Chapter 109: Assassinate Uchiha Ikeizumi? Three Bloodline Limits?
A single sentence, “I don’t want to see infighting within the Uchiha Clan,” directly made Uchiha Setsuna, whose face was already extremely gloomy, laugh out of anger.
He raised his head and stared deadly at Fugaku’s calm eyes.
“Fugaku, are you threatening me? If I don’t do as you say, are you going to arrest me?”
Uchiha Setsuna let out a hoarse question.
Uchiha Fugaku said: “If after a thorough investigation of some inside information, it turns out Senior Setsuna did not participate in smuggling or trafficking of prohibited drugs, then naturally no action will be taken against you. I simply don’t want the Uchiha Clan to fall into chaos, that’s all.”
The force with which Uchiha Setsuna clenched his teeth was so great that blood was already oozing from his gums.
Feeling the bloody rusty taste in his mouth, Uchiha Setsuna said in a low tone: “Heh heh… What a great ‘not wanting chaos’! Fugaku, you sure are a truly ‘competent’ clan head.”
“But you only think of threatening me, yet you don’t have the ability to stop Uchiha Ikeizumi? If Uchiha Ikeizumi hadn’t meddled, would I have been driven to this state?!”
“You can’t control him, right? If you could control him, my grandson wouldn’t have died by his hand, right?”
Fugaku fell silent.
Because Uchiha Setsuna was right; between Uchiha Setsuna and Uchiha Ikeizumi, the softer target could only be Uchiha Setsuna.
He couldn’t control Uchiha Ikeizumi, but he could use his authority as Uchiha Clan Head to control Uchiha Setsuna.
“Heh, I was still one step too slow.”
Uchiha Setsuna no longer met the gaze of this 「fierce-eyed Fugaku」; he slightly lowered his head, and in a hoarse, eerie tone said: “If I had been one step faster, my grandson wouldn’t have died.”
These two inexplicable sentences made Fugaku’s brows furrow slightly.
“Fugaku, I have some information that you might be very interested in.”
Uchiha Setsuna kept his head lowered and continued: “Uchiha Ikeizumi’s Lava Release does indeed have the weird ability to be immune to most physical attacks. However, this ability of his is not passive; it requires advance hand seals to activate a technique called ‘Lava Release Chakra Body,’ which is his self-created Lava Release technique.”
“To target him before he could use it against me, I racked my brains! Tell me… if I set up a large number of explosive tags in advance and detonated them before Uchiha Ikeizumi could use his Lava Release technique, would he be blown to death?!”
Fugaku’s pupils contracted imperceptibly.
Uchiha Setsuna couldn’t possibly say these things to him for no reason!
Could it be…
A possibility that Fugaku found hard to believe rose in his heart.
“Of course, I don’t have that many explosive tags, and the Uchiha Clan’s explosive tags are meant to deal with the Konoha Hokage—how could they be wasted on a brat?”
“However, there is a ninja clan that came to me this morning. They want to join forces with me to kill Uchiha Ikeizumi. Heh heh… Though they only have a few big cats and small cats left, they still have some foundation.”
“Unfortunately…”
Uchiha Setsuna sighed: “Some of the young people under me have been brainwashed by Uchiha Ikeizumi’s so-called 「absolute justice」. Even if I wanted to cooperate with that ninja clan, those young people below wouldn’t agree.”
For some reason, Fugaku felt a faint sense of relief.
Ikeizumi did give him a real headache; sometimes he even felt dissatisfaction, even killing intent, toward some of his extreme behaviors.
But once he calmed down, Fugaku realized that the Uchiha Clan couldn’t do without Ikeizumi.
Because Ikeizumi’s immense strength was a solid foundation!
Even if Konoha’s higher-ups wanted to move against the Uchiha Clan, even knowing Ikeizumi wouldn’t actually stand with the Uchiha Clan, they would still give face to Ikeizumi and refrain from taking military action against the Uchiha Clan for the time being.
After all, better safe than sorry…
No one could guarantee that Uchiha Ikeizumi wouldn’t suddenly step up for the Uchiha Clan out of nowhere.
This was one of the reasons Fugaku repeatedly held back against Ikeizumi.
“Though cooperation isn’t possible, I’m old and carelessly let slip Uchiha Ikeizumi’s ‘weakness’—which may or may not be real—to that ninja clan.”
Uchiha Setsuna raised his eyes and said: “Subjectively, I had no intent to kill him, nor did I cooperate with them. Even if it’s Uchiha Ikeizumi’s eyes that can see through sin, they probably won’t detect any evil in me. Right, Fugaku?”
It was right at the moment Uchiha Setsuna finished speaking.
Suddenly!
A deafening roar of an explosion rang out from a direction less than a few hundred meters away!
Immediately after, a continuous series of explosion booms followed.
The fiery glow of the explosions lit up half the sky over the Uchiha Clan Compound.
It also alerted everyone in the entire Uchiha Clan.
The explosive firelight even illuminated Uchiha Fugaku’s profile.
Revealing clearly the ugly expression on his profile.
“Senior Setsuna…” Fugaku’s face tightened as he questioned word by word: “You let outsiders into the Uchiha Clan and allowed them to set up explosive tags in the Uchiha Compound?!”
Uchiha Setsuna said expressionlessly: “Don’t wrongly accuse me. Without even you, the clan head, knowing, how would I know how they infiltrated the Uchiha Compound?”
“As for exactly how they carried out their plan to assassinate Uchiha Ikeizumi, heh heh, I know even less.”
Fugaku no longer wanted to waste another word on this old man whose mind was full of coups and infighting.
He immediately headed toward the direction of the explosions with the Police Force ninjas.
And Fugaku remembered that the jinchuriki was with Ikeizumi! And Sasuke was also with Ikeizumi!
If those two kids hadn’t gone back yet…
Fugaku didn’t dare imagine further.
……
Meanwhile.
Uchiha Izumi and Kijiro, one person and one cat, had completed the task assigned by Uchiha Ikeizumi and returned to the Uchiha Clan Compound.
But at that moment, a deafening explosion from not far away startled them; Kijiro was so shocked his fur stood on end.
This big orange ninja cat shuddered all over and grumbled: “Who’s randomly using explosive tags so late at night, meow!”
“Senior Kijiro, that seems like…”
Izumi looked shocked at the explosive firelight ahead and murmured a reminder: “It seems like… the direction of Senior Ikeizumi’s house?”
Kijiro was stunned and quickly looked that way.
“Meow! Rookie!” His cat face immediately turned grim: “Someone is targeting Lord Ikeizumi! Let’s hurry to support Lord Ikeizumi!”
With that.
Kijiro jumped directly from Izumi’s shoulder, turning into an orange arrow loosed from the string, vanishing in an instant.
Izumi was surprised by Senior Kijiro’s astonishing speed, but even more shocked by this chain of explosions.
She also hurried after him without hesitation.
……
Hokage’s Office Building.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had been silently waiting for tonight’s “absolute justice victims” to arrive, was suddenly startled by the distant explosions, his eyelid twitching.
And it wasn’t just one explosion, but a series of them!
Sarutobi Hiruzen abruptly stood and walked to the office window.
His gaze looked out at the clusters of fierce flames rising in the distance.
Sarutobi Hiruzen’s brows furrowed tightly: “That’s…”
Beside him, Koharu Utatane’s voice came: “The Uchiha Clan Compound. If I didn’t hear wrong, that explosion sound… seems like explosive tags.”
Koharu Utatane had also been drawn to the explosions.
Sarutobi Hiruzen’s brows furrowed even tighter.
He couldn’t figure out what the Uchiha Clan was up to.
An explosion of this scale would probably affect several houses, right?
He didn’t know if there would be casualties.
“Wait!”
Sarutobi Hiruzen suddenly felt a chill in his heart; one possibility gave him a bad premonition: “Could Naruto be there?”
……
“Cough! Cough cough…”
Naruto’s small face twisted in pain as he clutched his head, suddenly feeling his palm warm and wet. When he moved his hand away and looked down by the explosion firelight, he was shocked to see his hand covered in blood!
The constant buzzing in his eardrums made him unable to hear anything.
When Naruto dazedly lifted his head, he could only watch in horror as the several houses in front of him were engulfed in a sea of fire!
Large amounts of debris from the destroyed buildings had scattered across the entire street.
The dizziness made Naruto unable to react for a moment.
Naruto vaguely remembered Teacher Ikeizumi saying to wait at his house for “Izumi and Kijiro” to rendezvous. So he and that smug-faced Sasuke followed Teacher Ikeizumi back to his house again.
But the moment the door opened, Teacher Ikeizumi suddenly grabbed him and Sasuke and threw them out.
Then he seemed to hear an explosion, and next he was swept away like by an invisible gale.
After that, his head got knocked and bled…
“Hiss!” As the memories flashed in his mind, Naruto instantly sucked in a cold breath, fully sobering up. He hurriedly stood, looking around in confusion.
He saw Sasuke, not far beside him, staggering to his feet while supporting himself against a wall.
“Huff… huff…”
Sasuke was panting heavily, his small face still shaken.
Upon seeing Naruto stand, he immediately straightened up, trying to look better off than Naruto. But with a sudden movement, he sucked in a cold breath.
Waves of pain made Sasuke purse his lips tightly; looking down, he saw both knees scraped raw.
His tender little arms and legs had many abrasions and bruises.
“What the heck happened?” Naruto clutched his head with both hands and walked over dizzily to ask.
Sasuke rolled his eyes: “How should I know?”
……
Not far away, Kakashi wiped the bloodstains from his palm.
Given the speed at which Naruto and Sasuke were thrown by the explosion airwave, heavy injuries would be the minimum. The reason they seemed mostly fine was clearly because Kakashi had intervened at the critical moment and caught both of them.
At this moment, Kakashi was gazing at several panicked retreating figures.
His eyes narrowed slightly: “Shimura Clan…”
Just now, after catching Naruto and Sasuke, Kakashi had no time to be shocked by the explosive tags or wonder who was assassinating Uchiha Ikeizumi. He immediately noticed someone fleeing as the explosion went off.
When he threw the two kids aside to chase, he realized it was too late; the opponent clearly had a planned escape route.
But…
The explosion airwave had lifted the mask on the opponent’s face.
In that brief instant, Kakashi’s eyes clearly saw one person’s profile—because he had shifted his Konoha headband, revealing the Three-Tomoe Sharingan!
Coincidentally, Kakashi knew that person.
The opponent was a Shimura Clan ninja!
“I should report back to the Hokage.” Kakashi murmured to himself. He covered his Sharingan, let out a heavy breath, turned back to look at the several houses that had collapsed from the blast: “If it were me, I’d probably be dead. Even if lucky enough to survive, I’d be bedridden for years.”
“Speaking of which, this guy wouldn’t…”
“Hm?!!”
……
“Hey, dead-last, what’s wrong with you?!” On the other side, Sasuke, enduring his pain, suddenly noticed Naruto’s expression was off.
He followed Naruto’s gaze.
His eyes also widened uncontrollably.
In Sasuke’s line of sight—amid the smoke-filled sea of flames, a terrifying figure of flowing lava faintly appeared. The figure looked very “mutilated” at first glance, but those “mutilated” parts were visibly filling in with rolling, flowing lava.
In just a few breaths, the “mutilated” figure formed from lava became a fairly complete humanoid shape.
The nearby collapsed houses suddenly boomed with a loud bang, and one after another vine-wrapped spheres burst through the rubble.
Even more visible were vines extending from each vine sphere, connecting to that deep well of flowing lava.
The intertwined vines slowly receded, revealing that each vine sphere contained “trapped” living people!
All ordinary Uchiha Clan civilians living nearby!
Old and young, each face filled with lingering terror.
But everyone had survived the explosion.
“Hiss…” Uchiha Ikeizumi walked out from the sea of fire, leaving a trail of lava shoe prints on the ground. Lava dripped from his body, each drop burning the stone slabs on the ground.
After the lava receded, Uchiha Ikeizumi’s figure emerged.
……
“Unharmed!” Not far away, Kakashi stared at Uchiha Ikeizumi emerging from the fire, a hint of shock in his eyes: “And he even saved all seven neighboring civilians at once. Oh right… he saved two kids beforehand.”
He was genuinely shocked; he had guessed Uchiha Ikeizumi probably couldn’t be easily assassinated.
But he thought even if he survived, it would be with heavy injuries.
Was this what heavy injuries looked like?!
Seemed like just his clothes were a bit dirty?!
“However… where did those vines come from? Is this Uchiha Ikeizumi’s technique?!” A term that startled even Kakashi flashed in his mind.
—Wood Style Bloodline Limit!!!
The term had just emerged when he immediately dismissed it.
Because it was impossible; how could a Uchiha Clan ninja master the First Hokage’s Wood Style? The Uchiha Clan absolutely did not intermarry with the Senju Clan, so Uchiha Ikeizumi couldn’t have the First Hokage’s bloodline.
Moreover, he was already a very rare dual bloodline limit ninja; how could there be another bloodline limit?
But…
Kakashi thought of Shimura Danzo, who had researched Wood Style cells.
He suddenly fell into contemplation.
“Three bloodline limits…”
“Real or fake?!”
……
“Senior Ikeizumi!”
“Lord Ikeizumi!”
Uchiha Izumi and Kijiro, one person and one cat, finally arrived.
Seeing Uchiha Ikeizumi unharmed, they couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
But upon seeing the several destroyed houses, their expressions turned serious.
It really was Senior/Lord Ikeizumi’s house—this thought arose simultaneously in Izumi and Kijiro’s minds.
“Se…”
Izumi only said one word before Uchiha Ikeizumi coldly interrupted: “Have all the villains on the list been executed?”
Izumi hurriedly replied: “Senior Kijiro and I have executed them all, not leaving a single one alive! And Senior Kijiro had his subordinate ninja cats notify the Yamanaka Clan to collect the corpses.”
At this time, Naruto and Sasuke also came over.
“Lord Ikeizumi, were you?” Kijiro asked hesitantly.
Uchiha Ikeizumi calmly said: “Assassinated, at least with over a hundred explosive tags set up. Fortunately, the opponent clustered the explosive tags to kill me. Otherwise, it wouldn’t just be these nearby houses; the whole street would be blown up.”
Everyone: “!!!”
Kijiro sucked in a cold breath and quickly asked: “Lord Ikeizumi, do you have any leads?”
“None, but someone does.” Uchiha Ikeizumi’s gaze suddenly flicked in one direction, clashing mid-air with Kakashi’s complex gaze not far away.
Kakashi: “…”
Helpless.
Kakashi had no choice but to step out and approach.
“I assume you won’t cover for villains who disregard the safety of innocent civilians, Kakashi Hatake.” Uchiha Ikeizumi said slowly.
Kakashi felt that if he concealed it, Uchiha Ikeizumi might subject him to harsh interrogation.
In the entire Konoha, the last person he wanted as an enemy was Uchiha Ikeizumi.
Moreover.
He still owed him a favor over Obito’s matter.
Though for someone like Uchiha Ikeizumi, favors probably meant nothing.
He suppressed the complexity in his eyes and replied: “Shimura Clan.”
Uchiha Ikeizumi asked again: “Which way did they go?”
Kakashi replied: “West, toward the Shimura Clan compound.”
“That old dog Danzo again!” Kijiro’s crude words burst out: “He’s clearly dead, but who knew the people in his ninja clan were no pushovers either.”
While grumbling, Kijiro saw Uchiha Ikeizumi heading west alone.
“Lord Ikeizumi, I…”
“Watch the two kids and check if those civilians are injured.” Uchiha Ikeizumi interrupted indifferently.
Kijiro, who had just wanted to follow, could only stop helplessly: “Yes, Lord Ikeizumi.”
Naruto asked in bewilderment: “What is Teacher Ikeizumi going to do?”
Izumi took a deep breath: “Senior Ikeizumi…”
“Is going to execute 「absolute justice」!”
……
……
