Chapter 268 – Confrontation
As Uchiha Fugaku and the clan leaders mobilized near the Hokage Tower,
another figure raced through the darkened streets of Konoha.
Uchiha Kei was heading toward the Konoha Military Police Headquarters.
Inside, three officers were already waiting—
Uchiha Kawa, Uchiha Ryu, and Uchiha Jun—
the most trusted among Kei's command.
They knew tonight was no ordinary night.
Rumors had spread quietly through the ranks—
that this was the night the Fourth Hokage's wife would give birth.
But who she really was, they did not know.
Now, watching the crimson monster rampaging in the distance,
they no longer needed to ask.
---
"Shouldn't we move?!"
Uchiha Jun's voice trembled with urgency,
but the two men beside her didn't budge.
Both Kawa and Ryu were veterans—
shinobi who had survived the chaos of the last war.
They had seen enough to know when to wait for orders.
Kei had not yet signaled for them to act,
and they trusted him implicitly.
Even so, they had set a time limit—
if their captain didn't arrive soon, they would move without him.
Fortunately, he came—
a little late, but still on time.
---
"Emergency situation," Kei said curtly as he arrived.
"The Nine-Tails has been unleashed."
A brief pause followed.
No one spoke, but every face hardened.
"We're entering maximum alert. Kawa, Ryu—
assemble all divisions and move to the front lines immediately."
"Yes, Captain!"
The two veterans saluted sharply,
then fired flares into the sky—signals that split through the night in streaks of red and blue.
---
Kei turned to Jun.
"Your division is different. You won't be joining the front lines."
Jun frowned, clearly dissatisfied.
"Split your team," Kei continued.
"Assign one group to keep the prison guards in line—
if necessary, move the prisoners somewhere safer.
The rest will help evacuate civilians to the nearest shelters."
"Captain…" Jun protested,
her voice tight with frustration.
"With the Nine-Tails attacking, there won't be enough hands on the battlefield.
I can take a small unit and support the front—"
"No." Kei's tone was firm, cutting her off instantly.
"Your job isn't to prove yourself. It's to execute my orders."
Jun went silent, biting her lip.
After a few seconds, she gave a short, bitter nod.
"Understood, Captain."
Inside, she was burning with resentment.
Kei's logic was sound—someone had to protect the civilians.
But she was an Uchiha; a fighter, not a babysitter.
Still, she knew better than to defy him.
Behind that calm, almost polite demeanor,
Uchiha Kei was cold, calculating—and ruthless when crossed.
---
Five minutes later.
Every member of the Konoha Police Force had assembled.
Even trainees from the Fourth Division had rushed in uncalled.
Kei glanced over the gathered shinobi—
some already bruised and bloodied from earlier skirmishes with the beast.
"Everyone ready?"
"Ready!" the crowd roared.
"Then move!"
---
While Kei led his squads into formation,
the main battlefield was already drowning in chaos.
Konoha's coordination was unmatched—
even without the Hokage,
the clans and their elite shinobi were moving in perfect sync.
But against the Nine-Tails,
all that coordination meant nothing.
The sky burned with the light of jutsu—
fire, lightning, and water flashing like fireworks—
but the results were pitiful.
Each time the beast's tails struck the ground,
whole squads were erased from existence.
Its chakra waves tore through the air like living storms,
turning entire streets into craters.
Even the strongest among them—
Uchiha Fugaku himself—
could only grit his teeth and attack cautiously.
He didn't dare reveal his Mangekyō Sharingan.
Not tonight.
Not with half the village already suspecting the Uchiha.
He stuck to Fire Release techniques,
which barely singed the fox's fur before it healed.
"Unbelievable…" Fugaku muttered,
wiping the sweat from his brow as his flames faded uselessly against the monster's hide.
He had read about this creature in ancient clan records—
a being once treated as a pet by Uchiha Madara himself.
Now, seeing it firsthand,
he realized how monstrous that legend truly was.
---
Just then—two figures arrived behind the Uchiha lines,
flanked by masked ANBU.
Mitokado Homura and Koharu Utatane.
"Uchiha Fugaku," Homura barked coldly,
"Withdraw your forces. Immediately."
Fugaku's eyes narrowed.
He had expected this.
He had dreaded it.
They didn't care about the battlefield.
They cared about optics—about control.
And this was the perfect opportunity.
"What is the meaning of this?" he asked flatly,
his voice low but edged with fury.
They didn't answer.
They didn't have to.
The truth was plain:
they were using this chaos to isolate the Uchiha.
To remove them from the defense of the village
and set them up as scapegoats later.
After all, the Nine-Tails' eyes bore the Sharingan.
What better evidence could they need?
---
"It's simple," said Koharu, her tone deceptively calm.
"You'll assist with evacuations instead. Protect the civilians."
"And whose order is this? The Hokage's?" Fugaku demanded.
"No," Homura replied, scowling.
"The Hokage is absent. We're acting in his stead."
But before he could say more,
a cold voice sliced through the air.
"And who gave you the right to speak for the Hokage?"
Everyone turned.
Uchiha Kei had arrived—
leading two full strike squads in black armor.
The air grew thick with tension.
Even the veteran advisers stiffened;
they remembered what this boy was capable of.
He had killed Danzo Shimura.
He had wiped out an entire Root division.
He was a weapon—
one that didn't care for rank or politics,
only objectives.
And now that weapon was looking straight at them.
---
"Kei, you're here," Fugaku said, relief flickering in his eyes.
"Yes," Kei replied evenly.
"I was patrolling when I found a Hyūga squad ambushed.
Didn't make it in time before the Nine-Tails appeared."
"Who attacked them?" asked Nara Shikaku, his brow furrowed.
"A man in a black cloak, wearing a spiral mask," Kei said.
"He had the Sharingan."
A stunned silence fell over the group.
The Sharingan. Again.
Whispers spread among the clan heads—
not suspicion now, but confusion.
If Kei was telling the truth,
then the Uchiha weren't behind this at all.
Someone else was—someone outside the village.
---
"Nonsense!" Homura snapped.
"You expect us to believe that?"
"You will follow orders, or—"
"Or what?" Kei interrupted, voice cold as iron.
"Do you even know what you're talking about?"
His Sharingan flickered to life,
scarlet tomoe spinning lazily in the dark.
"I've seen the classified archives you haven't.
You're not qualified to order me around."
The weight in his voice was palpable.
Even the wind seemed to pause.
Homura's jaw clenched; veins bulged at his temple.
But before he could retaliate—
---
The Nine-Tails roared.
A suffocating wave of chakra exploded across the battlefield.
Its maw opened wide—
a sphere of black and violet energy forming between its fangs.
"That's—!"
"A Tailed Beast Bomb!"
"Its target is… the Hokage Monument!"
---
Far above the battlefield,
Minato Namikaze stood atop his own stone visage.
The golden cloak of the Hokage fluttered in the night wind.
He had already secured Kushina and Naruto.
Now, he was analyzing the situation from the highest vantage point—
the Hokage Rock.
The entire village burned below him.
And when the Nine-Tails turned its head toward him,
its killing intent was overwhelming.
"So you've noticed me," Minato murmured,
eyes narrowing.
He saw the chakra gathering in its mouth,
the black sphere swelling with destructive power.
There was no time to think.
Only act.
---
"That's a Tailed Beast Bomb," he muttered.
"If it hits, half the village will vanish."
His fingers flew through hand signs.
A tri-pronged kunai appeared in his hand, glowing with sealing marks.
"Flying Thunder God!"
In an instant, he vanished.
The sphere of death tore through the air,
its hum so deep it rattled the bones.
It struck—
and then, impossibly, vanished.
A second later—
a blinding explosion erupted miles away,
lighting up the horizon like dawn.
Minato reappeared, panting lightly.
"The power… incredible.
If that had hit, Konoha would have been gone."
---
He barely had time to rest.
A flicker of motion behind him—
instincts screamed.
He spun, slashing with his kunai—
but it passed through air.
Through the attacker.
"What—?"
Then his arm was caught—solid this time.
A voice spoke close to his ear.
"Your opponent is me… and this ends now, Yellow Flash."
The Masked Man's Sharingan spun,
and the space around them began to twist.
A black vortex opened—
pulling Minato toward its depths.
The pull was overwhelming,
but Minato's mind stayed sharp.
"A space-time jutsu…" he realized instantly.
"Like my own Flying Thunder God."
He smirked faintly.
"Let's see whose technique is faster."
With a burst of light—he vanished again.
---
The masked man stood alone,
his hand clenching into a fist.
"Again," he muttered darkly.
"Slippery as ever.
Next time, I'll be faster."
He turned his gaze back toward the Nine-Tails,
which was still thrashing against the swarm of Konoha shinobi.
"You can handle this for now," he whispered.
"I'll deal with the Hokage… and then, Konoha will burn."
A swirl of space distorted—
and he was gone.
---
Below, the Konoha forces steadied.
The sight of the diverted Tailed Beast Bomb had reignited their courage.
"That's our Hokage!" shouted someone.
"He did it!"
Cheers rippled through the lines—
but Kei's voice cut through them like a blade.
"Save it for later," he said coldly.
"We're still not done.
The Hokage's fighting for his life out there.
Are we going to just stand here and clap?"
The shinobi straightened.
"Kei's right," said Yamanaka Inoichi, stepping forward.
"We push the Nine-Tails out of the village—together!"
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried weight.
And more than that—it carried unity.
The clans nodded one after another.
Even the advisers fell silent.
For the first time that night,
the Leaf stood as one.
---
"Apologies for being late."
The calm voice turned heads.
Emerging from the smoke were Hyūga Hiashi and Hizashi,
supported by Hyūga Ayaka.
Both men were injured,
their faces pale but determined.
The reinforcements had arrived.
And the battle for Konoha
was only just beginning.
The moment Hyūga Hiashi and Hizashi arrived, the assembled shinobi exchanged looks.
Their appearance—wounded, but alive—confirmed what many had already suspected.
It immediately brought to mind what Uchiha Kei had said earlier.
Still, they needed to hear it from the Hyūga brothers themselves.
---
"Are you two alright?"
Nara Shikaku stepped forward, his voice calm but tinged with concern.
"Captain Kei mentioned he and his team found signs you'd been attacked,
but they couldn't reach you in time. What happened?"
Hiashi sighed.
"We were ambushed," he said grimly.
"By a man wearing an orange spiral mask and a black cloak.
He fought like an Uchiha—his abilities were… extraordinary."
He didn't need to elaborate further.
Everyone understood.
The details matched Kei's report exactly.
There was no doubt now—the attacker was indeed an Uchiha.
But not one of Konoha's.
No, this was someone from outside the village—
someone who bore an immense hatred toward the Leaf.
The clan leaders exchanged uneasy glances.
They all knew fragments of the Uchiha's dark history—
stories whispered behind closed doors,
about the one who once stood against the village and vanished into legend.
Could it be… a survivor?
A descendant of that man?
Or perhaps someone who had stolen the power of the Sharingan itself?
After all, if Kakashi Hatake could wield such an eye—
who was to say another couldn't?
---
Before anyone could speak, Hizashi suddenly tensed.
"Everyone, listen!"
His Byakugan flared open, veins standing out at his temples.
"The Fourth Hokage—he's gone!
He was just on the Hokage Rock, but a man in a black cloak attacked him.
They both vanished!
The attacker's appearance matches the same masked man who ambushed us!"
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
The implications were immediate—and dire.
If Minato Namikaze had vanished mid-battle…
then the village's greatest shield had just disappeared.
---
But more importantly, the revelation cleared another layer of doubt.
The Uchiha clan present—Fugaku, Kei, and their men—were here, on the battlefield.
They could not possibly be the ones controlling the Nine-Tails.
Whatever this was, it came from outside Konoha.
---
"Then our path is clear," said Uchiha Kei, his voice calm but resolute.
"We hold the line against the Nine-Tails and buy the Fourth time to return."
He turned swiftly, issuing commands with the precision of a seasoned commander.
"Kenta—summon the sealing squad. We'll need them immediately.
Ayaka—your clan leader needs rest. Take the remaining Hyūga who can still fight and spread out.
Keep your eyes on every direction. The instant you spot the Fourth, report his location."
"Kawa, Ryu—you're with me. We move to reinforce the front."
"Yes, Captain!" came the unified reply from the Konoha Police Force.
---
Shikaku stepped forward, a faint smirk tugging at his lips.
"You're not going alone, Kei.
We're all Konoha shinobi here. Don't think you can steal all the glory."
"That's right!" laughed Akimichi Chōza, cracking his knuckles.
"Count us in, little Uchiha Captain. Fugaku, you too—let's show that fox what the Leaf's made of!"
Their laughter—loud and genuine—cut through the chaos like a spark of light in the dark.
One after another, the clan heads rallied their people.
Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka, Hyūga, Aburame, Inuzuka…
even the independent jōnin joined their ranks.
The shinobi of Konoha gathered around Kei and Fugaku,
a unified force ready to strike back against the Nine-Tails.
---
Only two people remained still—
Mitokado Homura and Koharu Utatane.
Their expressions were dark, unreadable,
as they watched the clans stand shoulder to shoulder—
the very thing they had feared the most.
Unity.
For the first time that night,
Konoha had truly come together.