In the gaps between the corridor's wooden floorboards, that furious, muffled curse still echoed.
Shu Shiraishi stood at the door to the conference room.
He pulled off the white gloves he had just put on. Pinching the bloodstained cotton between two fingers, he casually tossed them into the woven bamboo wastebasket in the corner.
"I was just worried I didn't have a reason to act."
Shu shook out his right hand. His knuckles cracked twice.
"You're a chicken worthy of the warning."
He didn't head for the Hokage's office.
He turned straight around and went downstairs.
In the northwest corner of Konoha.
The largest cluster of buildings in the village. A huge red-and-white fan crest was carved into the towering bluestone archway.
The Uchiha Clan. Konoha's foremost noble clan. Even the Police Force's uniforms bore their family crest.
Two three-meter-tall vermilion gates stood firmly shut.
Four Uchiha Chunin in high-collared uniforms stood outside. All four held their chins slightly raised, their gazes scrutinizing passersby.
Unhurried footsteps came from the street corner.
Military boots struck the bluestone paving. One step at a time.
The four guards lowered their gazes.
Shu Shiraishi approached alone.
He had brought no Anbu and wore no Hokage robe. Just a black, high-collared, short-sleeved shirt.
"Stop." The lead guard rested a hand on his Ninja Blade. "This is Uchiha territory. Unauthorized persons are not-"
Shu didn't slow down.
He reached the foot of the steps and raised his right knee slightly.
Then he kicked forward with all his might.
Boom!
His black military boot slammed into the right-hand gate.
The entire gate let out a muffled groan. The thick brass bolt snapped clean through.
The three-meter-tall wooden gate exploded inward as if it were made of paper.
Splinters, along with half a brass lock, sprayed into the courtyard like shotgun pellets.
The violent blast of air sent all four guards tumbling.
A piece of the gate struck the lead guard in the chest, breaking three ribs outright. He slammed into a stone pillar of the archway, spewed a mouthful of blood, and passed out on the spot.
The other three rolled several times across the ground, ending up covered in dirt.
The gate was shattered.
Beyond it lay a spacious courtyard paved with gray bricks.
Shu stepped over half the threshold and walked in.
Inside the clan head's residence.
Uchiha Retsu had just picked up the celadon teacup on the table.
His anger had burned hotter all the way back from the meeting. Handing over secret techniques and going to work in a steel mill was like grinding the Uchiha's face into the mud.
The tea had just reached his lips.
A tremendous crash rang out.
The window frames throughout the room shook.
Tea spilled onto the back of Retsu's hand, scalding it. His hand jerked, and the teacup fell to the floor and shattered.
"What's going on?!"
Retsu sprang to his feet. He shoved open the sliding door and rushed out.
Dozens of Uchiha ninja had already rushed to the front courtyard at the sound.
Retsu pushed through the crowd and made his way to the front.
The courtyard was a mess. The gate had been reduced to a pile of firewood.
Shu stood in the middle of the courtyard, one foot on a piece of broken wood.
He was alone.
Retsu's anger shot through the roof.
In the conference room, surrounded by people, he hadn't dared make a move while Shu used Danzo to assert his authority.
Now the bastard had actually come alone and kicked down the Uchiha's gate!
Did he really think putting on a hat made him a god?
"Shu Shiraishi!"
Retsu gritted his teeth. Spittle sprayed into the air.
"You dare force your way into the Uchiha Clan Compound? This isn't the Hokage's office. You can't do whatever you please here!"
Shu picked at his ear.
"I heard a dog barking in the corridor just now."
He blew the dust off his fingertip.
"Saying he'd never submit. I came to see just how hard his bones are."
Exposed in public, Retsu's old face flushed crimson.
Old and new grudges tangled together, burning away the last of his reason.
"You're asking for death!"
Retsu's eyes flew wide open. His black pupils vanished in an instant.
Three black Tomoe spun wildly against the blood-red whites of his eyes.
His hands flew through the signs. His fingers left afterimages in the air.
Snake, ram, monkey, boar, horse, tiger.
He formed the hand seals so fast that his hands became a flesh-colored blur.
"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
Retsu's cheeks bulged, and he blasted a huge mass of Chakra at Shu.
The instant the sparks touched the air, they expanded.
They became a fan-shaped sea of fire over ten meters high and twenty meters wide.
Flames surged. A wave of heat rushed forward.
The courtyard's gray bricks turned white under the heat in an instant. The leaves of several evergreen trees curled up and turned scorched yellow.
The temperature was terrifyingly high.
The surrounding Uchiha clansmen retreated, raising their arms to shield their faces.
This was no ordinary Great Fireball.
It was an advanced Fire Style technique the Uchiha Clan took pride in. Empowered by the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, it sealed off all of Shu's escape routes.
The sea of fire swallowed the spot where Shu stood.
Retsu panted heavily.
He stared fixedly at the blaze.
That heat could melt steel in an instant. Even if Shu was a Taijutsu monster, without forming hand seals to defend himself, he would lose a layer of skin to the flames.
There was no scream from within the fire.
No struggling silhouette.
Not even the white steam of Chakra and Water Release resisting the flames.
Retsu frowned. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan stared fixedly at the center of the inferno.
Suddenly.
A hand appeared in the middle of the wall of fire.
It formed no hand seals and held no Kunai.
It was simply an unprotected hand of flesh, all five fingers spread.
The hand plunged straight into the surging flames.
Bang!
The hand clenched into a fist.
The air burst with a muffled crack.
A violent physical force exploded outward in a ring from the fist.
The sea of fire, more than ten meters high.
Like glass struck by a heavy hammer, it was forcibly split down the middle.
A fierce wind tore the flames to pieces. Countless sparks scattered in every direction.
They landed on the surrounding Uchiha clansmen's clothes, burning black holes through them.
The fire went out.
Shu stood where he had been.
Aside from a few wrinkles, his black short-sleeved shirt hadn't even caught a spark.
He hadn't even used Chakra to defend himself. Relying entirely on the wind pressure from his punch, he had snuffed out the advanced Fire Style technique.
Retsu froze.
His mind went blank. The three Tomoe stopped spinning.
How was that possible?
He took a Fire Style technique with his bare body? What kind of monster was he?!
Before Retsu could react.
Shu pushed off the ground with his right foot.
The gray bricks shattered.
Retsu's vision blurred.
A lightly callused hand had already clamped tightly around his neck.
Shu's fingers tightened like iron pincers.
Retsu had no time to form the seals for the Substitution Technique. He couldn't even take half a step back.
The main arteries in his neck were cut off, and blood rushed to his brain. Retsu's face turned purplish red in an instant.
He grabbed wildly with both hands, gripping Shu's wrist as he tried to pry the hand open.
It didn't budge.
Shu looked at the face that had turned the color of pig liver.
He wasted no words.
The muscles in his right arm bulged. He lifted Retsu clean off the ground.
Then he slammed him down with all his might.
Boom!
The back of Uchiha Retsu's head struck the bluestone paving in the middle of the courtyard with full force.
The ten-centimeter-thick stone shattered instantly.
Stones of every size flew in all directions.
A pit half a meter deep appeared at Shu's feet.
Crack.
The grating sound of bones breaking rang clearly through the silent courtyard.
Retsu's cervical vertebrae broke into three pieces. His shoulder blades were shattered over a wide area.
He opened his mouth and spewed a great mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs.
Blood splashed onto Shu's military boots.
His Three-Tomoe Sharingan instantly faded back to black.
Retsu's eyes rolled back, and his hands fell limply into the mud.
Only a faint gasp proved he was still alive.
Dead silence.
The vast Uchiha courtyard was packed with hundreds of people.
When the gate had fallen, not only the front courtyard guards but even the Police Force from the hill behind the compound had rushed over.
Everyone had witnessed it with their own eyes.
The Fire Style they took such pride in had been crushed with one hand.
Their strongest grand elder had been slammed into the ground in a single move, like a rag doll.
His bones had been crushed to pieces.
Several young Uchiha ninja held swords, their hands shaking too badly to keep their grips on the hilts.
The sound of someone swallowing stood out in the crowd.
The Police Force members in the front row had foreheads covered in cold sweat. It ran down their cheeks and dripped into their collars.
No one dared draw a blade.
No one dared take even half a step forward.
That terrifying, inhuman power had smashed the pride the Uchiha Clan had held for centuries.
Even a Mitsudomoe had been taken down in an instant with one hand. If those of them with one or two Tomoe rushed in, how would it be any different from throwing their lives away?
Shu let go.
He straightened up. With disgust, he wiped his hand twice on Retsu's clothes, rubbing the blood from his palm.
Then he raised his foot and kicked Retsu in the ribs with the top of it.
He sent the half-dead grand elder to the edge of the pit as though kicking a sandbag out of his way.
Shu Shiraishi raised his head.
His gaze swept over the Uchiha clansmen frozen in place.
Some of their black eyes were filled with terror, while others darted away. Not one of them dared meet his gaze.
This was a great clan.
Once their bones were broken, all they could do was wag their tails.
"Now that everyone is here."
Shu Shiraishi's voice wasn't loud, but it carried far across the utterly silent courtyard.
He looked at the red-eyed rabbits, scared out of their wits.
"I'm announcing a decision."