Konoha was bustling with activity today. Fu, the Seven-Tails Jinchūriki from Takigakure, had long been a star among friends from all the villages thanks to her cheerful, lively personality. Officially, she had come to visit for a cultural exchange, but in truth, she wanted a chance to spar with Naruto, the Hokage, and try Ichiraku Ramen's latest offerings. The village streets were decorated with colorful lanterns and banners, filled with laughter and cheerful chatter. Children gathered around Fu, curiously watching the faint wings that occasionally appeared behind her.
Yet beyond this peaceful atmosphere, a pair of cold eyes peered through the crowds, fixed on that lively figure.
Uchiha Shuoyue stood atop Kage Rock, far from the commotion, looking down over the entire village. He wore an old-fashioned, high-collared purple battle robe copied from Uchiha Madara's style, its hem whipping in the wind. Thick bandages wrapped around his face, leaving only a pair of deep, unsettling eyes exposed—the usual concealed state of the Eight Gods Mirror. A massive chakra weapon, copied from the Uchiha Flame Fan, was slung across his back.
Fu's smile and the villagers' joy were painfully grating to him. This false peace had been built on the bones of the Uchiha Clan.
"The time has come." His voice sounded muffled and distorted through the bandages. Naruto and Sasuke had just left the village on an urgent S-rank mission and wouldn't be able to return anytime soon. Konoha's defenses were at their weakest, and the Jinchūriki was most vulnerable to losing control.
He leaped from the rock and glided down silently like a hunting owl, heading straight for the village's central square, where Fu was playing with the children.
!
Without warning, a terrifying shockwave of chakra, brimming with destructive force, slammed into the edge of the square! A tremendous explosion tore through the cheerful atmosphere!
Dust billowed, and rubble flew everywhere!
The people's terrified screams cut off abruptly, replaced by chaos and cries of panic!
"Enemy attack!!" Konoha's alarm rang out with a piercing wail.
A figure wrapped in bandages, dressed in ancient Uchiha garb and carrying a massive fan, slowly emerged from the dust. An almost tangible killing intent and terrifying pressure radiated from him, making it hard to breathe.
"W-what is that person?!" "His clothes... are they Uchiha?!" "Protect Miss Fu!"
The Anbu and jonin reacted at once, countless figures rushing toward the intruder!
Yet Shuoyue didn't even glance at them. He had only one target—Fu!
"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!" An Anbu formed hand seals and fired a high-pressure ball of wind at Shuoyue! "Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!" Another jonin exhaled a huge dragon of flame!
The fan on Shuoyue's back swung violently!
"Uchiha Reflection!"
The terrifying wind sphere and fire dragon struck the fan, only to be absorbed in an instant and reflected back with even greater force! Boom! Boom! The two shinobi screamed as their own techniques blasted them away!
"Don't look him in the eyes!" Kakashi's shout came from a distance, but it was already too late!
Beneath Shuoyue's bandages, the light of the Eight Gods Mirror's eyes suddenly flared!
He merely swept his gaze across them!
The dozen or so shinobi charging at him froze in place, their eyes unfocused as they fell into a terrifying genjutsu. Some attacked each other, while others stood motionless! It was the advanced genjutsu, Demonic Illusion: Mirror Heaven and Earth Change!
He strolled through the chaotic crowd and the shinobi trying to intercept him, each step carrying the rhythm of death as he headed straight for Fu, whose face had gone pale as her guards huddled tightly around her.
"W-who are you?!" Fu cried, both shocked and furious. The Seven-Tails' chakra inside her began to stir with fear and anger.
Shuoyue didn't answer. He raised his hand, fingers curling as if to grasp something.
"Secret Technique: Scale Powder Concealment!" Fu instinctively released hypnotic scale powder.
But the Eight Gods Mirror had already seen through it! He didn't even try to dodge. The pattern in his eyes shifted slightly, and the powder passed right through him!
The spatial power of Kamui allowed him to become "intangible," protecting him from any physical damage that made contact!
In the next instant, he accelerated forward! His figure slipped through Fu's guards like a phantom! One hand, wreathed in ominous black chakra copied from a certain forbidden technique, reached straight for Fu's abdomen—the location of her seal!
"Don't you dare hurt her!" Choji Akimichi roared as he enlarged himself. His enormous fist came crashing down! At the same time, a rain of ninja tools from Tenten shot toward Shuoyue!
Shuoyue frowned, forced to abandon his attempt to touch the seal. He abruptly planted the fan in the ground! "Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!" (Copied from the Book of Sealing)
A sea of flames appeared out of nowhere, instantly swallowing Tenten's ninja tools and forcing Choji to retreat again and again!
Under cover of the flames, Shuoyue's fingers formed an extraordinarily strange and complex hand seal—the opening move of the simplified Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals, a forbidden technique he had copied from the Book of Sealing at enormous cost, designed specifically to target unstable seals! It couldn't directly extract a Tailed Beast the way Akatsuki had back then, but it could severely destabilize a Jinchūriki's seal and briefly distort it!
A terrifying, invisible force aimed at the seal struck Fu in an instant!
"Ahhhhhhh—!!!" Fu let out a shrill scream as her body convulsed. The Seven-Tails' enormous chakra burst out of her like a dam breaking! A shell began to appear across her skin, and massive wings snapped open behind her!
"Seven-Tails, Chomei"—on the verge of losing control!
"Oh no! The seal!" Shikamaru cried in alarm from a distance!
But it was already too late!
Fu—or rather, the Seven-Tails—roared deafeningly as it lost control completely. Its enormous tail swept through the area, sending nearby buildings and shinobi flying!
Chaos! Utter chaos!
Shuoyue watched coldly, his goal accomplished. Amid the turmoil, he charged toward the Seven-Tails, writhing in pain, and tried to subdue and take it away.
But just then—
"Stop!!!" Two furious roars came from the horizon!
A golden flash and a streak of purple lightning tore across the sky like meteors, crashing to the ground at an unbelievable speed!
Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha had returned ahead of schedule! Their faces were filled with a fury and urgency unlike anything they had shown before!
"Shuoyue! I knew it was you!" Seeing the devastated village and Fu on the verge of a complete Tailed Beast Transformation, Naruto erupted in a golden Chakra Cloak! "You'll pay for this!" Sasuke activated both his Rinnegan and Sharingan, ready to use Amenotejikara!
Without a word, the battle erupted!
Naruto instantly entered Kurama Mode, sending countless chakra arms reaching for Shuoyue! Sasuke activated Amenotejikara, switching places with a kunai beside Shuoyue in an instant and thrusting his Kusanagi Sword toward Shuoyue's back!
Shuoyue's pupils contracted! The pressure had suddenly intensified!
But he didn't panic. The Eight Gods Mirror whirled into action!
As Naruto's chakra arms came at him, he swung the fan on his back again! "Uchiha Reflection!" But the Nine-Tails' chakra was too vast; the reflection wasn't entirely successful. He only deflected most of the attack and was himself shaken until his blood surged inside him!
Facing Sasuke's assassination attempt, the patterns in his eyes shifted rapidly! At the last moment, he used a technique similar to Amenotejikara! His execution was clumsy and the cost enormous, but he narrowly avoided a fatal blow, suffering only a deep wound across his shoulder.
"You can even do that..." A flicker of shock crossed Sasuke's eyes!
Shuoyue grunted, but kept moving! He formed hand seals! "Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!" (He had taken the First's Hashirama Cells data from the research lab while stealing the Book of Sealing, then transplanted them.)
Though it was nowhere near as powerful as the First's, countless thick trees still burst from the earth and wrapped around Naruto and Sasuke, briefly stopping their assault!
"Wood Release?! How is that possible?!" Naruto cried in shock!
Taking advantage of the brief opening, Shuoyue charged toward the Seven-Tails, which had almost completely transformed! He had to take it!
"Not a chance!" Naruto and Sasuke erupted with power at the same time, breaking free of the Wood Release in an instant!
"Six Paths: Ultra-Big Ball Rasenshuriken!"
"Indra's Arrow!"
Two attacks powerful enough to destroy the world struck at Shuoyue from opposite sides, sealing off every avenue of escape!
For the first time, Shuoyue's eyes showed extreme wariness! Facing the two of them at full power at once was almost impossible, even with the Eight Gods Mirror! Copying and using these techniques cost far more than he had imagined. He was already at the end of his strength!
At that critical moment—
Buzz!
Space twisted strangely!
A figure wearing a white, spiral-patterned mask and a black, full-length robe appeared in front of Shuoyue without warning!
Facing the devastating attacks, he merely raised his hands calmly.
"Kamui!"
The massive Spiral Shuriken and Indra's Arrow seemed to be swallowed by an invisible spatial vortex, vanishing without a trace! They didn't even create a ripple!
"What?!" Naruto and Sasuke's pupils contracted as they stared in disbelief at the familiar yet unfamiliar figure who had suddenly appeared!
"Obito...?!!" Kakashi's astonished cry rang out, full of shock and complicated emotions!
Obito didn't turn around. In a low voice, he said to Shuoyue, who was panting behind him, "That's enough. We're leaving."
With that, he grabbed Shuoyue and the tiny Seven-Tails Jinchūriki, Fu, who had been left dazed and motionless when the attack was redirected. Space twisted violently once more!
"Don't let them get away!" Naruto and Sasuke reacted at once and charged forward with all their might!
But beneath Obito's mask, a faint sigh seemed to escape him.
"Kamui Raikiri!" (A Chidori combined with the Kamui Dimension)
A streak of lightning wreathed in distorted space shot toward them, forcing them to dodge and block!
In the moment they lost, Obito, Shuoyue, and Fu, the Seven-Tails Jinchūriki, disappeared completely into the swirling, distorted space, leaving no trace.
Only the devastated village of Konoha remained, along with Naruto, Sasuke, and all the Konoha shinobi, stunned and furious, yet filled with endless questions.
The clouds in the sky seemed to grow even heavier.
Uchiha Shuoyue had not only succeeded in wreaking havoc in Konoha, severely damaging the village's defenses and morale, but had also forcibly taken a Jinchūriki who had lost control right in front of the Hokage and Sasuke Uchiha.
And the one who had rescued him was none other than the man who should have been dead long ago... Uchiha Obito.
All of this heralded the arrival of an even greater storm.
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