Fugaku instinctively raised his chakra blade to block.
Two massive forces collided, and the resulting pressure wave instantly sent the rubble of surrounding buildings flying, reducing them to dust.
"Father, your hesitation will only make this more painful for you."
Itachi's voice carried not a trace of emotion.
"To protect the great tree that is Konoha, pruning the branches that are about to rot is a necessary sacrifice."
"It is time for the Uchiha to step off the stage of history."
Fugaku's chest heaved violently, and the Mangekyō in his eyes, driven to the peak of fury, unleashed a terrifying ocular pressure.
"Silence!"
"What you are protecting is nothing but the power of Danzō and the Third Hokage!"
"What you are sacrificing is your own bloodline, your own family!"
Uchiha Fugaku roared and swung his blade, launching a counterattack.
Yet every strike Uchiha Fugaku threw was slightly off-center, always veering away from the vital spot where Itachi stood.
He wanted to subdue his son, not kill him.
Itachi, however, aimed for the kill with every blow.
On the other side, at the training grounds deep within the Uchiha clan grounds, Shinsuke stood at the center of the field.
"Heh heh heh..."
Orochimaru's laughter was the first to break the silence.
"What a fine stage."
"Shinsuke, did you lead us all the way here to show us your true strength?"
Orochimaru's golden serpentine eyes raked over Shinsuke without restraint, filled with undisguised greed.
"Less talk."
Kakuzu looked thoroughly impatient.
"Let's make this quick; I still have another bounty to collect."
The other bounty Kakuzu referred to was, of course, Uchiha Fugaku.
Shinsuke watched the two S-rank rogue ninja before him with calm composure.
"Come at me then."
Shinsuke spoke without urgency.
"Let me see just how much the legendary S-rank rogue ninja are actually worth."
"Arrogant little brat!"
Kakuzu was completely enraged.
The black robe behind him billowed violently, and four monsters wearing different masks detached from his back and dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.
"Let me show you what I'm truly capable of!"
Kakuzu dispensed with any probing and opened with a killing blow from the very start.
The wind-attribute and fire-attribute masks behind him both opened their mouths at the same time.
"Wind Style: Pressure Damage!"
"Fire Style: Intelligent Hard Work!"
A savage hurricane and an enormous fireball fused together in an instant.
Wind feeding the flames, they formed a firestorm that covered half the training grounds and came rolling toward Shinsuke.
The intense heat instantly scorched the surrounding air into shimmering distortion.
Orochimaru stepped back a few paces with an air of leisurely interest, folded his arms across his chest, and settled in to watch the battle unfold before him.
He wanted to see how this mysterious new head of the Uchiha Clan would respond.
Faced with that devastatingly powerful combined jutsu, Shinsuke did not move his feet even a fraction.
Shinsuke's dark pupils reflected the sea of flames sweeping toward him, and a faint sneer tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Playing with fire in front of an Uchiha?"
"How utterly foolish."
His hands flew through a rapid sequence of seals, and he drew a deep breath, his chest visibly swelling to a remarkable degree.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"
A torrent of flame far more massive, far more scorching, and far more ferocious than Kakuzu's firestorm erupted from Shinsuke's mouth.
It was an all-consuming, supremely concentrated tidal wave of fire, blazing in a deep, smoldering crimson!
BOOM!
The two walls of flame crashed into each other in midair with a thunderous impact.
Kakuzu's firestorm, powerful enough to incinerate an entire forest, was like a stream meeting a surging ocean when it struck Shinsuke's tidal wave.
It could not even raise a ripple before it was swallowed whole, absorbed, and erased without a trace.
The terrifying crimson fire wave then continued forward undiminished, and having consumed the opposing flames, it surged back even more violently, rolling back toward Kakuzu.
"What!"
Kakuzu's pupils contracted sharply, and a look of shock appeared in his eyes.
The earth-attribute mask behind him immediately moved to shield him.
"Earth Style: Earth Spear!"
In an instant, Kakuzu's entire body was encased in a layer of incredibly dense black rock.
BOOM!
The crimson fire wave slammed into Kakuzu with full force, engulfing him completely.
The entire training ground was swathed in blazing light.
The smile on Orochimaru's face, watching from the side, deepened further.
A fanatical gleam burned in his golden serpentine eyes.
"This... what extraordinary fire style..."
"Shinsuke's chakra is not only staggering in quantity, but its quality has also reached a completely inconceivable level!"
The firelight gradually faded.
Kakuzu's figure reappeared.
The rock armor covering his body had turned completely charred black, riddled with spider web cracks, still trailing wisps of smoke.
Although the secret technique of Jiongu had spared Kakuzu from fatal injury, his wariness toward Shinsuke had now risen to its absolute peak.
"It's not over yet."
A cold voice sounded directly beside Kakuzu's ear.
Alarm bells screamed in Kakuzu's mind, and without even time to turn around, he could only rely on combat instinct and harden his body to its absolute limit.
Crack!
A fist wreathed in raging lightning drove squarely into the center of Kakuzu's back.
The tremendous penetrating force caused Kakuzu's iron-hard back to instantly cave inward with a fist-shaped depression, and countless fine fractures spread outward from the point of impact in every direction.
Kakuzu let out a muffled grunt and was hurled forward more than ten meters by the force, his feet carving two deep furrows into the hard stone pavement.
Shinsuke slowly withdrew his fist.
Kakuzu straightened his body with difficulty, and he could clearly feel that the solid rock armor across his back had shattered completely.
Even the black tendrils of Jiongu were sluggish as they worked to repair the shattered pathways.
"Heh heh heh..."
Orochimaru's unnerving laughter rang out.
"A truly spectacular performance."
"That perfect body of yours, Shinsuke, is becoming more and more captivating to me."
"With power like this, no wonder you could become the new head of the Uchiha Clan."
"Compared to you, Uchiha Fugaku looks like nothing but a laughable coward."
Kakuzu's expression darkened further as he listened to Orochimaru's praise.
"Stop standing there making cutting remarks, Orochimaru!"
"Brat, I admit I underestimated you."
The three mask creatures behind Kakuzu rose back into the air, their eyes flickering with an ominous red light, locking onto Shinsuke.
"But thinking you can kill me with this much is a hundred years too soon!"
"I have been through more wars than you have eaten meals!"
Kakuzu roared.
"Today I will definitely exchange your head for the largest sum of money there is!"
Faced with Kakuzu's threat, Shinsuke only shook his head with a look of weary indifference.
"Is this really all S-rank rogue ninja are capable of?"
"The warm-up is over then, and from here on..."