Evil Uchiha!

"Everyone, attack! Annihilate the Uchiha. Leave no survivors."

"Have Danzo find out who used Space-Time Ninjutsu and where the Uchiha Clan escaped to. Then pursue them!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen rose to his feet and gave the order without hesitation.

As long as the Uchiha stayed inside Konoha, they were like huskies kept in a pen. He could deal with them whenever he wanted.

But if the Uchiha left Konoha, they would be more like a pack of hungry wolves, ready to tear a huge chunk out of Konoha at any moment.

He absolutely could not accept the Uchiha Clan escaping!

That would leave Konoha with an enemy it would have to be on guard against at all times!

"Yes!"

Shikaku Nara was startled when he heard Sarutobi Hiruzen's words.

But he quickly used Inoichi Yamanaka's Ninjutsu to send the message straight to the Anbu and Danzo on the front line.

The Anbu who received the message were all shocked.

They had also sensed that the Uchiha didn't seem especially eager to fight. They were mostly just trying to hold them back.

So the Anbu hadn't been fighting too hard, either. Most of their efforts had gone toward gathering intelligence and figuring out what was happening.

Now that they had received an order from the Third, they could no longer keep slacking off.

They had joined the Anbu knowing what they might be asked to do. They still didn't understand why they had to do this to the Uchiha, but they went ahead anyway.

"Has the barrier been broken?"

"We have ten minutes left to evacuate. We've already brought over four hundred people, with half still to go. Time is tight!"

Uchiha Tamaharu stood on a rooftop, using his Sharingan to observe the situation outside.

He knew that the hardest part was still ahead.

The Portal couldn't be hidden. With the Byakugan around, it would be easy to find. That was why Uchiha Tamaharu had chosen from the start to place it somewhere convenient for their escape.

"They're fighting harder now. Are they going to wipe out the Uchiha?"

"Then I won't hold back."

Uchiha Tamaharu soon noticed that the fighting on the front line had grown much fiercer.

Ninjutsu and Explosive Tags were going off one after another.

He knew this was Sarutobi Hiruzen's decision. He didn't intend to let them leave.

If Konoha had learned the Uchiha's intentions and chosen not to pursue them, there might still have been a chance for peace in the future.

But now, Uchiha Tamaharu didn't hesitate.

He remotely detonated Konoha's Jail!

There were fewer prisoners held inside than usual, but many of them were still Konoha's rogue ninja.

Without a moment's hesitation, Uchiha Tamaharu chose to set them free.

"Genjutsu: Sharingan!"

At the front line, Shisui also noticed the Anbu launching a fierce assault.

His heart sank. He knew Konoha had decided not to let them leave, and he was disappointed.

He had thought that if Konoha knew the Uchiha planned to leave and didn't want to go to war with it, Konoha would agree.

But now it seemed he had been too optimistic!

So Shisui began to fight harder, no longer holding back.

Like a Death God, he used the Body Flicker Technique to dart among the Anbu and take them down.

However, he deliberately spared their lives, refusing to kill them outright. That made the fight much harder for him.

"Detonate the first line of defense!"

Fugaku Uchiha gave the order.

Konoha had always been wary of the Uchiha planting something in the village.

They had planted things, but only within their own compound.

This time, they had laid a huge number of Explosive Tags. They would blow up every one of these houses rather than leave them for Konoha!

All Konoha would get was a pile of rubble.

Detonating them now would also make it harder for the Anbu to break in.

After all, the Uchiha only needed to buy time. They had begun evacuating from the outermost areas, so there was no one left on the outskirts.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The blasts from the Explosive Tags shook nearly every resident in Konoha awake.

It was still less than half an hour before dawn, when most people were fast asleep.

The sudden tremors reminded the villagers of the devastation on the night of the Nine-Tails Incident. Panicked, they ran out of their homes, desperate to find shelter.

"So they really are fighting!"

"Will the Hyuga Clan be next?"

Hyuga Hiashi hadn't gone to sleep.

With a grim expression, he used his Byakugan to watch what was happening in the village.

He spotted the dozen or so Anbu concealed around the Hyuga Clan compound, there to make sure the clan didn't stab them in the back.

The sight of those Anbu infuriated Hyuga Hiashi. He knew the people in Konoha's High Command had never trusted the Hyuga Clan.

With the Senju and Uchiha no longer targets, he suspected the Hyuga Clan might well be next!

"So this is the Uchiha's plan!"

"Just as expected of the evil Uchiha!"

"Send those ninja to the front line! Tell them killing one Uchiha ninja earns an A-rank mission reward!"

Danzo had also learned about the Uchiha Clan's plan to escape using Space-Time Ninjutsu from a Hyuga Clan ninja in Root.

He was furious!

He blamed Sarutobi Hiruzen's hesitation for letting things come to this.

If he had acted sooner, perhaps this situation could have been avoided entirely.

"Yes!"

The five Root members kneeling nearby vanished with the Body Flicker Technique to gather more ninja.

"Prepare a combined Ninjutsu attack. Destroy that Space-Time Ninjutsu as quickly as possible. It cannot be allowed to remain!"

Danzo continued issuing orders.

If they relied on a frontal assault, he thought, it would be too late by then.

Some had tried to charge straight in, but in the darkest hour before dawn, visibility was poor—and that barely affected the Uchiha Clan.

On top of that, the Uchiha had laid countless traps, making it impossible for the Anbu to break through quickly.

Even when they managed to get close, the Uchiha guarding the Portal stopped them.

So Danzo prepared to use an enormous, long-range combined Ninjutsu attack to destroy what he believed was the Space-Time Ninjutsu!

But before Danzo could act, Uchiha Tamaharu activated the last measure he had prepared.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

Uchiha Metsu fired three Great Fireball Techniques in succession, sending them toward three different points in the sky.

Since they weren't aimed at anyone, no one stopped the Ninjutsu.

"With Konoha watching so closely, it's hard to make any moves."

"But no one noticed the weather."

"Let's combine the Kirin Sasuke developed with the broader weather-control Ninjutsu I created. We'll show Konoha what pain feels like!"

Electricity crackled around Uchiha Tamaharu's right hand.

His eyes had already changed into their Mangekyo form.

Over the past two days, many rain clouds had gathered in the sky without anyone noticing.

Uchiha Tamaharu had slowly evaporated the water from the lake each day, gradually forming storm clouds. By the evening before, he had nearly evaporated an entire lake inside the Uchiha Clan Compound.

The Konoha ninja hadn't noticed a thing.

I've never had so many people support a book right from the start.

Thank you all for your support!

Thanks to reader cjq1022 for the 1,500 site coins, and thanks to everyone who sent monthly and recommendation tickets!