Uchiha Kazuo was dead.
Just like that.
CLANG! Steel met steel. Sparks flew. A body hit the floor. The sound echoed in the sudden silence.
Everyone stared. At the corpse of Uchiha Kazuo. At the man standing behind it.
Qianyu.
The other ninja were stunned. Speechless. Nara Kubota's mind was completely blank.
He'd guessed Qianyu might use Kazuo to make a point. Humiliate him. Force him to submit with overwhelming power.
But this? Killing him outright?
In front of all these Uchiha?
This wasn't making a point. This was a declaration of war.
Uchiha Fugaku's eyes were bloodshot. He glared at Qianyu, veins bulging on his neck. "Qianyu! Why?! Even if Kazuo was wrong, you didn't have to kill him!"
Qianyu acted like he'd just swatted a fly. He even sat down on Kazuo's still-warm body. A smile touched his lips.
That smile chilled the blood of everyone who saw it.
The Uchiha glared. Their teeth ground. They looked ready to tear him apart with their bare hands.
"I said it before," Qianyu began, his voice calm. "My word is law. You don't get to question it. Kazuo questioned me. He openly defied an order. So I ended him. Is there a problem?"
"Of course there's a problem!" Fugaku roared. "I was talking him down! I could have handled it! And you just—! How is that not a problem?!"
Qianyu shook his head slowly. His gaze was ice. "I asked him twice. Twice. Did he want to follow my orders. He refused. And…" Qianyu's smile turned razor-thin. "…he didn't seem to be listening to you either.
"My time is valuable. Asking twice was a courtesy. He wasted it. His fault. His funeral.
"We are at war. My command is supreme. Those who break discipline are mine to judge.
"So… Fugaku. Anything else?"
Before Fugaku could answer, a voice snarled from the Uchiha ranks. "You're just taking your anger out on us!"
One voice became two. Became a chorus.
"Yeah! You want to send us to our deaths, and kill Kazuo for fun? What kind of commander are you?!"
"We don't accept you!"
"We'll never follow your orders!"
The Uchiha erupted. Shouts. Curses. A wave of pure hatred aimed at the young man sitting on their clansman's corpse.
…
Nara Kubota's face was pale. Here it comes. He knew it. The Uchiha pride was too great. They wouldn't just roll over.
If this continued… they'd have a civil war on their hands before they even reached the Mist ninja in the Land of Waves.
Qianyu's heart, however, was a still pond. The insults washed over him like rain. His eyes found Fugaku's. Fugaku stared back, cold, defiant. See? his gaze seemed to say. See how many stand against you? You can't force this.
Suddenly, Qianyu smiled at him.
Fugaku's heart stuttered.
Qianyu stood up from the corpse. His eyes swirled—the crimson and black pattern of the Mangekyō Sharingan. The cold pressure of it swept over the crowd like a physical weight.
The shouting died. Stifled. Swallowed by that oppressive gaze.
"Last chance," Qianyu said, his voice a frozen blade. "My orders. Do you follow them?"
Silence.
Qianyu's hand rested on the hilt of his ninjato. "I don't need ninja who won't obey. They're just dead weight. Garbage to be…"
A terrible understanding dawned on Fugaku. His eyes widened. "NO!"
But Qianyu was already moving.
A blade flashed. Throat. Blood.
"You were the first to speak," Qianyu's voice was casual, conversational, as the ninja gurgled and fell. "You first."
Fugaku lunged forward, trying to intercept. He was too slow.
Flash. Two dead. Flash. Three. Flash. Four.
It was over in seconds.
The other ninja watched, trembling. He was really doing it. Right here. Right now.
Nara Kubota's mind screamed. He's actually doing it!
Fugaku tried to stop him, to get between him and his clansmen. But Qianyu was a ghost. A flicker of steel and death. The Uchiha tried to defend themselves, to form up, but they couldn't touch him. He was just too fast.
Just as the situation was about to spiral into a full-scale massacre, three voices cried out, cracking with desperation.
"Lord Qianyu! We will obey! We swear it!" "Stop! Please, stop! We were wrong!" "We apologize! We beg your forgiveness! Don't kill any more!"
The speakers were the three Uchiha who had served under Qianyu before: Kyōsuke, Keiichi, and Ryūhei. They threw themselves to the ground, pressing their foreheads into the dirt, their voices raw with pleading.
They'd wanted to do this the moment Kazuo died. But they'd held back. The cold stares, the whispers of coward from their own clan after they returned from the Land of Hot Springs… they remembered it all.
But seeing their clansmen cut down one after another? They couldn't stay silent. They knew Qianyu. Knew he would keep going. Knew he would paint the ground red until there was no one left to argue.
In the center of the chaos, amidst the smell of blood and fear, Qianyu's lips curled into a faint, satisfied curve.
Finally.
He'd been waiting. Waiting for a way down from this ledge. It had to be Fugaku, or these three. Without it, he couldn't kill all of them. He would have had to stop himself.
The ones he'd killed after Kazuo? One chūnin. The rest were genin. Killing more than ten, especially another jōnin, would cause real trouble. The Uchiha were still a major wartime asset for Konoha. If they united and brought pressure to bear on Hiruzen Sarutobi… that old man would fold.
This number was perfect. One jōnin. A few lower ranks. Just enough terror to cement his authority. The backlash? Danzō could handle that much pressure.
The killing stopped.
The silence that followed was heavier than any curse.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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