Saving the Uchiha clan starts with becoming the clan leader.

The moment after getting rid of the black flames.

Orochimaru immediately fled and hid.

The thought of competing with Fugaku Uchiha quietly disappeared at this moment. If conditions allowed, he wouldn't mind experiencing the power of the Mangekyou Sharingan of the Uchiha clan through battle, but the conditions didn't allow it!

Fugaku Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha, father and son, both awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Taking on an Uchiha who has awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan one-on-one is an experience.

But if he were to take on the father and son alone... that wouldn't be an experience, it would be asking for trouble.

As for scorpions,

After destroying his usual puppets, Scorpion made a hasty escape.

"Are you okay?"

Seeing Orochimaru escape and disappear, and the remaining snakes also turned into white smoke and disappeared with a "bang", Fugaku Uchiha turned to look at his eldest son, expressing his habitually hidden concern in a very stiff and awkward tone.

In the past, constrained by his position as clan leader, and in order to maintain the dignity and solemnity of a patriarch, he never spoke kindly to his sons, until later... well! Even now, he hasn't really spoken kindly to his two sons.

Asking this question is already the limit.

"I feel okay."

Itachi blinked.

Using this power in actual combat for the first time brought him a very peculiar feeling, but now is not the time for enlightenment; rescuing Sasuke is the most important thing.

"If there's no problem, let's continue on our way! Time is of the essence, we can't linger here for too long."

"Be careful of the snake carcasses on the ground; they contain deadly poison. Never touch them with your skin. Fugaku, it would be best if you cleared a safe path forward." Shiguro Aburame spoke up at this moment, unusually saying a few more words, urging everyone not to fall at the hands of their own people before even getting a scratch from the enemy.

In fact,

As the one who poisoned the poisoner, Shiro Aburame has the ability to recycle the toxin.

This was not only to prevent accidentally injuring comrades, but also to avoid leaking information about the toxin and allowing the enemy to develop an antidote. Similar incidents have occurred more than once. Hanzo's salamander poison was countered by Chiyo of Sunagakure, giving the Sand Village the upper hand in the battle against Amegakure.

Meanwhile, the poison concocted by Chiyo of the Sand was neutralized by Tsunade, causing the Sand Ninja, who had finally gained a slight advantage, to fall back into a disadvantageous position in the battle against the Leaf Ninja.

Therefore,

Experts who are skilled in using poison are often adept at destroying evidence, precisely because they fear that someone might obtain a sample of the poison for targeted research.

However, Shiro Aburame needs to touch the target with his hands to collect the venom, so he can't extract all the venom from a distance... Collecting the venom from so many snake corpses one by one would be a time-consuming and huge project, and he doesn't have enough time to do that right now.

In response, Shiro Aburame decided to abandon the recovery of the toxins.

He didn't care about the possibility of exposing his toxin information, which would make his poisonous insects useless in future battles.

At worst, once this mission is over, I can return to the village, calm down, and spend a year or two refining the new toxins and then cultivating a new batch of poisonous insects.

The Aburame clan has never rested on its laurels. Each generation continuously improves the genes of the parasitic insects and tries to cultivate new varieties. Despite the Aburame clan's low-key and almost transparent nature, if you really want to count them, in Konoha today, the Aburame clan is the third largest clan, second only to the Uchiha and Hyuga clans.

Of course, if the Ino-Shika-Cho family is considered as a whole, the Aburame family would be ranked fourth. Even so, it is enough to show how prosperous the Aburame family has become!

"Leave it to me."

Fugaku Uchiha readily nodded.

As he spoke, he began forming hand seals and completed them within a second, unleashing the ninjutsu—

[Earth Release·Earth Release Cut]

The streets of Amegakure were shaken. The streets, which were originally covered with poisonous snake corpses, were raised high and then split open from the middle, dumping all the poisonous snake corpses onto both sides of the street and creating a safe and poison-free thoroughfare in the middle.

[Chapter 372. The Main Event, Opening]

Payne had been standing like a stone on the long, bright red tongue protruding from the sculpture's mouth for quite some time now. To be precise, he had been standing there without moving an inch since the moment the demonic wind dispersed the clouds in the sky.

only--

The person remains still.

This does not mean that his vision is limited.

He has many informants: the Yatagarasu soaring in the sky, the chameleon blending into the steel forest—these summoned beasts are his surveillance cameras. With the help of the Rinnegan's ability to share vision, he can see the battles that are taking place or have already ended on different battlefields without any delay.

Witnessing the battle between Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Obito, I gained a clear understanding of how troublesome space-time techniques are.

He also witnessed Orochimaru and Sasori, those two scheming guys, being beaten and 'fleeing in disarray,' and saw the Mangekyou Sharingan's eye techniques, which had not been mentioned in the previously collected information. The pitch-black flames made him clearly feel a life-threatening threat.

and also,

Hidan's crushing defeat,

And Kakuzu's incompetence!

If Hidan's defeat was a sudden and overwhelming attack that prevented him from fully utilizing his immortality, then Kakuzu truly used all his skills and strongest trump cards. However, facing such formidable enemies as the Sixth Hokage, Jiraiya, and Chihaya Uchiha, he ultimately failed to create a miracle.

·······

"Wind Release: Pressure Damage".

"Fire Release: Head Carving".

The two masked monsters instantly displayed perfect teamwork, as if they were telepathically in sync.

The vast sea of ​​fire swept towards Sogen and Jiraiya's group with the force of a whirlwind.

only--

"You do it? I do it?"

Jiraiya glanced sideways at the Sixth Hokage standing beside him and asked in a very relaxed tone.

"I'll do it! It's just a matter of a fan."

As Zongxian spoke, he raised the feather fan in his hand and fanned it down at the sea of ​​fire that was about to surge toward him. A huge wave burst forth from the bottom of the fan, like a tsunami, extinguishing the raging fire and destroying several tall buildings and a large area of ​​houses nearby.

"This fan is amazing!"

Jiraiya looked at the banana leaf fan in Sogen's hand and couldn't help but admire it.

"After all, it's a ninja tool used by the Sage of Six Paths."

"Isn't it just a legend?"

"Legends aren't all just the fabrications of our ancestors. Jiraiya-senpai, you're a writer, so you should understand the difficulty of creating stories out of thin air, right? Many legends of the past were adapted from reality, and then lost their original form in the process of being spread, becoming something else entirely. But... some things will always retain their original form."

"So, what makes you think the legend is true?"

"The Flame Fan was also a ninja tool used by the Sage of Six Paths."

Zongxian pointed to the flaming fan carried on his back.

"The Uchiha clan has a long history, and the clan has accumulated a lot of documents and materials... Moreover, Jiraiya-senpai, you can consult the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku about this matter. If our clan's records are correct, that Great Toad Sage was active in the same era as the Sage of Six Paths."

"what?"

Jiraiya looked surprised, but then his expression turned serious as he pondered. "The Great Toad Sage and the Sage of Six Paths... I was startled by you, but thinking about it carefully, it doesn't seem impossible." He wasn't surprised that Uchiha Sogen knew about the Great Toad Sage's existence. While such matters were indeed very secretive, they were by no means top-secret information known only to heaven, earth, you, and me.

In the past fifty years, only he and Minato have formed a contract with Mount Myōboku, but before that, there were dozens of names. The existence of the three sacred lands of Mount Myōboku, Ryūchi Cave, and Shikkotsu Forest is quite famous in the ninja world, otherwise there would be no such thing as the 'three sacred lands'.

The two talked as if no one else was around.

They didn't take Kakuzu seriously at all.

To be honest, this contemptuous and almost disregardful attitude deeply angered Kakuzu. Even though he understood that the scene before him was most likely a provocation, it was also possible that they were genuinely underestimating him. Although the possibility was small, it felt like a needle piercing his heart.

"Arrogant brats, back in the day, Hashirama Senju..."

Kakuzu wanted to make a bold statement, saying that even Hashirama Senju wouldn't dare to underestimate him like that, but when he recalled the towering wooden dummy in his mind, and the terrifying power that seemed capable of sinking the entire continent, the arrogant words got stuck in his throat and he couldn't utter them at all. He could only vaguely gloss over the matter before scolding, "You brats, you need to learn to respect your seniors!"

This brat is clearly referring to more than just Zongxian.

Jiraiya was also included in this category. Compared to Kakuzu, who was more than forty years younger, it wasn't unacceptable for him to be called a brat in front of Kakuzu.

"Lightning Release: False Darkness".

Accompanying the shout,

It was a rumbling thunder.

On Kakuzu's shoulder, another monster poked its head out, revealing a mask with yellow patterns on its face.

It was this monster that opened its mouth and spat out that thunderous bolt.

Like a spear thrust out from the hand of a god, lightning streaked across the sky at an extremely high speed, heading straight for Jiraiya. After witnessing how Sogen extinguished the sea of ​​fire with a single fan, he immediately shifted his target to Jiraiya, intending to eliminate this 'weakling' first. To prevent Sogen from interfering, he chose the fastest lightning release technique.

however--

Besides Zongxian, there are other people here.

"Uchiha Style: Gale Sword!!!"

Uchiha Chihaya drew her sword with lightning speed and unleashed a powerful strike. The strike, empowered by the [Shina Hiko], collided with the Lightning Spear. The power of wind and lightning intertwined and canceled each other out in an instant. Then... the lightning was dispelled, and the lingering aftershocks of the strike continued to crush Kakuzu.

It is also an extremely powerful attack method.

The winner was determined in this direct competition.

"Humph!"

No one dodged the aftershock of the slash.

He simply raised his right hand to meet the slash with its remaining strength, his palm instantly turning black, breaking through the slash without sustaining any injury.

"The art of hardening? It seems to be at a pretty high level."

Jiraiya didn't possess any special eye techniques, but that didn't stop him from having sharp eyes and noticing Kakuzu's change in that instant.

"A high-level Earth Release Hardening Technique... This is a bit difficult! And there are monsters using Wind Release and Fire Release ahead, plus that monster that released Lightning Release. No wonder he is a renowned immortal ninja in the dark world."

Despite his relaxed and seemingly confident demeanor as he chatted and laughed with Zongxian, it's not as if he had everything under control.

Although he was indeed confident he could take down this veteran who had been infamous in the underworld for decades, he didn't want to reveal his trump card too early if possible. But upon closer inspection, with Orochimaru on the other side, he was afraid that even the color of his underwear would be exposed, let alone his trump card.

"Zongxian, I'll handle this guy..."

"Let's attack together and take care of this guy quickly."

Zongxian interrupted Jiraiya's offer to volunteer.

This isn't an exam, there's no need for one-on-one tricks. Everyone can go in side by side. He simply chose a slow and steady approach, and didn't intend to tie his own hands and feet to put on a spectacular show. There's no need to force a one-on-one duel when a group attack is possible.