The land of iron, the snowfields.

A vast, silver-clad landscape stretched out at the horizon, with snowflakes falling continuously from the leaden sky.

It landed on the black rocks, the withered branches, and on the only living thing in that wilderness.

A tall, robust, dark-skinned middle-aged man.

He had eight blades slung across his waist, and walked with a hippie-like, carefree rhythm, humming off-key rap.

"Wow, winning a big prize so early in the morning, the fisherman's luck can't be too bad..."

Kirabi's voice suddenly stopped.

He stopped, his gaze falling on the dark figure beneath the withered tree ahead. The person wore a dark robe, with black hair hanging down, and a pair of scarlet Sharingan eyes calmly watching him. The swirling snowflakes left no trace on the figure, as if they automatically avoided him the moment they landed a few feet away.

"Uchiha brat?" Killer Bee grinned, drawing two swords from his waist. "Are you here to die, or to court death?"

Sasuke didn't speak. He simply took a slow step forward.

In the next instant, Killer Bee vanished from his spot. His speed was incredible, leaving a trail of afterimages across the snowfield. His body twisted in a bizarre posture as seven swords simultaneously slashed at Sasuke from various angles. The Wild Heron Sword Technique, Killer Bee's unique style of swordsmanship, relied on a range of motion exceeding the limits of the human body, making the sword's trajectory unpredictable. The seven swords, like seven living snakes, attacked from above, to the side, beside the neck, on the legs, on the back, on the shoulders, and from the front, virtually sealing off all angles of evasion.

However, Sasuke did not dodge.

The complex, crimson light in his Sharingan slowly rotated, the kaleidoscope patterns crystal clear in the wind and snow. The trajectories of the seven swords were slowed down countless times in his vision, each blade as clear as a line drawn on paper. With merely a slight turn of his body, a tilt of his head, and a step, he dodged all seven blades with an almost impossible degree of precision.

"What?!" Killer Bee's pupils contracted slightly.

"The principle behind the Wild Heron Sword Technique is to create sword paths that are impossible to achieve with a normal physique through the flexible rotation of the joints," Sasuke's voice came calmly through the wind and snow. "But any movement driven by joints will inevitably leave a trace. In the face of the Mangekyou Sharingan, these traces cannot be hidden."

As he finished speaking, his right hand shot out, his thumb and forefinger precisely gripping the back of Killer Bee's still-open sword. With a gentle snap, the sword broke in two. Killer Bee abruptly retreated several dozen feet, looking down at the broken blade in his hand, then at Sasuke's crimson eyes, finally wiping the playful grin from his face.

"The Mangekyou Sharingan... Interesting." Killer Bee casually tossed aside his broken sword, crossed his arms in front of him, and a surge of violent chakra erupted from his body. "Let's try this!"

Lightning Release Chakra Mode. Blue-white electricity enveloped Killer Bee's body like a tortoise shell, his skin rapidly turning crimson. The aura of the Tailed Beast chakra mingled with the crackling sounds of lightning, exploding across the snowfield. The Eight-Tails' chakra and Lightning Release fused perfectly, allowing Killer Bee's physical abilities to surge to a terrifying level in a short period. He charged forward again, this time at more than twice the speed of before.

Sasuke did not retreat. The Mangekyou Sharingan patterns in his pupils spun again, and a gray-black flame quietly ignited deep within his eyes. The instant Killer Bee's fist, crackling with lightning, slammed into him, a semi-transparent purple skeleton rose from around Sasuke, blocking the attack like a shield.

The immense impact caused the snow on the snowfield to explode, creating a white ripple. Killer Bee's fist slammed into the purple skeleton, Lightning Release chakra surging and exploding wildly, yet leaving only a faint white mark on the Susanoo's skeleton. Sasuke stood behind the skeleton, his hands forming hand seals, a black flame shooting from his fingertips.

Amaterasu.

The black flames landed on Killer Bee's Lightning Release armor, but instead of being deflected by lightning like ordinary flames, they seemed to have a life of their own, seeping into the armor's seams. Killer Bee hurriedly tore off the outer layer of his Lightning Release armor, discarding the black flames along with a large chunk of chakra, barely managing to avoid being ignited.

"This black fire..." Killer Bee gasped for breath, his gaze turning serious.

"It's not over yet."

Sasuke drew his bow with both hands, black flames coalescing into a longbow and arrow in his grasp. Kagutsuchi. He manipulated Amaterasu's shapeshifting to its limit, condensing the black flames into a deadly arrow, its tip wreathed in compressed, jet-black flames. Under the moonlight, the arrow exuded a chilling aura of danger.

Whoosh. The arrow left the bowstring, tracing a black path across the snowfield. Killer Bee hastily dodged, but the arrow struck the snow, instantly evaporating several feet of snow to reveal scorched earth. Sasuke, meanwhile, had already drawn his bow for a second shot.

Three black flame arrows forced Killer Bee to retreat repeatedly, each arrow exploding into a scorching sea of ​​fire upon landing. Killer Bee was covered in smoke and dust, his skin scarred and charred, and his breathing became heavy. His Tailed Beast Cloak had been mostly torn apart by the continuous bombardment of Amaterasu, revealing his battered and bruised body beneath.

Killer Bee knew he couldn't withstand the attack any longer. He blurred, and a massive chakra tentacle materialized behind him, lashing out towards Sasuke. Sasuke dodged, and the tentacle exploded in a cloud of dust on the snow. When the dust settled, all that remained where Killer Bee had stood was a patch of churned earth and a severed tentacle. His true form had vanished, leaving only a trail of tailed beast chakra stretching towards the sky.

Tail-severing and clone technique. Like a cicada shedding its shell. Killer Bee's most prized escape technique.

"A mere trick," Sasuke said casually. His Sharingan abruptly turned in that direction, precisely locking onto a peculiar life force amidst the dense trails of chakra remnants. He dashed off in a flash, his figure relentlessly pursuing the tailed beast's chakra aura as it desperately receded into the distance, regardless of the raging wind and snow. Killer Bee's Tail-Severing Clone Technique, capable of deceiving even the Mangekyou Sharingan's perception level, couldn't even withstand three breaths against Sasuke's eyes, which had already reached the limits of eternity.

At the edge of the snowfield, Killer Bee's figure was finally intercepted. He stood by a frozen pool, panting heavily, his face full of exhaustion and resentment. He looked at Sasuke walking slowly towards him and forced a smile: "Tch... Even the Tail-Severing Clone couldn't fool you. This brat's eyes... are really annoying."

Sasuke didn't answer, but slowly raised his right hand. However, just as he prepared for his final blow, a black figure silently emerged from the depths of the snowstorm, like a shadow blending into the night. The person walked lightly on the snow, leaving not a single footprint, as if the world were transparent to him.

"Well done." Uchiha Yao's voice was calm and gentle. "Leave the rest to me."

Sasuke glanced at him, put away the chakra in his hand, and took two steps back.

Killer Bee's pupils constricted sharply as he stared at the newly appeared black-haired man. He sensed an unprecedented oppressive aura emanating from this man—far more profound and dangerous than that of the Uchiha brat from before, as if he were facing not a person, but an abyss about to engulf him.

"Uchiha You..." Killer Bee uttered the name in a hoarse voice.

"You know me? That's good." Uchiha Yao smiled and continued walking towards Killer Bee without stopping. In his eyes, mysterious ripples slowly rotated in the crimson light, the six paths of reincarnation and the patterns of the Mangekyou Sharingan overlapping, like a red moon falling into the deep sea.

Tsukuyomi.

Killer Bee's eyes instantly lost focus. He felt as if he had been pulled into a world completely controlled by those eyes, and no matter how much he struggled, he could not break free from that crimson domain. His mental defenses crumbled like paper before those eyes, his muscles trembled uncontrollably, and he finally collapsed to his knees on the snow like a lump of mud.

"Tailed Beast, give it to me." The moment Uchiha Yao raised his right hand, palm facing Killer Bee, a surge of immense power erupted from his body, severing the spiritual connection of the Eight-Tails within Killer Bee. He clenched his fist, and a gigantic hand formed from chakra forcefully dragged a colossal object from Killer Bee's body—a gigantic, octopus-like phantom of a tailed beast roaring and struggling in the wind and snow, yet powerless to resist as if facing its natural enemy.

"Let me go! You bastard!" The Eight-Tails' voice echoed across the snowfield like thunder, but Uchiha Yao completely ignored its struggles. A circle of mysterious runes appeared in his palm as he slowly compressed, melted, and absorbed the tailed beast's chakra into his body. The Eight-Tails' roar grew weaker and weaker, becoming increasingly indistinct, until it finally turned into a stream of light and was completely swallowed up.

Uchiha Yao closed his eyes, quietly feeling the power surge into his eye sockets, merging with his Mangekyou Sharingan. The Eight-Tails' chakra flowed like a gentle stream into the ocean, without causing the slightest ripple, instead replenishing his eyes with even deeper energy. He opened his eyes, a silver light tinged with pale purple flashing across them before returning to normal.

"Not bad." He nodded slightly. "Although it's not as powerful as the original power of the Rinnegan, it's better than nothing."

Killer Bee collapsed onto the snow, lifeless. With the Eight-Tails forcibly extracted, his life force was extinguished. This ninjutsu prodigy of Kumogakure, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, fell on the deserted snowfields of the Land of Iron, becoming yet another pawn to be devoured in Uchiha Yao's hands.

Sasuke stepped forward, glanced down at Killer Bee's corpse, paused for a moment, and then formed a hand seal—Summoning Jutsu. After a puff of smoke, Killer Bee's body vanished. Orochimaru, on the other hand, would likely find this corpse, which had once housed the Eight-Tails, extremely interesting. He then bent down and picked up the seven chakra swords Killer Bee carried, storing them in a scroll. These swords were exquisite weapons forged in Kumogakure; they would always be useful.

"I'm leaving." Uchiha Yao didn't turn around; his voice drifted away in the wind and snow. "The Cloud Village should have received the message by now."

Kumogakure, Raikage's office.

Ai's furious roar, like that of a raging beast, echoed throughout the entire floor. The desk cracked with spiderweb-like patterns under the heavy blow of his fist, and the files on it flew to the floor.

"Killer Bee is dead?! What did you say! Killer Bee is dead!"

The Chunin kneeling before him trembled violently, cold sweat dripping from his forehead: "Yes...yes, Raikage-sama. We followed the lingering scent of the Eight-Tails' chakra to the snowy plains of the Land of Iron, and found...found Lord Bee's body. The Eight-Tails had been drained from his body, and all his swords had been taken..."

Ai's eyes were bloodshot, and his chest heaved violently. He was like a volcano about to erupt, his terrifying aura making it hard for everyone else in the room to breathe. After a moment, he closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths, and when he opened them again, his gaze was like that of a completely enraged lion: "Pass on my order—send a notice to the five great nations, convening the Five Kage Summit in the name of the Raikage."

"Raikage-sama?!"

"The existence of Akatsuki has already threatened the entire ninja world." A's voice was low but firm. "They attacked Sunagakure and kidnapped the One-Tailed Beast; they attacked Kumogakure, killed Killer Bee, and stole the Eight-Tailed Beast. If this continues, they will next target other ninja villages. At the Five Kage Summit, I will unite the forces of the five great nations to completely annihilate Akatsuki!"

Meanwhile, in Konoha Village.

The blue light emanating from the spatial passage slowly subsided, and several figures emerged from the light barrier one after another. Leading the way was Jiraiya, who stretched and let out a long sigh as soon as he set foot on Konoha soil: "Ah—the air here is so much more pleasant. The air over there is nice too, but it always feels like something's missing."

"Lord Jiraiya, you make it sound like we weren't having a good time in that world." Naruto followed closely behind, carrying his pack, his face bearing an expression completely different from before he set off—less flamboyant and excited, but with a layer of composure and contemplation.

Hinata, Ino, and Kakashi also emerged one after another. Behind them were three figures whose faces were highly similar to the others, yet subtly different—Hinata, Ino, and Kakashi, who had come from another world.

"Is this Konoha?" Hinata from the other world, dressed in a light purple dress, looked around at the buildings with curiosity, her eyes filled with gentle kindness.

"They're largely similar, but there are still some differences." Kakashi from the other world, wearing an eyepatch, calmly surveyed his surroundings. "The layout of the houses, the location of the watchtowers, and some other details are quite different. These differences are rather subtle."

Ino—the Ino of this world—looked back at her counterpart in another world and couldn't help but laugh out loud: "This feeling is so weird. Seeing another version of myself standing next to me feels like looking in a strange mirror."

Ino from the other world raised an eyebrow: "You are you, and I am me. Although we have the same face, our life paths are different, and our personalities can't be exactly the same. But overall... I still quite like you."

The two Ino's looked at each other and smiled simultaneously.

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