Tsuru Senju glanced at the kunai that had landed behind him. It exploded as soon as it hit the ground; several explosive tags had been attached to it.
"Uchiha! Are these sneaky ambushes and dirty tricks all you know?" Tsuru Senju roared into the darkness, blade in hand.
Uchiha Takashi ignored his shouting and kept unleashing ninjutsu to wear him down, leaving Tsuru Senju no choice but to keep defending.
During another attack, Uchiha Takashi suddenly darted out of the darkness and slashed down with his blade.
Tsuru Senju immediately raised his blade to block, then lashed out with a kick that sent Uchiha Takashi flying.
Uchiha Takashi hurriedly steadied himself in midair after being kicked away, but the moment he landed and looked up, he found Tsuru Senju already standing before him, his katana raised.
Uchiha Takashi hastily raised his blade to block. Their blades collided, sending a shower of sparks flying.
Feeling the difference in their strength, Uchiha Takashi immediately spat out a burst of fire. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
Tsuru Senju was not powerful enough to take a fireball head-on at such close range. He immediately withdrew his blade and dodged, putting distance between himself and Uchiha Takashi in the process.
"Lightning Release: Finger Needle!" Uchiha Takashi threw a kunai. At the same time, several tiny needles formed from lightning shot out alongside it, hurtling toward Tsuru Senju at tremendous speed.
Tsuru Senju was the fourth elder, after all. Barely having steadied himself, he immediately reacted to the next attack, slamming both hands onto the ground and blocking it with an Earth Style Wall.
Clang, clang, clang... In the darkness, there was only the sound of their ninja blades clashing, along with occasional showers of sparks and bursts of ninjutsu.
Amid the chaotic battlefield, their fight drew little attention.
But Tsuru Senju noticed the torches around him going out one after another, which meant the people on their side were steadily dwindling.
Tsuru Senju burned with anxiety at the sight, but unless he dealt with Uchiha Takashi in front of him, he had no way to handle the other Uchiha.
"I have to end this quickly!" Tsuru Senju gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on his blade, then opened his mouth. "Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"
Uchiha Takashi unleashed his own Fire Style without hesitation to counter it, but just then, he suddenly discovered that Tsuru Senju had appeared beside him at some point.
Clang!
Despite Uchiha Takashi's quick reaction, Tsuru Senju's blade was already pressed against his shoulder.
"You're strong, but your combat experience is still sorely lacking! You're too young." Tsuru Senju said only those words coldly, then abruptly drove his sword hand forward.
With a wet tearing sound and a spray of flesh and blood, blood gushed from Uchiha Takashi's chest and splashed onto Tsuru Senju's face.
Only after Uchiha Takashi collapsed limply to the ground before him-
Did Tsuru Senju begin panting heavily and plant his katana in the ground, blood slowly running down its blade into the earth.
"Damned Uchiha. What a pain!" As he spoke, he reached out with both hands to gouge out those Three-Tomoe Sharingan. Yet just as his hands touched the eyes of Uchiha Takashi's corpse on the ground-
He suddenly discovered that those eyes no longer had three tomoe at all. At some point, they had turned into a pair of pinwheels.
"No... this isn't right!" Tsuru Senju abruptly mobilized the chakra in his body! The scene before him immediately changed.
The corpse lying on the ground before him vanished in the blink of an eye, and his surroundings warped. There were no torches anywhere.
All that remained around him was a ring of Uchiha with three tomoe in their eyes, holding ninja blades toward him. Everyone he had brought was already lying on the ground, reduced to corpses filled with unwillingness.
Meanwhile, Uchiha Takashi, whom he had just slain himself, stood quietly a short distance away, the pinwheels in his eyes slowly turning.
"Genjutsu-when?" Tsuru Senju asked through gritted teeth, gripping his blade.
Uchiha Takashi's gaze was calm. "You fell into my genjutsu the instant you arrived and met my eyes. From beginning to end, you stood right where you were without moving."
Tsuru Senju shook his head, however, and suddenly said with a smile, "Kid, I admit this is very realistic, but if you think you can fool me, you're underestimating me far too much.
"I've fought the Uchiha for so many years. How could I not know about genjutsu? Thoughts can be faked, and the scene before my eyes can be faked, but physical exhaustion can't!
"The exhaustion in my body tells me I really did fight a battle, rather than stand still without moving as you claim."
As his words fell, the Uchiha surrounding him dissolved into smoke and vanished, and the scene before him warped once more.
The surrounding darkness disappeared, and firelight gradually filled his vision. His clansmen were still fighting the Uchiha around him.
Uchiha Takashi stood a short distance away. "As expected of the Senju Clan. You're actually this sensitive to genjutsu."
Tsuru Senju sneered. "I've been fighting the Uchiha for over a decade. I know your Uchiha Clan's genjutsu all too well."
Yet before he had finished speaking, Uchiha Takashi tilted his head. "Then when will you realize... that you're actually still inside a genjutsu?"
Crack! The Uchiha Takashi in Tsuru Senju's eyes suddenly began shattering from the center. Like a mirror, cracks slowly spread outward until it finally burst apart from the middle!
"You..." Tsuru Senju lowered his head in disbelief, only to see a ninja blade buried in his chest. The person holding it was none other than Uchiha Takashi.
Uchiha Takashi's scarlet Mangekyō Sharingan simply watched Tsuru Senju in silence.
Feeling the intense pain coming from his heart, Tsuru Senju confirmed that this truly was not genjutsu this time.
"Triple... layered gen... jutsu. How... is that possible?" Tsuru Senju spoke with unwillingness, then collapsed limply to one side.
Looking at Tsuru Senju, who had become a corpse before him, Uchiha Takashi felt no stir in his heart. He silently sheathed his blade, raised his head, and looked around.
The force Tsuru Senju had brought had been completely wiped out. In the darkness of night, Uchiha Takashi's Sharingan were a natural weapon.
To the Uchiha, these enemies whose bodies were filled with chakra were just as conspicuous as they were in daylight. There was no need to worry about being unable to find them.
The allied forces could not do the same. The Uchiha Clan specifically picked off those holding torches, and once they had killed all the torchbearers-
The troops rushing in to reinforce them could not find the enemy at all. In the darkness, once the Uchiha suppressed their chakra signatures, these people were as good as blind. To the Uchiha, they were living targets.
If the Uchiha had not leaked chakra when unleashing ninjutsu, these people probably would never have known where the enemy was, even at the very end, and the Uchiha would not have encountered much resistance.
The Senju Clan did not possess Sharingan like the Uchiha Clan's, which could directly see the flow of chakra.
When facing the Uchiha Clan in nighttime warfare, they could only find the enemy by sensing the Uchiha Clan's chakra.
Unfortunately, their three clans were mixed together, making it impossible to distinguish whose chakra was whose. They had truly lifted a rock only to drop it on their own feet.
However, this only applied because the Sarutobi had joined them so recently. Once the Senju Clan became familiar with the Sarutobi Clan's chakra, launching another night raid would not be so easy.