Blood streamed from his eyes.
His vision grew dark and blurry.
But it was enough.
Fugaku gazed at the remaining Uchiha clan members around him.
The little chakra left in his eyes was still enough to guide his people toward a future.
They had regrouped.
"Lord Fugaku, those Root shinobi are ruthless! They kill anyone they see, even ordinary Uchiha civilians!" someone choked out through tears when they saw him.
"Yeah, let's fight back, Lord Fugaku!"
"Silence!" Fugaku's sharp command cut through the noise.
Looking at his clansmen's furious faces, Fugaku sighed inwardly.
This was the Uchiha.
Proud. Unyielding. Emotional.
Even he, the clan head, struggled to suppress that burning emotion.
"Bury all your hatred for now. The Nine-Tails has failed. This round, the Uchiha have lost," Fugaku said sternly. Not far away, Konoha's ANBU were already converging on their position.
"…Now, everyone follow the original plan and break through."
There were only about twenty Uchiha shinobi left.
The clan had taken a devastating blow.
And yet, this was also a trial by fire.
These survivors—with two or three tomoe, and a few who had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan after watching loved ones die—would become the backbone of the Uchiha's future revival. They could not be allowed to fall here.
Suppressing the clan's protests with the authority of a leader, Fugaku turned to a girl and, despite everything, felt a hint of relief.
"Izumi…" Fugaku said gently.
At the sound of her name, Uchiha Izumi, who had been holding herself together, finally broke down in sobs.
Izumi—once Itachi's lover—was the only one in this conflict who had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Because she had watched her family be slaughtered.
"How is Itachi?" Izumi asked, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. "He's all I have left…"
"Thank you for worrying about him, but for now… consider him dead," Fugaku replied. "Right now, we need your strength for what comes next."
Izumi nodded, her expression hardening.
She and her parents had opposed the coup, still clinging to some hope for Hiruzen and Konoha's leadership. Because of that, they had always remained on the fringes of the Uchiha's inner circle.
But after watching Root operatives butcher her parents, any hope she had left was buried with them.
With a common enemy, the Uchiha were more united than ever.
There were no more pacifists or hardliners. Only one faction remained—the faction of revenge.
Hiruzen and Danzō would never allow them to leave Konoha alive bearing this hatred. The battle ahead would be brutal.
Once he'd finished arranging the breakout formation, Fugaku turned to Uchiha Tekka.
"Did you complete your mission?"
"Yes." Tekka unwrapped a cloth bundle, revealing a severed head—Morino Ibiki's.
That head was the key to opening a particular Konoha prison.
"Good," Fugaku nodded. "When we break out, all of Konoha will be chasing us. You stay behind, wait for your chance, and rescue Setsuna. Don't worry. I've seen it—you'll complete your mission smoothly."
Uchiha Setsuna, a rebel from the era of the Second Hokage, had been imprisoned ever since his failed coup. With the clan desperate for manpower, freeing him was now a necessity.
Tekka nodded, then hesitated.
"What about you, Lord Fugaku?" he asked quietly. "Will… your plan succeed?"
Fugaku glanced at him but didn't answer directly. Instead, he raised his voice so everyone could hear.
"…Afterwards, Uchiha Setsuna will become the next clan leader."
Silence fell over the group.
Fugaku smiled faintly.
"This is in case something happens to me. I can't see that far into the future… but I know him. Back when tensions between Konoha and the Uchiha weren't this bad, I visited him in prison many times. I trust his abilities."
"All right, get ready to move. Everyone follow me—except Tekka."
"We will carve a path out with blood."
"Yes!!"
Following their clan head, the formation became like a sharpened blade aimed straight at Konoha's defensive line.
The air erupted into flames.
The "blade" dragged through the ruins, their hatred honed into an edge that seemed nothing could stop. With unwavering resolve, that blade split the well-fortified defenses.
Then—
A melee exploded.
"Fang Over Fang!!"
"Susanoo!"
Fugaku's roar echoed as he faced two white blurs spiraling toward him like drills.
The blue specter with its spiked chains manifested once more. Even after being summoned again and again, Susanoo remained monstrously difficult to handle.
The chains coiled around the ninken Kuromaru, but Kiba's spinning drill still managed to punch through Susanoo's chest.
"You Inuzuka really are Konoha's loyal dogs!" Fugaku sneered, controlling Susanoo to fling the pair away.
Behind him, the Uchiha briefly pushed their attackers back.
"Keep moving," Fugaku ordered.
Izumi noticed the slight tremor in his voice. After a full day of fighting, even the clan head was nearing his limit.
The Susanoo looming over Fugaku had been reduced to a skeletal frame. Taking a deep breath, Izumi asked:
"What do I have to do to use this—to help you, Lord Fugaku?"
Having only just awakened her Mangekyō, Izumi had no idea how to manifest her own Susanoo yet.
"Don't worry. I can still hold on a little longer…" Fugaku forced a smile.
Their enemies surged forward yet again—this time with a buzzing swarm of insects.
From the Inuzuka to the Aburame, and then the loyal clans under Hiruzen—the Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka—one after another, Konoha's clans had clearly reached a consensus on how to deal with the Uchiha rebellion.
The distance from the Uchiha compound to the forest outside Konoha was short.
But every step now demanded blood.
Konoha's hit-and-run tactics—preserving their strength while grinding down Fugaku—were working.
At a critical moment, the eerie blue specter above Fugaku finally began to crumble.
In the darkness, a pair of eyes narrowed.
Time was up.
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