Xuanye's face darkened at those words, disbelief flickering across it.
"That's why I said I have no idea what goes through your head sometimes."
"Don't tell me you still have some naive hope for the Hokage Faction."
But when Xuanye saw Fugaku's earnest expression, he suddenly understood what Fugaku was thinking.
Fugaku planned to use the Nine-Tails Incident as a chance to bargain with the Konoha High Command over whether the Uchiha would deploy.
Is he waiting for Sarutobi Hiruzen to come begging?
It turned out people really did laugh when they were at a loss for words.
Had the Uchiha's growing influence in Konoha gone to Fugaku's head?
If so, Xuanye had no words.
People said a capable enemy was less frightening than a foolish ally.
With Fugaku, Shisui, and Itachi on their side, how could the Uchiha possibly avoid destruction?
Xuanye forced himself to explain patiently. "We're not mobilizing now to make people grateful to the Uchiha. We're doing it because it's the Security Division's duty!"
"The authority we've exercised all this time rests on the Security Division's responsibility to keep Konoha stable."
"If we sit back now, the strong image we've built will be ruined!"
"All of Konoha will think the Uchiha are pushovers—a cowardly clan that only dares to throw its weight around against ordinary people and won't make a peep when the Nine-Tails appears!"
Uchiha Genya delivered those harsh words to Fugaku without holding back.
The Uchiha were a proud, warlike clan. At his words, indignation showed on every face.
Being called cowards was an insult they found harder to bear than death.
Fugaku's indecision surfaced again.
"...Xuanye, can't you trust me just this once? The Third Hokage and the others won't be able to stop the Nine-Tails. Our Sharingan are the strongest weapon against Tailed Beasts. When the time comes, they'll have no choice but to ask us for help."
Xuanye saw no point in continuing the conversation.
Fugaku's greatest flaw was placing all his hopes in others.
It had been the same in the original story. You could call it a noble acceptance of death, but put bluntly, he had chosen to die and left every burden and hope on his two sons' shoulders.
People who accomplished great things never staked everything on the faint hope that someone else would act.
Just as Xuanye turned to leave, Fugaku suddenly shouted.
"Xuanye! This is an order from your clan leader!"
"Tonight, no one leaves the clan grounds without my permission!"
The Security Division members looked hesitant. Some stood firmly with Xuanye, but not many.
Fugaku had been clan leader and Captain of the Security Division for a long time. He still commanded some authority.
Xuanye looked back, now certain Fugaku was unfit to become Hokage.
He could not even lead a clan well, let alone balance the competing interests a Hokage had to manage.
He can't make a decision when it matters, and he's afraid to risk himself. He has no plan at all.
A mysterious smile appeared on Xuanye's face.
"No one leaves the clan grounds, is that it?"
"I think you've misunderstood something. Do you honestly believe I can't deal with the Nine-Tails from here?"
Fugaku froze, unable to grasp what Xuanye meant.
Then Xuanye closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the three tomoe had fused into the shape of a Mangekyō.
Fugaku panicked and moved to stop him.
How could Xuanye waste his Eye Power on Susanoo?
But then Xuanye's voice reached everyone around him.
"None of you know what the Uchiha's true power looks like."
"Then I'll show you the legendary third and ultimate power of the Uchiha's ocular techniques!"
As the Mangekyō in Xuanye's right eye spun, a purple giant seemingly formed from countless lightning bolts slowly emerged from his body.
The giant looked incomplete, and its form was strange.
An eye opened in each palm. Massive metal hands seemed to hold its body aloft, and behind it hovered comma-shaped symbols of lightning.
Three slender arms floated on its left. One held a double-ended kunai for ranged attacks, embodying the idea that nothing could hide from its radiance.
A huge phantom right arm bore no armor at all, as though anything that faced its overwhelming power would be reduced to ash. It had no need for protection.
This was Evil Radiance Shadow-Facing Heavenly Demon, the divine armored form Raiden Shogun assumed when she unleashed her true power.
Fugaku stared, stunned. The Susanoo Xuanye had manifested looked nothing like the one recorded in the clan's archives.
A four-armed Susanoo—if he remembered correctly, Uchiha Madara's had been like that too.
But what was this form?
Uchiha Genya glanced at the stunned Fugaku. A bloody tear ran from his right eye, and he gave a cold laugh.
"You've always wanted to know my ocular technique and my true strength, haven't you? Then I'll show you exactly how my Mangekyō differs from yours."
Saha World was the ability of Xuanye's right Mangekyō.
In Buddhism, the term referred to this imperfect world—the mortal world.
The effect of the Mangekyō technique Xuanye had awakened defied reason. Within a certain range, it could temporarily manifest anything he imagined, turning the intangible into reality.
It was neither an Illusion Technique nor a space-time technique. It was closer to dream-based ocular techniques such as Izanagi and Izanami.
Combined with the ability of his left eye, Kyōka Suigetsu, it theoretically allowed Xuanye to do what only a creator could do.
In other words, he was virtually omnipotent!
The Evil Radiance Shadow-Facing Heavenly Demon form of Susanoo was a special type of Susanoo created by combining its base form with the power of Saha World and the divine might of Musō Isshin.
Saha World's weakness was obvious. An ocular technique this powerful could not come without a cost.
The more powerful the thing he manifested, the faster it drained his Eye Power.
In other words, the more he changed reality, the more Eye Power Xuanye consumed.
Xuanye had only brought forth a third-stage Susanoo, yet with Saha World, his Evil Radiance Shadow-Facing Heavenly Demon already stood nearly a hundred meters tall—almost the height of a Perfect Susanoo!
Even the Nine-Tails was little more than a large beast beside it.
And Xuanye was not done. He raised his right arm and, before everyone's stunned eyes, slowly drew a long sword from his chest, its blade seemingly forged from purple lightning.
With Saha World, Xuanye could briefly wield the power of Musō Isshin, reproducing a fraction of the might of the Thoughtless Blade!
Mirroring Xuanye's movements, the lightning giant wrenched its right arm back as he drew Musō Isshin from his chest. As though space itself had been torn open, an Eye of Thunder Punishment Evil Radiance hundreds of meters across unfurled above Konoha.
Countless bolts tore across the black night sky. In an instant, it became a Ten Thousand Lightning Burial.
From the center of that vast purple eye, the giant arm seemed to draw a hundred-meter-long Musō Isshin made entirely of lightning.
"Lightning... Ten Thousand Calamities!"