"We want revenge! Blood for blood! A debt paid in blood!"
The cries of hatred and fury of the Chinoike clan members echoed throughout this blood-drenched world.
In Uchiha Fugaku's eyes—
The sky was crimson, and beneath his feet stretched an ocean of blood.
The air itself reeked of death and gore.
And above him, in that blood-red sky—
A massive Ketsuryūgan with a purple cross-shaped iris loomed like a demonic god, locking its gaze onto him.
Fugaku knew this was a genjutsu realm created by his opponent.
But no matter how fast the tomoe in his Sharingan spun, he couldn't break free of the illusion's grip.
"Is the gap really this wide...?"
Uchiha Fugaku murmured to himself.
He had never expected that he, the head of the Uchiha Clan, would one day be outclassed in genjutsu.
"Give up. Your Three Tomoe Sharingan is no match for my Ketsuryūgan—whose ocular power has nearly reached its limit!"
Though no one was visible, an echoing voice resounded from all directions.
"Current head of the Uchiha Clan… I want you to witness—one by one—as every last member of your clan is slaughtered before your very eyes!"
"Once every man, woman, and child is dead, I'll use all the blood in your body to send you to the Pure Land. From this day forth, the name 'Uchiha' will vanish from the shinobi world forever!"
The venomous words echoed in all directions.
Uchiha Fugaku suddenly noticed projections forming in the air above—tinted faintly with a crimson glow. They were real-time scenes of his fellow Uchiha clan members battling outside.
If that had been all, it wouldn't have shaken him.
But the moment he caught a glimpse of a flash-like, blood-red figure striking down clan members one after another, he could no longer hold back.
Fugaku recognized that silhouette—it was the very master of this blood-colored world.
Ryūya, the man who claimed to be the current head of the Chinoike Clan!
"He still has enough strength to attack others?!"
Fugaku's shock quickly turned to fury.
He instantly pushed his dōjutsu to the limit, but no matter how intensely he spun the tomoe in his eyes, it made no difference.
The gap was just too great.
"Stop... Stop! I said stop!!"
The younger Uchiha Fugaku stood atop the ever-surging sea of blood, roaring in fury up at the massive blood-red eye in the sky.
But there was no response.
Only the projections continued to play, over and over, showing familiar faces being slaughtered—burned into the bloodshot eyes of his Sharingan.
"Yūya!"
"Sakai!"
"Enku!"
With tears in his eyes, Fugaku cried out the names of comrades he'd fought beside for years—all of them elite jōnin.
And yet, in the face of Ryūya, they were as fragile as children.
Most couldn't even survive two exchanges before falling under the control of the Ketsuryūgan, their blood violently boiling within until they burst into mist with a gruesome death.
"No! I have to get out!"
"If this keeps going, everyone will die!"
"Mikoto is still waiting for me at home… I can't die here… I'm the head of the Uchiha Clan!!!"
Within the blood-drenched illusion, Uchiha Fugaku roared up at the sky, his whole body trembling.
In that instant, images of his clanmates' smiling faces flashed one after another through his mind.
And the countless greetings filled with respect:
"Good morning, Clan Head!"
"Hey, the Clan Head's here!"
"Clan Head! Clan Head! Clan Head!"
[VMMM————]
Suddenly, the three tomoe in his Sharingan began spinning at an unprecedented speed, until they gradually merged into black, curved lines.
In the blink of an eye, the pattern shifted—three tomoe now rested within a hollow black circle.
Mangekyō Sharingan!!!
"What?!"
In the rapidly collapsing world of blood and illusion, Ryūya's disbelieving scream echoed once more—
"A blood debt must be paid in blood!"
Back in the real world, Uchiha Fugaku glared fiercely, his Mangekyō Sharingan burning with murderous intent as he locked eyes with the distant figure of the elder in blood-red robes—who had just frozen mid-action.
At that moment, the two pairs of equally crimson eyes stared through the chaos of the battlefield, meeting across a distance of hundreds of meters.
Yet this time, neither could ensnare the other in genjutsu.
In a flash, Uchiha Fugaku's figure vanished without a trace.
The sight made Ryūya's heart lurch with shock.
His Ketsuryūgan hadn't caught even the faintest movement.
The next instant—
A pitch-black kunai pressed silently against his throat, its icy edge sending chills down his spine.
"What!!?"
Ryūya froze in terror.
"Y-You… how can you be this fast?!"
Behind him, Fugaku—his right eye bleeding profusely—spoke in a quiet, deadly voice.
"Because I can't wait another second to make you pay."
"Amaterasu!"
[BOOM————]
A jet-black flame burst forth on Ryūya's body, roaring to life like living ink devouring its prey.
At the same time, another stream of blood trickled down from Fugaku's left eye, carving a crimson path along his cheek.
"Aaaaarghhh!"
As Ryūya screamed in agony, Fugaku leaned in close and whispered into his ear—
"You know… our clan still has a future. Two wonderful children waiting for it."
"No!!"
Consumed by the black flames, Ryūya let out one final roar of fury.
"This isn't fair!!!"
...
"Clan Chief!"
"Clan Chief!"
The death of Ryūya triggered cries of shock from many of his clansmen on the battlefield.
Yet it also created a valuable opening for many of the Uchiha ninjas.
One after another, they struck down or wounded their respective opponents, forcing the Chinoike clan to suppress their grief and rage and focus their attention on the onslaught of attacks.
...
"Amaterasu!!!"
At that moment, having just slain Ryūya, Uchiha Fugaku leapt high into the sky. Ignoring the twin trails of blood tears flowing down his cheeks, he once again poured out a tremendous amount of ocular power to ignite a long, straight line of black flames in the center of the Ghost Army.
Wherever the flames touched, the stone soldiers ignited with violent roars, becoming massive black torches in the blink of an eye. In mere seconds, they crumbled into scorched soil, each pile still steaming from the heat.
Yet even in the face of such terrifying flames, the stone soldiers in the rear continued their march, advancing in tidy formations, utterly unafraid as they stepped directly into the black inferno.
"You Konoha bastards—don't celebrate too soon!!"
Just when everyone thought the war was nearly over—
A roar full of seething hostility tore through the air from the north like a shockwave of sound made solid.
Before anyone could react, a brilliant light exploded on the horizon, followed by a thick, purple-black energy beam that plowed a massive trench straight across the Land of Bears.
The deafening roar that followed echoed across the entire battlefield, so loud that even Kakuzu and Jiraiya—locked in fierce combat nearby—instinctively halted and backed away.
"Heh. So he finally makes his move~" Kakuzu sneered mockingly. "He really thinks he's some kind of final boss. What a joke. Just a worthless puppet."
"Puppet?"
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow—then spotted a black-and-purple meteor streaking across the northern sky.
"That thing…"
Meanwhile, Uchiha Fugaku was staring grimly at the now-broken Amaterasu defensive line.
That energy beam had indeed incinerated many stone soldiers in its path.
But the tremendous wave of dirt it kicked up had carved out a massive gap—nearly 100 meters wide—through the sea of black flames, allowing the rest of the Ghost Army to continue their march toward the Land of Wind.
If Fugaku wanted to stop them now, he'd have to use Amaterasu again.
And he had already used ocular techniques three times in a row—
One of them being a large-scale cast of Amaterasu that had consumed over half of his chakra.
There was simply no way he could keep using Amaterasu to hold back the Ghost Army.
"Ah! Isn't that one of Sunagakure's flying puppets?!"
At that moment, several Iwagakure shinobi began to recognize the floating figure in the sky.
A round head, round eye sockets, and a glowing slit as a visual sensor—
Though other aspects of its appearance looked more fearsome—or perhaps more extravagant.
For instance, it wasn't just jet flames firing from its legs—even its back emitted dual streams of purple energy. Its entire body was wrapped in a mist-like layer of pitch-black energy.
Still, the design clearly followed the style of Rōran puppetry.
"Who are you?!"
Believing himself to be the strongest present, Uchiha Fugaku wiped the blood from his face and stepped forward without hesitation, shouting up toward the floating figure.
"Heh heh heh… very well. It wouldn't be right if you all died without even knowing who killed you."
The voice that answered was cold and mechanical, speaking from the puppet-like figure in the sky.
"I am the one who was meant to become the King of Rōran two years ago. But I was stopped by your filthy Konoha ninjas with their underhanded tricks. And now—Konoha will pay the most tragic price imaginable!"
So it was him—the Sunagakure rogue ninja Mukade, who had crossed over from the future using the energy of the Dragon Vein, and attempted to usurp Rōran's royal throne under the false name Anrokuzan.
What no one had expected… was that Mukade had already turned his entire body into a puppet. The only remaining biological part of him was a single living heart, embedded in his core.
His energy source had changed—from the Dragon Vein to dark chakra.
This meant he no longer possessed limitless energy, but in exchange, his range of activity was no longer restricted. He no longer had to worry about someone severing his access to the original energy valve.
His size had also decreased significantly.
Compared to his towering 100-meter form from two years ago, he now stood at about three meters tall.
Now, his task was to ensure the Ghost Army reached the gates of Rōran without issue.
Hiruko had promised him: once the World Government was repelled, and once Shinnō was dealt with, Rōran would be handed over to him as his own private kingdom.
It had become a deep-seated obsession in his heart.
And beneath that lay a seething hatred for the Konoha ninjas.
He would kill every single one of them that entered his field of vision!
And conveniently, there were many here right now.
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