Bloodbath in Wind Canyon, Sosuke's Cold Spectatorship

The blood-scented wind mixed with icy rain, raging wildly through the bottom of the canyon.

The pitch-black puppet, shaped like a giant centipede, screamed as it tore through the air, driving its sharp poisoned blade straight at Sosuke's throat. Five meters, three meters, one meter... The dark purple venom coating the blade was already reflected in Sosuke's deep eyes.

Yet he remained seated amid the wreckage of the carriage without making the slightest move to evade. His pale, slender fingers were even leisurely toying with a kunai.

"Die! Remnant of the Senju clan!" The elite Hidden Sand jonin let out a greedy laugh from the cliff wall.

Just as the poisoned blade was about to slice into Sosuke's flesh, a furious roar filled with extreme frustration suddenly exploded.

"Fire Style: Great Dragon Flame Technique!"

Boom!

A violent fire dragon condensed from blazing heat smashed through the rain curtain from the side and viciously bit into the centipede puppet's midsection. A savage blast wave mixed with splintered wood exploded outward, sending the massive puppet flying sideways before it crashed heavily into the muddy, bloodied water.

Uchiha Fugaku landed before Sosuke, panting heavily. His ninja sword was covered in countless chips, the three-tomoe Sharingan in his eye sockets bloodshot, and his chest heaved violently.

Of course, he had not truly wanted to save Sosuke. But Hiruzen Sarutobi's military order hung over the Uchiha clan's heads like a death warrant. Sosuke was nominally the western front's advisor. If this last surviving Senju clan member died along the way, the entire Uchiha clan would bear the grave crime of betraying the village by "failing to protect a high-ranking official and deliberately murdering him."

Fugaku had no choice but to save him. Even if he had to grind his teeth to dust, he had to fill this pit with Uchiha lives.

"Advisor Sosuke!" Fugaku wiped rainwater and blood from his face, then turned and glared furiously at Sosuke, who remained seated on a plank. His voice seemed squeezed from between clenched teeth. "The enemy attack is fierce. Why aren't you finding somewhere to hide? Do you really want to die here?"

Sosuke unhurriedly covered his lips with a snow-white brocade handkerchief and broke into a violent, feeble cough. He raised those utterly calm eyes and looked at Fugaku's bedraggled state, a gentle smile curling at his lips.

"Clan Head Fugaku, you jest. My chakra pathways are completely ruined. I cannot even refine chakra, so where could I possibly run?" Sosuke's voice was exceptionally soft amid the chaotic battlefield, yet every word struck at the heart. "Besides, with the clan head of Hidden Leaf's foremost noble clan personally standing before me, I have never felt safer. The Uchiha clan's honor truly lives up to its reputation."

"You—!" Blood and rage surged in Fugaku's chest, and he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.

How could he fail to hear the mockery in Sosuke's words? This sickly brat was plainly using the Uchiha clan as a meat shield while sitting in the back and watching the show!

But the Hidden Sand puppet masters gave Fugaku no chance to catch his breath.

"To think you could block my Poison Centipede. You truly are worthy of being the Uchiha clan head. But today, all of you will become fertilizer for this canyon!" The Hidden Sand jonin sneered from the cliff wall, and the chakra threads on his ten fingers suddenly went taut.

Clack! Clack! Clack!

The centipede puppet that had been blasted away by the Great Dragon Flame actually reassembled itself in the mud. Its back armor split open, launching dozens of poisoned steel chains. At the same time, the assassination units on both sides of the canyon unleashed another indiscriminate saturated barrage. Explosive tags and poisoned senbon filled the sky like a swarm of black locusts, pouring down upon the Uchiha clan's remaining position.

"Form up! Hold the line!" Fugaku roared, his eyes wide with fury, as he brandished his broken ninja sword and charged back into the fray.

A brutal meat grinder of a battle erupted completely in the mud.

Sosuke lounged against half of the broken carriage railing. The perception of his perfected Sage Body spread like an invisible net, taking in every trace of chakra flow across the battlefield.

He watched those police force gentlemen who usually swaggered through Hidden Leaf's streets howl and fall beneath Hidden Sand's merciless mechanical slaughter. An Uchiha chunin had just incinerated a puppet with Fire Style when poisoned needles suddenly burst from the ground and pierced his ankle. He screamed and collapsed, only for three puppets to swarm over him and chop him into a pile of flesh.

Blood dyed the pooled water at the canyon floor red, gathering into a glaring dark crimson stream that slowly flowed to Sosuke's feet.

Toka, the leader of the Senju clan shadow guards hidden in the dark, once again sent a request to engage through the Bloodline Network. Seeing that the Uchiha clan's defensive line was about to collapse, he feared Hidden Sand's attacks would reach Sosuke.

"Watch quietly." Sosuke issued the cold command through the Bloodline Network.

His gaze pierced through the rain curtain and locked tightly onto Fugaku's back. To Sosuke, the lives of these Uchiha elites meant nothing at all. What he wanted was to completely break Fugaku's spine and turn this self-righteous clan head into a dog that could only kneel at the feet of the Senju clan.

So long as Fugaku had not yet fallen into true mortal peril, this performance had to continue.

Half an hour later.

The rain had weakened somewhat, but the stench of blood in the canyon had become so thick it was nauseating.

Of the fifty fully armed Uchiha elites, fewer than five remained, standing back-to-back around Fugaku. Every one of them was covered in wounds deep enough to expose bone, their chakra utterly exhausted.

Fugaku was in the worst condition. A large chunk of flesh had been torn from his left arm by a puppet's barbs, leaving bone visible beneath. The three-tomoe Sharingan in his eye sockets had been overworked for too long, shedding two streaks of horrifying bloody tears as his vision began to blur.

"Ha... ha..." Fugaku gasped heavily, his lungs feeling as though they had been filled with lead.

He looked around in despair. The Hidden Sand puppet masters on the canyon walls had already stopped their pointless long-range attrition. The elite jonin leading them leaped down from above and landed ten meters before Fugaku. Behind him, three specially made puppets radiating terrifying chakra fluctuations emitted cold, harsh grinding sounds from their mechanisms.

"Uchiha with exhausted chakra are worse than ordinary wild dogs." The Hidden Sand jonin licked his lips, his eyes openly filled with contempt and killing intent. "Fugaku, I'll gladly take your head."

Before his words had faded, his ten fingers hooked sharply.

The three specialized puppets became three bolts of black lightning, instantly sealing off every route of escape. The puppet on the left swung an enormous scythe at Fugaku's legs. The one on the right opened jaws bristling with venomous fangs and bit toward his throat. The puppet directly ahead launched a half-meter steel war blade straight at Fugaku's heart.

A perfect killing formation!

Fugaku's pupils shrank abruptly. He tried to raise his ninja sword to block, but his aching muscles refused to obey. The shadow of death completely engulfed his heart in an instant.

Was the Uchiha clan's glory truly going to end here?

In the final half-second of his life, Fugaku's peripheral vision instinctively flicked toward the ruins behind him. He wanted to see what expression that culprit behind all of this—the Senju clan Sosuke he had regarded as useless—was wearing now. Was he terrified?

Yet when his gaze crossed the rain curtain and saw that figure in white clearly, Fugaku's heart violently clenched.

Within the ruins.

The frail young man who had been covering his mouth and coughing, so weak he seemed as if he might stop breathing at any moment, had somehow straightened to his full height.

Sosuke casually tossed the brocade handkerchief, stained with mud and fake blood, at his feet. His short black hair whipped wildly in the wind. Not a trace of fear or weakness remained on his once pale and gentle face. In its place was an absolute indifference and domineering arrogance that regarded all things in the world as mere grass.

Deep within his black eyes, an icy emerald-green radiance exploded.

Under Fugaku's horrified, nearly frozen gaze, Sosuke slowly raised his long, powerful hands. He did not even look at the three death-dealing puppets that were about to tear Fugaku apart. His movements were extremely calm, yet carried an irresistible majesty as he brought his hands together before his chest.

Clap!

The crisp sound of his palms meeting was not loud amid the chaotic battlefield, yet it was like a death knell striking the depths of everyone's souls.

An ancient hand seal the ninja world had not seen in decades formed at Sosuke's fingertips.

"Since the Uchiha clan has shed enough blood..."

A bloodthirsty curve lifted at Sosuke's lips. His low voice pierced through the layers of rain, falling clearly into every ear.

"Then let's make this canyon a little more lively."