Chapter 56: The Uchiha Arrive
The night air, thick with smoke and the screams of the dying, seemed to resist their passage. When Uchiha Akira, Fugaku, and the assembled clan force arrived before the Uchiha district's main gate, they did not pause. With a shared, grim understanding, they merged into a single stream of moving shadows and rushed as one toward the epicenter of the chaos, toward the roaring monster that was the Nine-Tails.
Fugaku's face was set in a hard, unreadable mask, but tension radiated from him. This was the worst possible scenario for the clan. He had delivered his warnings to the Hokage, trusting the village's leadership to secure the jinchuriki. That trust had now been shattered, leaving the clan in a perilous position.
The group had closed to within a kilometer of the titanic beast when three figures materialized from the shadows of a collapsed building, blocking the street. They wore the standard masks and uniforms of Konoha's Anbu.
The lead Anbu held up a hand, his voice cold and official. "By order of the Hokage, the Uchiha clan is to oversee the evacuation of non-combatants to the shelters. You are not to approach the frontline battlefield without explicit authorization."
A ripple of anger went through the Uchiha ranks. All eyes turned to Fugaku, their clan head.
Before Fugaku could formulate a response, Akira took two swift steps forward. His scarlet Sharingan, spinning with three tomoe, fixed on the three Anbu. There was no grand flourish, no shouted technique name. His will simply lashed out.
The leader's next command died in his throat. The three Anbu stiffened, their postures slackening slightly as their consciousnesses were engulfed by a powerful genjutsu.
Fugaku's jaw tightened, but he remained silent. The situation had already spiraled beyond protocol.
Akira's voice was flat, devoid of warmth. "Who gave you this order?"
"Lord Danzo," the lead Anbu answered, his tone hollow and mechanical.
"You are presenting a false order from the Hokage?" Akira pressed.
"The directive was agreed upon by Lord Danzo and the Third Hokage. The Uchiha are to manage civilian safety," the man recited.
A palpable wave of fury swept through the Uchiha shinobi. To be sidelined at the moment of the village's greatest crisis, under what reeked of a political maneuver, was a blatant insult.
"They are impersonating Hokage authority. Detain them," Akira said, turning his gaze to Uchiha Tekka. "Tekka, you are responsible for them. The rest of us have a village to defend."
"Move out!" Fugaku commanded, his decision made. He did not look back at the immobilized Anbu, launching himself forward with renewed speed. The clan followed without a moment's hesitation, streaming past the trapped agents, their shared purpose overriding the poisonous order. Akira fell in beside his clan head, a streak of focused intent.
They reached the devastation of the main battlefield moments later. The scene was one of pure carnage. The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, clad in his battle armor, was directing a desperate holding action. Squads of Konoha jonin harried the Nine-Tails with coordinated attacks, their ninjutsu flashing against the beast's chakra-dense hide like fireworks against a mountain. Their efforts did little more than draw its ire, their strongest attacks failing to pierce the natural chakra barrier that sheathed the fox.
But the greater shock was the second enemy. On a shattered plateau of what was once a town square, Hiruzen was locked in a fierce duel with a red-haired figure—Nagato. The man's eerie, concentric-ringed eyes, the Rinnegan, glowed with cold power.
Akira's Sharingan scanned the area rapidly. Minato has drawn Obito away. Good. That leaves Nagato and the beast.
The Third Hokage's relief at the sight of the Uchiha force was visible, even from a distance. Danzo's plan to keep them away had clearly been formulated without knowledge of the second S-rank threat. Now, faced with the Rinnegan, Hiruzen needed every capable fighter.
Akira and Fugaku shared a brief, silent look. A plan formed between them in that instant, communicated through years of shared battles and a glance. They each gave a sharp nod.
Crackle-crackle-crack!
Blue-white lightning erupted around Akira's body, the Chidori's sharp song filling the air as his chakra surged. He vanished in a shunshin, becoming a bolt of living lightning aimed directly at Nagato.
Nagato, even while trading blows with the Hokage, sensed the lethal approach. His Rinnegan swiveled. "Shinra Tensei!"
A dome of invisible, crushing repulsive force exploded outwards from him, intending to obliterate the incoming threat.
BOOM!
The sound was not of an impact, but of a collapse. Akira's fist, sheathed in crackling lightning and enhanced by the monstrous physical power of the Mystical Palm Technique, did not deflect. It met the repulsive force head-on. The air itself screamed in protest, visible waves of distorted pressure radiating outwards.
Nagato's eyes widened in genuine shock. He's not being repelled?!
Akira gritted his teeth, muscles straining against the world-ending pressure. The lightning around him intensified, feeding off his will. Crack-CRACK! The sound was like shattering glass. The perfect defensive dome of Shinra Tensei developed a flaw, a localized fracture under the concentrated, insane force.
"Impossible!" Nagato gasped, pushing more chakra into the technique.
A blinding white flash erupted from the point of collision, a silent explosion of released energy. Both Akira and Nagato were blasted backwards, skidding across the ruined ground for dozens of meters, carving fresh trenches in the earth.
Seizing the opening, Hiruzen moved. The Monkey King Enma, transformed into a solid adamantine staff, was already in his hands. He leaped high, a black shadow against the orange firelight, and brought the staff down toward Nagato's prone form with the force of a falling meteor. The timing was perfect—the five-second interval of Shinra Tensei.
Nagato's Rinnegan flared. He slammed a palm onto the ground. "Wood Release: Wooden Dome Wall!"
Thick, serpentine roots burst from the broken earth, weaving together into a dense, layered shield before him.
SMASH!
Hiruzen's blow connected. The wooden shield shattered explosively into a storm of splinters, but it had done its job—it absorbed the momentum. Nagato used the fraction of a second it bought him to propel himself sideways, out of the Hokage's immediate reach.
"You possess Wood Release as well?" Hiruzen's voice was grave, his grip tightening on his staff.
Nagato didn't answer. He was already forming hand seals. "Earth Release: Mud River!" "Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
The ground at Hiruzen's feet turned into a churning, swallowing bog, while a massive, roaring dragon of fire descended from above.
Hiruzen began to counter, but Nagato simply raised a hand. "Preta Path: Absorption."
A strange, rippling barrier appeared before him. The raging mud river and the fiery dragon twisted violently, then were sucked into nothingness, their chakra consumed completely.
"He can absorb ninjutsu," Hiruzen stated sharply, his mind racing through tactical adjustments. "Akira! Avoid ninjutsu against this one!"
Akira pushed himself up from the rubble, shaking dust from his hair. His right arm throbbed from the strain of breaking the Shinra Tensei, but it was unbroken. "Understood, Lord Hokage," he replied, his Sharingan never leaving Nagato. The man's growth was alarming. This was not the strained wielder from Amegakure; this was a true master of the Rinnegan's power.
A tense, three-way standoff began, with Nagato at its center.
Meanwhile, on the other flank of the battlefield, Uchiha Fugaku acted. He strode forward, his gaze lifting to the colossal form of the Nine-Tails, which was swatting aside entire teams of jonin with casual, destructive swipes. The three tomoe in his eyes spun violently, morphing and connecting into a complex, razor-edged pattern—his Mangekyō Sharingan.
He focused his entire will, the unique power of his eyes lancing across the battlefield. The effect was instant and profound.
The rampaging Nine-Tails froze mid-swing. The three black tomoe that had been imposed in its eyes by Obito's control shimmered, distorted, and were overwritten. They reformed into a perfect replica of Fugaku's own Mangekyō pattern. The beast stood utterly still, a statue of contained fury.
A cheer rose from the beleaguered Konoha ninja. For a glorious, hopeful moment, it seemed the tide had turned.
Hearing the cheers, Nagato's stomach dropped. He tried to disengage, but the combined pressure from Hiruzen and Akira pinned him in place.
The hope was short-lived.
A deep, guttural growl emanated from the Nine-Tails, vibrating through the very bones of the earth. A violent, scarlet eruption of chakra exploded outward from its body, a blazing corona of pure hatred. The borrowed Mangekyō pattern in its eyes shattered like glass, vanishing to reveal the fox's own slitted, malevolent pupils, now burning with even greater rage.
"WRETCHED UCHIHA!" the beast's voice boomed, filled with centuries of loathing. "You think your petty eye tricks can hold ME?!"
The colossal claw, trailing streams of corrosive red chakra, lifted and then plummeted down like a falling mountain, its target clear: Uchiha Fugaku.
(End of Chapter)
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