Boro, whose body had been sealed by a jutsu, was being interrogated by Ibiki, the head of Konoha's Interrogation Department.
As an expert in this field, Ibiki possessed a summoning technique that gave him an absolute advantage during interrogations—he could pull people into the "interrogation chamber" he summoned.
...
When Carl arrived, what he saw was an empty cell.
The Third instantly understood what was going on. Ibiki's interrogation clearly hadn't ended yet, so he began to explain it to Carl. Unexpectedly, Carl didn't even acknowledge him. He simply swept his Tenseigan across the cell, raised a hand, and made a grasping motion. Ripples spread through space itself.
A dark, hidden space was directly materialized, and inside it, Ibiki was in the middle of using torture devices on Boro—completely unaware that his private space had been exposed to the outside world.
This casual manipulation of space stunned both the Third and Danzo once again. Carl pointed a finger, and Ibiki's interrogation chamber instantly turned into a phantom and dispersed, leaving behind a thoroughly confused Ibiki.
When Ibiki saw Carl, his pupils shrank. He immediately understood why his technique had "released itself."
If it was this man, then anything was possible.
Ibiki had gone to the forest as well and witnessed Carl's battle. But with his level of strength, aside from watching from start to finish, he might as well have been invisible.
Carl glanced at Boro, who was tied to a pillar with vacant eyes, and asked calmly,
"Did you get the results?"
Ibiki shook his head awkwardly.
"His will is firmer than I imagined. His tolerance for pain is extremely high…"
This outcome was also unexpected for both the Third and Danzo. They trusted Ibiki's interrogation skills, which was why they had informed Carl so quickly after Boro was captured. Now things were truly difficult to handle.
The two men, usually as steady as old hounds, were visibly uneasy. They didn't even dare meet Carl's eyes.
Carl said nothing and walked straight up to Boro.
By now, Boro's consciousness was beginning to recover, and Carl's face gradually came into focus before him. He didn't recognize Carl at all. He simply assumed that Ibiki had run out of methods, and Konoha had switched interrogators.
With a disdainful sneer, Boro narrowed his eyes at Carl and mocked him,
"Useless—ugh!!"
His voice cut off abruptly. His eyes bulged wide in terror as he stared at Carl's hand, which had plunged into his body.
Carl's hand slid into Boro's abdomen as if there were no resistance at all. When Carl withdrew it, there was now a black sphere the size of a leather ball in his palm.
This was Boro's core. Relying on this object, known as the "nucleus," his body could regenerate endlessly.
Under Boro's gaze, the core trembled lightly in Carl's hand, then suddenly shattered, turning into countless black particles that vanished into the air.
The moment the core was destroyed, Boro's eyes turned bloodshot. He roared,
"How dare you!!!"
Crack!
The sound of bones snapping rang out, blood spraying everywhere. With a light tug, Carl tore off one of Boro's arms and casually tossed it aside like trash.
Even Ibiki, who specialized in brutal interrogations, couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his mouth. The Third and Danzo simply watched in silence. With their mission only half-complete, how could they dare say a single extra word?
Boro let out screams, yet Carl didn't stop. Repeating the same motion, he tore off Boro's remaining limbs one by one. Moments ago, Boro had been a large, intact man—now he had been reduced to a limbless torso bound to a pillar.
Under normal circumstances, Boro should have long since lost consciousness or died from blood loss or overwhelming pain after losing his regeneration.
Yet even after all four limbs were gone, his mind remained clear. His face even looked flushed, a sign of vigorous vitality.
Standing in a pool of blood, Carl spoke flatly,
"Tough bastard. That was your reward just now. Did you like it?"
Boro was in too much pain to speak. He could only bare his teeth and glare at Carl. Carl admired his expression and smiled.
"Don't rush. I'll keep your brain for now. There are still a few things I need to know…"
As he spoke, under Boro's terrified gaze, Carl once again "placed" his hand into Boro's head.
The entire process took less than three seconds. Carl withdrew his hand, nodded slightly, and said,
"So you're hiding in another space after all?"
Hearing this, Boro instead revealed a ferocious grin.
"You ignorant fool. That great lord is someone you ants can never hope to reach. Your foolish actions will bring destruction upon all of Konoha!!"
Unable to restrain himself, Danzo rushed forward and grabbed Boro by the chin, saying coldly,
"A damned cultist dares talk about destroying Konoha? What do you think you and the thing behind you are?"
Carl shot Danzo a glance, and Danzo immediately retreated resentfully. He knew very well that he had just been borrowing Carl's authority. In truth, he believed Boro's claim that this so-called "great lord" possessed the power to destroy Konoha. But since that being was Carl's enemy, he wasn't afraid.
No matter how you looked at it, Konoha had now completely offended Boro and the organization behind him. Faced with such an unknown and powerful existence, they could only rely on Carl's strength.
Carl looked expressionlessly at the still-yapping Boro and said calmly,
"A great lord? You mean that idiot who got half his body chewed?"
Boro froze.
"What? What nonsense are you talking about? Half his body?"
Carl laughed and shook his head.
"Looks like trash like you doesn't rank very high over there with Isshiki. The Ōtsutsuki cult… tsk tsk. You haven't even seen what a complete Ōtsutsuki looks like, yet you're already playing at faith. How ridiculous."
"You—"
Crack!
Another crisp snapping sound echoed through the cell, and everything fell silent.
Carl hefted Boro's head in his hand, weighing it lightly. With a slight tremor of his palm, Boro's head exploded like a giant watermelon, red and white splattering all over Danzo beside him. Carl himself, however, remained spotless.
He raised his eyes to the Third, who was standing silently not far away, and said flatly,
"This time, your mission counts as completed."
Only then did the Third, who had been tense the entire time, finally let out a breath of relief.
Konoha… was saved this time.
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+90 chapters on p@treon/tambeerg