On the third day after the duel ended, word suddenly came from the front that the Senju Clan was massing its main forces.
According to the intelligence, someone suspected to be Butsuma Senju had appeared on the Main Battlefield.
After confirming the news, Tajima Uchiha immediately decided to risk going to the battlefield himself.
Of course, he would not go alone.
Sensing that a decisive battle was approaching, Tajima mobilized most of the remaining troops within the clan.
During the Warring States Period, the clans enjoyed a level of prosperity that the village era could not match.
The current Uchiha Clan, for example, had established the Four Legions, each responsible for facing enemies from a different direction.
The clan compound alone housed more than eight hundred shinobi, while each legion numbered over a thousand.
By Kyosuke's rough estimate, the entire clan had at least five thousand shinobi.
That could not compare to the terrifying scale of the great shinobi villages of later generations, which could send tens of thousands of shinobi into battle, but it was at least enough to wipe out an ordinary small country.
However, the Senju Clan was not the only problem.
News arrived from the Southern Army that the Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi clans had begun frantically assembling their forces, seemingly determined to fight the Uchiha to the death.
Army Commander Rei Uchiha sent a letter requesting reinforcements from the clan, only for Tajima to flatly ignore it.
"There are no troops to spare. If you can't hold them off, use your lives to drag the enemy down."
Apparently, on the day he received the reply, Rei Uchiha tore the letter to pieces in front of everyone and cursed Tajima Uchiha as an idiot with a human head and a pig's brain.
This information was closely guarded, and Kyosuke had only learned of it through casual conversations with Izuna.
Looking at the deserted streets, he could not help sighing.
After three days of hard work, Kyosuke had basically mastered the Body Flicker Technique, at the cost of aching all over and extensive bruising on certain parts of his body.
During that time, Madara Uchiha had sternly warned him that forcing himself to use the Body Flicker Technique before his body was strong enough amounted to slow suicide.
In other words, he was urging Kyosuke to give up practicing it.
Kyosuke had shut him down with a single reply: "On the battlefield, it's kill or be killed. If I can't use it when it matters, I'm afraid I won't live long enough for that slow suicide to finish me off."
Faced with little Kyosuke's sharp tongue, Madara Uchiha, who was never good with words, had no answer.
In his frustration, he had not shown his face before Kyosuke for three days.
"Just like a little kid," Kyosuke remarked.
Tajima refused to concern himself with the Southern Battlefield, but Rei Uchiha was no pushover. He was a formidable man who had once competed with Tajima for the position of Clan Leader.
A second letter arrived, and soon afterward came news that the legion stationed at the compound had deployed without authorization.
When Tajima learned of this, he, too, flew into a rage and swore in front of everyone.
The problem was that Rei Uchiha could do little about him, and conversely, Tajima could do nothing about that gray-haired old bastard.
With so many legion troops joining the fighting, the clan's defenses grew increasingly thin.
"If an enemy attacked now, the history of the shinobi world might just be rewritten."
It had only been a joke, but the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt.
A year earlier, his squad had successfully penetrated behind enemy lines and intercepted the children of the Three Clans as they were being relocated.
It had been an extraordinarily successful strike at wiping out their next generation.
No one would believe that the enemy bore no hatred over it.
Besides, a decisive battle between the Uchiha and the Senju should not have happened at this point.
Madara Uchiha was about to turn eleven, and the day he would meet Hashirama Senju was not far off.
Madara should have been on the battlefield during that period, and the fighting apparently had not reached an uncontrollable level.
In other words, the two clans should not have been engaging in large-scale slaughter at this time.
"Assuming the Senju are putting on a show, their objective would be..." Looking at the empty streets, Kyosuke seemed to grasp something.
The Senju were not seeking a decisive battle. They wanted to lure Tajima Uchiha onto the battlefield.
The Three Clans had moved against the Southern Army almost simultaneously. Though he had no concrete evidence, his instincts told him there had to be a connection.
"The Senju's setup..."
"The Three Clans gathering..."
"Senju... Nara... a surprise attack..."
Not good!
Kyosuke rose with a grave expression, found his bearings, and rushed straight toward the clan's mansion.
Whether his suspicion was right or wrong, they had to prepare.
If he unfortunately proved right, it would be too late to react when the time came.
"I hope I'm overthinking this."
The southern entrance to the Uchiha Clan Compound.
Freight wagons stood along the roadside, undergoing inspection by the Guard Squad.
"Thanks for your hard work." The man in charge of the convoy was a familiar face who had been hauling goods for decades, so the Guard Squad let them through without giving them trouble.
"Wait!" Suddenly, the guard captain stopped the convoy.
"Orders from above. We have to tighten our inspections." The captain himself sounded rather helpless as he spoke.
Who knew what had gotten into the Clan Heir? He had actually claimed that enemies might sneak into the compound.
Sneak into the Uchiha Clan Compound?
No one had ever accomplished such a feat in all their long history.
In his opinion, it was probably just a child trying to throw his weight around. Unfortunately, it was always those at the bottom who suffered.
Just as the captain was about to speak, a sudden, intense feeling of dread welled up inside him.
Before he could react, he discovered that he had lost control of his body.
"Still, they're all old acquaintances. If even they're suspect, wouldn't we all starve?" The guard captain smiled and waved, signaling his men to let the convoy through at once.
No, something's wrong with them!!! Watching his body act beyond his control, he nearly felt the urge to end his own life.
Unfortunately, he was like a mere spectator now, utterly unable to control his body.
In the end, he could only watch helplessly as the suspicious convoy trundled into the compound.
This feeling-there's no doubt about it. It's a Secret Technique of the Yamanaka Clan!
What are they trying to do?!
The poor guard captain "personally" escorted the convoy westward. Judging by their route, they were heading straight for a residential area where many clan members lived.
Most of the shinobi had gone to the battlefield. Only the elderly, the weak, women, and children remained in the residential area. Even a fool could have understood the intruders' objective.
Damn it, move! Move, body! The guard captain screamed with everything he had, but against the Yamanaka Clan's Secret Technique, his resistance was as pitiful and laughable as a child's.
Before long, the convoy had reached deep into the heart of the compound.
Watching the children skipping and playing on either side of the street, he felt as though his heart were bleeding.
"We're almost there." Suddenly, a murmur laden with murderous intent came from behind him.
A short distance ahead stood the academy for young children that the Uchiha had maintained for generations.
If they wanted to eradicate their targets completely, that was the best place to begin.
"Damn Uchiha. Today, you'll pay."
With the children's laughter ringing in their ears, the intruders shed their disguises and charged together into the traditional buildings of the Uchiha Academy.
But what awaited them was not their targets, but a group of lifelike clones, along with...
Explosive Tags covering the entire academy, already burning fiercely.
BOOM!
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