Final Battle at the Great Arena, Mangekyō Appears!

The Uchiha Clan's largest training ground, the Great Arena.

This massive open-air field, paved with hard bluestone, was usually an excellent place for clan members to spar with ninjutsu and hone their taijutsu.

There were only a few Genin on the spacious field, conducting their daily shuriken practice.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Several shuriken embedded themselves in wooden posts in the distance. One Genin wiped the sweat from his forehead and was just about to retrieve the weapons.

Bang!

The two gates of the Great Arena were pushed open from outside.

Lu Ming walked over the threshold with both hands in his pockets and a calm expression, heading straight for the very center of the Great Arena.

Before the few Genin could react, hurried footsteps sounded outside the gates once again.

Fugaku Uchiha strode into the arena, followed by a tide of Uchiha Clan members.

In less than the time it took to burn a stick of incense, the originally empty Great Arena had been packed until not even a drop of water could pass through.

Uchiha Shisui, the seven elders, the higher-ups of the Military Police Force,

as well as the forty-three Three-Tomoe elites led by Tekka, had all arrived.

Hundreds of pairs of scarlet Sharingan flickered in and out of view among the crowd.

The massive chakra pressure gathered together made the air above the Great Arena feel stifling.

"What... what's going on?"

The few Genin in the arena were completely dumbfounded, their hands trembling around their shuriken.

The First Elder leaned on his cane and walked to the edge of the field, bringing it down heavily on the bluestone floor with a loud knock.

"Clear the field!"

The First Elder's aged voice rang across the entire arena.

"All unrelated personnel, withdraw beyond the viewing platform!"

The few Genin felt as if they had been granted a pardon. They scrambled and rolled their way to the viewing platform at the edge of the Great Arena.

They had no idea what was happening. They could only crowd around a familiar Jonin senior and ask in hushed voices.

"Father, why did the First Elder personally order the field cleared? What are Clan Leader Fugaku and Lord Lu Ming planning to do?"

The Jonin looked at the two people in the center of the arena, his voice trembling.

"Watch closely. This isn't an ordinary spar."

"Lord Lu Ming publicly impeached the clan leader at Naka Shrine just now. This battle will directly determine who inherits the position of clan leader of our Uchiha Clan!"

"What?!"

At those words, the few Genin nearby sucked in sharp breaths, their scalps tingling.

A battle to determine the next clan leader of the Uchiha!

Those words struck like a bolt from a clear sky.

They never would have imagined that they had merely come for their usual training today, only to personally witness the most important power struggle in the history of the Uchiha Clan.

At the center of the Great Arena, the atmosphere had already fallen to freezing point.

Fugaku's arms hung at his sides. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan was already activated, locked onto Lu Ming more than ten meters away, while every muscle in his body was tensed to the limit.

Lu Ming, on the other hand, had not even activated his Sharingan.

He stood where he was and looked up at the sky.

"Fugaku, stop wasting time. Hurry up. After this fight, I still have to go to the Ninja Academy to pick Luna up after school."

The moment he said this, the entire arena erupted in an uproar.

Facing the current clan leader, facing a battle to the death that would determine the fate of the clan,

Lu Ming was actually still thinking about picking someone up after school? What utter contempt was this?

"Arrogant brat!"

Fugaku flew into a rage, his sense of humiliation erupting completely.

"How dare you act so insolently before the clan leader! Today, I'll make you pay for your arrogance!"

Before his voice had even faded, Fugaku threw up both hands.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Four shuriken shot toward Lu Ming's vital points from four different, treacherous angles, accompanied by the sharp sound of them tearing through the air.

That was not all. Fugaku's hands turned into a blur, and he threw four more shuriken.

The later shuriken struck the ones thrown first in midair.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A string of crisp metallic impacts rang out.

The shuriken, whose trajectories had originally been clear, changed direction after the collision. They carved several strange arcs through the air, completely sealing off every avenue of retreat for Lu Ming!

"What exquisite shuriken techniques!"

"As expected of the clan leader! His ability to alter their trajectories is truly at the pinnacle!"

The clan members on the viewing platform cried out in alarm.

Yet in the face of this unavoidable killing move, Lu Ming did not even shift his feet half an inch.

He merely tilted his head slightly. Two shuriken flew past his cheeks, slicing off several strands of black hair.

He raised his right hand, and his index and middle fingers shot out like lightning.

Smack!

The final shuriken—the fastest one, flying straight for his throat—was caught between his two fingers with effortless ease.

The entire arena fell silent.

Every cry of alarm abruptly stopped. The Genin on the viewing platform stared with their eyes wide and their jaws nearly on the ground.

"He caught the clan leader's full-powered shuriken, even after it changed direction, with just two fingers?"

Lu Ming toyed with the shuriken at his fingertips and shook his head disdainfully.

"The Uchiha's shuriken tricks have been outdated for ages. I'd even find this kind of limp weapon too dull to peel an apple with."

"You!" Fugaku was furious.

"Here."

Lu Ming flicked his wrist. Without using any complicated throwing technique, he hurled the shuriken back along its original path using nothing but speed and physical strength!

Bang!

As the shuriken left his hand, the air exploded with a sharp boom.

The tiny shuriken transformed into a black bolt of lightning, moving more than twice as fast as when Fugaku had thrown it.

Fugaku had no time to dodge. He could only draw the blade at his waist and raise it horizontally before his chest to block.

Clang—!!!

A deafening boom rang through the sky above the Great Arena.

Amid a shower of sparks, Fugaku felt an overwhelming force surge along the blade. The impact split the web between his thumb and forefinger, sending blood flowing freely.

With a muffled grunt, his feet gouged two deep white marks into the bluestone floor. He was forced back half a meter before barely managing to steady himself!

Hiss—

The clan members around them sucked in breath after breath.

"You've got to be kidding! A shuriken thrown with nothing but arm strength forced the clan leader back half a meter?"

"So this is Lord Lu Ming's taijutsu? It's terrifying!"

Fugaku steadied himself, his expression turning extremely grave.

That exchange had completely sobered him. The man before him was not someone who could be dealt with through ordinary means.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Fugaku did not hesitate. He formed hand seals at lightning speed, his chest swelling high before he spewed a huge mouthful of flames forward.

A fireball more than five meters in diameter appeared out of nowhere.

Accompanied by heat capable of burning everything, it roared and completely swallowed the position where Lu Ming stood.

Scorching waves of heat swept across the entire arena, forcing the clan members on the viewing platform to raise their hands to shield themselves.

Just as the fireball swallowed Lu Ming, his figure blurred, and he directly used the Body Flicker Technique to vanish from the spot.

"You think I can't predict where you'll land?"

Fugaku let out a cold laugh. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun wildly, capturing the chakra fluctuation left behind after Lu Ming's Body Flicker Technique.

Fugaku likewise used the Body Flicker Technique, appearing directly behind Lu Ming. He gripped his blade with both hands and stabbed forward with vicious force!

Splurt!

The sound of steel piercing flesh rang clearly throughout the arena.

The blade in Fugaku's hands entered Lu Ming's back, pierced straight through his chest, and emerged from the front!

"Lord Lu Ming!"

Tekka and the others were horrified, unable to stop themselves from taking a step forward.

Fugaku gripped the hilt and looked at Lu Ming, who had been run through, before laughing coldly.

"Lu Ming, you were too arrogant! In a battle to the death, you didn't even activate your Sharingan. Did you really think you were invincible? From the moment you dodged the Great Fireball, everything has been under my control!"

Yet Lu Ming, whose heart had been pierced by the blade, did not cry out in pain. Not even a drop of blood flowed.

He turned his head and looked at Fugaku, who was right beside him, then smiled.

"Is that so?"

As his voice fell, strange ripples like water appeared across the surface of Lu Ming's body.

His entire form turned into a phantom and completely dissipated under Fugaku's stunned gaze.

"Genjutsu?!"

Fugaku's heart contracted as an intensely powerful sense of danger enveloped his entire body.

Before he could react, he suddenly felt a piercing pain in his chest.

Fugaku stiffly lowered his head and discovered that a blade had already entered through his back and pierced straight through his heart!

"This... this is..."

Fugaku's eyes widened, and his breathing became incredibly labored.

"Mirror Flower, Water Moon!"

He recognized it. This was Lu Ming's signature genjutsu, renowned throughout the Shinobi World!

"Impossible!"

Fugaku roared.

"Before the battle began, I clearly deployed a secret Uchiha technique inside my body to break genjutsu! How could your genjutsu have worked?!"

Fugaku was nearly driven mad.

He knew that Lu Ming's genjutsu was extraordinarily powerful, so from the moment he entered the Great Arena,

he had continuously used a special method of circulating chakra to protect his brain, ensuring that he would not fall victim to any genjutsu.

Yet now, he did not even know when he had been caught!

Lu Ming's voice came from all directions, ethereal and filled with lofty disdain.

"Fugaku, your understanding of genjutsu is too shallow."

"You think you're safe just because you broke through the first layer of genjutsu?"

"What you saw as reality was merely a second layer of dreams I deliberately wove for you. You only saw what I wanted you to see."

Lu Ming's words echoed through Fugaku's mind.

Fugaku realized what had happened.

This was a terrifying technique that layered multiple genjutsu together.

He had thought he had broken the genjutsu, but in fact, he had only shattered the outermost shell and fallen, completely defenseless, into an even deeper illusion!

"Seven layers... no, this is multiple genjutsu layered more than seven times!"

Fugaku bit through the tip of his tongue, using the pain to forcibly stimulate the chakra in his brain.

Bang!

Amid a cloud of white smoke, the Fugaku whose heart had been pierced by the blade vanished.

Several dozen meters away, Fugaku's real body appeared in an empty area, gasping heavily.

His forehead was covered in fine beads of cold sweat, and the clothes on his back had been completely soaked through.

If he had not been cautious enough to create a Shadow Clone as bait in advance, then the one whose heart had been pierced would have been him!

On the surrounding viewing platforms, all the Uchiha Clan members had long since been left dumbfounded.

"That was incredible!"

"My god, what just happened? I couldn't even tell which of them had fallen into the trap!"

"Is this a battle between top experts? A perfect combination of real combat and genjutsu, with one link following another. It's simply breathtaking!"

The crowd exclaimed in amazement. Many of them had never seen a battle of this level in their entire lives.

In their eyes, the exchange between the two had been evenly matched and fraught with danger.

At the center of the Great Arena, a breeze drifted past.

Lu Ming's real body emerged from the air. He looked at Fugaku in the distance, who was still shaken, and his smile faded.

"That's enough warm-up and probing."

Lu Ming raised his hand and pointed straight at Fugaku, his voice echoing throughout the Great Arena.

"Bring out your true strength and reveal your Mangekyō Sharingan."