Chapter 277: The Weight of Annihilation
Kirigakure (Village Hidden in the Mist), Underground Cavern.
The air was humid, thick with the smell of wet stone and desperation.
The moment that familiar spatial ripple appeared again—the distortion of light and sound—Ao and Chōjūrō, who had been tending to the scar-faced ninja's injuries, instantly sprang up from the ground. They snapped into a rigid defensive stance.
"It's that guy! The Uchiha monster!"
Ao's single visible eye, his stolen Byakugan, was filled with intense, furious wariness. He spread his arms slightly, positioning himself between the threat and Mei Terumī's presumed location.
"This time, even if it costs me my life, even if he burns my mind... I absolutely cannot let him harm Lady Mei again!"
Although Chōjūrō's face was pale with deep-seated fear, his eyes were exceptionally firm. He gripped Hiramekarei, the unique double-bladed broadsword, tightly in his hands.
The dozen or so other core ninja in the cavern also drew their weapons—swords, garrotes, kunai—as if facing a formidable, inescapable enemy.
Uchiha Akira and Mei Terumī's figures reappeared in the center of the chamber.
"Lady Mei!"
Ao looked first at Mei Terumī. When he saw that she was standing, apparently unharmed, he let out a heavy, shuddering sigh of relief.
But his relief was short-lived. He saw Akira's hand still resting on her arm, a gesture of ownership.
"Let go of Lady Mei!" Ao roared, his protective fury surging.
"Bastard! What did you do to her?! Did you poison her mind with your tricks?!"
The dozen or so rebel ninja's eyes instantly turned blood red with rage. They were no longer mindful of the insurmountable power gap. They roared like cornered animals, charging towards Uchiha Akira!
The Order of Submission.
Uchiha Akira glanced indifferently at the charging companions, their blind fury pathetic in his eyes.
"Your companions," Akira commented calmly, looking down at the futile charge, "do not seem to be very obedient."
Uchiha Akira's voice was utterly calm. But hearing it, seeing the cold dismissal in his posture, made Mei Terumī's body tremble violently.
Looking at her charging companions, the apocalyptic, horrifying scene of their beloved village—mountains crumbling, the earth shattering, flesh and blood vanishing in the terrifying genjutsu—flashed through her mind instantly!
She couldn't let them die for nothing! Not for a fight they could never win!
"Everyone, STOP!" Mei Terumī shrieked, her voice amplified by chakra, cutting through the rebel roar.
"Lady… Lady Mei?!"
A young ninja, caught mid-stride, looked at Mei Terumī in confusion.
They didn't understand. Why was their leader, the strong, determined hope of their movement, stopping them?
But there are always those whose blood rushes to their heads, whose rage blinds them to reality.
The Hidden Mist ninja with a heavy scar across his face not only didn't stop but sped up, driven by hatred for the Uchiha.
"For the Hidden Mist! For the fallen! Die, demon!"
"STAND DOWN!"
Mei Terumī shouted hoarsely, desperation making her voice shake.
"EVERYONE, STAND DOWN! THAT IS A DIRECT ORDER!"
"But, Lady Mei! He is alone! He must be tired! We can fight him!"
"ARE YOU NOT LISTENING TO MY WORDS EITHER?!" Mei Terumī sharply interrupted, her eyes locking onto the defiant ninja.
Seeing Mei Terumī like this—not trapped, but commanding—everyone fell silent. They looked at her in confusion, their urgent need for an explanation warring with their instinct for obedience.
Uchiha Akira released Mei Terumī's wrist. He stepped back slightly, watching the scene with cold, detached interest.
He wanted to see how this woman, who valued her village, would explain this surrender to her loyal, desperate subordinates.
Mei Terumī took a deep, shuddering breath, forcing herself to meet their confused, questioning stares.
"From today onwards…" she began, her voice steadying.
"Our Hidden Mist rebel army... is disbanded."
The Collapse of Hope.
These words instantly made the minds of the many Hidden Mist ninja present go utterly blank. Disbanded? Just as they gained the crucial support of the Elder?
"Lady Mei! What nonsense are you talking about!" Ao roared, spitting out a mouthful of blood and sand from his earlier trauma.
"Did this bastard control you with genjutsu?! WAKE UP, LADY MEI!"
"We gathered together to overthrow Yagura's Blood Mist rule! We have the support of Elder Gensui! How can we disband here?!"
"That's right, Lady Mei!" another voice shouted, filled with agony. "We're not afraid of death! Just let us fight him! Let us die honorably!"
The crowd was agitated, their hope of a coup violently snatched away. Everyone believed that Mei Terumī must have fallen under the enemy's genjutsu to say such things.
Looking at her companions' excited, desperate reactions, Mei Terumī's eyes instantly turned red with unshed tears of pity and shared anguish.
How could she not want to fight to the death?
But she had personally, vividly witnessed Uchiha Akira's power. She knew the result of resistance would not be martyrdom, but annihilation. The entire Village would vanish from the map.
"I am not controlled," she said, her voice clear now, cutting through their shouts.
"Ao, Chōjūrō, and everyone here... look at me."
She met their gazes, her face raw with honesty. "We have no chance. None."
"Surrender... or perish."
"This is the choice he gave us. And I chose life for Kirigakure."
Everyone could feel that Mei Terumī was speaking the horrible truth. But how could it be? How could one person wield such absolute power?
"I don't believe it!" The scar-faced ninja who had just been stopped by his companion suddenly rushed out again, shouting hysterically.
"No matter how strong he is, he is only one person! Our Kirigakure has tens of thousands of Ninja! He is one man! We are not afraid of him!"
"How… noisy."
Uchiha Akira, who had been watching patiently, somewhat impatiently picked his ear. He looked bored.
He glanced indifferently at the charging scar-faced man.
Just one glance!
The scar-faced ninja's charging body instantly froze in place, mid-stride.
The expression on his face instantly transformed from ferocious anger to pure, soul-shattering terror.
The next second.
"Ah ah ah ah ah—!!!"
A shrill, bone-curdling scream echoed throughout the cavern!
The scar-faced ninja suddenly threw away the katana in his hand. He knelt on the ground, frantically tearing and scratching at his own face. He began banging his head against the solid rock floor, emitting dull, sickening thuds.
He wasn't fighting an enemy. He was fighting the vision in his mind. He continued until he utterly fainted, collapsing in a twitching heap.
This terrifying, silent scene instantly silenced all the clamoring Hidden Mist Ninja.
The Vision of Despair.
"It seems that just talking is useless." Akira shrugged, his expression clinical.
"Then I will simply let you all see the reality with your own eyes."
The moment the words fell, the pupil power in Uchiha Akira's eyes instantly released! It flared into a brilliant, dangerous purple light!
Buzz—!
Except for Mei Terumī, who stood beside him, everyone else—Ao, Chōjūrō, and all the rebels—was forcibly dragged into a highly realistic genjutsu space created by Uchiha Akira's irresistible dōjutsu!
The transfer was instantaneous, powerful, and total.
The next second, they stood, not in the damp cave, but in the central square of Kirigakure.
Around them were their familiar streets, familiar buildings, familiar villagers. Everything seemed normal.
Before they could even utter a single word or react to the change in scenery.
"Almighty Push!" (Shinra Tensei!)
[Inorin's Note: Almighty Push (Shinra Tensei) is the Deva Path Rinnegan ability that generates an immense, invisible repulsive force, capable of destroying an entire city.]
Then, came the apocalypse.
An invisible, sky-obscuring, terrifying repulsive force swept in from all directions, centered on the location of the Fourth Mizukage Tower.
Houses, temples, the familiar streets… and all their presumed relatives, friends, and companions—all the familiar world—everything, in the face of absolute, conceptual power, was instantly, effortlessly erased like a child's sand painting. It turned into pulverized dust, rubble, and nothingness.
The entire village, their beloved village, vanished in a single, silent instant.
The Aftermath.
The genjutsu snapped instantly. Everyone's consciousness returned to the cold, damp reality of the cave.
The silence was broken only by the sound of retching and hysterical, broken sobbing.
"Ah ah ah ah—!"
"No! Don't! Stop! We surrender! We surrender!"
"Monster! You are a monster! A demon!"
Those strong-willed Hidden Mist Ninja, who had endured the Bloody Mist era's brutality, after witnessing that hellish, complete destruction with their own eyes, their mental defenses completely collapsed! Their resolve was utterly shattered. They curled into fetal positions, crying, begging, pleading.
"Now," Uchiha Akira looked down at these mentally broken ninja, his voice indifferent, almost bored by the display.
"Have you decided how to choose?"
"Do you choose to die meanlessly, pointlessly, achieving nothing but the destruction of your village?"
"Or do you choose… to live, and serve my new world order."
Answering Uchiha Akira was only a chorus of suppressed, despairing sobbing, groans, and quiet surrender.
Uchiha Akira's gaze, satisfied with the brutal effectiveness of the demonstration, fell back on Mei Terumī.
She hadn't been subjected to the vision, but she understood the devastation perfectly. Her face was pale, her lips pressed into a thin, grim line.
"Now, Lady Mei," Akira commanded. "Take me to see the Elder."
"…Yes." Mei Terumī lowered her head, accepting her new reality. Her voice was dry, hollow.
"I will take you there now, Hokage-sama."
The Elder's Residence.
Mei Terumī stood outside the Elder Gensui's secluded residence, her expression complex, heavy with the burden of her choices. She paused.
She took a deep, visible breath and turned back to Uchiha Akira beside her.
"Hokage-sama." Mei Terumī's voice carried a hint of pleading, a last flicker of resistance for her village's honor.
"Elder-sama is old. His personality is... very stubborn. He is a man of the old world."
"Please, wait here for a brief moment. Allow me to go in first and carefully explain the situation to him. I will tell him what you are capable of."
"Perhaps," she pleaded, "it can avoid some unnecessary, brutal conflict. I don't wish for him to be... erased like that."
Mei Terumī did not want to see the highly respected elder of the Village, the symbol of their past, be crushed to pieces by such absolute, raw power.
Uchiha Akira heard this suggestion, a polite request for dignity, and did not refuse. He understood the need for face-saving measures.
"Alright, Mei Terumī."
"You have half an hour. No more."
His voice was a cold promise. "I hope to see the result I want. Total, absolute cooperation."
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