Senju: Uchiha, Please Accept Delivery!

The violent Chakra surge erupting from the direction of the Ancestral Hall made Aoba's entire body shudder.

The three tomoe in her pupils, slowly evolving toward a Mangekyo pattern, flickered between light and dark.

After forcefully killing an invader despite her injuries, she caught a fleeting glimpse through the Sharingan's incredible vision of black smoke carrying sparks soaring above the Ancestral Hall.

A ninja who had only recently left the Medical Unit had long since been carried by civilians up to the Ancestral Hall's upper floor.

After the civilians placed him in a concealed spot, the ninja—with a broken leg and arm—used one hand to unravel a scroll of Exploding Tags, waiting for his prey to arrive.

So you all said I could only hide at home and be protected!

Today, I'll show you idiots what the hell a real surprise is!!

The instant a Senju ninja and an Uzumaki ninja leaped onto the attic and kicked open the wooden door, the Uchiha ninja formed hand seals with one hand. The blazing light of thirty Exploding Tags igniting at once illuminated half the night sky.

His mangled body leaned heavily against a pillar. Several unused Exploding Tags were still clenched in his fingers, and a bloodstained smile hung from his lips. "This is how the Uchiha entertain guests! Gentlemen, see yourselves out!!"

At the same time, identical flames erupted one after another from attics, eaves, and well platforms throughout the clan grounds.

Those ninjas deemed "unable to fight" were using their ruined bodies to drag the invaders down into the Underworld.

Earth Style: Earth Splitting Palm!

Amid the ruins of the makeshift medical site, an Uchiha chunin slammed both palms against the ground. Like the jaws of a colossal beast opening, the earth swallowed two enemies in the blink of an eye.

But before the fissure could close, the Uzumaki ninja's Water Dragon Bullet came roaring in.

The young guard was driven back again and again by the Water Style attack, then Senbon pierced through the curtain of water and nailed him firmly to the wall.

As blood ran down the cracks between the bricks, a faint smile still rested on his lips.

His companion hidden beneath the rubble finally completed the hand seals for Earth Flow Spear.

Sharp rocks suddenly burst from beneath the Uzumaki ninja. By the time he noticed and tried to evade, it was already too late.

The jagged rocks instantly pierced his lower body and exploded within him.

"Damn it!! Evil Uchiha!!"

Aoba's third remaining clone was currently watching the battle from atop the granary roof.

At that moment, a disturbance in the southwest corner caught her attention. Twenty civilians wielding wooden spears and kitchen knives were protecting five children in their midst.

In one instant, she recognized the leader as Tajima's family cook. The fierce woman hurled her kitchen knife at an Uzumaki ninja attempting to form hand seals.

The spinning blade's trajectory happened to interrupt the ninja's technique.

Seizing the chance, the injured man concealed in the haystack suddenly exerted force with his arm. A chain sickle shot out from the straw like a venomous snake striking.

The sickle's cold gleam carved a streak of death through the air, its flying chain dragging straw along with it and producing a chilling clatter.

The red-haired ninja's pupils contracted sharply. Chakra burst beneath his feet in a blue-green flash, launching his entire body backward into the air.

At the same time, he turned to face the figure emerging from the haystack and rapidly formed hand seals with all ten fingers.

Little did he know that as he leaped into the air and formed seals, a civilian carrying an Uchiha ninja silently appeared in the dark night.

Whoosh!

A Kunai bearing an Exploding Tag tore through the air. The instant it embedded itself in the center of his back, it erupted in a blinding red light.

Sensing the deadly danger behind him, his eyes widened in terror, but suspended in midair, he had no way to twist his body aside.

Boom!

A deafening explosion thundered out. Its force was like an invisible palm, slamming the Uzumaki ninja heavily from the sky as a bloodied groan escaped his throat.

Before the stirred-up dust had settled, a cold glint pierced into the cloud. A moment later came a faint tearing sound.

It was immediately followed by the sound of Water Flow spraying out.

When the surrounding civilians swept the dust aside, the red-haired ninja was revealed, severed into two pieces.

He had been sliced diagonally in half.

Supporting his upper body with one hand, he struggled to raise his head, his unwilling eyes fixed on the crippled Uchiha holding the end of the chain amid the haystack.

At midnight, a blood-red halo veiled the moon.

The battle within the Uchiha clan grounds was exceptionally fierce. The Death Warriors fought without fear of death, every attack aimed at trading their lives for another's, striking directly at vital points.

Aoba, who had been surrounded and attacked by six invaders from the very beginning, now stood panting as she stared at the remaining two.

One hand, slick with blood, gripped a long blade full of chips. The other glowed with the distinctive green light of a Medical Ninja as it pressed against an injury.

Though equally exhausted, the ninja's body flickered again when he saw the green glow rise from the Uchiha's hand, charging in to kill her once more.

Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!

A massive water dragon surged toward Aoba with terrifying force.

The ninja beside it, who had not moved at all, suddenly formed hand seals with both hands and slammed them onto the ground.

Earth Style: Earth Flow River!

As Chakra poured in frantically, the once-solid ground instantly turned into flowing mud under the influence of water, forming a swamp-like quagmire that spread toward Aoba.

Seeing this, her eyes flashed. She leaped backward with her longsword in hand and began forming seals one-handed.

Rat - Ox - Dog - Horse - Monkey - Boar - Tiger

Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame.

Aoba fiercely spat a fireball resembling a falling meteor at the ground. The instant it struck the water dragon, thick white smoke billowed forth.

The fireball tore through the white smoke and continued plummeting toward the ground. Upon impact, its flames rapidly spread into a sea of fire.

Scorching the ground that had turned into a bog.

Having leaped onto a house, Aoba watched the kunai-wielding ninja charge at her with a cold glint in his eyes.

Without pausing in the slightest, she crouched and kicked off, rushing toward the incoming ninja as her longsword carved a crimson arc through the air.

Before the Exploding Tags in the two ninjas' hands could be thrown, their heads had already flown toward the burning ground.

The standing water on the ground, not yet dried beneath the searing flames, reflected an eerie red glow—the spray of blood from two headless bodies.

Having dealt with the ninjas blocking her path, Aoba immediately turned and ran toward the battlefield within the clan grounds.

At that moment, the battle on the plaza before the Ancestral Hall was exceedingly brutal.

The civilians carried disabled Uchiha ninjas on their backs and stood stubbornly in a line, forming a human wall.

The ninjas on their backs seized the right moment, poured what little Chakra remained in their bodies into Exploding Tags, and hurled them forcefully at the red-haired ninjas.

When several red-haired Uzumaki ninjas, their crimson hair blazing, broke through the Earth Release barrier, over a hundred flashes of fire blossomed at once.

The violent explosions shook wind chimes from the eaves. Their immense force formed an invisible torrent that instantly swept the human wall away.

Civilians and disabled ninjas alike crashed into distant buildings like leaves in an autumn wind, flung about without direction.

Seizing this chance, the Medical Ninja launched an all-or-nothing assault. The scalpel in his hand glowed with an eerie green light as it precisely pierced the enemy's carotid artery.

In the final darkness before dawn, Aoba stood before the Ancestral Hall in a bedraggled state.