Chapter 142: Vortex-faced White Zetsu! Obito, Doubting His Life!
“Wood Style! It must be the legendary Wood Style!” After discarding the Executioner’s Blade and using a Water Clone to deceive Obito and Zetsu, Juzo Biwa did not linger in battle. He directly chose to turn around and run.
A flash of horror even appeared in his eyes. The ability to control plants—what else could it be but Wood Style?
This was the power of the Ninja World’s god from legends. Someone from Akatsuki actually possessed this power?
Juzo Biwa thought of Uchiha Obito pretending to be Uchiha Madara.
So could that Pitcher Plant be pretending to be Hashirama Senju?
One with Sharingan, one with Wood Style—it was too similar to that pair of legendary figures from the Ninja World many years ago.
“Hm?!”
Suddenly, Juzo Biwa’s pupils contracted slightly. He abruptly crouched low and rolled on the ground several times, disregarding the embarrassment.
Suddenly, a white figure flashed hastily over him from above. Sharp white limbs nearly sliced Juzo Biwa’s skin.
“Ah, such quick reflexes! With reflexes this fast, is your defecation speed also fast? By the way, why can’t I defecate? It’s really troubling!”
When these very strange words rang out, Juzo Biwa finally saw that white figure clearly.
“That’s…”
“What creature!?”
Juzo Biwa looked quite shocked at that humanoid white figure. The other looked somewhat human, but its body was abnormally pale, giving the feeling of a humanoid formed from condensed plaster.
Moreover, that faceless visage was even more hair-raising. He vaguely saw strange spiral patterns on its face, with the empty center of the spiral gathered at its right eye.
Juzo Biwa could tell at a glance that this was absolutely not human!
“Madara-sama ordered me to kill you! Before you die, will you be scared into fecal incontinence?”
That strange creature with spiral patterns on its face suddenly clapped its hands together.
With a “clap—” after that sound, under Juzo Biwa’s shocked gaze, a massive Wooden Golem suddenly surged up behind it!
The colossal Wooden Golem over twenty meters tall had an angry Vajra expression, one arm clenched into a fist smashing ferociously toward Juzo Biwa!
“Wood Style again!!!”
Juzo Biwa was stunned. The legendary Wood Style Bloodline Limit—was it now being wholesaled in the Ninja World?
How could anyone know it!
“Damn it!” He hastily leaped to the side. The Wooden Golem’s giant fist brushed past his body and smashed heavily into the ground.
—Boom!!!
With the corner of his eye glancing at the massive crater bombed out where he had stood before, Juzo Biwa’s eyelids twitched as he gritted his teeth fiercely. His hands rapidly formed seals.
“Water Release: Mist Concealment Technique!!!”
Juzo Biwa spat from his mouth. The already pitch-black dim environment immediately became shrouded in thick mist, also faintly concealing his body within layers of fog.
“Water Release: Water Fang Bullet!!!”
He rapidly formed seals again. Immediately, two streams of water transformed into sharp spiked fangs, diving toward the Vortex-faced White Zetsu like drills.
“Eh, pretty impressive…” The massive Wooden Golem behind the Vortex-faced White Zetsu placed its hands protectively in front of it. The two water streams heavily bombarded the Wooden Golem’s hands, drilling two dents and causing cracks on the back of its hands.
But in less than a second.
Those dense cracks were mended back by chakra, and the two dents bombed by the water streams were also filled as good as new.
Just as the Vortex-faced White Zetsu prepared to continue attacking.
It suddenly froze.
“He ran?”
Juzo Biwa had no intention of entangling with the opponent, because he knew there were still two pursuers behind. Lingering even one more second would form a disadvantageous one-versus-three situation.
Both the Mist Concealment Technique and Water Fang Bullet were merely to stall that Vortex-faced creature. Even if he put on a desperate stance, it was all fake.
As expected, just as he thought, less than two seconds after he started running.
Obito and Zetsu had already caught up.
“Where is he?” Obito immediately questioned the Vortex-faced White Zetsu.
“Ah! He’s a bit sly.” The Vortex-faced White Zetsu awkwardly scratched its head: “I thought he was going to fight me to the death just now, and I was preparing to see if he’d be scared into defecating before dying. Who would’ve thought that after just two ninjutsu to distract me, he ran.”
“Then! Hur! Ry! Up! And! Chase!”
Obito was nearly infuriated to the point of fainting.
……
“That’s… what?” Neji, who was already several kilometers away from the village, stared dumbfounded at the massive Wooden Golem in the distance ahead.
The over twenty-meter-tall Wooden Golem was quite conspicuous even in the dense forest outside Konoha.
Taller than some nearby trees by several meters.
Under the moonlight, that big head was very striking.
“That’s the First Hokage’s Wood Style ninjutsu.” A very grave voice suddenly sounded behind Neji: “If I’m not mistaken, it’s the legendary Wooden Golem Technique. Just much smaller than the Wooden Golem Technique of the First Hokage in the records. Visually, only about twenty-three to twenty-four meters.”
“Who?!”
Neji was startled and quickly turned around, drawing the kunai from his waist. His small face was full of horrified expression.
Someone had been following behind him all along without him noticing, only discovering them after they spoke.
That meant if the other wanted to kill him, he might have already been dead over ten minutes ago?
Cold sweat broke out on Neji.
“Who?” Jiraiya, who had somehow already stood behind Neji, immediately grinned and struck a pose: “Of course, it’s the unparalleled Konoha Sannin Jiraiya Sage!”
“Dang dang dang!” Jiraiya even added entrance music for himself.
Neji: “……”
“Little Jiraiya, this child is looking at you with the eyes of someone looking at a fool.” Sage Shima spoke up.
Neji immediately looked toward Jiraiya’s left shoulder and noticed this talking green-skinned toad.
At this time, Sage Fukasaku also said: “Little one, that place ahead isn’t somewhere you can go. If little Jiraiya hadn’t stopped you, you might have died.”
Neji was stunned. He suddenly realized something: “You’ve been following me from the start? The Konoha patrol ninjas didn’t discover me sneaking out of the village because you interfered?”
“Very clever.”
Sage Fukasaku sighed and frankly said: “Indeed, I used an Illusion Technique on those patrol ninjas. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have made it two hundred meters before they found you.”
Neji gripped his kunai tightly. Even knowing the other might be Konoha ninjas and possibly big shots in the village, he didn’t relax his vigilance.
He gritted his teeth: “What is your purpose?”
“To observe you.” Sage Shima explained: “My husband and I have no ill will toward you. We just wanted to see if you are the one we’re looking for, that’s all.”
Neji didn’t quite believe it.
“Cough!” Seeing that his pose didn’t intimidate this kid, Jiraiya straightened up and said seriously: “No matter how you see me, you can’t go ahead anymore. It’s life-threatening.”
“Kids should hurry back to the village and find the old man… cough, find the Third Hokage, and immediately tell him what happened. Because next is the adults’ battlefield.”
“Sage Shima, please look after him.” Jiraiya said to Sage Shima.
“Little Jiraiya, are you sure you’ll be fine alone?” Sage Shima asked doubtfully.
Sage Fukasaku said: “Don’t worry, I’ll follow little Jiraiya.”
“Alright.” Sage Shima said: “Child’s father, with your old bones, if you encounter something you can’t handle, don’t push yourself too hard.”
With that, Sage Shima ignored Neji’s objection and directly leaped onto Neji’s shoulder. After Neji instinctively tried to swat it away in shock, it directly said: “Little one, show some respect to an elder over eight hundred years old.”
Neji was stunned.
Meanwhile, Jiraiya had already passed Neji and dashed toward the Wooden Golem.
For Jiraiya, finding the Child of Prophecy was certainly important, but a potential threat to Konoha…
Was equally important!
……
“Huff, huff…” Juzo Biwa was panting slightly. He had already exerted his all to burst out at his fastest speed to escape. As long as he had a bit more time, he could reach Konoha Village.
However.
The speed of the three pursuers behind far exceeded his imagination. Before he could even catch his breath, Juzo Biwa’s back felt a surging heatwave coming!
“Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!!!”
A massive fireball pounced toward Juzo Biwa, forcing him to rapidly form seals with both hands, quickly turn around, and spit from his mouth.
“Water Release: Water Turbulence Wave!!!”
A mass of water streamed from Juzo Biwa’s mouth, clashing intensely with the Great Fireball. The chakras of two different attributes even triggered an explosion, the shockwave forcing Juzo Biwa to fly backward.
“You run pretty fast with so much feces in your belly! If you defecated all that out to lighten the load, could you run even faster?”
The goofy-toned voice made Juzo Biwa’s pupils shrink sharply—that Vortex-faced one had caught up too!
The corner of his eye caught a white figure’s arm already transforming into very sharp wooden spikes.
That wooden spike was stabbing fiercely toward him, so fast that Juzo Biwa realized he couldn’t dodge, only barely shifting his vital areas to avoid being killed in one strike.
“Meow, so lively!” At that moment, a voice even goofier than the Vortex-faced White Zetsu’s suddenly sounded: “Such a lively night, can I join in?!”
This stunned everyone present for a moment.
Juzo Biwa also seized the chance to donkey-roll away, narrowly avoiding the Vortex-faced White Zetsu’s attack. He then immediately pulled back distance, drenched in cold sweat, fully on guard.
“Someone’s here?” Obito frowned and looked toward the voice, only to be stunned. Because he found the speaker wasn’t human, but a cat.
A very fat-looking Ninja Cat!
It was squatting on a tree branch, which was bent under its weight, showing just how fat it was.
“That orange cat…”
Juzo Biwa shuddered all over. He immediately recognized Senior Kijiro: “It’s the cat raised by Uchiha Ikeizumi that dared to confront Jiraiya!”
“Madara-sama.” At this time, the black-and-white Zetsu also arrived. It narrowed its eyes and said to Obito: “That Ninja Cat is Uchiha Ikeizumi’s Summoned Beast. In other words, Uchiha Ikeizumi is nearby. He might be witnessing all this.”
Obito reacted, brows tightly furrowed: “He’s using Juzo Biwa as bait to lure us in?! He already knew we were targeting Juzo Biwa?!”
“He probably guessed our purpose.” Zetsu said eerily: “Remember when he met you not long ago? You said he looked at you then with eyes wanting to kill you. It seems he really wants to kill you. As for the reason, it’s unknown. Perhaps for his so-called Absolute Justice.”
At this point.
Zetsu suddenly felt… that back then, Uchiha Madara should have taken Uchiha Ikeizumi as his successor, that would have been the most correct choice.
Instead of this Uchiha Obito who always acted on whims and impulses, causing all sorts of messes.
“Madara-sama, we should withdraw.” Zetsu reminded.
“Why?” Obito asked coldly.
Zetsu explained: “Since he knows we’re coming, he’s definitely prepared to keep us here. And we haven’t prepared to deal with him. We were originally targeting his subordinate. This way, we’re at a disadvantage.”
Just as Obito wanted to say something, faint footsteps vaguely reached his ears, immediately alerting him.
When everyone looked toward the sound, a figure holding a Ninja Sword entered everyone’s sight.
“Uchiha…”
“Ikeizumi!!!”
Obito’s face darkened, squeezing the name out through gritted teeth. For this person who knew many of his secrets, he had no fondness, only killing intent.
“That’s Uchiha Ikeizumi!” The goofy Vortex-faced White Zetsu was already beside Obito. It sized up Uchiha Ikeizumi, rubbing its chin and muttering: “Madara-sama, he looks better than you! By the way, Madara-sama takes over twenty minutes to defecate once. He’s also from the Uchiha Clan—how long does he take?”
It was actually counting with its ten fingers nonstop.
As if this question was very important to it, completely ignoring that Obito’s face under the mask had darkened.
Zetsu was also staring intently at Uchiha Ikeizumi at this moment.
This Uchiha kid who knew many secrets—did he know Zetsu’s secret as “Black Zetsu”? And did he know about the Six Paths Sage and Mother?
“Uchiha Obito.” At this time, Uchiha Ikeizumi’s cold voice slowly rose: “Long time no see. Every time I see beasts like you in person, it’s hard to suppress the killing intent.”
With that, Uchiha Ikeizumi glanced at the other two strangely appearing guys.
“Finding one beast comes with two more as a gift. Is this Absolute Justice’s lucky day?”
Before Zetsu and Tobi could react, Obito’s forehead veins bulged.
Obito had seen vicious enemies before, but none had called him a “beast.” Only this Uchiha Ikeizumi would curse him so filthily!
“Lucky day, heh…”
Even knowing the other might already know his true identity, Obito still used a raspy tone: “Uchiha Clan junior. Isn’t it possible? Today isn’t your lucky day. Today is your death day. I think those who believe in justice will miss you in the future on this day.”
Zetsu beside him was stunned, immediately realizing Obito might not want to leave. It looked at Obito: “Madara-sama…”
“Shut up.”
Obito glared fiercely at it: “I have my own considerations.”
Zetsu: “……”
……
“Phew!”
Inside Konoha, Uchiha Izumi slowly exhaled. She clapped her hands and said to Naruto and Sasuke behind her: “You two little ones must not feel discouraged just because you didn’t encounter any murderous villains today. That kind of reaction is very wrong.”
She poked Sasuke’s forehead and patted Naruto’s head, her pretty face serious as she lectured: “I’ll ask you a question—do you think it’s better to encounter murderous villains every day and execute Absolute Justice every day? Or like tonight, patrol Konoha for a whole circle and only catch two thieves?”
Izumi’s question made Naruto and Sasuke exchange glances.
Sasuke’s small face furrowed, mumbling: “If we don’t encounter murderous villains… how to execute Absolute Justice? Don’t we believe in Teacher Ikeizumi’s Absolute Justice?”
Naruto hurriedly said unwilling to show weakness: “Isn’t justice about using absolute thorough means to punish those murderous villains?”
Just as Sasuke didn’t want to be suppressed by Naruto, Naruto didn’t want to be suddenly surpassed by Sasuke. For some reason between them, there was a strange competitive mentality at play.
“You two brats, that mindset is very wrong!”
Beside them, Mitarashi Anko with arms crossed said: “True justice is to make the Ninja World, make Konoha better and better. If we encounter those heinous murderous villains every day, is「 Absolute Justice」 useful or useless?”
“Executing justice with absolute means is to make the Ninja World’s sins, which are hard to record, even fewer. Catching only two thieves in one night means Ikeizumi’s Absolute Justice has played a very positive role in Konoha’s order.”
The seven-year-old Naruto and Sasuke hadn’t even fully established correct morals yet.
Facing Anko’s words, they only half-understood.
They probably only grasped one truth—that not encountering murderous villains one day means the Ninja World is truly getting better.
“Then…”
Naruto mumbled weakly: “If we kill all the murderous villains we encounter, isn’t that equivalent to not encountering any?”
Anko: “……You brat! Read more books! Looks like you didn’t listen to a word I said!”
She directly grabbed Naruto, drilling his temple hard with two fingers, making Naruto yell “ow ow” in pain.
“By the way…”
Watching this, Izumi shifted her gaze to the distant full moon, murmuring: “After separating from Senior Ikeizumi and Senior Kijiro at the Police Force Headquarters, why haven’t I seen them?”
……
Outside Konoha.
Uchiha Ikeizumi holding the Ninja Sword no longer wasted words with Obito still pretending to be “Uchiha Madara.” His free hand rapidly single-hand sealed: “Fire Style: Fire Dragon Lava Bullet!”
As Uchiha Ikeizumi spat from his mouth, the large mass of lava he spat turned mid-air into a scorching lava dragon, pouncing and biting toward where Uchiha Obito was.
Obito, Zetsu, and Tobi all darkened their expressions.
They immediately dodged in three different directions.
Boom!!!
The lava dragon heavily crashed into the ground below, the terrifying high temperature melting a pit over ten meters in diameter into the ground.
The pit’s edges still emitted wisps of fierce flames, with some orange-red lava slowly flowing inside. The oncoming heatwave made no one dare underestimate the lava’s temperature.
“What two hard-to-communicate guys.” Zetsu’s words referred not only to Uchiha Ikeizumi but included Obito as well.
After landing on the ground, it slammed its hands down: “Wood Style!”
In an instant, countless roots hidden underground burst out, writhing and entwining like dense giant pythons, making one’s scalp numb just looking.
Countless roots tried to swallow Uchiha Ikeizumi.
On the other side.
The Vortex-faced White Zetsu Tobi laughed goofily and immediately counterattacked. The massive over twenty-meter Wooden Golem behind it clenched a fist and smashed toward Uchiha Ikeizumi.
Obito’s face under the mask slightly blackened. He snorted coldly, his right eye turned into Mangekyo Sharingan, the space around his body visibly distorting. Massive giant shuriken shot from the Kamui Space toward Uchiha Ikeizumi!
And he himself fearlessly rapidly closed in on Uchiha Ikeizumi.
“Tch, want a three-on-one? Uchiha Ikeizumi, I’ll…”
Seeing this, Juzo Biwa wanted to help when he suddenly noticed the moonlight above shrouded by a shadow.
When he looked up, his eyes widened considerably.
There, a massive giant cat had appeared above his head at some point, heading toward the Wooden Golem’s fist.
Bang!!!
The giant cat’s head collided with the Wooden Golem’s fist. After the giant cat’s four limbs landed, its body uncontrollably slid back dozens of meters, but it still blocked the punch.
Damn… “Don’t treat Ninja Cats as non-threatening enemies, meow!” Senior Kijiro’s fur exploded, face ferocious.
Juzo Biwa immediately realized—this was still Uchiha Ikeizumi’s Ninja Cat!
This cat knew an enlargement ninjutsu? It looked somewhat like the Akimichi Clan’s Expansion Jutsu.
“Wood Style Bloodline Limit…”
On the other side, Uchiha Ikeizumi looked down at the densely writhing roots underfoot. He completely ignored the massive giant shuriken shooting from behind, merely crouching slightly and pressing one hand on a surging root underfoot.
“Pretty clever.”
“I have it too.”
In an instant, Zetsu was stunned to find it seemed to have lost control over some roots. Suddenly, some of the churning roots ahead extended over ten meters high, curved around, and stabbed rapidly toward Uchiha Ikeizumi’s back.
Countless roots immediately collided with the giant shuriken shot from Obito’s Kamui Space.
“Wood Style!!!”
Zetsu suddenly reacted, its black-and-white face full of shock: “Uchiha Ikeizumi has Wood Style Bloodline Limit?!”
Obito behind Uchiha Ikeizumi was also stunned for that reason.
But he didn’t stop, because the roots stabbing toward him posed no threat. They passed directly through his body without even touching him.
“Hmph!”
In the blink of an eye, Obito was within arm’s reach of Uchiha Ikeizumi. He immediately reached out a hand, his scarlet Sharingan filled with killing intent, trying to touch Uchiha Ikeizumi’s back with his palm.
But the next second, Obito suddenly saw Uchiha Ikeizumi turn around, decisively slashing his Ninja Sword toward Obito’s palm.
Puchi—
Obito’s one eye gradually widened. He watched a severed palm drop to the ground, then incredulously shifted his gaze to Uchiha Ikeizumi’s cold, emotionless face.
The other ability and flaw of the right eye Kamui…
Seen through!!!
As this shocked thought flashed in Obito’s mind, he realized the situation was very bad. He had originally wanted to touch Uchiha Ikeizumi’s body to directly suck the opponent’s body into the Kamui Space.
In that case, even if Uchiha Ikeizumi had an elementalization ability like Water Transformation Technique, so what? That elementalization couldn’t block space-time dojutsu.
But the premise was he needed to extend his palm from the Kamui Space, only then could he touch Uchiha Ikeizumi and activate the dojutsu to suck the other in.
Who would’ve thought his right eye Kamui ability was like a naked girl in the opponent’s eyes.
Completely no secrets!!!
This guy seemed to have known long ago that he had to materialize part of his body to activate the “Kamui” ability!
The question was…
How did he know?!
How could he know?!
Obito’s inner depths felt like hundreds of bombs had been dropped. Luckily, the incredulous expression was hidden by the mask, or he really would have no Uchiha Clan poise left.
At that moment, Uchiha Ikeizumi’s eyes met Uchiha Obito’s eyes. The shock in Obito’s eyes added even more horror.
“Mangekyo Sharingan!!!”
“Judgment.” Two words slowly came from Uchiha Ikeizumi’s mouth. His left eye overflowed with some blood, sliding down his face.
As Obito’s pupils shrank sharply, he hastily shifted his gaze. Even knowing he was nearly invincible in Kamui Phasing state, he still retreated rapidly out of fear.
“Looks like it didn’t work.”
Some lava flowed on Uchiha Ikeizumi’s expressionless side face. The overflowing blood was quickly evaporated by the lava’s high temperature.
He calmly looked at Obito, who showed no abnormality, realizing his left eye Mangekyo ability couldn’t implant into the fully phased Obito.
But this was within his expectations. It was just a small test by Uchiha Ikeizumi. Success would be a huge profit; failure cost him nothing.
For him, the vision weakening from using Mangekyo Sharingan, severe enough to cause blindness, wasn’t a side effect.
Because occasionally when executing justice in Konoha, he had burst out quite a few “double eye vision enhancement” rewards.
“Huff…”
On the other side, Obito, who had retreated over ten meters away, slowly exhaled. He then realized he was drenched in sweat from fear.
He had nearly thought he was hit by the opponent’s Mangekyo dojutsu!
No, since when was he so unconfident in his own Kamui ability?
Damn it.
It must be because Uchiha Ikeizumi knew too many of his secrets, making him suddenly unconfident.
“Tch!”
Obito immediately suppressed his inner discomfort. A mocking curve appeared at his mouth as he tried to rebuild ‘Uchiha Madara’s’ aura: “Uchiha Clan junior. In the end, my dojutsu ability is still above yours!”
“Then what were you dodging earlier.” Uchiha Ikeizumi’s calm words made Obito’s facial muscles stiffen.
His expression flickered uncertainly.
For a moment, he didn’t know what to do with Uchiha Ikeizumi.
His right eye Kamui ability intel was known inside out by the other. As long as Uchiha Ikeizumi wasn’t a fool, he wouldn’t get any chance.
And without using the right eye Kamui ability, Obito found he couldn’t do anything to Uchiha Ikeizumi. The opponent’s Lava Release elementalization was so slippery he didn’t know how to strike.
Plus, the other had just seemingly used something like Wood Style ability, making it even trickier for Obito.
“Heh…”
Obito sneered coldly: “Looks like a stalemate. You can’t do anything to me, and I can’t take you down for a while, kid. Tsk, looks like the Uchiha Clan has produced a genius second only to me and a certain kid these years.”
“That kid you mentioned is you.” Uchiha Ikeizumi’s words punctured Obito’s self-praise.
Obito: “……”
This bastard, just like Zetsu, loved ruining the mood!
“Madara-sama, he’s calculating your ability’s duration. He probably already knows exactly how long your ability lasts.”
Zetsu had somehow come beside Obito and whispered: “Within your ability’s effective time, his Mangekyo has no effect on you. But in two more minutes, you probably won’t block his dojutsu.”
“I’ve told you long ago, we’re not prepared to deal with him yet. In all our plans from the start, killing Uchiha Ikeizumi was ranked last. That shows the plan’s feasibility is extremely high difficulty.”
Obito’s face twisted in frustration, never feeling so stifled: “The problem is how does he even know that?!”
Back on the Night of the Nine-Tails, during his ambush on Teacher Minato, it took a battle for Minato to catch the flaw in the right eye Kamui ability.
But Uchiha Ikeizumi…
Obito simply couldn’t figure out where the other learned it!
Zetsu shook its head: “No idea.”
It paused.
Adding: “Not me.”
Because Zetsu noticed Obito’s suspicious glance again.
“Hm?” Suddenly, Zetsu frowned, seemingly sensing something, and immediately said: “Madara-sama, we absolutely can’t stay long. A White Zetsu told me—Jiraiya is coming. Estimated less than half a minute, he’ll arrive. There’s a toad on his shoulder, probably from Mount Myōboku.”
Obito felt the whole world was against him.
Ever since encountering Uchiha Ikeizumi, not a single day had gone smoothly!
He was even starting to doubt life.
“……Withdraw!”
Obito gritted his teeth and spat the word.
……
……
