Mangekyo!

The Uchiha Clan's protection of their clansmen's corpses was so stringent it was suffocating. The retrieval process was watertight, and the autopsies were exceedingly meticulous.

The fake corpse he had made could not withstand any scrutiny. Before experienced shinobi, that crude disguise would be no different from exposing his own flaws.

More fatally, he simply lacked the strength to create an "accident" at the scene—one that would leave an Uchiha warrior "without even a corpse left behind," yet conveniently allow him to "recover" the body into a Sealing Scroll.

As he hesitated, fretted, and repeatedly agonized over his calculations, the war... ended without warning.

When the smoke cleared, his hands were empty.

Neither Uchiha bloodline nor the Hyuga Byakugan had fallen into his hands.

Driven into a corner, Minamoto Takuya had nothing left in his eyes but the madness of a desperate gamble.

He carefully devised an exceptionally thorough plan: target a lone Uchiha clansman carrying out an external mission, wait for an opening, and forcibly seize the bloodline!

The operation began.

Holding his breath, he waited patiently at the prepared ambush point, his nerves taut as a fully drawn bowstring.

The target stepped into the trap one step at a time. Minamoto Takuya's heart pounded wildly, his fingers nearly touching the edge of the Sealing Scroll.

At that critical moment, a dazzling golden flash tore through the stillness of space without warning, appearing between him and the target.

Blond hair fluttered in the wind. Azure eyes, pure as the clearest sky, held a sharpness that seemed to see through everything. Minato Namikaze!

Minamoto Takuya's blood froze instantly.

The instant he saw the Yellow Flash, he knew that every plan had come to a complete end.

Despair washed over him like an icy tide.

"Why..." Immense confusion and unwillingness churned