Path Of War-Chapter 325: I Knew It!

As the rampage ensued above ground, a group of villagers took sanctuary in their basement and huddled together with frightful murmurs. All their hearts were pounding.

"What's going on?" one whispered.

"Stay quiet," another responded.

Eyes darted to the tiny windows that provided scant light. Then a ragged cough sounded in the confined space. One of them begged, "Stop," but the cough continued unabated.

Others in the room started clenching their throats as their voices erupted into uncontrollable fits.

Someone yelled, "It's smoke!" and confusion turned to fear. They wanted to leave, but it was too late; their lungs were infiltrated by a choking fog in the air.

Their bodies then drooped, dead, one by one, as the smoke engulfed them.

A figure emerged from the smoke, standing icily in the middle of the now-quiet basement. Clad in white, the figure looked around the scene with disinterest before vanishing again into smoke, looking for his next set of victims.

The cries of the defenseless blended confusion, grief, and terror back in the village square. The criminals and corrupt leaders who had long flourished in this village faced an unprecedented reckoning.

"Someone make this stop!"

Arthur continued to watch the chaos from above. When he noticed Ryugetsu had successfully brought those underground out of hiding, he glided across the village and began slicing through everyone in sight.

Together with him, John, Hoshikaze, and Kaito moved accordingly.

Cries of the villagers swept through the streets as panic continued.

Hoshikaze noticed a gang trying to escape through the village gate. Even if they made it out, they wouldn't get far thanks to the barrier in place.

He strode toward them and saw how their faces went white when they noticed his cloak.

"What did we ever do to you?!" one of them begged.

Without a word, Hoshikaze charged forward. One swing of his fist sent a large man crashing to the gates. He then quickly grabbed the arm of a woman and threw her into her companions.

Boom!

Those not knocked down by the force of their collision tried to lunge at Hoshikaze. John swooped in, and their attempt was met with various kicks and elbows to their guts.

Now they were truly terrified. Many tried to run away after getting up, but it only took a few moves to take them down.

The cries of the village blended into a single monstrous roar.

Arthur stood in the middle of the mayhem, pausing to catch a glimpse of the flames dancing amidst the houses.

By the time he turned, all of his white-clad clones were behind him. A distant shriek pierced the atmosphere, serving as a reminder that some were still left.

They charged forward as one cohesive force, intent on destroying anything that breathed.

The village continued to rage in chaos, and the sounds of devastation filled the air, including the crashing of wood and panicked cries as they let loose their power.

It wasn't long until sunset came and the once-active streets were filled with the atrocities of their attack. Over the remains of what had once been a community was only ash and rubble.

Arthur stalked through the village with his clones.

Being dragged by the collar was an elderly man who had been the head of this place.

"Puh... please," he begged. Just put an end to my misery."

Arthur continued to drag him while scanning the area.

"Wh... why did you do this to us?"

An interesting question. It caused Arthur to stop and ask, "Do you think it was out of anger?"

"What? I... I don't understand," the man coughed. "We never sinned against anyone..."

Arthur became intrigued, so he asked, "What do you know about sin?"

The man's face clearly showed that he was confused by the sudden question.

Perceiving the man to be clueless, Arthur answered, "Those who rebel against our Lord Jesus Christ and accept him not are still yet in their sin. They blindly follow their own destruction and stick to their own evil hearts. Have you ever cursed? Have you ever invoked the name of God in vain? Have you ever turned from your sins and accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord?"

The elder felt the pressure of Arthur's inquiries and could not answer. It became painfully clear that he had never given such questions much thought.

When John approached the two, Arthur held the man up, allowing John to draw a sword.

"Puh... please," the man begged again. "I'll repent of my—"

The sword was swung and cleanly cut the man's throat before he could utter more false pretenses. A chilly void was left in the center of the village as the last of the authority vanished.

Darkness fell on the land shortly after the deed was completed. Houses were in ruins, and debris littered the streets. It was the sight of so much blood and dead bodies that was more troubling to look upon.

Nevertheless, Arthur and his clones continued to scan for important findings.

John was spotted walking into a nearby library. It was one of the few places that went untouched due to no one finding refuge inside. Yet it was still in ruins.

He wound up finding a book titled "How to Construct a Village by Akito B. Takahashi".

This could be very helpful, so he tucked the book into his suit.

He gathered a few more books and headed back toward the town square. Fallen figures littered the ground, with Arthur and the other clones standing among the remains.

"Everyone's dead," confirmed Hoshikaze.

John looked around the destroyed village and said, "At this point, we'll be too slow to do this to others."

The clones all agreed, understanding that this was just a minor example of what they would one day do to the whole world if Arthur remained ahead.

"What was the count?" Ryugetsu asked.

"Two thousand two hundred," Kaito answered.

This made John whistle, for that was how many they slew.

But why did Arthur go to the trouble of targeting this unsuspecting village in the first place?

The answer was simple: he needed fresh corpses to enact his grand scheme of reviving the Uchiha clan. These citizens were mere sacrifices that were all going to be used for the Reanimation technique.

Kabuto had done something similar, as many believed. He was able to create an army for Obito to initiate a war—an army that had to border on over five digits.

Not many understood how Kabuto was able to find the right sacrifices to amass such a large army. Some believed that he slaughtered prisoners from the abandoned Sound Village. Others thought he simply killed as he pleased while collecting his cells.

Regardless of how the deed was done, it was Arthur who had the power to do it.

This village, despite its infamous activities, was a lone territory. They neither had any affiliations with other villages nor were they near most of the others that bordered the Land of Waves.

Arthur, having once manipulated these parts, knew their geographical statistics well. The deed done today would take time to be fully recognized. And when it did, many would assume it was because of their evil ways that their destruction came.

Having planned everything accordingly, Arthur retrieved a single chakra pill from his pouch. He then swallowed it before performing the Flying raijin to teleport out.

The rest of the work would be left to his clones.

They diligently worked for hours by gathering the fallen bodies. It was easy thanks to their convenient techniques.

Then, a change in the air caused Hoshikaze to pause as something pulled at his senses. This caused him to remove his cloak.

John saw how his attitude had changed, so he also stopped to ask what's wrong.

"I'll be back," Hoshikaze flatly replied.

Chakra encircled him before he suddenly vanished.

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Ryugetsu and Kaito, who had been moving bodies by the bulk, came to a halt. Their brows knitted tightly, and with a note of perplexity, Ryugetsu remarked, "That wasn't the Flying raijin..."

"And he removed his cloak," Kaito added.

They were all aware that this had to be someone's fault, and only one name registered in their heads: Jada.

Hoshikaze, meanwhile, appeared on the edge of a grassy area. The sun was just starting to sink, signifying he was in a different time zone.

He slowly turned and looked around to catch sight of Jada. A few steps away, she stood with one eye closed and the other with the Mangekyō Sharingan—she had used her special ability.

"Jada," Hoshikaze said.

She answered in a steady, almost calm voice, "I'm glad you answered the call... I want to talk."

Her tone suggested something serious. So he asked what it was she wanted to discuss.

"Hoshikaze-sensei," she began, "you're an anomaly in this world. You shouldn't even exist."

"That's a little rude to say, don't you think?"

"I... I just don't get you!" she suddenly blurted. "Like, the way you fight, and how you're so much stronger than everyone I know." That was quite the compliment coming from her, considering her friends were elite players. "Where did you come from, and how come no one's heard of you until now?"

Removing his blindfold, Jada caught his striking eyes; she had almost forgotten how handsome he was without them.

"You're asking because you're suspicious of something, am I right?" he coolly said.

"Well, I—"

"I'll answer any questions you have," he interrupted. "For starters, I was born in the Cayman Jungles."

Jada was shocked at how quickly he answered. And because she had her Mangekyō Sharingan active, she could tell by his microexpressions if he was lying or not.

"Were you a part of any clan?"

"No, I was born without a mother. It was my father who taught me everything I know."

"That explains how crazy strong your taijutsu is," Jada admitted. "But that's not enough. You're still an anomaly, and I want to know more about this."

"Are you saying that I'm an outlier?"

"Not exactly," she shot back. "It's the way you fight—it's not normal, and we all think that's strange."

"We...?"

"Yes," she continued. "My friends and I train really hard, but you're on a whole other level. And if you think I'm being disrespectful by calling you out on anything, then forgive me. It's just that—"

"You're forgiven," he bluntly said. "I'll answer your questions."

"Why did you tell that woman to only bow down to God?" she squinted.

"Because only God is to be served."

"Aha! I knew it!"

Before Jada could continue antagonizing Hoshikaze, the latter pulled out a black book. Inscribed on it were the words "Holy Bible."

When Jada saw it, she was perplexed. How did something like that exist in this world?

"I take it you've never read one," he insisted. "Not many have, as it's a rarity to find sacred texts in the world."

Now she was left speechless. Not because he had cleared his faith, but also because Alice was right—God existed everywhere, even in the world of ninjas.

"Okay then," she said, lowering her gaze. "Then explain your sudden growth."

"Sudden growth...?"

"Yeah! Back at the tournament, Will and you fought... Well, amazing. But after we saw you again, you were on a whole other level. So what's your secret?"

"It's called training..."

Jada dropped her serious act before finally conceding. This clearly hadn't gone the way she had expected it to.

To further prove his innocence, he even lowered his chakra levels to near zero. This allowed for any and all techniques to be unusable, such as the Transformation technique.

The only thing she could try to interrogate him about now was his Kekkei Genkai. Yet the terrible part was that she didn't even know he had one because when he activated it, he could deter other Kekkei Genkai like her Sharingan.

Whether or not she tried to question him on this wouldn't amount to much since he could always state that his Tamashii was simply unique.

"Now let me ask you something," he wondered, "what's this all about?"

"I—"

"You risked going blind just to call me when I thought you were in trouble. If I had known you were being paranoid about things, I would have never answered."

Hoshikaze couldn't have cornered her better; he turned the situation around unexpectedly.

A moment later, Jada explained why she had called him. She revealed how Naruto was attacked by ninjas that were stated to be dead. Because the other players and her haven't been able to figure out the cause, they listed Hoshikaze as a potential suspect.

Hoshikaze spent little time clearing his name without" lying, and she believed him.

"I guess I'm not the best investigator," she admitted. "I promise I won't call you out like that, sensei."

"Don't worry about it," he said, putting back on his blindfold.

"No!" she insisted. "That was totally uncool of me. Let me make it up to you."

Her sincerity was overshadowed by the fact that she had teleported him here. For all she knew, he might have been all the way across the world.

Nonetheless, Hoshikaze played his role perfectly.