novelraw Chapter 384 384 Snatched Rinnegan
Chapter 384 384 Snatched Rinnegan
Looking at the roaring, enormous water dragon approaching, Madara's lips curled into a disdainful arc.
"Then let me show you the gap between us." He didn't even use complex hand seals, just brought his hands together before his chest, then quickly separated them, thumbs and index fingers opposing to form a unique seal.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"
He took a deep breath, his chest swelling, then fiercely exhaled a searing sea of flames, surging like a tidal wave!
The range of this fire sea was extremely vast, the temperature shockingly high, as if even the air would ignite!
Flame and roaring water dragon collided head-on!
Hiss—!!!
A deafening steam explosion sound instantly erupted!
Massive white steam rose like a mushroom cloud, instantly shrouding the entire riverbank, obscuring vision.
Nagato's seemingly invincible water dragon, faced with this terrifying fire sea, was rapidly evaporated and scattered like ice thrown into a furnace!
And the residual flames, still carrying destructive high temperatures, surged towards Nagato's position!
'Not good!'
Nagato's pupils contracted sharply. The sense of mortal danger instantly enveloped him!
Almost instinctively, he raised his hands. The purple ripples in his Rinnegan spun rapidly!
"Shinra Tensei!"
A powerful invisible repulsive force erupted with him as the center!
The residual flames surging towards him, faced with this repulsive force, as if hitting an invisible wall, were forcibly deflected, thrown back, crashing into the forests and riverbanks on both sides, causing a series of explosions and fires.
"Oh?" From within the spreading steam came Madara's slightly surprised hum.
He hadn't expected Nagato to have independently comprehended one of the Rinnegan's basic abilities without guidance.
However, as the original owner of these eyes, Madara knew better than anyone the weakness of Shinra Tensei.
That brief but fatal cooldown time!
Just as Nagato finished using Shinra Tensei, his body experiencing a moment of stiffness and panting due to the sudden burst of power...
Swoosh!
Madara's figure tore through the dense steam, moving at a speed far exceeding Nagato's reaction limit, instantly closing in right in front of him!
The two figures crossed paths so fast they left only an afterimage!
Nagato didn't even see the other's movement. He only felt a heart-wrenching pain in his right eye!
His vision instantly turned half red!
"Ahhh—!!!" He let out a miserable scream, instinctively covering his right eye. Warm blood immediately gushed from between his fingers!
And Madara, as if teleporting, appeared behind him. In his hand, he held a bloodstained Rinnegan, still showing purple ripples!
The pain and fear from blindness made Nagato jerk his head around, his remaining left eye looking at Madara in terror.
However, what met him was Madara's lightning-fast hand reaching out again!
Squelch!
Another piercing pain!
The vision in his left eye also instantly fell into eternal darkness!
"Ugh—!" Nagato let out a despairing wail, covering his empty, bleeding eye sockets with both hands. The intense pain nearly made him faint.
Madara looked coldly at Nagato writhing in pain on the ground, as if looking at a crushed insect.
He casually held the freshly gouged left Rinnegan in his hand, then raised his foot, stomping hard on Nagato's back, pressing him firmly into the mud!
"Why... why me?! Answer me!!" Nagato struggled in the mud, voicing his unwilling, pained question, his voice intermittent from pain and suffocation.
Madara ignored the ant's wail under his foot.
He first skillfully removed his own Three-Tomoe Sharingan, then placed the two Rinnegan containing the power of all creation, one by one, back into his own empty eye sockets.
When his eyes closed and reopened, those purple ripple-patterned eyes appeared on Madara's face!
A far more vast and deep Ocular Power than when in Nagato was awakening!
Madara felt the long-lost sense of control and power from the eyes' return, a satisfied smile appearing on his lips.
He looked down at Nagato, still groaning in pain beneath his foot, and declared like a judge: "This is the cruel Ninja World. The weak are born as pawns and nourishment for the strong. They have no right to question."
As he spoke, he raised his right hand, covered in red arm armor. Dense Chakra rapidly gathered in his palm, forming a cold, sharp black Chakra Rod.
Without hesitation, his arm stabbed downward, aiming straight for Nagato's heart!
He would completely eliminate this now-worthless vessel!
Just as the black rod was about to touch Nagato's back-
Whoosh—!
A sharp whistling sound tore through the rain curtain!
Another pitch-black black Chakra Rod shot out from within the dense steam at an even faster speed, with greater force, striking the black rod Madara was stabbing down with!
Clang—!
A piercing metallic clang exploded!
Sparks flew!
Madara felt his arm shake. The stabbing motion was forcibly interrupted and knocked aside by this sudden immense force!
Swish—!
A dazzling golden Chakra Chain whistled out from deep within the steam! With lightning speed, it wrapped around Nagato in the mud, yanking him backward, forcibly dragging him from under Madara's foot into the safety of the steam-shrouded area!
Madara's eyes narrowed. He tightened his grip on the black rod, his aura suddenly intensifying, warily looking towards the direction of the attack.
The spreading steam was slowly dispersed by an invisible force.
A figure gradually became clear.
Amidst the falling rain, a black-haired youth in black attire stood tall.
The rain, nearing an inch around his body, seemed separated by an invisible barrier, sliding off to either side without touching him at all.
Behind him, the golden chain that had rescued Nagato slowly coiled back like a tame pet, disappearing into his body.
The youth raised his head. A pair of heterochromatic eyes calmly looked at Madara.
'So it really is a Mangekyo Sharingan I've never seen before.' Madara examined the other, confirming the intelligence reported by the White Zetsu.
But what puzzled him more was that the other party also had a Hyuga's Byakugan.
Madara slowly raised the black Chakra Rod in his hand, pointing it at the youth across the way. His voice, filled with oppressive force, echoed through the rain curtain:
"Your Sharingan and Byakugan... where did they come from?"
"Brat of the Uzumaki Clan."
The reason Madara was so certain Menma was from the Uzumaki Clan was simple.
That dazzling Adamantine Sealing Chains couldn't be faked!
This was an innate talent within the Uzumaki bloodline, a symbol of their vast Chakra and tenacious life force. It couldn't be obtained through later training or transplantation.
As for those heterochromatic eyes, while both Sharingan and Byakugan were Dojutsu Kekkei Genkai and could indeed be transplanted, just as he had nurtured his Rinnegan in Nagato, Madara was somewhat curious how an orphan of the destroyed Uzumaki Clan obtained this Mangekyo Sharingan and Byakugan.
After all, as a former leader of the Uchiha Clan, he had taken most of the clan's records. They documented every Mangekyo Sharingan pattern in detail, yet one like this had never appeared.
Moreover, the Byakugan was precious. Unless it was from a Hyuga Clan's main family's member, the Byakugan of a branch family member with the Caged Bird seal couldn't be transplanted.
Faced with Madara's scrutinizing, oppressive interrogation, Menma didn't directly answer.
As if the figure standing before him wasn't the fearsome Uchiha Madara but just an ordinary old man.
He didn't even spare his gaze on this Ninja World's Shura. He just slightly lowered his head, looking at Nagato twitching slightly from pain and blood loss at his feet, his tone carrying a hint of teasing: "Hey, kid,"
Menma's voice broke the deathly silence under the rain curtain. "You've got quite some guts, huh, daring to go fight this old guy alone."
His tone was light, even joking with Nagato.
But behind this lightness was absolute confidence in his own strength.
Just then, two urgent whistling sounds approached from afar.
"Nagato!" Yahiko and Konan finally arrived, their faces anxious, landing steadily behind Menma.
When Yahiko and Konan helped Nagato up and their eyes fell upon the two bloody, empty sockets where his eyes had been, their hearts clenched as if grabbed tightly!
"Nagato! Your eyes?!" Yahiko's voice trembled. He tightly held Nagato's arm, looking at his friend's miserable state, a piercing pain and deep guilt surging in his heart.
'If only I had noticed earlier, if only I were stronger...'
Konan's usually cool face was now filled with worry and fear. Looking at Nagato, her voice choked: "How could you go alone... why didn't you tell us..."
Nagato, enduring the intense pain from his eyes and the panic of losing his sight, weakly shook his head, his voice hoarse: "This was my own choice... This is... the revenge I must face..."
He didn't want to drag his comrades into deeper danger because of his own affairs.
"Save the reminiscing for later," Menma interrupted the somewhat heavy atmosphere.
His gaze remained calmly fixed on Uchiha Madara across the way, his tone slightly grave. "You two, take him and leave here first, return to the village for treatment."
Menma paused, then added, "The upcoming battle is not something you can intervene in right now."
Yahiko and Konan both shuddered upon hearing this.
They looked at Menma's profile, then at that terrifying figure across the way who, just by standing there, made one's heart tremble with fear.
These past few days' experiences were more eventful than their entire lives before. They had thought Ninja like Jiraiya and Hanzo were the pinnacle of the Ninja World.
Yet in the face of Menma and his enemies, Amegakure's hero, the Demigod of the Ninja World, Hanzo, was nothing more than a stray dog that could be kicked to death.
Yahiko nodded heavily, slinging one of Nagato's arms over his shoulder, giving Konan a look, then said to Menma solemnly, "Understood! Menma, be careful in everything!"
His eyes were filled with trust and entrustment.
Konan also took a deep look at Menma, whispering, "Please... you must come back safely."
Then, without further hesitation, the two of them supported the weak Nagato and quickly retreated towards Amegakure.
Their figures soon vanished into the vast rain curtain and forest.
From beginning to end, Madara merely watched coldly, not interfering.
Nagato, with his eyes retrieved, had lost his value and his interest.
Now, all his focus was drawn to the mysterious black-haired youth before him.
Those heterochromatic pupils, that unfathomable aura of a powerhouse, that composed attitude when facing him... reminded him of his former friend and rival, Senju Hashirama.
The fighting spirit that had lain dormant for decades began to surge violently like a volcano about to erupt!
Ever since faking his death at the Valley of the End and dragging out a miserable existence alone in these dark undergrounds for over thirty years, although he eventually awakened the Rinnegan and found even greater power, it came with an increasingly aging, decaying body and boundless loneliness.
Hashirama was dead. In the Ninja World, there was no one left he could consider an opponent, no battle that could make his blood boil!
What loneliness and sorrow this was!
Yet, on the final stretch of his life's journey, just when he thought he could never again experience the thrill of clashing with a strong opponent, this youth appeared before him!
He could clearly sense the other party's body contained a Chakra as vast as an ocean… a power enough to make him serious, perhaps even bring him the long-lost threat of death!
How could this not excite him?
How could it not make his fighting spirit boil?!
As for the other's origin, identity, purpose...
At this moment, they were all overshadowed by the blazing desire for battle!
He only wanted to cast everything aside and fight a hearty battle with this powerful opponent!