Naruto: I, the villain template, was hailed as a savior.

hiss……

Ten fingers, now just bare white bones, gripped the three-foot-nine-inch knife. Without blood and flesh, the bones could no longer raise the sword to fight as before.

However, there was no need to stain it with blood in the first place.

As Yahiko lightly touched the ground with the tip of his sword, white light shot up from the ground into the sky.

The Sand Village members, including Rasa and Tamu, seemed to be in a strange state of peace at this moment.

The light washed over the valley like waves, and the air was not scorching, but warm and sacred.

"What is this?"

It's hard to imagine that Duomu could still have the ability to think while covered in white light.

But this was also his last moment, existing in this world as a living being.

At this moment, he seemed to have become a third-person, God-like perspective.

He saw himself before the war began, receiving the newborn scorpion from the doctor and cautiously revealing a smile.

He also saw himself four years into the war, curled up in an empty room, holding a family photo in his arms.

He saw himself stubbornly insisting on conducting the experiment despite his wife's advice, and he also saw himself coldly dissecting the bodies of the civilians who pleaded and cried.

He saw himself standing outside the laboratory filled with corpses, excited and thrilled by the experimental data in his hands; he also saw himself reflected in the hateful eyes of the air ninjas in the sky…

Smile, tenderness, madness, gloom, coldness, indifference...

Finally, there he was, abandoning his wife's corpse and fleeing in a disheveled state, his face contorted with fear, savagery, and ugliness...

Despite the familiar face, Duo Mu felt utterly alienated and nauseous.

"How did things get to this point..."

If Sasori hadn't been left alone at home to preserve his reputation, if he hadn't volunteered to come to the front lines to fight for the Kazekage position...

If he hadn't actively sought out the Third Kazekage for the power of the puppet, if he hadn't ignored his wife Saori's advice in order to develop and master forbidden techniques...

Guided by an inexplicable force, regret surged into his heart like a raging tide, overwhelming him.

sorry……

That is, the moment when he felt endless regret.

boom!

It was as if something inside his body shattered and ignited, and a raging white flame covered his figure from the inside out.

Not only Duomu, but all the other Sand Village ninjas covered in white light also strangely ignited white flames at this moment.

"These beings, having exhausted their karmic debts through the fire of karma, are reborn as animals."

The gist of what Yahiko said is that their karmic fire burned away the hell and hungry ghost realms, so they could only be reborn as animals to repay their old debts.

The fire of karma refers to both the harm caused by evil deeds and the fire that burns sinners in hell.

The brief moment before death is reserved for their remorse. It is their final mercy and compassion, but also an almost merciless punishment for their sins. The more remorse they have before death, the more painful it is.

This pain originates from the soul, spreading the karmic fire to the body until it completely consumes the soul and flesh...

Click!

The towering, porcelain-white pillar of light shattered, spreading outwards in a pale halo, creating a beautiful scene resembling the overflowing of fluid.

In Nagato's perception, the white light only bloomed for a moment, and then shattered and dissipated in an instant.

But when his senses returned, he was shocked to find that the sand behind him had turned into white wax.

Not only Rasa, but also the distant Tamu, and the surrounding Sand Village ninjas, all had their bodies transformed into white, waxy human figures, maintaining their different postures from when they were alive.

But what sent a chill down Nagato's spine was that the lifelike "wax figures" all wore nearly identical expressions of regret.

Click! Click!

Nagato instinctively broke free from Rasa's embrace behind him, and after a crisp sound, the wax figure shattered. He stepped directly on the grayish-white brittle shell, and the eerie cracking sound continued.

Rasa's puppet body was made of various rare metals, but after being burned by that strange white flame, it became as brittle as paper.

"..."

Looking at the various wax figures around him, Nagato's eyes twitched involuntarily, and a chill ran through him.

He didn't feel any heat at all, but when he opened his eyes, all he saw was wasteland, and with just a light touch, all that remained was ashes.

Turning his head through the distorted air to look behind him, Nagato saw Yahiko silently gripping the hilt of his sword. The flesh on his palm had grown back, and the fiery red color in his eyes was gradually fading.

Perhaps because her body had been filled with the warmth of that white light tide, now that everything had suddenly returned to calm, Nagato felt a sense of emptiness, like fireworks fading away.

Only then did he realize that his injuries had actually healed, injuries that even with his regenerative abilities, he shouldn't have been able to heal in a short time...

"Is this the new power you've gained?" Nagato asked.

Although he did not know the true name of this power, he could still feel the sacred sense that had spread in an instant, a sense that could not be resisted and questioned the soul.

It seemed to ignite their souls, then spread to their flesh and blood, leaving only an empty shell in the end.

"call……"

Exhaling a wisp of formed white mist, Yahiko's faint aura of pressure dissipated, and a somewhat foolish smile returned to his pale face. He raised the three-foot-nine-inch sword in his hand and laughed, "It's called Karma Fire, and its Shikai ability is..."

"When used on an enemy, it ignites the defilement of the soul and burns the flesh and blood of the body."

Before Yahiko could finish speaking, Nagato interrupted him, his expression complex, and asked, "When applied to allies, it heals injuries to both the soul and the body?"

Zanpakuto? Spiritual pressure? Power originating from the soul?

Nagato had heard his brother talk about it before, but he didn't believe that this power could make Yahiko stronger than himself.

Even if Yahiko were to master the Breathing Technique to its fullest extent, it would only grant him the strength of a Jonin elite. When facing ninjas with strength comparable to the Five Kage, even the Breathing Technique combined with the Demon Slayer Mark and the Transparent World would not be enough.

The fact that Yahiko used his so-called "Hado" technique, which allowed him to clash head-on with Rasa's Magnet Release, already surprised Nagato.

As for the so-called Zanpakuto and Shikai...

This was the first time he had seen Yahiko wield this power, and its strangeness exceeded his expectations.

It acts on the soul, almost like a judgment, both gentle and cold, compassionate and merciless.

If Yahiko can fully master this power, even without the military talent to command an army, he can become a high-end combat force capable of standing alone and deciding the outcome of a small battle.

No matter how unwilling Nagato was to admit it, he couldn't deny that compared to Yahiko now, he was probably already...

Thinking of this, his heart tightened, and he subconsciously raised his hand to touch his eyes, which were covered by a black cloth.

The defilement of the soul?

Living in such a world, whose soul can be pure?

He's just a naive fool; even the weapon he forged from his soul is so naive and childish.

How could Nagato possibly accept being surpassed by a fool?

"Rinnegan..." he murmured softly.

--------

The Land of Rain, on a mountain overlooking a riverside village.

Dark shadows loomed in and out of sight amidst the dense, withered thicket of thorns.

A figure lying on a high sentry post looked down and said in a deep voice, "Captain Hu Ping, there seems to be some movement ahead."

Having been traveling for two days and two nights without sleep, Hu Ping had only managed a half-hour nap when he was woken up. He looked up at his subordinates, slightly wary, and asked, "What's going on?"

"A dog barks," the man whispered. "Although it's a bit far away and I can't see clearly, I can tell it's injured..."

An injured dog?

Upon hearing this, Hu Ping narrowed his eyes, involuntarily thinking of the large black dog beside Xiao Shi. A shadow crossed his face as he asked, "Was that dog entirely black?"

The man paused for a moment, then looked up into the distance and saw the fleeing black figure, as well as four figures chasing after it while remaining hidden.

He quickly remembered the black dog beside Xiao Shi, his expression changed slightly, and he nodded, saying, "Yes! It should be Xiao Shi's dog. There are four people chasing after them, probably Konoha ninjas!"

Having confirmed his suspicions, Hu Ping clenched his fist tightly.

His first thought was that his location had been exposed, but he quickly realized that Xiao Shi would not do that.

If Xiao Shi had really revealed their whereabouts to the Konoha ninjas, what they would be seeing now wouldn't be a black dog, but a large number of enemies.

It's more likely that Xiao Shi discovered the enemy, risked going to confirm it, and was discovered, causing the black dog to run back and warn them.

Realizing this, Hu Ping loosened his clenched fist slightly, but his expression turned gloomy.

It was noon, and most of the "ghosts" were taking this time to rest in the village. Only those responsible for guarding the area were scattered around in groups of three.

In other words, he currently only has two people under his command.

"Captain, what do we do?"

The other man also realized what the dog's appearance meant. He moved closer to Hu Ping, put his hand in the bag at his waist, and said in a low voice, "Should we make a move? Or should we notify Boss Ye first?"

Hu Ping glanced at his hand in his pouch and sneered, "Didn't you already have a plan, Little Xuanzi?"

"Hehe." The boy called "Xuanzi" chuckled. "The captain knows me. I'm too lazy to use my brain. I just want to blow them up."

"You're really nothing like your father, Gen'o, who was capable of staying in Konoha as a spy," Torahira reprimanded him lightly.

"Dad is Dad, and I am me," Xuanzi said with a nonchalant smile. "If I were a coward, I wouldn't have followed Lord Yun Chuan from Yangyan Village here in the first place."

Upon hearing this, Hu Ping gave him a deep look and sighed, "I don't know what Lord Yun Chuan was thinking, actually letting you come out with us."

Gen-o, the "mechanism expert" of Kagerou Village, is most skilled at using explosive tag traps. With the remote detonation device used for explosive tags, the explosive tag traps he creates can even fool Hyuga's Byakugan.

Currently, he is hiding inside Konoha to gather intelligence and plant explosive tags, making him a crucial figure who can deliver a devastating blow to Konoha at a critical moment.

As Xuan Weng's only son, "Xuan Zi" should have stayed obediently in Dawn City as a "hostage" to keep Xuan Weng in line.

To everyone's surprise, this kid actually took the initiative to go to Lord Yun Chuan, hoping to go out of the city with them to meet the enemy, and Lord Yun Chuan actually agreed.

What if I die?

Hu Ping felt a bit of a headache, but since he had joined the legion, there were no special treatments. No matter who he was before, once he joined the legion, he was a soldier.

Understanding this, Hu Ping asked in a deep voice, "Are you confident about your first time?"

Xuanzi didn't speak, but nodded solemnly.

Hu Ping didn't say anything more. He looked up at the person above and said, "Liang Yi, let's go deal with those four guys and see if we can capture one alive to interrogate him for information. You stay here and keep watch, and send signals to Boss Ye and the others."

"No problem." The man called Ryoichi lay prone on the hilltop, his eyes fixed on the scope of the sight, watching the figures getting closer and closer in the distance. Without turning his head, he replied, "I won't let a single one escape."

----------

"Awoo! Awoo!"

Watching the black dog howling and running wildly through the ruins in the distance, the somewhat dizzy Shimura ninja couldn't help but mutter under his breath, "This damn dog knows this place way too well!"

As he spoke, the kunai slipped from his sleeve into his hand, and he raised his arm and flung it out.

The black dog happened to emerge from the narrow pipe, and of the three kunai it threw out, two missed, making short, sharp sounds as they stuck to the pipe, but the third kunai hit its abdomen with pinpoint accuracy.

"Aww!"

After a mournful bark, the black dog struggled to crawl into an abandoned house.

But the moment it went inside, a hand suddenly reached out from the shadows and pinched its mouth shut.

"Waaah."

Under the grip of that hand, it struggled to let out a low growl from its throat, but its nose twitched as if it had caught a familiar scent, and it immediately started wagging its tail.

"Good dog."

A soft murmur arose, and Hu Ping, emerging from the shadows, slowly released his grip, retreating under the black dog's gaze before disappearing back into the darkness.

At the same time, Shimura and three other Konoha ninjas followed the trail of blood dripping from the ground to the abandoned house.

"I never thought chasing a dog would be so troublesome. I'll just skin you and roast you later."

Shimura snorted and walked over, disappearing into the shadows inside the house, with three Konoha ninjas guarding the outside behind him.

"Run, why did you stop running? Don't worry, your little master will come to join you soon."

Looking down at the injured black dog curled up on the ground, Shimura ninja grinned maliciously as he walked past, already imagining the dog meat being roasted and dripping with oil, completely unaware of what was directly above his head.

A pair of hands slowly and gently descended from above, reaching towards Shimura's head, like raindrops falling outside, so light as to be imperceptible yet chilling to the bone.

"Waaah..."

Both humans and dogs have an instinctive fear of death.

Amidst the black dog's faint whimper, Shimura ninja suddenly felt a chill, and the hairs on his neck stood on end.

Almost instinctively, I looked up and was shocked to meet a pair of scarlet eyes.

Before he could even open his mouth to scream, a hand covered his mouth, and the muscles in both arms bulged as they twisted the cloth forcefully...

*Click!* (End of Chapter)