Chapter 424: Uchiha Akira Has Appeared
A thousand birds cried out, their piercing screeches tearing through the narrow alleyway as blinding blue light exploded into the shadows.
Young Sasuke held nothing back. His strike shot straight toward his target with blinding speed, the volatile chakra of the Chidori leaving a scorched trail in the dirt beneath his feet.
"You are far too weak right now."
Adult Sasuke shifted his stance by a mere fraction of an inch. His lone right arm flashed out like a striking viper, moving with a speed that defied the naked eye.
He clamped his hand down on Young Sasuke's wrist with pinpoint precision.
The raging, screeching Chidori froze. The lethal blade of lightning halted less than three centimeters from Adult Sasuke's chest. Blue arcs of electricity danced wildly through the air, casting a harsh, flickering glow over two identical faces.
"What..."
Young Sasuke's pupils shrank to pinpricks.
His full-power strike... caught bare-handed?
The man standing before him had not even released a surge of chakra to defend himself. He had stopped the assassination technique using pure physical strength and reflexes.
"The me of now would never show such a glaring opening."
Adult Sasuke murmured, his voice low and tinged with a complex sorrow.
The next instant, the atmosphere shifted.
A sharp snap of Adult Sasuke's wrist unleashed a sudden burst of martial finesse. Young Sasuke felt an irresistible, twisting force travel up his arm. His center of gravity vanished entirely.
Immediately after, Adult Sasuke lifted a knee. With a motion that looked almost lazy, he drove it upward, burying the strike deep into the boy's gut.
A dull, sickening thud echoed off the stone walls.
Young Sasuke's eyes bulged from their sockets. Bitter stomach acid spewed from his mouth as the breath was violently forced from his lungs. The condensed lightning of the Chidori in his hand instantly dispersed into harmless sparks.
His body arched backward like a boiled shrimp. He flew through the air, crashed heavily into the brick wall of the alley, and slid down to the cold ground in a crumpled heap.
Boruto clamped both hands over his mouth, his eyes wide with absolute horror.
That was brutal.
That was his master beating his own past self without a shred of hesitation.
Adult Sasuke lowered his arm. His gaze remained complicated, heavy with unspoken memories as he watched the younger version of himself struggle to draw a breath.
He needed to end this fast.
The blow had been perfectly measured. It carried exactly enough force to disable the boy, but not enough to cause lasting internal damage or death.
"Let us go."
He reached out and grabbed Boruto by the collar. Chakra flared brightly beneath his sandals as he prepared to break through the encirclement.
However, the surrounding Guard Team, though momentarily stunned by the sheer speed of the exchange, closed in with drilled, military precision.
"Stop him!"
"Do not let him escape!"
Several streams of scorching flames erupted from the rooftops. The coordinated Fire Release Ninjutsu cascaded down like a blazing waterfall, instantly sealing every possible exit from the alleyway. The heat warped the air, turning the narrow passage into an oven.
Adult Sasuke's brows knitted together.
If he refused to kill these guards, then he had only one option left.
His left eye snapped wide open. The complex ripple pattern of the Rinnegan gleamed in the firelight.
Pupil power gathered, condensing into a sharp focal point.
Amenotejikara.
He prepared to swap his spatial coordinates with a piece of debris, intending to blink far beyond the blazing cordon.
In that exact instant, the world stopped.
A crushing, suffocating pressure descended from the empty sky above. The very air inside the alleyway seemed to solidify into lead, pressing down on their shoulders with the weight of a collapsing mountain.
"This is..."
Adult Sasuke went completely pale. He jerked his head upward, his combat instincts screaming a warning of absolute peril.
High above the blazing flames, the void itself rippled. Uchiha Akira stepped slowly from the distorted space, his hands resting casually behind his back.
His dark hair whipped wildly in the thermal updrafts. His cold, indifferent eyes looked down upon the alleyway, viewing the people below as nothing more than dust on the wind.
The Fifth Hokage. Uchiha Akira.
"H-Hokage-sama!"
The fierce bloodlust of the Uchiha Guard Team instantly melted into deep awe and reverence.
A unified clatter of armor rang out.
Dozens of elite Uchiha shinobi dropped from the rooftops, landing heavily on one knee in perfect, synchronized submission.
"We greet Hokage-sama!"
Uchiha Akira's cool, calculating gaze swept over the kneeling guards before settling directly on Adult Sasuke's face. More specifically, his eyes locked onto the unique dojutsu.
"Interesting."
His voice was calm, yet it carried a resonance that vibrated in the chest of everyone present.
"One Rinnegan. One Mangekyo."
Adult Sasuke's muscles locked into rigid stone. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead and traced a chilling path down his spine.
This chakra...
It was too strong.
It was entirely overwhelming.
As a veteran who had fought apocalyptic battles against Kaguya and Momoshiki, Sasuke knew the scent of true, world-ending power. The invisible pressure radiating from Uchiha Akira rivaled the divine aura of the Otsutsuki clan.
No. It surpassed every Otsutsuki he had ever faced.
What kind of terrifying monster had become the Hokage of this parallel world?
"Withdraw."
Uchiha Akira flicked his hand in a dismissive gesture.
"Yes, sir!"
There was no hesitation. No questioning of orders.
The entire Guard Team vanished in a synchronized flurry of the Body Flicker Technique, leaving only the scorched wreckage of the alleyway behind.
Down on the dirt, Young Sasuke was just managing to climb back to his feet.
"H-Hokage-sama..."
He clutched his bruised stomach, a thin trail of blood leaking from the corner of his lip. Despite the pain, his dark eyes burned with fierce, unyielding defiance.
Uchiha Akira glanced down at the battered boy.
"Can you stand?"
"I can."
Gritting his teeth, the young Uchiha forced his spine straight, glaring daggers at his older, mysterious counterpart.
Uchiha Akira turned his attention away from the boy, focusing entirely on the tensed figures of Adult Sasuke and Boruto.
"Outsiders."
He took a single step forward in the air.
"Or should I say..."
He descended smoothly, his boots touching the ground exactly three meters in front of the time travelers. The mountain-heavy pressure intensified, nearly buckling Boruto's knees and forcing the boy to gasp for air.
"...guests from a parallel future."
Those words struck like a physical blow.
Adult Sasuke's eyes widened in sheer disbelief.
He had seen right through them. In mere seconds, this man had deduced their exact origins.
Sasuke inhaled a slow, ragged breath, forcing his racing heart to calm. He slowly opened his hand, letting his sword drop to the dirt with a dull clatter. He stepped slightly in front of Boruto, shielding the boy with his body as he met Uchiha Akira's piercing stare.
"Fifth Hokage."
Sasuke kept his voice steady, projecting absolute sincerity.
"I bear no hostility toward you or your village. I am here to hunt a lethal enemy. I came to protect this world, and to protect Naruto."
He spoke plainly. Attempting to lie or weave half-truths before a man possessing this level of perception was utterly pointless. He could only gamble. He had to gamble that the Hokage of this timeline, despite his terrifying aura, was still a rational leader who focused on the safety of his people.
Uchiha Akira smiled. It was a thin, razor-sharp expression that held no warmth.
"No hostility?"
He slowly shook his head.
"In this Ninja World, hostility is not decided by your intentions."
His dark eyes narrowed, flashing with absolute, domineering authority.
"It is decided by me."
Before the echo of his words could fade into the night, Uchiha Akira raised his right hand.
A dark, swirling spatial vortex tore open directly in the center of his palm. The fabric of reality groaned under the strain.
"Since you have gone through the trouble of coming here, do not rush off so soon."
An irresistible, violent suction erupted from the miniature black hole. The wind howled, dragging loose debris, dust, and discarded weapons toward the vortex.
"Damn it!"
Adult Sasuke's face twisted in alarm.
"Amenotejikara!"
He poured a massive surge of ocular power into his Rinnegan, desperate to swap their positions and escape the gravitational pull.
Nothing happened.
The surrounding space felt entirely locked, encased in an invisible vault of dense chakra. Standing this close, trapped inside Uchiha Akira's absolute domain, his supreme space-time jutsu completely failed to activate.
"Do not waste your strength."
Uchiha Akira's voice cut through the roaring wind. The suction spiked tenfold, tearing the very paving stones from the ground.
"Waaah! Uncle Sasuke!"
Boruto lost his footing first. The boy was yanked violently into the air, his limbs flailing as he was dragged toward the dark abyss.
"Boruto!"
Adult Sasuke lunged forward, reaching out to grab the boy's hand. In doing so, he lost his own precarious balance. Stripped of his spatial jutsu and unable to anchor himself, he tumbled forward, his discarded sword flying into the vortex alongside him.
"Hokage-sama, this..."
Young Sasuke stood frozen near the wall, his clothes whipping wildly in the gale. He opened his mouth, starting to speak, unsure of what was happening to the intruders.
Uchiha Akira's cold gaze cut sideways, locking onto the boy.
"You are coming too."
He stated it as an absolute fact.
"See for yourself what you eventually become."
Before the battered boy could even attempt to react or brace himself, the overwhelming suction grabbed him. Complete darkness swallowed his vision as he was pulled into the void.
Uchiha Akira slowly closed his fist.
The dark vortex collapsed inward and vanished without a trace.
The howling wind died instantly. The alleyway fell into a dead, heavy silence, leaving only the scorched walls and torn earth as proof that anyone had been there at all.
A few hundred meters away, hidden in the shadows of a towering building.
The air rippled like the surface of a disturbed pond. Otsutsuki Urashiki stepped cautiously out from a dimensional rift, his glowing red fishing rod gripped tightly in his hands.
He stared at the empty alleyway in absolute shock.
He had watched the entire exchange from the safety of the void. That one-armed Sasuke was no weakling. He was a seasoned warrior who had caused endless trouble for their clan, yet against this native Hokage, he had been rendered completely helpless. He was swatted away like a mere insect.
Urashiki swallowed hard, a cold bead of sweat rolling down his pale cheek.
"How could the inferior beings of this era evolve to such an absurd degree?"
His grip on the fishing rod tightened until his knuckles turned white.
"That man... he is far too dangerous!"
He had originally planned to wait for the perfect moment of confusion to strike, intending to snatch the Nine-Tails' chakra while the Uchiha fought amongst themselves.
Now, he abandoned that idea entirely.
"No. A frontal fight against that monster is suicide."
Urashiki took a slow step backward, his arrogant demeanor completely shattered.
"If I step out there, I will be killed."
His pale eyes darted back and forth, his mind racing as new, cowardly schemes began to form. But the taste of retreat was incredibly bitter on his tongue. To be forced into hiding by a mere human was a deep humiliation.
"It looks like I will have to be..."
He narrowed his eyes, melting back into the dimensional rift.
"...creative."
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