Uchiha Ji stood as though nailed to the spot.
"Observer?"
"Impossible... the system never mentioned anything like that... there wasn't anyone like that in the original story, either..."
Uchiha Ji spoke in panic.
"Of course there wasn't."
"The original story was a script for you people to read. I'm the one responsible for keeping you from tearing it apart."
Manji's voice was calm.
Uchiha Ji instinctively activated his system.
[System notification: Unable to scan current target.] [System notification: Unable to scan current target.] [Warning: Unknown clearance level.]
For the first time, the mechanical voice stuttered and crackled with static.
Uchiha Ji's face went deathly pale.
"System... even you can't scan him?"
He backed away two steps, his heels sinking into the gravel on the Riverbank with a faint crunch.
The confidence he had felt just moments ago—I have a Kage Level trial card. He's just some extra—shattered completely.
"You were just thinking I was nothing more than some background teacher from the Hyuga Clan."
"That's why you dared reveal your Sharingan right in front of me, and even tried to take Naruto from me."
Manji looked at him as though he had plucked that thought straight out of his head, word for word.
Uchiha Ji's lips moved, but he couldn't get a single word out.
Fear finally overwhelmed his wishful thinking.
He wasn't facing an ordinary Jonin, nor was he facing a clan elder.
He was facing someone who had watched him transmigrate from the very beginning, watched him make his choices, and watched him come here to steal someone away.
"Y-you... what do you want?"
"I can leave. I'll leave Konoha right now. I can still choose the system's second path—"
Ji's voice trembled, but he stubbornly kept his Sharingan active.
"Too late."
Manji took a step