Uchiha, a Jinchuriki?

"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"

"Lava Release: Scorching Stream Rock Technique!"

BOOM!!!

The dragon fire collided with the lava sphere, erupting into a fierce heatwave!

"Brat, your fire is ordinary. My Lava Release can burn even fire to ash!!"

Even without Tailed Beast chakra for the moment, Roshi was still an exceptionally powerful ninja!

Whoosh!!

Not good!!

Roshi's gaze was still fixed on the explosion when an invisible slash came from behind and to the side.

The slash had no form. Relying on his instinctive sense of danger, Roshi barely evaded the fatal blow.

Screech—

Bang!

Dozens of great trees crashed to the ground.

Roshi turned around to face the scarlet red of the Sharingan and a flash of snow-bright sword light!

Without the Four-Tails' chakra, Roshi could not maintain Lava Release Chakra Mode with his own chakra reserves alone.

If he had been in Lava Release Chakra Mode, this brat would have been courting death by getting so close!

Clang!

Sode no Shirayuki struck Roshi's steel bracer, scattering sparks.

Bang!

Twisting his body, Roshi threw a punch at Kagami Uchiha's chest with his other hand, his fist blazing with searing lava.

Kagami Uchiha's face was as still as water, an icy gleam flashing through his eyes.

He shifted slightly aside, easily dodging Roshi's punch before snapping out a kick with lightning speed.

Roshi blocked with both arms! The tremendous impact forced him back slightly, but he immediately steadied himself and launched another attack.

"Too green, brat!"

His fists smashed toward Kagami Uchiha like meteors, carrying waves of heat.

Naturally, Kagami Uchiha was not foolish enough to trade punches with him. His body moved like a ghost through the blur of fists, searching for a chance to counterattack.

A prolonged offense was bound to leave openings.

At last, Kagami Uchiha found one. Using the reflection on Sode no Shirayuki's blade, he met Roshi's gaze!

Mirror Flower Water Moon!

Immense ocular power surged forth, instantly outlining black tomoe in Roshi's eyes!

Without a second thought, Kagami Uchiha slashed at Roshi's neck!

Bang!!

Kagami Uchiha, wide open after his attack, was kicked away by Roshi!

Roshi had not had time to add Lava Release, so the kick did not do much damage.

But...

Looking into Roshi's eyes, Kagami Uchiha sneered. "Did you reach an agreement with that ape?"

Roshi looked at Kagami Uchiha with a complicated expression. "Only to deal with you was the Four-Tails willing to help me break the genjutsu..."

"What exactly did you do to him?"

The Four-Tails, which had never paid him any attention except to curse at him while seizing chakra, had actually been willing to help him...

Roshi even felt that if he killed Kagami Uchiha, the Four-Tails might completely submit to him.

Stubborn as he was, he had never hoped to reconcile with the Four-Tails. He did not acknowledge it.

Gurgle... gurgle...

Roshi's pupils suddenly contracted.

That sound, that posture...

He knew them far too well!

Kagami Uchiha lowered his head and glanced at the crimson chakra cloak wrapping around his body.

A massive chakra tail had also appeared behind him.

"Th-This is impossible!"

"You're the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki!!"

Roshi was utterly horrified.

Everyone knew that Konoha possessed only one Tailed Beast—the Nine-Tails.

Even if one knew little about the terrible relationship between Konoha's upper ranks and the Uchiha Clan, everyone in the ninja world knew of Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara's historic battle.

Had the Third Hokage gone mad?!

He actually made an Uchiha the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki!

Did they want another Uchiha Madara to appear?!

Iwagakure's Second and Third Tsuchikage had both been brutally beaten by Uchiha Madara. They hated him intensely.

And... feared him deeply as well.

Even Shibi and Xuan Huo atop the giant eagle were stunned.

The fact that Kushina was the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki was classified at the highest level.

If not for Minato's intimate relationship with her, along with his status as Jiraiya's disciple, even he would not have been qualified to know.

With Roshi shouting it out and Kagami Uchiha's obvious Tailed Beast cloak...

This guy will definitely be affected by the Nine-Tails! Konoha is finished! That was Shibi Aburame's thought.

He has the Uchiha's peerless talent, plus the Nine-Tails... The Uchiha Clan is set! That was Xuan Huo's thought.

"Idiot! That's my chakra! Can't you even recognize that?!"

The Four-Tails had recovered a little strength and began screaming inside Roshi's body.

Uh...

Who could tell? A one-tailed chakra cloak looked more or less the same on everyone...

Roshi had no time to respond. Kagami Uchiha's speed, greatly enhanced, was so fast that he left behind only an afterimage.

Boom!!

A heavy punch smashed into Roshi's chest.

The savage force, combined with the scorching nature of Tailed Beast chakra, instantly burned through his clothes and branded a fist mark onto his skin.

Before the punch could send him flying, the chakra tail behind Kagami Uchiha lengthened, wrapped around Roshi's ankle, and viciously slammed him into the ground!

A real battle meant chaining attacks together until the health bar was empty. Was he supposed to hit once and chat once?

Sode no Shirayuki had been put away at some point. In this state, fists and kicks were more suitable for dealing damage.

Not everyone in the ninja world was as tough as Orochimaru. Without Tailed Beast chakra protecting him, Roshi's body simply could not withstand such punishment.

His injuries grew worse and worse, and his consciousness began to blur.

"Hey! Bastard! Idiot! Kill him!!"

The Four-Tails' roars did nothing. The monkey itself was still pinned down by chains and unable to get up.

"Do we... still need to help?"

Shibi swallowed, feeling a little embarrassed.

Because Kagami Uchiha looked to be in his teens, Roshi had not found it particularly shocking for someone that age to possess a Three-Tomoe Sharingan. But they knew perfectly well...

The one fighting the Jinchuriki below... no, the one overwhelmingly beating the Jinchuriki below was only eight years old this year.

Xuan Huo was still immersed in his fantasy of Kagami Uchiha controlling the Nine-Tails, sweeping through Konoha, and establishing the Uchiha Clan's status in one stroke. He did not notice Shibi's words.

Just then, Shibi caught sight of a tiny black dot from the corner of his eye.

At first, he paid it no mind. But a few seconds later, that black dot gradually took on the outline of a person.

"No way..."

Shibi's voice trembled. He was even more afraid than when facing the Jinchuriki.

He hurriedly leaned half his body out from the giant eagle and shouted hoarsely:

"Kagami! Retreat!"

"It's Ōnoki!"

"The Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki is here!!"

Nearly sixty years old, Ōnoki was one of the few ninja alive who had lived through the Warring States Period. He was the Tsuchikage who had held the Land of Earth's highest authority the longest, and the one who had ushered Iwagakure into its golden age.

The Kekkei Tōta that stood above Kekkei Genkai.

An absolute powerhouse tempered through countless battles, known as Ōnoki of Both Scales!

Why was the Third Tsuchikage here of all places?!

Minato had the same question.

Whoosh!

Kagami Uchiha carried one of Minato's Flying Thunder God kunai. After sensing the enormous chakra appearing on the battlefield, Minato decisively led his teammates away from the forces led by the Five-Tails and came to rendezvous with them first.

"Kagami... you..."

Seeing Kagami Uchiha wrapped in Tailed Beast chakra from head to toe, Minato was deeply shocked as well.

"There's no time to explain."

Kagami Uchiha held the unconscious Roshi by the throat. After hesitating for a moment, he still chose not to kill him.

A living Jinchuriki was more valuable than a dead one.

High in the sky, a small old man floated with his arms crossed. Though he was only a tiny figure, everyone below found it difficult even to breathe.

The giant eagle felt the overwhelming pressure as well and flew toward Kagami Uchiha in search of safety.

As it drew near, Kagami Uchiha directly dispelled the Summoning Technique and looked up at Ōnoki with a grave expression.

A Jinchuriki was still understandable, but the Third Tsuchikage should never have appeared now.

Normally, he should have been guarding Iwagakure against a possible surprise attack from Kumogakure.

Then... someone had leaked the information.

Danzo!

Kagami Uchiha would not blame his luck. If something unreasonable happened, someone had to be deliberately targeting him.

The ninja world was only so big, with only so many people. Of ten bad things, at least eight could be pinned on Danzo anyway.

Black Zetsu could willingly claim the other two.

"With my current chakra, I can transfer at most five people..."

The number of people the Flying Thunder God Technique could teleport depended not only on the user's chakra, but also on the chakra reserves of those being transferred.

If one could casually teleport people around, the Second Hokage would not have had to die covering the rear.

Even Minato did not dare dream of fighting the Third Tsuchikage right now. Besides, they had not defeated the Five-Tails, and that Iwagakure force was rapidly approaching as well.

"So there really is an Uchiha brat monstrously strong enough to defy reason..."

"Even that stubborn Roshi was defeated..."

Ōnoki murmured softly as he met Kagami Uchiha's gaze below.

He saw the Tailed Beast cloak around Kagami Uchiha, and his nearly white eyebrows twitched violently.

Making an Uchiha into a Jinchuriki...

What exactly was that Hiruzen Sarutobi doing?!