Sarutobi Shinnosuke was truly shaken. The many secrets he had buried deep within himself felt completely exposed before Uchiha Ikeizumi, as if he stood naked and defenseless. It was as though Ikeizumi had been silently watching him all along, lurking in the shadows during those very moments when Shinnosuke committed his deeds.
He even believed this was highly likely.
Otherwise, how else could Ikeizumi know so much?
After all…
The "secrets" Ikeizumi spoke of were things Shinnosuke had never shared with anyone—not his wife, not the old man, nor even some of his closest subordinates.
"Uchiha Ikeizumi! You—"
Before Shinnosuke could utter a word, an overwhelming sensation of suffocating death surged through him.
A molten lava sphere, roughly the size of a human head, suddenly shot toward him!
He decisively sealed his lips, gripping the hilt of his ninja blade tightly. A layer of deep blue chakra enveloped the blade's edge.
"Ha!!!"
Sarutobi Shinnosuke's breath caught in his throat as he swung his blade, cleaving the incoming molten lava sphere in two. But as he prepared for another strike, a strange sensation stopped him. Glancing down, his pupils constricted sharply.
His kunai blade… had snapped in half.
Even with chakra reinforcing the blade, it couldn't withstand the terrifying heat of Uchiha Ikeizumi's Molten Release lava.
Looking ahead, Shinnosuke saw Ikeizumi crouched low, one hand lightly touching the ground—he must have formed a hand seal in that split second.
"Molten Release…"
"Volcanic Swamp."
A bubbling, ominous sound filled the air. Under the horrified gazes of Shinnosuke and the Anbu ninjas, the earth around Ikeizumi's feet began melting rapidly into molten lava.
In the blink of an eye, even though Shinnosuke stood over twenty meters away, the ground beneath him glowed faintly red.
"Fall back! Quickly!"
Shinnosuke shouted, pulling the Anbu ninjas with him. But one Anbu lagged behind by half a step.
As he stepped back, he suddenly lost balance, his face contorted in pain.
"Ah! Gah!"
An unbearable pain shot through his ankle as he grabbed the wall for support and looked down in horror.
"My foot… it's gone…"
His feet had vanished without warning; smoke rose from the broken ankle, carrying a pungent burnt smell.
"Captain Shinnosuke! I…"
The Anbu panicked.
But Shinnosuke had no time to tend to his subordinate's injury—he saw Ikeizumi's terrifying molten power rapidly destroying the secret research base.
The lava's heat was melting not only the ground but the surrounding walls.
Huge holes appeared in the corridor walls, and even the metal reinforcements burned fiercely.
The heat was so intense that even from a distance, Shinnosuke and the others were drenched in sweat.
"This temperature is unbearable!"
"Captain Shinnosuke! The lava is acting strangely!" one Anbu noticed the bubbling lava ahead seemed to be swelling, as if something terrifying was about to emerge.
He was right.
Suddenly—
Boom!
A massive torrent of lava erupted like a volcanic blast, instantly melting everything overhead.
Under the horrified eyes of the Anbu, the secret base was blasted open, creating a huge hole.
From outside, a stream of crimson lava shot up from the forest and soared skyward.
At about a hundred meters high, the lava turned into a fiery rain, scattering over the area.
But these lava droplets were far from harmless rain.
When a fist-sized lava ball struck, the impact was like an explosion, blasting a huge hole above the base and shattering the mountain rock, exposing the building's exterior.
And there were hundreds of such lava bombs raining down.
…
It was just past 8 PM, the start of the village's nightlife.
Many villagers had just finished dinner and were stepping out for a stroll.
Suddenly, they saw a glaring crimson light shooting into the sky outside the village.
The light then exploded like fireworks, illuminating much of Konoha with a faint glow.
"What's that?" a civilian wondered, gazing at the distance. "Is someone setting off fireworks outside the village? Those are huge!"
Another disagreed, "Fireworks don't look like that. It looks more like a volcanic eruption."
"Don't be ridiculous! Where would there be a volcano near Konoha?"
"Must be fireworks! But is there a festival lately? I haven't heard of any. No reason for such big fireworks, especially outside the village. What's going on?!"
…
Beyond the non-ninja villagers, many shinobi also noticed the strange sight.
Inside the Uchiha clan compound, Mikoto's eyes flickered with surprise as she told her husband, "Fugaku, that looks like… lava. It's like a volcano suddenly erupted."
"…Hmm."
Fugaku looked toward the night sky, his expression darkening as he nodded slightly.
"If I'm right, it's Ikeizumi. With his personality, he wouldn't cause such a commotion without a reason. He's probably facing a strong enemy outside the village."
"I have to go out. Take care of Sasuke at home."
Fugaku turned back inside to change into his Military Police uniform.
He explained, "Though Ikeizumi and I often clash, I respect him. He always sees through a person's past 'evils' and has never once made a mistake or wrongly accused anyone."
"Over the years, neither the Fourth nor the Third Hokage could deal with him because they found no excuse to act against Ikeizumi."
"After killing someone, Ikeizumi hands the bodies to us, and we pass them to the Yamanaka clan. They always find horrifying secrets on the corpses."
Mikoto hesitated, "So he might be fighting those who do evil?"
"Exactly."
Fugaku, now dressed in his Military Police gear, said firmly, "No matter what, he's still a member of the Military Police. As commander, I must lead reinforcements."