Chapter 116: All Twelve Guardian Shinobi Annihilated!
The look of sheer horror and despair in Kazuma's eyes was completely frozen.
The remaining fighting force of the Twelve Guardian Shinobi was now only six.
Asuma, who had witnessed everything that had happened in those brief moments, was now covered in goosebumps. His gaze was fixed on the lava-covered, smoke-shrouded back of Uchiha Ikeizumi, his expression a mix of shock and terror.
Chiriku, Kazuma, and the other three were all elite jonin of the Land of Fire, battle-hardened shinobi who had climbed out of piles of bodies during the Third Great Ninja War.
If Asuma had to fight those five on his own, he would surely be dead.
And yet.
Uchiha Ikeizumi, all by himself, had "effortlessly" killed four of them and gravely wounded a fifth in a short amount of time!
Chiriku and Kazuma, especially, were not to be underestimated.
But they were so weak in the face of Uchiha Ikeizumi!
This guy was an absolute monster!
The deaths of four of the Twelve Guardian Shinobi and the grave injury of one of their own also terrified the five who were fighting Kijirō. One of them, distracted for a moment, saw Kijirō swing its paw at him with a whistling wind.
Caught off guard, he tried to dodge frantically.
But his evasive move was too slow. Kijirō's claws instantly tore off his arm.
"Hiss!!!"
The intense pain made him cry out as he clutched his shoulder.
Not only was Uchiha Ikeizumi a monster, but this giant ninja cat was a monster too!
Whoosh! The sound of rushing wind rang out once more. The one-armed shinobi's pupils constricted as his eyes darted to the right, where he saw a gigantic tail lashing toward him.
He was forced to form a hand sign with his one remaining hand.
"Earth Release: Earth Hardening Jutsu!"
CLANG!
As his skin took on a stony texture, Kijirō's tail slammed heavily into his body. The one-armed shinobi was sent flying like a bounced volleyball, all the scenery around him blurring into a streak of color.
Wait!
This direction—
This is bad!
Before he could make any more moves, his expression changed drastically. A horrifying, smoke-shrouded figure, rippling with lava, flew past him.
The ninja cat had deliberately sent him flying in this direction!
As that thought flashed through his mind,
In that brief fraction of a second, the terrified one-armed shinobi saw Uchiha Ikeizumi's crimson Sharingan eyes seemingly look over at him!
The flow of time seemed to slow down at that moment.
He watched helplessly as the "magma monster" swung its left arm. The crimson, scalding lava arm thrust forward like a sharp spear, piercing him!
Its speed was even faster than his own momentum!
SHUNK!
The pointed magma arm instantly pierced through his chest, impaling him like a skewer and bringing his flying body to an abrupt halt.
"Gwah!!!"
The one-armed shinobi's eyes widened in horror as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
His "Earth Hardening Jutsu," which could defend against the blow of the giant ninja cat's tail, was completely useless against Uchiha Ikeizumi's Lava Release!
He couldn't understand why!
"That leaves five and a half." Uchiha Ikeizumi's low, chilling voice fell upon Asuma's ears like the voice of a demon from hell, leaving him with nothing but a sense of dread.
"Monster!!!"
The word was forced out of Asuma's frozen expression.
He now understood his father's actions.
Perhaps it wasn't that the old man was getting old and indecisive.
It was simply that they truly could not afford to fight Uchiha Ikeizumi inside Konoha!
The cost of taking down this monster was a price the current Konoha Village could not pay!
Whoosh! Whoosh! At the same time, two figures were moving swiftly through the forest outside Konoha: Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy.
"That's one big cat!"
Guy looked up at the giant orange cat in the distance and exclaimed, "Kakashi, is that passionate justice man fighting that monster cat?"
The description "passionate justice man" made Kakashi pause for a moment.
He took a moment to realize Guy was talking about Uchiha Ikeizumi.
Kakashi's eye twitched slightly.
What kind of description was that?
Was it possible that this youthful, hot-blooded idiot couldn't remember Uchiha Ikeizumi's name and had to come up with a nickname?
Kakashi said in a serious tone, "That ninja cat is probably Uchiha Ikeizumi's partner; I remember its name is Kijirō. If Uchiha Ikeizumi's ninja cat is in a battle, it means the ambush targeting him is extremely dangerous!"
At this, a flicker of doubt crossed Kakashi's eyes.
Who could have set up such an ambush outside Konoha?
Spies from another village?
But what village had the resources to deploy so many powerful elite jonin outside Konoha?
The Third Great Ninja War had only ended a few years ago, so shouldn't all the great villages still be licking their wounds and recovering?
A bold thought suddenly popped into Kakashi's mind.
The people ambushing Uchiha Ikeizumi were Konoha shinobi!
Because…
Uchiha Ikeizumi had made quite a few enemies inside Konoha!
Some of them were even sworn enemies!
"If that's the case—" a look of hesitation crossed Kakashi's eyes. "If I get involved, won't I be stepping into a mess?"
But then, Kakashi's peripheral vision caught Guy suddenly speeding up, and he heard the man shout, "Kakashi! Let's take this chance to see who can get there first!"
Kakashi's mouth twitched.
Whatever.
If he was going to get involved, he might as well.
He would just consider it repaying the debt he owed that Uchiha Ikeizumi guy.
"Hah... senpai—" Far behind Kakashi and Guy, Uchiha Izumi had also left the village after realizing something was wrong.
The young girl bit her lip hard, trying to speed up.
But her underage body was already pushed to its limits.
As she ran, Izumi was also wracking her brain, wondering who had set up an ambush against senpai outside the village.
Was it the Hokage?
Izumi couldn't be blamed for thinking of Hiruzen Sarutobi first. Uchiha Ikeizumi had once told her that Konoha's Third Hokage wasn't a good person.
And after receiving the ability from her senpai to see others' "evil," Izumi had tried to sneak a peek at the Third Hokage.
She had come to one conclusion.
Her senpai hadn't lied!
However…
That guess was discarded just three seconds later. She heard a lot of noise behind her! Stopping abruptly, she turned to see several shinobi wearing ANBU masks flying past her.
"These people… are the ANBU?!"
Watching the ANBU shinobi pass her, Izumi gasped, "That looks like the entire ANBU force is out! So the people ambushing senpai weren't sent by the Third Hokage?"
So who—
Who were the enemies?!
When Asuma saw the terrifying magma monster's crimson eyes turn toward him, the sudden wave of dread and bone-chilling fear made him quickly retreat. He then opened his mouth and exhaled.
"Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning!!!"
A torrent of ash poured from his mouth, completely obscuring Uchiha Ikeizumi's vision. This was Asuma's attempt to counter the Sharingan's genjutsu.
The ash also contained an astonishing amount of heat. When it landed on nearby trees, it even caused the leaves to catch fire.
If it had landed on someone's skin, it would have instantly burned them raw.
However, against Uchiha Ikeizumi, who wielded "Lava Release," this level of heat was negligible and caused him no harm. It did, however, successfully block his vision.
"Wind Release: Verdant Mountain Wind!!!"
Asuma gritted his teeth, throwing his knuckle knives. They tore through the clouds of ash at incredible speed, flying toward Uchiha Ikeizumi.
Thump! One of the chakra-infused knuckle knives precisely struck Uchiha Ikeizumi's chest, piercing through and emerging from his back.
Swoosh! The other knuckle knife flew closer and closer to Uchiha Ikeizumi's left eye. By the time it was within a certain distance, the ash could no longer block his vision.
But even with the powerful dynamic vision of his Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Uchiha Ikeizumi didn't dodge. The tip of the blade plunged into his eye, bored into his skull, and came out the back of his head.
With two consecutive clank sounds, Asuma's two ninja tools flew a few dozen feet and then fell to the ground.
The Wind Release chakra wrapped around the tools had been completely eroded by the magma.
The intense heat of the lava began to melt the hard steel.
Half of each blade had turned into a puddle of molten metal.
"Guh!" Asuma's face tightened with a mixture of disbelief and fury as he quickly retreated. After escaping the ash cloud, he clapped his hands together, his face a tight grimace of denial as he roared, "Wind Release: Dust Cloud Whirlwind!!!"
A massive gust of wind swirled with the dense ash, forming a visible hurricane.
Battling against the powerful wind, Asuma pulled out several scrolls and unrolled them all.
Puffs of white smoke rose, and a large number of ninja tools and explosive tags scattered from the scrolls.
The hurricane of ash and wind sucked all the ninja tools and explosive tags into its vortex. The countless sharp blades shredded everything in their path, turning several large rocks into dust in an instant.
BOOM!!!
A deafening explosion rocked the air. A fireball several dozen meters high erupted from the hurricane, and the resulting shockwave sent even an elite jonin like Asuma flying.
Countless ninja tools were blown to pieces by the explosion. The metal fragments scattered in all directions like a torrential downpour, indiscriminately hitting friend and foe alike.
Uchiha Ikeizumi, at the epicenter of the hurricane and explosion, was naturally hit hard.
A storm of metal shrapnel tore at his body.
Asuma, meanwhile, tumbled uncontrollably through the air, only managing to land on the ground after being thrown dozens of meters away.
"Cough, cough… Is this a mutual defeat?!" Asuma's face was covered in blood, the result of being hit by the flying shrapnel. He hadn't been able to dodge the indiscriminate attack.
Blood oozed from his skin, quickly soaking his flak jacket crimson.
The tip of a shattered kunai had pierced an artery in his thigh, and blood jetted out like water from an open tap.
But Asuma no longer cared about his own injuries.
He only cared about Uchiha Ikeizumi's condition.
"I have no more cards to play," Asuma muttered, propping himself up. His stance was clumsy and ragged. "If I used everything, I must have at least traded blows, right? He can't be invincible, can he? Even if ordinary physical attacks can't hurt him, elemental attacks or explosions must be able to inflict damage due to elemental counters, right?"
He knew it was too late for regrets. All he could do now was sacrifice his life to take down this monster.
Leaving a monster like that in Konoha would only threaten the village.
He had a duty to take down any threat to Konoha's existence—wait, what?!
Drip, drip.
"Sizzle—"
Drip, drip.
"Sizzle—"
A sudden faint sound made Asuma's eyes go wide. He looked up, his face full of disbelief, and saw a crimson, burning figure indistinctly emerging from the thick smoke!
The figure's steps were steady and unwavering, as if all of Asuma's desperate efforts had failed to cause any damage that could slow his opponent down.
Perhaps…
Chiriku, when he realized the defense of his chakra bell couldn't withstand the Lava Release hound, had felt the same disbelief that he was feeling now.
He probably wore the same exact expression.
"Sarutobi Asuma," Uchiha Ikeizumi's voice slowly rang out. His indifferent tone made Asuma feel as though all strength had left his body. "When you raised a blade filled with malice against [Absolute Justice], you made yourself an enemy of [Absolute Justice]."
"—Absolute Justice—" Asuma suddenly laughed. "Uchiha Ikeizumi, is your justice simply turning you into a murderer who runs rampant in Konoha? Don't forget, you killed my older brother, Sarutobi Shinnosuke."
"Even if we put aside the threat you pose to Konoha's future, the fact that you killed my brother means we must settle this."
"Cough! Is seeking revenge for one's brother also a sin in the eyes of your extreme justice?"
The constant flow of blood from his skin made Asuma feel light-headed.
But he still gritted his teeth and challenged Uchiha Ikeizumi.
Uchiha Ikeizumi was unfazed. "A murderer's evil deeds are exposed, and Konoha sentences him to death. The murderer's family, in turn, treats Konoha as a mortal enemy and tries to destroy the village and kill every single person in it... If you think that is a righteous act, then there's nothing more to be said to you."
"Sarutobi Asuma, you are incorrigible." When those words reached Asuma's ears, his already wide eyes began to tremble.
The whites of Asuma's eyes were now crisscrossed with blood vessels.
His body, which could barely stand, froze completely.
He slowly lowered his gaze.
Only to see a crimson-hot magma arm had somehow pierced him.
His flak jacket, which could block shuriken and kunai, was utterly useless against the lava.
The smoke from the magma arm obscured half of Asuma's face.
His trembling eyes fell on the space directly in front of him.
"You are on the verge of death, yet you don't see things as clearly as Shinnosuke-sensei did," Uchiha Ikeizumi said calmly. "Perhaps that is why you, as the younger brother, are inferior to him. When your soul reaches the underworld, you can ask him for guidance."
"Although he didn't agree with my [Absolute Justice], he knew better than most what I was doing. He also understood the weight of those two words, [Absolute Justice]."
When Uchiha Ikeizumi pulled his hand out,
The last remaining light in Asuma's eyes faded completely.
His rigid body toppled forward.
Uchiha Ikeizumi moved to the side, allowing Asuma's corpse to fall face-first to the ground.
And so, the Third Hokage's eldest son and second son…
Were both dead!!!
"That leaves four and a half—"
Uchiha Ikeizumi's indifferent gaze moved past the scarred landscape and the mangled corpses.
It fell on the four remaining Guardian Shinobi who were struggling against Kijirō.
He began walking toward Kijirō.
"Hah! We're almost there!" Kakashi inhaled the acrid air. The mere scent of heavy sulfur was enough to make him realize just how intense the battle had been here.
"But—"
He felt that the commotion up ahead was getting quieter, as if the battle was entering its final stage.
As he and Might Guy emerged from the forest at the same time,
Kakashi's eye widened slowly.
Before them, they saw…
The gigantic ninja cat, Kijirō, had a bloody corpse in its mouth. Another corpse lay on the ground, its upper body missing. A little further ahead was a small charred piece of what was likely a body.
He also saw Uchiha Ikeizumi, without any flashy moves, punch through a shinobi's head. The ninja tool that the man had desperately thrust into Ikeizumi's body before dying seemed pathetically comical.
"It seems… we were too late."
Kakashi took a deep breath, his voice dry as he spoke those words.
...
For advanced chapters:
Get early access to 80 advanced chapters before anyone else!
Join now: Patreon com/Chaos_God