No one expected the Masked Man to pull out a strange, ancient-looking war fan, amplify Sasuke's Great Fireball, and send it blasting back at him.
Sasuke watched the enormous fireball crash down toward him from above.
He could dodge—but if he moved, the Great Fireball would slam straight into the village homes behind him. What if there were still elderly people inside who hadn't made it to the shelters?
Gritting his teeth, Sasuke prepared to counter the attack with another Great Fireball.
"Sasuke!!!"
Naruto saw the reflected Fire Release rushing back—stronger than before thanks to that bizarre fan—and panic overtook him. He yelled for the shadow clones closest to Sasuke to rush forward and block the attack, anything to lessen its impact.
At that moment, several voices called out from behind them—
"Fire Release! Great Fireball Technique!!"
Five or six Great Fireballs—bigger and fiercer than Sasuke's original one—shot forward from behind Naruto's clones, slamming into the reflected attack.
The combined force bent Sasuke's fireball off course and sent it blasting into the sky.
"You two?!" Fugaku Uchiha's startled voice rang out.
"Clan Head!"
"Clan Head..."
"Clan Head!!"
Naruto and Sasuke spun around.
The Uchiha Police Force had followed them all the way to the front lines.
"I ordered you to stay at the shelters and protect the civilians! I told you not to come to the front lines!!" Fugaku's voice trembled between fury and urgency.
Hearing it, Sasuke felt something tighten painfully in his throat.
But Fugaku didn't even look at him or Naruto. Instead, he stared at the arriving clan members and sighed.
"Since you're already here, going back is pointless now."
Danzō would surely use this against the Uchiha even more viciously.
Seeing yet another group of Uchiha appear, the Masked Man let out a mocking laugh.
"That old fool Danzō said he'd keep you occupied… but forget it. I never expected his promises to mean anything."
"What?!"
A hot-headed young Uchiha immediately snapped back, "You're saying you and Danzō planned to keep us restrained?!!"
Fugaku felt fury boiling in his chest. No matter how targeted the Uchiha had been, he still believed that if they endured until the new Hokage—until Minato—gained enough influence to topple Danzō and the two advisors, then the Uchiha could finally rebuild ties with the other clans and the people of Konoha…
And the prejudice between them would gradually fade.
But he never imagined—
In order to suppress the Uchiha—
Danzō Shimura had actually colluded with an external enemy.
With this, he could pin the Nine-Tails disaster on Minato and force him out of the Hokage position, while also crushing the Uchiha Clan in the same stroke.
A ruthless, two-birds-one-stone scheme.
And exactly the kind of thing Danzō Shimura would do.
For the sake of grasping at the Hokage's seat, that bastard Danzō was willing to let a village still recovering from war suffer a tailed beast catastrophe...
Fugaku issued his command. "No matter what happens today, we capture the Masked Man!"
The Uchiha ninja who had been chasing Naruto and Sasuke responded immediately.
Swish—swish—swish!
More than a dozen young Uchiha arrived one after another, forming a tight circle around the Masked Man.
The Masked Man fell silent.
Nearly twenty pairs of Sharingan locked onto him at once, forming a wall of crimson eyes. Sasuke and Naruto stepped in with the rest.
There was no way Naruto could still care about his mission scroll now. Forget that SSS-rank mission about saving the Masked Man. After attacking Kushina—after Naruto learned Kushina was the mother he'd always longed to meet—every trace of restraint inside him had burned away.
Yashiro Uchiha stared at the fan in the Masked Man's hand, stunned, and turned to their clan head.
"Clan Head! That fan he's holding—"
"It's a weapon passed down through generations of the Uchiha," Fugaku said. "But we've only ever seen it in clan records. After Madara Uchiha took it—along with the sickle—it disappeared."
"So it is what I thought…"
Naruto shouted, "We heard that guy's partner call him 'Madara!' And be careful—that guy's moves are seriously weird, dattebayo!"
Fugaku cast a brief glance at the blond kid who'd spoken. He hadn't misheard. That blond kid had just called the black-haired Uchiha beside him Sasuke.
At this point in the clan, the only person named Sasuke was his own son. And this boy named Sasuke… his face resembled Itachi, though in truth, he looked even more like Mikoto.
Fugaku: "….."
The boy called Sasuke held his gaze, silently pleading for him to believe them. After a moment of silence, Fugaku didn't express trust, but he also showed neither hostility nor avoidance toward the two boys.
"The Masked Man isn't Madara Uchiha. His skills and battle instincts fall far short of that legendary shinobi."
He addressed the clan members.
"But he does possess the Mangekyō Sharingan. His ability is space–time ninjutsu—he can make himself intangible when attacked and shift his body through space."
He shared the intel swiftly, and the instant the words "Mangekyō Sharingan" were spoken, shock rippled through the Uchiha.
Sasuke stiffened. "Mangekyō Sharingan?!"
It triggered the memory of Itachi's eyes—the twisting pattern he'd seen on the night of the clan massacre.
"You two, stand down," Fugaku instructed Sasuke and Naruto.
Then the dozen Uchiha elites surged forward, launching a coordinated assault on the Masked Man. They had to capture him. If he escaped, the Uchiha—already cornered politically—would be driven into an even worse situation simply because he wielded the Sharingan.
Shuriken and Fire Release techniques flew in from all sides, combined with relentless Uchiha taijutsu. Sasuke and Naruto wanted to join, but with the elites moving in perfect sync, they would only get in the way.
Just then, a distant roar thundered across the battlefield.
Golden chains erupted into the sky like thorned vines—like the cursed bramble sealing a fairy-tale castle—only these glowed bright gold. From afar, they formed an immense lattice, binding the entire body of the Nine-Tails.
At every point where the chains linked together, unusual sealing symbols appeared. Dozens upon dozens wrapped around the beast.
"Sealed—!"
The massive form of the Nine-Tails vanished from sight.
The Masked Man let out a startled "Huh?"
A moment later, Black Zetsu's head rose from the ground.
"Madara, the Nine-Tails has been sealed again."
The Masked Man swept aside the attacking Uchiha youths with a swing of the Gunbai.
"As expected of Minato Namikaze. It seems… we'll have to wait for next time."
Black Zetsu's tone was frustrated. "Two Minato Namikaze appeared. What is going on?!"
The Masked Man was just as furious. He hadn't only seen two Minato Namikaze—he'd seen two Kakashi, Rin… and even his younger self.
...
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