At the Uchiha front line, a lone cliff stood suspended.
The harsh northern wind carried the smell of blood and dust from the battlefield, howling as it swept across the cliff's peak, shaking the withered trees at the edge until they rustled and trembled.
Uchiha Katsu stood alone atop the rocky cliff. His standard high-collared Uchiha uniform fluttered violently as the cold wind poured through it.
Now past fifty years old, he was no longer the sharp and reckless man who once crossed the river in white robes.
Frost had already stained his temples, and the eyes that once terrified the ninja world had long lost the arrogance of youth.
In this war-torn era where the average lifespan was short, being nearly fifty already counted as advanced age.
"Clan Leader."
An Uchiha elder hurried over with a bow, his face pale and lifeless.
Seeing this, Uchiha Katsu let out a faint sigh in his heart.
'Here we go again. Definitely not good news...'
"Our army's final total offensive… has collapsed."
"With the harsh winter approaching, supplies of food and weapons can no longer keep up. If we keep dragging this out, the entire army will be trapped and starve to death on this battlefield…"
When the elder finished speaking, the cliff top fell into silence.
Only the mournful howl of the wind passed through the empty air, lifting the slightly graying hair at Uchiha Katsu's temples and sending it dancing across his forehead.
Katsu said nothing for a long time, his back still standing perfectly straight.
After a long while, a heavy sigh finally escaped his throat.
"I understand. You may leave."
Katsu's voice was hoarse, his gaze fixed ahead.
"Pass down the order. The entire army will prepare to withdraw."
"The main force will retreat first. I will personally lead an elite unit to hold the rear, setting up decoys to delay the Senju pursuit."
Uchiha Katsu's voice carried deep disappointment.
"Yes!"
Hearing this, the elder's tense heart finally relaxed. He quickly bowed in acknowledgment and hurried away to relay the order.
Once again, Uchiha Katsu was left alone on the cliff.
Standing against the fierce cold wind, Katsu looked toward the direction of the Senju clan in the distance. A towering unwillingness churned in his eyes, as if it might swallow him whole.
How could he accept this?
Back then, he crossed the river in white robes, leading the clan's elites in a thunderous strike. In one decisive push, he captured the northern and southern banks of the Naka River, beating the Senju clan until they dropped their armor and fled in defeat.
At that time, he was full of spirit and confidence, believing that with a mere flick of his hand he could flatten the Senju ancestral lands, destroy this long-time enemy, unify the ninja world, and bring an end to this chaotic era.
Back then, Uchiha Katsu truly believed he could unify the ninja world.
But who could have expected the situation to suddenly reverse, dragging the war into a twenty-year stalemate.
The Uchiha never feared a brutal fight. They had thought the Senju were merely making a desperate last stand and would not hold out long.
But the Senju clan seemed to have gone mad, defending their territory inch by inch without retreat.
The Sarutobi clan rushed to support them with all their strength, while the Uzumaki clan aided them through bloodline bonds. Their sealing techniques and immense chakra became an impassable barrier before the Uchiha.
After twenty years of bitter fighting, the Uchiha had not advanced even a single step.
What chilled Katsu to the core even more was that the Senju clan had suddenly produced a new figure... Senju Hiroshi.
A young man only twenty years old had stepped onto the battlefield and immediately displayed astonishing talent, managing to confront him head-on and becoming a new wall the Uchiha could not overcome.
"Damn it! These useless eyes!", Uchiha Katsu suddenly raised his hand and tightly covered his eyes.
His knuckles turned white from the force, while sharp needle-like pain and soreness stabbed deep into his eyes, the backlash of his pupil power reaching into his bones.
"Damn it…", Katsu growled under his breath, grinding his teeth as his entire body trembled slightly.
Ever since awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan, he had already foreseen the fate of these eyes.
Brief power in exchange for irreversible blindness.
Katsu's Mangekyo was not a brute-force enhancement type of ocular ability. Instead, it was a mechanism that defied fate itself.
Over the years, he had done everything possible to suppress his pupil power, rarely using the Mangekyo's abilities.
Yet even so, the damage to his eyes grew heavier day by day, and now they were already on the brink of complete blindness.
"Why?!", Katsu suddenly raised his head and roared unwillingly into the howling wind.
"Why did the ancestors of the Uchiha clan never leave behind a way to solve the Mangekyo's side effects?!"
"Such heaven-defying eye techniques, yet they come with a deadly curse… did the ancestors never study a way to break it?! Or… did they never reach the same point I have?!"
No one answered.
Only the cold wind carried his roar away into the emptiness of the cliff.
Decades of obsession, twenty years of brutal war, the dream of unifying the world that was so close yet forever out of reach, and the approaching fate of blindness…
All of the despair and unwillingness exploded at once, shattering his once steady and cold temperament.
Uchiha Katsu was about to lose control.
In the end, he spoke words similar to those once said by Uchiha Izumichi.
"The will of heaven!!! The will of heaven!!! Everything is the will of heaven!!!"
Uchiha Katsu threw his head back and roared at the sky like a madman. Bloodshot veins filled his crimson eyes as the frost at his temples whipped wildly in the storm.
He looked exactly like a trapped beast driven into a corner by fate, no longer resembling the powerful ruler of the ninja world he once was.
The Uchiha elder who had just descended the mountain heard the wailing from the cliff and shuddered, quickly turning his head.
"What the hell was that noise?", The elder scratched his head. When he saw Uchiha Katsu going mad on the cliff, a chill ran down his spine.
"This is bad. Is the clan leader still sane?"
"What if this attracts the Senju clan?"
The Uchiha elder looked utterly troubled.
———
[Somewhere Else]
"Huh?! What was that noise?"
"Why does it sound like Uchiha Katsu's voice?"
Senju Hiroshi scratched his head, looking puzzled.
He was patrolling with several elite Senju warriors when they suddenly heard someone shouting "will of heaven, will of heaven" from a certain direction.
Senju Hiroshi immediately spread out his senses, and soon detected a familiar chakra.
"So it really is him?!"
"What exactly is stuffed inside Uchiha Katsu's head? How could he make such a low-level mistake!"
A look of joy appeared on Senju Hiroshi's face. Today his luck had really struck big.
"Clan leader? What's going on?"
The Senju elites behind him looked confused.
A faint smile appeared on Senju Hiroshi's face. "It's our old enemy, Uchiha Katsu! Come, follow me and capture him!"
Hearing this, the Senju elites immediately showed excited expressions.
———
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions and the sounds of ninjutsu rang out through the forest.
Blood streamed from Uchiha Katsu's eyes as he fled wildly. Behind him were Senju Hiroshi and several elite Senju warriors.
"Hahaha, the will of heaven! The will of heaven!"
"It's the will of heaven that let the Senju clan discover me! Damn this will of heaven!!!!", Uchiha Katsu laughed in fury, running while laughing madly.
At this moment the Uchiha clan was in the middle of withdrawing. At his current location, it was impossible for them to arrive in time to help him.
Uchiha Katsu fled all the way until he finally reached the edge of a cliff.
But the three large characters before his eyes struck him like a bolt of lightning.
"Falling Katsu Cliff?!"
Uchiha Katsu looked at the three characters carved beside the cliff, then looked down at the bottomless abyss beneath his feet.
The three characters looked as if they had been carved by a giant hand.
As if it were another arrangement of heaven's will.
Uchiha Katsu laughed.
"Katsu! Surrender now! You have nowhere left to run!"
Senju Hiroshi looked at Uchiha Katsu with a cold gaze.
This generation's reincarnation of Asura felt nothing but hatred toward Uchiha Katsu.
After all, hatred was also a kind of bond.
"Hahahaha!!!! Senju Hiroshi, you are not my opponent at all. If not for my eyes, you would have died long ago!"
Uchiha Katsu said with a miserable laugh, his eyes still closed.
Suddenly, he shouted toward the sky.
"Will of heaven, if you want me to die, then I'll die for you to see!"
The moment the words fell, Uchiha Katsu jumped off the cliff without hesitation.
Senju Hiroshi was shocked and moved to act, but it was already too late.
———
At the bottom of the cliff, Uchiha Katsu slowly opened his eyes. What entered his sight was a gigantic Katsu with nine enormous tails.
"I… didn't I die?", Uchiha Katsu muttered.
The Nine-Tails looked extremely speechless, "You idiot. If I hadn't instinctively caught you, you really would have died."
"But… but isn't this Falling Katsu Cliff? Wasn't it heaven's will that wanted me to die here?", Uchiha Katsu said weakly.
"Falling Katsu Cliff?"
The Nine-Tails scratched its head, then said, "Yeah, I wrote those words. Back then I accidentally fell from up there, so I just gave it that name."