Uchiha Flame Formation

"We did it!"

The tomoe of the Sharingan reflected in the serpent's eyes, and Shinsuke Uchiha felt a weight lift from his heart.

Using genjutsu to attack was a risky move. If they failed to control Orochimaru, they would have almost no way to dodge in midair.

"This is what happens when you underestimate the Uchiha."

Shinsuke Uchiha spat to the side. Orochimaru had clearly held back, but only the Sharingan of their clan could have subdued him so quickly.

On the Night of the Nine-Tails, the Third Hokage and the others had been wrong. They should have let the Uchiha Police Force take the field.

"Hissss..."

The sound of a snake hissing suddenly rang in his ears. Shinsuke Uchiha snapped out of his thoughts and was horrified to see the tomoe in the serpent's eyes rapidly fade. Its mouth gaped open to an impossibly wide extent, then lunged at him with lightning speed.

How had he broken the genjutsu so quickly? Had someone else made a mistake?

A foul wind rushed toward him. In the blink of an eye, Shinsuke Uchiha drew a short sword from behind his back and slashed hard at the giant serpent's fangs.

"Clang!"

The short sword failed to break the fang, but Shinsuke Uchiha used the recoil to dodge the serpent's bite.

Just then, one of the Police Force members came to his senses and hurriedly threw a Kunai with a thin wire tied to it.

Shinsuke Uchiha offered no resistance. The wire wrapped twice around his waist, and his teammate pulled him back.

Once he was safely on the ground again, Shinsuke Uchiha was drenched in cold sweat.

The other squad leaders who had cast genjutsu weren't as lucky. Some hadn't managed to think quickly enough and fell to the serpent's first bite. Others dodged once, but their teammates couldn't reach them in time, leaving them helpless as they were swallowed whole.

The battlefield fell silent. The only sound was the serpent swallowing.

"Were they really eaten?"

Even the Uchiha, despite their temperament, couldn't help finding the thought of cannibalism horrifying.

"Pfft!"

"Pfft!"

The serpent spat out several human-shaped figures. At the same time, a figure leaped into the air and split into eight. In the blink of an eye, he carried the squad leaders to the edge of the battlefield.

After checking them over, Shisui breathed a sigh of relief. They had only passed out. Aside from being covered in saliva, they didn't appear to have suffered any serious injuries.

The middle head of Yamata no Orochi slowly opened its mouth, and Orochimaru rose out of it, his face twisted in a sinister smile.

"Consider this a lesson."

"A Jinchuriki undergoing Tailed Beast Transformation is different from an ordinary Tailed Beast. To control one with genjutsu, your visual prowess would have to be strong enough to control both the Jinchuriki and the Tailed Beast at once."

"Hey, you're nowhere near capable of that."

There was no telling whether the elite Uchiha took the warning to heart, but they realized that genjutsu wouldn't defeat the Yamata no Orochi before them.

The eight serpent heads were merely appearances. Orochimaru, hidden inside the giant serpent, was the real body.

And to attack the real body, they first had to deal with Yamata no Orochi.

But they had resorted to this risky plan precisely because they couldn't deal with Yamata no Orochi. They had tried to use the Sharingan's genjutsu against it.

The Uchiha elite on the battlefield understood that they needed to change their goal. They could no longer focus on winning the fight. Instead, they had to stabilize the situation and hold out until Orochimaru ran low on Chakra.

The Uchiha instinctively disliked such an approach. They preferred to defeat their opponents decisively, swiftly, and with elegance.

How could a dull tactic of simply dragging things out show off Uchiha superiority? That was what ordinary, talentless shinobi had to resort to.

But now, not a single Uchiha objected or halfheartedly went through the motions.

They hated losing more than they hated winning in a messy fashion.

Orochimaru had plenty of combat experience. He easily noticed the Uchiha's intentions as the situation shifted.

"Hisss... So you plan to hold out until I can't keep going. Not a bad idea."

"But have you forgotten something? From the beginning until now, I haven't even started attacking."

A mocking expression crossed the serpent's face. "If you want to hold out, you'll have to withstand my attacks first!!!"

With a roar, Yamata no Orochi abandoned its defense. Ignoring the flames scorching it, it charged into the Uchiha elite's formation.

The earth shook. Trees toppled and earthen walls crumbled in Yamata no Orochi's wake. The Uchiha elite fell back again and again, barely managing to slow it down.

Yamata no Orochi's enormous body threw the battlefield into chaos, and the Uchiha Police Force's formation was shattered once more.

"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"

Shinsuke Uchiha formed Hand Seals and unleashed the most powerful ninjutsu he knew, but the serpent swept its tail through the air and easily smashed the head of the fire dragon.

Shinsuke Uchiha leaped away, dodging the flying sparks, wood, and stones.

He landed on a tree branch and fixed his Sharingan on the serpent, breathing heavily.

Their ninjutsu was having an effect. After wave upon wave of attacks, Yamata no Orochi had slowed down, and its attacks had grown weaker.

But the Police Force's combat strength had declined even more.

Their opponent was still holding back, aiming only to break up the Police Force's formation, yet the aftershocks of the battle continued to injure clan members.

If Shisui hadn't been carrying them out of the battlefield, the Police Force would have suffered heavy losses in this exercise.

"What should we do? If this keeps up, the clan will be humiliated."

Though he thought that, Shinsuke Uchiha could do nothing about the situation. If genjutsu was ineffective, Yamata no Orochi's size was a nightmare for any shinobi.

Just then, a figure sprang out of the woods and landed near Yamata no Orochi during a lull in its attacks.

When Shinsuke Uchiha recognized the figure, he was taken aback. "It's the clan leader. What's he going to do?"

After the formation had been broken up again, giving orders was pointless. The battlefield was in utter disarray, and Shinsuke had assumed the clan leader had already withdrawn.

"Could the clan leader have a good plan?"

The thought crossed Shinsuke Uchiha's mind as Fugaku formed Hand Seals and slapped his palm against the ground. "Uchiha Flame Formation!"

Flames sprang from his fingertips, and crimson patterns spread across the ground. A translucent wall shot up, encircling Yamata no Orochi.

"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

Its enormous tail slammed against the barrier again and again, but the barrier held—and began to scorch the serpent's tail in return.

Shinsuke Uchiha stared in disbelief. "It worked? The clan leader even learned such an obscure Barrier Ninjutsu."

Barrier Ninjutsu and Fūinjutsu were famously difficult to learn, and the Uchiha Flame Formation was among the hardest of them.

It wasn't simply a fire-style barrier. It also drew on the earth's own earth nature to further strengthen its defenses.

Compared to ordinary ninjutsu, it was more like a Kekkei Genkai, an external fusion of two types of Chakra.

"Whatever the case, it worked." Shinsuke Uchiha breathed a sigh of relief.

If the entire Police Force surrounded a single shinobi and still ended up utterly defeated, the Uchiha would be disgraced.

Just then, the sound of shattering glass rang out.

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