"The man with the mask is probably going to be furious."
Watching the Akatsuki members slaughter the Uchiha Clan not far away, Ash said with a faint smile.
The Akatsuki's methods were extremely ruthless. Almost every attack left no intact corpses behind. As a result, while there were many Sharingan, only a few could actually be recovered.
Ash collected only ten pairs before giving up.
Searching further would take too much effort, and with what he had learned through his Pokémon research methods, he was confident he could study the Sharingan without needing more samples.
After all, whether the Nine-Tails incident was a gain or a loss is hard to say…
Thinking about the mass of Yin Chakra from the Nine-Tails sealed inside his scroll, Ash felt slightly speechless.
Ever since he had planned to use the Nine-Tails as a summoned entity, Ash had tried communicating with it. Unfortunately, he couldn't control it directly—and he certainly hadn't expected that the Nine-Tails would be completely "blind" the moment it was released.
The Nine-Tails was still the Nine-Tails—but it had no consciousness.
Or rather, no soul.
Tailed Beasts were indeed beings formed from chakra, but they also possessed souls. That was why, after their chakra bodies were destroyed, they could reform over time. In that sense, resurrection was similar to humans—humans required a physical body to anchor their soul, while Tailed Beasts only needed chakra.
What Ash had obtained was merely the Yin half of the Nine-Tails' chakra—pure energy, devoid of will or awareness.
In comparison, sealing a complete Tailed Beast inside a human would create a perfect Jinchūriki.
But Ash had no interest in becoming one.
Let alone settling for half a Tailed Beast.
Thus, the mass of Yin Chakra was stored safely within his scrolls, waiting to be used later.
"Success… now die."
As Ash sat calmly on the rooftop, observing the massacre below, a sudden voice came from behind him.
A blade swept straight toward his neck.
"Intangibility."
Ash had long sensed the presence behind him. After being ambushed once by the Fourth Hokage, he had formed the habit of constantly monitoring everything within a three-to-five-meter radius.
The blade passed cleanly through his neck—without resistance.
The attacker's pupils shrank in shock.
"It missed? What's going on?!"
He immediately leaped backward, distancing himself from Ash.
Ash turned and examined him.
An elderly man.
Judging by his presence alone, he possessed strength close to Kage-level.
That alone made things interesting.
"You are—"
Before Ash could finish, the old man ignored him entirely.
"Whoever you are," the man said coldly, "you dared to attack the Uchiha Clan. No matter the reason, you will die here today."
In the next instant, he flashed forward once more, long blade aimed directly at Ash's heart.
"Sharingan."
Just as the blade was about to strike, Ash spoke softly.
The three-tomoe Sharingan appeared instantly in his eyes.
The moment the old man met Ash's gaze, his body froze completely.
Though Ash possessed the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, even his three-tomoe form was far beyond what someone who hadn't awakened the Mangekyō could resist—though the old man held out slightly longer than an ordinary shinobi.
"So old… yet so impatient."
Watching the fear flood the old man's eyes as he became trapped in the illusion, Ash spoke calmly.
From within his sleeve, he produced a kunai—
—and pressed it gently against the old man's neck.
"Release!"
As the kunai drew dangerously close to his throat, the old man finally broke free from Ash's genjutsu.
After all, he possessed a three-tomoe Sharingan himself. That alone granted him a certain resistance to illusions. Combined with his near Kage-level strength, managing to dispel the illusion at the last moment was not surprising.
"What a shame… you got away."
Seeing his strike fail, Ash spoke with mild interest. The Sharingan spinning in his eyes gleamed faintly.
"To trap me in an illusion instantly… and at your age…"
The old man steadied his breathing, staring intently at Ash.
"Then there's no doubt about it. You are Ash Ketchum."
"I'm quite famous, it seems."
Ash glanced indifferently at the mangled corpses scattered around them and smiled faintly, his tone tinged with mockery.
"Either way, your ending won't be any different from theirs."
The old man frowned.
"Why?" he demanded. "Why attack the Uchiha Clan? We never provoked you."
"Hm~ hm~" Ash chuckled softly.
"It's not that you didn't want to move against me—"
His figure suddenly vanished.
"—you just never found the opportunity."
Ash surged forward in an instant. The obstacles in his path—rooftops, debris, shattered walls—were ignored completely as his body phased straight through them, as if they didn't exist at all.
He wasn't wrong.
The Uchiha had indeed been watching him. But Ash was too strong, too elusive. They couldn't find him—so they didn't dare act. Had they possessed even a sliver of confidence, they would have moved long ago.
"So fast!"
The old man pushed his three-tomoe Sharingan to its limit. Even so, all he could catch was a faint afterimage.
Ash's speed was terrifying—and with obstacles meaningless to him, it became even more overwhelming.
"Iaijutsu—Draw Slash!"
With no other choice, the old man drew his blade in a single fluid motion.
A flash of white light erupted.
The long sword swept horizontally, and a sharp chakra blade tore through the air, cleaving everything in front of him.
"…A ninja who specializes in swordsmanship?"
Ash narrowed his eyes as he watched the chakra blade rush toward him.
"Outside of the White Fang of Konoha, I haven't heard of many shinobi who could wield a blade like that."
...
TN:
⚡ Pa-treon-com/LordMerlin (Support me! 😊)