Bang!
"Hiruzen, something huge has happened with the Uchiha. What do you think... holy shit!"
Mitokado Homura hurriedly pushed the door open and found Hiruzen Sarutobi staring blankly. Following the direction of his finger, he immediately cried out in shock as well.
That cry instantly snapped Hiruzen Sarutobi out of his daze.
"What do I think? I don't fucking want to look!" Hiruzen Sarutobi rolled his eyes irritably, then turned and began straightening his clothes.
"Hiruzen, what are you..."
"What are you standing around for? Assemble the troops! We're going to the Uchiha Clan Compound!"
"To... to fight those Susanoo?"
Mitokado Homura felt his whole world fall apart. He had possessed Kage-level combat strength in his youth, but asking him to fight Susanoo now? Was he serious?
"Fight, my ass! Are you fighting them? Or am I?" A nameless fury flared up in Hiruzen Sarutobi, and he nearly blasted Homura to death with a Great Fireball Technique.
"First, evacuate the civilians, then get those damned bastards to stop! Whatever their disagreements are, they can sit down and talk!"
"I don't know whether you've been in contact with them, but have you considered that they might be setting a trap for you?"
Listening to the distant booms, Mitokado Homura was about to try persuading him again when Hiruzen Sarutobi, now fully dressed and equipped, turned toward him. His gaze was utterly serious, just as it had been on the Night of the Nine-Tails. For a fleeting moment, Homura seemed to see the young man who had volunteered to stay behind and cover their retreat decades ago.
"Whatever the situation actually is, as Hokage, I must be on the front line."
Yet by the time the two of them and the hastily arriving Utatane Koharu had assembled the troops and set off toward the Uchiha compound at the village's edge, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at his two old friends beside him, then at the long-retired Torifu Akimichi hurrying over nearby, and couldn't help letting out a soft sigh.
Of the six members of the Second Hokage's Guard Platoon back then, five were still alive. Four were now gathered here, leaving only one who had yet to appear.
"Tell me, where do you think Danzo is at a critical moment like this?"
Taking a deep breath and suppressing the tangled emotions in his heart, Hiruzen Sarutobi turned to ask Mitokado Homura.
"..."
After a moment's silence, Mitokado Homura shook his head slightly. Danzo was most likely over at the Uchiha compound. He had pulled much the same stunt during the Nine-Tails' Attack. No, this move by the Uchiha might even have been deliberately provoked by Danzo.
"Hiruzen, Danzo surely has the village's interests at heart. He's probably already taken his men to the Uchiha Clan Compound. Let's hurry over too..."
Seeing the two men fall silent, Utatane Koharu hesitated before speaking softly.
"Hmph. Let's hope so."
Danzo, you absolutely must not disappoint me on this.
"Danzo, you absolutely must not disappoint me on this."
At the Uchiha Clan Compound, Sasuke Uchiha watched the green Perfect Susanoo suddenly join the battlefield. He casually pierced a Root operative with his Chidori blade and sighed with feeling.
With a commotion this big, he refused to believe Danzo could still sit tight.
Granted, as a selfish, immoral man devoid of any higher pursuits who had long forgotten his original ideals, Danzo would never risk his life for the village.
But when it came to his own interests, he never hesitated to lick blood from a blade's edge.
But where the hell was he?
They had been fighting for ages. There had been plenty of Root operatives, but they were all small fry. Not one of Root's true elites, Danzo, or even Obito had shown up. Where had they all gone?
Hiruzen Sarutobi had already gathered his men and reached the vicinity of the Uchiha Clan Compound. Nearly all the surrounding civilians had been evacuated...
No, to be precise, there were hardly any civilians in the Uchiha's original Clan Grounds on the outskirts. The handful who had been there had already been evacuated through their earlier arrangements.
By now, it could hardly even be called a compound. The fighting had practically reduced it to rubble.
Red and purple light flickered in Sasuke's eyes as he gazed into the distance and saw solemn concern written all over Hiruzen Sarutobi's face.
After all, the battle between these two Half-Body Susanoo and one Perfect Susanoo was rather too astonishing. The experts behind him wore the same expressions.
The terrifying presence and destructive power displayed by the Susanoo left every witness trembling with fear!
Many in the force Hiruzen had brought learned for the first time that the Uchiha had concealed such a trump card, and their faces instantly grew exceedingly grim.
Even Hiruzen, who knew something of it through intelligence reports, felt a chill run down his spine when he witnessed this power firsthand.
Terrifying. Simply beyond imagination!
Wary? How could he not be wary!
What horrific price would Konoha have to pay to defeat these three?
Hiruzen Sarutobi's brows drew tighter and tighter, his thoughts involuntarily sliding toward the worst possible outcome.
Not only was this power terrifying on the offensive, its defensive strength was extraordinary as well.
If the Uchiha Clan truly rose in rebellion, the consequences would be unthinkable!
At that thought, Hiruzen Sarutobi's face was no longer merely solemn. It had turned utterly ashen.
Yet when Sasuke saw his expression, he gave a peculiar smile.
In a sense, this old man really was rather like Fugaku. Both were somewhat indecisive. But when certain bottom lines were crossed, the Third Hokage was far more decisive than Fugaku and could bring out the bearing of the Shinobi Hero he had once been. As for Fugaku... if not for this incident, he probably would have kept bottling everything up.
After all, no matter how one looked at it, the Uchiha Clan's Mangekyō Sharingan were eyes that reflected the soul. Beyond their abilities corresponding to what one had always sought, they also resonated with one's personality to a certain extent, and could even influence it further.
And now the Third Hokage looks this grim after seeing just one Perfect Susanoo and two Half-Body Susanoo... no, this won't do. I'll have to throw more fuel on the fire.
Taking out his Communicator and fiddling with it a couple of times, Sasuke watched Hiruzen Sarutobi with a wicked grin, his Three-Tomoe Sharingan and Purple Demon Eye active.
"Heh heh heh heh. Can't handle just one giant like this? Then what if I add two more?"
As though answering his words, the three giants locked in battle in the distance underwent another change. Fugaku's and Itachi's Susanoo suddenly burst with dazzling radiance. Under countless disbelieving gazes, legs rapidly formed beneath their lower bodies, and they stood upright in full, becoming towering giants as imposing as Shisui's Susanoo!
The only difference was probably that Fugaku's and Shisui's had wings on their backs, while Itachi's was a size smaller and had no wings.
After figuring out some of the properties of the Mangekyō Sharingan more than two years ago, Sasuke had inevitably begun thinking about Susanoo.
Exactly what conditions are needed to activate it? What conditions allow someone to possess a Perfect Susanoo? If both eyes have to be present at the same time, how do you explain Shisui activating Susanoo with one eye? Even if we exclude that as something that might belong to an alternate timeline, Madara Uchiha activated Susanoo without any eyes when he was first revived. Even their forefather Indra used it with a Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
So that raised the question: what exactly were the conditions for using Susanoo?
Before you continue