Uchiha Chisen's Special "Lava Release"!

Danzo's pupils constricted.

Uchiha Chisen was far too fast. The searing heat radiating from the magma arm closing in on him made Danzo's eyes sting with dryness and sent waves of burning heat across his face.

The strong stench of sulfur rushed straight into his nostrils, intensifying the alarm in his heart and the sense of impending death.

If that touches me...

I'll die!!!

Danzo no longer cared about dignity. His retreat was utterly frantic, and he practically tumbled backward like a rolling donkey, rolling several times before escaping the strike.

"Lord Danzo!!!" But a Root Ninja's startled cry made Danzo realize he might not have escaped entirely.

"Hiss-"

The waves of pain from his left ear made Danzo suck in a sharp breath. He thought he could smell meat burning.

He quickly felt for his left ear, only to discover it was gone!

When he hastily looked up, he saw that Uchiha Chisen had already broken out of the encirclement and leaped high with a push off the ground.

His magma-covered right arm suddenly began swelling visibly.

It was as though an active volcano was gathering terrifying power.

"Newbie, get farther away."

The Anbu Ninja assigned to watch the Jinchuriki abandoned all other concerns at the sight. Moving faster than he ever had in his life, he scooped Naruto up and tried to flee the trouble.

Izumi's panicked eyes immediately turned scarlet as well. Sensing danger, she activated the Sharingan she had awakened in grief at five years old, after seeing her father die at the hands of the Nine-Tails Fox.

And hers was also a Three-Tomoe Sharingan! (It was three-tomoe in both Itachi Shinden and the original TV anime.)

The spinning tomoe rapidly drained her chakra, turning her little face deathly pale in an instant, but they also unleashed ocular power unlike anything she had ever produced.

However, she used that power to dodge away.

Izumi believed that Chisen wouldn't tell her to get farther away for no reason.

She chose to trust him!

Meanwhile, the two Root Ninja below swiftly formed hand seals in perfect coordination.

"Water Style: Violent Water Wave Technique!" ×2

Two immense torrents surged toward Uchiha Chisen overhead.

"Lava Style: Great Eruption."

His right arm, now larger than his entire body, smashed downward. The roiling magma formed from chakra erupted in that instant, creating a magma fist of inconceivable size like a volcanic eruption, hurtling straight down!

-BOOM!!!

The violent collision between Lava Release and Water Style raised clouds of scalding steam, while extremely pungent, toxic gas spread wildly.

Although Uchiha Chisen's "Lava Release" was extremely similar to that of Rōshi from Iwagakure, with both taking the form of magma,

Uchiha Chisen's "Lava Release" possessed a trait Rōshi's lacked-the explosive force of a volcanic eruption!

Under the two Root Ninja's shocked gazes, the enormous magma fist evaporated their Water Style and continued crushing downward!

"Protect Lord Danzo!"

-BOOM!!!

One Root Ninja pulled Danzo away in a swift dodge, but the other was half a step too late. When the magma fist slammed into the earth, splashing magma drenched half his body.

"AAAAAAAH!!!!" The Root Ninja's agonized screams drew everyone's eyes to him.

Half his body looked as though it had simply been erased.

The parts struck by the splashing magma were actually burning!

A massive crater had also appeared in the ground.

It was as though a pool of magma radiating waves of heat had formed in the street!

"So this is... the Uchiha Clan's double Kekkei Genkai genius who rose to fame during the Third Shinobi World War, whose reputation nearly matched Uchiha Shisui's-Lava Beast, Uchiha Chisen?"

The Anbu Ninja holding Naruto coughed from the choking sulfur fumes, cold sweat pouring off him.

Thank goodness...

I had the sense not to fight him in the first place.

Otherwise...

He couldn't guarantee that he would have escaped unscathed.

"U! CHI! HA! CHI! SEN!" Danzo's aged face had darkened until it looked ready to drip black water.

One hand gripped the bandages on his face tightly.

Veins bulged on the back of his hand.

Danzo wasn't afraid of Uchiha Chisen. In his eyes, this Naturally Evil Uchiha Brat was, at the end of the day, nothing more than a greenhorn who had only recently ventured out into the world.

At that moment, Danzo was hesitating over whether to reveal his trump card, the Sharingan, in public.

Damn it...

If I'd brought more Root guards today,

I wouldn't have to hesitate.

Uchiha Chisen landed on magma hot enough to vaporize a human body, completely unaffected by its heat. Liquid magma kept dripping from him, scorching one smoking shallow pit after another into the ground.

"Hm?"

Far away in the Hokage Building, Sarutobi Hiruzen suddenly picked up on a strange disturbance outside.

Just as he turned his head, a Ninja Pigeon flew in.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's gaze sharpened.

He remembered perfectly well that the summoned creature belonging to the Anbu Ninja he had sent to watch and protect Naruto was a Ninja Pigeon!

"Lord Hokage! Lord Hokage!"

The Ninja Pigeon spoke in a shrill human voice. "This is bad! Uchiha Chisen and Shimura Danzō are fighting! The Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto, has been caught up in it too!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen sprang to his feet.

"Danzo!" His grave expression instantly turned ugly, and he couldn't help gritting his teeth. "Didn't I just tell him not to provoke that boy Chisen?!"

Knowing Danzo, he had most likely started the conflict himself!

That man had always hated the Uchiha Clan. After running into Uchiha Chisen, who was fairly active around the village...

There was no telling what extreme measures Danzo might take.

However,

when Sarutobi Hiruzen recalled Uchiha Chisen's absolute justice, his practically perfect case-solving rate, and those eyes that could see through almost anyone...

He hesitated again.

This...

No!

Sarutobi Hiruzen shook the strange thoughts from his mind. What mattered now was getting there immediately and stopping the fight.

Otherwise, the area affected by that boy Chisen's "Lava Release" Kekkei Genkai techniques was no laughing matter!

He clearly remembered the boy's terrifying performance during the Third Shinobi World War.

That "Lava Release," with the power of a volcanic eruption...

It was undoubtedly one of the most dangerous powers in the shinobi world!

"Take me there!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen first addressed the Ninja Pigeon, then suddenly called, "Kakashi!"

Whoosh!

A figure instantly appeared before Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Sarutobi Hiruzen ordered in a stern voice, "Lead three Anbu squads and follow me to stop the conflict immediately!"

"Yes, Lord Hokage."

Kakashi nodded.

Elsewhere.

SHLUK!!!-Just as the magma-flowing crimson arm effortlessly pierced the second Root Ninja's chest,

a shrill whistle cut through the air, instantly tearing the Root Ninja's body in half.

But before the blood could splash onto Uchiha Chisen, the magma's heat had already vaporized it.

The "Wind Style: Wind Blade Technique," powerful enough to slice through steel, continued unabated, cutting a gash more than ten centimeters deep into Uchiha Chisen's chest.

Yet the magma flowing around it filled the gash right back in.

"What exactly is going on with his 'Lava Release'..."

Danzo's expression was utterly grim. He couldn't shake the feeling that Uchiha Chisen's Lava Release resembled the Hōzuki Clan's Water Transformation Technique.