Powerful Enemy (2)

Early in the morning at the Hokage Building, Sasuke's hawk arrived at Naruto's office window after a long journey. Recognizing its owner, Naruto let it in and removed the letter tied to its ankle.

Since it involved the secret of the Sharingan, even Naruto did not dare take it lightly. He immediately decided to handle it personally, leaving behind a Shadow Clone to watch over the village.

Outside the Hokage's office, Sarada silently hid behind a door pillar and quietly listened to the Hokage's conversation without making a sound.

At the village entrance, Shikamaru escorted Naruto all the way there. The two stood facing each other, saying their farewells.

"I'll leave the village in your care."

"Yeah."

In the grass beside the village entrance, Sarada quietly watched Naruto's movements and resolved to follow him to find Sasuke.

Just then, Boruto appeared right on time and casually patted her shoulder. "Morning, Sarada."

"Huh!?"

Sarada suddenly jumped, feeling guilty as a thief. She thought Naruto had discovered her.

"Then it's about time for me to set off," Naruto said. "Remember to apologize to Boruto for me."

After the two nodded, Naruto turned and left. His posture was that of a standard ninja sprint, but his speed was incredibly fast!

"Well, let's go too, or we won't be able to catch up with Dad," Boruto said, carrying a lunchbox in one hand as he urged Sarada along instead.

She should clearly have been the more anxious one. After all, this trip concerned her reunion with Sasuke as father and daughter.

But for Boruto, this trip concerned the awakening of the Sharingan. Sarada's talent needed a little forced growth.

Destination: A Pass. (I seriously give up on this place name from the original.)

On the way, Sarada ran at full speed. Even though she gave it everything she had, she could not even catch a glimpse of Boruto's shadow.

Boruto, who was running ahead, was not trying to compete with her. He chose to keep the secret of his Jōgan hidden, and was currently using it to search for the owner of that special Mangekyō—a tiny person shaped like a cylindrical sunflower seed.

Far in the distance, the surrounding terrain seemed to be pieced together from sharply edged rectangular blocks. On a protruding platform, the cloaked Shin spoke to the White Zetsu below.

"Your next mission, Shin. Go bring me his daughter," Shin Uchiha commanded.

"Yes." Shin nodded in acknowledgement.

Through the power of the special Mangekyō, the boy named Shin instantly appeared before Boruto and Sarada. His pair of Three-Tomoe Sharingan stared at them coldly, as though they were prey.

"Who are you?" Boruto asked symbolically.

The boy answered calmly, "Shin Uchiha."

While Sarada was still wondering how there could be another Uchiha when she and her father were supposedly the only ones left, Boruto called out, "Okay, you can get lost now."

"Father wants to take you away. That is absolute," Shin said coldly.

Boruto immediately laughed. He did not indulge him, forming a spinning sphere in his hand and hurling it over.

Under the Sharingan's gaze, the Rasengan's trajectory was like a perfect parabola. Shin saw through it and shifted slightly aside, dodging the powerful probing attack.

"Not bad," Boruto commented.

Shin stopped wasting words. He pulled a scroll from behind him and spread it across the ground. The instant he pressed his hand onto the formula, a special weapon was summoned into his grasp: the same iron chain, with a sickle on one end and a weight like a scale counterweight on the other.

"You... aren't needed!" Shin stared at Boruto.

Shin swung the chain in his hand, violently flinging the sickle forward. Its sharp blade sliced through the air as it slashed toward Boruto.

"Boruto!!!"

Sarada cried out and threw Shuriken at Shin, trying to disrupt his attack.

Shin blocked several Shuriken with his slender iron chain, but Boruto used the Body Flicker Technique to rush right in front of him. Faced with this sudden development, Shin's eyes widened. He saw Boruto approaching, but had no time to react.

A close-range Big Ball Rasengan struck him square in the face. The sphere, packed with immense mass and density, hit Shin without reservation and killed him in a single blow.

"Nothing special," Boruto remarked as he looked at Shin, who had been ground into scraps by the Rasengan.

"This..."

Sarada was stunned. She had thought he would be a difficult enemy, but Boruto had taken him out in one hit.

But the battle was not over. No matter how fast Boruto's side had moved, Naruto could not possibly have failed to notice it. Yet he had not arrived, which clearly meant he had encountered some other trouble.

A deafening boom swept over them. Dust was shaken up from the ground, and the terrain in the distance began changing at a visible speed.

"What's going on?" Sarada looked completely confused.

"Dad must have run into an enemy," Boruto guessed.

The two hurried over and saw Naruto fighting at close range with another enemy whose body was entirely concealed beneath a cloak. The two were evenly matched!

"Who is that?"

"Don't tell me he's another Uchiha!" Boruto froze.

On the battlefield, the cloaked figure and Naruto fought fiercely. Both wore tense expressions, and their hands moved so quickly they left afterimages. Even their simple movements were as fast as the Body Flicker Technique. This was already beyond a level ordinary people could watch.

The two separated after a clash, adjusting their breathing while analyzing how to proceed with the battle.

Through their earlier exchange, Naruto had determined that this person possessed strength comparable to a Kage. He was a formidable enemy.

After a brief pause, both sides formed hand seals in unspoken coordination, preparing powerful ninjutsu. The cloaked figure struck first. "Wood Release: Tree World Descent!"

Seeing this, Naruto turned back and shouted, "Boruto, get out of here!!"

The instant his words fell, countless trees burst from the ground. Roots spread madly like rivers, surrounding an area hundreds of miles wide in moments and trapping every living thing within the forest.

The next instant, a figure shimmering with orange-gold light charged out of the forest, anxiously looking into the distance. Naruto feared Boruto and Sarada might be in danger.

But he soon saw Boruto emerge as well, bringing along a terrified Sarada.

"I'm fine, Father. Focus on the enemy in front of you." Boruto ran with Sarada toward the edge of the forest.

The cloaked figure gave a cold smile and raised a hand, controlling the forest across the ground—or rather, the green ocean formed by countless trees!

This terrifying amount of Chakra was already comparable to that of a Jinchuriki!!

Naruto's expression immediately grew more serious. He had not expected to encounter someone like this while searching for the Sharingan. Out of respect for his opponent, Naruto introduced himself. "I am the Seventh Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village. You stopped me in the middle of the road—could there be some misunderstanding?"

The cloaked figure replied, "I don't know. I'm only following orders, so please stay quiet for a while!"

The trees covering the ground rose wildly, their height and area expanding geometrically. If the earlier forest had merely contained relatively normal trees, these were now ancient trees hundreds of years old, each one wide enough to require several people to encircle.

Even Naruto's expression changed drastically before such an overwhelming formation. While watching Boruto move beyond the range of the sea of trees, he raced across the forest canopy toward the cloaked figure.

"Naruto Uzumaki, the strongest man in today's Shinobi World. But even you must face a chasm-like suppression against Wood Release-level ninjutsu, right?" The cloaked figure's face overflowed with killing intent as he laughed madly.

Naruto answered him with a decisive Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan! Through the freely shape-shifting Chakra of Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, Naruto extended a Chakra arm and rapidly pushed the Rasengan toward the cloaked figure.

"Wood Release: Wood Barrier Wall!"

The cloaked figure did not panic at all. He used the Wood Barrier Wall to block the Rasengan, while simultaneously forming hand seals to attack. "Wood Release: Multiple Wood Pillars Prison!"

The Big Ball Rasengan easily shattered the Wood Barrier Wall, but the cloaked figure had already used the terrain to swiftly retreat into the distance. The Rasengan did not even graze his shadow.

Beneath Naruto's feet, countless square cages burst from the ground like crocodiles lurking beneath the water. Once they surfaced, they would inevitably open their bloody maws and swallow their prey whole.

Naruto now faced exactly such a situation. Even though his Body Flicker Technique was fast enough, if the entire green ocean opened Multiple Wood Pillars Prison at once, there was no escaping such an indiscriminate attack without space-time ninjutsu.

Before long, Naruto was trapped inside a wooden cell. The cell's Wood Release properties frantically suppressed the Nine-Tails' Chakra, and Naruto's Chakra cloak visibly dimmed.

"Damn it." Naruto spat lightly in the face of the situation.

As he watched the cloaked figure approach smugly, Naruto, whose expression had looked grim a moment ago, reignited his fighting spirit. The fading Chakra surged again like flames doused in hot oil, billowing even more fiercely.

At close range, Naruto instantly formed a Rasenshuriken. Its piercing hum sounded like thunder exploding, drawing in the surrounding air currents. The next instant, Naruto broke free with the Rasenshuriken in hand and used the Body Flicker Technique to appear before the cloaked figure.

Yet the cloaked figure seemed to have anticipated this. As he stopped, he silently completed his hand seals. "Summoning Technique: Triple Rashomon!"

Three massive gates rose before the cloaked figure. Naruto, who had flashed forward, slammed the Rasenshuriken into the Rashomon. Enormous, chaotic air currents churned endlessly, and the powerful impact still struck the cloaked figure through all three heavy gates.

The black cloak was shredded into scraps, and the cloaked figure's body suffered attacks from the Rasenshuriken like countless needle pricks. The invisible wind elements sliced apart the cells within his body.

But just as Naruto relaxed slightly, he saw the cloaked figure's wounds healing at a visible rate. Within moments, they had already mostly recovered. A mocking smile appeared on his twisted face as he stared coldly at Naruto.

"I never expected even the Triple Rashomon's strength to fail to stop your attack. You truly deserve your reputation as the strongest in the Shinobi World," the cloaked figure praised.

"Someone as strong as you—why do you still obey someone else?" Naruto asked, unable to understand.

"Then why does a famous and powerful Hokage like you obey the mere Daimyō of the Land of Fire? I have no choice either."

The cloaked figure spoke helplessly, but he had no intention of continuing the fight. He transformed into a breeze and slowly drifted away.