Konoha.
The Hokage's office.
The oppressive atmosphere seemed to have frozen solid.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes were bloodshot as he stared fixedly at the casualty report that had just arrived from the front. His aged body trembled violently with utter fury.
"A-all wiped out?"
His voice rasped like two sheets of sandpaper rubbing together, every word seeming to squeeze through his clenched teeth.
"The fifty-three top Root elites in the Owl and Crow squads were slaughtered in less than ten minutes, without a single survivor?"
"They didn't even leave a single intact corpse?!"
Standing before him were two Root ninja assigned to perimeter security who had been lucky enough to survive the slaughter.
They were now kneeling on the floor, shaking like leaves, their faces filled with the horror of narrowly escaping death and a fear that had yet to fade.
"Yes, Lord Hokage."
One ninja answered in a trembling voice, "All we saw was a flash of purple light in the valley, followed by Captain Owl and the others' piercing screams."
"When we worked up the courage to approach, what we saw was hell!"
"There was shredded flesh and blood everywhere. That Uchiha Gen'yō was like a devil!"
"Enough!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi slammed his palm onto the desk, sending terrifying cracks through the wood, the hardest timber in the Land of Fire!
"Useless! All of you are useless!"
He pointed at the two ninja and roared hysterically, "Fifty-three elite Jonin! Armed with the most advanced tracking cursed seals and the determination to kill, sent to surround and eliminate one lone missing-nin!"
"And the result?! Not only did he escape unscathed, but he disposed of them like garbage?!"
"This is your Root! This is the trump card Danzo was so proud of?!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's fury reached its peak.
If the defection of the entire Uchiha Clan had been the first trampling of his authority as Hokage,
then Root's annihilation was a resounding slap across the face of all Konoha!
It proclaimed a cruel fact to the entire Shinobi World-
Konoha could no longer do anything about the Uchiha!
"Lord Hokage, please calm down."
Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu hurried forward to intervene.
Seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi on the verge of madness, they felt chilled to the core.
They knew this incident had crossed Hiruzen Sarutobi's bottom line completely.
"Calm down? How can I calm down?!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi whipped around, his cloudy old eyes filled with blood vessels and an emotion called "regret."
"I should have realized long ago!"
"A madman who dared lead his entire clan in defecting, who dared burn his ancestral grounds to the ground! A monster capable of developing such an unfathomable spatial dōjutsu!"
"How could a mere Root possibly deal with him?!"
"I was wrong! I was wrong from the very beginning!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi gave a bitter laugh, his body swaying as though he had aged decades in an instant.
"I should never have harbored illusions about them, never have tried to reconcile with them, and certainly never have clung to luck after they left!"
"When dealing with a cancer like the Uchiha, we should have done exactly what Danzo said."
A flicker of madness and ruthlessness identical to Danzo's flashed through his eyes!
"We should have crushed them utterly with our greatest strength from the very beginning! Left not even a speck of ash!"
"Relay my orders!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi abruptly straightened. An unprecedented, overwhelming killing aura belonging to the Shinobi Hero erupted from his body!
The temperature throughout the Hokage's office plunged to freezing!
"Effective immediately, Konoha enters the highest state of war readiness!"
"All ninja of A-rank and above currently on missions outside the village are to return immediately!"
"Assemble every member of the first, second, and third Anbu battalions!"
"Assemble all elites from the Hyuga, Inuzuka Clan, Aburame, Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi!"
"I will personally lead the campaign!"
"What?!"
Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu's expressions changed drastically!
"Hiruzen! Have you lost your mind?!"
Utatane Koharu shrieked, "Don't you know what it means for the Hokage to personally lead a campaign?!"
"It means Konoha will wage an all-out war against the Uchiha Clan that won't end until one side is dead!"
"It will cripple us! The other ninja villages will have an opening!"
"There's no turning back!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's gaze was terrifyingly cold.
"This is no longer about whether we want to fight. We have to fight!"
"Uchiha Gen'yō has already proven his worth to the entire Shinobi World with the lives of fifty-three Root elites!"
"By now, the Kage of Kumogakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and every other ninja village are probably trying every possible way to win him over!"
"If he forms an alliance with any major ninja village, it will spell disaster for Konoha!"
"We must find him and kill him before he secures an alliance!"
"No matter the cost!"
Meanwhile.
Within the clan holy land.
Uchiha Gen'yō stood atop the raised platform in the center of the square.
Before him stood more than a thousand Uchiha clanspeople, fully equipped and ready to depart, their spirits completely renewed.
After their bloodlines had been purified and nourished by the holy land's spiritual energy, every one of them had made a tremendous leap in strength.
Every face shone with powerful confidence and soaring fighting spirit, full of hope for the future!
"My clanspeople!"
Amplified by chakra, Gen'yō's voice reached everyone's ears clearly.
"I just received some news."
"Our old friend, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, is personally leading an army of several thousand elites from Konoha's major clans, charging toward us with murderous intent!"
At these words, the clanspeople below showed not the slightest tension or fear. Instead, excited, bloodthirsty smiles spread across their faces.
"Hahaha! Perfect timing! My blade's been thirsting for blood!"
"They'll be just the thing to test the Fire Style I just mastered!"
"Let them taste the terror of being dominated by us Uchiha!"
Seeing their soaring fighting spirit, Gen'yō nodded in satisfaction.
This was the Uchiha he wanted!
A pride of proud, confident, fearless lions! Not a pack of sickly cats locked in a cage, scheming against one another all day!
"Excellent!"
Gen'yō clasped his hands behind his back, his voice suddenly rising with fervor!
"Hiruzen Sarutobi thinks they're the hunters coming to kill us!"
"But he'll never know that, in our eyes, they're nothing more than prey delivering themselves to our door!"
"They'll be the perfect whetstone to test the results of our training during this time!"
"I hereby declare!"
Gen'yō swept his gaze over the crowd, his voice filled with unquestionable authority!
"The first joint combat exercise of the entire Uchiha Clan begins now!"
"Exercise target: Konoha's pursuing army!"
"Exercise rules: no restrictions on methods, no restrictions on killing!"
"I want you to use your Sharingan, your Fire Style, and your blades to reap the enemy's lives to your hearts' content!"
"I want Hiruzen Sarutobi and all of Konoha behind him to see clearly!"
"Abandoning us Uchiha was the stupidest decision they ever made!"
"The rewards for this exercise are the enemy's blood, fear, and despair!"
"Are you ready?!"
"Roar!"
A thunderous roar like crashing waves erupted through the holy land, nearly shattering the barrier overhead!
Every Uchiha's blood boiled at that moment!
They gazed at the godlike man atop the platform, their eyes filled with boundless fervor!
War?
No!
Under a god's leadership, this was merely a grand hunt!
Watching the scene, Gen'yō's lips curved into a cruel smile.
He slowly raised his head, his gaze seeming to pierce the holy land's barrier and reach the distant horizon.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi, guess what you'll find after exhausting yourself searching for us-a pack of homeless dogs worn out from running for their lives?"
"Or a divine legion that has already completed its final transformation with the blood of your Konoha ninja?"