"Though I didn't agree to cooperate," Setsuna continued, "I'm an old man. I slipped up and carelessly let that shinobi clan overhear what might be a 'weakness' of Keizumi's—assuming it's even real."
He raised his eyes to look at Fugaku.
"I had no intent to kill him. I didn't agree to anything with them. Even with those eyes of his that can supposedly see through evil itself, I doubt Keizumi would find any malice in me. Wouldn't you agree, Fugaku?"
And at the exact moment his words fell—
[BOOM!]
A deafening explosion erupted less than a few hundred meters away.
Immediately after came a series of thunderous, continuous blasts.
Flames from the explosions lit up half the night sky over the Uchiha Clan's compound.
The entire Uchiha Clan was alarmed.
The firelight illuminated one side of Fugaku's face, making the tension and grimness etched into his profile plainly visible.
"Elder Setsuna…" Fugaku's voice was tight, and he questioned each word with deliberate force, "You let outsiders into the Uchiha Clan compound—and allowed them to plant explosive tags here?!"
Setsuna's face remained blank.
"Don't go accusing me unjustly. If even you, the clan head, didn't know they were here, how would I know how they infiltrated our grounds?"
"As for how exactly they planned to assassinate Uchiha Keizumi—heh—how should I know?"
Fugaku had no intention of wasting another breath on this old man, whose mind was filled with nothing but coups and internal strife.
He immediately led the Konoha Police Force shinobi toward the source of the explosion.
And he clearly remembered—the jinchūriki was with Keizumi! And Sasuke was also with him!
If those two hadn't yet returned…
Fugaku didn't even dare complete the thought.
...
Elsewhere—
Uchiha Izumi and Tachibana Jirō, one shinobi and one cat, had already completed the mission Uchiha Keizumi had assigned to them and had returned to the Uchiha compound.
But at that very moment, the deafening blast in the distance made both of them jump in shock.
Tachibana's fur even stood on end from fright.
The big orange ninja cat gave himself a good shake, then grumbled aloud, "Who the hell's messing around with explosive tags this late at night, meow?!"
"Tachibana-senpai, that looks like…"
Izumi stared in shock at the fiery explosions in the distance. She murmured, "That looks like… the direction of Keizumi-senpai's house, doesn't it?"
Tachibana froze, then quickly turned toward the source of the blasts.
"Meow! Rookie!"
His feline face twisted with alarm.
"Someone's targeting Keizumi-sama! We've got to help him—now!"
With those words—
Tachibana leapt off Izumi's shoulder, transforming into a streak of orange light, vanishing like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Izumi was stunned by the sheer speed of his movement—yet even more so by the sheer scale of this chain of explosions.
Without hesitation, she sprinted after him.
...
Hokage Tower.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, silently awaiting the arrival of tonight's Absolute Justice victims, suddenly flinched at the sound of explosions rumbling in the distance.
And not just one blast—but a whole chain of them!
Hiruzen sprang to his feet and strode to the window of his office.
His eyes narrowed as he gazed at the flames blooming far off in the night.
His brows furrowed deeply.
"That's…"
From beside him came Koharu's voice: "It's the Uchiha Clan compound. If I'm not mistaken… those explosions sounded like explosive tags."
She too had been drawn to the scene by the cacophony.
Hiruzen's frown deepened even more.
He couldn't make sense of it. What the hell was the Uchiha Clan up to now?
This scale of detonation would likely affect multiple buildings.
He couldn't tell yet whether there had been casualties.
"Wait!"
Suddenly, a cold pang stabbed through Hiruzen's heart. A troubling thought flashed through his mind.
"Could Naruto be there right now?"
...
"Kuh… Cough, cough…"
Naruto clutched his head in pain, his small face twisted in anguish.
Then he suddenly noticed something—his palm felt warm… and wet.
When he moved his hand and looked down under the light of the fire, he was shocked to see—his hand was covered in blood!
A high-pitched ringing in his ears drowned out everything else.
Disoriented, Naruto slowly raised his head—only to be met with a terrifying sight.
Several houses in front of him had become towering infernos.
The street was littered with rubble from all the destroyed buildings.
His head spinning, Naruto couldn't react for a moment.
In a haze, he recalled Keizumi-sensei saying they'd regroup at his house once "Izumi and Tachibana" arrived. So he and that smug bastard Sasuke had followed him back there again.
But just as the door opened—
Keizumi-sensei had suddenly grabbed both him and Sasuke and hurled them out of the house.
Then came the sound of the explosions.
And it was like they were caught in an invisible storm and flung into the air.
After that… he hit his head, and everything went dark…
"Tch—!"
The memories came rushing back in a flash, and Naruto hissed through his teeth.
The pain sobered him instantly.
He scrambled to his feet, eyes scanning the chaos in panic.
And there—just a few meters away—he saw Sasuke staggering upright, supporting himself against a wall.
"Huff… huff…"
Sasuke was breathing heavily, his face still pale with shock.
But as soon as he saw Naruto stand up too, he straightened his posture, clearly trying to look more composed than him.
Unfortunately, the moment he moved—
"Tch—!"
A sharp breath escaped him. Pain had caught up with him too.
The throbbing pain forced Sasuke to press his lips tightly together. When he looked down, he saw that both his knees were scraped raw.
His pale arms and legs were covered with bruises and abrasions.
"What the hell just happened?" Naruto asked groggily, still clutching his head as he stumbled over.
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"How should I know?"
Not far away, Kakashi wiped the blood from his palm.
Judging by how violently Naruto and Sasuke had been flung by the explosion's shockwave, they should have been seriously injured. The only reason they weren't was obvious—Kakashi had intervened at the critical moment and caught them both.
Now, Kakashi was staring after several fleeing figures in the distance.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"The Shimura Clan…"
Right after catching the two kids, Kakashi didn't have time to be shocked by the detonation of explosive tags, nor to question who might be trying to assassinate Uchiha Keizumi. What he noticed immediately was that someone had taken advantage of the chaos to flee.
He had tossed the boys aside and rushed to give chase—but it was already too late. The enemy had clearly planned their escape route in advance.
However—
The shockwave from the explosion had briefly lifted the mask off one of the attackers' faces.
In that fleeting instant, Kakashi's eye caught a clear glimpse of the man's profile—because the man had shifted his Konoha forehead protector, revealing a Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
And by chance, Kakashi recognized him.
He was a shinobi from the Shimura Clan.
"I'd better report this to Hokage-sama," Kakashi muttered to himself. He covered his Sharingan eye again and let out a long breath. Turning back to the ruined houses now reduced to rubble, he murmured, "If it had been me in there… I'd probably be dead by now. Even if I got lucky and survived, I'd be bedridden for years."
Then he added, under his breath, "That guy couldn't possibly have…"
...
"Hm?!!"
"Hey, dead last, what's wrong with you?!"
On the other side, Sasuke winced in pain but suddenly noticed that something was off about Naruto's expression.
He turned his head to follow Naruto's gaze—
—and his eyes widened in disbelief.
Through the swirling smoke and surging flames, a horrifying figure emerged—its body seemingly composed of flowing magma. At first glance, it looked mangled, pieces of its form missing—but those broken parts were rapidly being filled in by roiling lava.
In just a few breaths' time, that molten, fragmented silhouette had re-formed into a fully humanoid shape.
Then—
[BOOM!]
The collapsed houses nearby suddenly burst apart as vine-wrapped spheres burst from beneath the rubble.
From each sphere extended a long vine, all of them rooted back to the same central pit of molten earth.
As the tangled network of vines slowly receded, one by one the vine spheres opened—and revealed living people trapped inside.
They were Uchiha clan civilians—residents of the surrounding area.
Old and young alike, every one of them bore an expression of lingering terror.
But every one of them… had survived the explosion.
[Hssss…]
Uchiha Keizumi stepped out of the blaze, each step leaving behind molten footprints that scorched the stone pavement.
Lava dripped from his body, and every droplet set the ground ablaze.
As the magma receded, Uchiha Keizumi's true form was revealed.
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