Where Are They?

Hidden Leaf's Third Shelter.

This place had originally been a huge underground warehouse, but now it was packed with villagers still reeling from terror. The air was thick with the stench of sweat, blood, and despair.

"Did you hear? The Nine-Tails was released by the Uchiha Clan!"

In the crowd, a shrill voice suddenly rang out.

The speaker was a middle-aged man, his eyes darting, clearly having caught wind of certain rumors—or been deliberately led along by someone.

"Yeah! Only the Sharingan can control the Nine-Tails! That's exactly what Madara did back then!"

"I knew it! Those red-eyed freaks were never up to anything good!"

Fear and anger were the best fuel. In this extreme unease, people desperately needed an outlet, and the Uchiha Clan, long pushed to the margins, was the perfect scapegoat.

"Bullshit!!"

A roar drowned out all the noise.

A chunin wrapped in bandages from head to toe, half his face burned, struggled to sit up from a stretcher.

He was an ordinary chunin of the Hidden Leaf, and normally, what he disliked most was the Police Force's arrogance and tyranny.

But at that moment, his eyes were bloodshot as he pointed at the rumor-spreading man and cursed:

"Say that again, you bastard?! I owe my life to Uchiha Tekka carrying me back! To save me, his back got smashed open by a burning roof beam! He's still holding the front line right now!"

The shelter instantly fell silent.

"Me too..." In the corner, an old grandmother holding her grandson raised her hand shakily. "That captain named Yashiro Uchiha... he used Earth Release to block a collapsing wall and let us leave first..."

"And me... my family's shop caught fire. It was someone from the Police Force who rushed in and pulled me out..."

More and more people stepped forward.

They were all wounded, marks left by the disaster. But their eyes were firm.

Facts spoke louder than words.

On this night of life and death, those usual prejudices and barriers had been washed clean by blood and action.

The rumor-spreading man shrank his neck back and slunk into the crowd, disappearing.

Root's underground base.

An intelligence operative who had just returned from the surface was kneeling before Danzo.

"What did you say?"

Danzo's voice turned sharp from extreme shock.

"Confirmed?"

"Y-yes, Lord Danzo." The intelligence operative did not dare raise his head. "The entire Uchiha clan... is on the front line."

"Not just the combat personnel." The intelligence operative swallowed. "Even the elderly, the weak, women, and children are helping transport the wounded and distribute supplies in the rear. They are fully cooperating with the village's evacuation efforts."

"Impossible!!"

Danzo swept the map on the table to the floor with a violent motion.

"This is absolutely a self-inflicted ploy! This makes no sense!"

In his worldview, self-interest was the only driving force. Since the Uchiha Clan had the ability to control the Nine-Tails, how could they possibly expend their own strength just to save a few civilians?

They should have hidden themselves, preserved their strength, waited until the Hokage's faction and the Nine-Tails had exhausted each other, then come out to reap the rewards!

Just like what he was doing now!

"How can they be this stupid?!" Danzo roared inside the room. "Going out to die at a time like this? Did that old fox Fugaku get water in his brain?!"

The surrounding Root ninja said nothing.

But within that deathly silence, something seemed to be quietly changing.

They were ruthless tools, the roots of the Hidden Leaf.

But even tools could think.

The "traitor" Uchiha outside were risking their lives to protect the village, while Root, which called itself the "guardian," was hiding underground on guard against its allies.

That absurd contrast left a trace of confusion beneath the masks of many Root ninja.

The front line of the battlefield.

"Boom—!!!"

The Nine-Tails' tail swept across again, smashing heavily into the purple barrier.

"Pfft!"

Yashiro Uchiha suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, his body swaying. But he still maintained his hand seal with a death grip, the ground beneath his feet already crushed.

"Hold on! We can't let it charge out!"

Yashiro roared, blood running down the corner of his mouth and staining his collar red.

Behind him were countless pairs of eyes filled with expectation and fear.

They belonged to the villagers hiding at the shelter entrance, peering out through the cracks.

They saw that enormous purple curtain of light, a barrier that separated life from death.

They saw the tiny black figures beneath the curtain of light.

Those figures looked so fragile before the Nine-Tails' immense power, as if they would be crushed in the next second.

But they did not retreat.

When one person fell, another immediately stepped up to take his place.

"Is that... Clan Head Fugaku?"

Someone recognized the man standing at the very front of the barrier, using Susanoo to withstand the Nine-Tails' shock waves head-on.

The Uchiha clan head who always wore a stern face and seemed very hard to talk to on ordinary days.

At that moment, his Susanoo had already been beaten down until only half a skeleton remained, but he was still nailed to the ground like a spike.

"Keep going!!"

No one knew who shouted it.

The voice was very small, but in the silent night, it was especially clear.

"Keep going, Uchiha!!"

Then came the second shout, the third.

The voices gathered into a wave, spreading from the shelter, piercing through the battlefield, and reaching the ears of every Uchiha clansman who was fighting with everything he had.

Yashiro froze for a moment.

He wiped away the blood at the corner of his mouth and looked back.

Those villagers who had once avoided him like the plague were now shouting for him.

This feeling...

It was fucking amazing.

"Brothers! Did you hear that?!" Yashiro burst into laughter and once again increased his chakra output. "Don't embarrass the Uchiha! Hold it for me!!"

Atop the high tower.

Uchiha Xuanshi stood in the night wind, listening to the cheers coming from below.

He turned his head and looked at Itachi Uchiha beside him.

Itachi, only five years old, was staring blankly at the scene before him. Tears flickered in his eyes. It was a sight he had never seen in either his previous life or this one.

In his previous life, he had killed his clansmen with his own hands to protect the village and borne a lifetime of infamy.

In this life, his clansmen were risking their lives to protect the village, and the village had answered them in return.

"Do you hear that, Itachi?"

Xuanshi pointed at the crowd below.

"This is what people's hearts are."

"As long as you bare your heart to them, they can see it."

Itachi nodded hard, tears sliding down his face.

"This is... the true Hidden Leaf Police Force."

Just then, the Nine-Tails at the center of the battlefield seemed to be thoroughly enraged.

It stopped its meaningless physical attacks.

It opened its bloody maw, and the surrounding chakra began to gather wildly.

This time, its density was more terrifying than any before.

A dark red, super-massive Tailed Beast Bomb, like a black hole, was rapidly taking shape.

That destructive pressure instantly silenced the crowd that had just been cheering.

Xuanshi's gaze sharpened.

"It's here."

He drew his ninja blade, and eerie runes lit up along the blade.

"All personnel, prepare!"

Xuanshi's voice was cold as ice, yet carried a frenzy that set blood alight.

"There's no need to hide anymore."

"Let them see the Uchiha's true power."

"Susanoo Resonance Formation, activate!"