"Tch, so this is the so-called great merchant Gatō? Pathetic."
In a coastal town of the Land of Fire, a Police Force jōnin held in his hand a severed head—its face frozen in a mask of terror.
The air was thick with the stench of blood. One after another, the bodyguards and samurai lay strewn across the ground—some cut down by blades, others impaled by kunai and shuriken.
Anyone who saw the severed head would have been shocked to recognize it—it was none other than the great merchant Gatō!
Indeed...
After separating from Uchiha Keizumi, the three had quickly located Gatō's confidant and extracted his whereabouts through interrogation.
What followed was simple: the three Uchiha jōnin didn't bother with any elaborate plans.
They attacked openly and directly, cutting down the corrupt merchant's guards—over a hundred of them in total—and finally, with a single decisive slash, killed the terrified Gatō himself.
"For someone this weak to have survived so long…" one Uchiha jōnin remarked, glancing down at the severed head. "He must have had protection from above—perhaps a noble from one of the shinobi nations, maybe even a daimyō himself."
The jōnin holding the head replied, "That's exactly why I'm taking it back to Konoha. Whoever was protecting him can't possibly be unaware of the evils he's committed."
"If they knowingly sheltered Gatō and served as his umbrella, then that means his backers are evil as well. We must uproot every last trace of their sins—down to the roots."
"This should be something that justice must carry out."
At that moment, the third Uchiha jōnin wiped the blood from his blade and sheathed it. "Before returning to Konoha, should we go meet up with Keizumi-sama first?"
His words made the other two pause.
"…Keizumi-sama?" The two looked at him in mild surprise, taken aback by how he addressed Uchiha Keizumi.
"Since we've chosen to follow Justice, to devote ourselves to his Absolute Justice, shouldn't we address him as Keizumi-sama? After all, we once called Uchiha Fugaku 'Fugaku-sama' too."
…
The earth groaned under unbearable strain. The ground beneath Uchiha Keizumi's feet cracked like a shattered eggshell, countless deep fissures spreading outward in all directions like lightning.
Immediately, the power of Wood Release surged forth!
Hundreds of colossal trees—each thicker than the grandest of ancient oaks—burst skyward! They tore through the air with hair-raising creaks, their sheer force enough to crush mountains as they pressed toward Uchiha Keizumi's position!
Yet facing that overwhelming torrent of Wood Release, Uchiha Keizumi's eyes remained utterly calm.
He formed no seals—he simply used the most primitive, most direct means.
He raised his arm.
Gathered strength.
And struck.
In an instant, his right arm became like the heart of a molten furnace. Dark-red magma surged and oozed from his skin in violent waves, the entire limb swelling and warping at a speed visible to the naked eye!
The magma solidified halfway, tracing out grotesque cords of molten muscle, until at last it formed a massive fist—more than ten meters across—radiating searing heat and an aura of utter destruction!
"Great Eruption!"
[BOOM!!!]
When the magma fist slammed into the raging flood of Wood Release—
It was as though a living volcano had erupted!
The indescribable impact roared into the heavens, and the explosive shockwave swept outward as a tangible white ring of force, shattering and hurling everything nearby.
Even the reanimated Shimura Danzō, who had been writhing and screaming on the ground, was blasted high into the air by the shockwave's immense power.
Blinding crimson light and searing heat consumed the battlefield in an instant.
[Szzzz—!!!]
Like a hot blade through butter, the moment the magma fist met the Wood Release, even its toughest trunks could not withstand the scorching temperature. Massive trees carbonized and blackened in mere seconds, hissing and crackling until they vaporized entirely!
Wherever the magma fist passed, it gouged out a molten path through the endless forest of Wood Release.
Flames spread like a ravenous beast, and within a radius of several hundred meters the air itself was baked dry and distorted. Tiny tongues of fire even licked up from the cracks splitting open in the ground.
The air stank of burning flesh and sulfur.
And worse—
After colliding with the Wood Release torrent for several seconds, the magma fist finally reached critical saturation and exploded violently. The entire mass burst apart like a volcanic eruption!
Countless shards of molten rock, large and small, shot through the sky like a doomsday meteor shower—each fragment carrying devastating kinetic force and unbearable heat—raining down upon Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama!
Facing the oncoming storm of molten fire, Senju Tobirama's gaze remained cold as eternal ice, utterly devoid of emotion.
His hands blurred like phantoms before coming together in a sharp clap.
"Water Release: Water Shockwave!!!"
A massive surge of Water Release chakra erupted from Tobirama's body, and even without a nearby water source, torrents of violent water burst forth from the ground itself.
The streams did not simply gather—they spun with a velocity that defied the limits of physics. In an instant, a supermassive spiral water vortex, towering several tens of meters high, rose into the air!
The water spun at high speed, roaring thunderously like a raging dragon as it surged forward to intercept the incoming barrage of magma projectiles.
The countless magma bolts slammed into the depths of the spiraling waterfall.
Extreme heat met freezing water in an instant of mutual annihilation!
[Hiss—!!!]
Thick, scalding white steam erupted across the entire battlefield, so dense it obscured all vision. The explosive hiss of vapor sounded like tens of thousands of pressure boilers bursting at once.
Using the shroud of rising mist, a silver-white figure darted out from behind the torrent like a phantom!
Senju Tobirama instantly closed the distance to Uchiha Keizumi. Amid the swirling fog, his powerful whip kick tore through the haze and struck fiercely toward Keizumi's chin.
Uchiha Keizumi slightly tilted his body aside, one hand seizing Tobirama's incoming right leg.
[Szzz—]
The terrifying heat of the magma instantly vaporized Tobirama's right leg.
But in his Edo Tensei form, bound by Orochimaru's control, Tobirama felt no pain whatsoever. At point-blank range, his hands moved rapidly through a sequence of seals.
"Water Release: Water Severing Bullets!!!"
Streams of high-pressure water bullets shot from his mouth, drenching Uchiha Keizumi's magma-clad body. The molten heat cooled and hardened, turning to solid volcanic rock.
Tobirama followed up with a brutal hand chop, slamming down on Keizumi's head and shattering it completely.
But in the very next moment—
Uchiha Keizumi's unharmed body appeared abruptly behind him—the one struck and decapitated by the Water Release had merely been a Lava Release clone.
Just as Keizumi's magma-forged right hand, now shaped like that of a demonic hound, was about to pierce Tobirama's back—
The charging Senju Hashirama drove his fist squarely into Keizumi's spine.
The monstrous strength of the First Hokage exploded forth, obliterating Keizumi's upper body in an instant.
Yet the shattered molten form of his torso reconstituted itself even faster.
Expressionless, Uchiha Keizumi swung back with a single punch!
The blow was so fast that even in his Edo Tensei state, Senju Hashirama could only cross his arms in a desperate attempt to block.
The result was self-evident.
Even the reanimated flesh could not withstand the erosion of magma. The punch tore straight through Hashirama's body—his molten arm swelling and detonating, ripping the First Hokage's entire form apart into fragments.
"Ninja Art…"
"Adamantine Sealing Chains!!!"
This was not a sealing technique used by the Second Hokage—it was a sealing technique used by Uchiha Keizumi.
From his magma-forged body burst forth countless golden chains.
Each golden chain struck precisely into the reassembling Edo Tensei body of Senju Hashirama. The sealing arts of the Uzumaki Clan forcibly interfered with the Edo Tensei technique itself, while simultaneously disrupting the curse seals that Orochimaru had implanted within Hashirama's body.
The reconstituting, fragmented Edo form of Hashirama suddenly regained a flicker of awareness, his dull eyes momentarily clearing.
Uchiha Keizumi's movements did not cease.
He clapped his hands together again, and thick vines erupted from his body, coiling toward the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
"Water Release: Water Severing Wave!!!"
Tobirama opened his mouth and unleashed a high-pressure stream of water that cut through the approaching vines in an instant.
But he failed to notice that behind those vines, Keizumi's right arm had transformed into the demonic hound of molten rock—biting down upon his head with blinding speed!
Tobirama's entire head was instantly erased by magma.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains."
Uchiha Keizumi used the Uzumaki sealing technique again.
Half of the golden chains split off and wrapped around Tobirama, binding him tightly.
The Second Hokage, whose body was under Orochimaru's curse control, gradually regained clarity as his head reformed.
"Ah… my apologies, young man of the Uchiha Clan."
The fragmented Hashirama tried to scratch his head, only to realize his hand and head were quite far apart.
"What's the point of apologizing to an evil Uchiha brat?"
Tobirama snorted coldly.
Then he questioned Uchiha Keizumi: "The one who reanimated us said you're a shinobi who possesses four bloodline limits, even our clan's Wood Release among them. Uchiha brat, what's your name?!"
But to his surprise, this Uchiha, who hardly looked like a good person, completely ignored him!
Keizumi simply formed another seal.
Tobirama immediately felt the pull of the Pure Land dragging him back.
He instantly understood—this youth, adept in sealing techniques, could send reanimated souls back to the Pure Land, provided he could suppress them as he had just done.
As Tobirama sank back into the Pure Land, only one thought echoed in his mind—what a rude Uchiha!
Uchiha Keizumi did not even glance at the vanishing Hokage. His eyes had once again transformed into Byakugan, sweeping across the surroundings and locking onto dozens of fleeing figures escaping in every direction.
With the power of the Byakugan, he instantly identified the real Orochimaru.
"He sure can run…"
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