Sarutobi Shinosuke was truly terrified. Before Uchiha Chisen, the many secrets he had buried deep in his heart seemed as exposed as a naked man without a shred of cover.
It was as though Uchiha Chisen had been silently watching him from the shadows whenever he did those things!
He even felt that was a very real possibility.
How else could he explain Uchiha Chisen knowing so much?
After all...
Sarutobi Shinosuke had never told anyone about the "secrets" Uchiha Chisen had mentioned-not his wife, not the old man, and certainly not his subordinates.
"Uchiha Chisen! You..."
But before Sarutobi Shinosuke could get another word out, a suffocating sense of impending death flooded his heart.
Because a human-head-sized Magma Bomb suddenly shot toward him!
He immediately shut his mouth and gripped the hilt of his ninja sword with both hands. A layer of brilliant blue chakra coated its blade.
"Hah!!!"
Sarutobi Shinosuke slashed down, cutting the fast-approaching Magma Bomb in two.
Just as he was about to swing again, he suddenly felt something wrong with his sword.
He glanced at it, and his pupils contracted.
His ninja sword...
Had snapped!
Even with chakra coating the blade, it couldn't withstand the terrifying heat of Uchiha Chisen's Lava Release magma?
He immediately looked ahead, only to find that Uchiha Chisen had not charged at him. Instead, he was crouching, one hand lowered slightly as his fingertips lightly touched the ground-apparently, he had already completed his hand seals in that brief instant.
"Lava Release..."
"Lava Swamp."
An eerie bubbling reached their ears. Under the horrified gazes of Sarutobi Shinosuke and the Anbu ninja, the ground centered beneath Uchiha Chisen's feet rapidly began melting into magma, heated by a terrifying temperature that came from nowhere!
Almost in the blink of an eye, despite the twenty-odd meters separating him from Uchiha Chisen, Sarutobi Shinosuke found a faint crimson glow appearing beneath his feet.
"This is bad! Fall back!!!"
The instant Sarutobi Shinosuke gave the order, he and the Anbu ninja around him rapidly retreated.
But one Anbu ninja was half a beat too slow.
He had retreated, but when his feet landed on the ground, he suddenly lost his balance, his expression changing drastically.
"Aah! Hss!!!"
Indescribable pain shot up from his ankles. He hastily braced himself against the wall and looked down in panic.
"My feet... they're gone..."
Both his feet had vanished before he knew it! Wisps of smoke rose from his severed ankles, filling the air with the pungent smell of charred flesh!
"Captain Shinosuke! I..."
The Anbu ninja panicked.
However.
Sarutobi Shinosuke could no longer spare any attention for his subordinate's injuries, because he realized that Uchiha Chisen's terrifying Lava Release was rapidly destroying the Secret Research Base!
The terrifying heat of the magma was no longer melting only the ground beneath their feet. It was melting the surrounding walls as well.
Enormous holes had already melted through the walls on either side of the corridor.
Even the metal on the walls was burning with raging flames.
Despite their distance, Sarutobi Shinosuke and the others were all drenched in sweat from the heat.
The temperature here was far too high!!!
"Captain Shinosuke! Something's happening to the magma!" One Anbu ninja keenly spotted the change-the constantly bubbling magma ahead seemed to be swelling upward, as though something terrifying was about to burst out.
He was right.
The next second.
-BOOM!!!
A terrifying Magma Torrent surged upward like a volcanic eruption, instantly melting everything overhead.
Under the horrified gazes of the Anbu ninja, the magma blasted an enormous hole straight through the Secret Research Base!
From outside the base, a crimson column of magma could be seen bursting out of the ground amid the dense forest and shooting into the sky!
Only after reaching a height of a hundred meters did the magma scatter into a shower that rained down in every direction.
But the falling Magma Bombs were anything but harmless raindrops!
When one fist-sized lump of magma landed...
Its indescribable impact instantly blasted an enormous hole above the Secret Research Base, much like an exploding tag detonating! It shattered the rock covering the base and exposed the building's outer surface.
And Magma Bombs packing that much power...
At a glance...
Numbered in the hundreds!
It was now past eight in the evening, just as the nightlife was getting started.
Many Konoha villagers had only recently finished dinner and were planning to take a stroll to help digest their food.
But suddenly, they saw...
An unmistakable column of crimson light shooting into the sky outside the village.
Then that column of light scattered like fireworks.
It seemed to cast a faint glow over more than half of Konoha.
"What's that?" A civilian gazed into the distance in confusion. "Someone's setting off fireworks outside the village? Those are huge..."
Someone nearby disagreed. "Do fireworks look like that? It looks more like a volcanic eruption to me."
"Are you kidding? Since when is there a volcano anywhere near Konoha?"
"It must be fireworks! But is there some festival coming up? How come I haven't heard about it? There's no reason to set off fireworks that big unless it's some special occasion, right? And they're doing it outside the village, too. What's that all about?!"
"..."
Besides these civilians who knew no ninjutsu, many of the village's ninja also noticed the unusual sight in the distance.
Inside the Uchiha Clan compound.
A flicker of surprise crossed Uchiha Mikoto's beautiful eyes as she said to her husband beside her, "Fugaku, that looks like... magma, doesn't it? It's just like a volcano suddenly erupting."
"...Yes."
Fugaku gazed at the distant night sky and nodded slightly, his expression darkening. "Unless I'm mistaken, that should be Chisen. With his temperament, he wouldn't cause such a huge commotion without a reason. He may have run into a powerful enemy outside the village."
"Whew. I need to head out. Stay home and take care of Sasuke."
Fugaku had already turned and gone back inside, preparing to put on his Konoha Military Police Force combat uniform.
As he did, he explained, "Although Chisen and I have plenty of disagreements, there's one thing I admire about him. He can always see through whatever evil someone has committed, and he's never made a single mistake or falsely accused anyone."
"Over the years, neither the Fourth Hokage nor the Third Hokage has been able to do anything about him, precisely because they couldn't find any grounds to act against Uchiha Chisen."
"After Chisen kills someone, he dumps the body on us, and we pass it on to the Yamanaka Clan. The Yamanaka Clan always discovers some horrifying criminal secrets in those bodies."
Hearing this, Uchiha Mikoto asked hesitantly, "So you're saying he might be fighting someone evil right now?"
"Yes."
Fugaku had already changed into his Konoha Military Police Force uniform. With a composed expression, he said, "Whatever else he may be, he's still a member of the Konoha Military Police Force. As Captain of the Konoha Military Police Force, I have to take some men to support him."
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