Chapter 113: Despicable and Shameless
Uchiha Kei's voice was calm, almost serene, and a faint smile even tugged at the corner of his lips.
But at that moment, Kitsuchi's expression stiffened. In an instant, he canceled his jutsu without hesitation.
He ignored the chakra inside his body spiraling slightly out of control and transformed his arm into hardened rock once more, swinging a powerful punch behind him toward the approaching kunai.
Boom!
The ground exploded beneath the sheer force of his blow, leaving a massive crater in its wake. But as he struck, a shadow had already leapt into the air.
Like a graceful dancer, the figure dodged the shockwave with elegant precision—then brought a blade crashing down toward Kitsuchi.
"Aiya, you saw through it," Uchiha Kei chuckled nonchalantly. "Your combat instincts really are frighteningly sharp—if it weren't for the little hint I dropped."
"You're wrong!" Kitsuchi snapped, trying to speak, but his expression instantly shifted.
Kei was already upon him. Kitsuchi narrowly dodged the slash, quickly weaving hand signs.
But in the next moment, the "Uchiha Kei" before him swelled and detonated with a thunderous explosion. The blast sent Kitsuchi skidding backward uncontrollably.
He barely regained his footing when he heard the piercing whistle of a blade slicing through the air. He knew all too well what it felt like to be hit by that blade—Uchiha Kei wielded Lightning Release.
Kitsuchi roared and hastily focused his chakra behind him.
He couldn't move. Forcefully canceling the jutsu had left his chakra unstable, and the explosion had shaken him up badly.
With no other choice, he decided to tank the blow. Kitsuchi was confident: he might get injured, but it wouldn't be fatal.
But he was wrong.
Once again—Uchiha Kei had tricked him.
"Raikiri!"
The moment Kei's chakra-infused blade, glowing with vibrant blue lightning, touched Kitsuchi's body, lightning surged violently. The already sharp edge of the sword became even more devastating with the added piercing power of Lightning Release.
Lightning overcomes Earth.
With a powerful slash, Kei's blade cut cleanly through Kitsuchi's body, which was as hard as stone—slicing through it like tofu.
Kitsuchi grunted in pain, then crouched, intending to retreat. But in the next instant, his expression turned ghastly.
The Lightning chakra had invaded his body—paralyzing him from within.
Despicable. Shameless.
Those words echoed furiously in his mind. Uchiha Kei had deceived him—utterly and completely.
Kei had used this sword technique before, but back then, it had only seemed like a high-speed, high-penetration Lightning-style strike. So this time, Kitsuchi had braced himself to be injured—but not crippled.
Now, his paralyzed limbs told a different story.
This brat called Uchiha Kei... was far more sinister than he let on!
Kitsuchi gritted his teeth, trying to force his body to move. But the effort sent him collapsing to the ground.
Kei didn't pause for a second. With a cold gleam in his eyes, he slashed down with his blade once more—this time cleaving Kitsuchi's left arm clean off!
"Aaaargh!"
Kitsuchi let out a blood-curdling scream as crimson spurted violently from the severed limb. But he couldn't move. Not even a twitch.
All he could do was raise his head and glare at Uchiha Kei—using that gaze to convey his fury, his hatred, and his unyielding pride.
Kei had already deactivated his Mangekyō Sharingan, reverting to the standard three tomoe form. Without using ocular techniques, the Mangekyō drained only minimal chakra and almost no visual power.
No wonder Uchiha Madara had been able to fight Hashirama Senju for so long—perhaps it wasn't just that he avoided excessive eye techniques, but also because of the Indra Chakra in his body?
"I already told you… why would you assume victory was guaranteed?" Kei walked leisurely toward Kitsuchi, stabbing his sword into the ground just inches from Kitsuchi's throat. "Seems I was right all along."
"D-Despicable…" Kitsuchi muttered through gritted teeth, his speech slurred by paralysis.
"Ah, thanks." Kei smiled. "If you'd added 'shameless' too, that would've been perfect. But hey, didn't I even give you a warning? You should be thanking me for saving you the chakra."
Kitsuchi nearly choked on his own blood. After a long pause, he chose to stop responding to this infuriating bastard.
He had seen shameless people before—but never someone like Uchiha Kei, who treated shamelessness as a badge of honor.
Now that he had time to reflect, Kitsuchi finally pieced it together.
Kei's strategy had been deceptively simple: while pretending to defend with his jutsu, he'd used a shadow clone to transform into a kunai—launching himself right into Kitsuchi's blind spot.
This guy… with the Sharingan, he likely saw through the danger in my jutsu—and so he chose to lie in wait, preparing for a surprise attack.
It was my own impatience that doomed me. Uchiha Kei had gotten under my skin. He was just too fast—I could barely track him, let alone land a solid hit.
On top of that, I couldn't meet his gaze directly. The Sharingan made it impossible—every move I made, he seemed to see through it all.
That's why I tried to set a trap: blasting apart the ground, creating a debris field, and catching him just as he landed—then finishing him off in one blow.
But I rushed it. The Sharingan is a nightmare to deal with. He even saw through my intentions—and chose to counter with an ambush.
I didn't even check carefully. And that bastard Kei—he was ruthless. He launched a kunai as a decoy from above, catching me off guard. Because one of those kunai… was real!
Just look at the wound on his shoulder—it clearly came from transforming into that kunai himself.
His so-called "kind warning" earlier? Just a trick to disrupt my chakra flow. After that, he used a shadow clone and a substitution jutsu, detonated the clone to force me into a defensive posture, then used the smoke as cover to blind me.
And finally, the finishing blow—a blade imbued with Lightning Release: explosively fast, piercing, and paralyzing.
Kitsuchi sighed deeply. Even though he'd cursed Kei as despicable and shameless—this was the way of a shinobi.
No matter how dirty or underhanded the tactics—victory is all that matters.
History only remembers the victors. The ones who live.
Losers? They get dumped in the trash heap of history, where they can cry to each other about how "unfair" life was.
"Any last words?" Uchiha Kei looked down at the silent Kitsuchi, a sneer tugging at his lips.
"I will... I'll be waiting for you... in the Pure Land..." Kitsuchi's words came out slurred, "I'll wait... for you forever…"
"Mm. Good night," Kei replied calmly, watching as Kitsuchi slowly closed his eyes.
He gripped his ninja blade, preparing to pull it from the ground and slice Kitsuchi's throat to finish it—
—but in the next instant, a flash of yellow appeared.
A hand caught Kei's wrist mid-motion—firm and unwavering.