"So tell me, Sarutobi Hiruzen," Naruto continued, his voice carrying across the ruins, "now that everything is beyond your control, how does it feel? How does it taste when your careful plans crumble?"
Facing Naruto's systematic revelation of his crimes, Hiruzen stopped attempting verbal defense. Words were useless now. The mask had been ripped away. His manipulation tactics had been exposed before the entire village.
Now I just want to kill him, Hiruzen thought with cold clarity. Avenge Asuma. End this threat permanently.
Naruto's massive fist finally collided with the Ruyi Jingu Bang—the Adamantine Staff—held in Sarutobi Hiruzen's trembling grip.
BOOM!
The impact was catastrophic.
Sharp pain exploded through Hiruzen's palms. The tiger's mouth—that sensitive webbing between thumb and forefinger—burst open immediately. Blood sprayed across his hands as flesh tore. His grip failed completely.
The staff flew from his hands, spinning through the air with tremendous velocity.
Mid-flight, the Adamantine Staff suddenly began bleeding. Red liquid poured from the metallic surface as the transformation reversed involuntarily.
Enma materialized in his true form—ancient monkey summon, Hiruzen's oldest companion, veteran of countless battles. But his body was wrong. Broken. His usually dignified posture collapsed into helpless sprawl.
Blood gushed from his mouth in pulsing streams. He hit the ground hard, unable to even attempt cushioning his fall. Couldn't get up. Couldn't move.
Worse than the external damage, cracks had appeared across Enma's entire body. Like porcelain struck by a hammer, fracture lines spread across his skin in delicate spiderweb patterns.
Inside and outside, everything was shattered. His legendary indestructible body—the flesh that had withstood techniques from legendary ninja, that had tanked attacks that would have killed lesser summons—had been broken by a single punch.
"ENMA!" Hiruzen screamed, horror overwhelming his pain.
The monkey summon's eyes found his contractor. Old friends. Decades of partnership. Countless battles fought side by side. A bond deeper than most marriages.
"Hiruzen," Enma whispered, his voice wet with blood. "I'm sorry. I can't fight beside you anymore."
Each word cost him. His vitality was fading rapidly, draining away like water through cupped hands.
Naruto's punch hadn't held back anything. If not for Enma's specifically enhanced durability—if his body hadn't been naturally tougher than normal flesh—he would have been reduced to atomized particles instantly.
Instead, he merely suffered complete internal organ failure and total skeletal fracture.
Merely.
"I'm sorry," Enma repeated, softer now. "I failed you."
His eyes closed. Vitality faded completely. The ancient summon, who'd served Sarutobi clan for generations, who'd witnessed the rise and fall of multiple Hokages, who'd been Hiruzen's closest companion for over fifty years...
Dead.
Gone in a single exchange.
"You devil," Hiruzen whispered, staring at Enma's broken corpse. "You absolute devil."
The death of his summon, following so quickly after Asuma's destruction, pushed Hiruzen past rational thought into pure desperation.
How can I feel at ease if Naruto lives? Asuma is dead. If Naruto survives this, who's next? Konohamaru? My grandson, the last hope for Sarutobi legacy?
Originally, Hiruzen had planned contingencies. Even if he couldn't defeat Naruto, he could use Earth Style techniques to escape. Flee Konoha, live in exile, rebuild somehow.
But now? Now there seemed to be no choice.
To protect Konohamaru, I can only use THAT technique. The forbidden seal. The final option.
Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't want to die.
Nobody wanted to die. Even ants struggled to preserve their lives. How much more so for him—the mighty Hokage of Konoha, the Professor who'd mastered every technique, the man who'd ruled this village for decades?
But some things mattered more than survival.
"Naruto," Hiruzen said, his voice taking on eerie calm as decision crystallized, "for a person like you, I want to take everything. Strip you of power, of life, of future. This is your best ending. It's also my best ending. A merciful punishment for both of us."
At this moment, Sarutobi Hiruzen had fully committed to dying alongside Naruto. The pain in his heart faded. The anger cooled. Only peace remained.
Peaceful determination to take Naruto into death with me.
"A person like me?" Naruto's laugh was sharp and bitter. "I should have lived a brilliant life. The son of the Fourth Hokage. Heir to the Yellow Flash's legacy. Respected, honored, trained by the village's finest."
"But because of you, I could only sink in darkness. I suffered for years while you watched and smiled. And now, in the end, the person who caused all that suffering comes out and points at me, claiming it was 'for my own good.' Claiming your cruelty was actually kindness."
Naruto's expression shifted to savage mockery.
"You're not dead yet, but already you're being generous with others' pain. Showing how magnanimous you are by forgiving yourself for everything you did to me."
"Now you feel pain. Now you want to destroy your opponent. Why don't you thank me for everything I've given you? Why not acknowledge that I'm doing this for YOUR own good?"
The reversal was perfect. Turning Hiruzen's own justifications against him.
"However," Naruto added with dark humor, "thank you for sending me to school when I was young. You did say just now that you want to be my friend, didn't you? Well, you can become my friend. But only after we have a friendly discussion. After our talk concludes properly."
The mockery was clear. "Friendly discussion" meant "violent beating." "Talk concludes" meant "until you're properly educated through the friendship process."
Facing Naruto's sarcasm, Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes lowered. His hands began moving through seals.
The sequence was specific. Precise. Each hand position flowing into the next with practiced ease despite his injuries.
"REAPER DEATH SEAL!"
His hands came together in the final position. His face showed neither sadness nor joy—just absolute resolve.
Behind Sarutobi Hiruzen, reality distorted. A projection began manifesting, moving through dimensions that normal humans couldn't perceive.
A terrifying atmosphere spread outward like invisible radiation.
The ninja watching the battle from safe distances suddenly felt their hearts clench. Inexplicable dread washed through their systems. They looked toward Sarutobi Hiruzen instinctively but couldn't see anything unusual.
Just intuition screaming warnings. Great terror. Death incarnate. Something worse than anything we've faced.
The Reaper Death Seal summoned the Shinigami—the god of death from spiritual mythology. Only the caster and the target could see the deity directly. Bystanders experienced only the fear radiating from its presence.
But Naruto, with his enhanced perception, with his spirit-energy-body unity allowing awareness beyond normal human limits, could see it clearly.
The Shinigami stood behind Sarutobi Hiruzen like a massive shadow. Six to seven times taller than the elderly Hokage. But compared to Naruto's current transformed height? Only reaching the giant's waist.
Its appearance was grotesque. Blue-skinned face twisted into demonic features. Fangs protruding from its mouth, which held a wakizashi—a short blade traditionally used for ritual suicide. Two horns grew from its skull. Hair flowed wild and white like a lion's mane. Its body was wrapped in a white robe resembling burial shrouds.
Its right hand hung empty at its side. Its left hand clutched a string of prayer beads.
Seeing this manifestation, understanding the technique's nature instantly, Naruto murmured: "The Reaper Death Seal."
"That's correct," Hiruzen confirmed, satisfaction touching his voice. "It is indeed the Reaper Death Seal. Your father used this very technique to seal the Nine-Tailed Beast, continuing to bring peace to Konoha even through his death. Unfortunately, you've failed your father's legacy. He was such a great man. A ninja who truly inherited the Will of Fire."
His expression hardened with righteous conviction.
"And you? You bring only destruction to Konoha. For the village's peace, I will seal your soul. Remove you as a threat permanently. Only then can Konoha live peacefully again."
"Konoha's peace?" Naruto's laugh was genuinely amused. "The Konoha you're talking about—is that YOUR Konoha, Sarutobi Hiruzen? Or is it everyone's Konoha? Because those are very different things."
His smile sharpened to something cruel.
"If you'd followed my father's instructions—if you'd allowed me to live as a hero's orphan, provided for, respected, trained properly—maybe I would have protected Konoha just like he did. Maybe I would have inherited his will genuinely."
"But now?" Naruto's voice took on absolute finality. "I will also protect Konoha. But the Konoha I guard is MY Konoha. Not YOUR Konoha, Sarutobi Hiruzen. As for your version? Please disappear along with yourself."
"The Shinigami will consume your soul," Hiruzen said, his face showing pride and satisfaction despite impending death. "Store it in its stomach as the price for being sealed. And as the caster's price, the Shinigami will also consume my soul. We will be entangled forever in the deity's belly, suffering together for eternity."
He straightened slightly, finding dignity in his final moments.
"This is the last thing I can do for Konoha's peace. My final contribution. Please accept this fate gracefully."
As he spoke, Hiruzaru Sarutobi's face showed genuine pride. Gratification. The expression of a man convinced he was dying heroically.
I've been serving Konoha until my very death. Sensei, Teacher Tobirama, I haven't failed your trust. I've protected Konoha as you asked. I really have accomplished this duty.
These were Sarutobi Hiruzen's final thoughts as the Shinigami's presence intensified.
But then—
[Hey,] the System's voice suddenly rang in Naruto's mind, carrying unusual emotion.
[I actually encountered a belief projection of a demon god from another world here. How unexpected.]
The tone shifted to dismissive contempt.
[But this is just a projection from a garbage low-level plane. How dare it call itself a 'god of death'? Pathetic. Absolutely worthless trash.]
"System?" Naruto's internal voice carried confusion. "What are you saying?"
He knew about other worlds. During his training, when he'd achieved the milestone of one hundred thousand pounds of strength, the System had transported him briefly to another realm. There he'd fought against Shi Hao—the young emperor, a legendary warrior from that dimension.
That battle had been educational. Naruto had gotten his face beaten to swollen mess, nose broken, pride shattered. It had taught him humility, shown him that strength existed on scales he hadn't imagined.
People beyond people, heavens beyond heavens, as the System had said afterward.
But Naruto had never encountered anything about "belief projections of demon gods from other worlds."
This was completely new information.
And judging by the System's tone, this Shinigami—this supposedly unstoppable death deity that was about to consume both his and Hiruzen's souls—was something the System considered beneath notice.
Garbage from a low-level plane.
What did that mean for the technique? For Hiruzen's final gambit?
What happened when a "god of death" met something that dismissed it as worthless trash?