Stirring Up Trouble Again, Trump Card Exposed!

That night, no one in Konoha slept.

The Hokage's ANBU mobilized in full. Masked ninjas in black flitted through the village shadows like silent bats.

Their patrols were three times as dense as usual. At every vantage point, along every main road, and atop every stretch of wall, ANBU sensory ninjas scanned in silence.

The lights blazed inside Root's headquarters.

Danzo and Hiruzen Sarutobi had reached a fragile ceasefire for now, but Danzo was no fool. ANBU was watching him, and he was watching ANBU.

Root's spies slithered through Konoha's dark corners like nocturnal vipers, ready to react to the slightest disturbance.

The Konoha Military Police Force also mobilized under cover of darkness.

It was neither an order from the Hokage nor a directive from Danzo. Uchiha Fugaku had made the decision himself. News that ANBU and Root had nearly come to blows swept into the Uchiha Clan Compound like a gust of wind.

Fugaku immediately summoned every active-duty officer. Fully armed, they established tight defenses inside and outside the compound.

Officially, they were "assisting in maintaining public order."

In truth, all three factions lurked in the dark, faced off in the dark, and waited in the dark.

They waited for the other side to show an opening, for the situation to tilt in their favor, and for the unseen killer to strike again.

A suffocating tension hung over Konoha. There was no battle, no slaughter, yet it was harder to breathe than during any great war in the Shinobi World.

Uchiha Fugaku sat in his courtyard, unable to sleep.

The night wind passed through the veranda, stirring the bamboo water fountain into a hollow clack. He had once found the sound soothing. Now it grated on his nerves.

He gave up sitting and paced back and forth across the courtyard.

Excitement. Anxiety. The two opposite emotions tangled together in his chest.

He was excited because the Hokage and Danzo had actually turned on each other.

Those two old men had loomed over him for decades. They had pushed the Uchiha Clan to the village's margins and tightened its shackles step by step. Now they were fighting each other.

Kokoro no Suke was dead, Hiruzen Sarutobi was furious, and Danzo had rallied Root to oppose him!

What was this if not two dogs tearing at each other?

But if civil war really broke out, what would the Uchiha Clan do?

Fugaku's steps quickened, and his frown deepened.

He knew the Uchiha Clan's strength. Powerful as the Sharingan was, the clan had only a limited number of jonin with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. As for the Mangekyō Sharingan, he alone possessed it.

And what did Konoha have?

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Shinobi Hero, would be more than enough trouble on his own. Add Danzo and his Root Elite, that Taijutsu fanatic Might Guy, the ANBU spread throughout the village, and the other great ninja clans...

The Uchiha Clan alone stood no chance against Konoha.

That was why he had always kept his head down.

When Danzo trampled all over the Uchiha, he endured it. When clan members were set up and killed, he endured it. Even when Uchiha Yongye beat his son in the street, he had not dared to truly break with him, afraid of bringing down an even greater disaster.

He knew better than anyone that the Uchiha would lose a war against Konoha. As clan leader, he was responsible for thousands of lives.

But...

What if ANBU and Root crippled each other?

Fugaku stopped.

If Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo truly fought, if ANBU and Root slaughtered each other and Konoha lost more than half its elite forces... then the Uchiha Clan might have a chance to seize victory from the chaos.

The risk was enormous. If he gambled and lost, the entire clan would be wiped out, and Uchiha Fugaku would bear the blame for generations.

But what if he won? What if the Uchiha really could turn the tables amid the chaos and reclaim the standing and dignity that should have been theirs?

Fugaku's breathing grew heavy. Hidden in his sleeves, his fingers clenched and relaxed, then clenched again. His palms were slick with sweat.

Moonlight fell across his face. The usually stern, rigid features now shifted with his struggle between hope and fear.

Just then...

A sharp whistle cut through the air behind him.

Fast!

So fast that the instant Fugaku's ears caught the sound, his Sharingan activated on instinct. The Three-Tomoe spun wildly in his eyes.

He whipped around!

A shadowy figure stood there, dressed entirely in black, its face wrapped tight in black cloth. Only a pair of cold eyes showed.

The figure moved at astonishing speed, trailing a long afterimage through the night like black lightning slicing across the moonlight.

Fugaku had barely touched his Kunai when the figure before him...

Became three.

Shadow Clone!

Three identical figures in black spread into a triangle, surrounding Fugaku.

Their movements were perfectly synchronized. All three formed Hand Seals at once, their fingers moving so fast that even the Sharingan could catch only afterimages.

Fugaku's pupils contracted.

He knew those seals!

Tiger, Snake, Dog, Dragon!

The opening seals of Wind Release, for a secret Ninjutsu used by only a handful of Konoha ninjas. And he had seen only one person in his life perform Wind Release Hand Seals at that speed.

"Wind Release—Vacuum Sphere!"

"Wind Release—Vacuum Sphere!"

"Wind Release—Vacuum Sphere!"

The three voices overlapped. From three directions, three torrents of highly compressed Wind Release Chakra burst forth at once.

Air bullets poured in from all sides like a violent storm, cutting off every route Fugaku could take to evade them!

A shrill scream ripped through the air as air compressed to its limit was suddenly released.

The blast tore up the stone paving in the courtyard. Gravel and fallen leaves swirled into the air, only to be pulverized by the air bullets that followed.

Fugaku's expression changed.

Never in his life had he seen Wind Release Ninjutsu this powerful!

Compared to what he faced now, Danzo's Wind Release was a child's slingshot against a siege crossbow!

Every air bullet was accurate to the millimeter. Each had enough penetrating force to punch through a suit of tempered steel armor!

The three streams of fire overlapped, locking down every blind spot.

There was nowhere to dodge. No way to escape!

Facing death, Uchiha Fugaku could no longer afford to hide his strength.

His eyes flew wide. The Three-Tomoe of his Sharingan spun faster and faster, until their boundaries blurred and they joined into one... forming an entirely new pattern.

The Mangekyō Sharingan!

An immense surge of purple Chakra erupted from his body.

It was no ordinary, vaporous Chakra. It was visible and substantial, pouring from every pore like molten rock before gathering around Fugaku, swelling, and taking shape.

A gigantic purple skeletal apparition rose from the ground, enclosing Fugaku within it!

Its bones were thick as mountains. Purple Chakra coursed between them, radiating a pressure that made the heart shudder.

The skeleton raised a massive bony hand and spread its fingers, placing it before Fugaku like a shield that blotted out the sky!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The air bullets from the Vacuum Spheres struck the skeleton's palm, bursting into dense ripples of purple light.

Every bullet carried enough force to flatten a house, but against the skeleton's bones, they made it tremble only slightly.

The purple Chakra surged violently at each point of impact, then swiftly returned to its original shape, as though nothing had happened.

Fugaku stood under the skeleton's protection, his face grim.

His Mangekyō Sharingan glowed crimson in the darkness as he stared at the three figures in black.

"Who are you..."

His voice was low and commanding, carrying the authority of a clan leader who would not be challenged.

"Why did you ambush me?"

Before he finished speaking, Susanoo began to grow.

Thick muscle fibers appeared from nowhere on the skeleton's shoulders, visibly layering over the purple bones.

A breastplate, shoulder guards, arm guards... Within a few breaths, a complete suit of armor formed over its upper body. Then came its arms and hands.

Susanoo's right hand clenched. A massive Chakra greatsword emerged from its fist, purple flames burning along the blade.

Susanoo swung!

The greatsword carved a purple arc through the night like a bolt of lightning, slashing straight at the three figures in black.

Then...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

All three figures burst at once, turning into clouds of white smoke that vanished into the night wind.

No bodies. No blood. Only lingering Chakra.

"Shadow Clones?!"

Fugaku's face darkened further. Susanoo's greatsword hung in midair, purple flames still roaring along its blade, but there was no longer a target to strike.

Sheltered within Susanoo, he spun his Sharingan and extended his senses to their limit, sweeping every corner within several hundred meters.

Nothing.

No fluctuations of Chakra, no hidden presence, no suspicious trace of any kind.

The ambusher—or rather, all three attackers—had been Shadow Clones! They had dispersed so cleanly that they left not a single clue.

"Shadow Clones with that much power! Who could have that much Chakra..."

Cold sweat beaded on Fugaku's forehead.

A Shadow Clone's strength diminished according to how much Chakra it received. Yet each of those three Vacuum Spheres had been powerful enough to kill a jonin instantly.

To create three Shadow Clones of that caliber, then use Wind Release Ninjutsu far beyond Danzo's... How many people in the entire Shinobi World could do that?

A name surfaced in his mind, but he forced it down.

Impossible. It couldn't be him. He was dead.

But if it wasn't him... who was that strong?

Fugaku remained inside Susanoo, carefully searching his surroundings. The glow of his Sharingan flickered in the dark.

Finding no enemy only made his expression graver.

Susanoo had been exposed. The trump card he had hidden for years, the Uchiha Clan's greatest trump card, had been forced into the open tonight.

Whoever the ambusher was, he now knew Uchiha Fugaku possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan.

If that news spread...

Fugaku's fingers trembled slightly.

Behind him, a solitary figure stood quietly in the veranda's shadow.

Uchiha Itachi.

He stood in the shadows with his arms at his sides, not a flicker of emotion in his dark eyes.

He watched the enormous purple Susanoo. He watched his father stand inside it, greatsword in hand, radiating a suffocating pressure. He watched Susanoo slowly fade, its purple Chakra receding into his father's body like an ebbing tide, leaving only a ruined courtyard beneath the moonlight.

Uchiha Itachi showed no expression.

But in his eyes... in those dark eyes, something colder than frost and snow churned.

Father, you really have been hiding your strength all along!

The Mangekyō Sharingan. Susanoo!

You never showed me this power. You never showed the clan. Even Mother doesn't know.

Are you really planning to... lead the Uchiha Clan in an armed takeover?