Deep within the heart of the Uchiha District, the world felt isolated and unnervingly silent, shrouded in a suffocating air of oppression.
However, Saiki's intrusion was like a massive boulder dropped into a placid lake, instantly shattering the fraudulent peace.
"ENEMY INFILTRATION—!"
A thunderous roar alerted the guards who had been prepared for hours.
Swish!
Swish!
Swish!
Silhouettes flickered out from the streets, the rooftops, and the dark corners.
Deep blue uniforms, the iconic folding-fan crest, and crimson Sharingan snapping open like demonic eyes in the dead of night—they converged in a dense, overwhelming mass, blocking Saiki's path.
Since they had made their move, they were prepared to deploy every available man to stall Konoha's forces, buying time to seize control of the Nine-Tails.
"Stop him! At any cost!" an Uchiha of obviously high status barked a cold, emotionless command.
Even though Saiki was alone, the commander refused to be careless.
The response was a symphony of whistling steel.
Kunai, shuriken, and darts rigged with explosive tags rained down like a torrential storm, attempting to bury Saiki under a flood of metal and fire.
Several Elite Jonin with three-tomoe Sharingan closed in from various angles like ghosts, their blades glinting as their hands blurred through complex signs to unleash high-level Ninjutsu.
"You seek death!!"
Saiki's expression was a mask of cold indifference, showing not a shred of fear.
Surrounded by a whirlwind of projectiles and Ninjutsu, he swung the cheap blade he had purchased from the roadside stall.
There were no flashy effects, only a strike of absolute, blinding velocity.
SHRED!
A massive arc of white blade-qi, ten meters long, tore through the atmosphere, cleaving through every obstacle in his path.
The resulting shockwave sent the rain of kunai and shuriken flying like dry leaves in a hurricane.
Everywhere the light touched, the air screamed under the pressure, and the solid ground below was plowed into a deep trench, sending stone and dust rocketing into the sky.
"AGH—!"
The screams were instantly swallowed by the roar of the blade.
The two leading three-tomoe Elite Jonin, along with the Lightning and Fire Style jutsu they were preparing, were completely devoured by the berserk energy.
CRACK!
A cheap product was a cheap product after all.
Under the strain of Saiki's casual strike, the blade shattered into a thousand jagged fragments.
Saiki was left holding nothing but a bare hilt.
"His sword is broken! KILL HIM NOW!"
The sheer power of that single swing had nearly broken the Uchihas' spirit, but seeing the weapon fail, the commander's eyes flared with a cruel, ecstatic light.
An opening!
The monster was finally vulnerable!
The surrounding Uchiha were reinvigorated like sharks smelling blood, their Sharingan spinning with manic intensity.
The whistling of kunai and shuriken resumed with a vengeance, a leaden rain aimed at the unarmed Saiki.
Several Taijutsu specialists among the Chunin seized the moment, lunging from different directions with suicidal bravery.
Their blades traced lethal lines of silver aimed at his throat and heart.
"Hmph."
Faced with this death trap, Saiki merely let out a cold snort. Not a single trace of panic touched his face.
BOOM!
The compound wall beneath his feet collapsed into rubble as he kicked off, exploding forward at a speed faster than any projectile.
Even the Sharingan struggled to track his trajectory.
This wasn't a Body Flicker; it was the terrifying result of raw physical power pushed to its absolute limit.
In the next heartbeat, he appeared like a demon in front of a two-tomoe Chunin holding a ninja blade.
The man's eyes spun wildly, barely catching a blur, but his body was a thousand leagues behind his thoughts.
Paralyzed with terror, he could only raise his blade horizontally across his chest to block.
Saiki threw a palm strike with zero hesitation.
His hand felt like it was forged of enchanted steel, moving like a massive siege ram.
He ignored the sharp edge of the blade and slammed his palm directly into the steel with unstoppable force.
The blade failed to cut Saiki's skin; instead, the impact was so great that the back of the sword was driven through the Uchiha's chest like a meat cleaver.
BAM!
Saiki's palm followed through, slamming into the man's sternum.
The sound was a dull, heavy thud, like a hammer hitting a sandbag. The sickening crunch of shattering bone was audible to everyone nearby.
The Chunin's chest instantly buckled and caved in. His eyeballs nearly bulged out of their sockets from the internal pressure.
He was launched backward like a human cannonball, coughing up a spray of blood mixed with pulverized organ fragments, slamming directly into the comrades rushing up behind him.
CRASH!
THUD!!
The flying body acted like a projectile, snapping the limbs and ribs of two more Uchiha who had been lunging with kunai.
The three of them tumbled into a heap of broken meat. The screams were cut short, replaced only by the gurgling sounds of men drowning in their own blood.
"Bastard!"
Even without a weapon, Saiki remained a human tank.
Everywhere he passed was marked by the heavy thud of caving chests and the frantic, dying gasps of the elite.
In a matter of seconds, seven or eight more corpses were added to the pile, their bodies mangled and twisted.
Severed limbs were scattered across the stone, and the street was painted a vibrant, steaming crimson. The heavy scent of copper and gore was nauseating.
The Uchiha vanguard, who had been so arrogant moments ago, were now falling like wheat before a scythe.
The commander's face turned ashen, his body shaking uncontrollably.
He stared at the figure standing in the lake of blood like a god of slaughter.
When those cold, inhuman eyes locked onto him, a primal chill shot up his spine.
"Stop him! Use Ninjutsu! Long-range attacks only!" he shrieked, his voice cracking with pure terror as he scrambled backward.
His Sharingan spun frantically as his hands blurred into signs. "Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire!"
Behind him, several elite Chunin followed suit. Lightning serpents and earth spikes tore through the air from every angle, sealing off Saiki's escape.
A massive dragon of flame roared, its white-hot heat intended to incinerate everything, swallowing the spot where Saiki stood.
When the smoke from the explosion cleared, Saiki emerged completely unscathed.
The small Auspicious Cloud hovering over his head, raining its misty energy, had neutralized every strike.
It was a frustrating reality for his enemies.
Though his total chakra volume might not match a Sannin like Tsunade, Saiki's strength, speed, and durability were at the Kage level—or even higher.
His physical strength was Kage-tier, but his speed was undeniably beyond that.
As for defense? No one in the Shinobi World could touch him.
Hashirama Senju could be killed by a kunai, but the current Saiki could slap a blade aside without leaving a mark on his skin.
Saiki was a god on the battlefield, limited only by his chakra reserves.
Even that "limit" wasn't a true weakness. He still had the Sage Chakra produced by his Pre-natal Qi.
When he burned that energy, he was stepping firmly into the realm of the Six Paths.
Slaughtering these men was no harder than tearing through wet paper bags.
Saiki coldly flicked the blood and brain matter from his hand.
His gaze pierced through the survivors—who were now frozen in a state of paralyzing horror—and locked onto a location not far off.
Kushina's chakra was flickering, growing weaker by the second.
He couldn't wait any longer. He slammed his foot into the earth, and protected by his absolute defense, he transformed into a streak of black lightning that tore through the blockade.
He left behind a ruin of rubble, swirling dust, and a group of Uchiha who had finally learned the meaning of true fear.
He reached a secluded area where an ancient shrine was wreathed in a powerful barrier.
Inside the cellar of that shrine, within a dark, damp ancestral hall...
Flickering candlelight made the massive Uchiha crest on the wall look like a staring demonic eye.
The air was thick with the smell of medicinal herbs and a faint, metallic tang of blood.
Several Uchiha elders, radiating a cold and sinister aura, stood in a bizarre formation.
Their Sharingan glowed with an eerie light in the darkness, and their hands were locked in complex seals.
In the center of the array, Kushina was bound to a stone altar carved with jagged black runes.
Her red hair was a matted mess, her face drenched in sweat.
Her eyes were shut tight, her long lashes wet with tears. Her skin was a deathly, translucent white.
Her lips trembled from the effects of drugs or sheer agony.
The chakra in her body was being crudely churned and siphoned by an invisible force.
A massive, violent, and freezing mass of malicious energy was being forcibly stripped from her soul, forcing pained whimpers from her even in her stupor.
It was easier for Kurama to break the seal from the inside than for outsiders to unpick the Eight Trigrams Seal without the key.
But the Uchiha had their own ancient, brutal methods.
On the floor around the altar, the black runes were squirming like living parasites as the ritual progressed.
The Nine-Tails' chakra was being dragged out into the physical world.
The ritual had reached its critical zenith.
The air in the hall grew thick and toxic with the beast's malice, as if an ancient monster was finally opening its eyes.