The west wind was bitterly cold, and the setting sun was as red as blood.
Having shouted, "Entertain me!" Uchiha Jūbei naturally made the first move.
"Uchiha Secret Technique! Unmoving Mind and Body, Prajñā Samādhi, Forest of Demonic Hell!"
Uchiha Jūbei, who had no hands, formed hand seals through incantation.
He transformed into a Hannya, taking on the appearance of an evil spirit, and appeared on the battlefield where Sarutobi Hiruzen stood.
Inside his body, "Taira no Masakado" worked in conjunction with his ninjutsu, unleashing the power of Fear.
The so-called power of Fear was the source of a yōkai’s strength.
Human fear could deepen and amplify this power. The more afraid people became, the stronger it grew.
The brutality of the battlefield created an enormous psychological and visual impact, making the power of Fear exceptionally potent.
It also caused the power of Jūbei’s ninjutsu to increase dramatically.
At this moment, Jūbei split into eight hundred clones.
Every single clone was a Hannya evil spirit.
In an instant, countless demonic heads filled the space around Sarutobi Hiruzen. They swirled and raced through the sky, and every one of them had Jūbei’s appearance.
The evil spirits specifically targeted the Sarutobi shinobi.
Whenever one of the demons passed through the body of a Sarutobi shinobi, the shinobi would collapse in agony, terror written across their faces.
They seemed to have been plunged into the most frightening scene of their entire lives.
Jūbei had shouted for Sarutobi Hiruzen to entertain him, but he had no intention of fighting the Third Hokage to the death.
He merely wanted to keep Sarutobi Hiruzen’s attention focused on himself.
Jūbei understood perfectly well that although the Third Hokage looked like an old man who could barely move, he was the only person on their side capable of holding Sarutobi Hiruzen at bay.
The moment Hiruzen shifted his attention toward the other Uchiha’s attacks, their defeat would come swiftly.
After all, even after suffering such a devastating blow, the numerical disparity between the two sides was still more than one hundred to one.
"When the enemy outnumbers us, only a surprise force can secure victory!"
He, the inferior horse, would hold back Hiruzen, the superior horse.
That would allow his subordinates, the lower horses, to slaughter Konoha’s inferior horses at will.
That was called tactics.
The battlefield before Hiruzen was covered in demons.
Right before the eyes of Sarutobi Hiruzen, the head of the Sarutobi Clan, those demons were mercilessly slaughtering his clansmen.
And Jūbei’s tactically brilliant ninjutsu did more than attract Hiruzen’s attention.
It also attracted the attention of the shinobi clans that were skilled at changing sides with the wind.
The moment the war began, Konoha had suffered a devastating saturation attack.
The civilian shinobi who had fought on battlefields before could not organize an effective counterattack without a leader to direct them.
However, their previous combat experience was still of enormous value.
At the very least, they knew how to escape under the Uchiha’s assault.
Of course, this did not include Orochimaru’s people.
That man had not even participated in his teacher’s campaign against the Uchiha, so naturally, his subordinates were nowhere among the crowd.
At present, the only people capable of organizing a counterattack were the shinobi clans.
But from the very beginning, they had remained on the sidelines, merely swept along by the momentum and pressured into publicly supporting Sarutobi.
If victory had been certain, they would not have minded helping suppress the Uchiha.
If they discovered that the Uchiha were weak, they might even have swarmed them and taken advantage of the arrogant clan that had always acted so high and mighty.
But after witnessing the scale of the Uchiha’s counterattack, there was nothing left to say.
The clan heads began organizing their shinobi to stand aside and watch the battle.
That left the Sarutobi Clan shinobi who had never experienced a battlefield to suffer.
They had absolutely no experience dealing with such a sudden crisis.
They were like a group of inexperienced recruits who had just stepped onto a battlefield and immediately been subjected to a saturation attack.
Forget counterattacking.
They could barely even move.
All they could do was allow the Uchiha to slaughter them.
The terror brought about by the brutality of war caused their legs to tremble uncontrollably.
And that fear was then magnified infinitely by the ninjutsu known as the Forest of Demonic Hell.
The shinobi clans that had withdrawn from the battlefield gathered together and waited for the outcome.
In the past, they had feared the Third Hokage’s power and had no choice but to make a decision.
But given the current situation, all they needed to do was wait for the result.
Whoever won today, they would choose that side.
Nearly ten thousand elite shinobi had gathered together.
They believed that they were now the strongest force in all of Konoha.
The Sarutobi Clan’s people were simply too weak.
As expected, a shinobi’s strength was not determined by numbers alone.
Uchiha Shisui was among them.
It was not that he did not want to help Lord Third.
It was just that the pleas and desperate tugging of his clansmen around him made it impossible for him to leave.
The shinobi clans watched the battlefield from outside, waiting for the final outcome.
But the Kurama Clan was not as relaxed as the other clans when they saw what was happening.
"This isn’t ninjutsu. It’s genjutsu!"
Kurama Izumo stared at the scene before him and cried out in shock, immediately attracting the attention of everyone nearby.
"Clan Head Kurama, what are you talking about?"
The other clan heads were somewhat displeased by Kurama’s reaction.
What difference did it make whether it was ninjutsu or genjutsu?
But Kurama Izumo was unexpectedly furious.
"Who knows this Uchiha? He used our Kurama Clan’s secret technique!"
Those words immediately drew the attention of the Uchiha surrounding Shisui.
"Clan Head Kurama, what do you mean?"
Although they were all Uchiha, they belonged to different factions. Even so, Shisui was unwilling to tolerate such an accusation.
Those Uchiha outside the village are causing trouble for me again.
Hearing Shisui’s question, the Kurama Clan Head seemed to have found an outlet for his anger.
"Hmph! You despicable Uchiha! You stole the Kurama Clan’s inheritance. You must give the Kurama Clan an explanation!"
Shisui refused to accept the accusation.
"Clan Head Kurama, please explain yourself clearly!"
But the Kurama Clan Head seemed determined to press the matter.
"You don’t know what you’ve done?"
The physically frail Kurama Clan Head actually grabbed Shisui by the collar with surprising force.
Seeing this, Shisui felt somewhat helpless.
Forget knowing what he had done—he did not even understand what was happening before his eyes.
"Clan Head Kurama, what do you think? Do you think I know or not?"
The Kurama Clan Head looked at the battle, then at Shisui, who had not participated in it.
He finally realized that this was merely a marginal figure of the Uchiha Clan.
Shisui genuinely had no idea what was going on.
Forget it. I might as well explain.
After all, everyone was here to serve as witnesses.
If the Uchiha were confronted later, having witnesses to support him would be useful.
After all, none of the clans wanted their secret techniques to be casually spread outside their clan.
"Hmph. Then I’ll make you understand, young man."
With that, the Kurama Clan Head released Shisui’s collar.
"Ordinary genjutsu used by shinobi merely uses chakra to construct a mental world inside the opponent’s mind. Even so-called genjutsu masters are simply experts at constructing mental worlds that conform to the perceptions shared by most people, making them difficult to see through."
At this point, Kurama Izumo suddenly became proud.
"But the Kurama Clan is known as the foremost genjutsu clan because once a member of the Kurama Clan awakens their bloodline, they can manipulate the five senses."
"This means that the Kurama Clan does not need to construct a world that conforms to the opponent’s perception. They can create a completely genuine world, because your own senses will tell you that everything is real."
"Even your own death."
As he spoke, Kurama Izumo pointed toward the Sarutobi shinobi lying motionless on the battlefield.
"That Uchiha appears to be using evil spirits to perform ninjutsu, but in reality, it is a form of genjutsu."
"The shinobi struck by those demons have not actually been injured by ninjutsu. The demons have manipulated their five senses, causing them to fall into the most terrifying memories buried within their minds, and then infinitely amplifying the horror of those memories."
"That is the strength of the Kurama Clan’s genjutsu!"
Kurama Izumo’s words caused the surrounding clan members to draw a sharp breath.
Such a technique was practically an impossible proposition.
If you truly possessed the courage to overcome the most terrifying thing in your heart, then how could that thing still be called your greatest fear?
The fact that not a single shinobi lying on the ground had managed to stand back up said everything.
The smaller clans once again looked at the Kurama Clan with the respect they had shown them in the past.
This former great clan still possessed considerable foundations.
The Kurama Clan had once supplied Konoha with large numbers of elite jōnin and chūnin.
It had been one of Konoha’s three great clans.
However, because of its close relationship with the Uchiha Clan, it had been subjected to obvious suppression.
In just a few decades, the clan had declined to the point where it could maintain its dignity only through a group of adopted children.
After Sarutobi came to power, the Kurama Clan declined even further because no shinobi with an awakened kekkei genkai had appeared within the clan.
It had eventually fallen into the ranks of Konoha’s insignificant minor clans.
Even the Yūhi Clan, a minor genjutsu clan, no longer took them seriously.
Yet now, with the Kurama Clan Head making such a statement, the various clan heads began considering the implications.
Whether he was promoting the strength of the Kurama Clan’s awakened kekkei genkai or using the accusation as a way to establish ties, both possibilities revealed far more than they seemed to.
The various clan heads could not help looking toward the Akimichi Clan, which stood nearby with its mouths shut, gazing at the sky as though nothing had anything to do with them.
This "die-hard ally" of the Sarutobi Clan was now acting as though it had nothing to do with the conflict and was completely uninvolved.
But everyone suddenly remembered that there was an Uchiha named Jōsuke who seemed to have a relationship remarkably similar to the one the Kurama Clan Head had just described.
What an Akimichi Clan.
What a Pig–Deer–Butterfly.
The shinobi clans finally understood.
If the Sarutobi won today, the Akimichi Clan would remain loyal followers of the Sarutobi.
If the Uchiha won, they would become relatives of the Uchiha.
And if neither side won decisively, they would become the indispensable force capable of determining the balance of power.
Heh.
Konoha was truly a place where nepotism ruled.
As a shinobi clan, one had to understand the difference between being a two-faced opportunist and remaining neutral between opposing sides.
The various clan heads began observing the Uchiha on the battlefield, hoping to find someone who had a relationship similar to their own.
The political experience of the great clans had to be learned.
And because everyone was so focused on this, they overlooked the small, delicate-looking child standing beside Uchiha Shisui.
His eyes were filled with jealousy.
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