Xiangji Temple Showdown, Konoha Style

"Fire Style..."

Shisui tried to form hand seals, but Xiu grabbed his hand and stopped him.

"Look for another chance."

"The Forest of Death, huh? Heh... Let's settle this right here. Whoever loses is a traitor!"

Uchiha Xiu couldn't help thinking of the tale of the bloody clash at Xiangji Temple in the Tang Dynasty. The Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun in his eyes as he slapped both hands against the muddy ground—

Lightning Release: Sixteen-Pillar Bind!

Rumble, rumble! Row after row of stone pillars burst from the ground, instantly forming a vast domain. Lightning raced through the moisture and into the poisonous fog.

Crackle!

The lightning collided with the two Poison Dragons, raising pungent purple smoke. A vast cloud of insects around the perimeter was electrocuted in an instant.

"Heh."

Danzo, now somewhat recovered, saw what happened and felt a flicker of disdain.

Once my trusted subordinate makes his move and gains the initiative, he'll keep widening his advantage.

He can even exploit the information gap to score a major victory in a single instant.

Whoosh~

Abandoning the obvious swarm, Aburame Torune used an exceptionally skillful Insect Clone to close the distance in an instant. His purple-black fist shot straight at Uchiha Xiu's face.

"Touch it and die."

But Shisui's left Mangekyo spun again. To conserve chakra, he summoned only a single arm of energy.

Boom—

Crack! Crack!

The attack was blocked, but a swarm of insects burst from the fist and gnawed furiously at the bone arm, their scraping setting one's teeth on edge.

Though he'd temporarily lost an arm, Aburame Torune calmly took a few steps back.

Before a breath had passed, a swarm of insects quietly restored his arm. He brought his hands together.

"Forbidden Technique: Jar Poison Dust."

The next moment, the ground exploded.

Even more poisonous insects crawled out of the muddy water and surged like a tidal wave toward the area where Susanoo stood. There was no way a single Lightning Release binding technique could contain them.

Gray patches covered the bone arm in an instant, and cracks spread across it!

These insects had been bred using the corpses of buried comrades, but Aburame Torune felt no guilt whatsoever.

Everything for Root.

For Lord Danzo!!

"Now."

As before, Uchiha Xiu burst out of the shadows at the perfect moment, his figure impossible to distinguish as either a Shadow Clone or his real body.

But he didn't use an ordinary ninjutsu.

The worst thing to do when fighting someone like this insect man was to get bogged down in a slugfest. Conventional ninjutsu wouldn't work unless he had overwhelming strength.

And the longer the fight went on, the harder it would become.

This thing could use corpses—even the bodies of its comrades—to widen its advantage!

Their eyes met.

"Genjutsu: Sharingan."

A simple, instant-cast technique, almost an innate ability. Its effects surpassed ordinary genjutsu; it could even control a Tailed Beast.

This was Uchiha Xiu's first time using genjutsu.

The result...

Wasn't what he'd hoped.

Aburame Torune hadn't used his real body from the start. His flesh immediately began crumbling from the head down, turning into a swarm of insects that remained motionless where they stood.

Meanwhile, a section of Rinkaichu split off from the poisonous fog around Danzo and assembled into the figure wearing protective gear.

—Since he was using his comrades' corpses as chakra reserves, he wasn't worried about running out of chakra for the time being.

"Die!"

"You two naturally wicked beasts!"

At his roar, row after row of enormous trees exploded.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"

At last, Danzo—who had narrowly escaped with his life—struck back.

A high-pressure air blast crushed the rain. The Susanoo bone arm, which had been formed with only a small amount of ocular power, burst apart on impact!

Shisui used the Body Flicker Technique to leave his spot.

Branches whipped through the air, trying to capture him.

Unfortunately, they were always a step too slow.

"Wood Release: Root Burial."

The ground shuddered violently!

Danzo formed hand seals with his right hand, and even more massive tree roots erupted from the earth, twisting and strangling everything in their path. The part of the Forest of Death where they stood seemed to come alive.

"Boom—!!!"

Fire Release blazed into the sky.

An explosion in the direction of the Forest of Death lit up the horizon. Even the torrential rain couldn't drown out the commotion.

"They're here."

Fugaku was the first to leap into action.

All across the clan compound, Yashiro, Inabi, and dozens of other jonin looked up at once, crimson light flaring in their eyes.

"Except for the family guard unit led by Elder Shin—"

"All Uchiha, move out at full speed and reinforce the Forest of Death!"

Beneath Kage Rock,

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed. Rain ran down the deep furrows in his face.

"Whether the Uchiha have rebelled... or Danzo has crossed the line, I no longer intend to pursue it. Tonight, blood must be spilled."

The monkey in armor looked toward the forest and shouted:

"Anbu, follow me!"

His old body erupted with a terrifying aura.

Kakashi: "..."

"..." Yamato.

The two exchanged a glance, then hurried after him.

The Anbu, also known as the Hokage's personal guard, were the most loyal elite force under Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Even with the major ninja clans taking a wait-and-see approach, he still had plenty of resources at his disposal.

"We'll help whoever wins."

At the Hyuga Clan Compound,

the clan head, Hiashi, stood atop a tower, concentrating with all his might. The veins around his eyes bulged as the Byakugan pierced the rain.

"The Uchiha main force has mobilized..."

"Close the gates." He turned to the clan elders and spoke in a low voice. "Tonight... no one is to leave the compound!"

"Unless I give the order."

"Yes."

Similar scenes were unfolding among the Inuzuka, Aburame, Kurama, and other prominent clans.

Caught in an irreconcilable conflict, none of them cared who became Hokage.

It wouldn't be one of their own, anyway.

Whichever side took power would have to win them over.

"It's a shame the Ninja World has to face war again after only a few peaceful years. I wonder which country will provoke it first."

Hiashi sighed. His gaze swept over the obstacles below and settled on a corner of the compound, where a small boy practiced his punches, undisturbed by the outside world.

"Hizashi, it wasn't your brother who wronged you, nor was it the clan. This chaotic era is to blame."

He raised his Byakugan again and watched the battlefield.

"Hokage."

"My lord."

"Lord Hiruzen."

Sarutobi Hiruzen raced from tree to tree. Three figures joined him—

The heads of the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans had all arrived. More than twenty figures silently fell in with the Anbu's marching column.

"Clan head."

Then the entire Sarutobi Clan arrived.

"Lord Hokage, please remain calm. First, try to contain the scale of the fighting. We must not let this turn into a full-scale civil war in Konoha."

After following him for a while, Jonin Commander Nara Shikaku urged him in a grave voice.

"Very well."

Sarutobi let out a breath and conceded. "Lead your clansmen, along with nine Anbu squads, and try to stop the rebel... Police Force units coming from the Uchiha Clan's direction. Stop as many as you can."

"Anyone who reaches the Forest of Death will be killed without exception."

The heads of the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans exchanged a glance, then brought out the core fighters of their clans once more.

The nine Anbu squads departed with them.

One of them carried a short sword and seemed inconspicuous, but a Three-Tomoe Sharingan gleamed in his eyes. He was the traitor Fugaku had just expelled from the clan in front of everyone:

Uchiha Itachi.

If anyone saw him on the opposing side, they could kill him outright without asking the clan head or elders for permission.

When it came to the clan's interests, no one cared that he was the clan head's eldest son.

If the older one was a lost cause, there was still the younger one. Though Sasuke hadn't shown anything impressive so far.

"Mikoto and I are still young. We can have more children."

Leaving some of the Police Force's elite behind to tangle with the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans, Fugaku kept moving. As the Forest of Death drew closer, all sorts of thoughts crossed his mind.

Meanwhile,

the heart of the forest had become a living hell.

Massive tree roots danced like a nest of serpents. The emerald Susanoo skeleton cracked inch by inch under the assault, then rapidly repaired itself.

"Cough, cough... Xiu, I can still hold on." A drop of blood trickled from beneath the Mangekyo in Shisui's single eye.

At the same time, Susanoo swung a massive fist and smashed a small Wood Dragon charging toward it.

"But why won't you let me use Kotoamatsukami?"

"So what if Danzo knows about the ability? I can take the hit—"

Not far away,

insects fell in swarms.

Aburame Torune's corpse lay at Uchiha Xiu's feet.

He lacked a space-time ability like Kamui, so he couldn't finish the fight with a surprise attack? No matter. As long as neither he nor his insects touched Xiu's real body, Xiu would remain invincible.

With his abundant chakra and Wood Release's ability to strike from the shadows, the elite Root jonin had become a dead dog in the blink of an eye.

Danzo had lost his strongest support.

Now, only a dozen or so Root shinobi surrounded him, coordinating their ninjutsu.

"Wood Release?"

"An Uchiha can use Wood Release!"

"Is there no justice in this world?"

When Danzo saw Torune pierced through like a pincushion by Wood Release: Cutting Technique, his first reaction wasn't anger or fear, but confusion.

This was too unnatural.

Since when had the Senju Clan secretly married into the Uchiha?

But among all those Senju shinobi, only the First had developed this ability naturally. Everyone else, including Princess Tsunade, merely had more chakra at their disposal and, at most, could combine it with Strength of a Hundred.

Heavens were blind!

From beginning to end, Danzo never considered that the Uchiha Clan might have acquired this power by secretly experimenting with Wood Release.

They lacked the research skills and the talent.

Their finances, on the other hand, were just barely enough, given how frugally the Police Force operated.

"..." Shisui.

Was this the turning of fate? Wood Release and the Sharingan, destined to stand against each other, had been brought together in Xiu.

"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"

After taking down Danzo, Uchiha Xiu had built up enough momentum.

He casually raised his fingers!

A gnarled tree root shot out of the ground and blocked the Susanoo in front of Shisui, effortlessly slaughtering the small Wood Dragon.

In the first exchange, the difference between the two Wood Release users' abilities—and the amount of chakra they could wield—was crystal clear.

One massive tree after another switched sides.

The initiative on the battlefield had changed hands!

"Damn it, we've lost every advantage of the terrain..." One Root shinobi's thought abruptly ended as his body shriveled.

His chakra had been drained.

All that remained was a little sapling, holding up his clothes!

Danzo panicked and leaped through the forest. A transplanted Three-Tomoe Sharingan darted from side to side as he used its power to watch the attack paths of every root and vine in sight, searching for footholds where he could briefly land!

The next moment...

Old Dog's expression changed abruptly.

He sensed that the enormous trees and vines he had been controlling were all gathering above him.

The massive chakra response was almost suffocating.

A dangerous technique was about to appear!

"Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique."

Before Shisui's eyes, the little dragon that had recently been able only to harry Susanoo from the side gathered and took shape, rapidly becoming a five-clawed giant dragon soaring skyward!

Its body was over a hundred meters long.

"Unless I'm at the peak of my dual Mangekyo state and am willing to expend ocular power to evolve Susanoo into its second stage, I can't face it head-on."

After enduring several reversals in a single day, and watching his understanding of the Ninja World collapse and rebuild, Shisui Uchiha stood there in a daze.

He gazed up at the dragon's head.

Xiu stood atop it.

"This, this!"

At the entrance to the Forest of Death, Hatake Kakashi, who had been slacking off during his sprint, froze completely.

Ever since the First, Senju Hashirama, passed away, Wood Release Kekkei Genkai had become a legend in the village. It was difficult for anyone to imagine its power.

That included Tenzō—Yamato.

Just how much chakra did it take to perform a technique like that?

Wood Release... How could it be so powerful?!

"I don't understand."

The survivor of one of Orochimaru's experimental projects looked utterly incredulous.

As the ancient forest grew wildly and thickly,

as the sinister Wood Dragon coiled through the sky...

Sarutobi Hiruzen slowed down slightly, unable to help recalling the First's heroic bearing.

—Lord Hashirama had used the power of Wood Release to defeat Madara, ally with the Uchiha, and unite the many great and small ninja clans to establish the most prosperous ninja village. He had brought an end to the endless chaos of the Warring States period.

Of course, that had also planted the seeds of even more brutal ninja wars.

"Was it Danzo? You bastard." Sarutobi felt a surge of joy.

He had no time to blame his old comrade.

Things had come to this, so he could only grit his teeth and accept it for now. Suppressing the Uchiha rebellion by force was the most urgent task.

But there was no way Danzo had that kind of ability!

Compared with Uchiha Xiu, he looked like a fake—a defective knockoff.

Wood Release? Barely competent.

He could only perform the related techniques through his right arm.

The regenerative effects of the Hashirama Cells were constantly going out of control, and he had to rely on transplanted Three-Tomoe Sharingan to keep them in check.

One eye wasn't enough.

So he had added two more to the arm wrapped in bandages.

—It had all depended on Root's cooperation: scavenging the bodies of Uchiha clan members who had fallen on the battlefield, reporting them as missing, or burning their corpses to a crisp to destroy the evidence.

It was the usual patchwork fix: add water when there was too much flour, add flour when there was too much water.

With his yin and yang out of balance, his performance was the shame of Kage Level. Even his proudest Wind Release could only handle favorable matchups, ambushes, and bullying the weak.

His eagerness to target the Uchiha was also because he couldn't keep the Hashirama Cells under control!

And there was no need to mention the Resurrection Coin, Izanagi. As long as the Uchiha still existed, Danzo couldn't steal one.

At the entrance on the left side of the forest.

"Clan head..."

Yakumi's hesitant voice rang out. Uchiha Fugaku remained silent.

As clan head, he had no reason not to know the secrets of the Warring States period.

Which was stronger, Wood Release or the Mangekyo?

It seemed Senju Hashirama had been stronger.

The Konoha High Command had been hiding this trump card. Was some Senju clansman who had concealed his surname coming to their aid?

Uchiha Setsuna's eyes were filled with grave concern as well.

"It's not as terrifying as the First, but it's big enough to fight the Nine-Tails head-on."

"Restore the Gunbai to its former glory!" Fugaku shouted the slogan and charged faster.

That was how fortune-tellers who believed in destiny operated.

If the Mangekyo foresaw a happy ending, then charge!

"Let's end this. I'll change the tragedy of the clan's extermination, starting by killing you, you naturally evil old dog."

At that moment, Uchiha Xiu, indifferent to what the reinforcements on either side might be thinking, rode the dragon into battle.

Danzo regretted not summoning Baku to help him!

What now?

What now?

Shimura Danzo, who had spent far too long hiding in the darkness like a rat, thought of a technique that would burn his life away—the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing.

"Arghhh!!"

Hesitation meant defeat.

With a shrill scream, Danzo still couldn't bring himself to die even at the very last moment. He let out one final howl in the direction of the Anbu:

"Monkey, save me!!!"

His body turned to minced flesh. His chakra was swallowed by Wood Release and converted.

In a shadowy corner,

a half-bodied plant monster emerged from underground.

"An unexpected Uchiha."

"Hard to imagine anyone in this Ninja World could reach such heights. Wood Release has shown traces of the Atavistic God Tree."

"But no one can stop me from saving Mother!"