That cold snort was still echoing beneath the roof tiles.
The sky suddenly darkened.
A black shadow shot down like a cannonball, crashing straight into the granary's inner courtyard.
Boom!
A crater two meters wide exploded in the blue-brick paving.
The blast sent sharp stone fragments spraying wildly in every direction like buckshot.
More than a dozen nearby Sarutobi clansmen screamed as they were hurled off their feet. With a series of thuds, they slammed into the rice sacks and wooden pillars behind them.
Sarutobi Sasuke's challenge caught in his throat.
The violent rush of air forced him back three steps. His Adamantine Staff plowed a deep furrow through the paving stones before he managed to steady himself.
Amid the dust billowing through the air,
Shu Shiraishi slowly straightened up.
One hand was in his pocket. There wasn't a speck of dust on his black short-sleeved shirt.
"Robbers?"
Shu stepped out of the crater, his military boot crushing half a blue brick.
"I didn't come to rob you. I came to take possession."
The flesh on Sasuke's face twisted.
He had spent his entire life building up the Sarutobi Chamber of Commerce's assets.
"You wet-behind-the-ears brat! Do you really think there's no one left in the Sarutobi Clan?"
Sasuke gripped the Adamantine Staff tightly in both hands. Chakra poured into it, and the thick iron staff let out a low hum.
He stamped hard on the ground.
The paving stone shattered beneath his foot. He charged like a maddened old lion.
The iron staff shrieked through the air, heading straight for Shu's face. It moved so fast it left a string of afterimages.
Shu stood where he was.
Only when the staff was half a foot from his forehead did he slowly draw his left hand from his trouser pocket.
He spread his fingers.
Clang!
The dull metallic impact made everyone's eardrums ache.
The Adamantine Staff stopped dead in midair.
Shu held the end of the staff in one hand. There wasn't even a red mark on his palm.
Sasuke's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
The muscles in his arms bulged as he pushed down with all his might.
The iron staff, weighing hundreds of pounds and carrying the force of its fall, didn't budge.
"With that little strength, you think you're fit to run a monopoly?"
Shu pulled his left hand toward his chest.
Sasuke lost his balance and pitched forward uncontrollably.
Shu clenched his right fist and brought it down on Sasuke's right shoulder.
Crack.
A crisp sound of breaking bone.
Sasuke's right shoulder blade caved in completely. A jagged white bone pierced straight through the brown fabric of his combat uniform.
His right arm fell limp, and the Adamantine Staff slipped from his hand.
A scream had only just begun to rise in his throat.
Shu raised his right leg and swept a kick into the side of Sasuke's left knee.
Crack.
His left knee broke backward, and Sasuke toppled to the left.
Shu didn't let him hit the ground. He reached out and seized the back of his collar.
His left fist swung out, breaking Sasuke's remaining arm.
Then his right foot stomped down, crushing Sasuke's only remaining knee.
Four sharp cracks, all in less than three seconds.
Shu let go.
Sasuke collapsed on the rubble-strewn blue bricks like a boneless heap of mud.
Cold sweat and snot smeared his face. He convulsed violently with pain, mouthfuls of white foam and blood spilling from his lips. He couldn't even manage a full scream.
Shu stepped over the Adamantine Staff on the ground.
He looked at Kagami Uchiha, who stood at the courtyard gate holding a jujube-wood club.
"The Sarutobi Clan hoarded supplies during wartime. All their property is to be forcibly nationalized."
Shu pointed at the three-story wooden building and the dozen or so large granaries behind him.
"Move it. Don't leave them a single grain of rice or a scrap of paper."
The breathing of the hundred-plus Uchiha ninja at the gate instantly grew heavy.
Stripping the Sarutobi Clan bare.
The excitement made their scalps tingle more than winning a major battle.
"Urban Management Brigade, clear the area!" Kagami roared.
The men in black poured into the courtyard like locusts.
Several Sarutobi Chunin who tried to resist were struck across the back by four or five jujube-wood clubs at once. They coughed up blood and fell unconscious, then were dragged into a corner like dead dogs.
Heavy sacks of rice were roughly heaved onto handcarts.
Safes were kicked open, and account books and banknotes were pulled out and tossed into chests.
Crates of Military Rations Pills and Explosive Tags were swept into burlap sacks like garbage.
Sasuke lay on the ground, his neck tilted to one side.
He watched generations of hard work being looted until nothing remained.
A strange gurgle came from his throat. His eyes rolled back, and he passed out from the pain.
At the end of the long street,
a flurry of hurried, disorderly footsteps sounded.
Hiruzen Sarutobi came stumbling around the corner.
He wasn't even wearing his Forehead Protector. His usually immaculate hair hung in a mess over his forehead.
The strap of his right wooden sandal had broken on the way. He had simply run barefoot on that side, raising blood blisters on his sole against the paving stones.
He had never looked this disheveled, even at meetings in the Hokage's office.
Hiruzen shoved roughly past the watching civilians and rushed through the granary gate.
He froze.
White flour was scattered all over the courtyard.
Dozens of handcarts were piled high, and the Uchiha were shouting as they pushed them out.
And beside the crater in the center of the courtyard,
his father, Sarutobi Sasuke, lay slumped in the mud like a dead insect. His limbs were twisted at inhuman angles, and a large pool of blood had spread beneath him.
"Father!"
Hiruzen's voice cracked completely, the word coming out as a broken scream.
He lunged forward, both knees slamming down beside Sasuke.
His hands trembled in midair for a long time, but he didn't dare touch the mangled, broken bones.
Sasuke's eyes were tightly shut, his breathing faint.
He was the pillar of the Sarutobi Clan, Hiruzen's greatest political backing.
Now he had been crippled.
The clan's coffers and granaries had been emptied.
The last thread of Hiruzen's reason snapped.
"Shu Shiraishi!"
Hiruzen whipped his head around. His eyes were red as rubies dripping blood, their whites covered in bloodshot veins.
He reached back and drew a Kunai from the holster strapped to his thigh.
He recklessly poured Chakra into his legs.
"I'll kill you!"
Hiruzen charged like a rabid dog.
His Kunai sliced through the air, aimed straight at Shu's throat.
He forgot the insurmountable gulf between their strength. He forgot the fear that had kept him from making a peep in the meeting room.
Shu stood where he was, both hands in his trouser pockets.
He watched Hiruzen charge up to him.
He didn't form a single hand seal. He didn't even take his hands out of his pockets.
Shu raised his right knee slightly.
Bang!
When Hiruzen's Kunai was still half a meter from his throat,
Shu's black military boot drove unerringly into Hiruzen's stomach.
The kick was outrageously powerful.
Hiruzen's waist instantly bent backward at an alarming angle, nearly folding him in two. The Kunai flew from his hand.
Both feet left the ground. Like a kicked ball, he flew backward more than ten meters.
Crash!
Hiruzen's back slammed squarely into the load-bearing wall outside the granary.
The impact left a large dent in the foot-thick blue-brick wall. Lime dust pattered from the mortar joints.
Hiruzen slid down the wall to the ground.
Agonizing pain engulfed him instantly.
His stomach felt as though an iron hand had seized and twisted it viciously. His internal organs churned.
He clutched his stomach with both hands, curling up like a cooked shrimp.
"Blegh-"
Hiruzen opened his mouth. Great gushes of yellow-green bile sprayed out.
It splattered over the chain mail on his chest, mixed with undigested breakfast and streaks of dark red blood. Snot and tears ran uncontrollably down his face.
The pain left him without the strength even to inhale; all he could do was wheeze like a bellows.
Shu took his hands out of his trouser pockets.
His military boots stepped through the flour on the ground, leaving a long trail of clear footprints.
He walked over to Hiruzen.
He raised his right foot.
The sole came down hard on Hiruzen's chest.
The weight pressed down bit by bit.
Hiruzen felt his breastbone giving tiny cracks under the strain.
He desperately opened his mouth wide, but his chest was crushed flat and he couldn't draw in any air. His face turned a purplish blue.
The civilians watching from the street and the Uchiha moving things in the courtyard
all fell silent.
Hundreds of pairs of eyes stared fixedly at the back of the man standing on the Sarutobi Clan's young master's chest.
Shu lowered his head slightly, looking at Hiruzen sprawled like mud beneath his foot.
"Sarutobi Sasuke hoarded supplies to profiteer during wartime."
Shu drew a breath, using Chakra to amplify his voice.
It struck every corner of the long street like hail.
"He manipulated prices and plotted rebellion."
Hiruzen's eyes flew wide.
He raised his trembling hands and tried to pry the leather boot off his chest.
His nails scratched several white marks into the hard leather, but couldn't move it an inch.
"Tomorrow at noon."
Every word Shu spoke was like death knocking at the door.
"In the square. Beheading in public."
In the silent granary courtyard,
a wail was forced from Hiruzen's throat, shrill to the extreme and so despairing that his voice broke.