Saving the Uchiha clan starts with becoming the clan leader.

Kazuma's answer startled Hiramiya Natsuki, a deep sense of fear flashing in his eyes. He raised his right hand, still pierced with a kunai, trying to block Kazuma's attack, but his reaction was far too slow, more than a beat too slow.

With his five fingers together, he transformed into an iron-colored hand blade, which fell like lightning, severing Hiramiya Saiki's head with unstoppable force.

Fresh blood,

It gushed out from his neck.

This time, Hiramiya Saiki had completely lost the possibility of getting up. His lifeless eyes proved his death. However, just to be on the safe side, Kazuma took out Hiramiya Saiki's brain and heart and sealed them in a scroll. This would not only prevent Hiramiya Saiki from coming back to life, but also prevent the Konoha ninjas from reading some of the secret information in Hiramiya Saiki's brain.

"They even ripped out the brain? That's incredibly cruel!"

Obito Uchiha appeared silently, looking down at the corpse on the ground.

"But... immortality? That's interesting. He's fine even with his heart pierced, but he'll die if his head is cut off, which means his weakness is his head... No, wait, not necessarily. His immortality is probably not complete."

"You're also interested in this kind of immortality?"

Kazuma put away the scroll that sealed his brain and heart.

"I just found it a bit interesting; I never said I had a penchant for believing in evil gods," Obito Uchiha said calmly. "Let's not talk about that. If you're planning to frame that Ogasawara, aren't you going to clean up the mess already?"

"No need. This is just an excuse to block the Hiramiya family's revenge! With the head of the family, Hiramiya Nariaki, dead, those good-for-nothings in the Hiramiya family will start fighting amongst themselves. Compared to risking offending the daimyo to take their anger out on me, vying for the position of head of the family is the most important thing to them."

The world of nobles is just as bloody and cruel!

Every change of family head or clan leader often signifies another round of bloodshed. Over the centuries, there have been countless families or organizations that have been destroyed due to endless infighting. It remains to be seen whether the Hiramiya family can weather this crisis safely!

"The condition of the body, how Hiramiya Nariaki died, none of that matters... as long as there's no direct evidence that I killed him." Kazuma said indifferently. Killing Hiramiya Nariaki wasn't a result of a momentary impulse, but a conclusion reached after careful consideration.

The Konoha ninjas have already set their sights on the embassy; even if they kill Rokuro Arasaka, it will only be a temporary solution.

As long as Hiramiya Saiki and Ogasawara Uemon do not give up their secret ritual, they will always need the blood of strong and healthy people to perform the ritual. In other words, they will attract Konoha ninjas sooner or later. So instead of busying ourselves with cleaning up Hiramiya Saiki's mess,

It would be better to be more direct and cut it off at the source. This way, all the responsibility would be placed on Ogasawara Uemon, and the dead Hiramiya Nariaki would just be a deceived victim. In this way, the daimyo's face would be saved, and the Hiramiya family would be exempted from some of the blame!

[Chapter 262. The Unfinished Immortal Body and the Curse of Failure (Please Subscribe! Please Vote!)]

Kimimaro was drenched in sweat.

My arms are sore, weak, and painful.

He sighed inwardly once again, lamenting why he couldn't grow up faster. His underdeveloped body greatly limited his performance. In terms of martial arts skills, he was not afraid of Ogasawara Uemon at all, but the difference in physical fitness was too great. After fighting for less than ten minutes, his stamina was already on the verge of being exhausted.

Looking at the other side again,

Ogasawara Uemon's forehead was slightly sweaty.

Apart from that, he had a long, steady breath and showed no signs of fatigue.

Kimimaro himself felt that he had too many shortcomings, and his faults and flaws were countless. Little did he know that, in the eyes of outsiders, his talent and ability were absolutely top-notch. At this moment, his opponent, Ogasawara Uemon, had a very deep feeling about this.

He felt like he was a complete failure!

He fought a child for nearly ten minutes but still couldn't defeat him. His confidence and pride were on the verge of collapse. Putting aside his cold-bloodedness, bloodthirstiness, belligerence and other flaws, the fact that he had honed his swordsmanship to the point where he could fight on par with the Jonin showed that he was extremely devout in his swordsmanship.

however,

Nowadays,

His most prized and proudest skill of swordsmanship suffered a great setback in front of a child.

He didn't feel ashamed to be chased like a rabbit by Mifune-sama, nor did he think there was anything wrong with avoiding the fanatical followers of the evil god cult as if they were plague gods. But being held up by a child for nearly ten minutes was... too hurtful.

In the first five minutes,

While keeping an eye on Itachi Uchiha, who was holding the line, he also fought Kimimaro. However, after five minutes, he was unable to defeat Kimimaro, or even injure him. He became furious and stopped paying attention to Itachi Uchiha. He also put aside his plan to meet up with Hiramiya Kiyoshi and focused on quickly taking down Kimimaro.

In the end, it still didn't work.

The Shikotsumyaku bloodline limit is truly a close-combat weapon. A seemingly ingenious strike aimed straight for Kimimaro's head was abruptly interrupted by a bone protruding from the blade. Kimimaro seized the opportunity and unleashed a furious attack. Lacking sufficient strength, he focused on increasing his attack speed, inflicting minor wounds on Ogasawara Uemon, accumulating damage until a decisive breakthrough occurred…

That's what I think.

However, the actual results were not good.

Ogasawara Uemon's swordsmanship was quite superb. Although Kimimaro's unpredictable attacks with the Shikotsumyaku were repeatedly thwarted, it did not mean that he could not withstand Kimimaro's counterattacks. Both strength and speed are limited by physical attributes. If physical attributes are insufficient, the improvement in speed is, frankly speaking, very limited.

The battle remained in a strange, barely-there stalemate.

One is an orphan of the Kaguya clan whose taijutsu is barely at the level of a Jonin, and the other is a samurai who betrayed his homeland and dedicated his faith to the gods. In a sense, the two are indeed very well-matched opponents. Facing each other, they have no worries about genjutsu, ninjutsu or other such nonsense. They can fight with all their might using the power they are best at!

Until now—

Kimimaro was almost at his limit. Because his body hadn't fully developed, he was also using limited amounts of chakra-suppressing drugs like soldier pills. Feeling the dwindling chakra left in his body, Kimimaro gritted his teeth. He didn't want to delay any longer, and he couldn't delay any longer either.

With his meager remaining chakra, Kimimaro decided to try another strong attack.

Kimimaro gripped the bone knife tightly, stomped one foot on the ground, and charged forward, trying to get into Ogasawara Uemon's arms. He also stabbed the bone knife hard into Ogasawara Uemon's abdomen. Compared to Ogasawara Uemon's big frame of over 1.9 meters, Kimimaro was only a little over 140 centimeters tall.

However, the two had been fighting for almost ten minutes and were already quite familiar with each other's tactics.

Seeing Kimimaro launch a preemptive attack, Ogasawara Uemon remained calm and unhurried. He raised his katana and executed a "reverse abdomen" move, with the tip of the blade pointing downwards and slicing vertically upwards. This move could directly cut open the enemy's abdomen, somewhat like the seppuku performed by samurai, but instead of cutting the enemy's abdomen, hence the name "reverse abdomen".

"Clang!"

The moment the katana and bone sword clashed, Kimimaro immediately let go. With his amazing flexibility, Kimimaro bent over backward, his upper body leaning back rapidly. The bone sword was knocked away by the katana, almost grazing his chin. He could feel the chill of the wind, and cold sweat poured down his back.

Fortunately,

Despite the cold sweat beading on his vest, Kimimaro's movements didn't slow down. While bending over to dodge Ogasawara Uemon's attack, he raised his foot and kicked Ogasawara Uemon's left shin. A sharp white bone silently emerged from the sole of his foot, easily piercing through the sole of his shoe.

If that kick lands,

It's possible to make a hole in Ogasawara Uemon's calf that allows ventilation from both ends.

Suddenly, Ogasawara Eemon raised his left leg and assumed a one-legged stance, easily dodging Kimimaro's attack. Kimimaro was helpless about this. Being too short had its advantages and disadvantages. If he were taller, he could have kicked the opponent's thigh or even his abdomen instead of being dodged by the opponent's one-legged stance.

This offensive attempt clearly failed once again.

Kimimaro drew a new bone sword from his arm and, using a technique to deflect force, desperately parried Ogasawara Uemon's lightning-fast attacks, retreating step by step. Even when Ogasawara Uemon ran out of breath, he was unable to completely overpower Kimimaro, and the exchange finally ended, with the two returning to their previous stalemate.

However, this time is different from before.

Kimimaro's condition was visibly deteriorating. He was unable to perfectly evade Ogasawara Uemon's attack. His bones were emerging a little too slowly, leaving several shallow wounds on his arm. Ogasawara Uemon's blade gleamed with a golden-red halo in the morning light.

Then, under the watchful eyes of Itachi Uchiha and Kimimaro,

Ogasawara Uemon suddenly licked the blade like a pervert, as if tasting blood... Kimimaro shuddered. What kind of disgusting fetish was this? But Ogasawara Uemon's next action made him realize that things were not so simple.

Ogasawara Eemon slit his own wrist artery.

Fresh blood splattered on the ground like a fountain.

Then, using his foot as a pen and blood as ink, he instantly drew a symbol with an outer circle and an inner triangle on the ground, which was the symbol of the evil god cult... Judging from the speed at which he drew, he must have practiced drawing circles with his feet quite a bit.

"The game is over. Now... let's begin the ceremony!"

Ogasawara Uemon raised his katana again, licked the blood of Kimimaro from the tip of the blade, and at the same time, his body turned pitch black with white patterns on it... The change occurred on his body below his neck, while his head remained the same.

"What the hell is that?"

Kimimaro's eyes widened.

However, Kimimaro instinctively sensed an indescribable and immense threat approaching. He couldn't let Ogasawara Uemon continue, no matter what he was going to do next... Instinctively sensing the threat, Kimimaro pounced forward, brandishing his bone sword and viciously stabbing it towards Ogasawara Uemon's chest.

As Kimimaro had predicted, Ogasawara Uemon parried with his sword.

only--

Unexpectedly, Ogasawara Uemon seemed to have been given a muscle relaxant, suddenly losing all his strength. His katana and bone sword were deflected as soon as they touched, and the tip of the bone sword was about to pierce Ogasawara Uemon's chest. However, there was no fear on Ogasawara Uemon's face. He looked at Kimimaro as if he were looking at a dead man.

has a problem!

Kimimaro was filled with inexplicable confusion.

However, there was clearly no time for him to think at this moment, because the tip of the bone knife had already pierced Ogasawara Uemon's left chest, but Kimimaro also suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest.

Just at this time,

Kimimaro caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure appearing beside him out of the corner of his eye, followed by a sharp pain in his abdomen. A tremendous force was applied to his body, and he hunched over like a cooked shrimp. He released the bone knife that had not yet been deeply inserted into Ogasawara Uemon's chest, and was thrown backward like a kite with a broken string.

In the instant it flew out,

Kimimaro strained to open his eyes despite the excruciating pain, and through the tears that involuntarily welled up, he saw clearly that the one who had kicked him away was none other than Uchiha Itachi.

Damn it!

Ogasawara Uemon was both shocked and furious. He was just one step away from succeeding when his plan was ruined. He reached out his left hand, grabbed the bone sword that was falling downwards, and then repeated the action that Kimimaro had failed to complete, straining to stab himself in the chest.

Don't even think about it.

Itachi Uchiha looked at Ogasawara Uemon.

Their eyes met.

And that was it. Of course, there are some powerful figures in the ninja world who are not afraid of the Uchiha's genjutsu, but unfortunately, Ogasawara Uemon is clearly not one of them.

【Magic - The Art of Shackles】

In the illusionary world that Ogasawara Eemon "saw," his body was pinned to the spot by thick metal wedges, unable to move. Except for his eyes and lips, the rest of his body was completely incapacitated.

What did you do?

What did you do to me?

Ogasawara Uemon roared as he asked.

However, Itachi Uchiha didn't bother to answer. He simply looked down at the symbols drawn in blood on the ground, thought for a moment, and formed a hand seal with one hand, using the [Water Release: Water Fang Bullet Technique]. He could control the power of a small, high-speed rotating compressed water block, which easily shattered the ground beneath his feet. The symbols with an outer circle and an inner triangle also shattered, and the scattered water waves washed away the blood that hadn't yet dried.

Then a few seconds later,

Ogasawara Eemon's body returned to its original form; the previous black and white striped appearance seemed like a dream.

"Kimimaro, are you alright?"

Itachi Uchiha quickly arrived in front of Kimimaro, and with some remorse, helped up the little brother he had kicked away. "Sorry, I was too slow to react. I really couldn't think of a better way, so I had to kick you away."

"I should be thanking you for saving my life!"

Kimimaro caught his breath and, with Itachi's help, steadied himself. He reached up and pulled open his shirt, immediately seeing a wound on his left chest from which blood was seeping. He gasped, "How... how did you do that?"

"Judging from his drawing on the ground with blood and licking the blood from the tip of the knife that belongs to you, plus that phrase 'starting the ritual'... I think this should be some kind of reflection or damage-sharing technique."

"...I almost got tricked, thank goodness you were here."

Kimimaro remained silent for a few seconds, both shocked by the incredible technique and reflecting on his own carelessness. Ogasawara Uemon had clearly performed such a bizarre act, yet he hadn't reacted. If it weren't for Uchiha Itachi, he might already be a corpse.