Fukashi closed his eyes for a single heartbeat, the weight of a decade's worth of suppressed burdens pressing down on his shoulders. When he opened them, the indecision was gone, replaced by a decisive and aggressive leader reminiscent of his youthful years.
"Silence!" Fukashi's voice cut through the shouting clansmen. The powerful chakra, supplemented by the Mangekyō Sharingan's cold aura, caused the bickering clansmen to freeze.
He turned his gaze toward the battlefield where Torifu's expanded form was violently thrown into a stone ridge by the seven-tailed Jinchūriki. The ground beneath them groaned as the red chakra grew denser, weaving into raw muscle fibers over the top of its skeletal structure.
"We've never fought for the Senju before, and we never will," Fukashi announced, his voice carrying clearly to every Uchiha present. "But, we will fight because Kagami is right about one thing—if Uzumaki Mito dies here and the Nine-Tails runs loose, our village will lose a powerful Jinchūriki. Once we come to power, the Jinchūriki is the Uchiha's as much as it is Konoha's right now. We are fighting to secure what is rightfully ours."
Naka's jaw tightened, but he didn't argue. He did not like Fukashi's final call, but he was delighted by Fukashi's return to his old, decisive self.
"Eisuke!" Fukashi barked out orders. "Take over the Seventh Division and guard Kagami and Komei. If anyone other than our kin gets within ten meters of you, cut them down."
"Yes, Fukashi-sama!" Eisuke shouted.
Fukashi then turned to Naka and his son. "Naka, Shinichi. You're with me. We are going to suppress that beast before it breaks the seal completely."
Naka responded by igniting his Mangekyō Sharingan, while Shinichi nodded grimly, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade.
With a synchronized burst of speed, Fukashi, Naka, and Shinichi blurred away from the Uchiha lines, flickering across the scorched sand directly into the eye of the storm.
The eight-tailed Mito was no longer herself. The red tailed-beast chakra had hardened into a blood-red armor of pure chakra muscle fibers enveloping the white skeletal structure that now encased her entire torso. She let out a high-pitched, metallic shriek that shattered the nearby stone structures, her tails whipping out to smash a barrage of heavy iron chains thrown by the panicked Senju sealing teams.
"Akimichi Style: Super Open Hand Slap!" Torifu roared, his giant, house-sized palms slamming down from above to pin the beast's torso into the earth.
The ground cratered, but the Jinchūriki merely thrashed, its eight tails piercing straight through Torifu's giant forearms like lances. Torifu groaned in agony, blood spurting from his wounds as his expansion technique began to falter.
"Torifu, fall back!" Shikasuke yelled from a distance, his hands shaking as his shadow stretched out in a desperate attempt to lock the beast's movements. "You've reached the pill's effective time limit. And my Shadow Possession can't hold her for more than two seconds! I'm running low on chakra!"
Before the beast could swing its tails to end the exhausted Torifu, a blinding blur of yellow and red intercepted the attack.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Fukashi and Naka materialized in front of Torifu. Two massive chakra constructs in the forms of yellow and red skeletal arms deflected the incoming chakra tails. Their Mangekyō Sharingans spun with terrifying speed, tracking the chaotic, rapid movements of the berserk Jinchūriki.
"Uchiha Fukashi and Uchiha Naka?!" Torifu gasped, fighting for breath as his body shrank back to its normal size, covered in deep chakra burns. His normally rotund body turned visibly lankier as he shrank down.
"Get your men out of here, Torifu," Fukashi said without looking back, his eyes locked onto the beast in front of him. "Your efforts are useless right now. You are powerless against it."
Before Torifu could respond, Kenji arrived at the flank alongside his six remaining Anbu escorts. His white porcelain visor was missing, his pale, emotionless face fully exposed to the harsh desert sun. "Uchiha Fukashi. You and your clan have no authority over this sealing operation. Stand aside and let the Anbu handle the Jinchūriki."
"Authority?" Fukashi sneered, his chakra flaring with immense pressure. "Get lost before I make you, Kenji. We've wasted enough time in this forsaken desert."
While Fukashi threatened Kenji and the rest, Naka charged at the Kyūbi with Shinichi's assistance.
Doton: Yomi Numa 土遁・黄泉沼 (Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld)
A thick, viscous swamp spread across the ground, slowly sinking the Jinchūriki deeper into the earth as it thrashed around in a desperate attempt to free itself. Shinichi continued to pour his chakra into the jutsu, continuously producing more mud and dragging the displaced swamp churned away by the Kyūbi straight back to the center.
Naka coalesced a thick layer of chakra on the soles of his feet as he Body Flickered across the cliffside, seamlessly dodging the Jinchūriki's tails and the boulders shattering upon impact.
"Tsk!" Naka clicked his tongue, rubbing his slightly blurred eye as he ducked beneath a sweeping tail. "It's hiding its face behind its tails. I can't enter its mindscape at this rate!"
"Then we will force our way in!" Fukashi joined the fray, leaping high into the air. His Mangekyō Sharingan spun rapidly as a yellow skeletal ribcage and thick muscle fibers formed around him, directly entering the second stage of the Susanoo. His intentions were clear: force the Kyūbi into submission as fast as possible to minimize chakra and Mangekyō dojutsu expenditure.
Two massive Susanoo arms slammed downward, grabbing onto the incoming appendages and capturing five of them at once. Two other tails continued their deadly pursuit, redirecting their target away from Naka and Shinichi toward Fukashi's Susanoo. However, two extra chakra arms extended out from the torso of the yellow titan, intercepting them all.
"Naka!" Fukashi exclaimed, his voice strained as his eyelids twitched in acute pain.
Two matching red skeletal Susanoo arms extended out next to Fukashi's yellow construct, grabbing the Jinchūriki's massive torso while the other wrenched away the tails obscuring its face.
Naka and Fukashi immediately made direct eye contact with the beast. Then, after a second of silence, the thrashing tails and chakra began to settle down.
***
The world around them violently warped.
The roaring wind of the desert and the acrid stench of poison evaporated in an instant, replaced by a suffocating, boundless ocean of pitch-black water. Above them, an endless, stormy crimson sky rippled with waves of raw, volatile malice.
They had successfully penetrated the Jinchūriki's subconscious.
Standing on the surface of the black water, Fukashi and Naka looked up. Looming over them was a colossal, mountain-sized manifestation of the Nine-Tailed Fox, its slit pupils burning with cosmic rage. But unlike its previously imprisoned state, the beast was completely free. Massive, thick red chakra tendrils sprouted directly from its chest, wrapping tightly around Uzumaki Mito, who was desperately resisting the Kyūbi's assault. Golden Adamantine Chains formed a protective sphere around her, but more than half of the links had already turned deep crimson, corroding under the Kyubi's malice filled chakra.
Mito warily glanced at the two Uchiha, uncertain whether they were her foes or her allies. Kagami's sudden betrayal had entirely shattered the tolerance she had spent years adopting from Hashirama toward the Uchiha clan.
Regardless of Mito's opinion, Fukashi and Naka took actions immediately.
The Kyūbi, unlike its human-sized Jinchūriki state in the waking world, took full advantage of its mountain-sized form to swat at the two intruders with its massive tails. However, overconfident in its own unrestricted state within the mindscape, the Kyūbi forgot to hide its eyes from Naka's advancing gaze.
Naka's Mangekyō Sharingan spun rapidly, forcing his chakra to penetrate deep into the Kyūbi's eyes. Kyubi was incredibly resilient and managed to quickly tear itself free from the illusion. However, even for that brief, single moment, Naka's Mangekyō Genjutsu successfully stunned the monster, creating a critical opening. Fukashi capitalized instantly, seizing control over the fox with a far more experienced, refined, and sinister chakra control.
The beast's rampaging chakra in the mindscape slowly receded. Seizing the window, Mito counter-attacked, unleashing her clan's ultimate suppression techniques to seal the Tailed Beast once more.
Fuinjutsu: Hakke no Fūin Shiki 封印術・八卦の封印式(Sealing Technique: Eight Trigrams Seal)
Mito's golden Adamantine Chains wrapped tightly around the immobile Kyūbi, violently dragging its massive body toward a colossal boulder. Massive Adamantine pillars materialized, pinning its tails, paws, and torso directly into the bedrock. She finalized the seal by chaining the Kyūbi securely around its neck and limbs, locking the beast down completely.
Breathing heavily, Mito warily turned toward Fukashi, who still held the suppressed Kyūbi under his mental grip. She could tell right away that Fukashi's Mangekyō Sharingan possessed a far denser, darker, and more sinister chakra compared to Kagami's. Fukashi merely offered a solemn nod to Naka, signaling him to withdraw, and Naka exited the mindscape.
***
Meanwhile, in the real world, Shinichi turned his attention back toward Kenji and the Konoha shinobi facing off against him.
Although battered, bruised, and clearly pushed to their limits, Torifu, Kenji, and Ayame stood before him, their postures radiating a defensive and questionable attitude. The tension rose higher with every passing second as the captains of the Uchiha's Second Division arrived on the ridge, seamlessly forming a unified wall behind Shinichi. Although the exhausted and injured Senju-Konoha shinobi tried to hide their fatigue, they were instantly intimidated by the sudden appearance of the energetic and fresh Uchiha reinforcements.
Shinichi narrowed his eyes into sharp slits as he meticulously scanned the enemy leadership. Senju Ayame glared at him fiercely. Yet, due to her extreme age, she was completely out of breath and chakra; she was forced to lean heavily against another shinobi just to remain standing, and her old green Senju armor was shattered beyond repair.
Torifu, like many other Akimichi clansmen on the field, was the most severely injured. Thick bandages wrapped around the vast majority of his torso and limbs. His face was pale, his frame visibly lankier, and his hands trembled uncontrollably from the side effects of extensive chakra consumption after taking the Akimichi clan's forbidden pills.
Kenji stood at the center, exuding a remarkably strong and stable chakra signature. However, his light Anbu armor was entirely torn apart, exposing the black mesh undershirt covering his upper body. Despite the strong front the three commanders attempted to maintain, their broken state only served to bolster the Uchiha's pride and fighting spirit.
However, what stood out to Shinichi the most was Kenji's profound indifference.
Uzumaki Mito was his biological mother, yet he seemed far more concerned about something else entirely. It was the look in his eyes. It was not just the fact that Kenji had turned into a brainwashed tool rather than a human shinobi. For a brief, fleeting moment, Shinichi saw it clearly—the way Kenji looked at everyone on that battlefield. Whether he was looking at Torifu, Ayame, the Uchiha, or even his own mother, Kenji was assessing them like objects. He was measuring them as disposable tools, completely devoid of any human camaraderie or familial warmth.