"Everyone, take your positions..."
"The instant the barrier disappears, some of the enemy will undoubtedly rush inside. Eliminate them as quickly as possible. All other shinobi are to conduct extermination operations within their assigned sectors!"
"The battlefield must be kept outside the village!"
Inside Konoha's command center, the heads of the Nara and Yamanaka clans—both of whom also served as Konoha Council Members—were communicating with the village's jōnin and combat personnel through amplification instruments and formations developed by the Scientific Research Department.
Through sensory perception, they projected a three-dimensional map of the battlefield directly into the minds of every shinobi. They rapidly divided the battlefield into numbered sectors, assigning the nearest Konoha Council Member or jōnin to prepare a team and engage the enemy.
In truth, Konoha had detected the Sky Village's movements the moment its forces entered the Land of Fire.
The Patrol Force now included a large number of Hyūga shinobi. They conducted inspections throughout the outer regions and borders of the Land of Fire, and their duties also included detecting airborne threats.
Although flight was an extremely rare ability, a few shinobi from other hidden villages could accomplish it through summons or secret techniques.
It was a threat that couldn't be ignored.
The problem was that the Patrol Force lacked effective anti-air capabilities. After an emergency assessment, Hiruzen decided not to alert the enemy.
He allowed the Sky Village shinobi to approach Konoha...
He trusted in the village's combat and defensive capabilities to utterly exterminate these surviving remnants of the Sky Village from the Second Shinobi World War!
"Yes, understood!" the Konoha Council Members and jōnin shouted in unison.
Anger surged within their eyes.
The other shinobi who had already assembled into squads felt the same way.
The village had already become so powerful, yet it still sought peace. Life was improving with each passing day...
And someone actually dared to attack the village now!
Konoha was currently in the midst of a baby boom. The village held many newborn children and pregnant kunoichi. If the shinobi took even one step back, their homes might be destroyed.
Even so, order never broke down. The shinobi continued following the commands issued by battlefield headquarters.
At that moment, Konoha's golden defensive barrier suddenly vanished.
Many nearby Sky Ninja lit up with delight. Driving their flight wings forward, they swiftly slipped into Konoha and flew low over the village, searching for valuable targets to destroy.
At the same time, a condensed Tailed Beast Ball erupted from the Senju Clan compound and hurtled straight toward the Sky Ninja's flying fortress!
The immensely dense chakra tore through the atmosphere with world-shattering force!
Madara's gaze sharpened. He immediately seized control from Shinnō and began making minute adjustments to the fortress's movements.
The enormous fortress moved as though it were dancing, narrowly evading the Tailed Beast Ball's fatal strike!
"Mito has gained even greater control over the Nine-Tails' power..."
"Has she subdued that beast? As expected of the Uzumaki Clan's princess—and Hashirama's woman..."
Madara nodded slightly. However, this naturally forced the flying fortress to abandon its bombardment.
"Hmph. Then what will you do about the second one?"
"Do you intend to compete with me at skipping stones?"
The corner of Madara's mouth rose. For the first time in ages, excitement stirred within his body. After all, his opponent was a powerful shinobi from the Warring States Era who had lived in the same generation as him.
She was also the last one remaining...
But at that moment, the frantic voices of Hiruko and Orochimaru suddenly came through Mito's communicator.
"Mito-sama, please remain calm! We'll deal with them!"
"Hokage-sama said that you are to command the elimination of the shinobi who infiltrated Konoha. The barrier will be closed again immediately!"
It wasn't that they were worried using the Nine-Tails' chakra would exhaust Mito.
Although Mito was already old, and even with the Nine-Tails supporting her, her body could no longer endure prolonged combat as it once had...
She could still serve as Konoha's anti-air cannon and fire a dozen or so Tailed Beast Balls without any serious problems.
What Orochimaru and Hiruko were worried about was something else entirely.
If a Tailed Beast Ball actually struck its target, the precious flying fortress would be completely destroyed!
From the very moment the flying fortress appeared, Orochimaru's and Hiruko's eyes had lit up at the sight of the creation, their fingers practically itching to get their hands on it...
'Where did this new technology come from?'
'I want to get my hands on it and study it thoroughly!'
"Hmph..." Mito stared coldly at the fortress in the distant sky before nodding. "Understood."
The village had developed so well that it could already be said to have surpassed Hashirama's expectations from back then.
Anyone who dared attack Konoha was opposing the ideals she and Hashirama had shared!
Firing a few Tailed Beast Balls was nothing...
If necessary, Mito wouldn't hesitate to release her Strength of a Hundred Seal, push herself to the absolute limit, and fight a powerful enemy herself!
At that moment, the ANBU and the Konoha Military Police Force, led respectively by Sakumo and Fugaku, had already appeared beyond the area covered by the barrier.
Danzō also rushed out at the head of the newly reformed Root, not daring to waste a single moment.
Several years earlier, when Hiruzen had launched a surprise attack, Danzō had reacted too slowly. He had been harshly criticized in public and forced to make a military pledge.
If anything similar happened again and he still cowered behind the village, he would lose his head!
Danzō didn't think Hiruzen would actually do that...
But causing another problem would still be extremely troublesome.
Besides, the instant Danzō saw the flying Sky Ninja, his eyes lit up.
Well, well!
It hadn't been long since the Wind Release Chakra Mode had been completed, and Danzō had just been looking for a stage on which to show it off. How had these 'kind souls' happened to deliver themselves right to his doorstep?
Danzō circulated his chakra, and currents of air surged around his body.
One after another, the members of Root moved as though the wind itself propelled their feet, racing toward the sectors where the command center had ordered them to engage the enemy.
...
Hiruzen silently watched the flying fortress without rushing to intervene.
Actual combat would always be the best way to test the village's development.
If the enemy had been a powerful force beyond the village's ability to handle, Hiruzen would naturally have charged to the front himself. But in the Hokage's eyes, these Sky Ninja were merely buzzing flies.
Disgusting and troublesome, but no longer a deadly threat to the Konoha of today.
'These Sky Ninja are somewhat stronger than the ones I remember...'
'They've brought the fortress this close, and with this many troops... They really sent everything they have.'
'What are these Sky Ninja thinking?'
Hiruzen couldn't understand their reasoning.
Had they really remained hidden from the shinobi world for all these years just to wait until today, scrape together every last resource they possessed, and throw their lives away against Konoha?
The Sky Ninja had overestimated themselves and barged into the Second Shinobi World War even though it had originally had nothing to do with them. The mere aftershocks of the conflict had already left them severely weakened.
In truth, the Sky Ninja hadn't wanted this either. According to their original plan, they were supposed to spend another twenty years building up their strength.
Unfortunately for them, old man Madara had refused to allow it.
At that moment, Konoha's barrier rose once again.
The Sky Ninja who had already entered Konoha's airspace began sweeping their senbon launchers across buildings and shinobi, even attacking indiscriminately.
But the members of the Uchiha Clan's Military Police Force activated their Sharingan, brandished their long blades, and placed themselves between the attackers and the civilians one after another!
The Uchiha Clan cared deeply about its pride and reputation.
Everyone in Konoha had seen the banner hanging beneath the Military Police Force's signboard.
They couldn't proclaim that they would defend Konoha with the honor of the Uchiha, only to turn around and cower like cowards when the time came to step forward.
"Get up there, all of you! Not one of you takes a single step back!"
"Evacuate and protect every civilian who hasn't reached shelter yet! If civilians are bleeding beside you while every last one of you still looks clean and untouched, then you're the ones stabbing the Uchiha in the back!"
Uchiha Isshin roared furiously. The three-tomoe Sharingan inherited from Setsuna spun wildly in his eyes. The instant he locked gazes with a Sky Ninja, his ocular power pierced straight through the man's mind!
Ninjutsu was indeed relatively ineffective against airborne targets. While flying, the Sky Ninja could constantly twist, turn, and reposition themselves across the vast expanse of the sky.
But whenever they aimed their senbon launchers at a target, their eyes naturally had to follow. Sharingan genjutsu, capable of striking any target within sight, was the perfect weapon with which to counterattack!
Isshin was furious.
But beyond that anger, his thoughts were somewhat similar to Danzō's.
Both men longed for war.
For a shinobi, war would always be the greatest stage on which to prove oneself!
The Uchiha shinobi charged forward with fierce battle cries.
Konoha now had prosthetics, medical scrolls, and the Military Police Force received the highest salaries in the entire village for shinobi of equivalent rank.
More importantly, the current Hokage was the kind of exceptional leader one could search far and wide without ever finding another.
He might formally have been Senju Tobirama's disciple, but he treated the Uchiha Clan as equals. One could even say that he placed himself in their position and granted them special consideration.
He had handled the Yashiro incident impartially.
With remarkable open-mindedness, he had even redefined what it meant to be a shinobi and what the Will of Fire represented, formally recognizing the Uchiha.
He had even provided a possible path toward resolving the enormous historical problem left behind by Madara.
How could the Uchiha possibly refuse to risk their lives for him?
"Watch out, ma'am!"
Uchiha Yashiro suddenly lunged forward and placed himself in front of an elderly woman who had not been evacuated in time. His exquisite swordsmanship deflected most of the incoming senbon, but because he couldn't move from his position, one still struck him in the shoulder...
In the old woman's eyes, Yashiro was like a guardian deity, shielding her with his own body from the overwhelming rain of senbon.
"I'll get you out of here. Take shelter inside that building first!"
"Just stay hidden. We won't let those bastards' bombs fall on you!"
Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, Yashiro quickly escorted the civilian to safety.
The old woman stared fixedly at him, tears unconsciously welling in her eyes.
She decided...
From now on, whenever she went dancing in the plaza, she would tell everyone about Yashiro's heroic deed over and over again—until every man, woman, and child in the village was sick of hearing it!
Yashiro turned and rushed toward the next civilian who needed help. As he ran, he pulled a portable medical chakra scroll from his waist and slapped it onto his shoulder.
Yashiro possessed the courage to die for the village, and he felt no fear whatsoever.
But the village also provided every shinobi willing to do the same with all the material support it could offer. That mutual commitment was essential.
Scenes similar to Yashiro's were unfolding throughout the village.
It wasn't only the Uchiha shinobi. Amid the flames, the Will of Fire finally revealed what it was truly meant to be.
...
The Uchiha Clan compound.
After receiving Madara's order, the small number of Sky Ninja who had slipped inside while the barrier was open immediately regrouped upon witnessing the ferocity of Konoha's counterattack.
The Scientific Research Department was heavily guarded. The Uchiha compound, however, had been left largely undefended because its shinobi had gone out to help the villagers.
The Sky Ninja trapped inside Konoha's barrier rapidly gathered into a formation and flew desperately toward the Uchiha compound, dumping every bomb they carried onto it at once.
Directly beneath them, Uchiha Tomie had just hurled her long blade and impaled a Sky Ninja through the air. She then turned and used her Sharingan to make another Sky Ninja crash, only to look up and see a dense mass of bombs raining down from the sky!
Tomie's eyes widened instantly.
Her mind raced as she desperately tried to think of a ninjutsu capable of protecting the clan compound.
The Uchiha Clan also had elderly people, children, pregnant women, the sick, and the disabled. Not everyone possessed combat ability or the means to protect themselves under circumstances like these.
Cold sweat instantly covered Tomie's forehead.
Although the blood-replacement treatment had left her weakened, several months of quiet recovery had freed her from her bloodline disease, and her natural talent was gradually beginning to awaken again.
She was confident that, given another six months to a year, she would regain her health and once again enter a period of rapid growth in strength.
But the cruel shinobi world waited for no one!
Just as Tomie prepared to use Fire Release to forcibly detonate the cluster of bombs in midair and endure the resulting shock wave herself to minimize the damage...
What she was attempting was effectively suicide.
But a crimson figure suddenly appeared in front of her!
Having entered her four-tailed form, Uzumaki Shio was enveloped in dense, violent Nine-Tails chakra. She shaped the Tailed Beast's chakra into enormous hands and swept them through the air, seizing the bombs and crushing them until they exploded within her grasp!
Shio turned slightly and pulled the pale-faced Tomie into her arms, shielding her from the violent shock wave.
Tomie had yet to recover fully and had already pushed her body beyond its limits. Shio refused to let the blast injure her further.
Tomie stared blankly at the transformed Shio.
Who was this?
"You don't recognize me?"
"You've even drunk my blood before..." Shio's clear voice emerged from within the thick mass of Tailed Beast chakra.
"Stop pushing yourself in battle. I've seen your latest medical report. You still haven't recovered completely..."
"Go. I'll protect you and your clan. Find something within your current abilities and take care of that instead!"
With that, golden chains erupted one after another from Shio's back, piercing straight through the chests of the Sky Ninja circling at low altitude!
She looked like a demonic war god!
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