And yet—
The Tailed Beast Bomb that had gathered all of Isobu's power—enough to wipe most of a shinobi village off the map—looked like nothing more than a rubber ball tossed by a child before the even larger Complete Body Susanoo.
Facing the howling sphere that reeked of annihilation, the Susanoo's gaze—hidden beneath its heavy war-helm—didn't flicker. Its enormous hands, plated in crimson armor, closed steadily around the hilt of a magma greatsword as wide as a pair of temple doors.
Just as the Tailed Beast Bomb was about to smash into Susanoo's breastplate—
Shhh—!!!
A red-hot arc flashed out—too fast for even an elite shinobi's mind to register.
For a heartbeat the blade's path seemed to split space itself.
At the instant the edge of the magma greatsword touched the pitch-black sphere, an uncanny, absolute silence fell over heaven and earth—as if all things had returned to stillness. The first shock of colliding destructive energies was beyond the range of hearing. Far-off onlookers felt as if time and space had frozen, the world turned into a still black-and-white painting.
The next instant—
Zzzla—!!!
Like a red-hot knife through butter—like a desert wind melting ice—the edge met the Tailed Beast Bomb, and the expected earth-shattering explosion never came. Instead, the blade simply sheared the unstable, hyper-compressed sphere cleanly in two, without the slightest resistance.
BOOM!!!
BOOM!!!
Split down the middle, the bomb lost its yin–yang chakra balance and stability, becoming two slightly smaller, dark energy masses that screamed past on either side of the Susanoo and shot toward the far horizon behind it.
Almost simultaneously, far behind Susanoo, two colossal fireballs—each the size of a mountain—roared into the sky from different directions. The glare lit up the heavens, briefly outshining the sun. The shockwaves arrived a half-beat later, a cataclysmic gale that shredded the clouds into tufts of cotton.
On the ground, house-sized boulders were ripped from the earth and ground to dust midair. An ancient forest behind them vanished in an instant under the core heat and impact, leaving only two vast, glass-edged, blackened craters.
Even from several kilometers away, the ground under Uchiha Chizumi's feet shook and groaned like an earthquake. Webs of warped cracks spidered outward. Two towering mushroom clouds of fire and ash unfurled slowly behind the Complete Body Susanoo.
At the same time, the slash that had split the Tailed Beast Bomb didn't slow in the slightest. The blade's follow-through hurled a visible crescent shockwave of densely packed Lava Release chakra—a red scythe of death—that effortlessly split and melted the earth ahead, plowing a straight, fathomless trench whose edges ran with dark red lava.
The magma slash, tearing everything in its path, streaked toward the Three-Tails, Isobu—its aura drained and body frozen in place after firing the bomb.
That upright, crimson wave of molten death was taller than Isobu's hill-sized body, filling its entire field of view. Exhausted from the Tailed Beast Bomb, Isobu's single eye blew wide. In its pupil the searing red grew and grew until it filled the world.
Fast.
Too fast.
So fast it couldn't even lift a claw to guard.
Its sight was swallowed by that annihilating red. Even the corners of its vision held nothing else—only the reaper's stroke.
The next second—
Thup—!!!!
No earth-shaking crash—just the gut-sick thud of a blade biting through tough hide.
The crimson magma slash swallowed Isobu whole. The thick carapace it prided itself on—tough enough to tank ninjutsu—meant nothing here. The heat punched through in an instant; the following force tore it apart.
A red arc flashed straight down the middle of Isobu's body—
Crack—!!!
Like a sculpture cut with surgical precision, the Three-Tails split from crown to belly, the two halves peeling away from center. The cut surface was smooth as a mirror, vitrified by instant heat; molten rock flowed through it like blood.
Rumble—!!!
Rumble—!!!
Halved and unsupported, the massive body toppled to either side and slammed into the earth, throwing up a blizzard of dust. The beast's vast life force deflated like a punctured ball, draining away visibly.
Directly above its head—and taking the blow first—Yagura Karatachi, the Fourth Mizukage, was vaporized the instant the magma wave touched him—erased without a trace.
Rrrrrrumble—!!!
More shocking still, after cleaving the Three-Tails, the magma slash barely weakened. It kept tearing forward and hacked into the mountain behind Isobu. From summit to foot the entire peak split along a straight, glass-smooth plane, as if a sage had cleaved it with a giant axe. Then, with a groan, the mountain collapsed to both sides. Millions of tons of rock fell like a stone waterfall, quickly burying what remained of the bisected beast. A sandstorm of dust towered into the sky, blotting out the sun.
When it finally quieted—stones settled, dust thinned—the world sank into a dead, breathless hush. Only the "glug-glug" of lava in the trench and the distant "crack" of still-burning fires hinted at the battle that had just exceeded any normal shinobi's imagination.
Isobu, the Three-Tails—dead.
Yagura Karatachi—dead.
[Ding! You have successfully enacted Absolute Justice! Chakra capacity increased! Congratulations, you obtained:
(1) "Tailed Beast Bomb"! Even without being a tailed beast, by fine-tuning the ratio of Yin and Yang chakra you can knead a Tailed Beast Bomb by hand whose power scales with your chakra reserves.]
[(2) "Water Release: Water Mirror Technique"! Create a mirror of water that reflects an enemy's attack and counters with the exact same attack at equal power.]
Far away, Jujirō, Izumi, and Biwa Jūzō, who had been fleeing for their lives, all skidded to a halt at once—the sense of annihilation receded like the tide. Looking back, they had personally witnessed that god-punishing slash, and the instant death of both the Three-Tails and the Mizukage.
Jūzō turned first, staring at the two distant swaths of land flattened by the bomb's aftershock. The hellscape made the corner of his eye twitch. His gaze then slid to the mountain cleaved in two, now fully collapsed.
The icy mask on his face finally cracked. Hoisting the Decapitating Blade on his shoulder, he swallowed hard and rasped, "Why do I feel Uchiha Chizumi was still holding back? The Fourth Mizukage plus full tailed-beast power… and it still didn't even force him to go all out?"
That single stroke shattered every frame Jūzō had for what "power" meant. This wasn't a battle between shinobi—it was a one-sided slaughter.
A question rose unbidden in his mind: "If he has that kind of overwhelming strength—he could've taken down the Mizukage and the Three-Tails in a simpler, quieter way. Why make such a scene?"
Back in his plump ninja-cat form, Jujirō licked his paw, thoughtful. "Mrrp. Chizumi-sama wasn't just executing justice. He was warning them—warning Kirigakure, and every shinobi in the Land of Water—in the most direct, most shocking way."
He paused, a glint of understanding in his cat eyes. "Telling them this: Absolute Justice has arrived in the Land of Water."
"There are only two paths for Mist shinobi," Jujirō went on in that odd cadence. "One: imitate the Fourth Mizukage and choose to oppose Absolute Justice—then this is your fate. Two: cooperate honestly—and you might still have a way to live."
"Of course," the cat added, "if you're an evildoer already stained with sin, then no matter what you choose, there's only one end: death."
Jūzō blinked. "That—"
He stared at the doomsday vista, the corner of his mouth ticking. "As 'warnings' go… this is a bit much, isn't it—"
Izumi cut in at once. "But it's exactly Chizumi-senpai's style. He hates hassle and roundabout games. If one display can hit hard enough to cow potential enemies and spare him countless future headaches, he'll flex without hesitation."
Thinking back on Konoha, she said seriously, "That's probably why every time he carried out justice in the village, it made a big splash. And it worked—many clans and higher-ups were deeply shaken by his power."
Izumi's eyes swept over the scorched earth and came to rest on Jūzō. "Chizumi-senpai has now shown your village the power of Absolute Justice in the most direct way. What happens next depends on how Kirigakure's shinobi choose."
Jūzō: "…"
Elsewhere, the moment the collapsing mountain swallowed what remained of the Three-Tails, Mei Terumī and Ao reacted from sheer instinct. Hearts lurching, they sprinted straight toward the landslide, dodging the rain of falling rock and pushing their speed to the limit, clinging to a shred of hope.
About a kilometer from the collapse, Ao skidded to a stop. Veins bulged at his temples as he cranked the Byakugan to the absolute limit, his vision punching through strata of rock and choking dust as he swept the ruins.
A heartbeat later—
He froze like a statue. All color drained from his face, replaced by raw disbelief.
Mei's stomach dropped; she'd seen the change in his expression. "Ao! What about the Mizukage?!"
Ao turned like a machine, his voice sandpapered by shock. "The Mizukage's chakra signature is completely gone. He's… dead. And the Three-Tails' massive chakra is fading fast. That means the Mizukage and Isobu were killed at the same time—by that Lava Release monster from Konoha!"
"—!!!" Mei reeled. She'd suspected Yagura might not be Chizumi's match—might even fall—but the reality was so clean, so brutal, so fast that it numbed her. This wasn't a fight; it was an execution. Yagura likely never even touched his opponent.
What Chizumi had just shown far exceeded the limits of what she thought a "shinobi" could be. To her surprise, she didn't feel much grief—more shock, more dread. Perhaps, deep down, the Mizukage who had deepened the Blood Mist and dragged the village into a darker, closed era was not someone she truly wished to serve.
Her thoughts snapped as Ao blurted again, unable to hide the tremor in his voice: "That— that monster… I think he's looking this way!"
What?!
Mei jerked her head up. An icy chill shot from her soles to her crown. Instinctively, she looked toward the towering, crimson Susanoo standing against the sky. Beneath its helm, those giant sockets—burning with a cold, hellish flame—really did seem to pierce the kilometers between them… and lock precisely onto where the two of them stood.
Cold sweat beaded instantly down Mei Terumī's back.