"My lord from the Uchiha, we apologize. We will repay double the losses the Uchiha have suffered during this time. Please forgive our wrongful offense."
The Grass Ninja Leader was a clever man, too.
Fighting was out of the question now.
So he would offer compensation and apologies, and beg for mercy.
Seiichi ignored him.
He walked past them and headed farther inside.
Many people were working back there.
The vast majority had no chakra. Even among those who did, there were few, and none exceeded the level of a Genin.
Seiichi approached a woman who was mixing various powders.
He watched as the woman's expression changed drastically at the sight of him, before turning pale and weak.
Seiichi pointed at the woman from a distance.
The woman could move again. She instantly collapsed to the ground, trembling uncontrollably.
"Do you know what you're doing?"
"Do you know that doing this could get you killed?"
"Do you know that Kusagakure can't protect you, or even protect itself?"
With every sentence Seiichi spoke, the woman's face grew a shade paler.
By the time Seiichi finished, not a trace of color remained in her face.
And Seiichi had not lowered his voice.
The Grass Ninja present had heard him, too.
Their pupils instantly contracted to pinpoints, an instinctive reaction to an enormous fright.
"Spare us, my lord!"
"My lord, we'll pay double in compensation! Please show mercy and let us go!"
"My lord..."
A black opening appeared.
It swallowed the equipment used to crush and dry medicinal ingredients.
It swallowed the Grass Ninja's stockpiles of medicinal ingredients and vegetables.
It swallowed all the money the Grass Ninja had on-site.
Not only that, Seiichi vanished in a flash and arrived at the Grass Ninja Archives, where he packed up every document and scroll.
In less than twenty seconds, he was back underground.
When Seiichi disappeared just now, the Grass Ninja had felt a glimmer of hope that they might survive.
Losing those things was fine, as long as they kept their lives.
But before they could breathe a sigh of relief, Seiichi returned.
Then he vanished with the woman and Suzune.
The three of them appeared outside Kusagakure.
Immediately afterward, Suzune sensed an enormous surge of mixed chakra and eye power coming from Seiichi.
In an instant, Suzune's view rose straight into the clouds.
Seiichi activated his Susanoo with the three of them inside.
"Given that Kusagakure maliciously copied our Uchiha Clan's products without our authorization, causing enormous losses to us Uchiha,
my investigation has established conclusive evidence.
Therefore, I, Uchiha Seiichi, Young Clan Leader of the Uchiha Clan, hereby represent the Uchiha Clan in passing judgment upon Kusagakure, this despicable thief.
I now announce the verdict: take one slash from me, and all grievances are settled!!!"
Seiichi used chakra to amplify his words.
At the very least, everyone within dozens of miles could hear him.
Seiichi was not in the habit of dragging things out, either.
The moment he finished speaking, Susanoo reached up and drew its sword, raised it toward the sky, then swung down hard at Kusagakure, which was now in utter chaos.
"One Sword Style: Random Slash!!!"
An enormous blade of sword energy shot from the long, slender blade.
Then it split the whole of Kusagakure down the middle.
It created a bottomless fissure that ran the entire length of Kusagakure and measured over forty meters across.
Cries of pain, curses, and mournful wails rang out incessantly.
Seiichi did not look at the result, nor did he care about any of that.
Since he had said that all grievances would be settled after one slash, there were now no grievances between him and Kusagakure.
At least, he felt that there were no grievances between him and Kusagakure.
The enormous wings on Susanoo's back gave a gentle flap.
The purple-black Susanoo rose from the ground with the three of them and flew straight toward Konoha.
"Enemy attack!!!"
When Seiichi returned to Konoha,
the guards stationed at its gate spotted him from far away.
The gate guards fired warning flares as though they cost nothing.
The shower of fireworks formed by the signal flares at the Konoha Gate threw the entire village into an uproar.
Countless fully armed ninja rushed to the gate as fast as they could.
By the time Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived at the Konoha Gate in full battle gear with the senior figures of Konoha's ninja clans,
Seiichi had already dispelled Susanoo, and the three of them stood at the gate, stopped by the guards.
"What exactly is going on?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi was baffled, too.
Hadn't they said Alien Invasion was coming?
Then what was Uchiha Seiichi doing here?
Even though Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others had always looked down on the Uchiha and wanted to eliminate them, they had never regarded the Uchiha as an outside enemy.
"Reporting to Lord Hokage, the Uchiha Young Clan Leader used an entirely new ninjutsu, one that summons an enormous purple-black giant unlike anything we've ever seen.
As a result, we failed to recognize the Uchiha Young Clan Leader right away, leading to this enormous misunderstanding."
Hiruzen Sarutobi paid no attention to the rest of what the guard said.
His attention, Danzo's, and that of the senior ninja clan figures behind them who knew something about the Uchiha had all been captured by those words: "an enormous purple-black giant."
The Uchiha were no problem.
An enormous giant was no problem, either.
But the Uchiha plus an enormous giant-that was a problem.
And a fucking huge problem at that!!!
"Summoning... an enormous... purple-black giant?!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi struggled immensely to utter that simple sentence.
"Seiichi, could you let us see this giant-summoning ninjutsu of yours?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Seiichi expectantly.
He desperately hoped Seiichi would tell him that his giant-summoning ninjutsu was not what he thought it was.
"Of course, my dear Lord Hokage!"
Seiichi gave Hiruzen Sarutobi a broad smile.
Then an incomparably immense surge of mixed chakra and Yin Release eye power instantly erupted from his body.
That immense surge alone shocked everyone present.
And as Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others watched the changes in Seiichi's eyes, their hearts sank halfway.
Then, as they looked at the Susanoo standing over three hundred meters tall, clad in complete Tengu Armor, with enormous wings on its back,
their hearts sank completely.
Hiruzen Sarutobi did not even notice his pipe falling to the ground.
"P-Per... Perfect Susanoo!!!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice cracked.
Most of the people from the other ninja clans only knew that this was Susanoo, the Uchiha's legendary "power of a god."
But Hiruzen Sarutobi and those of his Hokage Faction all recognized it.
This was Perfect Susanoo.
The records Tobirama Senju had left behind contained an introduction to Susanoo.
It was a factual account based on Tobirama's long-term observations of Madara Uchiha using it.
The Uchiha Clan's Susanoo had five stages.
Of those, only Madara's Susanoo had reached the fifth stage.
The fifth stage of Susanoo, also called Perfect Susanoo, was most notably characterized by a complete humanoid form clad in a full set of Tengu Armor.
Most importantly, a pair of wings grew from its back.
"A complete humanoid form, a full set of Tengu Armor, wings! They're all there, not a single thing missing. They're all there, all there!"
Mitokado Homura pointed a finger at Susanoo, muttering nonstop.
"Another Madara... Uchiha!!!"
Danzo was both excited and afraid!
He was excited because he coveted the Sharingan's power, and now that he had seen it displayed, it was far stronger than he had imagined.
He was afraid because of his past attitude toward the Uchiha, fearing they would settle old scores with him.
Although Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo, and the others had been very young back then, they had indeed seen Madara Uchiha with their own eyes.
That cold, proud, long-haired man had left a deep impression on them that would be difficult to erase for the rest of their lives.
Before you continue