Powerful Susanoo

Minato Namikaze wanted to go help, but he couldn't.

Ōnoki had him tied down, leaving him no chance to launch a rescue.

Jiraiya was even less available.

He was up against Roshi, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki from Iwagakure.

Uchiha Obito and Kakashi looked worried. It seemed Uchiha Aoba had reached the brink of life and death.

But was that really the case?

Faced with such a desperate situation, Uchiha Aoba not only felt no fear—he almost wanted to laugh.

At this point, he saw no need to keep certain things hidden.

In that recent battle, more than twenty Iwagakure shinobi had already fallen at his hands.

That meant his panel fusion rate was high enough to exceed 50 percent. Unlocking the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan was all but certain.

So there was no need to worry about overusing his ocular power and suffering the side effect of going blind.

Then what was there to wait for?

Awaken!

Turn the tide!

Uchiha Aoba abruptly raised his head. Red light glinted in his Mangekyō Sharingan.

He didn't choose to use the abilities of his eyes.

Instead, a half-bodied skeletal giant, forty meters tall, rose from around him. Its pale orange light illuminated the entire battlefield.

Uchiha Aoba once again drew everyone's attention.

The Iwagakure shinobi who saw this stopped in their tracks, not daring to come any closer.

Their faces were filled with terror.

"What is that?"

"Su! Sa! No! O!"

Unlike the other Iwagakure shinobi, Ōnoki had witnessed Uchiha Madara's power in his youth. He quickly put some distance between himself and Minato Namikaze, staring wide-eyed at the half-bodied skeletal giant on the battlefield.

He gritted out each word.

"At such a young age, he's already awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan."

Then he abruptly turned to Minato Namikaze, his voice low. "Konoha, you've kept this hidden far too well."

"..."

Minato Namikaze's mouth twitched. He had no way to explain.

Honestly, this was his first time seeing it too.

If Ōnoki hadn't just named the ability, Minato Namikaze wouldn't have known it had anything to do with the Mangekyō Sharingan.

After all, in today's Shinobi World, the Mangekyō Sharingan had long since become a legend.

Everything about these eyes was recorded in historical texts, and even the key descriptions were incomplete.

On top of that, Konoha High Command had deliberately concealed certain things. So aside from Ōnoki and the Uchiha Clan shinobi, no one present could recognize Susanoo at a glance.

Even Jiraiya knew very little about the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Leaving aside how everyone else felt, Uchiha Aoba wasn't very satisfied with Susanoo's first form. He gauged the drain on his ocular power and found it wasn't too rapid; he could still hold on.

So the next moment, he immediately increased the flow of ocular power.

Susanoo changed at once.

The giant, which had been nothing more than a skeleton, began to fill out with muscles and flesh. Then it was covered in a Chakra Cloak, with two enormous hands left bare. Two long chakra blades appeared as well.

The second form was complete!

"That should do it."

Uchiha Aoba rolled his shoulders. He estimated that his ocular power would last through the battle while maintaining the second form, and killing intent once again appeared on his face.

Without warning, the blade in Susanoo's left hand swung down.

The Iwagakure jonin at the front saw it and his pupils contracted. He shouted in despair, "Get out of the way!"

Too late!

A boom rang out.

A gash more than a hundred meters long appeared across the battlefield.

The Iwagakure shinobi who had surrounded Uchiha Aoba were instantly cut down in droves.

Not one of them remained standing.

Cries of agony rose all around.

Seeing this, Aoba couldn't even be bothered to finish them off. He went straight for the densest concentration of Iwagakure shinobi and sent Susanoo smashing through them in a wild barrage, without the slightest technique.

Of course, he didn't need any.

Even so, Iwagakure's casualties continued to rise rapidly, and their morale kept crumbling.

Before long, the area within dozens of meters of Uchiha Aoba had become a vacuum. Not a single Iwagakure shinobi dared approach.

Every so often, one or two ninjutsu attacks struck Susanoo, a sign that Iwagakure hadn't completely given up resisting.

But against Susanoo, those techniques couldn't even cause damage.

They barely tickled.

They were useless, except to make the whole effort seem laughable.

"That's enough!"

Ōnoki's furious voice rang out.

The Third Tsuchikage could no longer bear to watch the shinobi of his village get hacked to pieces by Uchiha Aoba like vegetables.

He broke off his struggle with Minato Namikaze and ordered Roshi, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki, to withdraw as well.

His face was full of unwillingness, along with the dejection of a man who had accepted defeat.

They had lost.

There was no point in continuing this war.

In Ōnoki's view, the Mangekyō Sharingan's overwhelming advantage over ordinary shinobi was absolute.

Just as he, as a young man, had been defeated with ease by Uchiha Madara.

So continuing the fight would only lead to more casualties.

He had to preserve enough manpower to deal with the retaliation Kumogakure might launch at any moment over the Third Raikage.

"Konoha, you've won."

After Ōnoki managed to force out those words, the battlefield fell silent for several seconds. Then the Konoha shinobi erupted in cheers.

"We won!"

"We're victorious!"

"Long live Lord Jiraiya!"

"Long live Lord Minato!"

"And..."

Since many people didn't know Uchiha Aoba's name, the cheering faltered for a moment. Fortunately, the Uchiha Clan shinobi reacted quickly. They raised their swords and shouted, "Long live Lord Aoba!"

"Long live!"

Cheers rose and fell across the battlefield.

The Iwagakure shinobi, by contrast, were shrouded in the gloom of defeat.

Many had already begun to weep behind their hands.

Their grief wasn't only because they had lost. More than anything, they were mourning the deaths of their friends and family.

By now, Uchiha Aoba had already dismissed Susanoo.

He had also deactivated his Mangekyō Sharingan.

Then he noticed his vision had grown worse. To put it in terms from his past life, before using Susanoo, Uchiha Aoba's vision had been 20/20; now it was around 20/300.

He could barely make out anything in the distance.

But that wasn't a major problem. Once he returned and received the reward for his panel fusion rate, everything would soon be back to normal.

With that in mind, Uchiha Aoba started toward his side's ranks.

But then—

His movement startled the surrounding Iwagakure shinobi, who flinched and retreated even farther.

Clearly, he had left them deeply traumatized.

Uchiha Aoba saw this and scoffed.

As soon as he returned to his side, Minato Namikaze hurried over to check on him. "How are you? Are you hurt?"

"Minato-sensei, I'm fine."

Hearing that his first concern was Aoba's well-being warmed his heart. Aoba smiled as he answered.

Minato Namikaze smiled with relief.

Then he patted Uchiha Aoba on the shoulder and praised him. "Well done, Aoba!"

"We won this war thanks to you!"

"You deserve the greatest credit!"

"When we get back to the village, I'll put in a good word for you with Lord Hokage!"