Amaterasu Countered, the Enraged Nine-Tails, the Gunner Takes Position

"The demon fox! The demon fox! The demon fox has come to destroy the village again!"

"Get the Third Hokage! Get the Third Hokage to stop the demon fox!"

"The demon fox is going to eat people! Run!"

For a time, Konoha was once again shrouded in immense terror.

"Has the Nine-Tails' seal been undone again?" Iruka stared fearfully at the snarling Nine-Tails. The shadow of his childhood once more loomed over him. Seven years ago, the Nine-Tails had killed his parents and left him an orphan. Now, seven years later, it had appeared again. That terror returned, making his entire body tremble uncontrollably.

Kurenai Yuhi stared at the Nine-Tails with a pale face. Seven years ago, her father, Shinku Yuhi, had gone to fight the Nine-Tails when it invaded the village—and never returned. "How could this happen? The Nine-Tails has appeared again."

"It's the Nine-Tails. This is troublesome." Shikaku Nara frowned tightly as he watched the rampaging Nine-Tails. "The Uchiha Suppression Operation is being carried out tonight. How could the Nine-Tails appear at such a convenient time? Could it be..." Shikaku Nara thought of a terrifying possibility. If it was truly as he suspected, then they were in serious trouble.

The suppression had failed. Instead, they had driven the Uchiha Clan into a desperate last stand and caused them to undo the Nine-Tails' seal.

If they did not handle this properly, the entire village could very well be destroyed.

During the Nine-Tails Attack seven years ago, the village had suffered devastating losses. Even the Fourth Hokage at the time had sacrificed himself to seal the Nine-Tails.

An Anbu rushed over in a panic. "Third Hokage-sama, this is terrible! The demon fox has attacked Konoha again!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi shot the Anbu ninja an annoyed look. "I'm not blind yet! The Nine-Tails is that huge. I can see it."

The Anbu ninja asked, "Third Hokage-sama, what should we do now?"

After recovering from his shock, Hiruzen Sarutobi gave an order with a stern expression. "Immediately gather all Konoha ninja. Release messenger hawks and notify all jonin outside on missions to abandon their missions and return to Konoha at once. All ninja of chunin rank and above, follow me to intercept the Nine-Tails immediately. The remaining genin are to evacuate the civilians to the shelters."

"Konoha is once again facing a crisis of life and death. We must give everything we have to stop the Nine-Tails from destroying the village."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Jiraiya, get back here quickly. I have an extremely bad feeling about this." Hiruzen Sarutobi felt deeply unsettled by the Nine-Tails' seal suddenly being undone. Even seven years ago, he had not felt this uneasy. The timing was simply too coincidental. A large number of ninja had been deployed around the Uchiha Compound to guard against unexpected developments, so their surveillance of Naruto Uzumaki had loosened. And just as the Anbu had relaxed their watch over Naruto tonight, the Nine-Tails' seal was undone. Hiruzen Sarutobi could not help suspecting that someone had been watching Naruto all along, merely waiting for them to lower their guard before unsealing the Nine-Tails in one stroke. Was it you, Uchiha Clan? Or did the Nine-Tails break free of the seal on its own?

Hiruzen Sarutobi hoped it was the latter.

A Nine-Tails with no one controlling it was easier to subdue.

A roar dragged the thoughts of every Konoha resident who had lived through the Nine-Tails Attack seven years ago back to that time. Endless fear surged into their hearts.

"That's the Nine-Tails?"

Uchiha Shadian, who was fighting Itachi Uchiha to the death, heard the roar. His expression changed sharply as he turned to look, his face instantly filled with disbelief. "It's the Nine-Tails. How did the Nine-Tails get out?"

Whoosh!

A figure teleported to Uchiha Shadian's side.

"I've already settled your future son!" the newcomer said teasingly.

"What future son? What exactly did you do?" Uchiha Shadian asked in confusion.

"Release the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and you'll know, original body."

With a bang, the newcomer turned into smoke and vanished.

Uchiha Shadian also learned everything that had happened.

"So he actually made an agreement with Kushina!" Uchiha Shadian marveled at how much better his Shadow Clone was at having fun than him.

Though there had been an unexpected interruption, his plan had at least been successfully completed.

"Uncle, did you undo the Nine-Tails' seal?"

Watching Uchiha Shadian's Shadow Clone disappear, Itachi Uchiha suddenly thought of something and spoke.

"So what if I did?"

"Konoha was a village built together by the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan. The Senju Clan is gone, and now the Uchiha Clan is about to perish as well. Naturally, Konoha no longer has any reason to exist."

"Summoning Jutsu."

Uchiha Shadian bit his finger, formed hand seals, and slammed his palm onto the ground.

Bang!

The Nine-Tails, which had been ravaging western Konoha, abruptly turned into a cloud of smoke and disappeared.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had led ninja there, froze at the sight. "The Nine-Tails disappeared. Did someone stop it?"

At the same time.

As Uchiha Shadian activated the Summoning Jutsu.

A massive cloud of smoke erupted out of thin air.

The next moment, a thunderous roar rang through heaven and earth.

"Nine-Tails... it really was you, Uncle." Itachi Uchiha's expression changed drastically.

Uchiha Shadian's endless methods had already placed enormous pressure on him. Now there was suddenly a Nine-Tails as well, making the pressure even greater.

Uchiha Shadian stood atop the Nine-Tails' head, looking down at Itachi Uchiha with an indifferent expression. "The game officially begins. Come and experience this world's pain!"

"Nine-Tails, take your revenge to your heart's content!"

"Roar!" The Nine-Tails let out a roar, opened its cavernous jaws, and began gathering a Tailed Beast Bomb.

The pitch-black Tailed Beast Bomb gradually condensed inside the Nine-Tails' mouth.

"I can't let you gather a Tailed Beast Bomb with that kind of terrifying power." Itachi Uchiha covered one eye while his other Mangekyō Sharingan locked onto the Nine-Tails. "Amaterasu."

As Itachi Uchiha spoke, black flames erupted out of thin air across the Nine-Tails' body, sizzling as they burned.

Roar!

The Nine-Tails let out a pained howl. The Tailed Beast Chakra gathering in its mouth also scattered because of its howl.

Uchiha Shadian had been prepared. He pulled out a scroll from his waist and tossed it directly onto the black flames on the Nine-Tails' back. In an instant, black smoke rose from the scroll, swallowing all the black flames on the Nine-Tails and sealing them inside the scroll.

Seeing this, a feeling of powerlessness rose within Itachi Uchiha. Every move he made had been seen through by his uncle. Every technique was countered as soon as it was used, completely dismantled without exception.

"Uncle is the Uchiha Clan's true genius."

Everyone believed his uncle was Uchiha trash, but the truth was precisely the opposite.

The Nine-Tails' vertical pupils were crimson. The burning flames made it even more violent. It threw its head back and roared, deafening everyone nearby.

"The demon fox! That's the demon fox's roar! It's over by the Uchiha Clan!"

"Wasn't it in the west just now? How did it suddenly move to the edge of the Uchiha Compound?"

"The Uchiha Clan is Konoha's strongest clan. They'll definitely defeat that demon fox and protect the village."

"Uchiha Clan, kill that damned demon fox!"

Seeing that the Nine-Tails had moved away, some villagers thought they had been saved.

"Looks like your ocular power can still hold out for a while. Then let's fire the cannon."

With a thought, Uchiha Shadian controlled the Nine-Tails to leap backward, even retreating beyond Konoha's borders before landing atop a mountain peak and looking down upon Konoha from above.

Watching Uchiha Shadian move away from Konoha, Itachi Uchiha did not feel relieved. Instead, his nerves tightened even further.

"The Nine-Tails has been driven out of the village?" Jiraiya, who had been racing over, leaped onto a rooftop. When he saw the Nine-Tails leaving Konoha in the distance, he initially thought it had been driven away. But when he saw the enormous amount of Chakra gathering in its mouth, his expression changed drastically.

"Someone is controlling the Nine-Tails! This is bad!" A violent Nine-Tails was easy to subdue, but one being controlled was a completely different matter.

"What the hell is that old man doing? He actually let someone catch him off guard again."

The last time the Nine-Tails had been used in a surprise attack, Minato had died.

And this time, who would it be?