"What did you say?!"
Darui's lazy, dead-fish eyes flew wide open, and the flippant look on his face was instantly replaced by fury!
Wisps of black lightning even burst from the air around him as his chakra fluctuated violently!
"Brat, you're asking to die!"
As the Fourth Raikage's most trusted subordinate, when had Darui ever suffered such humiliation?!
Someone actually dared to compare the lives of everyone in Kumogakure to the Sharingan?!
This was no longer provocation. This was a declaration of war against all of Kumogakure!
"Lord Gen'yō! You mustn't!"
Kitsuchi's expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly tried to step forward to intervene.
In his eyes, Gen'yō's words had been far too rash!
They cut off any room for compromise, pushing the Uchiha, Iwagakure, and Kumogakure straight into a fight to the death!
Yet Uchiha Gen'yō merely waved lightly at him, signaling that he need say no more.
"What? Did I hit a sore spot?"
Gen'yō looked at the furious Darui, the smile on his face only growing brighter.
"I've always believed that trade should be fair."
"If you want our Uchiha eyes, you ought to offer something of equal value in exchange, shouldn't you?"
"Kumogakure may be a backwater with nothing worth much, but you do have plenty of lives."
"I think that's a very fair proposal, don't you?"
"You bastard! Die!"
Darui's fury erupted completely at that moment!
Unable to maintain his lazy demeanor any longer, he shot toward Uchiha Gen'yō like an unsheathed blade, wreathed in raging lightning!
"Storm Release: Encouraging Step!"
Black lightning coiled around his body, instantly driving his speed past the sound barrier!
Fast!
Incredibly fast!
The Iwagakure elders in the conference room could only see a black afterimage flash past!
"It's over!"
A savage smile spread across Head Elder Ishikawa's face!
He knew Darui's strength!
This was a Kumogakure elite who had inherited Black Lightning!
A personal disciple of the Third Raikage!
Against a surprise attack launched at such close range, even the Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, in his prime could never have reacted in time!
Uchiha Gen'yō was dead for certain!
The kunai in Darui's hand, wrapped in razor-sharp Lightning Release chakra, stabbed toward Uchiha Gen'yō's heart with unerring precision!
He could almost see the bloody sight of his own hand piercing his opponent's heart!
However.
At the very instant before that lightning-cloaked kunai touched Gen'yō's body.
Swish.
A faint sound rang out.
Darui's attack eerily passed straight through Uchiha Gen'yō's body!
There was no blood, no sensation of contact.
It was like stabbing through an insubstantial phantom!
"What?!"
Darui's pupils abruptly contracted, his face filled with horror at something that defied everything he knew!
Intangibility?!
Was this... that Masked Man's ability?!
Before he could recover from his shock.
A cold hand had already settled gently on his shoulder like an iron clamp.
It was Uchiha Gen'yō!
His body, which should have been pierced, became solid again the instant the attack passed through!
"Not bad speed."
"Unfortunately, before my eyes, you're as fast as a snail taking a stroll."
Gen'yō's utterly emotionless voice sounded beside Darui's ear like a death sentence.
"You!"
Every hair on Darui's body instantly stood on end!
An unprecedented threat of death engulfed him completely!
Without thinking, he tried to activate Storm Release again to put some distance between them!
But it was too late.
"Kamui."
Uchiha Gen'yō softly uttered the word.
Hum!
Darui felt an irresistible, terrifying force from a higher dimension act upon his right arm!
He watched helplessly as space at the shoulder of his thick arm, which was wrapped in black lightning and powerful enough to split mountains and shatter stone, twisted and tore wildly like a braided rope!
"Aaaaaargh!"
An agonized scream echoed throughout the conference room!
Crack!
With a teeth-grating sound of breaking bone!
Darui's entire right arm, along with half his shoulder, was brutally torn off by that outrageously overbearing spatial force, swallowed up, and vanished without a trace!
Splat!
Scalding blood burst like a fountain from the hideous wound in his shoulder, staining the wall behind him a glaring crimson!
"Aaaah!"
Clutching his empty shoulder, Darui fell heavily to his knees, his body convulsing violently from the excruciating pain!
The entire conference room instantly fell deathly silent!
Everyone was utterly stunned by the bloody, bizarre scene before them!
The Iwagakure elders who had been wearing savage, gloating expressions just moments before were now deathly pale, trembling like leaves!
Their mouths hung wide open, yet no sound came out!
An instant defeat!
In just one exchange!
The Kumogakure envoy, whom they had considered incomparably powerful and a representative of the Fourth Raikage's authority, had lost an arm to Uchiha Gen'yō in a way they could not comprehend at all!
This was no longer a battle!
This was a crushing defeat!
A god's merciless judgment upon a mortal!
"You... who... are you?"
Enduring the agonizing pain, Darui raised his head and looked at Uchiha Gen'yō as though looking at a monster.
Towering waves surged through his heart!
This space-time dōjutsu was almost identical to the abilities of that mysterious Masked Man, "Tobi," that he had heard about from Lord Raikage!
"Who am I?"
Uchiha Gen'yō smiled.
He bent down and slowly spoke into that lone eye filled with fear and unwillingness.
"I'm just an ordinary man taking his clansmen out for a little 'sightseeing.'"
"But your question did remind me of something."
"I seem to have forgotten to introduce myself."
Gen'yō slowly straightened, his gaze sweeping over every thoroughly terrified Iwagakure elder in the conference room.
The space behind him began to distort violently.
A hundred-meter-tall Perfect Susanoo formed of pure purple chakra, radiating an aura of sanctity and majesty, descended with a thunderous crash!
Rumble!
The entire Tsuchikage Building shook violently beneath this demonic god's oppressive might, as though it might collapse at any moment!
Susanoo's enormous body smashed straight through the conference room's domed ceiling and appeared above Iwagakure!
"Wh-what is that?!"
"A monster!"
"Heavens! Run!"
The instant they saw that purple giant, all of Iwagakure plunged into utter panic and chaos!
Yet it was not over!
The purple Susanoo slowly raised both hands.
"Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands!"
Before everyone's utterly horrified eyes!
An enormous Buddha statue, several times larger than Susanoo, with over a thousand arms and formed of sacred Wood Release chakra, rose from the ground!
Then the purple Susanoo actually settled firmly into the top of Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands' head like a pilot!
Susanoo-Clad Kurama!
At that moment, two legendary ultimate powers capable of pacifying a chaotic world combined perfectly in the most shocking, most unbelievable fashion!
That world-destroying pressure robbed every ninja in Iwagakure of the will to resist, sending them to their knees, trembling!
Even the clouds in the sky were forcibly torn apart by this power!
Inside the conference room.
Uchiha Gen'yō's calm voice rang out once more.
Amplified by Susanoo, it reached every corner of Iwagakure.
"Now, let me introduce myself again."
"My name is Uchiha Gen'yō, the current head of the Uchiha Clan."
"From this day forward..."
His gaze fell like divine punishment upon the elders who had already collapsed to the floor, soiling themselves.
"I am also Iwagakure's sole honored guest."
"Now."
"Who else objects to our Uchiha Clan becoming Iwagakure's ally?"
"Or rather."
"Who wants to go down and keep this Kumogakure envoy company?"