The Uchiha flag soon flew over the front-line camp, signifying that the entire position had completely changed hands.
In this battle, the Uchiha annihilated over 100 elite enemy garrison troops.
That evening, Elder Shimura II woke up.
"How is this possible? How is this possible?" Elder Shimura squatted in his cell, questioning the meaning of life.
Why doesn't he understand? I feel like it's all a dream, but the sealed Chakra within me and the dimly lit room both tell me it's real.
"This is impossible! Why would the Uchiha suddenly ambush us, and how could Uchiha have taken over the entire front line so easily?"
Elder Shimura kept reviewing the events, but he just couldn't figure out why.
Even the Uchiha guarding the gate was fed up with him. He kicked the cell door and said, "Shut up, you bastard! How could you stay here like this? How could you? You want me to beat you up?"
It's so noisy, you know? The fact is, your front lines have already been captured by the Uchiha. What are you still hesitating about?
I didn't choose you because of your status or because you're still somewhat useful; you would have been killed long ago.
Elder Shimura glanced back at the Uchiha, then turned away again, shrinking into a corner and ignoring him.
The Uchiha immediately enraged. Who was he? He was Uchiha! How dare he be ignored!
"I'm talking to you, didn't you hear me?" The Uchiha kicked the cell door, making it clang loudly.
"You're a prisoner now, and you still dare to ignore me?" the Uchiha soldier said, his face flushed red. "Do you believe I'll beat you up?"
Just then, Yukimichi Uchiha in. "Wait a minute, I need to question this person's identity myself."
Elder Shimura then turned around, his eyes fixed on Yukimichi Uchiha: "What exactly did you do? Why was the camp captured in such a short time?"
Did you Uchiha do something? You despicable bunch of scoundrels!
Yukimichi Uchiha simply sat down slowly in the chair and said, "Is there anything else we need to do? With the defenses of your camp, we could easily have stormed in."
You probably don't know this, but the gatekeepers at your camp didn't realize what was happening until we kicked the gate open.
You guys are really something, with only about ten sentries in the entire camp. We haven't fought you in all these years, have you really forgotten the might of the Uchiha Sharingan?
Elder Shimura's lips trembled, and his face turned deathly pale. He had been trying to reassure himself that the Uchiha had used some underhanded methods to quickly capture the camp.
Yukimichi Uchiha completely exposed his true colors, and his expression immediately turned ugly.
He didn't want to admit that this situation arose because he had thrown all the sentries who were originally in charge into the fray as cannon fodder; all those sentries were against him.
Relying on his status as the second elder, he acted arrogantly and domineeringly on the front lines. Important positions were filled by his cronies, while the sentries who opposed him were all thrown out as cannon fodder.
This is why the frontline defenses are so weak; those people are a bunch of useless incompetents, just a group randomly chosen by the Second Elder without any thorough understanding of their abilities.
The Second Elder wouldn't have dared to do this before, since the Uchiha would occasionally head south back then.
However, in the past two years, the Uchiha had shown no signs of heading south, which is why this new second elder dared to do this. Who knew that not long after he took office, the Uchiha would suddenly head south?
After all, he believed that the men he sent out to launch a sneak attack were capable of capturing the Uchiha front lines.
At this moment, Elder Shimura was cursing Hito Dan Shimura in his heart, having already cursed his ancestors for 18 generations.
Yukimichi Uchiha and slowly stared at him with his Mitsudomoe: "You don't need to do anything else now. I'll know the answer..."
News of the frontline falling only reached Shimura's headquarters after the supply convoy discovered the flags had been changed.
Chief Shimura immediately summoned several elders to discuss what to do.
Throughout the meeting room, the family patriarch and elders remained silent; not a single person spoke.
Everyone stared silently at the map in front of them, unsure of what to do.
The front line has fallen. That place is strategically important, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Once it falls, it won't be easy to take it back.
However, if they don't take it back, the entire clan's defenses will be wide open, and their headquarters will be laid bare before the Uchiha.
The Uchiha is like a sharp knife hanging over my heart, ready to stab me at any moment, and there will be almost no obstacles along the way.
What's even more disheartening is that all the ninjas on the front lines were wiped out, and none of the ninjas who went out to launch surprise attacks returned. Combined, the clan's ninja force is now half empty.
Moreover, those who died were all elites; the remaining half were mostly younger people, predominantly Genin, with very few Chunin, let alone Jonin.
"Elders, why are you all silent? What should we do next?" The clan leader broke the silence first, though he himself didn't know what to do either.
The Grand Elder silently scanned the map, and finally said decisively, "Run... I suggest we run. Pack up our things at headquarters and leave this place."
"Clan territory... let's abandon it. If we don't run now, once the Uchiha army gathers and attacks, we won't have time to escape."
The Third Elder slammed his fist on the table and pointed at the First Elder, saying, "Do you mean to abandon the clan's territory?"
We've lived here for generations; this is the land our ancestors left us. Are we really going to abandon it? If we do that, how will we face our ancestors?"
The elder snorted coldly and said without any politeness, "Do you really have the face to meet the ancestors of the family in this state?"
Think about it yourself. What exactly have you done? Why has the family become like this? You know exactly what you did to cause all of this!
I don't want to spell it out, but the family's current status is all thanks to the hard work of everyone here!
These words caused everyone to fall silent, even the Third Elder, who had spoken so vehemently just moments before, fell silent.
After a long silence, the clan chief sighed and said, "Elder, that's true, but... do we really have to give up the clan's territory?"
The Uchiha might not continue their attack; most of their forces are still needed to defend against the Three-Clan Allied Forces in the northeast. Perhaps there are other options.
The elder crossed his arms. "There's no other way. How many able-bodied fighters are left in the clan? At most 200 young men. Can Jonin even muster five Jonin?"
The Uchiha doesn't even need to send many people; just ten with Mitsudomoe and twenty with Futatsudomoe would be enough to eliminate any possibility of a fight for us.
Let's flee! It's our only way to survive!
After listening to these words, the clan chief remained silent for a long time, finally sighing and saying, "Alright... let's do as the Grand Elder says... flee south."