Chapter 303 - 303: Ryusei Chooses Ruthlessness. Ashina Acts.

However, outside the village barrier, now finally free of Minato and Tobirama's interference, Pakura, Tsunade, and Ashina moved fast.

With the three of them working together from different directions, sealing the remaining dozens of monk–samurai Edo Tensei became almost trivial.

Ashina's sealing constructs, Tsunade's brute force and barrage of punches, and Pakura's scorching mirages overwhelmed the remnants in minutes.

The moment the field cleared, Ryusei's voice cut through their fragment-links with urgency.

This was the golden opportunity he had been waiting for.

He sent Ashina immediately toward Fugaku and Renjiro, not because they needed raw strength, but because Ashina could counter Mito's Adamantine Chains, break Edo Tensei bindings, and seal her faster than anyone else.

And with his overwhelming Mid Six Paths level, he could kill Jiraiya relatively fast too, but only after decisively destroying the two elder toads first on his shoulders so they couldn't reverse summon him to Mount Myōboku and allow him to escape, as Ryusei warned him.

Ryusei knew perfectly well, even though Jiraiya and Mito were elite fodder to him, that removing them quickly would still snowball their advantage.

Meanwhile, he sent Pakura and Tsunade to reinforce Kiyomi, Nagato, and Kanae against Hiashi. Their job wasn't to win outright.

It was to keep Hiashi burning more and more of that strange external energy, because Ryusei's main clone, somewhere far beyond the barrier, was finally about to pinpoint the hidden source of that power somewhere else in the Land of Fire.

And every second, Hiashi consumed more of it, the easier it became for the clone to find itand hopefully end this entire battle in one decisive stroke.

He also didn't want Tsunade to be the one forced to kill Jiraiya with her own hands, and he doubted Pakura alone could finish him quickly enough in that chaos.

That was why he sent Ashina, the strongest and most decisive option, to that front.

Ryusei himself was still locked in that tightening clash with Ashura high above the battlefield, sensing and directing everything through his fragment network even while exchanging blows. Between Ashura's pressure, he caught another detail below.

Orochimaru was starting to falter. Not in technique, but in reserves.

His fourteen-year-old vessel simply couldn't match Hashirama's bottomless stamina forever.

Ryusei narrowed his eyes.

He made a quick mental note:

The moment that the main clone finished its task and returned excess chakra, he would route any free energy straight to Orochimaru's position.

His ally needed reinforcement, and soon. The battlefield was shifting every second, and Ryusei felt each change like a thread tugging at his awareness.

...

The battlefield of Fugaku, Renjiro, Jiraiya, and Mito had reached that dreadful equilibrium—Susanoo flickering, chains trembling, sage oil burning the ground, blood constructs evaporating mid-air.

Fugaku's largest Susanoo form had already collapsed and become unsustainable, and Jiraiya's three major toad summons had been forced back to Mount Myōboku, wounded, exhausted, and unable to return.

Then the air suddenly folded.

A fast spear made of chains shot out.

A seal burned open from them.

Ashina stepped out.

Another one of his advanced signature Uzumaki techniques.

But, with no theatrics, no hesitation, just the cold clarity of a man sent to end a problem.

Fugaku's Mangekyō spun a fraction faster.

Renjiro exhaled in relief.

Jiraiya and Mito stiffened instantly, recognizing the danger this man represented.

They were already pretty drained, not ready to face such a powerful additional opponent all of a sudden as well.

Ryusei's instructions echoed in Ashina's mind.

"Kill the frogs first. Do not let him send them back for a reverse-summon."

So Ashina pointed at Fukasaku and Shima first, the instant they hesitated and tried recalibrating their rhythm when they still observed him.

A crimson sigil snapped into existence in the air, sharp and perfect.

The two elders had incredibly small chakra reserves of their own, relying almost entirely on natural energy or siphoning Jiraiya's chakra to function.

That made them ideal targets.

The lower the chakra baseline, the faster and easier the Rite of the Crimson Thought seized them — and on these two, it took hold immediately.

Reality itself twitched.

The Yin–Yang construct wasn't chakra.

It wasn't genjutsu.

It wasn't even a seal.

It was pure killing intent weaponized, a conceptual execution that bypassed almost everything that counted as "defense."

The elder toads didn't even register a threat.

They only saw a red flicker.

And then they were gone.

Their bodies didn't simply drop — they were ripped apart.

The Crimson Thought carved through them with merciless precision, shredding flesh, pulverizing bone, scattering chakra into a spray of red particulate mist.

Two small explosions of blood-red fragments burst across Jiraiya's shoulders.

What had been Fukasaku and Shima now looked like two popped balloons of meat.

The Sage link snapped instantly.

Jiraiya's imperfect Sage Mode collapsed, markings draining away as the natural-energy equilibrium inside him imploded in a violent recoil.

"Fukasaku—Shima—!?"

He staggered, breath breaking, chakra lines convulsing.

His hands shook.

His eyes flicked to each shoulder.

Where the two elders had been perched seconds ago, there remained nothing but shredded, dripping red matter—and the sickening realization that he was now alone.

Renjiro didn't waste the opening.

A blood dragon erupted behind Jiraiya, jaws open—but Mito's chains lashed out, intercepting it with hard blue light.

Ashina walked forward calmly, hands already weaving seals.

Jiraiya roared and launched oil, fire, and hair like a storm.

Ashina answered with one of Uzumaki's highest arts.

Adamantine Reversal Array.

A circular seal ignited under Jiraiya's feet.

The flame-oil storm twisted and bent backward toward its caster.

Jiraiya barely rolled aside, but his chakra pathways shook violently from the rebound effect.

Fugaku stepped in next.

His red Susanoo flickered into existence behind him, blade carving down.

Jiraiya blocked with a hasty Doton wall, which Renjiro cut apart with a natural-energy white slash, forcing Jiraiya into Susanoo's reach.

The blade carved across his chest.

Sage-enhanced durability kept him alive—but Ashina was already moving.

His sealing tattoo glowed.

Natural Energy Imprint Surge.

He slapped his palm onto the ground.

Tendrils of raw natural energy surged upward, swirling into Mito's and Jiraiya's feet, slowing them, choking their movements.

"Jiraiya," Ashina said quietly, "As I can sense, your heart was one of the best in this rotten village. But your presence here is a problem."

Jiraiya, still utterly devastated mentally, lunged with a desperate Frog Kata strike, fist wrapped in the last shreds of natural energy.

Ashina met him head-on.

His palm touched Jiraiya's chest.

The seal ignited instantly.

Rite of the Crimson Thought: Termination Point.

A silent pulse shook the air.

There was no explosion.

No scream.

No blood.

Just an absolute erasure of vitality as Ashina's imagination-born Yin–Yang strike rewrote the body's "continuation" into "cessation."

Jiraiya's eyes widened once.

In that single instant before the Crimson Thought erased everything, a bitter clarity hit him.

'So this is how it ends… not saving anyone. Not saving the world. Not saving the village. Not saving her. Not even saving myself.'

He had imagined a grand death, something worthy of a hero, something that might finally justify the years he spent wandering, chasing prophecies and dreams that never quite belonged to him.

Instead, he died here, cut down before he could even lift a hand to protect the woman he loved from slipping further and further down the path he feared for her.

There was no resistance. No counterattack. Just a thin wash of regret… and a strange sense of relief that he wouldn't have to watch the rest.

His heart stopped.

His chakra network collapsed like a chain of extinguished lanterns.

He fell forward without even the dignity of a final stance—a legend undone in a single, perfect conceptual kill.

Ryusei was not stupid enough to have Ashina spare Jiraiya out of sentiment for Tsunade.

If anything, eliminating him now spared her future way greater pain than the current fleeting one.

Jiraiya would never have integrated cleanly into the Konoha they intended to build if they won.

His presence would only continue to create emotional friction and unnecessary contradictions she or he didn't need.

Therefore, Ryusei and Ashina already had a quiet, mutual understanding.

Later, Ryusei would simply let Tsunade believe Ashina killed Jiraiya on impulse, driven by his own bitterness toward Konoha, acting on resentment rather than Ryusei's own directives.

It was cleaner that way.

And in truth, that version wasn't even far from reality.

Ashina did hate Konoha enough to cut Jiraiya down without a second thought.

Ryusei just let it happen.

It was the most merciful outcome Tsunade could hope for.

Ashina, meanwhile, did not look at the body again.

He simply turned toward Mito to finish the next step.

With Jiraiya disabled, the battlefield pivoted in an instant.

Mito Uzumaki unleashed the full wrath of her chains, dozens upon dozens whipping out like enraged serpents.

Fugaku blocked with his Susanoo's ribs.

Renjiro sliced through chain after chain with lightning-natured blood blades.

Ashina walked straight through the storm.

Not dodging. Not flinching. Not even slowing.

Fuinjutsu armor lit his entire body in layered crimson patterns—an unmistakable glow, the kind only Uzumaki patriarchs ever reached at the final stage of their art.

Seals shifted like living scripture across his skin, forming a complete barrier of ancestral authority.

His hand extended toward Mito. She tried desperately to seal him instead. But, she couldn't in any way.

He was simply the better Uzumaki.

His seal flared. "Binding of the Red Spiral."

Mito froze as the array crawled over her torso and arms, locking each chain one by one before compressing them back into her body like retracting spears.

Renjiro dashed behind her and slammed the anti–Edo Tensei tags Ryusei prepared, and Fugaku's curse-field Mangekyō activated, draining what remained of her strength.

"You sold Uzushio for a house in this village. For a husband whose successors let your people burn."

The words struck deeper than any blade.

Mito staggered, her chakra faltering for the first time.

Her eyes softened—anger, regret, and something old and heavy swirling together.

"Ashina… you still don't understand…"

But that was all she managed.

The sealing array snapped shut.

Her chains were swallowed.

Her movements froze.

Her Edo Tensei form unraveled from the inside out.

Ashina watched her fall without triumph and without pity.

Only a long, quiet exhale escaped him.

For all his anger, for all the years of betrayal piled on Uzushio's grave, seeing Mito, once their clan's beloved prodigy, reduced to this hollow, borrowed shell stirred a faint ache in his chest. An entire life wasted chasing something that was not worth giving up your blood.

A legacy squandered. He turned away.

"Hashirama's vision?" he murmured. "It dies here with your borrowed bodies. The new Konoha and the world Ryusei and Orochimaru are about to forge has no place for it."

In truth, Ashina knew Orochimaru already stood a half-step above him in power, despite being biologically so young and nowhere near his fullest potential yet.

Ashina was also an 'intellectual-type' himself first and foremost, which was why he ranked Orochimaru just below Ryusei, in this world, and respected him so much.

His seals soon dimmed.

The battlefield moved on.

And Ashina did not look back.

And just like that, with that single bitter sentence echoing in her ears, Mito Uzimaki lost her second life.

This time, perhaps earlier than her husband.

Renjiro, meanwhile, also exhaled shakily, drenched in blood and smoke.

Fugaku lowered his Susanoo, eyes burning, breath heavy.

Ashina stood calmly, as if he had merely completed a chore.

"Ryusei wants us back on the main field," he said. "Hiashi Hyuga up next. His aura is getting more and more powerful and volatile. We need to hurry up. Also, use this window of chance."

Fugaku nodded sharply, even if he probably couldn't use much of his eyes there for a while.

Renjiro tightened his grip on his blade, having already drawn many lessons from this battle, as well.

The three vanished, and the forest quieted, ending the legend of two icons in under three minutes.