BOOM!
The genjutsu world shattered completely.
The training grounds were still the same training grounds.
Spit.
Uchiha Fugaku suddenly coughed up a great mouthful of blood.
Having his Mangekyō dōjutsu forcibly destroyed, the backlash nearly tore Fugaku's mind apart.
"You..."
Fugaku raised his head and stared in shock at Shinsuke before him, completely unharmed.
Every clan member around them froze, for in the span of just one or two seconds, Clan Head Fugaku had coughed up blood?
The exchange within the genjutsu world may have felt lengthy, but in the real world it had lasted only a matter of seconds.
And now, Uchiha Fugaku had already suffered severe damage.
This left every Uchiha present completely stunned.
"It is not over yet!"
"Shinsuke, let me show you the true measure of my power!"
Uchiha Fugaku roared as the Mangekyō in his eyes unleashed a dōjutsu force pushed to its very limit.
Bloodred chakra, like boiling magma, erupted from within Fugaku's body and instantly enveloped him entirely.
Ribs materialized.
Then arms, then a spine.
A blood-crimson skeleton rose from the ground and enclosed Fugaku at its center.
"Su... Susano'o!"
An elder cried out in shock.
It was a power belonging to the gods themselves, recorded only in the clan's most ancient stone tablets!
Swiftly, sinew and muscle layered over the skeletal frame, followed by thick and solid armor.
A massive crimson giant, wielding two enormous chakra blades like a demon god, took full form.
Third-stage Susano'o!
The suffocating pressure it radiated made every Uchiha present feel their very souls trembling.
They stepped back instinctively, and then stepped back again.
Before this demon god, they were as insignificant as insects.
"Shinsuke!"
Fugaku's voice carried from within Susano'o.
"Let me show you what my Susano'o can do!"
As the words faded, Susano'o's massive arm swung upward and the chakra blade in its grip came screaming down toward Shinsuke with a shriek that seemed to tear the sky apart.
Before the blade even arrived, the terrifying pressure it generated caused the ground beneath Shinsuke's feet to cave in with a thunderous crack.
Faced with this world-destroying strike, a change finally appeared on Shinsuke's face.
It was an expression of keen interest.
"Interesting."
At the very instant the blade was about to fall, a blinding crackle of purple lightning erupted and wrapped around Shinsuke's entire body like countless wild, dancing serpents.
Lightning Release Chakra Mode!
At 0.01 seconds before the blade touched the ground, Shinsuke's figure dissolved into a bolt of purple lightning and vanished.
CRASH!
The enormous blade slammed into empty air.
The entire training grounds shook violently.
A terrifying trench a hundred meters long and seemingly bottomless appeared before every onlooker.
Such was the devastation of a single blow.
"You think you can keep dodging!"
Fugaku roared furiously, driving Susano'o as the second blade swept across at a cunning angle.
The purple lightning flickered again.
Shinsuke's figure reappeared on the other side of Susano'o, having effortlessly evaded the slash that could have leveled a mountain peak.
Over the next dozen or so seconds, the entire training grounds became a stage shared between a divine being and a mortal one.
The crimson demon god swung its massive blades in a frenzy, and every strike carved a fresh and horrifying scar into the earth.
Yet that bolt of purple lightning moved like a phantom through the storm of attacks, unhurried and at ease.
Every one of Shinsuke's evasions was perfectly timed.
Every shift of his position seemed completely effortless.
It was not desperate fleeing.
It looked more like an elegant dance.
The Uchiha watching from outside the field had completely lost the ability to think.
Their eyes held nothing but the world-destroying crimson and that lightning-fast streak of purple.
"Enough."
At the moment a barely perceptible pause appeared in Fugaku's rhythm of attack, Shinsuke's voice carried clearly across the entire battlefield.
Shinsuke stopped evading.
He stood facing the enormous demon god from a distance.
"I have had my fun, and it is time to end this farce."
Shinsuke's hands flew through seals as a mass of dark crimson flame and a crackling cluster of purple lightning materialized in his palms.
Two types of chakra with completely opposing natures began to fuse in a way that defied all reason.
"Lightning Fire Dragon's Breath!"
A ferocious and roaring great dragon, woven from dark crimson fire and purple lightning, took form before him.
But it was not over yet.
The Mangekyō in Shinsuke's right eye spun wildly.
Jutsu Amplification!
An invisible force poured into the body of the lightning-fire dragon.
The dragon, already overwhelmingly violent, expanded several times in size in an instant as the arcs of electricity and flames covering it became denser and deeper, radiating an unsettling aura capable of annihilating all things.
Lightning Fire Dragon's Breath had already been an S-rank jutsu pushed to its absolute ceiling.
Empowered in this moment by the enhancement granted through the Mangekyō Sharingan, it had undergone a qualitative transformation and no longer belonged within the category of S-rank jutsu at all.
"Go."
With a light wave of Shinsuke's hand, the Lightning Fire Dragon's Breath, now surpassing S-rank, hurtled straight toward Uchiha Fugaku.
The lightning-fire dragon let out a roar that shook the heavens and earth and slammed headlong into the enormous Susano'o.
"Hold it... back!"
Fugaku poured every last remnant of chakra within him into Susano'o in a frenzy, crossing the two massive blades before him to form the strongest defensive posture possible.
But it was useless.
Against absolute power, all defense is nothing but futility.
BOOM!
The lightning-fire dragon crashed heavily into Susano'o's armor.
A violent thunderous impact rang out.
Then came a sharp crack.
Spiderweb fractures spread wildly outward from the point of impact across Susano'o's supposedly indestructible armor.
Crimson light burst through the cracks.
Within seconds, that demon god symbolizing the Uchiha's supreme power, standing at the very apex of the shinobi world, shattered completely before the disbelieving and horrified eyes of every clan member.
With Susano'o broken, Fugaku's figure was exposed to the remaining force of Lightning Fire Dragon's Breath.
At that moment, the Mangekyō in Fugaku's eyes had gone completely dark and the chakra in his body was entirely spent.
He could only watch helplessly as the lightning-fire dragon capable of annihilating everything lunged toward him.
Was this... the end?
Flashes crossed Fugaku's mind, his wife's gentle smile, Itachi's serious face, Sasuke's innocent laughter.
Perhaps... this was fine.
Dying in battle here could at least be considered preserving his final dignity.
Uchiha Fugaku slowly closed his eyes and calmly awaited the arrival of death.
Yet the pain he had braced for never came.
Time, in that instant, seemed to have its pause button pressed.
That devastating torrent of lightning and fire froze abruptly less than one centimeter from his face.
Shinsuke's figure had appeared before him at some unknown moment, one hand resting gently on his shoulder.
Left Eye: Temporal Reversion!
Before Fugaku's astonished gaze, the lightning-fire dragon that could have vaporized him in an instant began to reverse course against all logic, shrinking and pulling back, until it dissolved once more into a gentle mass of chakra and dissipated in Shinsuke's palm.
"You..."
Fugaku stared at Shinsuke in utter disbelief.
What an inconceivable, what an utterly unfathomable power!
The difference between killing and sparing lay entirely in a single thought from the other person.
This was no longer merely strength.
This was... control.
"Clan Head Fugaku."
Shinsuke's voice was calm and gentle.
"I have said it before, my goal is to take over the entire Uchiha smoothly, not to create an internal conflict."
"Your blood should not be shed here."
"As we agreed, give me your full support, and the Uchiha, under my leadership, will march toward a glory never seen before."
Fugaku's body trembled, barely perceptibly.
He looked at Shinsuke before him.
Uchiha Fugaku finally understood.
The person before him possessed power that far exceeded his own, yet had maintained restraint throughout.
He had seen a future stretching further than Fugaku could perceive, which was why he had chosen the most aggressive path, yet also the one most likely to bring the clan through to survival.
Uchiha Fugaku, the man who had led the Uchiha for over a decade and had never bowed his head to anyone, slowly bent at the waist before the gaze of every clan member.
"I, Uchiha Fugaku..."
"Acknowledge your strength."
"Shinsuke..."
"From this day forward, you, and you alone, are the rightful clan head of the Uchiha!"