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Time moved on, and a year passed in the blink of an eye.
That year, the Shinobi world changed completely.
Uchiha Clan Head Uchiha Kitsune had vanished under strange circumstances. Senju Futen publicly claimed that Kitsune had fallen from the cliff and died, throwing the Uchiha Clan into a leaderless crisis almost overnight.
But no one expected the foundation Kitsune had spent years building to erupt all at once.
The large number of Uchiha orphans he had adopted and trained in his earlier years had already grown into the clan's backbone. They were intensely loyal to Uchiha Kitsune and fanatically protective of the clan, holding it in place by sheer force of will.
The Senju Clan seized the opportunity to counterattack, but they only managed to retake part of their lost territory. The critical northern and southern Naka River territories that Kitsune had conquered years earlier remained firmly in Uchiha hands. Not one inch was lost.
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At the bottom of Foxfall Cliff.
Uchiha Kitsune wore a long black coat, a strip of dark cloth wrapped tightly over his eyes. He stood straight as a pine, the long blade that had accompanied him for years strapped across his back.
"You're leaving?" Kurama asked from where he lounged nearby.
After a year together, the man and the beast—both foxes, in a sense—had gotten along surprisingly well. Somewhere along the way, a real friendship had formed.
Kitsune gave a slight nod, his voice calm and steady. "It's time. Kurama, I don't know what state the clan is in right now. I have to go back."
Kurama nodded and said nothing more.
Kitsune raised a hand and took out an old scroll from inside his coat, then embedded it deep into a crack in the cliff wall.
Kurama narrowed his fox eyes. "What's that?"
Kitsune faced the sealed scroll, his tone detached. "A forbidden technique I developed on my own. Only someone with the Sharingan can activate it."
"It hurts the user almost as badly as it hurts the enemy. The drawbacks are severe, so I've never been sure whether I should pass it on to the clan."
"Now I'm hiding it here and leaving the decision to fate. If an Uchiha someday ends up here the same way I did and happens to find this scroll, then fate wanted this technique to see daylight again."
When he finished, Kitsune turned toward the Nine-Tails. "Kurama, will we meet again?"
Kurama grinned slightly. "Probably. Maybe in your next life..."
Kitsune sighed. "Do people... really get another life?"
Kurama said nothing.
He knew better than to say more. Some things weren't his to reveal.
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Satō River.
This was now the border between the Uchiha and the Senju.
Battle cries tore through the sky. The sharp clash of weapons mixed with the death screams of shinobi, turning the riverbank into a furnace of blood and steel.
Senju Futen held a long blade infused with chakra, his massive reserves sweeping out in every direction as he led the Senju army in a devastating final assault.
"EVERYONE! CROSS SATŌ RIVER AND TAKE BACK EVERY INCH OF OUR LAND!"
Futen roared and swept his blade across the battlefield, sending several Uchiha flying back with blood spraying from their mouths.
The Uchiha defensive line collapsed step by step. The clan elders fought desperately to hold him off, but no matter how hard they tried, none of them could match Senju Futen.
The new-generation Senju leader had become strong enough to make people despair.
Just as the Senju blade was about to cleave through the Uchiha's final line of defense—
A black figure fell from the sky like a meteor.
He landed heavily in the shallows at the center of Satō River. The splash had barely risen before a cold, overwhelming pressure crushed it apart.
The newcomer was tall and straight, dressed in a long black coat. A dark cloth covered both eyes completely. His face was as cold as carved ice, and the frost-white hair at his temples looked especially striking in the blood-red light of the battlefield.
He was clearly a blind swordsman.
The moment he landed, the entire Satō River battlefield fell dead silent.
A chakra signature familiar enough to be carved into bone spread outward.
That was the edge of the man who had once crossed the river in funeral white and shaken the Shinobi world.
That was the presence the Senju had feared for half a lifetime, and the Uchiha had longed for until madness.
"C-Clan Head??"
An Uchiha elder stretched out a trembling hand. His cloudy old eyes went wide, and his voice shook with overwhelming excitement.
"THE CLAN HEAD IS BACK!"
The Uchiha clansmen froze first. Then they erupted into cheers, tears flowing down their faces.
They had believed their clan head had fallen from the cliff and died. They had believed the clan was trapped in a dead end.
And now, their clan head had returned.
"How?? Uchiha Kitsune!" Senju Futen cried out. "You fell from Foxfall Cliff! How are you still alive??"
Kitsune's face was cold. His left hand rested behind his back as his right hand slowly drew the long blade from over his shoulder. The clear ring of steel leaving its sheath cut through the calm battlefield.
"What?" Kitsune's voice was calm. "Surprised I'm still breathing?"
Futen's brows locked together as he stared at the black cloth over Kitsune's eyes. "Your eyes... what happened to them?"
"Clan Head, your Sharingan..." The Uchiha elder clenched his fists, staring at the black figure with worry written all over his face.
A faint sneer tugged at Kitsune's lips. "A useless pair of shackles holding me back. What was the point of keeping them?"
Before his voice even faded, the river beneath Kitsune's feet exploded.
No wild surge of chakra.
No strange enhancement from ocular power.
Uchiha Kitsune moved on physical strength alone, turning into a streak of black lightning. His speed left afterimages across the river as he appeared in front of Senju Futen in an instant.
"Fast!" Futen's expression changed sharply. He had no time to think. His instincts screamed, and he stepped back half a pace, bringing his blade across his chest.
Clang—!
The crash of steel on steel stabbed at everyone's ears. Pain shot through Futen's arms, and that single strike forced him back several steps.
A storm rose in Futen's chest.
After losing his sight, Uchiha Kitsune had not slowed down at all.
He had become even more frightening than before.
Whoosh!
Kitsune gave him no chance to breathe. His blindness had sharpened his senses to the extreme. Wind, water, Futen's breathing, the flow of his chakra—everything was under Kitsune's control.
His single blade moved like a violent storm. Sword pressure sliced through the air, carving the Satō River's current into spray. Every move was vicious, precise, and aimed straight for a vital point.
Kitsune's swordsmanship had moved beyond normal Shinobi techniques. There were no flashy flourishes. No wasted movements.
Only killing strokes.
Every swing went for the kill, as if the world contained nothing but the blade and the enemy in front of him.
"Ha!"
Relying on the overwhelming body and chakra of an Asura reincarnation, Futen met him with brute force. His blade fell like thunder, trying to crush skill with raw power.
The two fought to the death in the middle of Satō River. Blades crossed, shockwaves rolled, and the blood-red water sprayed into the air, only to be stained deeper by fresh blood.
No one could interfere.
At the height of the battle, Futen suddenly caught a sliver of an opening. Exploiting Kitsune's blindness, he poured all his chakra into his blade and swung horizontally with a roar.
"Uchiha Kitsune! Die!"
Slice—
The sharp blade bit deep into Kitsune's left shoulder and severed his left arm at the root.
Hot blood sprayed out, splashing into the bloodstained Satō River.
"Gh...!"
Kitsune let out a muffled groan as pain tore through his body, but he did not waver. Instead, he used the chance to close the distance, stepping forward instead of back and forcing his body in against Futen's guard.
"Are you insane??" Futen was shocked.
He didn't know whether Uchiha Kitsune still had that death-reversing power.
In that instant, Kitsune gripped his blade with his remaining right hand. Using every bit of strength left in his body and the momentum of his forward charge, he slashed upward in a final, ruthless arc.
Sshk—
A soft sound rang across the entire battlefield.
Senju Futen's head flew into the air, his face still frozen in disbelief. Hot blood erupted from the stump of his neck, splattering across Kitsune's black coat.
Head severed. Dead on the spot.
"..." The battlefield went silent.
The Senju clansmen stared in horror. Weapons slipped from their hands and hit the ground with dull clatters, fear and despair filling their faces.
The Uchiha stood frozen for a breath.
Then their cheers shook the sky.
"CLAN HEAD!!!!"
"WE WON!!!"
At the center of Satō River, Uchiha Kitsune stood alone in the blood-red water. Blood poured from the stump of his left arm. His entire body was drenched crimson, like a demon dragged back from hell.
His remaining right hand gripped his blade and used it to brace against the ground. Even with his body swaying on the verge of collapse, that cold, cutting presence still held the entire battlefield in silence.
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"Grand Sage! Grand Sage! Uchiha Kitsune... Uchiha Kitsune..."
White Zetsu rushed in with the report.
Manji opened his eyes. In his heart, he already knew Uchiha Kitsune was dead. It was time to take out the stone tablet and record the result.
"Grand Sage, Uchiha Kitsune won! Senju Futen was killed!"
White Zetsu reported in a hurry.
"Mm. Expected. Uchiha Kitsune no longer has the Mangekyō..."
"Wait."
"Who?"
"What did you just say?? Kitsune won??" Manji froze, then shot up from the stone platform.
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