Chapter 25: The Clever Hidan, S-Rank Forbidden Jutsu!
---
Half a day later.
Land of Hot Water — the site where Uchiha Ci had fought.
A young man with short black hair landed lightly on the scorched earth. He wore a black tactical outfit under a Konoha jōnin vest.
This man was Uchiha Fugaku.
When his eyes fell upon the scene before him, he couldn't help but freeze in shock.
The once-peaceful forest was gone—replaced by a massive, shattered volcano.
It looked as if someone had taken a forty-meter-long greatsword and hacked wildly in every direction until the earth itself split apart.
Boiling underground water bubbled up through the cracks, forming a steaming river that wound its way down the slope.
"Elder… just what did they encounter here?"
Fugaku furrowed his brow, crouched down, and scooped up a handful of fine, scorched sand. His Sharingan spun open.
"Such devastation can only mean two possibilities. Either Elder Setsuna awakened that forbidden power at the last moment—"
"Or… he used that jutsu."
His tone grew heavy as his eyes swept rapidly over the battlefield ruins.
"Hm?"
He suddenly narrowed his eyes. Among the flowing hot springs below, there was a patch of land that had somehow remained intact—an almost perfect circle.
It was littered with kunai and shuriken, the scorched remains of detonation tags still clinging to them.
Gashes and pits scarred the ground everywhere, the marks of intense taijutsu clashes.
"Someone else fought here…" Fugaku murmured. "This shuriken control—could it be Seiichiro? No… he's not capable of this level. Then it must be Uchiha Ci."
"Uchiha Ci…"
He stared at the chaotic terrain. The aftermath alone told how fierce that battle had been.
"Can he really be just a genin?"
For the first time, doubt flickered across Fugaku's face. Even the Uchiha clan's prodigy Shisui, with all his talent, couldn't possibly reach such a level at this age.
"Whichever it was—whether Elder Setsuna drew upon forbidden power or that jutsu—he must have been driven by strong emotion."
"Then… what was he trying to accomplish?"
Fugaku's eyes followed the path of the gigantic sword-like gouges, calculating the direction of the strikes.
Finally, his gaze settled on a broken ledge halfway up the volcanic wall—its edge cleaved cleanly as if by a single cut.
"They might still be alive… At least, Uchiha Ci—he could very well be alive."
Taking a deep breath, Fugaku recalled something Shisui had once said to him:
'Uchiha Ci will become the bridge between the clan and the village, Fugaku-senpai.'
And now— the hawkish elder Setsuna had burned his life away to clear a path for that very boy.
Uchiha Ci…
Just what kind of charm did this youth possess, that even the warring hawk and dove factions of the Uchiha clan would unite around him?
"Find him," Fugaku exhaled deeply.
"No matter what—it's imperative we find him."
"This might be the final message Elder Setsuna left us."
"And… his final will."
---
Land of Hot Water.
In a ruined village near the capital, Yu-Yan City.
Uchiha Ci slowly opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was a cracked, sagging ceiling.
"Yo, you're awake?"
A kid with slicked-back gray hair was sitting at his bedside, chewing noisily on a pork cutlet and giving him a sidelong glance.
"Where… am I?" Ci murmured, dazed.
His last memory was of the volcano—
Elder Setsuna's sneak attack, the sharp pain at the back of his head — and then nothing but darkness.
And this wasn't even the first time that old man had knocked him out!
Ci ground his teeth. Before the fight, he'd been helping to set up defensive traps—only for the old man to smack him unconscious with a single slap, forcefully putting him to sleep. Only to wake up in a devastating battle hours later.
Damn it, did that geezer not realize he might flatten a child's skull doing that?
"Yesterday," the gray-haired kid said between bites, "some underground spring burst open and turned into a hot river. I found you floating in it and fished you out."
"Tch, you're a ninja, right?" He leaned back, one foot up on the bed, arms behind his head.
Ci's Sharingan flickered briefly—just long enough to scan the boy's chakra.
He had barely any. Not even up to genin level.
"You knew I was a ninja, and you still saved me?" Ci frowned. "Aren't you afraid I might just kill you?"
But the kid only smirked.
"Your body's covered in wounds—big and small. But I checked you over, and there isn't a single injury on your back. Which means you're man who doesn't run away… In the Land of Hot Water, that probably still counts as a good person."
Ci's smile froze instantly.
The first time in his life someone handed him a "good guy card," and it had to come from a cocky little brat with his nose in the air.
For a moment, he really wanted to grab the kid by the nostrils and slam him into the floor.
But… the brat had saved him.
So, as the self-proclaimed "good man" here, Uchiha Ci sighed in defeat.
The path of insurance fraud was long and treacherous…
Truly difficult indeed.
"Heh, name's Hidan." The boy grinned, jabbing a thumb at his chest.
"You can call me Bro Hidan."
"You?"
"Genin. Ci," he answered curtly.
Then his expression froze. His eyes widened.
"Wait. What did you just say?"
"What, my name?" Hidan raised an eyebrow. "Of course I'm Hidan. Who else would I be?"
He gave a big, confident grin and jabbed his thumb toward himself again.
"The future savior of the Land of Hot Water—the next Hot Shadow! That's me!"
"I'll end this country's chaos, drive out every foreign ninja, and become the next Demi-God of the ninja world!"
"That's my ninja way!"
"Wait—Hidan? You're Hidan?!" Ci's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. He almost activated his Sharingan again just to make sure the kid was real.
Because—
Hidan! The future member of Akatsuki. A devout follower of Jashin. One half of the Immortal Duo.
A terrifying "first-strike-kill" specialist— The man who defeated the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, slew the Twelve Guardian Ninja Chiriku and Asuma.
Arrogant, loud, manic, and more than a little stupid—
That was Hidan.
And yet the kid standing before him was all of that—except stupid.
A clever Hidan?!
What kind of abomination was this?
Images flashed through Ci's mind— all those old fan debates he'd had years ago:
"If Hidan had a brain, we'd have things like Summoner Hidan, Mosquito Hidan, Blood-Donation Truck Hidan…"
A smart Hidan was so absurd it broke reality itself— as outrageous as "Meal-Skipping Minato," "Healthy Itachi," or "Well-Informed Jiraiya."
Ci blinked blankly, his pupils practically quivering.
"Hey, why are you looking at me like that?" Hidan frowned, his expression changing.
"Ah~ I get it now!" he declared proudly.
"You're overwhelmed by my greatness and started babbling nonsense, huh?"
"So this is what they call 'the aura of a Kage. Not bad, I forgive you."
Hidan laughed heartily, then pulled out a scroll and tossed it toward Ci.
"This floated in with you. I couldn't open it—guess it's yours. Take it. I'll go get a doctor to check your head."
Ignoring that last insult entirely, Ci turned the scroll over in his hands.
The crimson Uchiha crest was emblazoned on its surface.
There was a strange resonance— as if the scroll itself was connected to him.
He carefully unrolled it.
The moment his eyes landed on the text inside, his pupils shrank sharply.
Because written there, in bold strokes, were the words—
"Uchiha Style · Secret Transmission — S-Rank Forbidden Sword Art."
"Dance of the Sun Halo!"