"Ninjas run like this."
"Does running like that make them faster?"
"For them, maybe."
"But it still looks ridiculously slow."
Carl and Lily chatted back and forth about the ninjas' strange running posture, completely ignoring the Third Hokage and the group of ninjas charging toward them with murderous intent.
Right now, Danzō's face—held up by the neck—had already turned from blue to white.
He had tried to struggle free, but the moment Carl grabbed his neck, he felt his chakra draining away rapidly, leaving him unable to mount any meaningful resistance.
Seeing the Third finally arrive to assist, a hint of joy flashed in Danzō's eyes, and he struggled to speak.
"Crack!"
A crisp snap of bones rang out. Danzō's expression froze on his face, his neck clearly twisted to the right.
Facing Danzō's grisly death, the Third Hokage's expression remained calm, but deep in his eyes, a flicker of anger surged. He understood Danzō—Danzō would definitely activate Izanagi beforehand. But killing a Konoha high-ranking official right in front of the Hokage had crossed his bottom line.
The ninjas behind him were all wide-eyed with shock. Aside from a small number of Root members, most of them had no idea about the cheat ability that was Izanagi.
After all, gouging eyeballs from Uchiha corpses and sticking them onto your own arm wasn't exactly something honorable to talk about.
Under everyone's stunned gazes, the corpse in Carl's hand gradually turned transparent and vanished into the air.
Then Carl raised his hand toward an empty patch of space. The newly forming, twisted figure of Danzō was forcibly yanked out by Carl's Dark-Dark Fruit gravity before it could fully materialize, his neck once again pressed intimately against Carl's palm.
Danzō's face was a mixture of shock and fury. The Third could no longer tolerate this. His hands blurred through hand seals, he looked up, and spat out a massive sphere of water.
"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"
Unleashing such a massive Water Release in a place with no natural water source—this alone was enough to demonstrate the profound strength of the Third Hokage. Many of the ANBU and Root ninjas who had not seen him fight in years were astonished.
Lily stared at the enormous water ball barreling toward them and said curiously,
"Water? They can control water elements? That's actually quite effective against ability-users."
Hearing this, Danzō's ears twitched slightly as a thought came to him:
Ability-users? What is she talking about? Could it be… these two are afraid of water?
But just as the thought appeared—
Carl provided his answer with action.
A semi-transparent, faintly dark sphere slowly formed around Carl. The massive water-ball—dozens of times larger—vanished instantly upon contact, like a fish slipping into the sea, not even leaving behind a drop of splash.
The ninjas who had been praising the Third moments earlier were now frozen. When had they ever seen a technique that directly nullified ninjutsu? And this wasn't just any ninjutsu—this was a top-tier Water Release from the strongest of the current Ninja World, the Third Hokage.
"Crack!"
Another crisp sound. Danzō's neck twisted to the right once more.
Then, yet another freshly revived Danzō was dragged from the same spot and lifted into the air by the neck again.
This time, Carl didn't even bother to look at Danzō while repeating the process. Instead, he turned to Lily with a grin:
"Yeah, if an ability-user runs into a Water Release ninja at sea, it's basically instant death. Their first encounter would probably be their last."
After spending so much time with Carl, Lily had gradually grown used to new terms like "first-encounter kill." She nodded thoughtfully and said,
"These so-called ninjas are weak overall, but they do have some interesting tricks."
Everyone present heard her clearly. The phrase "weak overall" hit their nerves hard. The crowd was angry—but not a single person dared to step forward.
Fortunately, Carl offered them a bit of face:
"We've only seen the surface-level strength of the ninja world. There are a few strong ones who can be considered decent."
Lily pouted, unconvinced.
"Maybe."
Danzō, his face flushed from suffocation, finally squeezed out some words:
"Who… exactly are you…?"
"Crack!"
Pa!
Counting the time Lily did it, Carl grabbed Danzō's neck for the fifth resurrection. The Third Hokage could no longer stand by and watch Carl twist Danzō's neck over and over.
He unleashed Wind, Fire, Lightning, and Earth Release techniques one after another—but without exception, Carl absorbed every last one cleanly.
After his final Earth Dragon Bullet vanished into nothing, the Third finally sensed something wrong. He shouted in shock:
"This is Dark Release! Why do you also have Dark Release!?"
Carl tilted his head, finally giving the Third a direct look—a look one gives to an idiot.
"Third Hokage-sama, are you getting senile? We've met more than once already. You're only realizing now?"
The familiar tone. The familiar power.
The Third finally confirmed Carl's identity.
"You're the Nine-Tails… No! You can't be the Nine-Tails! How did you possess Naruto!?"
Everyone except Carl, the Third, and Danzō were completely confused by their conversation.
Carl laughed.
"Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand. As for Naruto—eh, that kid is kind of my student. Have you given him the Fourth Hokage's house back yet?"
The Third froze. Faced with Carl's overwhelming and unfathomable power, he nodded slowly.
"He's already moved in."
"That house is huge. Did you have people clean it?"
"...Yes. It's been cleaned."
"See? That wasn't so hard to arrange. Why didn't you do it earlier?"
"..."
The exchange between Carl and the Third left all the surrounding ninjas utterly stunned. Their burning question:
Who exactly is the Hokage here?
Why was their Third Hokage reporting to the enemy?
The Third felt helpless. From the moment he recognized Carl's identity, he knew one thing—
Carl must never become their enemy.
That enormous meteor hanging over Konoha that night was no dream.
The man before him truly possessed the power to destroy the village.
Back then, Carl didn't even have a physical body. The Third suspected that Carl had been in a heavily limited state. But now Carl stood here in his true body.
Just how terrifying would his full power be?
The Third Hokage did not dare gamble.
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+140 chapters on p@treon/tambeerg