Konoha: The Absolute Justice of the Uchiha

Chapter 167 Meteor Volcano! Fugaku: "You must understand my predicament!" (7000)

Orochimaru walked out of the monitoring room with a blank expression. Although he had absolute confidence in his own strength, Uchiha Izumi's "reputation" in the ninja world was still considerable.

Orochimaru had made some preparations for the battle in advance, showing the necessary respect to one of the most suitable vessels in his eyes.

Om-!
Suddenly, just a few steps after Orochimaru stepped out of the monitoring room, a tooth-grinding groan came from the metal floor beneath his feet!

Followed by.

Boom! ! !
It was as if a volcano that had been dormant for thousands of years had suddenly erupted!
A half-meter-thick alloy sealing wall in front of them was completely torn apart by the violent force of the natural disaster, as if it were made of paper!

Huge pieces of metal shot out like cannonballs, and the piercing alarm in the passage instantly reached its limit!

However, what's even more breathtaking than the flying debris...

It was followed by a roaring, surging crimson magma!

They surged and churned like a torrent from hell, instantly swallowing and melting the flying metal fragments, filling the air with a pungent, acrid smell and an intensely hot sulfurous odor.

The remaining experimental instruments and pipes in the passage began to twist and drip like wax sculptures.

A blinding red light filled every corner.

The torrent of magma instantly engulfed the space, turning Orochimaru's pale face a terrifying crimson!

The scalding airwaves hit him like a heavy punch, making his sideburns dance wildly and forcing his golden vertical pupils to squint.

All that remained in sight was a devastating river of lava!

"Tch..." Facing the oncoming torrent of destruction, Orochimaru's lips curled into an extremely twisted arc, his smile filled with admiration and greedy covetousness.

"As expected of the body I chose... They found me so quickly... Heh heh... Those useless trash really aren't even qualified to be cannon fodder to buy time!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a glint of light flashed in his eyes!
Orochimaru's hands were already poised to strike, and at this moment, he suddenly clenched his fingers together and slammed them heavily onto the scorching floor beneath his feet, as if knocking on the gates of hell!
Even as the flesh in his palms sizzled and burned by the scalding floor.

However, Orochimaru's expression remained completely unchanged.

"Psychic art·Threefold Rashomon!"

Bang! ! !
Bang! ! !
Bang! ! !
With a deafening roar and a sky full of exploding reinforced concrete, three giant gates covered with ferocious fangs rose from the ground!

They pierced upwards with unparalleled force, even crushing the thick, protective ceiling of the base into dust the moment they made contact with the hideous demon face relief on Rashomon!
Sunlight and dust poured down from the breach.

The first Rashomon gate, with its demonic head and fangs bearing a massive door knocker, exudes a chilling aura of the underworld.

But in just a moment, the surging torrent of lava crashed against it!

The pitch-black door, which was strong enough to withstand the bombardment of the Tailed Beast Bomb, emitted a chilling hissing sound, like an ice block thrown into a steel furnace.

The grotesque ghost face twisted and melted in the high temperature.

It was instantly swallowed up and disintegrated by the crimson torrent!
The second Rashomon was slightly more resilient, with its metallic luster and cursed patterns flickering on and off, but it only lasted for one more breath.

Large amounts of magma were blocked and splashed onto the walls on both sides, melting deep streaks into the metal. Rashomon itself, like an iron ingot forged in a furnace, quickly turned red-hot and softened...

Ultimately, it could not withstand the terrifying impact of the magma and collapsed inward with a crash, and was then completely covered and dissolved by the magma that surged up afterward!
The third Rashomon!

This is the limit of defense that Orochimaru's own chakra and summoning contract can support.

The crimson torrent poured down upon it without restraint, and the giant gate emitted a piercing, metallic groan as it was forced to bend backward into a breathtaking arc, as if it might break at any moment.

In the center of the door, the part directly impacted by the high temperature of the magma core quickly turned dark red and shiny, beginning to melt and soften like a candle.
The dazzling molten gold flowed down the door!

However, the raging torrent of lava was finally forcibly diverted by this last barrier, like a slightly docile ferocious beast, surging along both sides of the huge door, roaring and pouring into the monitoring room, corridor, and research room behind Orochimaru... turning everything in its path into a living hell!
The hot, steaming air was violently distorted.

The remaining lights flickered on and off.

The scorching heat instantly penetrated the air, and a layer of sticky sweat immediately appeared on Orochimaru's pale, almost sickly skin.

But the next second, the sweat instantly evaporated.

His golden serpentine eyes reflected the fiery light of the surrounding magma, clearly watching the third Rashomon painfully deform in the flames before slowly sinking into the ground and disappearing.

When the final Rashomon descended upon the Pure Land of the Underworld, Orochimaru's vision suddenly opened up.

His gaze pierced through several metal ruins, riddled with holes and melted, their edges still dripping with molten steel.

At the end of the lava-flowing passage, a figure stood steadily on the crimson magma, surrounded by thick white smoke rising from the scorching air.

What's most unsettling are those eyes—the blood-red Mangekyou Sharingan, whose unique and eerie patterns are clearly visible even amidst the surging flames and thick smoke.

This caused Orochimaru to instinctively shift his gaze.

Avoid making eye contact with those captivating eyes.

"Ho ho..."

Orochimaru, with a smile playing on his lips, remained unperturbed, completely oblivious to the lava flowing down to his feet.

He raised his voice slightly and said to Uchiha Ikezumi in front of him, "After so many years, you've given me such a generous gift. Ikezumi-kun, what price do you need to pay to quell my anger?"

"Don't act like you know me well." The icy voice, seemingly carrying the heat of sulfur, pierced Orochimaru's ears clearly through the crackling sound of churning magma.

Chi Quan stepped slowly forward through the flowing lava, each step causing the lava beneath his feet to slightly collapse and boil.

The standard ninja sword in his hand had already been chipped and broken during the previous battles.

It was carelessly tossed into the lava behind him and quickly melted and disappeared.

At this moment, Uchiha Ikezumi was unarmed.

The thick smoke swirling around him was like the breath of hell, distorting the air and making his figure appear and disappear in the heatwave.

Uchiha Ikezumi's cold voice echoed eerily, like a judge of the underworld crawling out of hell: "A few years ago, you escaped Konoha by chance while being hunted down by the Anbu led by the Third Hokage. But after escaping Konoha, you did not regret or reflect on the crimes you committed in Konoha. On the contrary, you began to escalate them."

"You took your crimes from within Konoha to outside Konoha, and even spread throughout the entire ninja world in just a few years. The number of innocent people who have suffered at your hands is countless. The list of victims is so long that sometimes just looking at it makes me dizzy."

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "I learned some information from some useless subordinates—your Mangekyou Sharingan can see through the evil deeds a person has committed."

"Ho..."

"If in my eyes my actions are not evil, then by what standard should I be judged? Ultimately, so-called absolute justice is just your personal justice."

"This kind of stubborn justice cannot save the ninja world, nor can it gain the recognition of many people. Ikezumi, like most people, you have not grasped the true meaning of the ninja world at all."

"The Will of Fire, Absolute Justice, Blood Mist Policy, or something about controlling the world with absolute pain... each of these ideas is shockingly low in scope and capacity."

He opened his arms as if to embrace the whole world, his words filled with seductive and arrogant tone: "Ikezumi-kun, you are just like those mediocre people, like a frog at the bottom of a well, seeing only the narrowest opening of the ninja world."

Orochimaru's voice suddenly turned cold, filled with scathing mockery: "A short lifespan limits everyone's potential! It makes them struggle with a false and incomplete idea for their entire lives."

"Only eternity, only by mastering the river of life that transcends time, can one be free from constraints. To explore the most..."

Orochimaru's long, seductive speech was not yet finished.

His response was Uchiha Izumi raising his right arm without warning, and a torrent of magma that instantly condensed, compressed, and burst forth from his palm!

This time, it was a shockwave that, compressed at high speed, hurtled straight in like a giant fist of lava.

The terrifying impact, comparable to a volcanic eruption, was now fully on display!
Orochimaru's smile froze instantly, but his body reacted with lightning speed.

"Tsk! What a... rude brat who always interrupts people!"

"Wind Escape·Big Breakthrough!"

Orochimaru's hands moved so fast they almost left afterimages. What seemed like a simple C-rank Wind Release technique underwent a qualitative change under his chakra.

A massive amount of chakra instantly gathered and roared out!
In the narrow passage, a hurricane-level spiral gas explosion suddenly erupted!
The gale-force winds acted like solid walls, forcefully engulfing, cutting, and pulverizing the scorching lava that was rushing towards them!
Scalding hot lava fragments, carried by the gale, crashed against the walls of the passage like dense fire meteors, leaving behind countless charred pits and constantly flowing droplets of molten metal!

The smoke and energy disturbances generated by the violent collision of strong winds and magma.

Orochimaru's jaw suddenly and bizarrely opened forward to an exaggerated degree, as if it had been dislocated!

Ouch!
After a gagging sound, a long sword with a cold, sharp glint, covered in slippery mucus, slid out from deep in his throat like lightning!

Orochimaru bit down hard on the hilt of the Kusanagi sword, which was covered in his saliva.

The incomparably powerful Wind Release chakra instantly wrapped around the sword as if it were alive.

Om-!
With a sharp whistling sound, the blade of the Kusanagi sword extended forward wildly and eerily, transforming into a deadly silver line that pierced through a hundred-meter passage, instantly penetrating all the dust and wind.

Uchiha Ikezumi's expression remained unchanged, and his head tilted slightly to the left with the slightest sway.

scoff!

The cold glint of the Kusanagi sword grazed past his right ear.

Although it did not hit his head directly, the wind pressure, which had been condensed to its limit and almost materialized, still left a smooth, mirror-like cut on the outside of his right ear!

But strangely, there was no blood splattered at the edge of the severed earlobe.

Instead, a dark red liquid, resembling viscous lava, slowly seeped out and dripped down like candle tears.

The cut area...

It was a slow-flowing lava, radiating intense heat!
Uchiha Ikezumi glanced at the blade of the Kusanagi sword. Apart from Orochimaru's disgusting saliva that even Uchiha Ikezumi was reluctant to touch, a thin layer of wind-style chakra was visible on the surface of the blade.

No wonder they can hurt people from a distance.

Not far away, Orochimaru showed no surprise. With a sudden, almost inhumanly agile flick of his neck, the hundred-meter-long Kusanagi sword transformed into a silver wheel, sweeping across the area with the intention of severing Izumi in half!
Chi Quan leaned back sharply, a cold glint of light sweeping across his face, and the walls behind him crumbled as if cut by a laser.

"Hehe... Ikezumi-kun, I know about your troublesome eyes... Not long ago, someone told me about your eyes, and just hearing about it made me feel a little creeped out!"

Orochimaru's voice sounded like a hissing snake, and the speed at which he formed hand seals did not slow down at all.

"I can't give you the chance to use those weird eye techniques!"

He suddenly opened his mouth wide and spewed out a black torrent that sent chills down one's spine—it was actually a series of black, writhing snakes!
Hiss!
Tens of thousands of thick, black snakes, their scales shimmering with an eerie metallic sheen, surged out in a frenzy.

As they surged through the scorching lava flowing across the ground, it was astonishing that their scales merely sizzled and burned.

Aside from a few wisps of black smoke and some damage to the edges, its speed of progress did not decrease at all!
"These are a group of little guys I specially bred to deal with your magma. Their scales have strong resistance to high temperatures. Even if you throw them into a volcano, they can survive for a minute."

"In a ninja's battle... a minute can decide a lot of things, hehe."

Just as Orochimaru had said, the densely packed black snakes had an astonishing tolerance for high temperatures.

The lava on the ground was not enough to stop their advance.

Even more terrifying was that each black snake opened its gaping maw filled with sharp teeth! And within each snake's mouth was an extremely sharp longsword, and Orochimaru had carved tiny, precise, jet-black seals all over the blade or hilt of each weapon!

Orochimaru demonstrated his most classic ability to Uchiha Ikezumi.

—A person vomits a snake.

—A snake spitting out a sword.

“Ikezumi-kun… this is a little gift I specially prepared for your proud ‘Molten Elementalization’…”

Orochimaru's voice, mingled with the dense hissing of snakes, clearly conveyed sarcasm and absolute confidence: "A special Lava Release elemental transformation similar to the Water Transformation Technique? It can indeed grant immunity to most physical attacks and a small portion of elemental attacks..."

"But what about certain space-time ninjutsu, certain soul-level ninjutsu, including forbidden cursed seals that directly affect chakra?"

His golden vertical pupils were fixed on Chi Quan.

It's as if they're trying to appreciate the "container's" panic.

As the army of snakes, radiating an eerie metallic sheen and the glow of cursed seals, surged into the passage like a black tide, Orochimaru's morbid confidence almost overflowed.

"Don't mistake me for an arrogant ninja. I'm taking you very seriously as an enemy. I've made many necessary preparations to deal with you, Konoha genius, Ikezumi-kun."

"This is what a truly experienced ninja looks like."

……

As the battle on Uchiha Ikezumi's side intensified, the conflict in the Konoha Police Department building had also reached its peak.

Fugaku Uchiha had a taut face, as if his parents had died.

He looked at Uchiha Izumi with a deep sense of disappointment.

The young woman who was once so close to Itachi is now unrecognizable to herself. She even publicly challenged the head of the Uchiha clan, with several outsiders who were not from the Uchiha clan present.

Faced with the girl's relentless questioning, Fugaku Uchiha clenched his fist, then relaxed it.

Fugaku Uchiha said expressionlessly, "I have a clear conscience towards the Uchiha clan, the police force, and Konoha Village."

He lowered his gaze to Izumi and slowly said, "It's not that just because you think I'm not qualified to be the head of the Uchiha clan or the captain of the police force, I have to resign according to your wishes."

"I was able to become the clan leader and the captain-commander because I gained the approval of my clan members and the Hokage."

"But what if we don't approve of you now?!" The person who suddenly interrupted was a special Jonin from the police force. This special Jonin was a member of the Uchiha radical faction, and he already disliked Uchiha Fugaku very much.

The Uchiha special jonin said bluntly, "Back then, the people who put you in the positions of clan leader and police chief were all old fogies from the Uchiha clan."

"Those old folks are either dead at Chiquan's hands or retired and no longer concern themselves with the affairs of the ninja clan."

"Now it's our turn, the younger generation, to elect the leaders we approve of, right?!"

As soon as he finished speaking, another Uchiha clansman chimed in, "The moment you decided to protect Uchiha Itachi, you were no longer qualified to lead the Uchiha clan! Not to mention that you are now openly defying absolute justice."

"The police force chief doesn't believe in justice... Ha! If this gets out, you'll have completely disgraced the police force. What right do you have to lead us then?"

Then another Uchiha coldly said, "You say you have a clear conscience, which means you believe you have made contributions to the Uchiha clan, but we can't see any contributions you have made."

"We can only watch helplessly as the Uchiha clan is constantly ostracized by the village, and we can only see you speaking to Koharu Utatane in an almost subservient manner."

"If this counts as contributing to the Uchiha clan, then you might as well openly turn the Uchiha clan into the Hokage's dogs."

"In that case, I can actually respect you a bit more. Because you are a loyal dog who openly and honestly wants to lead all the human people to become the high-ranking members of Konoha."

Uchiha Fugaku: "..."

He felt that many of his people had a deep misunderstanding of his actions.

He had absolutely no intention of becoming a "loyal dog" to the Konoha leadership.

Under this emotional shock, Fugaku realized that even if he tried to explain, they probably wouldn't listen; they would only believe what they wanted to believe and what they saw.

Fugaku Uchiha took a deep breath and stared at the group of police ninjas in front of him, but he didn't say anything to them. Instead, he turned to look at the other members of the Uchiha clan.

Not all of these clansmen were ninjas; most were commoners from the Uchiha clan, and none of them had awakened their Sharingan.

This group actually represents the majority of the Uchiha clan.

However, their usual voices were drowned out by the ninjas' voices.

Fugaku Uchiha still held a sliver of hope for them, hoping that these commoners of the Uchiha clan, who were usually quite far removed from "absolute justice," could understand some of the difficulties he, as the clan leader, faced.

"What do you think?" Fugaku Uchiha then asked them.

He was trying to give the common people of the Uchiha clan a voice.

But the next second, Fugaku Uchiha regretted it.

"...Lord Fugaku, if you truly care about the Uchiha clan, why did you keep Itachi alive?" An older Uchiha commoner with graying temples mustered his courage and asked, "Just because he is your eldest son, do you have to leave behind a huge hidden danger that will wipe out the Uchiha clan in the future?"

"Before Uchiha Izumi killed Uchiha Itachi, we lived in constant fear. We were afraid that one day we would wake up and see not our families, but the butcher's knife in Uchiha Itachi's hand. We were terrified of becoming the victims of his blade."

"To avoid him, I even secretly moved my child out of the Uchiha clan's territory and let him live somewhere in the village. We... we were already that scared."

He looked at Fugaku and continued, "Some time ago, if it weren't for Uchiha Ikezumi intervening to stop Uchiha Itachi from going berserk in the end..."

"We're all going to be killed by him! None of us civilians have the power to resist a ninja!"

The sincere sentiments from ordinary Uchiha civilians left Fugaku speechless.

Fugaku Uchiha remained silent for several seconds before finally saying things like, "It's not considered evil in the strict sense since it hasn't actually been carried out yet," "I also have my own difficulties; after all, he's my child," and "Itachi isn't as extreme as you think."

But his heartfelt words only made the commoners of the Uchiha clan look at him with even more disappointment.

Fugaku Uchiha suddenly realized that his thoughts and those of his clansmen were not on the same wavelength at all.

They cannot understand themselves, just as they cannot understand Itachi.

"Fugaku..."

An elderly Uchiha civilian coughed, his wrinkles twitching slightly, and said to Uchiha Fugaku, "You've been the clan head and police chief for so long... Sigh, if you truly respect the clan members' opinions as much as you show, then it's time for you to take a break."

……

"What made you have the illusion that 'Molten Release is my only means'?"

Faced with thousands upon thousands of cursed black snakes surging forward in a frenzy, Uchiha Ikezumi clapped his hands together expressionlessly.

"Wind escape..."

This is an A-rank ninjutsu that he "exploded" from Danzo Shimura.

"Vacuum-linked Jade".

*Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft—In an instant, it was as if dozens of invisible giant cannons were firing simultaneously in the narrow passage.*

One by one, translucent "wind balls" with a diameter of more than one meter, condensed to the point of being almost tangible, materialized out of thin air.

With a piercing shriek that seemed to tear through the air, Fengwan relentlessly crashed into the black serpent tide ahead!
The impact of each "vacuum jade" triggered a small storm!
What's terrifying isn't the direct impact, but the ultra-high-speed vacuum wind blade turbulence formed after the wind escaping technique is compressed to its limit!
Hiss! ! !

The first whirlwind ball struck the heart of the snake swarm. In an instant, the air within a radius of several meters centered on the point of impact was completely sucked out!

Dozens of ferocious black snakes couldn't even utter a mournful cry. Their hard, iron-like scales twisted and tore like paper, along with the ninja tools in their mouths, as they were forcibly squeezed and torn apart by the invisible and violent wind blades.

Ultimately, it was ground into a crimson mist, a mixture of blood foam and metal dust!
Blood and flesh flying everywhere cannot describe the horror of such instantaneous disintegration!
puff! puff! puff! puff!
One after another, massive hurricane balls rained down, sweeping away obstacles like a plowshare, bursting into bursts of crimson blood mist amidst the dark swarm of snakes.

Those mutated scales that were able to withstand the high temperature of magma for a short time were as fragile as thin ice under the extreme cutting of the wind escaping and the crushing of air pressure.

The entire passage was filled with the stench of blood and the dust of shattered metal.

It's like a hellish slaughterhouse!
Orochimaru's golden vertical pupils suddenly contracted, not out of grief for the loss of the snake swarm, but because one of the most cunning "Vacuum Orbs" had torn apart all obstacles in its path...

Undeterred by its remaining momentum, it hurtled straight toward his face with a piercing whistle.

The blade of the Kusanagi sword in his mouth slid out like a serpent, bringing with it slippery saliva, while its length quickly retracted to a little over one meter for easy control.

Orochimaru swung his sword and slashed at the giant wind ball.

Without a deafening collision, the condensed wind ball was precisely cleaved in two by Orochimaru's Kusanagi sword! The chaotic vacuum wind blades and airflow inside the split wind ball whistled past his body, cutting two deep grooves into the wall behind him.

"Um?!"

The next second, Orochimaru's feet suddenly sank into the ground. He immediately looked down and saw that the ground beneath his feet had somehow turned into a muddy swamp. Looking up, he saw thousands of black snakes also trapped in the swamp, struggling and thrashing about.

"Wind Release and Earth Release ninjutsu... how can he be so proficient at them?"

Just as Orochimaru's mind was slightly distracted by the swamp beneath his feet...

An unprecedented, terrifying heat wave and chakra fluctuation, seemingly capable of boiling the entire space, suddenly erupted from the direction of Uchiha Ikezumi!
And it was more terrifying than any before.

Rumble, rumble, rumble——

This time, the molten torrent was like the first world-destroying breath spewed out by a dormant volcano after it awakened! It no longer surged horizontally, but rose into the sky with a resolute determination to incinerate everything!

The crimson magma pillars pierced through countless layers of reinforced concrete without hindrance. The sturdy structure of the human experimentation research base was like a paper toy in the face of this pure natural disaster.

The entire underground base was shaking violently, groaning, and collapsing.

The massive metal beams twisted and broke like noodles, and the alarms were drowned out by the deafening roar of the collapse!
"What are you doing... trying to destroy all my hard work?"

Orochimaru watched as the earth-shattering crimson pillar of magma pierced the clouds, turning the thick clouds a thousand meters above the ground a dark red.

The billowing smoke resembled a world-destroying pillar connecting heaven and earth.

The stench of sulfur permeated an area of ​​several kilometers.

The massive tremors continued, and pebbles rained down, crashing into the swamp and splashing up murky mud. A slight sense of foreboding crept into Orochimaru's heart, causing him to keep staring upwards.

"meteor……"

"volcano."

Whether it was a misperception or not, Orochimaru seemed to hear Uchiha Ikezumi utter a few short words amidst the noise of the collapse.

……

……

(End of this chapter)