"Let me handle this! You can't even finish off an injured man? Useless trash!"
The crowd parted, and a bare-chested Kaguya stepped forward. By now, dozens of people had surrounded Uchiha Gen.
Phew...
Uchiha Gen's eyes were half-open, his face smeared with blood. His Sharingan looked especially sinister beneath the firelight.
Even in such a predicament, he had no intention of retreating. Instead, the fighting spirit in his heart only grew stronger.
It seems my clansmen are in grave danger. They can spare this many people to deal with me... the Kaguya Clan must have mobilized nearly their entire clan.
As Uchiha Gen thought this, his heart was as still as dead water while his mind raced at high speed.
"Take this!"
The Uchiha Clan's throwing techniques were renowned throughout the Shinobi World. This burly Kaguya gave Uchiha Gen no chance to widen the distance, charging straight at him.
The moment they clashed, Uchiha Gen's expression changed!
This strength!
Bang!
Uchiha Gen was sent crashing into a nearby house by that blow.
"Cough! Damn it, a Jōnin!"
There was no mistaking that strength. With his current understanding of Chakra, that level of control was absolutely Jōnin-class.
"Hehehe, kid, accept your fate."
The Kaguya Jōnin revealed a cruel smile. He was in no hurry to kill the half-grown child before him.
The Uchiha Clan was terribly undermanned now. They had already gained an absolute advantage, and according to the intelligence they had received, the main Uchiha force had been restrained by the Senju. Striking now would undoubtedly deal them a devastating blow.
"Phew... Then let's give it a try."
From within the rubble, a massive Great Fireball Technique erupted. The Kaguya Jōnin nimbly leaped aside, the teasing smugness in his eyes deepening.
"Fire Release! Phoenix Flower Claw Red!"
"Fire Release! Great Fire Dragon Technique!"
"Fire Release! Great Flame Bullet!"
In an instant, Fire Release techniques erupted from three directions at once, sealing off every route of escape for the Kaguya Jōnin.
"Hmph! Petty tricks! Ninjutsu! Dance of Clematis! Ninjutsu! Dance of Larch!"
Bones instantly sprouted from every part of the Kaguya Jōnin's body. They quickly bent and wrapped around his exposed areas, forming a suit of bone armor.
"Die, brat!"
Facing the Fire Release attacks head-on, the Kaguya Jōnin neither dodged nor evaded. He charged straight through the sea of flames.
"What?!"
Uchiha Gen had never seen a ninjutsu like this before. He didn't remember Kimimaro ever using something like this!
Clang!
His hand went numb, and the kunai nearly slipped from his grip!
A Kaguya Bone Spike came hurtling toward his face, drawing closer and closer in the Sharingan's vision. Splat!
The bone blade pierced through, sinking deep into wood, while Uchiha Gen turned into smoke.
"Substitution Technique? Your hand-sign speed is pretty good."
Uchiha Gen panted heavily, exhaustion showing on his face. He had not been in peak condition to begin with, and after being forced into battle, both his mental and physical strength had already fallen by more than half.
"Die!"
"Earth Release! Dust Cloud Technique!"
Though he called it Earth Release, Uchiha Gen simply kicked the ground with his foot, stirring up a cloud of dust.
The Kaguya Jōnin immediately flew into a rage, his speed increasing yet again.
Uchiha Gen struggled to hold on, and before long, several more wounds appeared on his body.
"Pfft!"
Blood gushed out. Uchiha Gen felt his body growing cold as his life force began to drain away.
Yet his mind grew clearer and clearer. His Sharingan spun faster and faster, and under such circumstances, another tomoe appeared among its two tomoe.
The Kaguya Jōnin's heart jolted when he saw it. As expected of an Uchiha—geniuses emerged one after another. He had actually broken through during battle.
"Troublesome!"
The Kaguya Jōnin no longer had any interest in playing around. The Uchiha before him had entered his kill-on-sight list. A genius capable of breaking through in battle had to be eliminated as soon as possible, or he would become a major enemy in the future.
A faint smile curled across Uchiha Gen's lips. Watching the Kaguya Jōnin's large face draw closer, he remained perfectly calm.
Whoosh!
As though he had accepted his fate, he tossed out the kunai in his hand. The Kaguya Jōnin casually twisted aside and dodged it.
"Blame your birth into the Uchiha Clan!"
"Got you."
What?
The barely audible words left Uchiha Gen's mouth, but the Kaguya Jōnin no longer had a chance to hear them clearly.
Thud!
The one-meter-eighty-five body fell to the ground, his face still twisted with murderous ferocity and confusion. The kunai had already pierced through his neck.
"What?! Lord Jōnin was...!"
"What did that Uchiha just do?"
The surrounding Kaguya spectators were all stunned. Wasn't this supposed to be a one-sided slaughter? How had the situation suddenly reversed so completely?
Yet no one answered them. Uchiha Gen's face had begun to go numb from blood loss. Leaving a bloody footprint with every step, he walked over to the Kaguya Jōnin and grabbed the kunai, slicing open the flesh around his neck.
Creak! Creak!
The sound of flesh writhing made everyone's backs go cold.
Because Uchiha Gen had directly ripped out the Kaguya Jōnin's spine!!
The Kaguya ninja watching felt their scalps tingle, though everything had happened in only a dozen seconds.
Once they came to their senses, the Kaguya ninja hurriedly charged at Uchiha Gen.
"Ninja really are high attack, low defense, huh~"
The Chakra bones wrapped around that Kaguya Jōnin's entire body had been truly difficult to find a gap in. The move he had used just now had been a desperate gamble—a concept that had still only existed in theory. He hadn't expected it to actually work.
Uchiha Gen raised his head and looked at the attacking Kaguya ninja around him with a faintly amused smile, gripping the spine tightly in his hand. This thing was much more useful than kunai or shuriken.
Elsewhere, outside the Uchiha Shrine, corpses lay piled everywhere. On closer inspection, most of them were Uchiha, and all bore bandaged wounds.
They were all injured Uchiha who had remained within the clan. The clan members left behind for defense had all died, leaving these injured people no choice but to step forward.
Behind those injured Uchiha, more than a hundred children and women were crowded inside the shrine's main hall. Quite a few women held infants in their arms.
"The Uchiha Clan truly deserves its reputation as a great clan. I never expected even these old, weak, sick, and injured remnants to be so difficult to deal with."
The Kaguya clan head stood amid the battle line formed by his clansmen and sighed. The clansmen around him all chimed in agreement.
"We must finish them quickly. If the main Uchiha force returns, we'll be in danger."
"Deploy everyone! Wipe them out in one stroke! Leave none alive!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Upon hearing the order, the surrounding Kaguya ninja activated their Chakra and drew out Bone Spikes. Hundreds of ninja surged forward together.
Only several dozen injured Uchiha remained guarding the shrine. Faced with so many enemies, they did not retreat. Instead, they roared and used their last Chakra to create a wall of fire, all to buy a little more time.
Even the Kaguya Clan, whose bodies were covered in bone, did not dare to force their way through the wall of fire unleashed by the Uchiha.
This was merely the final afterglow of these Uchiha at the end of their strength. The Kaguya clan head looked at the burning wall with disdain. They were only lingering on their last breaths.
Sure enough, in only a few minutes, the wall of fire had visibly shrunk.
Slowly, the wall of fire completely vanished. The remaining Uchiha had all become lambs awaiting slaughter, each of them collapsing to the ground in exhaustion.
Before you continue