After their ramen gathering, Team Nine split up.
Usually, Drake would head straight home and flop onto his bed — but not this time.
He wandered toward the village's back mountain, looping around until he reached a shaded, secluded spot.
"Danzo shouldn't be showing up again this time, right?"
Just to be safe, he circled the area once more. No one in sight.
Step.
He stopped before a sheer rock wall and slowly raised his palm.
"Gravity Sphere… time to test you out."
This was the unknown jutsu evolved from the Rasengan — and he'd never once tested its true power.
Chakra surged.
The technique activated.
Hummm—
A pure-white sphere of chakra formed in his palm, looking no different from a regular Rasengan.
But the next second—
Everything changed.
"My chakra?!"
Drake's eyes widened as he felt the chakra inside his body being dragged madly into the Gravity Sphere.
Out of control.
In just moments, nearly a tenth of his chakra had been swallowed.
"My chakra reserves are Shadow-level… no, even beyond—!"
Alarmed, he hurled the sphere into the air.
BUZZ!!!
The moment it left his hand, a terrifying gravitational force erupted outward.
CRACK! CRACK!
The cliff face shattered, rocks splintering into fragments and hurtling toward the floating sphere.
The ground trembled violently, fissures spreading like spiderwebs.
"This is—?!"
Drake's pupils shrank.
What he saw made his scalp go numb.
The sphere hovered in midair, unchanged in size — yet every rock and mound of earth that touched it simply vanished.
Gone.
"Where did they go? Inside it?"
Even more horrifying…
Though the sphere had already been thrown away, Drake could still feel a connection to it.
His chakra was still flowing toward it.
At a distance.
"Remote chakra transfer?"
"No… it's the gravity!"
He realised the truth.
A terrifying loop had formed — the sphere was anchoring itself through gravitational pull, consuming chakra and matter alike.
The scene was surreal beyond belief.
Drake stood motionless.
Around him, the mountain soil and stone tore loose, rising into the air, devoured by the white sphere.
Yet he alone remained untouched.
"This can't keep going — I have to cut the supply!"
He leapt backward, eyes fixed on the monstrous sphere above.
BOOOOM!!!
The moment his chakra connection snapped, the Gravity Sphere detonated.
A deafening roar split the sky.
Blinding light burst forth like a miniature sun.
The earth shook.
The mountain shattered.
Drake bolted like his life depended on it — because it did.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Chunks of debris streaked past his head, carried by the shockwave, faster than sight.
He didn't even dare look.
The light alone felt like it could blind him.
"This jutsu is INSANE… thank god I picked the back mountain!"
He didn't stop running until he reached home.
Collapsing into a wooden chair, he exhaled deeply.
"I've been lying down the whole time. This has nothing to do with me."
The Village Back Mountain… Exploded.
The moment the blast occurred, the Third Hokage led a swarm of ANBU to the site.
Danzo arrived shortly after, heavily guarded by Root operatives.
Other clans rapidly sent representatives as well.
From the village side, the mountain still stood — but from the shadowed rear…
It looked like it had been torn apart by a god.
Hiruzen stared grimly at the devastation.
"Someone was testing a forbidden technique here," Danzo declared coldly.
"I know that!" Hiruzen snapped. "The question is — who did this?"
Anyone capable of such destruction had to be an elite shinobi.
But was there anyone in the village with that level of power?
Names flickered through Hiruzen's mind one after another.
Yet none fit.
As he gazed at the collapsed peak and ruined earth, unease crept in… followed by relief.
If this technique had been tested from the other side, the village itself would've suffered catastrophic damage.
"Hokage-sama! Nothing found nearby!" an ANBU reported as he flashed in.
"Keep searching. If it's not here, check the rubble!" Hiruzen ordered.
He refused to believe the culprit left no traces.
Ten minutes later—
They found something.
Amid the shattered stone, an ANBU discovered a hidden tunnel.
"This is—"
Danzo went pale.
He knew this place.
Orochimaru's secret research facility.
"Go in!" Hiruzen commanded.
He advanced without hesitation.
Danzo swallowed hard and followed, even though he knew perfectly well…
This explosion had nothing to do with Orochimaru.
But the lab… had been exposed.
They passed through the long tunnel and stopped before a massive stone door.
BOOM!
The door was blasted open, revealing a vast cavern.
Everyone froze.
"What is this…?"
"Uchiha corpses?"
"Infants…?"
"Even Senju bodies…?"
Shock rippled through the crowd.
Inside lay over a dozen corpses — including shinobi from the Uchiha and Senju clans.
Step!
Uchiha Fugaku pushed forward, kneeling beside one of them.
"It's Uchiha Chi…!"
"He vanished long ago… and now he's been murdered by someone in the village?! His eyes were taken too!"
His rage burned like wildfire.
Then he noticed a notebook resting on a platform.
Whoosh!
At the same moment, both Fugaku and an ANBU agent lunged for it.
"Get away!"
Fugaku roared, his Sharingan flaring to life.
"Fugaku, calm yourself!" Hiruzen shouted.
"Are you using genjutsu on ANBU?" Danzo barked furiously.
Too late.
The ANBU froze, eyes glassy, body rigid.
Fugaku opened the notebook.
And saw that unmistakable handwriting.
His voice echoed through the cavern like thunder.
"Orochimaru!!!"
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