"I—I can't even see them!"
Standing behind Uchiha Keizumi, Sasuke stared in shock at the sudden explosion of violence before him.
He couldn't even track their movements.
If these people were already this strong…
Then just how powerful was the older brother who would one day destroy the entire Uchiha Clan?
Would he really have the strength to stop him from making that mistake?
Sasuke stood frozen, overwhelmed by shock and helpless confusion.
"Meow, this rookie's improving fast!"
Tachibana Jirō had already leapt from Izumi's shoulder the moment she moved to attack. The cat commented with a note of admiration, "She's already at the level of a Tokubetsu Jōnin, isn't she? It's just a shame she doesn't have much talent for ninjutsu—way too one-sided. If her ninjutsu aptitude were even slightly better, she'd probably be even stronger, meow."
"She's that powerful…?"
Naruto was equally stunned, jaw slightly slack.
Up until now, in his mind, this girl—who probably wasn't much older than he was—was more like Keizumi-sensei's assistant or secretary.
She usually just followed Keizumi-sensei around taking notes or writing things down.
Basically, she seemed like some kind of desk worker.
But now...
He realized how completely unreliable that impression had been.
"Meow, but taking on all three of them at once… that's pushing it."
Tachibana Jirō licked his paw and went on, "Those three—two have dual-tomoe Sharingan, and one has a single-tomoe. All of them are experienced adult combatants. Even though the rookie has a three-tomoe Sharingan and's received several Gifts of Justice, she's still just a Genin who only graduated from the Academy not long ago."
"And if those banned drugs get caught up in the fighting, things could get really messy. Clouds of powder flying everywhere would be a nightmare, meow."
Just as he finished speaking—
Tachibana Jirō prepared to jump in and lend a paw, but suddenly, a foot stepped forward beside him.
He froze.
Looking up, he saw nothing but the tall, imposing back of Keizumi-sama.
Tachibana Jirō stopped in his tracks, and his feline face showed a kind of pity—a pity directed at the three Uchiha.
"Meow… guess I won't get a chance to show off in front of the kid. If Keizumi-sama himself is stepping in, they won't even leave behind whole corpses."
…
"Huff... These three coordinate so well!"
Izumi forced one of them back with a slash, then immediately drew several shuriken and flung them outward, forcing the other two to halt their advance.
It gave her just a moment to catch her breath.
"That Gift of Justice from before really did boost my stamina and chakra capacity... otherwise, I probably would've passed out the moment I awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan."
"But... fighting three well-coordinated Uchiha on my own—am I still too far from that level?"
Gritting her teeth, Izumi prepared to use another Sharingan genjutsu—
—but just then, she felt the back of her collar being grabbed.
Before she could react, her feet left the ground, and her entire body was hauled backwards.
She caught a faint whiff of a familiar scent.
—It's Keizumi-senpai!
Uchiha Keizumi let go of the girl once he had pulled her behind him. As he looked up, he saw the Uchiha shinobi whom Izumi had just forced back charging forward again, blade raised to strike.
However, the moment the man—his face twisted with malice—saw Uchiha Keizumi appear, his eyes widened in disbelief.
[SWISH!!!]
A flash of steel consumed his entire field of vision.
Even with his dual-tomoe Sharingan, he never saw how Uchiha Keizumi drew his blade—because in his sight, the blade still rested in its scabbard.
Uchiha Keizumi shifted his footing ever so slightly, sidestepping the enemy's incoming slash and slipping past him in a flash.
The Uchiha shinobi, whose blade had just cut through empty air, turned his head—confused and unprepared.
But the moment he turned—
His head suddenly tilted at an unnatural angle. A crimson line encircled his neck, visibly widening by the second. Blood began to gush forth, soaking the entire front of his upper garments.
A startled cry erupted from Uzumaki Naruto.
A head—its face frozen in an expression of stunned disbelief—thudded to the floor. From the neck of the now-headless corpse, a geyser of blood burst skyward, splattering the ceiling of the underground chamber with a dense constellation of blood-red plum blossoms.
"Naoto!!!" Uchiha Hayata screamed in horror.
But the shock hadn't even lasted half a second when Hayata saw something even more terrifying: his remaining companion suddenly let out a scream and stumbled backward, as if fleeing from a vision only he could see.
And the direction he fled—was straight toward Uchiha Keizumi.
It was practically an act of delivering himself to the executioner.
Hayata instantly realized—his teammate had fallen under Keizumi's Sharingan genjutsu!
He hadn't even noticed when Keizumi's Sharingan had activated.
"Masa! Snap out of it!" Hayata shouted desperately. "It's an illusion! It's not real!"
But it was already too late.
Uchiha Keizumi's blade made a smooth, casual stroke across the man's throat—
—and another head tumbled to the ground.
Blood gushed in a brilliant crimson arc, rising high from the severed neck.
In less than five seconds, two Uchiha shinobi—one with dual-tomoe, the other with a single-tomoe Sharingan—had lost all signs of life.
Uchiha Hayata's eyes went wide. His pupils trembled as he stared at the lifeless, decapitated bodies of the two friends he had grown up and trained with.
His hands, still gripping his blade, shook uncontrollably.
"We... We did it all for the Uchiha Clan's future...! We worked so hard to raise funds for the coup... all so we wouldn't be oppressed by the village anymore—how is that a crime?!"
His sclera flooded with red veins, and under the intense rush of emotion, Hayata's dual-tomoe Sharingan began to shift.
"Uchiha Keizumi… you traitor to the Uchiha Clan! You've betrayed your blood! You're more disgusting than the Hokage's dogs!!"
Before his very eyes, the two tomoe transformed—
—and became three.
In that moment—
The world in front of Uchiha Hayata seemed to change. His vision became sharper, more vivid, more alive.
An overwhelming surge of ocular power roared into his brain. He could feel himself breaking through.
The anger and grief on his face twisted into a manic grin. Then, he burst into wild laughter—blade in one hand, the other pressed over his face.
"Heh… HehahahaHAHAHAHA! So this is it—this is the true power of the fully awakened Sharingan! I can feel it at last! Naoto, Masa… their deaths weren't in vain. I can feel it—the will they entrusted to me in their final moments! Their sacrifice gave me the key to unlock the three-tomoe Sharingan!"
"Hahahahahahahaha!!"
"Uchiha Kei—"
But the moment Hayata lowered his hand from his face and refocused his newly evolved Sharingan on Uchiha Keizumi,
his voice abruptly cut off.
And the manic joy in his eyes was instantly replaced by sheer, stunned disbelief.
Uchiha Keizumi had, at some point, closed the distance—he now stood directly in front of Hayata.
His right arm had completely transformed into molten lava.
From that arm, the lava surged forth, taking the terrifying shape of a demonic hound, jaws wide as it roared toward him.
Through the heightened dynamic perception of his three-tomoe Sharingan, Uchiha Hayata clearly tracked Keizumi's every movement.
And yet—
To his shock, his body couldn't react in time.
The searing glow of the lava had already lit up the front of his torso.
The intense heat so close to him caused the very hairs on his body to curl and shrivel.
'Move—MOVE DAMN IT! MOVE NOW!!!'
Hayata screamed inwardly, desperately trying to will his body to dodge.
But the moment he finally began to move—
The molten demonic hound from hell exploded through his chest.
[BOOOOOM!!!]
His flak vest crumbled like paper—unable to last even a tenth of a second.
The magma-beast tore straight through him, burst out of his back, and blasted a massive molten crater into the far wall of the underground chamber.
Hayata's blood-red eyes trembled uncontrollably.
"Gah... GHHHH—AAGHHH!!!"
Chunks of blood, already scorched and clotted from the heat, spewed violently from his mouth.
Flames still licked the edges of the gaping wound in his chest, which had been obliterated by lava.
All strength drained from his limbs.
Face twisted in despair and bewilderment, Hayata could barely comprehend what had just happened.
Even after awakening the three-tomoe Sharingan in a burst of rage and grief—
Why had he still been instantly killed?
Was this…
...Uchiha Keizumi's Lava Release?
Isn't this… a little too absurdly powerful...?
As Keizumi withdrew his magma-forged arm from the ruin of his chest, Hayata's eyes turned completely dull.
His body collapsed face-forward onto the scorched ground—lifeless.
[Ding! You have successfully slain three "Red Name" criminals! Chakra slightly increased! Congratulations! You have obtained:
"Full Ocular Power of a Dual Tomoe Sharingan" (×1 pair)
"Leaf-Style Kenjutsu Experience Book" ×10
"Complete List of Konoha Banned Drug Smuggling and Distribution Personnel"]
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I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
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