No matter the wind or snow, I would sink for you.
Beneath the flowers that year, we promised to grow old together.
Yet how could we have known? The world is ever-changing, and troubled times know no mercy.
The moment Kei arrived, he saw the Evil God attacking Granny Huan.
That was something he absolutely could not tolerate.
Everyone in Nanga said that Granny Huan had become increasingly unpredictable as she grew older.
That was all because of that lovestruck old fool, Danjō, who had spoiled her rotten.
But strictly speaking, that explanation wasn’t entirely accurate.
At least in Kei’s opinion, although Danjō’s unconditional protection accounted for most of it, Kei’s own constant compromises had also encouraged Granny Huan’s capricious behavior.
Take the present situation.
Although Kei had sent Granny Huan to wage war in the Land of Grass for several reasons, one of those reasons had been to punish her for provoking a war behind his back without authorization.
More importantly, he wanted her to cover up the rumors surrounding her through military achievements.
There was no helping it.
When a leader protected a subordinate, they were bound to do something unfair.
And when that happened, there would naturally be voices of opposition.
That was only fair.
But fairness wasn’t all that important.
All he needed to do was find the person he was protecting an opportunity to earn enough merit.
So Uchiha Kei had used half of his power to send Granny Huan to attack the Land of Grass before having her turn toward the Land of Water.
With that much power, defeating a small country like the Land of Grass and earning military merit was child’s play.
Even attacking one of the Five Great Nations would not have been impossible.
As long as Granny Huan obtained enough merit in the Land of Grass, even failure in the Land of Water would not matter.
After all, the Land of Water was one of the Five Great Nations.
That achievement alone would be enough to cover up Granny Huan’s previous bout of willfulness.
Who could have imagined that this woman would make such an enormous commotion while attacking a tiny place that wasn’t even as large as Java?
Perhaps this woman had simply been born to attract the world’s attention.
Although Kei had spent the entire journey complaining about how Granny Huan had once again caused him trouble, the instant he arrived and saw her suffering, he flew into a rage without even thinking.
No one was allowed to touch his Granny Huan.
Not even a god.
"By the authority of words, let all conduct be observed and none dare violate it."
The celestial phenomenon subsided.
The weakness caused by the Evil God’s curse vanished from the Uchiha.
And the fallen Buddha, the Evil God, screamed three times in succession because of a single sentence.
"Ahhh! Ahhh! Ahhh!"
Black waves surged across the endless white world.
Countless sickly green, writhing tentacles erupted from the ground like mad creatures and surged upward.
Against human opponents, Uchiha Kei might not have been capable of displaying such overwhelming divine might.
But after comprehending the myths themselves, fighting gods was practically child’s play for him.
This Evil Buddha should have been some existence that had once made a great vow.
Much like K?itigarbha god’s great vow:
"Until the hells are empty, I shall not become a Buddha."
The Evil Buddha’s vow should have been something like:
"As long as humanity retains the Six Desires, I shall not become a Buddha."
It was practically a thought that had fallen into an evil path.
If humanity no longer possessed the Six Desires, how could anyone believe in Buddha or worship the gods?
And if the gods lost humanity’s faith, wouldn’t they perish along with it?
Compared with K?itigarbha Bodhisattva, who had made a grand vow and then involved himself in the affairs of the underworld—a Buddha who displayed obvious political wisdom—the Evil Buddha’s thinking seemed far too simplistic.
It was simplistic to the point of resembling the Buddha Spirit Orb from Chinese Paladin.
It had genuinely taken its own slogan seriously.
The Evil Buddha’s methods were also rather ordinary.
Its only real advantage was that as long as the people of the world possessed the Seven Emotions and Six Desires—joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, and so on—it would never disappear.
And dealing with it was actually quite simple.
A barrier capable of severing emotions could strip away the vast majority of its power.
Granny Huan knew this too.
But this woman, who was fundamentally driven by human nature, had never intended to challenge the easiest possible difficulty.
She wanted to go big.
She wanted a battle that would attract the attention of the entire world.
First, she wanted to test the upper limit of this world’s combat power.
Judging from the current results, this world might not be particularly powerful offensively, but it certainly knew how to take a beating.
Second, Granny Huan simply did not possess any method capable of severing emotions.
The Great Light Barrier was a healing barrier.
It could guarantee that her own side would remain capable of fighting continuously, but it could not deprive the enemy of its strength.
That was why the battle had fallen into a stalemate.
But Kei was different.
What Buddha could not accomplish, Ame-no-Tokotachi-no-Kami could.
If there were no human powerhouse strong enough to serve as a sparring partner for Uchiha Kei, then he would simply use a god instead.
No one was allowed to bully Granny Huan in front of Kei.
Not even a god.
Uchiha Kei threw the Divine Sword Ame-no-Tokotachi into the air.
Then he began swaying from side to side, dancing wildly.
His exposed hands and feet shook in broad, exaggerated movements.
"Shamanic dance.
"The dance is the shaman, and the shaman is the dance!"
This was the power of nature.
The power of ritual.
The Three-Pool Blade transformed into a smaller blade, bells ringing as it hovered beside Kei.
From the heavens came a naturally resonant chant filled with an extraordinary rhythm.
It praised the deity representing the origin of mythology itself—the source from which the gods had emerged.
There was a collective name for such a deity.
The Creator God.
Pangu was one.
God was one.
Chaos was one.
Ymir was one.
And in the mythology of the East, Ame-no-Tokotachi-no-Kami was one as well.
With its appearance, all divine laws would be broken.
Ame-no-Tokotachi-no-Kami was the origin of Japanese mythology.
Even the divine revelations of Ame-no-Minakanushi and Amaterasu, despite their supreme prestige, would be rendered ineffective before it.
That was Uchiha Kei’s hypothesis.
He had never tested it before.
But today, Uchiha Kei was unleashing his full power.
Today, he would bring that hypothesis onto the battlefield.
One man’s rage for the woman he loves.
Even if that woman was already in her twilight years.
Danjō wasn’t here today.
So Uchiha Kei would do it himself.
Who was she?
She was Granny Huan.
She was the first person to come to Uchiha Kei’s side.
She was the one who had helped an Uchiha Kei who had lost his dignity and been reduced to begging for food in the cruel shinobi world regain that dignity.
So even if she caused trouble, even if she was unreasonable, even if she went too far—
The world would simply have to endure her.
Ame-no-Tokotachi-no-Kami hung high in the sky and unfolded a barrier.
Strange rings and characters appeared across the Three-Pool Blade.
It shot forward.
The moment it touched the Evil God’s writhing tentacles, it immediately burrowed inside.
Uchiha Kei raised one hand and pointed.
A ray of purifying light shot forth.
"You bastard.
"Do you even know who you were attacking just now?
"Answer me!"
The purifying light completely cleansed the surrounding tentacles.
Dark green blood sprayed from the Evil God’s body.
The Evil Buddha had been wounded.
The Uchiha had attacked the Evil God for three entire days without inflicting even the slightest injury.
Yet Uchiha Kei had wounded it with a single strike.
The sight was tremendously uplifting.
Himawari approached Granny Huan, staring at Lord Kei with sparkling eyes.
"So Lord Kei is actually this strong!
"Looks like even I, Himawari, still haven’t managed to draw out all of Lord Kei’s power!"
The thought was terrifying.
The other Uchiha became excited as well.
Admiration spread through the group.
Starting with Granny Huan, everyone raised their right hands in salute before placing them against their chests.
They began to pray.
"Eternal Lord of the Uchiha Clan, may all people hallow Your name.
"May Your kingdom come.
"May Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven...
"For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever."
"Hey! Uchiha!"
The faith of the clan gathered together.
Pure white holy light erupted.
A sacred Kingdom of Heaven manifested and enclosed the fallen Buddha, the Evil God, within it.
Inside the Kingdom of Heaven of Ame-no-Tokotachi-no-Kami, faith and holy light enveloped Uchiha Kei.
He felt a degree of devotion he had never experienced before.
The devotion of true believers.
Under the suppression of the holy light, the Evil Buddha also shrank into a ball, no longer displaying the arrogance it had shown before.
Uchiha Kei clenched his fist and glared at the Evil God.
"Do you know who you just provoked?
"Huh?
"Speak, you piece of trash!"
The fist of the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack, empowered by divine holiness, rained down upon the Evil God’s body like a torrential storm.
At this moment, Uchiha Kei possessed the ability to inflict genuine damage upon gods.
All divine laws and principles became ineffective before him.
This was the law of the Primordial God.
Every punch landed with flesh-rending force.
And Kei’s beating carried more than a little emotion behind it.
Aside from himself, no one was allowed to bully Granny Huan.
No one was allowed to look down on Granny Huan.
No one was allowed to cause Granny Huan trouble.
Oboro couldn’t.
Danjō couldn’t either.
And that meant an unknown failed Buddha that had appeared from God-knew-where had even less right to do so.
Because that woman’s achievements would forever exist alongside Uchiha Kei’s glory.
Because that woman was the one who had brought glory into Uchiha Kei’s life.
Autumn had come again.
Late autumn.
Three years.
It had already been three years since Uchiha Kei had fallen into this cruel world he hated.
No one knew what he had endured during those earliest days.
It was like the bloody primitive accumulation of capital.
Those who had never experienced it would never willingly speak of it.
And even those who had experienced it would bury it as a secret deep within their hearts, never revealing it until the day they died.
Did Uchiha Kei really not know that the orphans who had accompanied him for a time had betrayed him?
Of course he knew.
He had simply indulged them.
Because that period was a humiliation.
A period of utter desperation.
Kei shamelessly wanted to erase every mark of his former misery.
The orphans’ naivety had ultimately destroyed them.
That year, it was already late autumn.
Winter had not yet arrived, yet fine snow had begun to fall.
Cold grains of ice descended from the sky, resembling both rain and snow.
When Uchiha Kei had first crossed into this world, he had already lost his parents.
He had been driven into a wooden hut without a stove, where he lived together with the orphans of the Uchiha Clan.
At the transition between autumn and winter, the lightly clothed orphans huddled together for warmth.
They really did huddle together.
They used their own bodies to warm one another.
Uchiha Kei, newly arrived in that world, was completely unaccustomed to such a method.
He could only sit alone in a cold corner, his stiff hands gripping a steamed bun harder than his own bones.
That was how orphans were bullied.
The Uchiha Clan did provide communal meals.
They consisted of little more than porridge and steamed buns, but clan members with homes and families could at least eat something warm.
They simply didn’t care much about that food.
The homeless orphans, however, desperately needed that life-saving meal.
By the time it reached their hands, it was already almost impossible to swallow.
It was like low-rent housing.
It was never necessarily the people who truly needed it who managed to rent it.
For an orphan without anyone to rely on, even getting a bite of food was extraordinarily difficult.
The steamed buns were cold, as though they had been left in a refrigerator overnight, hard as rocks.
The porridge had frozen into lumps that could not be broken apart with one’s teeth.
And even those miserable meals had been obtained by begging on one’s knees.
They were something for which one was expected to be grateful.
Something purchased with one’s dignity.
Those miserable days had passed long ago.
But the anger from that time had never been released.
Today, the Evil God was simply unlucky.
The enormous Kingdom of Heaven encompassed the entire Land of Grass.
It was like a gigantic piece of colored glass.
The ground was paved with pure gold.
Pearl gates, golden stone, walls of jade, Trees of Life, fruits of wisdom, and waters of youth could be found everywhere.
And at the highest point, at the very summit of the Kingdom of Heaven, in a place beyond description, endless radiance poured downward, bathing the entire kingdom in light.
"Heaven... Heaven?"
Soft light fell upon the Uchiha.
Unlike the empowerment of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, this gentleness was like a mother’s affection.
Its warmth reached straight into their hearts.
The Kingdom of Heaven showed the Uchiha their ultimate destination.
Its streets were paved with pure gold, transparent as glass.
Its walls were built from jade and countless precious stones.
There was no suffering there.
It was the source of all joy and happiness.
The Uchiha lowered their heads.
"Never look directly at Lord Kei.
"Never address Lord Kei by his true name.
"Never profane Lord Kei!"
"Lord Kei’s true name shall surely become a designation for all gods!"
"Uchiha glory!"
Beneath the radiance, the aged and frail Granny Huan seemed to regain her youth.
Though she had possessed an old woman’s body, she now bore the appearance of her younger years.
Uchiha Kei wished for her to remain young forever.
Because she had been the first person to give him warmth in this cold world.
Back then, Uchiha Kei had reached the point where he could no longer endure his circumstances.
He stopped caring about how he would explain himself to the clan.
He stopped caring about being too weak to resist.
He stopped caring about the Hokage faction’s attitude toward the Uchiha.
In a fit of rage, Uchiha Kei used his summoning card system to summon a character.
He brought a fictional character into the reality of the Naruto world.
The burden of survival had already become too heavy for him to think about anything else.
He no longer had any thoughts of planning for the future.
He only wanted to change his present circumstances.
To hell with what happens!
That was the only thought in his mind at the time.
It was also then that he finally understood why society used morality to condemn people.
Because abandoning morality could allow someone to escape from a desperate situation.
But escaping from desperation often meant causing enormous trouble for others.
Unless absolutely necessary, a stable society did not want people’s moral standards to become too low.
If society had no way to prevent those at the bottom from falling into desperate circumstances, then the only thing it could do was restrict them from using immoral means to escape those circumstances.
The first person Uchiha Kei summoned was Granny Huan.
His stomach was so empty that gastric acid burned up his throat.
Uchiha Kei could only curl up to make himself slightly more comfortable.
He had no idea that the person he had summoned had already arrived.
A pair of warm hands pulled the embarrassed Kei to his feet.
Then they embraced his young body.
"Life is like carrying a heavy burden on a distant journey. One must not be impatient.
"When desire arises in your heart, remember the days of poverty.
"To have less is better than having too much."
Her soft voice sounded like instruction.
Like consolation.
Like gentle persuasion.
Whatever it was, she gave Uchiha Kei’s bleak life a dignified explanation.
Then Granny Huan overturned a nearby mansion, prepared an extravagant feast, and waited until Uchiha Kei had eaten his fill.
Afterward, she dressed Kei in the most magnificent Divine Robe she could find.
Finally, Granny Huan brought ten shinobi from the Iga Group.
Using the most humble ceremonial etiquette, they pledged themselves to Uchiha Kei as their lord.
She took a fallen orphan and elevated him into a lord who possessed dignity and status.
Granny Huan had once again taught Kei through her actions what it meant for a clan’s greatest affairs to lie in ritual and war.
Only by possessing the strength to protect oneself could one possess dignity.
Once elaborate rituals were completed under the halo of a powerful figure, more people would join.
And only then could one retain one’s dignity.
Granny Huan had needed only half a day.
With the strength of ten shinobi, she had gathered together the scattered corners of the Uchiha Clan and raised up a leader.
She allowed Kei, in this cold world, to experience for the first time what it meant to stand above others.
No one could understand why the woman who had slapped Uchiha Kagami—the man reputed to be the foremost hawk among the Uchiha—and dismissed him from the door with a single blow would choose to submit herself to a young child.
But this entire series of actions had allowed Kei to become a person again.
A mysterious and unfathomable lord.
All of this was what she had brought to Uchiha Kei.
Therefore, no one was allowed to bully Granny Huan.
Even if she was going through menopause.
Even if she was being a little unreasonable.
Even if she was a little too willful.
The world would simply have to endure her.
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