Bloodless Deterrence, the Terrifying Killing Intent of the Shadow Guards

The gleaming blade, wrapped in violent chakra, mercilessly tore through the night wind in the courtyard.

Before the blade even arrived, its fierce force had already whipped Sosuke's moon-white yukata into a violent flutter. His three-tomoe Sharingan left twin crimson trails through the night, while Fugaku's face had long since twisted to its limit with jealousy and rage.

He wanted to cleave this sickly weakling before him in two and wash away the Uchiha clan's humiliation with blood!

Faced with this thunderous strike that could kill him, Sosuke remained seated beneath the eaves. He formed no hand seals, made no attempt to evade, and did not even lift his eyelids much. Only deep within those abyss-like black eyes, a glacial green gleam lay poised to erupt.

"Die!" Fugaku roared.

Just as the blade came within an inch of Sosuke's brow, and Mikoto cried out and tried to rush forward—

There was no deafening clash of ninjutsu, nor any flashy hand seals. From the shadows of the dead trees in the courtyard and the beams beneath the eaves, several ghostlike black figures peeled away without warning.

They were too fast.

So fast that even Fugaku's three-tomoe Sharingan caught only a blurred afterimage.

"Clang!"

An ear-piercing metallic blast exploded above Sosuke's head. A pitch-black short blade rose from below and precisely caught Fugaku's sword. Amid scattering sparks, a powerful force no weaker than Fugaku's forcibly held that fatal strike suspended in midair.

Then came a string of spine-chilling dull impacts.

"Bang! Crack—"

The elite Guard members who had been preparing to follow Fugaku onto the veranda did not even have time to cry out. Black shadows darted among them, the backs of cold kunai striking precisely against their carotid arteries and limb joints.

In no more than two breaths' time.

Twelve fully armed, arrogantly confident Uchiha elites collapsed across the flagstones like boneless creatures. Behind each of them stood a ninja wearing a plain white mask.

Cold kunai, coated in eerie blue poison, pressed tightly against the throats of those Uchiha elites. The instant they dared mobilize even a thread of chakra, they would lose their heads.

Dead silence.

The entire courtyard fell into suffocating silence. Only the crackle of torches echoed in the night wind.

Fugaku's hand around his sword trembled violently. He stared fixedly at the black-clad man blocking his path. The other man wore no forehead protector, yet the cold killing intent emanating from him—battle-hardened, as though he had crawled out from mountains of corpses and seas of blood—marked him as an expert at the peak of chunin level, or perhaps even jonin level!

How was that possible?!

Fugaku's pupils shook wildly. Wasn't the Senju Clan reduced to a sickly weakling on the verge of breathing his last, along with a few old, weak, sick, and crippled people who could not even refine chakra? Where had these terrifyingly powerful, flawlessly coordinated death warriors come from?!

"Young master, with one word from you, I will cut off his head immediately." Toka, the leader of the shadow guards standing before Fugaku, lowered his voice. There was no fluctuation in his tone, as if he were asking permission to slaughter livestock.

Sosuke remained where he was, his long fingers holding the cup of steaming tea. He took a slow sip.

"Is that all the weight an Uchiha blade carries?"

Sosuke's voice was soft, yet it struck Fugaku's chest like a heavy hammer.

"You... you actually raised death warriors in secret..." Fugaku's voice was incredibly hoarse, and the madness in his eyes was finally replaced by a sliver of lucid fear.

He suddenly realized that what he had kicked open tonight was not the gate of a fallen clan, but the lair of a savage beast lurking in the abyss! Just the tip of its hidden strength was enough to crush the elite Guard members he had been so proud of in an instant!

"Death warriors?" Sosuke set down his teacup and gave an undisguised sneer. "When the Senju Clan was bleeding and fighting for its life on the front lines, you Uchiha were still playing security guards in the village. Everyone who survived in this residence is the backbone of the Senju. What, which Hidden Leaf code says the Senju main family cannot have its own guards?"

Sosuke slowly rose to his feet and looked down upon Fugaku, whose back was soaked in cold sweat. That bloodless intimidation of one in power crushed Fugaku's self-respect beneath his feet.

"Bastard..." Fugaku gritted his teeth, the three tomoe in his eyes spinning madly as he tried to forcefully use genjutsu to break the deadlock.

But at that moment, a slender yet resolute figure suddenly stepped forward, placing herself between Sosuke and Fugaku.

It was Mikoto.

She did not look at the kunai pressed to the Guard members' throats, nor did she look at Fugaku's bloodshot eyes. The night wind brushed against her simple everyday clothes, revealing her frail yet determined bearing.

"Captain Fugaku, this farce should end."

Mikoto's voice was not loud, but it carried an unprecedented chill and resolve.

"Mikoto! Have you lost your mind? Get over here, now! That brat is an extremely dangerous lunatic!" Fugaku's eyes nearly split with rage as he instinctively reached out to grab her.

Toka's short blade moved forward half an inch. Its cold edge instantly sliced through the skin on Fugaku's neck, and a thin line of blood seeped out, forcing him to stop abruptly.

Mikoto did not retreat. She lifted her chin slightly, and the submissiveness and confusion she had once shown in the clan were gone from her eyes.

"I haven't lost my mind. You're the one who's mad—the Uchiha higher-ups who can treat their own clansmen as bargaining chips in marriage alliances for profit."

Mikoto turned around. Before all the Uchiha elites, before Fugaku, she took the initiative to reach out and grasp Sosuke's slightly cool hand.

Their fingers interlocked.

"Today, here and now, I formally announce to you and to the entire Uchiha clan." Mikoto's tone was firm and decisive, personally severing all paths of retreat. "I, Uchiha Mikoto, willingly annul my engagement to Uchiha Fugaku. From this day on, I will accept protection from no one but the Senju Clan."

She paused and looked deeply at Sosuke beside her before speaking the final words. "I will marry no one but him."

Boom!

Those words were like a thunderclap exploding in Fugaku's mind.

His fiancée, before his subordinates, held another man's hand and declared she would marry no one but him!

The ultimate humiliation and fury made Fugaku's throat turn sweet, and blood spilled directly from the corner of his mouth. He stared fixedly at their tightly clasped hands. Under the extreme stimulation, his proud three-tomoe Sharingan showed faint signs of distortion.

"Bitch... I'll kill you! I'll definitely kill you both!" Fugaku howled miserably like a desperate beast.

Sosuke smoothly drew Mikoto into his embrace, his powerful and domineering possessiveness fully unleashed. Looking at Fugaku's impotent rage, the corner of his mouth curled into an utterly mocking sneer.

"Kill me? Are you worthy?"

Just as the killing intent in the courtyard surged to its peak once more, and Fugaku prepared to burn his chakra and fight without regard for the consequences—

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Four ANBU figures wearing animal masks and gray armor descended like ghosts onto the walls around the courtyard.

The lead ANBU wore a fox mask. His gaze swept over the Guard members subdued by the Senju shadow guards, and extreme shock flashed through his eyes beneath the mask. But he quickly steadied himself and took out a scroll bearing the Hokage's great seal.

"By order of the Hokage!"

The ANBU's cold voice forcibly interrupted the death match that was about to spiral out of control.

"Senju Sosuke, Uchiha Fugaku. The Hokage summons you to the Hokage Building immediately. There must be no delay!"

Sosuke's eyes held no surprise at the ANBU's message. He gently patted Mikoto's tense back to reassure her, then slowly raised his head and looked in the direction of the Hokage Building.

"See? The referee has finally decided to step onto the field." Sosuke cast Fugaku a faintly smiling glance, while a calculating glimmer flickered in his deep eyes.