"Qianyu! Stop!"
In truth, Qianyu had long sensed their arrival.
Though Shinnosuke Sarutobi was panicked and despairing, at that very instant, he sensed his father's Chakra as well, and his heart immediately eased...
No matter what, as long as he did not die, there was still hope!
Could Qianyu really dare, before his own father, before the Lord Hokage of Konoha...
To kill his biological son?!
In that instant, all eyes were fixed on Qianyu alone, on the blade crackling wildly with lightning...
Deep in his heart, Qianyu was utterly calm. Only one sentence flashed through his mind...
Though ten million stand against me, I will go on.
The next moment.
Without hesitation, he brought the False Darkness Blade down!
Squelch!
Cold light flashed, and lightning exploded!
The katana slashed down viciously, piercing Shinnosuke Sarutobi's chest!
Then...
Lightning burst forth, blasting apart his chest along with it and leaving behind a massive bloody hole!
Shinnosuke Sarutobi's eyes were filled with confusion. Even now, he seemed unable to understand what had happened...
Then, with a hollow chest and a lifeless body, he collapsed onto the wasteland before the Anbu with a thud...
Shinnosuke Sarutobi...
Was dead.
"NO!!!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart-wrenching roar rang through the skies above Konoha.
Mangekyō Sharingan... Awaken!
At that moment.
Heaven and earth fell deathly silent.
The same thought arose in everyone's hearts...
It was over.
This time, it was truly over...
Everything...
Was beyond redemption!
At this point, there was no longer any room for reconciliation.
Between the Uchiha clan and Konoha's upper ranks...
It would be a fight to the death!
That was Lord Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's own son!
An elite Jonin, commander of the Anbu, the Hokage's right-hand man, one of the village's true leading figures!
And yet, just like that...
He had died at the hands of Uchiha Qianyu!
For a moment, both the Hokage's faction and the Uchiha clan stood dumbfounded. Not a single person spoke...
Only Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart-rending scream seemed to tear through everyone's eardrums and rip apart their hearts...
Yashiro Uchiha, Yakumi Uchiha, and the others' hearts pounded wildly as they stared in Qianyu's direction in disbelief...
He... he had actually done it!
He had killed Hiruzen Sarutobi's biological son!
Although the Uchiha clan members, especially Qianyu's subordinates and Aoki Yamikaze's comrades, felt a sense of satisfying vindication, they could not help swallowing hard...
How much courage, how much nerve, how much resolve did that take...
Fugaku Uchiha's eyes were wide as well, as if his soul had left his body.
"That... that bastard actually..."
He glanced at the Anbu ninja detaining him on either side. They too were utterly shocked, so much so that they had no attention left to spare for him...
But the most shocked and despairing person was naturally Lord Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi himself.
He watched his biological son get brutally murdered before his very eyes. The rage, hatred, pain, and despair in his heart were beyond description, beyond imagination...
At that moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi was not Konoha's Third Hokage...
He was merely an ordinary father.
He could not even cry, nor could tears flow from his face...
Only deep furrows crossed his aged face, filled with grief, fury, and unbearable pain...
With a thud.
The mighty Lord Hokage fell to his knees, unable to bear the devastating blow of seeing his child die before him...
Only then did the two Anbu at his side react, hurrying forward to support him.
"Lord Hokage..."
"Lord Hokage, you... you..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi struggled to stand again. In an instant, he seemed to have aged decades...
His decayed, withered old face seemed to have lost all vitality.
Yet something still remained...
Hatred!
At last, Hiruzen Sarutobi squeezed out several words through clenched teeth...
"Kill him!"
At his command, the elite ninja behind Hiruzen Sarutobi, as well as those throughout the Anbu headquarters, sprang into action and formed a semicircle around the entire battlefield.
Their surging Chakra connected as one, ready to kill at any moment!
At the same time, on the Uchiha clan's side, Yashiro Uchiha and Yakumi Uchiha, along with the members of the two squads that followed Yakumi and Qianyu, instantly activated their Sharingan and prepared for the final battle!
However, Fugaku Uchiha was still in the Anbu's hands.
And the Uchiha clan had only brought a little over a dozen people.
If a true battle began, the outcome was likely already decided.
But just then...
Tekka Uchiha and Inabi Uchiha finally arrived as well, leading the full force of the Police Force!
They had already been on standby, knowing that the most critical moment had arrived.
At this moment, the two sides on the battlefield were...
The entire Anbu, against the Uchiha clan's Police Force!
In terms of power, the Police Force was likely still at a disadvantage.
Yet there was no longer any way to turn back.
Hiruzen Sarutobi roared once more.
"Kill him!"
But Qianyu suddenly asked.
"Why?"
"Lord Hokage?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi screamed in anguish, "You... you killed Shinnosuke. Do you think you can still live?!"
Qianyu replied calmly, "Everyone I killed deserved to die."
"Shut up!"
"I'm telling the truth."
"Because of the deaths of Sarutobi Hiogo and Sarutobi Jiro, Shinnosuke Sarutobi retaliated against me. Taking advantage of my suspension, he colluded with Kirigakure spies imprisoned in the Anbu dungeon and, together with seven Anbu prison guards, set an ambush for me, severely injuring my two subordinates. One died, and one was wounded..."
"Colluding with foreign enemies and plotting against ninja from the same village..."
"In any village, Shinnosuke Sarutobi's actions would be an unforgivable crime."
"May I ask, Lord Hokage, what was wrong with me killing him?"
Just then.
Shimura Danzō arrived late as well, bringing his Root ninja with him.
Clearly, he too had prepared for a decisive battle.
But on the other side, many of Konoha's other clans and ninja had long since been alerted. Though they did not show themselves, their Chakra could faintly be sensed as they watched everything in silence.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had clearly sensed all of this.
He gritted his teeth and forced himself to calm down.
"Uchiha Qianyu, leaving aside the fact that you have no evidence for anything you said, even if it truly happened, you are no longer part of the Police Force..."
"What right did you have to kill Shinnosuke?!"
Before you continue