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Urashiki floated above the clouds, staring down at the unfamiliar planet with a puzzled look on his face.
"Huh? Did I land on the wrong planet?" Right after he spoke, he sensed powerful chakra coming from humans everywhere. His eyes narrowed, and his confusion deepened.
"No, this planet definitely has chakra."
Urashiki remained in the air, glancing around as his suspicion grew. He failed to notice the figure that appeared quietly behind him...
Suddenly, someone spoke from behind him—
"Outsider. Are you looking for Isshiki and Kaguya?"
"..." The moment Urashiki heard the voice, his usual lazy expression vanished.
Urashiki liked to act careless, but deep down he was always on guard. He feared death more than most. Even after traveling through countless worlds and staying alert, no one had ever managed to sneak up on him like this.
A sudden sense of danger rushed through him.
Chakra burst around Urashiki as he spun around, glaring at the source of the voice.
An old man with white hair and a white beard floated in the sky. His plain white robe fluttered in the wind, and he gripped a black staff.
"You... WHO ARE YOU?" Urashiki's voice went cold at once.
Every alarm in his mind went off. The old man's silent approach showed he wasn't some harmless old guy. Urashiki could sense a hidden strength he couldn't measure.
Urashiki forced himself to stay calm and faced Manji, meeting his gaze.
"Where are Isshiki and Kaguya?"
Manji looked at him calmly and shook his head. "Those two? Hard to say whether they are alive or dead."
"Alive or dead... Oh?" Urashiki's eyes narrowed. Suspicion flickered in his eyes, and a forced smile spread across his face. "You seem to know quite a lot. Mind telling me what happened?"
Seeing the threat behind Urashiki's smile, Manji's lips twisted into a colder, more unsettling look. He stepped forward, speaking each word clearly.
"Of course."
"I killed them."
"Those two were disappointingly weak. I hope you can give me more of a challenge."
"..." Urashiki's forced smile froze on his face.
Any trace of amusement vanished.
"YOU LOWER LIFE-FORM. ARE YOU READY TO FACE THE JUDGMENT OF THE ŌTSUTSUKI CLAN?"
Ōtsutsuki Urashiki snapped, his voice full of anger.
When Manji heard him, he didn't get angry. Instead, he laughed.
Manji's tone was full of casual contempt, as if he looked down from a much higher place. "Then tell me... are you also ready to get crushed by a three-dimensional being, you lowly two-dimensional thing?"
As soon as he finished, Manji stared into Urashiki's eyes. His expression grew sharper, and his voice turned cold.
"I'll be taking those eyes." Before the words even faded, Manji was already standing in front of Urashiki.
"Damn it! Temporal Rewind!"
Caught off guard, Urashiki used his time-reversal ability, hoping to rewind far enough to see Manji's move.
But the moment the technique began, it jammed.
Time and space froze—as if something was gripping them tightly. He couldn't turn time back.
"Why isn't it working??" Urashiki's face changed, and he quickly moved back.
Too late... Manji was already within reach.
Several Truth-Seeking Orbs appeared, blocking every escape route. Manji reached out his hand.
A wet, slicing sound cut through the air.
"AAAGH!"
Urashiki clutched his empty left eye socket and stumbled back, blood streaming through his fingers. He lost his balance and fell from the sky.
"Picking the Monkey Sage Art clone was the right choice," Manji said as he put Urashiki's eye into his sleeve. "If I'd used another Sage Art clone, this might have taken longer."
A portal opened up behind him.
Manji stepped through it and disappeared.
..............
BANG!
Urashiki crashed into a field of broken stones, landing hard on his left shoulder. Pain from his missing eye shot through his whole body.
"Damn it... Damn that bastard! Why did my time rewind fail?"
Urashiki gritted his teeth and slammed his fist into the ground. Shards of stone flew up, cutting across his bloodstained face, but he didn't flinch. His remaining eye burned with fury and disbelief.
"Where the hell are Momoshiki and Kinshiki? Once those two get here, I'll have that old man torn apart!"
Remembering his eye being torn out made Urashiki's heart ache with fresh pain.
Acting on instinct, he drove chakra through his body and opened a Yomotsu Hirasaka rift, pouring everything he had into escaping into another dimension.
He had been beaten in a single move while in his normal state. If he tried to use his Crane Form now, it would only make things worse. His best option was to hide in another space and keep away from the old man for now.
"One step too slow... Or I wouldn't have lost my left eye to that bastard."
Urashiki pressed his hand over the empty socket. Warm blood coated his fingers, and hatred grew inside him.
But when he calmed down and tried to sense the space around him, what he saw made him freeze.
"Wait. Why am I still on this planet?"
"I clearly used Yomotsu Hirasaka to move into another dimension!"
Urashiki struggled to his feet and looked around, stumbling when he saw the familiar land of Earth. He checked the area again and again, but nothing changed.
He realized he had never actually left the planet.
"Stop wasting your thoughts on it. I used my power to distort your spatial landing point. From the beginning, you never managed to leave Earth."
Suddenly, a familiar voice spoke behind him...
"HUH?!" Urashiki whipped around.
Manji hovered a few meters above, silent and ghostlike, gazing down with cold eyes, as if observing a struggling insect for the final time.
"Son of a... You followed me? You creepy old bastard!" Urashiki snapped.
His face twisted with rage. His one good eye widened, and the pain from his empty socket almost made him lose control.
Manji wasn't surprised. In the original story, Urashiki always shouted the loudest when he was cornered. He had done the same to Boruto, hurling insults as soon as things went wrong.
Urashiki swung his red fishing hook, sending it straight for Manji's vital points.
"..." Manji didn't even glance at the incoming hook.
The Truth-Seeking Orbs beside him moved on their own, forming a black wall in front of him.
The red hook struck the orbs, but its attack faded away instantly.
The failed attack made panic rise in Urashiki's chest. He knew Manji was much faster and stronger than he was. He couldn't afford to hesitate.
He pulled a black square box from his robes and snarled, "Time Freeze!"
The box released a cloud of white smoke that spread quickly, covering the area in seconds.
Manji vanished into the smoke. Frosty patterns spread through the air, and time itself seemed to freeze.
"Cough, cough..." Urashiki stumbled back, blood still running down his face as he grinned with a vicious look.
"Bastard, once you're caught in my Time Freeze—you can sleep inside the Palace of the Dragon King for eternity!!"
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