Chapter 501: The Four Demons Are Nothing But Ants
The perspective shifted back to the desolate expanse of the Land of Swamps.
Uchiha Akira led Shion toward the gaping maw of the Volcano Shrine. Deep within the subterranean bowels of this very mountain lay the sealed physical body of the demon Mōryō.
"You can go back now."
Akira stood at the jagged entrance of the cave, his dark eyes fixed on the abyss ahead. He spoke without turning to the Anbu operative kneeling in the ash-covered dirt behind him.
"Hokage-sama, do you not require your subordinate to accompany you?" The masked ninja kept his head bowed, his voice tight with hesitation. The oppressive, suffocating aura bleeding from the shrine was enough to make even a seasoned elite's instincts scream in warning.
"The things inside cannot hurt me." Akira's tone was flat, carrying the absolute, unquestionable weight of a sovereign. "Return to Konoha. Your mission is complete."
The Anbu operative's shoulders gave a slight tremor. He immediately lowered his head further, pressing his fist to the earth.
With a sharp rustle of fabric, his figure flickered and vanished from the spot, leaving only a swirl of dry dust in his wake.
Akira turned his gaze to the girl standing beside him.
The Priestess of the Land of Demons clutched the amulet resting against her chest. Her knuckles were stark white, her face drained of all color. As a Priestess uniquely attuned to the supernatural, she could feel it—the nauseating, corrosive, utterly evil power stirring awake in the lightless depths of the cavern. It clawed at her senses, making her stomach churn.
"Let's go."
Akira stepped forward, his boots crunching over the volcanic rock as he walked straight into the pitch-black entrance.
Shion bit down hard on her lower lip, tasting a faint hint of copper as she forcibly suppressed the overwhelming urge to turn and flee. Gathering her skirts, she broke into a nervous trot to keep pace with his long, steady strides.
The interior of the cavern was massive, a hollowed-out throat of stone, yet the light was suffocatingly dim. Only the occasional, sickly green flicker of phosphorus fire clinging to the damp rock walls offered any illumination, casting long, distorted shadows across their path. The air grew heavier with every step, thick with the stench of sulfur and ancient rot.
"Ho... Hokage-sama..." Shion's voice carried a distinct tremor, bouncing weakly off the cavern walls. "Yomi's subordinates... they are just ahead..."
Akira did not break his stride.
"They... are very strong," she pressed on, her breath hitching. "They have accepted Mōryō's dark chakra. Not only do they possess special ninjutsu, but their physical bodies have been twisted and modified into something monstrous..."
A low, dry chuckle echoed from the man walking ahead of her. Akira did not even bother to look back.
"Special ninjutsu?" His voice dripped with an icy, dismissive amusement. "In the face of absolute power, all flashy tricks are nothing but a joke."
The moment the last syllable left his lips, the shadows above them tore open.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Four dark silhouettes plummeted from the stalactite-covered ceiling, landing with heavy, synchronized thuds that kicked up clouds of ancient dust. They straightened up slowly, fanning out to completely block the narrow passage forward.
"Heh, there really are fools in this world who aren't afraid of death."
Kusuna, the leader of the grotesque quartet, tilted his neck until the bones popped. His sunken, greedy eyes completely bypassed the tall man in the black cloak, locking hungrily onto the trembling girl behind him.
"Priestess Shion..." Kusuna's lips peeled back in a feral grin. "Lord Yomi has been waiting for you. I certainly did not expect you to deliver yourself right to our doorstep."
As for the man standing between them and their prize, he was entirely ignored. To their mutated senses, Uchiha Akira registered as nothing more than an ordinary, disposable guard—a minor nuisance to be swatted aside.
"Hey, kid." Gitai took a heavy step forward. The massive, hulking man cracked his thick wrists, the sound like snapping tree branches echoing in the quiet cave. "If you have half a brain in that skull, leave the Priestess and get lost."
Gitai bared his teeth, dark chakra flaring around his massive frame. "Otherwise, yours truly will tear you limb from limb and feed the scraps to the wild dogs."
The other three assassins erupted into a chorus of ear-piercing, eerie laughter. They had spent years hiding in the darkest corners of the Land of Demons, only recently emerging to serve Yomi's grand ambition. They had absolutely no idea who the man standing before them was.
They did not know they were looking at the Fifth Hokage. They did not know this was the man who had just violently brought the entire Ninja World to its knees, crushing the Raikage and Tsuchikage beneath his heel.
Shion shrank behind Akira's broad back, her whole body shaking. She peeked out from behind his cloak, her voice pitching up in a desperate shout. "Watch out! They—"
Akira raised a single, gloved hand. The gesture was so casual, yet it carried a weight that instantly cut off her warning.
"A few rats," Akira murmured, his dark eyes sweeping over the four mutated shinobi with utter boredom. "And you think you are worthy of blocking my path?"
The sheer, unadulterated contempt in his voice acted like a spark to dry kindling. The four assassins bristled, their eerie laughter snapping into furious snarls.
"Seeking death!!" Gitai roared.
The solid stone beneath Gitai's boots exploded into shrapnel as he launched his massive body forward. He closed the distance in a heartbeat, a juggernaut of muscle and dark chakra hurtling straight at Akira.
"Earth Release: Rock Strike Fist!!"
Gitai's right arm was instantly swallowed by a thick, jagged layer of hardened earth. The rock compressed and expanded, transforming his limb into a massive, boulder-sized stone fist. He swung it in a brutal, sweeping arc aimed directly at Akira's head, intending to turn the man's skull into a fine red mist.
The sheer kinetic force of the punch tore the air apart, creating a howling vacuum. Shion screamed, instinctively throwing her hands over her face and squeezing her eyes shut against the impending spray of gore.
A soft, dull thud echoed through the cavern.
The gruesome sound of shattering bone and tearing flesh never came.
Shion slowly opened one eye, peering through her trembling fingers. Her breath caught in her throat.
Gitai's massive, devastating rock fist had stopped dead in its tracks, suspended mere centimeters from Akira's face.
Akira had not dodged. He had not woven a single hand seal. He had merely extended a single index finger.
That solitary finger rested lightly against the jagged surface of the giant stone fist.
The entire cavern seemed to freeze in a terrifying tableau.
Gitai's eyes bulged from their sockets, the whites rapidly filling with ruptured, blood-red veins. He ground his teeth together until they cracked, pushing with every ounce of his mutated strength. The muscles in his back tore under the strain, his face turning a deep, suffocating shade of purple.
Yet, no matter how much dark chakra he pumped into his arm, that single finger remained as immovable as a mountain.
"This... how is this possible..." A ragged, disbelieving wheeze tore its way out of Gitai's throat.
"Too weak." Akira shook his head slowly, his expression one of deep disappointment. "Is this the so-called dark power you are so proud of?"
Before Gitai could even process the insult, Akira's thumb slipped out from under his index finger.
He flicked the stone fist.
A shockwave of absolute, terrifying kinetic force erupted from the point of impact. The air itself shattered with a deafening boom.
Gitai did not even have the time to scream. The massive stone encasing his arm pulverized into fine dust instantly. The shockwave traveled straight up his arm, shattering every bone in his body before launching him backward like a broken ragdoll.
He slammed violently into the distant cavern wall. The solid rock caved inward from the sheer force of the impact, sending a cascade of heavy rubble tumbling down. A gruesome spray of dark blood, mixed with pulverized organ fragments, painted the gray stone a slick, wet crimson.
Gitai's ruined body twitched once among the debris, then fell completely still. Dead.
The remaining three assassins, whose faces had been twisted in sadistic glee just seconds prior, froze. Their smiles hardened into masks of absolute horror.
A single finger?
He flicked a master-level shinobi to death with a single finger?!
"Damn it!!" Kusuna shrieked, his voice cracking in panic. "Attack together!! Kill him!!"
Setsuna and Shizuku did not hesitate. Their hands flew through a rapid blur of hand seals, their dark chakra flaring wildly in a desperate bid for survival.
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!!"
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!!"
The cavern lit up in a blinding flash of orange and blue. A massive, roaring dragon of superheated fire and a twisting, high-pressure serpent of water erupted from their mouths. The two elemental beasts surged forward, pincer-attacking from the left and right, their combined mass threatening to crush and boil Akira alive.
Akira did not even spare the roaring jutsus a second glance.
He slowly raised his right hand, his palm open, and made a casual grasping motion toward the empty air.
"Shinra Tensei."
An invisible, omnidirectional field of absolute repulsive force detonated from his body.
The very moment the roaring water and fire dragons collided with the invisible barrier, they were obliterated. The massive constructs of chakra and nature simply ceased to exist, violently shattered into a blinding storm of hissing steam and dying sparks.
But the repulsive force did not stop there.
The terrifying shockwave expanded outward without a shred of hindrance, slamming directly into Setsuna and Shizuku.
The sickening, tooth-gritting crunch of dozens of bones snapping simultaneously echoed over the hissing steam. The two assassins were lifted off their feet, their bodies twisting and folding into bizarre, unnatural angles in mid-air. The invisible wall of force carried them backward, slamming them mercilessly against the jagged rock walls on either side of the cavern.
They slid down the blood-smeared stone, leaving thick red trails behind them. They hit the cavern floor looking less like men and more like sacks of pulverized meat, every single bone in their bodies shattered into fragments. They died before they even hit the ground.
In the span of a few shallow breaths, three of Yomi's most elite generals had been erased from existence.
Only Kusuna remained.
He stood completely alone in the center of the path. His knees knocked together violently, his legs shaking so hard they could barely support his weight. A dark, wet stain rapidly spread across the front of his trousers, dripping onto the dusty floor.
"You... who exactly are you..." Kusuna babbled, his eyes wide and unblinking, staring at the approaching figure as if looking at a god of death. "How can there be a monster like you..."
Akira's boots clicked rhythmically against the stone as he closed the distance.
"Who am I?"
Akira stopped right in front of Kusuna. He looked down from his towering height, his cold, apathetic gaze pinning the terrified ant to the spot. Kusuna's mind had already shattered; his soul was screaming in pure terror.
"In your next life, remember to keep your eyes open wider."
Akira gave a casual, dismissive wave of his hand, as if swatting away a particularly annoying fly.
A concentrated burst of repulsive force erupted from his palm.
Kusuna's chest caved in with a wet crunch. He followed directly in the footsteps of his fallen comrades, launched backward into the darkness by the sheer kinetic violence of the strike. He slammed into the ceiling, his neck snapping instantly, before dropping to the floor in a lifeless heap.
Four powerful, mutated experts. Four monsters who had made the Priestess of the Land of Demons feel nothing but absolute despair.
In less than thirty seconds, they had been entirely wiped out.
Shion stood frozen in place. Her small mouth hung slightly agape, her eyes wide and unblinking. Her mind was a complete, static-filled blank.
Is this... is this the true strength of the Fifth Hokage?
"Let's go."
Akira's calm, steady voice sliced through the heavy silence, pulling Shion out of her daze. He had already turned his back on the carnage, his cloak billowing slightly as he resumed his march into the dark.
"Do not waste time."
Shion gave a violent start, her hands dropping from her face as she hurriedly gathered her skirts and ran to catch up.
This time, as she stared at the broad back of the man walking ahead of her, the sheer, paralyzing terror in her chest had vanished. In its place, blooming rapidly beneath her awe, was a fierce, burning spark of fanatical worship.
With a man this impossibly strong standing in front of her... they could definitely win.
The two continued their descent into the abyss.
As they moved deeper into the subterranean shrine, the ambient temperature began to climb drastically. The air grew thick and sweltering, carrying the heavy scent of magma. The nauseating, evil aura bleeding from the depths grew increasingly dense, pressing against their skin like a physical weight.
Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet jolted.
It began to vibrate violently, loose pebbles dancing across the stone floor.
From deep within the pitch-black passage ahead, a new sound emerged. It was rhythmic, heavy, and entirely synchronized. The terrifying, booming echo of thousands of stone feet marching in perfect unison.
"This sound..." Shion's expression twisted in horror, her newfound confidence faltering for a split second.
"It is the Ghost Army!!" she cried out, staring into the sweltering dark. "Mōryō has awakened the Terracotta Warriors!!"
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]