Hagoromo Masanari and the others, who also heard the order, were overjoyed. They were right. Uchiha Izuna was spent.
Uchiha Ise bit his lip and, focusing his chakra, shouted so the entire battlefield could hear, "The Vice-Clan Head has given the order! Abandon the city! Retreat!"
Perhaps this was what it felt like to fall from heaven to hell in an instant.
One minute, the Uchiha clansmen thought Izuna's power could turn the tide. The next, they received the order to retreat.
For the Five-Clan Alliance, however, their mood could only be described as "ecstatic."
The Kikawa clan head roared with laughter. "Don't let them get away! Kill every last one of these Uchiha bastards!"
"That's right! Don't let them escape!"
Kick them while they're down!
Even without speaking, the five clans had reached a consensus.
"Wind Release: Gale Shockwave!"
The Saito clan head was the first to act, unleashing the strongest wind jutsu he knew as a master of wind and water styles.
"I'll lend a hand!"
The one-armed Fuma clan head had somehow managed to crudely bandage his wound. He tied a strip of cloth over the stump and produced a new scroll with his remaining hand. "Fuma Style: Senbon Mayhem!"
*Poof!*
The scroll unrolled for dozens of meters. With a series of pops and puffs of white smoke, tens of thousands of poison-coated senbon rained down, a dense downpour from the sky.
"All units, counter with fire jutsu!" shouted a blood-splattered Uchiha Kong through gritted teeth, already raising his hands to form seals.
"Stand down!" Izuna barks, causing Kong and the others to look over in surprise.
"Vice-Clan Head."
Facing the barrage of ninjutsu from the front and above, Izuna sneered. "In every era, there's no shortage of self-righteous fools."
For a second time, his chakra ignited into tangible flames, and the half-body humanoid Susanoo rose again.
"He can still use it?" Hagoromo Masanari's pupils constricted. Just moments ago, he had declared that Izuna was out of commission. He could almost hear the sound of his own face being slapped.
The Susanoo's right-hand blade, a distorted rapier, blazed with black fire. Facing the incoming jutsu, it swung its right arm to the left, then viciously whipped it back to the right.
The wild black flames, far surpassing a typical S-rank ninjutsu and mixed with the Susanoo's sword qi, utterly annihilated every technique thrown at it.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
The Susanoo's left hand formed a chakra rapier as well. With two swords in hand, it was like a monster rampaging through a crowd.
The surrounding ninja of the Five-Clan Alliance could only scream as they were cut down like pork on a chopping block.
"You all retreat!" Izuna said, his back to Uchiha Kong and the others from within his Susanoo.
Uchiha Kong raised his hand and yelled, "Retreat! Retreat!"
The roughly three hundred Uchiha of the northwest forces began a rapid withdrawal.
"After them!" the Watanabe clan head shouted instinctively.
However, the words had barely left his mouth when the Susanoo's massive sword was already descending upon his head.
An intense feeling of death washed over him, and he dodged with a Body Flicker Technique.
*Rumble!*
He himself had escaped, but the sword strike killed several ninja from his clan who had been nearby.
"A monster..." The Kikawa clan head's face was slick with cold sweat as he stared at the Susanoo.
*Is there no jutsu that can break through that defense?*
Just then, Izuna had the Susanoo raise both its swords, crossing them into an 'X' before slamming them down.
The entire battlefield trembled, and the last remaining section of Stonecastle's wall behind them crumbled.
"If you're not afraid to die, then follow me."
After delivering this line with an air of utter contempt, Izuna dispelled his Susanoo and quickly retreated.
Staring at the bottomless 'X'-shaped scar left in the ground, not a single one of the nearly two thousand Five-Clan Alliance ninja dared to suggest giving chase.
"What are you all standing around for?"
After what felt like an eternity, someone finally broke the silence. Everyone turned to see it was Hagoromo Masanari.
He walked to the city gate... no, the gate was gone now.
Stepping into the city, he raised his right hand high and shouted, "The Uchiha have fled! We have won this war!"
"Tonight, we feast! Let's drink and celebrate our victory!" he roared again.
The terror that Izuna had instilled in the alliance was transformed into wild joy by Masanari's rallying cry.
One by one, they raised their hands and cheered, proclaiming their victory.
***
Miles away from Stonecastle.
"Vice-Clan Head!"
"Vice-Clan Head!"
"Vice-Clan Head, are you alright?"
The retreating Uchiha finally relaxed when they saw Izuna return.
His face was still stained with blood. Izuna raised a hand to stop those who came forward to check on him. "You all did well today. For now, we return to the temporary base Director Kong set up a few days ago. There's enough food there. Eat your fill, rest up, and prepare for the counter-attack at midnight!"
"Counter-attack? Vice-Clan Head, our strength is no match for theirs right now," a jonin said in disbelief.
Attacking the five clans in their current state was suicide.
A mysterious, cunning smile played on Izuna's lips. "Just you wait and see."
***
At the temporary base, fifty miles from Stonecastle, Uchiha Kong opened the stores, which held enough food for three days.
The exhausted and starving clansmen devoured the food like wild animals.
Izuna chewed on a piece of hardtack and drank from a spring. After washing the blood from his face by the river, he looked at his reflection.
*Dammit, my vision is already getting blurry.*
Using Susanoo twice had taken its toll.
Izuna opened the System Skill Tree.
[Player: Uchiha Izuna
Cultivation: Kage-level
Chakra Natures: Fire, Wind, Lightning
Kekkai Genkai: Mangekyo Sharingan
Skills:
Left Eye: Future Sight
Right Eye: Amaterasu
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