If someone dares to attack you, you want to run away? How could things be that convenient?
So the moment Sarutobi Hiruzen and the others turned to flee, Byakuya didn't hesitate. Controlling the Susanoo-clad Nine-Tails, he immediately gave chase.
"Sarutobi Hiruzen! Where do you think you're going? Stay right there!"
The monstrous Susanoo surged forward, each step sending tremors through the ground as it chased the fleeing group.
"Stop it! We can't let it reach the Third Hokage!"
"Quickly—deploy the barrier!"
The remaining Konoha shinobi hurriedly formed hand seals. A high-level barrier technique erupted into existence, encasing the narrow passage ahead of Susanoo, blocking its advance.
"So naive," Byakuya said coldly. "You think something like this can stop me?"
With a swing of Susanoo's massive sword, he cleaved down hard.
BOOM!
The barrier cracked, then shattered into a thousand glowing fragments. Though powerful, the barrier only bought a few seconds—just enough for Hiruzen and his loyalists to retreat back to the Sarutobi compound.
No sooner had Hiruzen returned than he gave a sharp, piercing whistle—a monkey's cry.
It was the Sarutobi clan's emergency signal. A call only used in the direst circumstances.
All across the compound, Sarutobi clan members jolted awake and scrambled into formation, many still in their nightclothes. The urgency of the signal told them everything they needed to know—this was not a drill.
"Father! What's going on?! Why the emergency signal?" Sarutobi Shinnosuke arrived first, disheveled but alert.
"Shinnosuke, good—you're here. Take your brother Asuma and rally your squads. We're evacuating the village immediately!"
"What?!" Shinnosuke's expression darkened. "Evacuating? Why?"
"The Uchiha are coming. Byakuya is leading the assault. He intends to wipe out the Sarutobi clan."
The murmurs of confusion rippled through the crowd, swelling into disbelief.
"Byakuya?! That bastard?!" Shinnosuke clenched his fists. Memories of the torment he endured while imprisoned by Byakuya flooded back. His rage simmered.
"The Uchiha want to destroy our clan?!"
"Impossible! Our Sarutobi clan is one of the most powerful in Konoha!"
"Even if he's strong, he wouldn't dare—"
"Our clan has the Hokage himself!"
"Why should we flee from one man?!"
Despite their bravado, their voices were uneasy.
Hiruzen's face was grim, far older than the days when he was hailed as the "God of Shinobi." That title no longer held the weight it once did—not against someone like Byakuya, who wielded the Nine-Tails and Mangekyō Sharingan-enhanced Susanoo.
"Do not be fools," he said. "This isn't the Warring States anymore. You've lived too long under the illusion of safety. That man has already crushed Danzo's Root, annihilated the Shimura clan, and turned Konoha's defenses into dust."
He looked at his clan—his family—with hard eyes.
"If we stay, we die. All of us."
Biwako, his wife, stepped forward. "Hiruzen... is it really that serious? Are we truly abandoning the village?"
As Sarutobi Hiruzen's wife, Biwako knew him better than anyone.
He would never have given such an order unless the situation was truly dire.
"This is serious. Things have reached a point of no return," Hiruzen said, his expression grave.
"For the survival of the Sarutobi clan… we must abandon Konoha."
"I understand..."
Biwako's face tightened. She turned sharply to her son.
"Shinnosuke, bring your brother here immediately! No hesitation — do it now!"
"I understand," Shinnosuke replied, still confused, but moved quickly at her command.
"Everyone else, don't just stand around!"
"Prepare to evacuate immediately!" Hiruzen barked to the remaining clan members.
"We don't have much time."
Moments later, Shinnosuke returned, leading a sleepy-eyed Sarutobi Asuma by the hand.
"Ugh… I'm so tired..."
"Where are we going, big brother?"
"I have to sleep... We're playing ninja tag tomorrow with the others..." Asuma mumbled, barely keeping his eyes open.
"Asuma…" Shinnosuke said quietly, kneeling beside him.
"Our clan is in danger. We may need to leave the village tonight."
"Danger? Who would dare attack the Sarutobi clan?!" Asuma asked indignantly.
"My dad is the Hokage!"
In Asuma's young mind, the title of Hokage meant invincibility — that no one in the village would dare defy his father.
But reality was far more cruel.
As one family after another arrived, bringing their children and elders in hushed urgency, a heavy silence settled among the Sarutobi.
The clan was preparing for exile — from the very village they once helped protect.
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