A Bag of Millet

The scorching heat surged rapidly through the atmosphere. The waves of flame rubbed violently against the air, producing a dull, long, and peculiar sound, like the prolonged cry of some enormous unknown creature.

When Uchiha Nanami cast her technique, she had only spat out a slender line of fire. But after crossing an extremely long distance and crashing into the village walls, it had already transformed into a surging sea of flames.

One person, one ninjutsu, yet it created the overwhelming impression of an army bearing down on them.

Countless Tsugawa Ninja stared with their mouths agape, witnessing this astonishing scene of "stormy waves pounding the shore."

Boom!

Accompanied by a tremendous explosive impact, the seemingly decent fortifications surrounding the village were smashed apart by the enormous flames, like a rotten trestle bridge ravaged by a tsunami.

Half the sky caught fire, like the lingering glow of the apocalypse.

"Did she really have to make it this big...?"

Yuzhen was walking along the village's central road. When he heard the commotion from nearby, he could not help turning his head to look—and was startled.

He had indeed instructed Uchiha Nanami to make the commotion a little bigger. His purpose was merely to "boost their momentum," so that the frightened birds already gripped by panic would scatter in all directions. He had not expected her to make such a huge commotion.

Yuzhen naturally had no way of knowing exactly what ninjutsu Uchiha Nanami had used, but she had clearly overfulfilled her task.

To be honest, even the same Fire Style produced different results in different people's hands. Uchiha Nanami's Great Fire Annihilation had indeed seized the initiative with its overwhelming display, but the power of this "imitated version" was still far inferior to the original.

Without considering the natural enhancement to genjutsu, most of the time Uchiha Nanami's Mangekyō Sharingan could only be treated as a decoration. As long as one was careful of her genjutsu, Nanami with the Mangekyo Sharingan was actually not much stronger in battle than Nanami with the Three Tomoe Sharingan.

Since his teammate had performed beyond expectations, Yuzhen could not remain idle either. He calmly formed hand seals with both hands.

Fire Style: Garuda!

A fierce orange-red pillar of flame shot toward the distance. Although it could not compare with Uchiha Nanami's Fire Style, this technique could still be considered a conventional Fire Style capable of covering a vast area and delivering tremendous power.

The power of Fire Style was built up with chakra.

Why set up a row of dominoes? To knock them down at the final moment. Why had Yuzhen stored up so much chakra? To squander it all now... He was not even using it so much as splashing it out.

"Garuda" was a Fire Style ninjutsu Yuzhen had created through a "minor innovation," using the chakra circulation method of Water Dragon Bullet with fire-natured chakra. Its effects resembled Fire Dragon Flame Bullet—a Fire Style ninjutsu capable of causing destruction over a wide area.

In a densely populated residential area, this was a technique that had to be guarded against.

"Water Style: Water Wall!"

Several Tsugawa Ninja rushed out. They formed hand seals together, creating and drawing in a massive amount of water. A thick wall of water rose directly in front of the fire dragon, stopping Yuzhen's Fire Style head-on.

With a sizzling sound, the flames vanished into the water like a mud cow entering the sea.

"Good defense..." Yuzhen murmured.

But had they ever heard of a palm strike descending from the heavens...? No, had they ever heard of "Meteor Shower"?

He formed hand seals again and began releasing a second ninjutsu.

Fire Style: Kubera!

The fire dragon shot into the sky. Aside from its attack direction changing from horizontal to diagonally upward, this Fire Style looked no different from the previous one.

It made one wonder whether Yuzhen had simply missed.

However, when it reached the air, its forward momentum suddenly halted. Then it abruptly burst open like fireworks. The fire dragon instantly transformed into streaks of flame shooting in every direction, like a meteor shower dragging long tails of fire as it crashed down from above, enveloping the village in an attack covering an enormous area.

The flames began spreading uncontrollably through the village.

Many of the Tsugawa Ninja who had originally tried to rush over and surround Yuzhen were forced to change direction and join the efforts to rescue people and fight the fires.

Although Yuzhen and the others' series of actions had already shaken these ninja to their core, even leaving their command center partially paralyzed, inertia meant that the Tsugawa Ninja could not yet be called headless flies.

But Yuzhen knew that they were actually only one final push away from collapse.

The collapse of a ninja clan and the scattering of its people's hearts always required a defining event.

Before the infiltration operation began, Yuzhen had agonized over whether he should assassinate their Clan Leader first. After careful consideration, however, he decided to leave the Clan Leader until the end.

And preferably, he would deal with him in a normal battle rather than assassinate him...

Now, he fought his way around countless Tsugawa Ninja while wantonly destroying everything, waiting for that Clan Leader to arrive.

He had no choice but to appear.

Before the Clan Leader showed himself, however, the remaining elder arrived even faster.

But as he sped toward the scene, he suddenly heard a sharp sound tearing through the air. Then, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a swift shadow attacking from behind and to the side.

The elder could only stop and twist his body aside.

Thud!

The sound was like a drumstick striking a drumhead.

A large Fuma Shuriken brushed past the elder's body and embedded itself in the wall on the left side of the road.

He instinctively turned toward the direction of the attack. Before he could see the attacker clearly, however, another figure shot between them with astonishing speed. A pair of Sharingan bearing a strange pattern entered the elder's field of vision.

In the blink of an eye, the vigilance vanished from the elder's face.

Perhaps Yuzhen's "genjutsu immunity" had made Uchiha Nanami somewhat lacking in confidence. Thus, when preparing to control this important figure before her, she had been too "generous in estimating the enemy's strength" and had consequently overdone it, directly choosing to use genjutsu empowered by the Mangekyō Sharingan.

How should one put it? Since Uchiha Nanami had used power of this level, there was no reason for the elder not to be controlled by her genjutsu.

After the genjutsu took effect, the elder had clearly forgotten his original mission. He turned around and left, beginning to turn his butcher's knife on his own clansmen.

After Uchiha Nanami and Fūma Kotarō stormed into the village, their primary goal was not to kill the enemy but to help relieve the pressure on Yuzhen.

Several minutes later, that familiar figure finally appeared in Yuzhen's field of vision.

Although he had been a little slow, Tsugawa Taishi, the Clan Leader, had ultimately found Yuzhen.

He appeared stern, but in truth, he was barely able to suppress the fury in his heart. Staring unblinkingly at Yuzhen, he asked:

"Who are you people? Who hired you? Why are you attacking us?"

"That question... is somewhat childish. When one group of ninja attacks another group of ninja, do you really need some special reason?" Yuzhen countered.

Of course, a reason was needed. But he chose not to say.