85 The Eyes of Rebellion Part 2

In the Namikaze residence, the whole family was gathered for a family dinner. Even Itachi, who often found himself too busy to join, was there.

Looking at her younger siblings, Kamui and Kazumi were going into detail on chakra theory, while Naruto was regaling Menma and Reina on his exploits and the cool new jutsu he could do. Itachi and Sasuke went over some interesting shuriken jutsu tricks the older brother had come up with. Finally, Minato was forced to sit through the long recounting of his wives' days, unable to switch the subject out of obligation.

Suddenly, every shinobi in the room paused as the barely noticeable thin blanket of chakra that normally covered the village vanished, while another, more disrupting one appeared in its place.

"What the…" Minato's eyes narrowed at the feeling.

Before he could fully process the event though, his thoughts were interrupted.

*BOOOM!!!*

Multiple explosions ripped through the village, sending shock waves that had their furniture shaking.

At the sound, everyone in the room stood up. Well, everyone but the kids.

Mikoto's gaze hardened and turned to her husband.

"Minato." Minato turned toward her and nodded, understanding what needed to be done.

"I'm off." He succinctly replied.

Focusing, trying to locate his jutsu shiki, Minato's eyes furrowed.

The others, noticing his continued presence, were confused.

"Dad, what's up?" Naruto pensively asked.

Minato shook his head.

"I can't feel them. I can't feel my jutsu shiki for the flying thunder god jutsu." He explained, drawing loud gasps from everyone in the room.

Forming the clone hand sign, multiple blurs flew out from his body and left the building at speeds too fast for anyone but Mikoto to truly follow.

Mikoto's eyes darted to her eldest daughter.

"Kamui, is this the same seal you encounter on your island mission?" She asked quicky.

Kamui closed her eyes, extending her senses out to assess the situation. After a few seconds of checking, she shook her head.

"It's nothing as complicated as that. I'm pretty sure I can still teleport. I just can't sense the chakra around me. If I were to guess, it's what's preventing dad from finding the anchors we use for his jutsu." She pensively explained.

Minato nodded, agreeing with her assessment. He'd come to the same conclusion. The space around them didn't feel any different. It was just the anchors he couldn't feel. That was good; it made their situation a lot less dire.

Turning to her, he ordered, "Ok. We have to respond quickly. Kamui, you summon Naga and investigate the barrier. With the flying thunder god jutsu inactive, you may be the only one with a real chance of accessing the barrier compound." Receiving a nod, he turned to Kushina, Naruto and Sasuke.

"You three, stay here and guard the kids. All of you are priority targets for any invasion force and you need to stick together. Except for Kamui's team due to their exceptional strength, all genin are to take a defensive stance and focus on either evacuating the civilians or protecting their respective clans, standard invasion procedure." Receiving nods from them, he turned to Mikoto.

"You're with me." Receiving a nod form her, he turned to the room. Itachi had already left, having a responsibility as a clan head, so Minato hadn't given him an assignment.

"Stay safe everyone."

"Right!" The group collectively acknowledged.

Stepping outside, everyone paused as a piercing bestial screech, the roaring flames, and the omni-present screams confirmed one horrifying truth.

They were being invaded. Although they'd figured that out, the apocalyptic view in front of them confirmed it in the most visceral way possible.

Without any prior knowledge, Konoha had turned into a battleground. Plumes of smoke billowed from multiple key locations throughout the village, bathing the sky in a mix of oranges, greys, and blacks.

"What…" Mikoto covered her mouth, mortified at the cataclysm that'd visited their home.

"Everyone." Minato asked, his expressions stern. "To your positions. We have no time to waste. Mikoto, with me." With that, he body flickered away, followed closely by Mikoto.

Kamui, getting a grip on her shock, formed a small chakra scalpel on her thumb, using it to make a light cut on her other hand's palm. Then, clapping her hands together, she slammed both into the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu"

*Poof* *Poof*

Under one hand, the Dragon Song Sword popped into existence, while Naga appeared near the other.

"Kamui, do you have any clue what's going on?" Naga asks, hoping her teammate had more intel, being the Hokage's daughter and all.

Kamui shook her head.

"I don't, but we have our orders. I'll explain on the way. Hopefully, Himiko has a way of finding us on the way." She explained, received a nod from Naga.

"Understood." Naga acknowledged. Although she had more questions, they could be asked on the move. Now wasn't the time for idling.

The two bounded onto the nearest building and took off toward the barrier facility.

(With Minato)

"What the hell is the seven tails doing in Konoha!?" Mikoto asked in disbelief.

"I don't know." Minato replied with narrowed, suspicion-filled eyes. "I hate to ask, but do you know if it's being controlled.

"Hmmm" Activating her mangekyou sharingan, Mikoto gazed into the beast's frenzied eyes. While the helmet obscured them, she did notice the opening in the beast's helmet-like skull glowing in a familiar red. Normally, she'd be able to project herself into its mind, even from this distance. With the current jamming barrier around the village though, all she could use for this task were her mangekyou's inherently heightened vision.

Seeing this, she answered, "With that helmet obscuring its vision and our inability to properly detect chakra, I can't be sure, but I believe it is. Its attacks are too controlled for a frenzied tailed-beast and it wouldn't have reason to attack the village on its own."

"Agreed. Let's make stopping that our first priority then. The village's jonin already have standing orders for situations like this, so we'll focus on the big target." He explained.

"I'm afraid I can't allow that." An unfamiliar, masculine voice stated as Kirai body-flickered ahead of them, blocking their way.

The two stopped their advance, cautious of the man in front of them.

"Kirai… what the hell are you doing?" Mikoto asked with incomprehension.

Minato just looked on silently, not particularly in a hurry.

'I don't have time for this.' He silently thought. 'Good thing I expected something like this…'

With a mocking sneer, Kirai explained, "I'm keeping you two here. What else would I be doing?"

Mikoto's eyes blazed in a crimson light. Instantly, bolts of black lightning arced around her form. Narrowing her eyes, Mikoto's gaze became stern.

"Have you gone mad? What possessed you to betray the village our ancestors built?"

Kirai burst into laughter, his hands covering his face.

"HAHAHA! Seriously!? Are you really asking that question!?"

Suddenly, his face turned serious. His hands moved from his eyes revealing his mangekyou, blazing in the same brilliant light as Mikoto's.

"After everything you and your blasted son have done to our clan. After selling yourself like the harlot you are to the Hokage, you're still not sure why we're doing this?"

Mikoto remained silent, not responding to his provocation.

He continued, this time with obvious amusement, "But if it makes you feel any better. It's not just me. We have a big, merry band just itching to cause chaos across the village."

She could see that. Already, more explosions bloomed across the village, further increasing the volume of the many screams ringing in her ears.

Suddenly, a black haze covered Kirai's body, forming a four-armed, ethereal skeleton that surrounded him. Then, muscles grew on the ribs, which were then covered in a tall pitch-black armor. Around its neck, six mirrors were attached on different positions around its collar. Each hand was clawed like that of a demon, contrasting the normal human-like visage of a regular Susanoo. The oddest part was the presence of two masks eerily similar to the face of the reaper.

Seeing the demon-like Susanoo, Mikoto scowled.

"What a disgusting avatar. Though I must say, it's fitting." She provocatively said.

Minato, on the other hand, performed another hand seal.

'Secret Art: Clone to Clone Knowledge Transfer.'

Kirai's eyes widened as he finally realized his mistake. Although he hadn't caught it earlier, subconsciously believing in his eye's perception, now, seeing the Hokage's lack of concern for timeliness, it was obvious.

"You're a clone…" He muttered in realization. "I must be getting rusty to have missed that."

Minato's clone smiled.

"I'm the fastest shinobi alive. Do you really think you could've intercepted my real body? With this level of emergency, it's not like I'm afforded the time to dawdle. Well, that and whatever field you placed around the village would affect you just as much. Inhibiting chakra-based sensing would also have to block the function of your eyes. They rely on perceiving chakra after all. Was it worth the trade off? I can't teleport, but you've traded your eye of insight for it."

Gritting his teeth, Kirai turned back to Mikoto.

"Your treachery goes deeper than I thought. You would share that much of our eyes' biology!?" He roared indignantly.

Not bothering to respond to the man's childish rant, Mikoto made her move. In a fraction of a second, she was behind him, a black blade of lightning moving to pierce his heart.

*CLING*

A blade of highly sharpened wind chakra formed in one of the clawed hands, intercepted her strike.

"It seems the time for talk has ended… pity." Kirai muttered, resuming his earlier sneer.

(With Minato [Original])

Having left the house immediately after noticing his teleport failing, Minato quickly arrived before a crowd of jonin fighting two Kunoichi. Both were clad in their own armored Susanoo, one lavender and the other crimson. The lavender Susanoo swung around a one-handed axe at the surrounding shinobi, while the crimson one's hands were replaced with cannon barrels.

Flying above them, passively emitting plumes of sparkling powder, while shooting quick, but small tailed beast bombs at random points in the village, the seven tails reigned terror over the village. What's worse was that the beast, being so high up, made dealing with it much more complicated.

Noticing Minato's presence, the crimson one shouted something to the other, aimed their cannons toward the ground, and fired a bright white chakra beam, launching her into the air, and landing safely on the back of the seven tails.

Looking at the situation, Minato gritted his teeth, now understanding what was going on. While there were only two Uchiha here, he was receiving constant updates from multiple shadow clones he deployed across the village.

It was a rebellion.

The Uchiha were rebelling. From what he could tell, aside from them, there were also Hyuga joining in as well. While he was confused on why the Uchiha would do something like this, the Hyuga's rational was much more obvious.

They were backed into a corner. With the exposure of their conspiracy and the subsequent removal of the caged bird seal according to recent findings from the ANBU, drastic action of some kind was expected. It's a shame that he hadn't realized the other parties involved until it was too late.

Taking quick action, he performed the clone seal, spawning four blurs that bounded toward the outside of the engagement area.

"Minato Namikaze. You're finally here, though we honestly expected you to be much later." The hammer wielder arrogantly said.

Ignoring her, he glanced at the surrounding shinobi.

"Everyone. Leave these two to me. You join the others in routing the rebelling Uchiha. Aside from my wife, daughter, Itachi, and Sasuke Uchiha your goal is subduing all members of the Uchiha Clan; those four have orders from me and are the only ones I've confirmed as not being part of this rebellion. The Hyuga fall under the same category. If they don't resist, subdue them peacefully. GO!"

Not hesitating, they exclaimed, "Yes, Lord Fourth!" and body flickered away at speeds he'd never seen half of them reach before. He wasn't sure whether it was their excess loyalty or their excitement at not having to face a tailed beast and two Susanoo.

It was better not to think about it.

Silently, he used his tooth to cut his thumb and swiped it across his right palm. Palm still facing up, he forced some chakra into his hand.

*Puff* With that, a specifically marked shuriken appeared in a small plume of smoke. With it in hand, he crouched low, prepared for battle; his hardened gaze took every detail of the scene in mind.

The Uchiha glared at him with confusion, unable to discern what he was doing.

"I know you're supposed to be the god of shinobi or something but are you really arrogant enough to take on the ultimate form of the sharingan in the presence of a tailed beast with a shuriken." The girl asked incredulously, disbelief written clearly on her face.

Before he could respond, a feminine voice from above shouted, "Shut up and just kill him already! While I'd really love to keep bombing the village, we have orders!"

"Yeah! Yeah! I get it!" She loudly dismissed. Focusing back on him, she arrogantly continued, "Listen 'god.' Without your precious jutsu, you're chump change, so let's get this over with."

Forming the clone sign, three different clones bounded away, moving to positions around her. Suddenly, from outside the battle site, a large red barrier rose to the sky, trapping the tailed beast and the two Uchihas with the fourth.

"How the hell…!?" He heard from atop the seven tails.

"Ninja Art: Four Crimson Ray Formation. If I were just a normal shinobi, I wouldn't have near enough chakra to sustain the jutsu for long, but…" He closed his eyes. In seconds, orange pigmentation formed around them. Opening them, he continued, "As perfect sages, standing motionless to maintain this barrier, my shadow clones have an inexhaustible supply of chakra. Not to mention the seven tails, even if I were dealing with two nine tails, this barrier would still hold."

Stepping forward, he confidently continued, "And let me remind you, I've been married to an Uchiha with those eyes for almost a decade with a stepson capable of the same jutsu you're using right now. Still, please underestimate me; that way I can support the rest of the village all the faster."

"Hmph. Enough talk." She solemnly spoke, realizing that her newly evolved eyes wouldn't win the battle nearly as easily as the twins expected.

Not only that, but with the barrier up, they'd just lost one of their biggest advantages. Now, the man doesn't have to worry about the villagers; now, his attention was solely on them.

Still, he'd yet to realize. All he'd done was trap himself in here with them.

It was time for his early retirement.

(With another Minato Clone)

Landing at the Hokage building, Minato waited for a few moments before the clones of the shinobi council members arrived. Being the heads of their respective clans, they were also the heads of the village response plan for cases like this, so getting the facts straight was important.

Each of them is responsible for sending a shadow clone to his office to receive their orders, especially in cases where communications are scrambled. First to arrive were Shibi and Tsume, followed closely by Itachi and Asuma. Lastly, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio finally made it, having met with each other prior to this meeting, slowing them down.

"It's good to see you, though I'd prefer it be under more favorable circumstances." Minato said.

Shikaku looked around at the group and noticed a discrepancy.

"Where's Hiashi? With what's going on, surely, he'd be the first to be here." He noted.

Itachi replied, frustration bleeding into his normally stoic tone, "It's a rebellion. From what my main body could gather, a dissident faction within my clan and most of the main branch of the Hyuga have joined to stage a coup."

"What!? Why the hell would they do that!?" Tsume shouted, appalled at the notion

Itachi shook his head.

"I don't know. I'm still gathering the facts. From what I can gather though, the Uchiha force isn't all that large with there being only about 20 combatants. I don't know the full scale of the Hyuga force though." He explained.

Hearing this, Shikaku gave his own speculation, "What a drag… *Sigh* I doubt the rebels could've killed the branch clan this quickly without triggering the barrier before its collapse. If I were to guess, they're probably trapped somewhere; that's how I would've approached something of this scale at least."

Inoichi added in thought, "Yes... that makes sense. Seal away the loyal members of the clan away for the duration of the invasion and deal with them when the smoke clears. While they could've started with them, that would've eliminated the element of surprise."

"Are we going to bring up the fact that there's a fucking tailed beast in our village blowing shit up!?" Tsume furiously exclaimed, a little peeved at feeling like the only one who was panicking.

Minato turned to her with a smile.

"Don't worry. My main body has already confined it and two mangekyou-bearing Uchiha inside a barrier. While my fight with them won't be a short one, it'll allow you guys to secure the village. My clones are helping, but they're fragile so I wouldn't rely on them too much.

"I've also sent Kamui and Naga to confirm the status of the barrier. I'm expecting resistance, but I'm sure they can handle it. Between our two groups, we should be able to take on the most critical tasks."

The group nodded, agreeing with the plans. Minato was the best suited to take on the tailed beast, while Kamui was the only other person realistically capable of accessing the seal barrier in a reasonable amount of time.

Deciding to volunteer before he was voluntold for something he didn't want to do, Shikaku replied, "If there are no objections, the Ino-Shika-Cho alliance will work with the Aburame clan to purge the rebels in the village."

Looking at the heads of the other three groups, he received no objections.

Minato nodded. Turning to the rest, he asked, "And the rest?"

"I will secure the Uchiha compound. It's the center of the rebellion, but I'm the most familiar with it. I will seek out loyal allies within the clan and restrain as many rebels as possible. Hopefully, in the process, I can find out the specifics of the coup."

"Makes sense." Minato replied. "I'll have a clone stand by in the area to relay any new developments I find. I have another one pulling the village records of all identified rebels, so expect a steady stream of intel."

Seeing as everyone else was already assigned, Tsume volunteered for another task that needed to be done, "I'll have our clan rendezvous with the team assaulting the Hyuga compound. They'll need as many men as possible to liberate the loyal clansmen. Even if these rebels are interfering with chakra-based senses, our noses are perfectly fine."

"Good." Minato replied. Turning his attention back to the group, he ordered, "Now, let's discuss the specifics, but first, let me make us a command room."

After making a few hand signs, he slammed his hands on the ground.

'Earth Release Barrier: Emergency Privacy Bunker'

Walls rose around the group, enclosing them into a closed room. Then, the small room slowly sunk underground. From Minato's hands, which were still planted, seals spread across the walls, establishing a privacy barrier. Luckily, as clones, no one present needed oxygen, so that wasn't a concern.

Standing up, Minato focused back on the group.

"*Whistle* Impressive as always." Tsume complimented.

Shibi nodded in agreement. "I agree. This will certainly serve our purpose well. A very logical jutsu."

Minato simply nodded at their praise, not in the mood for his usual bashful response to compliments.

The council of clones continued hashing out the missions' details, receiving updates from their originals, and adjusting the different operations based on new intel. Their job was to coordinate everything so, aside from sitting around, they really didn't have all that much to do. Still, one thing was for certain, regardless of how this turned out, Konoha would no longer be the shining jewel of the five great nations.