"Why have you not eaten them?" he asked, his voice low.
"Master," another Snake Princess hissed, her fangs bared slightly, "these are disgusting, smelly insects. Their bodies are filled with an ugly stink. We cannot eat them."
Indra's eyes narrowed. He stepped over the dead bodies one by one and nudged a corpse with the toe of his sandal. The scent of decay and something faintly medicinal clung to the air.
In his previous life, there was a guy in the anime who made all the dark movements behind the scenes. He tried to remember the name.
Danzo, he thought. That was the name.
"This one," Indra murmured to himself.
He straightened up, dust flicking from his armor. The sea wind tugged at his black hair, and his Mangekyō eyes glinted faintly in the light.
I was right, he thought. Konoha sent spies. They came to see if the Uzumaki were still broken or if they had been reborn.
He left the bodies where they lay and walked across the scattered carnage. He stepped onto the soft sand, and the sea wind washed over his skin. The gamma energy hummed beneath his flesh like a second heartbeat.
When he reached the edge of the beach, the Uzumaki elders were already there waiting.
They knelt before him. All of them. The oldest among them bowed low, his hands pressed into the sand. The others mirrored him, their faces turned down and their bodies trembling. The air crackled with reverence. The faint smell of smoke and sea salt clung to their robes.
Indra stopped in front of them, his shadow stretching long over their backs. The sun behind him painted the sky with thin gold and pale red.
"So, all of you are here," he said. "I thought you all would have run away."
The elders flinched at his words, but none of them moved from their positions. The sea wind howled between them. The waves crashed against the shore. The distant village crackled with the faint echo of activity.
Indra's eyes swept over them and then over the island. He took in the broken walls and the aftermath of burning and the new barriers shimmering faintly on the horizon.
"I have one goal," he said, his voice low and calm but heavy as stone. "To rule the entire ninja world. Not this island. Not this clan. The whole world."
He stepped forward, the sunlight catching the edge of his armor. The faint green shimmer in his veins flared once and then faded.
"If anyone opposes me," he continued, "I will kill them. I have no taboos about it. I will not kill the innocent unless they provoke me first. But I will not suffer schemers."
The Uzumaki elders flinched again, their heads bowing even lower.
"I hate the lies of your past," Indra said, his voice sharpening. "The schemes of Uzumaki Mito. Your first and second Hokage. They betrayed me, but everything was my fault in the end. I did not have the strength to break the seal by myself."
His eyes narrowed, and the Mangekyō glinted faintly in the light. "The Senju clan, the Uchiha, they are nothing to me now. I will kill them if they stand in my way."
He turned his gaze back to the Uzumaki. The men and women kneeling before him. The elders trembling. The younger warriors watching from the back with the Uzumaki crest on their sleeves.
"And you," he said. "You, the bloodline of Uzumaki Mito. I once thought about killing all of you and wiping your name from history. I wanted to erase the Uzumaki completely and bury your legacy under this island."
A single breath passed through the air, heavy and thick. The sea wind seemed to freeze in the silence.
"But I changed my mind," he said. "You have one chance. Abandon the Uzumaki name. Take my name as your clan. From this day forward, you are not Uzumaki. You are Indra."
The Uzumaki elders froze where they knelt.
"No," one of them whispered, his voice trembling. "We will not abandon our clan name."
The word hung in the air like a blade waiting to fall.
Indra's eyes flickered. The Mangekyō spun once, the faint red glow swirling at the edge of his vision. The green energy in his veins stirred like a waking storm.
"No?" he repeated, his voice soft and almost gentle.
Then he moved.
The world blurred around him. The air snapped. The elder's body lifted off the ground as Indra's hand closed around his neck. His fingers were like iron bands, and the man's face twisted as his breath cut off. His eyes went wide, and the veins in his neck bulged out.
The Uzumaki warriors gasped. Their hands instinctively reached for their weapons, but none of them dared to move. The elders behind him froze in place, their eyes wide and their hearts pounding hard.
"This is my warning," Indra said, his voice low and calm and deadly. "And this is my last warning."
He leaned in close enough to feel the man's panicked breath and to see the terror in his eyes.
"I hate being interrupted. I hate being disobeyed. You will take my name, or you will join these corpses on the beach."
The elder gurgled, his eyes wide and his fingers trembling. The life was fading from his face.
Indra held him there, suspended in the air. The air was thick with tension. The waves crashed against the shore. The green energy in his veins pulsed like a second heartbeat.
"You have until sunset," he said, his voice cold. "Decide. Indra, or death."
He let go.
The elder collapsed to the ground, choking and coughing and gasping for air. The others scrambled to catch him, their hands shaking and their eyes wild with fear.
Indra stepped back from them. The Mangekyō faded from his eyes. The green shimmer beneath his skin receded, and the gamma energy hummed faintly, content for now.
The Uzumaki clan watched in silence. The weight of the decision hung heavy on their shoulders. The island trembled with the echo of a single word.
Indra.
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