[Ding! Reward Received: Nine-Tails Chakra & Three-Tomoe Sharingan]
The system's voice had barely faded when a rush of heat surged into Jie Uchiha's body. The comforting warmth made him let out a soft groan. At the same time, a cooling sensation bloomed in his mind, slowly pooling into his eyes.
When the coolness finally dissipated, Jie snapped his eyes open. Three distinct, comma-shaped tomoe stood out starkly against his blood-red irises.
'I hit the jackpot!' Jie thought, his heart racing with excitement.
The Three-Tomoe Sharingan! It was the Uchiha clan's most powerful cheat on the surface. Of course, the subsequent evolutions—the Mangekyo Sharingan, the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, and finally the Rinnegan—were each overwhelmingly powerful in their own right. But for Jie to awaken three tomoe at the tender age of five? It undoubtedly catapulted him miles ahead on the path of evolution.
As for the Nine-Tails' chakra, even though it was only a single cluster, it was more than enough to drastically enhance Jie's restorative abilities. Furthermore, because this chakra was a system reward, it was completely devoid of the centuries of negative emotions typically harbored by the beast. Thus, Jie mastered it without breaking a sweat.
A split second later, a scarlet aura of Tailed Beast chakra exploded outward from Jie's body.
"A Tailed Beast Cloak!" Feeling the tremendous power coursing through him, Jie wanted to throw his head back and laugh. 'What a massive profit!'
...
The simultaneous detonation of one hundred thousand explosive tags created a shockwave far louder than the Nine-Tails' furious roar. In an instant, the entire village spiraled into panic.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was working from home. Though he had officially stepped down from the position, the true political power of the village still rested firmly in his hands. Kushina's impending delivery only gave him further justification to maintain control.
The moment the Nine-Tails broke free of its seal, a deep sense of foreboding rose in Hiruzen's chest.
'This feeling...' He looked up at the bright moon hanging in the night sky, trying to soothe his anxiety. 'Hopefully, I'm just overthinking it. With Minato and Biwako there, nothing will go wrong.'
But the deafening boom of the massive explosive tag array instantly shattered his illusions.
"That came from outside the village." Hiruzen's expression darkened. "Not good. Something definitely happened!"
He immediately summoned his Anbu.
"Pass down the order! The village is now in a state of emergency!" Hiruzen commanded rapidly. "All civilians, women, children, and Academy students are to evacuate to the shelters immediately! Mobilize all shinobi ranked Chunin and above for emergency standby. Prepare to face a crisis!"
He suddenly paused, a calculating look flashing across his eyes. "And pass on another order. All Anbu and village shinobi are not to act rashly without my direct command."
Once the Anbu vanished, the Third Hokage gazed distantly at the Hokage building in the center of the village. "For the sake of..." He trailed off with a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry, Minato."
...
Deep underground in the back mountains of Konoha lay the Root base.
The Hokage's advisor and leader of Root, Danzo Shimura, leaned heavily on his cane, half his face obscured by the shadows.
"It finally happened," Danzo said, his voice a low, heavy rumble. "Pass down my orders. No matter what happens tonight, Root is not to make a single move!"
"Yes, Lord Danzo!" the Root shinobis' replied in unison, their faces hidden behind expressionless masks.
Danzo narrowed his one visible eye. 'The seat of the Fifth Hokage will definitely be mine!'
...
After being ambushed once, Obito Uchiha didn't dare lower his guard. Even while traveling, he kept his Kamui intangibility active the entire time. Never in his wildest dreams could Obito have imagined that the earth-shattering explosion was merely a trap laid by a five-year-old child.
Carefully evading the patrols, Obito reached the outskirts of Konoha and used Kamui to teleport directly into the village.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Black sealing formulas instantly spread across the ground, followed by a massive plume of white smoke. With a deafening roar, the colossal form of the Nine-Tails materialized in the heart of Konoha.
As the strongest of the Tailed Beasts and the ultimate weapon among the hidden villages, its mere presence exuded an endless, suffocating pressure.
"F-fake... right?" a Konoha Chunin stammered, his face draining of color under the fatal aura. "This kind of monster... can we really defeat this kind of monster?"
Nearby, a female Chunin who had been covering the civilian evacuation collapsed to the ground when she met the Nine-Tails' blood-red, tomoe-filled eyes. She muttered in absolute despair.
Having been sealed for decades and now stripped of its sanity by Obito's Sharingan, the Nine-Tails relied purely on instinct as it wreaked havoc. The sheer power of the perfect Nine-Tails was practically a cheat code in the current ninja world. Every punch, every stomp, and even a casual sweep of its tails caused catastrophic destruction.
The beast leveled countless homes. Swarms of Konoha shinobi risked their lives to halt its advance, but to the Nine-Tails, their attacks were less than a tickle. They did nothing but enrage the beast further.
"Lord Third, the Nine-Tails has appeared inside the village!" an Anbu ninja reported urgently.
"I know," Hiruzen replied, slowly rising to his feet. Piece by piece, he strapped on his old battle armor. "I will go suppress the Nine-Tails. The rest of the village's shinobi are to prioritize the civilian evacuation."
"Yes, sir!" The Anbu flickered away.
Fully armored, Hiruzen cast one last look at the chaotic village. After a moment of silence, he turned and rushed toward the battlefield.
...
"So this is the real Nine-Tails!"
Standing atop the Hokage Monument, Jie watched the beast ravage the village in the distance, his heart pounding with sheer awe. He had seen the Nine-Tails' destructive power countless times in the anime, but witnessing the living, breathing monster right before his eyes made him finally understand what true terror was.
Yet, even a beast as mighty as the Nine-Tails would be nothing more than a plaything in the inevitable Fourth Great Ninja War. If Jie wanted absolute control over his own fate, he had to become ten times, a hundred times, even ten thousand times stronger than the Nine-Tails!