"Our objective in this battle is to hunt down Root members, not to assault Konoha."
"It will be me, Itachi, and the clan head taking the vanguard. With our Susanoo, we will sweep through all Root members."
Except for the Great Elder, everyone below revealed shocked expressions, even letting out buzzing murmurs.
Everyone understood what Rengoku meant. Their clan head, the clan head's son, and the fourth elder were all masters of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Fugaku was somewhat surprised that Rengoku turned out to be a Mangekyo user.
Itachi was also shocked that Rengoku knew his father also possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan.
However, Rengoku did not explain much.
He simply made a tactical hand sign and took the lead to head out.
On Itachi's side, he released Izumi and whispered to her, "Move to the back of the formation."
Izumi knew Itachi had serious business to handle and could only remind him, "Be careful, Itachi!"
Itachi gave a slight nod and quickly followed Rengoku's pace.
The Great Elder stared coldly at Fugaku. Gritting his teeth, Fugaku also followed after Rengoku.
The Great Elder made a hand sign and led over a hundred people to follow directly behind.
———
[Hokage Office]
Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado quickly arrived at the office.
Time was urgent, and the Anbu had already informed them on the way about what had happened.
"Hiruzen, why did Itachi side with the Uchiha?"
As a fellow schemer, Koharu was the first to ask.
She was previously the one who played the "bad cop" role and one of the higher-ups who brainwashed Itachi.
She originally thought that even if Itachi couldn't kill most of the Uchiha, he could at least kill some top figures to trigger chaos within the clan.
With Danzo's massive Root organization, wiping out the Uchiha clan should have been easy. She didn't expect things to go this way.
The Third Hokage now wore a stern expression, "Now is not the time to talk about that."
"Right now, we don't know what the Uchiha clan intends to do."
Koharu snorted coldly, "Isn't it obvious? Itachi rejoined the clan and even attacked Danzo. This is clearly a military coup."
The Third Hokage looked at Homura, who hesitated before speaking, "The Uchiha probably wouldn't dare fight."
The Third Hokage tapped his pipe, "I've already deployed a large number of people to monitor the Uchiha clan's movements."
"You two go organize your own manpower."
"I'll inform the other ninja clans."
Homura and Koharu could only go down to organize their forces.
The Third Hokage then instructed the Anbu, "Send a message to Jiraiya immediately and have him rush back."
"Yes!", The Anbu instantly vanished.
The Third Hokage took a puff of smoke and thought to himself: Hopefully we can survive today.
———
[Outside the Uchiha Clan Grounds]
BOOM!
"What is that?"
"AHHH!"
"Retreat quickly!"
Three Susanoo, orange-red, black, and purple-black, led the charge.
Only a few Root members had seen Shisui's Susanoo before.
The others had never seen such bulldozers, swords couldn't cut them, ninjutsu couldn't pierce them.
Even the skeletal form of Susanoo, taking one punch turned them into minced meat.
The bloody mess was unrecognizable even by their own mothers.
Such insanely powerful things.
There were three of them.
Without any command structure, the Root collapsed immediately and frantically retreated toward Konoha.
In reality, Rengoku and the others only killed a dozen people with their Susanoo.
But the scene was just too overwhelming.
The Uchiha behind them were all howling, morale surging, chasing after the Root forces.
Although Root had seventy to eighty people, over a hundred Uchiha came pressing in, there was no resistance.
They left corpses as they fled.
Fugaku had long activated his Mangekyo Sharingan, but in recent years had basically never used it in front of others.
This was his first time in such an exhilarating battle. Seeing his people surging with morale stirred his long-dormant heart.
'We have three Mangekyo Sharingan… does that mean…'
Rengoku's gaze remained calm; he was not as hot-blooded as Fugaku.
Such a one-sided situation was already within his plans.
Using Susanoo as the vanguard to crush enemy momentum and raise their own morale, striking down these scattered Root members. If they didn't do this, they had no right to call themselves Uchiha.
Moreover, he had no intention of turning completely against Konoha.
Though Itachi followed his orders to use Susanoo to pursue the Root members, Itachi deep down still didn't want to go to war with Konoha.
He stood with his clan but didn't want to slaughter civilians or trigger war.
With one side chasing and one side fleeing, Root finally saw the forces organized by the Third Hokage after leaving behind over forty corpses.
Rengoku raised both hands and signaled to stop the pursuit.
Fugaku and Itachi also stopped beside him.
The clan members behind them also gradually stopped. Most of their faces were flushed with bloodlust and killing intent.
For the hundred-plus Uchiha warriors, seventy to eighty Root members weren't nearly enough to kill.
They still wanted to fight, kill more.
The battle spirit on everyone's face was too obvious, and even the Konoha side was in turmoil.
The Great Elder came to the front of the formation and signaled to halt.
The clan members calmed down a bit, many seizing the time to recover their strength.
However, all Uchiha with awakened eyes kept their Sharingan active, blood-red eyes fixed on the Konoha side.
"Senior Rengoku?", Itachi asked.
Rengoku turned his head and saw hesitation and worry in Itachi's eyes.
He patted Itachi on the shoulder, "Relax, I didn't lie to you."
Itachi's heart eased slightly.
Rengoku glanced at the eager Fugaku, "Great Elder, come over here."
Hearing Rengoku's call, the Great Elder walked up with powerful strides.
Rengoku lowered his voice and said to Itachi and the Great Elder, "Later, you need to say this..."
"Great Elder, you cooperate like this..."
He laid out his plan openly. The Great Elder's eyes showed a trace of contemplation after listening.
Fugaku frowned and asked, "Rengoku, isn't this just giving Konoha more time to prepare?"
Rengoku slightly shook his head, "My mind is very clear. I'll tell you the follow-up plan later."
Fugaku wanted to say something but saw the stern gaze of the Great Elder behind him and instantly fell silent.
Tonight's command was in Rengoku's hands. Whatever Rengoku arranged, he had to do.
Sasuke's life was still in the Great Elder's hands.
The Great Elder responded directly, "I'll follow your lead, Rengoku."
The Uchiha clan grounds had long since been relocated to the outer edge of Konoha.
Now, there was one street's distance between them and Konoha's forces.
Although they didn't know why the Uchiha had stopped, the Third Hokage was happy to stall for more time.
At the very least, he needed to wait for elites from other clans to arrive.
The Uchiha clan's combat strength was terrifying. If more people weren't dragged into this, his own core forces would suffer great losses.
Especially with the horrific news brought back by the just-retreated Root members.
Mangekyo Sharingan.
The Uchiha had three.
Itachi, Fugaku, and Rengoku—all THREE.
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