Fugaku Uchiha looked at his son, who was sitting perfectly upright, with a complex expression.
He had always known his son was a genius, but for a mere five-year-old to possess such a profound understanding of the village's political landscape was far beyond his expectations.
"Then what do you want me to do?" Fugaku asked.
From that moment on, Fugaku no longer treated Jie Uchiha as a child. Instead, he placed him on equal footing, consulting him on the very future of the Uchiha clan.
Seeing his father acknowledge him so quickly, Jie was inwardly surprised. He had expected to waste far more breath convincing him, never anticipating it would be this easy. It seemed his father hadn't sat in the Clan Head's seat for so long for nothing; his intuition and leadership were nothing to scoff at.
"Tonight, the Uchiha clan must take action," Jie said calmly. "Civilians and Genin will evacuate to the shelters. Chunin and Jonin will cover the retreat of our clansmen and the village civilians. As for you, Father... I need you to fight alongside the Third Hokage against the Nine-Tails."
"Alright!" Fugaku agreed without hesitation.
His decisiveness actually surprised Jie a bit.
"If even you can see through the village's ulterior motives, how could I, as the Clan Head, continue to let the Uchiha endlessly back down?" A gentle smile touched Fugaku's face, his tone ringing with sudden, enlightened resolve.
With a single command from Fugaku, the Uchiha clan displayed a terrifying combat readiness worthy of the Hidden Leaf's strongest family. In a flash, every Uchiha Jonin and Chunin gathered in front of the Clan Head's estate.
In the darkness of the night, scarlet Sharingan bloomed one by one. This was the Uchiha clan's true power—the strength that made them both revered and feared.
In that short time, Fugaku had already donned his battle armor.
"Move out!"
The moment the order dropped, the gathered shinobi vanished. Under the protection of the Jonin and Chunin, the clan's civilians and Genin began an orderly evacuation. Although the Nine-Tails' rampage hadn't yet reached their compound, the Clan Head's word superseded everything else.
Fugaku exhaled a long breath. His people were moving; now it was time for him to take the stage.
"Father," Jie hastily called out, stopping Fugaku just before he could flicker away. "Absolutely do not cast a Sharingan genjutsu on the Nine-Tails."
Decades ago, Madara Uchiha had captured the Nine-Tails and left a control formula etched into its very being. Ever since then, to any Uchiha who awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, the legendary beast was little more than an oversized pet. It was precisely because of this vulnerability that Obito Uchiha was able to manipulate the fox into attacking the Hidden Leaf in the first place.
Now, Fugaku had also awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan. If he accidentally took control of the Nine-Tails during the chaos, the Third Hokage and Danzo would absolutely pin the blame for tonight's devastation entirely on the Uchiha. To prevent that disaster, Jie had to intervene.
Though somewhat puzzled by the specific warning, Fugaku nodded. He offered Mikoto Uchiha a faint smile, then vanished from the courtyard.
Earlier, Obito Uchiha had been forced to retreat by the combined efforts of Jie and the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. That clash had severed the connection between Obito and his summon. However, having regained its consciousness, the Nine-Tails was several times more terrifying than when it was under genjutsu.
Having been sealed away for decades, only to be mind-controlled by a Sharingan the moment it broke free, the beast's accumulated fury was immeasurable. Only indicriminate destruction could release its pent-up rage.
Hiruzen Sarutobi finally arrived at the battlefield. Looking at the ruined walls and the sheer devastation left in the fox's wake, he gasped.
"Summoning Jutsu: Enma!"
Hiruzen had no confidence in facing such a monstrous entity alone. He immediately summoned his personal companion, the Monkey King Enma, and had him transform into the Adamantine Staff. Relying on the staff's immense density and extension, Hiruzen forcefully shoved the Nine-Tails outside the village borders.
'Why isn't Minato here yet? I can't suppress the Nine-Tails all by myself,' Hiruzen thought anxiously.
He was no longer the youthful God of Shinobi. In his old age, just pushing the beast out of the village had exhausted nearly all his strength. If reinforcements didn't arrive soon, he feared he wouldn't survive the fox's next rampage.
Thwarted once again, the Nine-Tails' fury surged to a boiling point. It roared at the night sky as a boundless torrent of chakra gathered rapidly at its maw. A pitch-black Tailed Beast Bomb began to condense.
"Not good!" Seeing the dense sphere of energy, Hiruzen's pupils violently shrank.
The destructive power of a Tailed Beast Bomb was absolute. If it detonated within the Hidden Leaf, the entire village would be razed to ash. Yet, in his current state, Hiruzen simply lacked the strength to stop it.
'Minato!' Hiruzen desperately called out to the Fourth in his heart.
But Minato didn't appear. Instead, a figure he completely hadn't expected arrived out of nowhere, planting himself directly in front of the towering Nine-Tails.
"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"
A massive, lifelike dragon of roaring flame erupted from the Hidden Leaf's perimeter, crashing violently into the Nine-Tails.