Naruto: I, Uchiha, Just Want to Die

Chapter 66: Severing Bonds, Rain in the City

On the shattered city wall, two figures stood still, staring at the departing Shinno with a dazed expression.

Uchiha Ci took a deep breath and glanced at the scroll in his hand, which stored the dark chakra of Zero-Tails. He then tucked it into his leg bindings.

Zero-Tails, known as the embodiment of dark chakra, is a force that naturally arose in the ninja world, separate from the nine-tailed beasts. The more darkness one harbors in their heart, the greater the power they can unleash using this energy.

However, upon receiving this scroll, Uchiha Ci felt a heavy weight in his heart.

To be honest, he couldn't understand why he, someone engaging in reckless behavior under the guise of righteousness, would be given such a valuable gift.

It served as a stark reminder.

Though his motives were slightly skewed, his actions mirrored the protagonists of hot-blooded manga.

It made reckless stunts easier to pull off, but unfortunately, it came with the side effects of being a manga protagonist—like always receiving inexplicable assistance from random old masters at critical moments. What was that about?

Something didn't feel right.

His true desire had always been to avoid involving others, to not alter any major plotlines, and to find a fitting moment during the Great Ninja War, facing a formidable foe, to die quietly and alone.

Where did it all go wrong?

Frowning deeply, Uchiha Ci realized things weren't as simple as they seemed.

"Let's go. What are you spacing out for?" Terumi Mei, standing beside him, waved her hand before his eyes and softly urged him.

Suspicion crept into Uchiha Ci's gaze as he looked at her.

Suddenly, it all clicked.

The problem was this deceptively cute but truly devilish girl! She had insisted on tagging along, dragging Hidan and Shinno with her, resulting in this absurd little team.

Indeed, women were only getting in the way of his plan for a heroic death!

"No rush," Uchiha Ci's expression darkened. He brushed off Mei's hand and, after a moment of complicated contemplation, turned to her and asked coldly, "I remember you said you were looking for someone crucial to you and your village, right?"

Terumi Mei was taken aback for a moment.

"That's right."

She bore the burden of Kirigakure's mission—to find the leader awaited by all in the Hidden Mist. That was her reason for coming to the Land of Hot Water.

Uchiha Ci stared coldly at her, his gaze filled with questions. "I also remember you saying back on the cliff that if I could create an opening for you, you'd be able to find the information you needed, as well as Hidan's location."

"So, did you find it?"

Under Uchiha Ci's increasingly frosty gaze, Mei felt a growing discomfort. She furrowed her brows and began to explain, "I've already found Hidan's location. We're heading there now, so you don't need to wor—"

"I'm not asking about that."

Before she could finish, Uchiha Ci interrupted her coldly.

"What I'm asking is, did you find the information you were looking for?"

Mei's heart sank. Uchiha Ci's words pulled her abruptly from the ninja adventure, where justice triumphs over evil, back to the harsh reality.

After a moment of silence, she bit her lip and nodded. "I found it."

Uchiha Ci nodded in response, then asked, "In that case, you no longer have a reason to continue, do you?"

His eyes locked onto hers with a cold and distant intensity, as if interrogating her while tying her to a chair. "You've gotten what you wanted. In return, all I need is for you to use your Lava Release to create a hole here, so I can sneak in."

"Afterward, don't get in the way and stay far, far away."

"Did you hear me?"

Mei couldn't help but lift her head in shock, her clear green eyes widening slightly. "Wait, Ci, weren't we going to rescue Hidan? He's part of our team too."

"Shut up!" Uchiha Ci interrupted her coldly.

He sneered at her, his face a mix of mockery and disdain. "This team was strange enough to begin with, but now it's even more bizarre. As a Kirigakure ninja, someone who wreaks havoc on this land, are you actually showing pity for a brat from the Land of Hot Water?"

"Who do you think you're pitying?"

"In the end, what could you, who stood frozen in terror before Kakuzu, possibly accomplish?"

"If your decision had been more decisive then, we wouldn't have run into Kakuzu. Afterward, if you had escaped immediately, Hidan wouldn't have been captured."

"Every step you took hit the wrong choice precisely. How could I ever trust you?"

Each word peeled away another layer of the fantasy Mei had built in her mind, causing her face to darken as she raised her gaze, growing colder.

"Uchiha Ci!"

"What do you take everything we've been through so far for?!"

Unable to suppress her anger, Mei clenched her fists and glared at him coldly.

As a ninja of Kirigakure, raised with the creed that "ninjas are merely tools," this long and short day had been an entirely new experience for Mei. The feeling of truly exchanging hearts, of being able to entrust someone with your back—it was an unprecedented experience.

But now, Uchiha Ci had ruthlessly torn those fleeting fantasies apart.

He looked at her with cold indifference and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe it was just a mutually agreed exchange?"

Calmly, he added, "This is where it ends."

"If you continue following me, you'll only hinder my actions."

"Now choose—"

"Either fulfill your end of the deal and leave, or turn around and walk away now. After all, you've already got what you came for, haven't you?"

"Or perhaps—"

"After hearing such harsh words, will a brainless, big-chested woman like you decide to kill me here?"

At this, Uchiha Ci couldn't help but chuckle.

"Haha, if a ninja from the Blood Mist makes that choice, I wouldn't be surprised."

The next moment, his Sharingan activated. His icy, crimson eyes locked onto Mei, awaiting her decision.

Mei took a few deep, heavy breaths before raising her cold green eyes, anger flickering within them.

After a brief moment of silence, she exhaled sharply, biting her lip. "If you insist on reducing everything to a mere transaction..."

"So be it."

"I'll open the passage and let you jump to your death!"

"I won't care about you anymore!"

Hearing this, Uchiha Ci couldn't help but laugh.

"Perfect. That's just fine."

Since arriving in this world, Uchiha Ci's experience had been a lonely game leading to a fated death.

He just needed to keep running forward!

Such meaningless bonds could simply be severed.

Such expectations thrust upon him could be left unfulfilled.

It didn't matter. None of it mattered.

Heartfelt connections only dulled his senses and slowed his movements.

In this moment, Uchiha Ci saw his true heart and his path forward.

At some point, thick clouds had gathered over the castle, and a steady drizzle began to fall.

With this newfound resolve, he and Mei walked silently toward the center of the castle.

Neither spoke along the way, until they finally stood before the castle gates.