Beyond Expectation, Within Reason

Beyond Expectation, Within Reason

Sarada's consciousness gradually returned to her body, but Chōmei still could not help reminding her,

"Is this really okay, Sarada? You do not actually have any confidence in guaranteeing your own safety."

"There will always be a way. It depends on whether that White-Robed Man cares about a complete Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan." Sarada said coldly.

"But what if he loses patience and kills you outright?" Chōmei asked worriedly.

After all, Sarada had now lost one Sharingan. This concerned the key to awakening the Mangekyō. Without that eye, she could only pray that the eye technique "Other Shore" was powerful enough to defy the heavens.

Powerful enough that her repaired right eye could awaken the Sharingan once more!

But that was clearly impossible.

At this point, Sarada had no better options, but she still wanted to try. With the White-Robed Man's strength and speed, he should have been able to quickly return to the battlefield and find the scroll containing the Sharingan that the Shadow Clone had left behind, right?

She slowly opened her eyes. This was something she had to face eventually. Just as she was about to ask the White-Robed Man for help, she suddenly discovered in surprise that she was still on the battlefield of Nest Hidden Village!

"??" What had happened to her?

The battlefield was filled with black smoke, and all the surrounding buildings had been flattened. The White-Robed Man stood in front of her, with a little dust staining his pristine white robe.

Once she came to her senses, Sarada noticed that she was once again inside the alternate space created by his eye technique.

She could clearly see the outside world from here, but the outside world seemingly could not detect this place at all. It was as though it had never existed, yet she was standing here alive and well.

Could it be that while her consciousness had entered the Tailed Beasts' mental world for their meeting, the White-Robed Man had brought her to the scene and already fought them?

Since when had he become so kind?... Or had he only done all this for his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan?

Come to think of it, had his eye power ever run dry? Was it not said that the more frequently one used the Mangekyō, the faster one would go blind?

She had thought she was fine only because her eye technique was special, and the restorative power of "Immortality" had quietly replenished the consumption of her eye technique.

The White-Robed Man panted lightly. He had not expected the enemies before him to be as crazed as though they had been injected with stimulants. Their Chakra reserves were also exceptionally deep, yet they were slowly draining away on their own.

Clearly, this power did not belong to them. And it was not only their Chakra that was slowly leaking away—their life force was also continuously weakening.

Thus, what the White-Robed Man was facing was actually a group of reckless fools who feared neither death nor desperate battle.

If Time Rift had not been temporarily used to protect Sarada, this battle would have been as easy as his previous ones. He might not even have gotten a speck of dust on his clothes after finishing.

Even so, the eye technique of his other Mangekyō was still terrifying. The Genjutsu "Drunken Life" was worthy of being called the strongest Genjutsu in history.

This was an eye technique capable of suppressing the Tomoe Rinnegan without falling behind, though that was contingent on the opponent being trapped within his Genjutsu barrier.

Still, that did not diminish the terrifying evaluation of this Genjutsu's power.

He calmly walked toward the last survivor among them. During the time Sarada had spent in the meeting, he had already solo-killed the two Kage-level powerhouses, Iwashi and Heimulin.

"Huff... huff! I never thought... you would be this powerful. Cough, cough..." Aici gasped heavily as he stared at the approaching figure.

A mouthful of blood spilled from his mouth. The injuries he had suffered earlier, combined with the drug's effects, had pushed him close to his limit. His body was practically on the verge of collapse.

He tightly gripped a kunai wreathed in terrifying lightning, yet he still carefully backed away step by step. The opponent's attacks were simply outrageous—a man who turned basic attacks into ultimate moves.

Earlier, Iwashi had not understood the opponent's strength. Seeing that he was merely using a C-rank ninjutsu like Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique, Iwashi had charged directly into the fireball while shouting, "Shine!"

Then he had died, roasted into ash that scattered through the air.

They had become Super Kage-level powerhouses after injecting the drug, yet they had still been instantly killed. And the opponent clearly had not even used his full strength.

During the tests that followed, they confirmed that it was not that the White-Robed Man refused to use large-scale killing techniques. Rather, he could only use such low-level ninjutsu, because his eye technique had to remain active at all times, leaving him without enough Chakra to unleash large-scale destructive attacks.

They had thought that understanding the White-Robed Man's strength meant they were already halfway to victory, but he had killed Heimulin with nothing more than a kunai, plunging Aici into despairing thought.

If you cannot find it by searching the book title, try searching for the author. It may simply have been renamed!

Lightning Release: Sudden Change!

He aimed the kunai directly at the White-Robed Man's heart, pressed his palms together with the kunai between them, and fired a flash of lightning from the exposed blade tip like a bullet.

Water Release: Water Spirit Wave!

The White-Robed Man merely raised his hand, pointed his index finger at Aici's lightning in the shape of a gun, and used the Mangekyō's dynamic vision to easily catch the lightning's trajectory.

A droplet-like bullet collided with the lightning. Just as expected, the White-Robed Man's ninjutsu unreasonably dispersed the lightning and continued flying forward.

Puff—!!

A hole appeared in Aici's battered body. A small amount of blood slowly flowed out, and along with the blood dispersing into the air, his life force also faded away.

He did not have much time left!

However, Aici suddenly formed hand seals. The lightning scattered through the air abruptly erupted with astonishing radiance, rapidly spreading across a terrifying range and swallowing the White-Robed Man within it.

Crackling lightning echoed beside his ears. This wide-area lightning attack had caught the White-Robed Man off guard, but he quickly understood the reason behind it.

Earlier, before Heimulin died, he had unleashed a large-scale Water Release. Once the water scattered through the air, it became lingering water particles—a thin mist.

It had increased the number of water particles in the air, allowing the dispersed lightning to travel through them before finally converging, creating a chain reaction and forming this astonishing attack.

It worked!! Aici rejoiced inwardly.

But an attack of this level was still not enough to threaten the White-Robed Man. He casually released a sheet of lightning, drawing in the electricity clinging to his body and forming a new lightning sphere.

He merely stared silently at Aici, feeling a faint admiration for this powerhouse who had devoted everything to the organization. Unfortunately, Aici had placed his faith in the wrong person.

Aici had clearly realized that his time had come as well. There was no need for the White-Robed Man to attack. In a few more seconds, he would be unable to endure the backlash, collapse, and die.

The flashes of his life began surfacing in his mind. His most deeply etched memories became incomparably clear. They had merely been insignificant figures in the Fourth Shinobi World War, and they had even been fortunate enough to receive Naruto's Nine-Tails Tailed Beast Cloak enhancement.

The reason he hated the Uchiha was truly nothing more than the impotent rage of the weak. Those damned Uchiha had started that war, and Madara Uchiha had created all that despair.

He had cultivated Obito, who started the Fourth Shinobi World War, and Madara himself had cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Everything had been for his laughable ideal, and he had not hesitated to drag the entire world into it.

Why? Just because he was strong?

After the Fourth Shinobi World War ended, their families had died. The five ninjas who had survived the war cried like children after witnessing their homes destroyed. War always brought sacrifices, but this war had been utterly meaningless, waged solely to fulfill the Uchiha's ridiculous wish.

So after the Fourth Shinobi World War, they had fallen into despair. While wasting their days, they encountered the light of faith. That person had invited them to become peripheral members, serving as guerrilla ninjas who gathered intelligence and carried out simple missions.

Before this, their mission had been to investigate the organization called Moon, and they had also begun paying close attention to the situation surrounding the Tailed Beasts.

After all, one of that person's wishes was immortality. To that end, he had even cultivated branches of the God Tree himself. Anyone who had lived through the Fourth Shinobi World War knew that to bear the God Tree's fruit, one would undoubtedly need the complete God Tree and the power of the Tailed Beasts.

All of this required someone to become the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki and cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Though the goal was distant, it did not prevent that person from laying the groundwork.

That was how farsighted the organization was. It was said that the organization had existed for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. Its legends could even be traced back to Kaguya's era.

As his thoughts drifted away, that flash of lightning finally wrapped around his body, gentle and lingering like clear water. He had already lost all sensation in his body, and everything around him rapidly blurred.

Until his memories stopped on the day the five of them had sworn their oath. It was the moment he would never forget, the moment most worth remembering.

Five strangers who had not known one another met during the war. They traveled together. They were alone. They had nothing, yet they also possessed many precious things.

A tear slid down his face and slowly fell. Aici dispersed within the lightning, and the tear finally struck the ground with a soft sound.

The White-Robed Man let out a long breath and casually released his protection over Sarada. He silently turned around and handed the scroll containing the Sharingan back to her.

"Thank you." Sarada was deeply grateful.

"I only did it for the mission I bear. Not for you, but for the plan's objective." The White-Robed Man suddenly said sadly.

As an outsider, Sarada could not understand. She thought it was simply the White-Robed Man's usual cold demeanor. She was merely a tool for cultivating the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.