Chapter 48: Obito's Talk no Jutsu and Naruto's Helplessness
Clap! Clap! Clap!
The Masked Man appeared in Naruto's line of sight, clapping his hands. His one-eyed vortex mask filled Naruto with hatred, but at this moment, he was helpless.
Whether this Masked Man's actual strength was great or not was one thing, but relying on his nearly rogue method of turning intangible at any time to dodge attacks made Naruto exhausted just trying to keep up.
No matter how powerful the attack, as long as it couldn't hit the enemy, it was equivalent to an ineffective attack.
Besides pointlessly consuming his physical strength and Chakra, the blow to his morale was also very severe.
Although Naruto's state of mind, bolstered by the Asura State of Mind, was not disturbed, the consumption of stamina and Chakra was still becoming a bit too much for him to bear.
After all, his physical age was a factor. No matter how much Naruto squeezed his body's potential, the limit he could reach was only so high. To go a step further was not necessarily impossible, but it was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
"Sharingan, Fire Release, swordsmanship, battle intuition... at your age, as long as you are around, other geniuses will pale in comparison..." the Masked Man sighed sincerely. "But it seems you are over-squeezing your future life force to achieve this level!"
Naruto had always tried his best to avoid, and even loathed, the 'chatterbox' attribute during battle, but the Masked Man before him seemed to never tire of it.
"Is it for a Family that has already decayed beyond salvation? Truly laughable, pathetic, and lamentable!"
As the Masked Man's chatter grew more intense, Naruto suddenly realized that this unknown Uchiha clansman clearly had another purpose.
"What if it is, and what if it isn't!" Naruto did the thing he hated most—engaging in conversation—just to fish for information. "As a fellow Uchiha, why are you making enemies of the Family and Konoha at every turn!"
"Heh..." The Masked Man gave a mysterious smile. "I thought that as a Genius, your capacity would be different from others, but I didn't expect it to be so narrow!"
"The Uchiha, Konoha, and even the large and small hidden villages of the entire Ninja World are all the culprits behind the chaos of the Ninja World. Have you never thought about how to end all this? To make the Ninja World better, so there are no more wars, no more separations, and no more innocent deaths?!"
"That is no excuse for you to wantonly provoke conflict in Konoha and trample on the Family's honor!" Naruto assumed an attacking stance again. "And it's certainly no reason for you to hide your head and show your tail, manipulating everything from the shadows!"
"These are just some growing pains for creating a perfect Ninja World. Compared to a beautiful future, a little sacrifice is nothing at all!"
The Masked Man's words made Naruto believe that behind this high-sounding rhetoric lay deeper secrets. Such a noble ideal couldn't be completely dismissed, but such outrageous actions still filled Naruto's heart with doubt.
Naruto had learned the 'Art of Slaying Dragons' from Liu Renju during his first life experience game; an ideal that deviated from reality would ultimately be like a night-blooming cereus, withering after a single night.
But when things are abnormal, there must be a catch. The Masked Man saying so much to him definitely meant he had other ideas, and Narutofaintly felt that this was somewhat related to the Uchiha Clan Massacre event.
After all, Naruto knew very well that the Masked Man was the culprit who single-handedly orchestrated the Nine-Tails Attack on Konoha. Since that incident, Konoha's strength might not have plummeted, but it had declined significantly.
If the Uchiha Clan, a major clan of Konoha, were also eliminated, then...
A powerful Konoha would definitely go downhill under successive blows. The highest combat power on paper would seemingly only be Jiraiya and Tsunade of the Sannin, along with the older generation of Ninjas like the aged Hiruzen Sarutobiand Danzo Shimura.
As for the other Jonin and even Elite Jonin, although they could hold their own, there was still a gap before they could turn the tide. In this way, the waters of the Ninja World would be muddied once again...
There were too many mysteries. Naruto didn't have time to consider them one by one. After a moment of silence, Naruto asked the question the Masked Man most wanted to hear.
"Is there really no way to have the best of both worlds without hurting the innocent?!" Narutofrowned slightly. "There must be another way, and you're just being self-righteously hypocritical!"
"Whether there is a way to have the best of both worlds, I don't know, but the Uchiha Clan must be removed!" The Masked Man's words completely exposed his goal. "Because these people, who are extremely arrogant yet unable to recognize reality, are preparing to launch a coup!"
"And you, being sent to the battlefield at such a young age, is the beginning of their struggle for power and profit, and it is also the fuse that will once again cause chaos in the Ninja World!" The Masked Man pressed on with every sentence. "When the time comes, the Ninja World will face another war, and many innocent people will die or be injured because of it..."
"My excellent junior, Konoha is already corrupt, and the Uchiha are even more terminally ill. To stop all this, I, Uchiha Madara, must come out once again to save the entire Ninja World from misery!"
Seeing that Naruto remained silent, the Masked Man calling himself Uchiha Madara finally extended an invitation to him. "I value your strength and potential very much. Why not join the Akatsuki Organization I formed, and together we can create a Ninja World without war and without killing!"
"In your dreams!" Naruto replied decisively. "I will stop the Uchiha Clan, and I will stop a hiding-in-the-shadows madman like you!"
"Heh, words are useless." After the Masked Manfelt he had sufficiently disturbed Naruto's state of mind, a fierce light suddenly flashed in his eyes. "With your current strength, you can't do any of what you said. Why don't I give you a gift and make a pact with you while I'm at it!"
"What are you trying to do!" Sensing something was wrong, Naruto raised his blade in defense while preparing to attack at any moment.
"Let me see how deep the love in your heart truly is!"
As soon as the Masked Man finished speaking, a vortex-like spatial fluctuation instantly swallowed him. When he reappeared, he was behind Uchiha Hōtai, who was currently fighting Cloud Ninjas.
"Hōtai! Look out!"
While Naruto roared, he also pushed his own speed to the limit. But just as Naruto drew his sword to strike the Masked Man and rescue Uchiha Hōtai, the Masked Man was swallowed by the vortex-like spatial fluctuation again.
Puchi!
The sound of a blade entering flesh rang clearly in Naruto's ears. Naruto looked toward the source of the sound with bloodshot eyes, only to see another Uchiha Chunin fall in a pool of blood.
"You guys go first, I'll cover the rear!" Naruto made a decisive decision, his body weaving through the area as he rapidly hunted the surrounding Cloud Ninjas.
But the power of the Masked Man's spatial ability was now fully revealed. Like a cat playing with a mouse, he never engaged in close-quarters combat. Instead, he relied on his elusive spatial ability that switched freely between reality and illusion to launch sneak attacks, wantonly harvesting the lives of Uchiha Ninjas one by one.
Watching his comrades fall one by one before him, Naruto's eyes nearly split from rage. He had never felt as powerless as he did today, nor as helpless.
It seemed that besides meaningless sword swings and Ninjutsu releases, all he could do was watch them die one by one before his eyes...
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