CHAPTER 143
"Uchiha Feiquan... is he about to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan?"
Guy's heart trembled.
He reacted almost instantly.
After experiencing the sudden ambush...
Witnessing the deaths of his clansmen...
Enduring Roshi's overwhelming pressure and the despair that had nearly consumed him...
Then finally...
Personally killing the Four Tails Jinchuriki, Roshi.
The intertwining emotions of vengeance, determination, relief after surviving certain death, and the burden of responsibility...
Had those countless intense emotional layers finally pushed him to the threshold of awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan?
No...
Not yet.
Guy narrowed his eyes as he stared fixedly at Uchiha Feiquan.
After that nearly imperceptible tremor...
The three tomoe within Feiquan's Sharingan gradually stabilized once again.
The tomoe resumed their steady rotation.
It was as though that brief disturbance had never happened.
As though it had only been Guy's imagination.
But Guy knew...
It definitely wasn't an illusion.
That had truly been the precursor to awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan.
It was simply...
Still lacking one final push.
Guy's gaze quietly shifted toward Uchiha Shisui, who was not far away.
"If Shisui were to die right now..."
"Feiquan's Mangekyo Sharingan would almost certainly awaken completely."
The thought flashed through Guy's mind.
He quietly shook his head.
At least for now...
Shisui was no longer in immediate danger.
Feiquan's awakening would likely be delayed.
However...
The necessary conditions had already matured.
Guy lowered his gaze toward Roshi's headless corpse lying on the battlefield.
His expression became complicated.
The outcome of this battle had already diverged greatly from the future he remembered.
Uchiha Feiquan hadn't died.
Uchiha Shisui hadn't awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan through overwhelming grief.
Instead...
Feiquan himself had reached that very threshold.
And on top of that...
Iwagakure's greatest strategic weapon...
The Four Tails Jinchuriki, Roshi...
Had died here.
The future of the ninja world would almost certainly be rewritten from this point onward.
Yet...
Guy felt no regret whatsoever.
He still didn't know what the original outcome of this battle had been.
Had Feiquan originally sacrificed himself...
Allowing Shisui to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan in grief and reverse the battle?
Or...
Had some other tragedy unfolded instead?
He didn't know.
But there was one thing he knew with absolute certainty.
From the very beginning...
Roshi had intended to kill him...
Ebisu...
And Genma.
Avenging his disciple had merely given him another reason.
Under those circumstances...
Showing mercy or hesitating...
Would have been the stupidest possible decision.
Only by fighting with everything he had...
Could he carve out a path to survival.
As for how Roshi's death would affect the future...
Although Guy understood the magnitude of that change...
What surprised even himself...
Was how calm he remained.
The future had changed?
Then let it change.
He felt neither confusion nor helplessness over the collapse of the future he once knew.
Instead...
There was only an unexpected sense of calm.
Perhaps...
He himself had already ceased to be the Guy from his previous life.
Perhaps...
From the moment he obtained the Monk System...
The future of this world had already begun diverging from the one in his memories.
Now...
Those changes were gradually becoming reality.
Step by step.
...
"Clean up the battlefield."
"Gather all useful intelligence."
"Treat the wounded."
"In five minutes..."
"We move to reinforce Outpost No. 7."
Uchiha Feiquan's calm voice interrupted Guy's thoughts.
His tone had already regained the composure expected of a battlefield commander.
It was as though he had noticed nothing unusual about his own eyes.
The brutal clash had come to an end.
The Uchiha Clan had suffered seven deaths.
Five were seriously wounded.
More than ten had sustained minor injuries.
As for Iwagakure...
All fifty elite shinobi...
Including the Four Tails Jinchuriki, Roshi...
Had been annihilated.
Exactly as Uchiha Feiquan had ordered.
Leave no one alive.
The surviving Uchiha immediately began moving.
Silently.
Efficiently.
They cleaned the battlefield while administering emergency treatment to the wounded.
At the same time...
Their Sharingan constantly scanned the surroundings for any remaining threats.
After giving his orders...
Uchiha Feiquan slowly walked toward Guy's group.
His expression was unusually complicated.
These three youngsters...
Whom he had always regarded as outsiders...
Whom he had instinctively kept at arm's length...
Even viewing them as burdens...
In the end...
They had become the saviors of Outpost No. 8.
His own life...
As well as the lives of nearly every Uchiha stationed here...
Had been saved by these three.
Especially Guy's sealed seawater.
That single move had completely overturned the entire battle.
Feiquan's gaze settled upon Guy.
He remained silent for several moments.
The cold arrogance that normally filled his face had completely disappeared.
"Might Guy."
"Ebisu."
"Shiranui Genma."
He slowly took a deep breath.
His expression became solemn.
"As long as I, Uchiha Feiquan, still draw breath..."
"And as long as Outpost No. 8 continues to stand..."
"I will never allow anything to happen to the three of you."
There were no unnecessary words.
But this promise carried tremendous weight.
Guy and the others could clearly feel his sincerity.
The three simply nodded.
None of them offered polite formalities.
Feiquan also nodded.
Then he turned away.
Preparing everyone to depart.
Although victory had been secured here...
The fighting elsewhere had yet to end.
The continuous signal flares from nearby Outpost No. 7 were proof enough.
The situation there was undoubtedly just as dangerous.
Just as the battlefield had been roughly cleaned...
And everyone was preparing to depart according to Feiquan's orders...
A dense series of footsteps...
Accompanied by the sharp sound of bodies cutting through the air...
Suddenly approached from the distance.
The sounds drew closer with astonishing speed.
Clearly...
A large force was rapidly approaching.
Everyone immediately became alert once again.
The tension that had only just eased returned instantly.
Weapons were raised.
Sharingan activated.
Ready for battle.
Then...
A massive figure resembling a small mountain burst from the forest.
Boom!
He landed heavily at the edge of the battlefield.
The earth shook beneath his feet.
The moment the man appeared...
Guy...
Ebisu...
And Genma...
All widened their eyes.
Although none of them had met him personally...
That towering physique, even larger than Akimichi Choza's...
Combined with facial features that closely resembled Choza's, only older and more imposing...
Immediately revealed his identity.
Akimichi Torifu.
Captain Akimichi Choza's father.
The supreme commander of Konoha's forces on the Land of Rice Fields front.
After arriving...
Torifu's gaze immediately swept across the battlefield.
He first examined the countless corpses of Iwagakure shinobi.
Then his eyes briefly lingered on Guy's trio.
Finally...
They stopped on the headless corpse wearing the distinctive purple battle armor.
Roshi.
Torifu's expression instantly became incomparably grave.
Behind him...
One figure after another emerged from the forest.
Konoha shinobi quickly assembled behind their commander.
Judging from their attire...
As well as the chakra they emitted...
Every one of them was an elite.
However...
What caused the pupils of every Uchiha...
As well as Guy, Ebisu, and Genma...
To contract sharply...
Was what appeared behind them.
On both flanks of Torifu's Konoha force...
And throughout the forest beyond...
Large numbers of additional shinobi emerged.
They wore brown combat uniforms.
Iwagakure forehead protectors gleamed beneath the moonlight.
Their eyes burned with killing intent.
They were...
Iwagakure shinobi.
And there were many of them.
Why had Akimichi Torifu arrived together with Iwagakure?
Why weren't the two sides fighting?
Outpost No. 8 had nearly been destroyed.
Yet the supreme commander had arrived alongside the enemy?
What exactly was happening?
One question after another surfaced in everyone's mind.
Even Uchiha Feiquan's expression darkened.
For a brief moment...
The atmosphere between both sides froze completely.
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