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NAJ Chapter 123: Duty, Doubt, and Destruction
🕑 Added 2025-08-07 19:44:13 +0000 UTC“That leaves... five and a half.” Uchiha Keizumi’s cold, ghost-like murmur reached Asuma’s ears like the voice of a demon from the depths of
“That leaves... five and a half.”
Uchiha Keizumi’s cold, ghost-like murmur reached Asuma’s ears like the voice of a demon from the depths of hell. It didn’t bring rage or sorrow—only bone-deep horror.
“…Monster!!!”
The word slipped out of Asuma’s stiffened jaw.
In that instant, he understood his old man all over again.
Maybe it wasn’t that the old man had gotten soft with age.
Maybe... it was simply that conflict with Uchiha Keizumi inside Konoha must never happen.
Because the cost of bringing down this monster—
Was something that Konoha simply could not afford.
…
[Whoosh—]
[Whoosh—]
At that moment, two figures darted rapidly through the dense forest just outside Konoha—it was Hatake Kakashi and Might Guy.
“What a huge cat!”
Guy looked up at the distant orange giant and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Kakashi, is that passionate hot-blooded man of justice fighting this monster cat right now?!”
The phrase “passionate hot-blooded man of justice” caused Kakashi to freeze for two seconds.
After a moment, he realized that Guy was talking about Uchiha Keizumi.
His eye twitched ever so slightly.
What kind of nickname is that supposed to be?!
Was this hot-blooded idiot really so bad with names that he had to come up with something like that?
Kakashi spoke in a low voice, “That ninja cat is likely Keizumi’s companion. I remember its name is Tachibana Jirō. If even his ninja cat has been forced into battle, then this ambush targeting Uchiha Keizumi… must be extremely dangerous.”
As he said this, a hint of confusion flickered in Kakashi’s eyes.
Just who could’ve set up an ambush like this outside Konoha?
Spies from another village?
But what shinobi village had the strength to station this many powerful elite jōnin right outside Konoha?
The Third Great Ninja War had ended just a few years ago—weren’t all the major villages still quietly licking their wounds and recovering?
Then, a bold thought suddenly surfaced in Kakashi’s mind:
—The ones ambushing Uchiha Keizumi… were Konoha’s own shinobi!
Because—
Uchiha Keizumi had made more than a few enemies in Konohagakure—
In fact, many of them could be considered mortal enemies.
“If that’s really the case…” A hint of hesitation flickered in Kakashi’s eyes. “If I go now, would that mean I’m getting involved in a complete mess?”
But just as that thought passed, Kakashi caught sight of Might Guy suddenly speeding up—and heard his loud cry: “Kakashi! Let’s use this rare chance to see who gets there first!”
The corner of Kakashi’s mouth twitched.
Forget it…
Getting involved is getting involved.
He’d just treat it as repaying a favor to that Uchiha Keizumi guy.
…
“Haah... Senpai…”
Far behind Kakashi and Might Guy, Uchiha Izumi had also left the village the moment she sensed something was wrong.
Biting down on her teeth, the girl tried to push her speed even higher.
But her not-yet-fully-grown body had already been pushed to its absolute limit.
As she sprinted at full speed, Izumi racked her brain, trying to figure out who would dare to ambush Keizumi-senpai outside the village.
Could it be… the Hokage?
It wasn’t surprising that her first suspicion landed on the Third—Sarutobi Hiruzen—because Uchiha Keizumi had once told her directly:
The Third Hokage of Konoha is not a good man.
And ever since Keizumi-senpai had given her that ability—the one that allowed her to see the sins of others—
Izumi had secretly tried peeking at the Third Hokage herself.
And she had come to a conclusion:
—Senpai wasn’t lying.
However—
That suspicion was dispelled just three seconds later.
Because at that moment, she heard a flurry of movement behind her. She stopped abruptly and turned her head, only to see one ANBU after another flashing past, racing in her direction.
“Those are… the ANBU?!”
Watching each masked ninja speed past her, Izumi couldn’t help but mutter in shock, “This looks like a full mobilization. So the ambush ahead… wasn’t set by ANBU under the Third’s command?”
Then—
Who exactly are the enemies?!
…
At the same time, when Asuma felt the magma monster’s crimson gaze shifting toward him, a wave of primal dread surged through his heart. A shiver crawled up his spine, and he instantly leapt backward, widening the distance.
Then he opened his mouth and unleashed a technique.
A thick wave of ash billowed from his mouth, blanketing the area and completely obscuring Uchiha Keizumi’s vision. It was Asuma’s way of cutting off the enemy’s line of sight—and with it, the Sharingan’s power.
The ash cloud carried intense heat. When it settled on nearby branches and leaves, they spontaneously caught fire.
If that ash had landed on exposed skin, it would have cooked it in seconds.
However—
Against Uchiha Keizumi, wielder of Lava Release, this kind of temperature didn’t even register. It couldn’t harm him in the slightest.
But it did block his vision.
Gritting his teeth, Asuma hurled both of his chakra trench knives through the ash cloud with incredible speed. They sliced through the dense haze and shot toward Keizumi’s location.
Thud!!! — One of the chakra trench knives struck Keizumi clean in the chest, embedding itself deep inside—piercing through and exiting from his back.
Ssst!!! — The second chakra trench knife drew closer and closer to Uchiha Keizumi's left eye. As the distance shrank to mere inches, the ash cloud was no longer enough to obstruct his vision.
Even though the three-tomoe Sharingan’s incredible dynamic perception had clearly tracked the incoming blade—
Uchiha Keizumi did not dodge.
The blade tip pierced straight into his eye, burrowed into his skull, and finally exited from the back of his head.
There was only the sound of two sharp clinks as Asuma’s trench knives flew less than a dozen meters behind Keizumi before clattering to the ground.
The Wind Release chakra infused into the blades had been completely devoured by the surrounding magma.
The intense heat began melting the steel.
Half of each blade’s length had already liquefied into molten iron.
“Tch!” Asuma’s expression twisted with frustration as he leapt backward at high speed. Once he escaped the reach of the ash cloud, he slammed his hands together with force. His face was drawn tight with stubborn refusal, teeth clenched as he roared: “Wind Release: Dust-Tornado Dragon!!”
A howling tempest roared to life, stirring the lingering ash into a visible tornado.
Buffeted by violent gales, Asuma pulled out several scrolls and unfurled them all.
Puffs of white smoke rose—dozens of ninja tools and explosive tags spilled out.
The ash-and-wind tornado sucked them all inside. Countless sharp weapons spun madly within, slicing everything they touched. In seconds, even large boulders were shredded into rubble.
[—BOOM!!!]
A deafening explosion erupted at the tornado’s core, a column of fire tens of meters tall surging skyward. The resulting shockwave was so powerful that even an elite jōnin like Asuma was hurled through the air.
The explosion shattered the arsenal into a storm of metal fragments that sprayed out indiscriminately, a lethal hailstorm of steel flying in all directions, friend and foe alike.
Uchiha Keizumi, positioned at the very center of the blast, naturally bore the full brunt of it.
Countless shrapnel shards tore into his body.
Asuma, meanwhile, spun helplessly in the air, tumbling for several dozen meters before finally crashing to the ground.
“Cough, cough... Was it mutual destruction?!” His face was covered in blood and soot—shrapnel wounds from the metal fragments. He hadn’t been spared by the indiscriminate storm either.
Blood oozed from his skin nonstop, quickly dyeing his flak jacket a deep crimson.
A broken kunai tip had pierced the artery in his thigh. Blood gushed out like a faucet turned on full blast.
But Asuma no longer cared about his injuries.
What mattered to him was—what happened to Uchiha Keizumi?
“Heh… I've got nothing left.” Asuma forced himself upright, swaying unsteadily as he stood, his posture ragged and slumped. He muttered to himself: “After giving it everything I’ve got, surely I’ve traded injury for injury… right? He can’t be invincible. Even if physical attacks don’t work, ninjutsu—explosive elemental attacks—should at least cause some damage through elemental countering, right?”
He knew regret was meaningless now. All he could do was wager his life—
To drag that monster down with him.
Leaving that monster in Konoha would only bring danger to the village.
And any existence that threatened Konoha…
He had the duty to—hm?!
[Drip.]
[Szzzz—]
[Drip.]
[Szzzz—]
The sudden, faint sounds made Asuma’s eyes go wide. In disbelief, he looked up toward the thick smoke—
And there, half-shrouded in the swirling haze, a glowing crimson silhouette emerged, radiating intense heat!
The figure’s steps were steady—neither limping nor faltering—as if everything Sarutobi Asuma had thrown at him, every technique he had unleashed with all his might, had failed to cause even the slightest hindrance!
Maybe...
Maybe this was how Chiriku had felt when he realized that even his chakra-infused Golden Bell defense couldn't withstand Uchiha Keizumi’s Lava Release hound.
