While a high-stakes mission was going on the outskirts near the Valley of the End, a different battle was brewing within the Leaf Village.
Inside the Hyuga compound, Hizashi Hyuga still bearing the scar of a missing eye from Chiyo, stood before his brother, the clan head Hiashi Hyuga. His expression grim as he delivered his report.
"Brother, the Uchiha are planning to abscond," Hizashi said, his voice a low, urgent whisper. "Over the past week, the Uchiha children have been sighted less and less. Some have stopped attending the Academy entirely, while their older shinobi have been taking on prolonged missions far from the village. We still see Itachi and Shisui on occasions. I believe something fishy is going on."
Hiashi closed his eyes, his jaw tightening as he gritted his teeth. The mention of Uchiha, brought back bitter memories of the political scheming from them that had led to his own daughter's near-capture. Today, he finally could get his revenge.
"It looks like it," Hiashi muttered. "The Uchiha are planning to defect to Kumogakure, and they have fully prepared for it. But they underestimated us. We aligned ourselves with baby Hokage Danzo, In the last reparations demanded by Kumo, our clan was entirely exempt from giving any monetary support. Every other clan has depleted their financial reserves to pay that debt. With the Uchiha eliminated, we will be the undisputed number one clan of Konoha."
Hiashi snapped his eyes open. "Hizashi, mobilize the clan. Prepare everyone for battle against the Uchiha. We shall eliminate every last one of them."
With those words, Hiashi stood up and strode out of the room, making his way toward the Hokage's office to finalize the execution order.
~~
A short while later, a formidable force arrived at the gates of the Uchiha compound. At the front stood Hokage Danzo Shimura, flanked by Hiashi Hyuga and several other prominee.e
nt clan heads. They had strategically positioned their forces to completely block any potential exit routes leading toward the Land of Lightning.
Danzo looked upon the quiet compound, a joyful smirk on his lips. In his mind, he was already drowning in the Sharingan eyes, envisioning the immense power he was about to claim for himself.
"Fugaku Uchiha!" Danzo's voice with satisfaction. "Your clan is under arrest for attempting to abscond from Konoha!"
Standing slightly behind Danzo was Minato Namikaze. He was a hollow shell of his former self with heavy dark circles sagged underneath his eyes, and a significant portion of his once-vibrant blonde hair had fallen out due to stress and grief.
Though still only in his late twenties, he looked like a weary uncle in his late forties. Minato stared at the ground, still half-convinced that this nightmare was just a dream...that Kushina would wake him up and tell him everything was fine. But the harsh reality offered no such comfort.
"Hokage-sama, please, there must be a mistake," Minato pleaded, his voice raspy and desperate. "We can talk this through. The Uchiha clan were the founding members of Konoha. We cannot just destroy them."
Danzo held back a laugh, glancing back at Minato. It amused him deeply that the legendary Yellow Flash now looked significantly older and more decrepit than he did. "Minato, you are the best sensor in this village," Danzo said condescendingly. "Now, stop whining, go on, and sense over the Uchiha compound. Tell me, how many of them are actually left in there?"
Reluctantly, Minato kneaded his chakra and extended his sensory network over the entire Uchiha district.
The compound was empty of civilian life. There were only about a hundred adult, elite shinobi waiting inside. There was absolutely no trace of children, toddlers, or the elderly. They had already been smuggled out.
Inside the main Uchiha residence, Fugaku sat cross-legged on the tatami mat. His eyes were closed, his expression entirely devoid of fear regardless of the army gathered outside his door. Sitting beside him was his wife, Mikoto.
"Mikoto," Fugaku said softly, breaking the silence. "Do you regret my decision?"
Mikoto looked at her husband and shook her head, with a delicate smile on her lips. "It was inevitable, Fugaku. We were living like prisoners in our own home, constantly attacked by our own village. Luckily, Itachi, Shisui and Sasuke are already safe at the Valley of the End."
Fugaku opened his eyes and unrolled the scroll sent by Kumo. According to the timeline, Kumo were scheduled to launch an attack on Konoha within the next two hours. They needto survive until then.
Danzo's loud voice cut through again, carrying a sinister threat. "Fugaku Uchiha, this is your final warning! If you surrender calmly right now, we can stop the strike force currently hunting down the Uchiha children at the Valley of the End!"
Inside the house, Mikoto's eyes widened in horror as tears welled up and began to spill down her cheeks as her three-tomoe Sharingan rotated violently. A lot of those children hidden away belonged to the very elite shinobi waiting out here to fight.
"They will kill the children..." she whispered, her voice trembling.
"Calm down, Mikoto," Fugaku urged, putting a firm hand on her shoulder to steady her breathing. "Don't underestimate Itachi and Shisui. They are protecting them. I believe in our sons. And you do know Shisui possesses the ultimate sharingan."
Mikoto closed her eyes for a brief second, forcing the panic down, replacing it with a sharp resolve. She stood up calmly and adjusted her arm guards.
"Fugaku, save your strength," Mikoto said. "We have to buy as much time as possible until Kumo attacks. Our clan still needs its leader to survive this night. I will go out first and buy us some time. These fools outside... they don't know my true strength."
The front doors of the Uchiha manor slid open, and Mikoto stepped out into the open courtyard.
"It is quite poor manners to yell outside someone's house," Mikoto said as her gaze sweeping over the gathered forces.
Danzo narrowed his eyes, clearly disappointed to see a woman instead of the clan head. "Mikoto? Why did you come out alone? Did Fugaku run away with his tail tucked between his legs?"
Mikoto didn't bother answering his taunt. Instead, she looked around, assessing the battlefield. There were hundreds of shinobi from various clans, but the front lines were heavily dominated by the Hyuga, eager to get their revenge. She knew that as the commotion grew, hundreds more would reinforce them.
Mikoto unsealed a storage scroll. A shuriken fell perfectly into her waiting hand.
"You know," Mikoto said softly, her voice carrying a deadly undertone. "everyone knows Fugaku taught the Fire Style to Itachi. But they don't know who it was that taught him his Shurikenjutsu."
With a sudden burst of speed, Mikoto whipped her arm forward, sending the shuriken hurtling toward the Hyuga frontlines. Simultaneously, her hands blurred into a sequence of hand seals.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"
The single weapon instantly multiplied into a rain of razor-sharp shuriken. However, the trajectory seemed slightly off. The Hyuga shinobi, using their Byakugan, easily predicted the path and sidestepped. The shuriken zipped past them, embedding themselves harmlessly into the earth and trees behind the vanguard.
A collective chuckle rippled through the Hyuga ranks. "She missed entirely!" one joked.
"Watch out!" Hiashi suddenly roared, his Byakugan violently tracking a sudden shift in chakra.
~~
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