The Death Forest
Uchiha Nan and Uzumaki Mito stood facing each other in a wide clearing.
Dozens of figures were scattered across the surrounding treetops, each perched high above, watching the battle from a safe distance—or at least, what they thought was a safe distance.
Fight already—fight!
Nan could barely suppress the battle lust surging in his chest.
This was his first true confrontation with a ninja standing at the absolute pinnacle of the shinobi world.
The Uchiha had always been a warlike clan.
Nan was no exception.
Yet fate had never granted him a chance to fight with everything he had.
Even without relying on the Mangekyō Sharingan, there were only a handful of people in the entire shinobi world capable of suppressing him.
They were village leaders—Kage.
Figures like the Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hōzuki, or the Second Tsuchikage—
True monsters.
But during Nan's years of laying low, hiding his edge, he had never crossed paths with such people.
He had never once fought without restraint.
Until now.
Finally… my chance.
Lightning erupted across Nan's body.
With a sharp crack, he transformed into a streak of thunder, tearing through the air as he charged straight at Uzumaki Mito.
Lightning Release: Swift Thunder Slash!
A thunderous boom echoed as Nan's blade was stopped mid-air.
Uzumaki Mito was now wrapped in a dark crimson chakra cloak. Behind her, five tails swayed violently. One of them flicked casually—
CRACK!
The ninja blade that had accompanied Nan through countless battles snapped in half.
Nan's heart ached.
That sword had cost him a fortune—seven hundred thousand ryō. God knew how many rare materials had been layered into it just to ensure perfect conductivity for his Lightning Release chakra.
But before he could mourn it—
Mito erupted with killing intent.
Her chakra flared violently, sending a chill down Nan's spine.
The tails stretched unnaturally long, smashing toward him like colossal fists.
Nan dodged again and again, barely finding time to breathe.
Behind Mito, the ground shattered. Massive boulders—each weighing several tons—were lifted effortlessly by her tails and hurled like pebbles.
Damn it, damn it, damn it!
Nan went into full evasive mode—leaping from ground to tree, pivoting mid-air, then diving back down again.
The stones screamed past his ears, their wind pressure alone enough to excite him.
This—
This razor-thin brush with death—
He hadn't felt this alive in ages.
"Then let's go all the way!"
Nan roared, hands flashing through seals.
"Lava Release: Scorching River Rock!"
More than a dozen magma orbs shot forward at high speed.
And that wasn't all.
Nan formed a Lava Release Rasenshuriken in one hand and hurled it immediately.
Let's see you survive that!
Nan gasped for breath. Firing off two high-level techniques back-to-back wasn't trivial, even for him.
At that moment—
A pale, skeletal structure manifested around Mito.
Her transformation into a tailed-beast state was accelerating.
"ROOOAAAR—!!"
Her roar sent shockwaves rippling outward.
The magma orbs were blasted aside by sheer sound alone.
At the same time, chakra condensed rapidly in her mouth, forming dense spheres.
BOOM!
One chakra sphere collided with the Rasenshuriken.
Blinding white light swallowed everything as the explosion reduced the surrounding area to ash.
Nan barely escaped the blast radius.
But before he could steady himself—
Mito's mouth fired again.
And again.
And again.
Chakra spheres poured out like bullets from a machine gun, each one carrying the same terrifying power.
Nan couldn't help but laugh.
"So this is what unlimited chakra feels like?"
"This is insane!"
His past-life instincts screamed firepower deficiency.
One day, Nan swore silently, I'm grabbing myself a tailed beast as a chakra battery.
Enough testing.
If this dragged on, he'd be turned into a sieve.
Kamui.
Wherever Nan looked, space twisted into spiraling voids, swallowing the incoming chakra spheres whole.
Mito paused—just slightly.
Space–time ninjutsu?
A cold smile crossed her face.
She began gathering an even more terrifying amount of chakra.
Black-purple energy coalesced into a monstrous sphere—
A Tailed Beast Bomb, more than ten meters in diameter.
It launched forward with a deafening boom, trees snapping in half along its path.
That was too big.
Way too big.
Kamui's entrance couldn't swallow something like that.
But—
Who said he needed to?
Kamui.
At the instant the bomb reached him, Nan's body phased out of reality.
The Tailed Beast Bomb passed straight through where he stood.
Nan survived.
The spectators did not have it so easy.
"Why is watching a fight suddenly life-threatening?!"
"Stop talking and RUN—do you want to die here?!"
Panic erupted as clan leaders fled in every direction.
"I told you to retreat earlier," Uchiha Inabi said smugly as he sprinted across the branches.
"I owe you my life!" Hyūga Takuma shouted back, sweat pouring down his face as he followed closely.
Inabi had subtly warned him earlier due to the Uchiha–Hyūga alliance.
The moment things went south, Inabi had yelled RUN and bolted.
Takuma didn't hesitate.
Others weren't so lucky.
BOOOOM—!
The explosion tore through the forest, shockwaves hurling slower spectators through the air.
Thankfully, no one died—though most would be spending the next few days in a hospital bed.
Nan rematerialized at a distance, staring at Mito with grim focus.
This couldn't continue.
He was being completely suppressed.
The Nine-Tails was absurdly overpowered.
Endless chakra. Long-range saturation fire.
He couldn't even get close.
And Tobirama had this walking artillery piece during the First Shinobi War… and never used her?!
Nan almost wanted to curse.
Had Tobirama dumped all his stat points into research and anti-Uchiha paranoia?
You had a humanoid mobile cannon—and didn't deploy it?!
Mito's strength far exceeded Nan's expectations.
Kamui had turned into a pure escape tool.
If I keep defending, I'll lose.
Time to unveil the real thing.
"SUSANOO!"
Nan roared.
A colossal, sapphire-blue giant erupted into existence, towering dozens of meters tall as it looked down upon Uzumaki Mito.
Rolling on the ground begging for monthly votes!
Rolling harder this time!
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