Chapter 259: The Real Plan
"Five Element Consecutive Blasts, huh…"
Fugaku panted, staring at Hiruzen and the others surrounding him as they formed hand seals. A bitter smile tugged at his lips.
In the end, everything was still coming to a close.
Susanoo was terrifying, a near perfect fusion of offense and defense, but it was not unbreakable. Under the combined pressure of so many Konoha clans, Fugaku could not say for certain that he could withstand Hiruzen's next strike.
His opponent was the Third Hokage, the man praised as the "Professor," the "Ninja Doctor," even the "Ninja God."
Fugaku had once admired Hiruzen. Even if the Will of Fire he preached sometimes felt hollow, it had still given the village a bright banner to rally around.
This time, he probably would not hold.
But he had bought enough time.
Enough time for the Uchiha to leave.
Before setting everything in motion, Fugaku had quietly gathered the more pacifist members of the clan and told them what would happen today.
He understood it better than anyone.
His beloved clan had already split apart.
The hardliners, the ones who wanted to seize the Uchiha's "glory" back from Konoha by force, would never accept something as "humiliating" as fleeing the village. They would definitely rise up. They would definitely make a spectacle of it, right in the heart of Konoha.
But could they win?
Fugaku had never expected that.
How large was Konoha? How many shinobi did it have?
And the Uchiha?
They were no longer the Uchiha of old, back when Mangekyo Sharingan awakened in abundance, and even internal clan struggles were fought by multiple Mangekyo users.
The current Uchiha were already struggling just to deal with ANBU and Root. And once the other great clans joined in, they would be peeled apart layer by layer.
Fugaku had never expected to restore some so called glory.
From the very beginning, his true goal had been to cover the escape of those who could still be saved.
As for the hardliners?
Let them see it.
Let them witness Konoha's overwhelming depth. Let them understand why Konoha remained the strongest village in the ninja world, even without the Uchiha.
And if they insisted on charging into the fire, then at least they could make one final contribution.
A contribution to those escaping.
A contribution to the continuation of the clan.
"But it's enough. This much time is enough…"
Fugaku endured the Five Element Consecutive Blasts. Then, at the final instant, he dispelled Susanoo and used the violent recoil of Hiruzen's technique to fling himself backward.
"What is he doing?" Hiruzen's eyes narrowed.
Something felt off. The Susanoo just now did not look like it should have collapsed under the Five Element Consecutive Blasts so easily.
But as Hiruzen advanced, his expression changed.
In the direction of the Uchiha compound, black flames had erupted.
Those ominous fires roared wildly, devouring everything they touched.
Fugaku lay on the ground, blood streaming relentlessly from his eyes, yet he still let out a hearty laugh.
He had exhausted everything, squeezing his ocular power until it was nearly madness. He could not see anymore, but instead of fear, he felt a strange liberation.
Hiruzen…
No. Danzo's face must be ugly right now.
It was just a pity about Mikoto. He would not be able to spend the rest of his life with her.
But he was the clan head.
He had to die.
Otherwise, how could he hold back Hiruzen and the others?
Hiruzen stared at the powerless Fugaku, then at the black flames ahead. Their destructive power was astonishing. Sealing teams would have to be dispatched immediately, along with other shinobi, to contain and seal those terrifying fires.
Still, with Fugaku defeated, it was only a matter of time before the remaining rebel Uchiha were captured.
"This man… his purpose was to cover the escape of other Uchiha traitors?" Danzo arrived, face grim.
Root had already reported the situation.
The Uchiha had split into two groups. One group, after seeing their clan head display his Susano, charged out in a frenzy. The other group gathered their belongings, hid, then broke through Konoha's barrier and fled in haste.
The ANBU and Root shinobi monitoring them had been distracted by the charging Uchiha. By the time they tried to pursue, the black flames had already cut off the path.
"Yes. We've been outplayed." Hiruzen did not look overly shaken.
He knelt and studied Fugaku.
Fugaku's eyes were open, but his pupils would not focus. They were dull and scattered.
These eyes were useless.
Hiruzen frowned slightly.
His thoughts drifted to Kenichi's eyes, and then to the message his unfilial disciple, Orochimaru, had delivered earlier. Their research into the Sharingan had made breakthrough progress, which was why Hiruzen had tacitly allowed Danzo to tighten the noose around the Uchiha.
His goal had been simple.
He wanted a pair of Sharingan for himself, eyes that could be activated and deactivated freely without harming his strength.
The moment Fugaku revealed the Mangekyo, Hiruzen had been stunned, then shocked and angry, and finally… delighted.
He wanted those eyes.
With the Mangekyo, fighting the Kage of other villages would become far easier. Under his leadership, could Konoha rise into a new era of glory?
But now, they were gone.
Fugaku, that fool, had forced his eyes too brutally and destroyed his own Mangekyo.
"Tsk." The Uchiha really were a stubborn, rotten bone. Nothing ever came easily from them.
Still, when Hiruzen glanced at Danzo's grim expression, a small smile returned to his face.
When Danzo was unhappy, Hiruzen was happy.
That old man had wanted those eyes even more than Hiruzen did.
Otherwise, why would Danzo have planned to raid the Uchiha compound earlier, only to turn back the moment he saw Susanoo?
Like a dog spotting a bone.
And Danzo had once claimed the Uchiha were completely under his control. Yet in the blink of an eye, everything had overturned so completely.
At the next meeting, Hiruzen decided, he would properly "educate" his old friend.
Root should remain Root.
It should stop dreaming about crawling out of the soil to see the sunlight.
Was it not better to rot quietly in the dirt?
Born ordinary, dying ordinary.
As for Fugaku, lying on the ground and laughing through blood, no one cared.
His only value now was to have his eyes dug out, be tortured for information, and then be publicly executed to calm the village's fury.
Konoha had suffered severe losses. The Uchiha compound and its wealth would also need to be confiscated.
"This is truly interesting."
In the chaos of Konoha, no one noticed that a masked figure was also watching this farce from the shadows.
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