The link between Yakushi Kabuto and Black Zetsu was something Obito knew absolutely nothing about. Right now, Obito had once again shown up putting on that self-important "I am Uchiha Madara" act, ready to force the three people in front of him into submission.
Kabuto, meanwhile, was also curious about just how strong he had become.
Out here in the remote wilderness, a clash between the four of them was on the verge of breaking out.
And just as the fighting on Kabuto's side began, Uchiha Chizumi was elsewhere experimenting with the Flying Thunder God Technique he had only recently started grasping. More specifically, he was trying to place as many of his own markings as possible in places he had already reached.
"This is… the Grass Country, meow?"
With another use of Flying Thunder God, Chizumi and Kitsujiro vanished and reappeared inside the Grass Country.
"Just look at these civilians. They're all gaunt and yellow-faced. Life in the Grass Country must be awful, meow."
Kitsujiro looked at the few civilians in the distance who were staring at him and Uchiha Chizumi in fear and couldn't help sighing.
"The Grass Country…"
Chizumi didn't have much of an impression of it. The only thing that really came to mind was Karin Uzumaki, who had been treated like a walking blood bag.
"The evil in this country runs deeper than anywhere else."
In Chizumi's eyes, he had only just stepped into the town, yet he had already seen dozens of red names.
And every last one of those red names stood in stark contrast to the starving civilians nearby.
"Isn't the Grass Country supposed to be an ally of the Land of Fire, meow?"
Kitsujiro thought for a moment. While gathering intelligence for Chizumi, he seemed to remember hearing the other cats mention the Grass Country before, usually in connection with the fact that it was allied with the Land of Fire.
"Ally or not, if it's evil, then it falls under my authority."
Uchiha Chizumi didn't care about any of that. All he saw was the evil wrapped around those red names. Everything else was not something he considered his concern.
"Come on."
"We still have a little time before heading to the Land of Earth. Let's cleanse the Grass Country first."
By his own reckoning, it had already been more than ten full days since he last carried out justice. Looking at the criminals here in the Grass Country, he could already feel his Lava Release starting to stir restlessly.
Boom!
The instant those words left his mouth, a pillar of magma erupted in the distance.
A man carrying a samurai sword didn't even have time to react before his body was engulfed by Lava Release, and a shrill scream tore out of him.
"The first."
Uchiha Chizumi paid no attention to the terrified civilians. Under his eyes, no evil could escape.
With every step Chizumi took, more pillars of magma erupted like death itself calling names. And every time one burst forth, some figure who clearly wasn't an ordinary civilian would be swallowed by it.
"Ahhh—!"
As scream after scream echoed across the town, the ordinary civilians finally began to panic.
By now, everyone had realized that the ninja lord who had suddenly appeared in the town was killing people.
But unlike every other place Chizumi had visited before, the townspeople didn't run.
Their eyes were filled with despair, yes—but the way they looked at him carried something else too: resignation.
"Why aren't they running, meow?"
Kitsujiro noticed it too and looked at the civilians with open confusion.
"Perhaps because in this country, ninja slaughtering ordinary people for entertainment isn't rare at all."
Uchiha Chizumi noticed it too—and what he saw was even worse. Especially after one Grass ninja after another tried to flee and was devoured by pillars of magma, his expression shifted.
With these eyes of his, he could see just how much malice the Grass Country's ninja held toward the common people.
Or rather, the ninja of the Grass Country treated ordinary civilians like livestock they raised. Whenever they were in a bad mood, they simply picked a few and killed them.
And if any civilian dared to run, those Grass ninja would retaliate by slaughtering that person's entire family.
"This country is guilty."
Uchiha Chizumi's pace remained calm and unhurried, but the speed of his killing never slowed.
With every step he took, the town gained more and more magma pits. In only a short while, there were already nearly fifty or sixty large and small lava craters scattered across the place.
And inside those pits, the people he had condemned did not die immediately. They struggled. They wailed.
All who commit evil will meet retribution.
If the shinobi world has no retribution, then Uchiha Chizumi believed he himself was that retribution.
"That ninja lord… he seems to be killing only the town's ninja?"
"And the mayor, and the samurai kept by the nobles…"
As more and more people died, the ordinary civilians finally started to realize something. This time, the ninja lord who had come was not like the others.
He hadn't killed a single civilian.
"Bastard, give me back my daughter!"
One civilian watched a Grass ninja with both legs melted away scream inside a magma pit. At that moment, he had no thoughts left in his mind at all. With a raw, broken roar, eyes bloodshot, he charged straight into the lava pit.
The magma was searing hot, but he seemed completely numb to it as he lunged forward and grabbed wildly at the Grass ninja's face.
"I know him. That Grass ninja set his sights on that man's daughter last time. When she refused him, that Grass ninja…"
One of the nearby civilians began to explain, staring at the man who had nearly thrown himself into the lava with the Grass ninja.
On the other side, Uchiha Chizumi frowned.
He hadn't expected the civilians of the Grass Country to be this fearless—fearless enough to leap into a lava pit just for revenge.
"Kitsujiro, get him out and take him back into the village."
Chizumi was the executor of justice. He had no intention of letting an innocent civilian die as a result of his own actions.
"Leave it to me, meow!"
Kitsujiro had noticed the man too. In only a brief moment, the lower half of the civilian's body was already nearly cooked, but he seemed unable to feel any of it. He was still choking the Grass ninja with all his strength.
Kitsujiro leapt from Chizumi's shoulder, pulled the civilian out, and the next instant Chizumi used Flying Thunder God again, taking Kitsujiro and the man back to Konoha.
"So Lava Release really is going to be replaced…"
After delivering the Grass Country civilian to Konoha Hospital, Uchiha Chizumi couldn't help frowning.
Maybe it was simply because using Lava Release had become second nature to him. When he carried out justice in the Grass Country, he had used it without thinking.
But now, even Chizumi himself had to admit it—
perhaps Wood Release was better suited than Lava Release for carrying out justice.