"You unfilial son!!"
"Stop!!"
The furious shouts rang out across the entire compound.
Leading his clansmen, his face livid, Fugaku arrived right on cue.
Itachi remained unmoved by his father's furious rebuke. The blade in his hand merely moved a little faster.
Splurt.
One thrust pierced the heart!
The great elder's body slowly fell to the ground.
"You have a death wish!!!"
Fully immersed in his role, Fugaku instantly activated his Mangekyō.
With a Body Flicker Technique, he appeared before Itachi in the blink of an eye.
A full-force kick, coated in chakra, shot straight toward Itachi's chest!
Fugaku held nothing back in that heavy, powerful kick.
Itachi swiftly brought his katana across his body, gripping it with both hands to block diagonally before his chest.
Clang.
With a sharp crack, the hilt broke in two!
"Cough, cough."
The remaining force of the kick sent Itachi flying into the air, blood spilling from his mouth as he coughed.
Having just endured a major battle, Itachi was already extremely weak. After the sudden eruption of his Mangekyō's power, he had barely any chakra left either.
Yet the enraged Fugaku showed no intention of stopping, even with his eldest son wounded.
Seeing Itachi suspended in midair, with nothing to push off against,
Fugaku rapidly formed hand seals, sending a Fire Dragon Bullet roaring toward him!
The enormous fireball, comparable in size to a tailed beast, radiated terrifying heat as it bore straight down on his face with chilling killing intent!
At least to any onlookers, Fugaku's attack was clearly intended to kill Itachi!
Just an instant before the fireball struck,
"Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
Like a massive waterfall descending from the sky, it intercepted the fireball!
Hiss, hiss, hiss.
Water and fire collided, locked in a momentary stalemate as billowing mist spread!
Seeing his attack blocked, the furious Fugaku formed hand seals again, preparing to unleash another ninjutsu!
"Fugaku! Stop!"
Sarutobi appeared just in time with a group of Anbu.
Wearing an Anbu mask, Kakashi followed behind Sarutobi with the now-unconscious Itachi in his arms.
Fugaku looked at Itachi in the Anbu's arms. A moment of conflict crossed his face before he finally lowered his hands.
Sarutobi wore black armor and a Konoha forehead protector tied around his head. Though advanced in age, his short frame radiated an astonishing presence.
Surveying the ruins around them, Sarutobi turned a stern gaze on Fugaku and asked, "What happened?"
Fugaku shook his head with a grave expression, his voice somewhat hoarse. "I don't know the details either."
"By the time I heard the commotion and rushed over..."
A perfectly measured trace of killing intent flashed through Fugaku's eyes. He then pointed at Itachi in Kakashi's arms and said in a trembling voice, "That unfilial son!"
"He actually killed Setsuna and all the clansmen here!"
Having said that, Fugaku looked at Sarutobi with reddened eyes and said solemnly, "Lord Hokage, Itachi took it upon himself to slaughter nearly a hundred members of our clan!"
"Please hand that unfilial son over to me to deal with!"
Sarutobi frowned deeply. Rather than answer, he asked another question. "And how could Itachi have slaughtered Setsuna and nearly a hundred others?"
"That unfilial son awakened the Mangekyō," Fugaku replied heavily.
Sarutobi was inwardly startled, but his expression remained unchanged. He said calmly, "We still don't know the truth of what happened. It would be better to wait until Itachi wakes up, question him, and then decide how to handle this."
Fugaku frowned. "I witnessed that unfilial son's atrocities myself!"
"Nearly a hundred clansmen are dead! I must give their families an explanation!"
Seeing Fugaku becoming agitated, Sarutobi suddenly softened his tone. "Of course they must be given an explanation. But we must also investigate the truth."
"Itachi isn't just a member of your Uchiha Clan. He's also a member of our village."
"Besides, Itachi is an Anbu captain, and he still has several unfinished top-secret missions."
With that, Sarutobi gave Kakashi a look.
Understanding instantly, Kakashi withdrew toward the Hokage Building with Itachi in his arms.
Fugaku was just about to stop him when Sarutobi planted a hand on his shoulder and said quietly, "What's more, Setsuna gathered nearly a hundred people here..."
"We haven't yet determined just what their purpose was!"
Hearing this, Fugaku withdrew his hand, his expression turning somewhat ugly.
He understood the warning in Sarutobi's words.
Let Itachi go this time, and I won't pursue the matter of your clan's great elder plotting a rebellion here.
After a long silence, Fugaku finally said, "I understand."
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
By the time Sarutobi arrived with the Anbu,
Haruma had already changed into another outfit and left the compound.
Not far from the Sarutobi Clan's compound,
he had close-cropped brown hair, a black undershirt, grayish-white armor, and a katana hanging on his back.
His combat attire was extremely similar to the Anbu's. The only difference was the mask on his face.
Unlike the Anbu, whose masks were modeled after animal faces,
Root's masks came in more varied and more bizarre forms.
Had Danzo been present, he would have recognized at a glance the person Haruma was impersonating.
His name was Tenzo, and his Root codename was "Kinoe"!
An experimental subject Orochimaru had cultivated using the First Hokage's cells.
Because he possessed Wood Release, Danzo had even personally trained him during his early days in Root.
But the real Tenzo had been sent away by Danzo several days earlier to help Orochimaru escape.
Haruma stretched and muttered softly, "It's about time someone else took the blame."
"No need to thank me for this generous gift, my dear Lord Danzo~"
He lightly clapped his hands, activating Mayfly!
There was a rather inconspicuous little thatched hut inside the compound.
Through his perception, Haruma actually detected an Anbu unit hiding around it. (Anbu organization: four members to a squad, four squads to a unit.)
A full sixteen Anbu lay concealed near the thatched hut.
Four possessed chakra levels around those of jonin, while all the rest were above chunin level!
Even with the village mired in problems, this place was still so tightly guarded.
It seemed this was indeed the place!
The corners of Haruma's mouth lifted slightly, his heart burning with anticipation!
He had sunk a fortune into this operation up front.
Originally, once he saved up five hundred million, he could upgrade his Ōtsutsuki bloodline directly and use every kekkei genkai.
But for the things inside that thatched hut, and to sow discord between those two old foxes,
Haruma had no choice but to waste some money first, unlocking the most expensive kekkei genkai of all: Wood Release!
Together with a set of Wood Release ninjutsu, it had cost a full three hundred million!!!
Even upgrading both his eyes to the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan only cost that much!
It was also everything Fugaku had saved after a month of work and selling some scrolls to the village's clans.
When Haruma steeled himself and made the purchase, his heart had nearly shattered into pieces.
After all, in just a few more days, those wealthy people outside the village would be coming to trade with Fugaku.
But,
an opportunity missed would never come again.
He had finally caught a moment when Sarutobi had taken a large force far away, while Danzo was under orders to remain confined.
A perfect day to frame someone else and return fully loaded!
Not making a move would have been an affront to heaven itself.
After all, the things inside that wooden hut...
If Haruma's guess was correct,
they were all the forbidden techniques that only successive Hokage were permitted to oversee, along with Konoha's true reserves!