Come Clean, Fugaku—Take the Whole Clan and Run Away with Me!

"Fight our way out of the village and leave this disgusting place for good."

Yoru raised the unbloodied ninja blade in his hand, its tip steadily pointing toward the Leaf Village gates.

The moment those words fell, Fugaku Uchiha, who had been filled with fighting spirit just moments ago, suddenly froze in place.

He had originally thought Yoru meant storming the Hokage Building and forcing the higher-ups to compromise.

"Defecting? No! Absolutely not!"

Fugaku's face instantly turned pale. He stepped forward and firmly blocked Yoru's path.

Fine beads of cold sweat formed on his forehead as he shook his head repeatedly.

"Yoru, we can kill Danzō. We can demand an explanation from Hiruzen. But we absolutely cannot defect!"

"Leaf Village is the home our ancestors built brick by brick!"

Fugaku spoke faster and faster, his voice filled with struggle.

"Once we step through those gates, the Uchiha Clan will bear eternal infamy and become rogue ninja wanted across the entire shinobi world!"

"How will the civilians in the village see us then? What about the glory of our ancestors?"

Hearing this, the Uchiha clansmen, who had been seething with righteous indignation, began to stir uneasily as well.

Quite a few of the older elders hesitated, exchanging looks.

That was right. Did they really have to go that far?

Seeing this, Danzō, hiding behind the Anbu, immediately brightened up.

A gloating sneer squeezed onto his gloomy old face.

"Listen to that! Your clan head is the one who understands the bigger picture!"

Danzō tapped the ground with his cane and continued fanning the flames.

"Uchiha Yoru, you little bastard, are you trying to drag your entire clan down with you?"

"Put down your weapons now, and this old man can still put in a good word for you before the Hokage and seek lenient treatment!"

"Shut your filthy mouth, you old dog."

Yoru did not even turn his head. He merely cursed coldly.

Then he turned around and looked at Fugaku, who stood before him with a conflicted expression.

Yoru suddenly laughed, but there was sorrow in that laugh.

"Eternal infamy? The glory of our ancestors?"

"Clan Head Fugaku, have you sat in that seat so long that water has gotten into your brain?"

Without warning, Yoru reached out and seized Fugaku by the collar!

The sheer force yanked the dignified Uchiha clan head clean off the ground.

"Y-you... what are you doing?" Fugaku's face changed drastically as he instinctively tried to break free.

"I want you to open your eyes and see exactly what your laughable big-picture thinking will lead to!"

Buzz—!

Yoru's eyes snapped open.

His black pupils instantly turned scarlet.

Three tomoe spun rapidly before connecting end to end, forming a complex and eerie Mangekyō Sharingan pattern!

"This is... the Mangekyō Sharingan?!"

Fugaku only had time to cry out before his gaze was uncontrollably caught by those scarlet eyes.

The scenery around him instantly warped and shattered.

When Fugaku came back to his senses, he realized he was no longer on the street before dawn.

Above him hung a massive, eerie blood moon.

The air was thick with a nauseating stench of blood.

"Where is this? A genjutsu space?" Fugaku's heart jolted as he looked around.

This was clearly the Uchiha Clan compound, yet it was terrifyingly silent, without the slightest trace of life.

"Clan Head, walk forward and take a look at the future brought by your compromises."

Yoru's icy voice seemed to come from every direction.

Fugaku swallowed and took heavy steps forward, pushing open a half-closed wooden door.

After only one glance, his breathing completely stopped.

More than a dozen corpses lay scattered across the courtyard.

There were clan elders he knew and Military Police Force members who normally handled patrols.

Extreme terror remained on all their faces. Their eyes had all been gouged out, leaving behind only two bloody, mangled black holes!

"No... That's impossible..."

Fugaku trembled from head to toe and staggered outside.

But wherever he ran, all he saw were horrifying mountains of corpses and seas of blood!

Blood had gathered into dark red streams along the streets, slowly flowing through the cracks between the stone slabs.

He saw the aunt next door who always sold dumplings with a smile, nailed to the wall by a kunai.

He saw a Uchiha toddler who had only just learned to walk, lying in a pool of blood while still clutching a worn-out rattle.

Not a single person had survived.

Not even a dog had been spared.

"Who did this?! Who the hell did this?!"

Fugaku roared in collapse beneath the blood moon, tears pouring from his eyes.

At that moment, a familiar figure crouched atop an electric pole ahead.

That person held a blood-dripping ninja blade and slowly turned his head.

Two trails of bloody tears ran down his young cheeks.

"Itachi?!"

Fugaku was struck as if by lightning. His legs gave way, and he fell directly to his knees in the blood.

"Why... my son, why did you do this?"

The Itachi within the genjutsu space did not answer. He merely raised his blade coldly.

The scene suddenly shifted.

Fugaku saw the meeting room of the Leaf Village higher-ups.

Danzō was smugly placing a glass jar filled with Sharingan on Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk.

And the kindly Third Hokage merely smoked his pipe in silence before saying, "For the village's peace, these are all necessary sacrifices."

"Sacrifices... the lives of our entire clan are the sacrifices you speak of?!"

Fugaku screamed in despair within the genjutsu, reaching out to strangle the two old thieves.

But the scene shattered like glass once more.

"Can you see it clearly now, Clan Head?"

Yoru's figure slowly emerged beneath the blood moon.

He looked down at Fugaku, who was kneeling on the ground and convulsing in agony.

"This is the outcome of your concern for the bigger picture."

"If you retreat, they'll keep pressing forward."

"If you compromise, they'll wipe out your entire line!"

Yoru crouched down, grabbed Fugaku by the hair, and forced him to look at the corpses covering the ground.

"Tonight, Danzō came looking for trouble."

"If you take even one step back, tomorrow they'll take the lives of our entire clan!"

"Tell me, do you still want to remain in that village that pens us up like pigs and dogs?!"

Boom!

The genjutsu space instantly collapsed.

In the real world.

Only a second had passed.

"Argh—!"

Fugaku suddenly shoved Yoru away and dropped to his knees on the bluestone pavement with a thud.

He gasped for breath, sweat pouring down from his forehead like a waterfall and instantly soaking the clothes on his back.

"Clan Head!"

The surrounding Uchiha clansmen hurriedly gathered around him in alarm.

"I'm fine..."

Fugaku shoved away the elder trying to support him, braced himself on his knees, and slowly rose to his feet.

When he raised his head again, all hesitation, struggle, and misgivings had vanished from his eyes.

In their place were madness suppressed to the extreme and boundless killing intent!

That genjutsu had been too real. So real that he could even smell the blood on Itachi's blade.

He knew Yoru had not lied to him.

This was exactly the sort of thing the Leaf Village higher-ups were capable of!

"Eternal infamy, my ass."

Fugaku suddenly laughed, his expression incomparably savage.

He spun around and stomped the broken wooden sign of the Konoha Military Police Force at his feet into powder.

"Pass down my order!"

Fugaku poured chakra into his voice, which boomed like a great bell across the entire compound.

"Everyone in the clan, return home immediately and pack your valuables and scrolls!"

"Anything we can't take, burn it all! Don't leave so much as a needle for Leaf Village!"

The entire crowd erupted in uproar, followed by deafening cheers.

The humiliation they had suppressed for so many years was finally released completely at this moment.

"What are you standing around for? Move!"

Fugaku urged them sharply.

"You have ten minutes to assemble! Ten minutes from now, the entire clan will fight our way out of Leaf Village with me!"

The Uchiha clansmen scattered at once as if injected with adrenaline, rushing back into their homes with swift and decisive movements.

Seeing this, Danzō, hiding in the distance, completely panicked.

His one eye widened so much that he could barely hold onto his cane.

"Madness! You Uchiha have all gone mad!"

Danzō screamed hysterically.

"Stop them! We absolutely cannot let them leave the village with the Sharingan!"

The remaining Root and Anbu members forced themselves to step forward and block the way.

"Get lost!"

Fugaku roared, and his eyes instantly turned scarlet with three tomoe.

His hands flashed through seals as he took a deep breath.

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!

A massive fireball over five meters in diameter crashed into the Anbu formation like a meteor.

The terrifying heat instantly turned several Root members who could not evade in time into burning men.

This was only the beginning.

As the clansmen rushed out of their homes carrying bundles, Fire Release techniques filled the sky like a meteor shower, smashing fiercely toward the Anbu.

The Uchiha Clan had completely rebelled!

Watching the clansmen assemble with such practiced efficiency and seeing the ruthless edge they no longer bothered to suppress, Yoru nodded in satisfaction.

He walked to Fugaku's side and patted the clan head on the shoulder.

"That's more like it, Clan Head."

"If you're not ruthless, you won't stand firm. That's the spirit the Uchiha should have."

Fugaku turned to look at Yoru, his gaze complicated.

"Yoru, which way do we break through next? Do you have a plan?"

Yoru stroked his chin and looked toward the Hokage Building.

"Clan Head, lead the main force straight out through the front gates."

"Whoever dares stop you, kill them. Don't hold back."

Fugaku froze. "What about you? Aren't you breaking out with us?"

"I have some personal business to take care of."

A malicious smirk curled across Yoru's lips.

"I finally got another chance at life. I should at least take some local specialties with me."

"I need to pick up a few people."

"We can't let all the good stuff go to that old dog Hiruzen Sarutobi, can we?"