Naruto: Uchiha Survivor Forced to Save the Shinobi World

Staring at the severed head rolling on the ground, everyone—including Jiraiya and Tsunade—wore expressions of shock and uncertainty!

"No way?!"

"The winner… was actually Uchiha Shinji?!"

"It's over just like that?"

The crowd's faces displayed a mix of astonishment, doubt, and even relief.

"How… how is this possible!?"

Sasuke stood frozen in place.

To him, it was already unthinkable that Shinji could tangle with the mysterious enemy for so long. After all, someone as powerful as Yakumo hadn't lasted a single move before being crushed by the foe.

So he never imagined that Shinji would not only win but also kill the enemy, even severing their head!

Haku and Karin were equally stunned.

But compared to their shock, the joy in their eyes was impossible to hide!

"Huh?"

Tsunade suddenly let out a soft gasp.

Jiraiya asked, "What's wrong?"

Tsunade crouched beside the head of Otsutsuki Toneri's lifelike puppet and said, "This is just a puppet!"

"What?"

Everyone turned to look at the puppet on the ground.

The Forest of Death was dimly lit at night, with only patchy moonlight filtering through the canopy, making it hard to see. Recognizing the face of the head Shinji held had already been a challenge.

Moreover, Toneri's puppet was so lifelike it could pass for real, so it wasn't until Tsunade pointed it out that the group realized something was off about the head.

Shinji said, "When I took the guy down, I realized it was a puppet. The body's somewhere in the forest—go find it yourselves!"

Tsunade furrowed her brow.

She had seen plenty of puppets, but during their earlier clash, she hadn't noticed the enemy was merely a puppet, which deepened her suspicions.

Jiraiya asked, "What about the puppeteer?"

Shinji shrugged, indicating he hadn't found any puppeteer.

Jiraiya looked at Tsunade.

Tsunade nodded slightly, "We didn't realize it was a puppet either."

Her implication was clear: if they hadn't even identified it as a puppet, they certainly hadn't spotted any puppeteer.

Handing Neji over to the approaching Hyuga clan members, Shinji yawned, "Perfect, Neji's in your hands. I'm going back to rest!"

With that, the visibly exhausted Shinji ignored the crowd's shocked gazes and walked through them to leave.

The fatigue on his face wasn't an act.

In his final clash with Toneri, though he won, the victory hadn't come easily!

At the time, Toneri had used the massive Tenseigan's immense suction to restrain him, then prepared to use its chakra-draining ability to finish him off instantly.

In that critical moment, Shinji's options were limited.

Victory or defeat hinged on a single choice!

At that crucial juncture, Shinji chose to activate his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

But instead of using Susanoo to confront Toneri head-on, he lowered his head, closed his eyes to conceal the activation, and secretly used Jikibi to connect with the unconscious Neji, who was still in Toneri's grasp. Then he activated Wazunagi to siphon Neji's chakra.

While using Wazunagi, he played a trick, deliberately delaying the transfer of chakra to himself.

Right after, as expected, Toneri captured him and drained all his chakra.

As his chakra was completely sapped, Shinji felt an overwhelming weakness, his mind slipping into a daze, as if he'd pass out any second.

Having succeeded, Toneri dropped all his defenses.

After all, once chakra was drained, even the mightiest foe became a fish on the cutting board, helpless.

At that moment, the chakra Shinji had siphoned from Neji via Wazunagi flowed into his body, restoring his fading consciousness.

In an instant!

Shinji snapped his eyes open. Under Toneri's stunned gaze, he flicked his wrist, and the special spider silk wrapped around it—sharper than steel wire—coiled around Toneri's neck.

Clang.

With a metallic ring, the head of Toneri's lifelike puppet fell to the ground.

Shinji had turned the tables!

With the puppet's destruction, Toneri's spiritual essence, protected by the massive Tenseigan, vanished in the blink of an eye.

Without the Tenseigan's support, the chakra Toneri had drained from Shinji dissipated, mingling with the Tenseigan chakra and saturating the entire forest.

This was why neither Karin's Kagura Mind's Eye nor the Hyuga clan's Byakugan could pierce the battlefield earlier!

Though Shinji won, the sensation of having his chakra drained was brutal. His preemptive use of Wazunagi to siphon Neji's chakra had timely replenished him, preventing total bodily collapse or life-threatening chakra depletion. Still, his condition was far from ideal.

So as he walked through the crowd to leave, everyone could clearly see the exhaustion and weakness on his face!

Yet, this didn't diminish him in their eyes—it made him seem more real. If Shinji had casually brushed off defeating the mysterious enemy, that would have been harder to accept.

Shion shot Sasuke a glare, "Hmph, you made us worry for nothing!"

Sasuke muttered, "But… but that guy was really strong! How could Shinji beat him alone?"

Shion pouted, "What's so impossible about it?"

Sasuke tried to explain, "But even Yakumo was defeated by that guy!"

"So what!" Shion put her hands on her hips, smugly declaring, "Yakumo could never beat Shinji anyway! Hey, do you even understand what it means to be the top student? Shinji's the top student of our ninja academy!"

Hearing Shion's words, Sasuke was both speechless and dejected.

He had been ready to risk his life to avenge Shinji, only to find that Shinji had single-handedly taken down the mysterious enemy!

He couldn't help but brood, "Is the gap between me and Shinji really that big? Damn it, I'm the one who awakened the Sharingan!"

The nearby Hidden Leaf shinobi exchanged glances, murmuring, "Is the ninja academy's top student that strong?"

Tsunade and Jiraiya shared a look, both seeing something unusual in each other's eyes.

Earlier that day, during the high-level meeting, they had been puzzled and indifferent about Koharu's decision, as an elder advisor, to personally recruit Uchiha Shinji from the ninja academy.

Now, they were beginning to feel a faint sense of unease…