Since that was the case, he would kill the Uchiha Clan Head first, before he became a threat in the future.
If possible, Ziyun also wanted to gouge out the Uchiha Clan Head's Mangekyo Sharingan. Perhaps they could be transplanted into Mikoto.
"Uchiha Clan Head, you should consider it an honor to have seen my divine power."
"It's even better luck for you to die at the hands of my divine power, because your name will surely go down in the history of the Shinobi World."
After insulting the Uchiha Clan Head one last time, Ziyun felt he had vented the disgust in his heart. Calm and indifferent, he raised his enormous fist, coated in Armament Haki, and smashed it down at the Uchiha Clan Head's Susanoo.
That punch would surely shatter his Susanoo, and the Uchiha Clan Head would probably die too.
After all, he had only reached the fourth form of Susanoo by sacrificing his life force. If it were shattered, the Uchiha Clan Head definitely wouldn't survive.
"Now's our chance! Retreat!"
Seeing that Ziyun had not aimed his attack at Konoha's main force, the Nara Clan Head shouted, reminding everyone that this was a good opportunity to retreat.
The ninja of Konoha's main force fled for their lives. A moment's delay meant death, so who wouldn't run for their life?
"Damn it... those petty bastards."
The Uchiha Clan Head felt a little sick.
He had risked his life to cover those guys just now, yet the moment things looked bad, they turned and ran. What an ungrateful bunch.
Although the Uchiha Clan Head felt that he would surely have fled just as frantically if he had been among them, he was still rather unhappy about it.
After all, he wasn't among them. People didn't resent having little; they resented having less than others. That was what it meant.
With a boom, Ziyun's full-powered punch slammed into the Susanoo. The Uchiha Clan Head tried to raise an arm to block it, but the arm was instantly pulverized.
The cracks in the already imperfect Susanoo armor then spread, and the armor shattered.
As it broke, the Uchiha Clan Head spat out a large mouthful of blood. Barring any surprises, he should have been dead.
Konoha's main force also took the opportunity to retreat.
But Ziyun couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
When he looked again, the Uchiha Clan Head's body was gone.
Izanagi?
Sure enough, the Uchiha Clan Head had already gone a long way, and he appeared to have gone blind in one eye.
Sizzle, sizzle!
After doing all that, Ziyun also chose to deactivate the Fusion Fruit's ability. There was no need to pursue them; he still had to save some strength to get away.
The moment he deactivated the ability, Ziyun felt exhausted, as though he hadn't slept in three days.
After all, it took a great deal out of him. If he had a perfect Sage Body, Ziyun felt that not a single member of Konoha's main force would have escaped today.
"The Uchiha Clan lost to Yeyue Ziyun too?"
At the Konoha camp, with the force fighting Iwagakure.
Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned after receiving the news. Then he learned something even more shocking.
"The Uchiha Clan Head awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan and even used the fourth form of Susanoo, yet he still lost to Yeyue Ziyun?"
And it wasn't just the Uchiha Clan Head. The Uchiha Grand Elder had also awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, but he had still been defeated by Ziyun.
The second piece of news made Hiruzen Sarutobi unable to sit still.
The Uchiha Clan Head had actually awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan?...... ....... ...
The Uchiha Grand Elder had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan too!
Two pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan had suddenly appeared in the Uchiha Clan!
What the fuck was going on? He had never known about this before!
And even with the Mangekyo Sharingan, the Uchiha Clan Head had still lost to Yeyue Ziyun?
All at once, Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't know which piece of news was the greater blow.
In the past, he would certainly have been happy that the Uchiha Clan had suffered another setback.
But now, he couldn't be happy at all.
"Quick, pass on my orders immediately. Tell Danzo, Koharu, and Homura to come here as fast as they can!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi felt it was necessary to discuss the seriousness of the situation with his partners.
Yeyue Ziyun... he actually defeated the Mangekyo Sharingan, and two pairs at that. How did he do it?
"The Hidden Cloud Village won again, and they defeated an elite force made up of Konoha's great secret-technique clans, including the Uchiha Clan, the Nara Clan, and the Yamanaka Clan."
Meanwhile, the Hidden Sand Village, Iwagakure, and the Land of Rain all learned of Konoha's latest defeat.
Rather than feeling happy, Hanzo of the Salamander, Ōnoki, and the Third Kazekage felt deeply wary!
For word of Ziyun's victory over the Mangekyo Sharingan had reached their ears as well.
After receiving Hiruzen Sarutobi's letter, Danzo immediately returned to Konoha from another battlefield. Hiruzen Sarutobi returned to Konoha as well.
The Konoha F4 gathered once more in the Hokage's office.
"Damn it, the Uchiha Clan Head has been hiding his strength all along! The Uchiha Grand Elder awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan too."
Danzo felt deceived. He had known nothing at all about the Uchiha Clan Head and the Uchiha Grand Elder awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Danzo was deeply envious that the Uchiha Clan actually had two pairs of Mangekyō.
He had once witnessed the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan through his teammate Kagami Uchiha. It was no exaggeration to call it divine power.
"The important thing isn't that the Uchiha Clan Head kept it secret. It's Yeyue Ziyun's strength."
"He defeated the divine power of Susanoo! And he defeated both the Uchiha Clan Head and the Uchiha Grand Elder."
Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke coldly. He felt it was time for Danzo to stop turning on their own people.
They should be united against their enemies now.
Thanks to Danzo, he could no longer command the Senju Clan. They wouldn't even go to the battlefield when ordered.
There was nothing to be done. Since returning to the village, the Senju Clan had faced overwhelming pressure from public opinion. The once-glorious clan had become pariahs.
Some members of the Senju Clan had even taken their own lives under the strain. Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't dare tell Tsunade that news.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was also curious. There was clearly no evidence that anyone in the Senju Clan had secretly colluded with the Hidden Cloud, yet many villagers seemed convinced of it and kept spreading the claim.
Danzo's forces had surely been fanning the flames behind the scenes.
Hiruzen Sarutobi now felt some regret. Why hadn't he stepped forward to clear things up back then? Now the Senju Clan resented him too.
But none of that mattered now. The most important thing was how to force the Hidden Cloud back.
With the war so intense, Danzo was still concerned about the Uchiha Clan hiding its strength. His attention was entirely misplaced.
"Even two pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan couldn't defeat the Hidden Cloud. We can only send more reinforcements."
"The good news is that Yeyue Ziyun also seems to have reached his limit after fighting the Uchiha Clan Head. If we send more reinforcements, we should be able to kill him."
Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado turned to analyze the situation.
If they couldn't win, what else could they do?
They could only keep fighting. Were they supposed to surrender?
In fact, the Konoha F4 had never considered surrender. Once they lost, the title of "strongest Hokage" would be tarnished, and they, the village's leaders, would be branded "incompetent."
The Konoha F4 would not allow that to happen. Besides, defeat often meant paying reparations, and they might even have to cede territory.
That was unacceptable to the Konoha F4. After all, they did value Konoha highly.
"Where are we supposed to find reinforcements now? The Sand Ninja, Stone Ninja, and Rain Ninja are watching us like hawks. We simply don't have any spare forces to deal with the Hidden Cloud Village."
Hiruzen Sarutobi thought the two were talking nonsense. He had already mobilized almost every force Konoha could muster for this war.
Even many students who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy had been ordered to the battlefield.
If Konoha still had spare forces, why would I be discussing this with you?
Hiruzen Sarutobi felt some regret now. He never should have started a war with the Hidden Cloud Village in the first place.
Without the Hidden Cloud Village, they could have defeated the Hidden Sand Village, Iwagakure, and the Land of Rain in one fell swoop.
The best plan would have been to deal with the Hidden Cloud Village at their leisure afterward.
But then Hiruzen Sarutobi felt that wasn't right either. He had started the war with the Hidden Cloud Village precisely to deal with Yeyue Ziyun.
If they had dealt with the Hidden Sand Village and Iwagakure first, Yeyue Ziyun would still have grown stronger, and Konoha would have faced a hard fight all the same.
However he looked at it, the result was the same.
"I think we should first defeat the Hidden Sand Village, Iwagakure, and the Land of Rain in one decisive push. Unless we defeat them, we can't bring more forces together against the Hidden Cloud Village."
After discussing it, the Konoha F4 still felt that this plan had the best chance of working.
They would first deal with the weaker ninja villages, then concentrate their forces against the Hidden Cloud Village.
That was right. As far as Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others were concerned, the three ninja villages of the Hidden Sand Village, Iwagakure, and the Land of Rain combined were no match for the Hidden Cloud Village alone.
There was nothing to be done about it. Konoha had won battle after battle against those three ninja villages, but had suffered defeat after defeat against the Hidden Cloud Village.
After all, a genius like Yeyue Ziyun was too terrifying. If they didn't defeat him in this war, the Hidden Cloud Village would lord it over Konoha from then on.
While the Konoha F4 were discussing the matter, the supreme leaders of the three forces from the Hidden Sand Village, Iwagakure, and the Land of Rain had also gathered together, a rare occurrence.