["A mission involving the overthrow of a national regime can no longer be measured by the standards of an ordinary A-rank assignment. If we want to complete this successfully, we'll probably have to return to Konoha first and request additional manpower..."
Now that everyone had agreed to continue on to the Land of Snow, Kakashi began sorting through the situation, considering how best to suppress the chaos there as efficiently as possible and help Kazahana Koyuki reclaim the throne.
"There's no need to waste time on that."
But before he could finish, Sasuke's cool voice cut across his analysis. Then, under the gaze of everyone in the room, he spoke in the faintly arrogant tone so characteristic of the Uchiha:
"For a mission like this, the three of us are enough."
At those words, Asama Sandayū's eyes instantly reddened with emotion. The director and the production manager exchanged a knowing glance, each entertaining thoughts of his own.
The director was already imagining how, with Konoha's ninja lending their strength, this sequel—marketed around the hook of a real princess—would surely become a masterpiece that shook the entire ninja world.
The production manager, meanwhile, was already calculating future gains in his head. If this job really succeeded, not only might he be promoted another step, but his year-end bonus would certainly be substantial. His career would take yet another leap forward.
And so, without even seeking Kazahana Koyuki's consent, everyone present silently came to the same conclusion and decided to continue onward to the Land of Snow.]**
Inside Konoha's meeting hall, Naruto—who would normally leap at the chance to mock Sasuke the moment he struck a cool, arrogant pose on the screen—was acting strangely quiet for once.
The reason was actually simple.
Might Guy's Team 3, led by Kakashi's old rival, had also arrived at the hall and was now on standby there.
The two squads, who had not known each other before, were introduced thanks to the fact that their teachers were acquainted.
Under normal circumstances, even if two newly acquainted teams could not become friendly right away, they ought to at least exchange a few words and break the initial awkwardness.
But the atmosphere between the two groups was extremely strange.
Because the instant Team 3's Rock Lee met the members of Team 7, he had immediately and without hesitation confessed to Sakura. He was so direct that it left everyone caught off guard.
And naturally, that rather reckless and overly blunt confession was rejected by Sakura on the spot.
Naruto, however, clearly took it personally.
Now that he had regained his spirits, his usual competitive fire had returned as well, and he had gone straight up to Lee and begun butting heads with him.
Meanwhile, Sasuke and Neji—two geniuses who stood at the peak of their generation—were each studying the other with open curiosity.
Sasuke in particular had only just learned that Kakashi merely possessed the right to use the Sharingan for certain reasons, rather than being some surviving member of the Uchiha clan as Sasuke had secretly hoped.
That left him feeling deeply frustrated, to the point where he was itching to find someone to fight then and there just to vent his mood. Even the way he looked at Neji had become charged with battle intent.
Only Tenten seemed to notice the strange mood hanging over the two teams. From time to time, she deliberately tried to draw everyone into small conversations, and only then did the weird tension between the two groups ease a little.
Amid such chaos, Kakashi glanced at Guy, who still seemed eager to drag him off into a taijutsu contest, then looked over at the two groups of students glaring at one another.
Letting out a helpless click of his tongue, his whole tone steeped in a sense of What rotten luck, what rotten luck, he finally turned his attention back to the light screen.
At the same time, the conversation unfolding there also began to shift in focus. The dialogue was now gradually drawing out the most mysterious existence in this altered video installment:
the Phantom Demon Emperor.
That alone was enough to pull the attention of the entire ninja world toward it.
...
[With the next course of action decided, the people gathered in the meeting room no longer lingered. One by one, they rose and began to leave in an orderly fashion.
But just as the crowd was filtering out, Naruto had only taken two steps when his gaze happened to fall on his own hands.
It seemed... that ever since his fight with Doto Fuyumaguma, his hands had taken on a faint trace of age that did not suit someone his years.
That thought had only just crossed his mind
when, for some reason, Naruto suddenly stopped walking.
Then he turned around and looked at Asama Sandayū, who was still tidying up documents. His expression held a note of dawning realization, as though he had suddenly remembered some important question that had been pushed aside during the discussion of the mission.
"Oh, right, Sandayū-ossan. We got so focused on talking about the next part of the mission that I almost forgot to ask—about that Phantom Demon Emperor you mentioned earlier. Can you tell me its name?"
"Uh... well..."
Asama Sandayū rubbed his chin and thought for quite some time before finally answering in a rather uncertain tone:
"I remember that one of our companions who infiltrated the Phantom Demon Palace once secretly sent me a coded letter. If I recall correctly, it vaguely said that the Phantom Demon Emperor's true name was... the Descending Thunder Emperor..."
The moment those words fell, the scene on the light screen abruptly changed.
The image of the meeting room vanished at once, and the timeline leapt across countless ages, passing through hundreds of millions of years into a distant primordial era. There, scene after scene depicting the origin of the Descending Thunder Emperor slowly unfolded before the viewers' eyes.
In that ancient age, before the Phantom Demon Emperor known as the Descending Thunder Emperor had yet come into being, the first Phantom Demon in existence was the Chaos Phantom Demon known as ????.
It was born in the Sixth Epoch and held four supreme authorities within itself: Devouring, Strength, Fire, and Thunder.
Not only was it a supreme deity standing above all living beings, it was also the progenitor who gave birth to the entire Phantom Demon race.
At that time, the power of this Phantom Demon Progenitor had already reached the absolute summit, enough to shake the motion of the stars themselves.
The Phantom Demon legions beneath its command were likewise invincible. Wherever they swept, whether against foreign races or the domains of ancient gods, none could withstand their advance. It was the very height of the progenitor's power, and of the Phantom Demon race as a whole.
But when the horn of the War of Gods was finally sounded, it encountered a deity who likewise held dominion over the Law of Strength.
In order to devour the opponent's fundamental divine law and break through its own limitations, ascending to an even higher form of existence, it did not hesitate for a moment. Amid the chaos of the divine war, it took the initiative and challenged that god.
Thus began a war between gods and demons that lasted ten thousand years and swept across countless star systems.
Yet the outcome of that world-shaking conflict was the utter defeat of the very progenitor that had once led the Phantom Demon race to its zenith.
For that opponent did not merely wield the Law of Strength—
it also held a far more tyrannical authority: Destruction.
When that destructive divine power—capable of tearing apart the laws of the universe itself and shattering the origins of all things—came crashing down together with a single God-Hand Shattering Fist,
the Phantom Demon Progenitor's proud devouring power proved utterly useless.
Its authorities over Strength, Fire, and Thunder were all shattered in an instant, and even its immortal divine body was driven to the brink of collapse beneath that terrible divine blow.
Seeking a sliver of survival, the progenitor had no choice but to tear apart its own origin at unbearable cost, splitting all of its power and consciousness into three separate fragments.
Only by doing so did it barely escape complete annihilation.
And among those three divided incarnations, one inherited its authority over Thunder.
In time, that one came to rule over a region of the stars, terrifying countless living beings as one of the Three Great Emperors of the Phantom Demons.
It was this being whom later generations would come to know as the Descending Thunder Emperor—
Hamon.]**
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 119)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter79)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter125)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 73
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 55
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 66
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 63
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 55
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 31
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 31
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 31
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