Hiruko reacted swiftly. The moment Uchiha Hikari grabbed his wrist, he activated his Bone Pulse. With a sharp clatter, a mass of jagged white bone spikes erupted, wrapping his body like a porcupine. The spikes, sharp as the finest swords, stabbed toward Hikari's hand and body.
Faced with the lethal onslaught, Hikari stepped back slightly, her hands gently flicking aside the incoming spikes with minimal effort, her movements so graceful they seemed almost effortless.
"?!"
Hiruko's eyes twitched.
His Bone Pulse came from the Kaguya clan's leader. Originally, Obito had planned to give him Kimimaro, the clan's "secret weapon," as experimental material, but Kimimaro was snatched away, forcing Hiruko to settle for the clan's strongest member instead. Through the Chimera Technique, he perfectly absorbed the Bone Pulse, and combined with his Steel Style Bloodline Limit, his bone spikes were far harder and deadlier than the Kaguya leader's ever were. When using Dance of the Larch, his entire body became a weapon, forcing even a taijutsu master like Tsunade into a defensive stance.
So… what was up with this girl?!
Even if she was the Uchiha clan's ancestor, how could her seemingly fragile flesh-and-blood body deflect steel-hardened bone spikes with her bare hands? Even a Jinchuriki shouldn't be capable of that!
Unconvinced, Hiruko unleashed a storm of slashes, his attacks coming like a relentless tempest.
"Bone Pulse: Dance of the Bracken!"
Now it wasn't just spikes. Bone blades, spears, and whips sprouted from his arms, shoulders, and back, encasing him in layers of weaponry. In this state, Hiruko resembled a miniature Thousand-Handed Buddha, wielding dozens of arms, each launching deadly strikes at Hikari.
The air screamed with piercing whistles. Thanks to his Swift Style, Hiruko moved like lightning, his path barely traceable even to the Sharingan. To ordinary eyes, he was just a blur of afterimages, appearing and vanishing in multiple spots at once.
"Kikyo, take Eri, Miroku, and Shizune and fall back!" Hikari said quickly.
Kikyo's barrier techniques were top-notch, and with the Blood Jade Coral Hikari had just given her, even Obito or the Six Paths of Pain would struggle to threaten Miroku in the short term.
As for Hikari herself, she was in a playful mood, dodging and weaving within a small radius. Her crimson eyes locked onto Hiruko's movements, countering each attack with precision.
During the exchange, Hiruko noticed something crucial. "…Gloves?"
Indeed. Hikari's pale hands weren't bare—they were clad in thin, silk-like gloves. Only when her palms met his bone spikes did a faint silver-gray glow flicker between her fingers, vanishing just as quickly.
East Sea Dragon Silk.
After obtaining the East Sea Dragon's hair from the Akame ga Kill world, Hikari had the Revolutionary Army process it. While they couldn't recreate Lubbock's Cross Tail due to lost techniques, crafting the hair into gloves and a vest was simple enough. When she decided to face Hiruko, she'd slipped on the gloves.
That's how she could fearlessly counter his taijutsu barehanded.
"…I think I've got a read on your moves now," Hikari said. "My turn."
With that, her speed surged. "Ten Heavens Breathing, activate!"
A massive rush of oxygen flooded her lungs as she crouched low, then shot forward at several times the speed of sound. She closed in on Hiruko, her fists and kicks simple but carrying unimaginable force, channeled through his bone spikes. Hiruko's expression twisted in shock.
Crack—
The first bone surface shattered. Then the second, the third…
His Steel Style-enhanced Bone Pulse was incredibly durable, but it paled compared to the East Sea Dragon Silk. Amplified by the Ten Heavens Breathing, Hikari's strikes were the true "Super Strength Fists." In just a few blows, Hiruko's spikes began to snap and crumble.
Even with his three-tomoe Sharingan, he could barely track her movements.
Hikari moved like a nimble tiger cub, every inch of her body—hands, elbows, knees, legs, feet—a deadly weapon, forcing Hiruko into a desperate retreat.
"Five Bloodline Limits, and this is all you've got?" Hikari taunted. "I thought you'd be close to Pain's level. Guess I overestimated you."
Finally, she leaped into the air, her petite form spinning 360 degrees. A sharp downward slash followed by a spinning kick sent Hiruko flying. She formed a single hand sign. "Fire Style: Majestic Flame Destroyer!!"
Whoosh!
A meteor-like fireball crashed down, engulfing Hiruko. Seconds later, he staggered out of the flames, his body wreathed in flickering embers, his bone spikes softened by the heat.
Hikari crossed her arms, hovering mid-air, her long black hair billowing in the wind. "Got any more tricks? Impress me, and I'll show you the true power of the Sharingan."
Hiruko glared at her, his eyes fierce. He bit his finger and slammed it to the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!"
Boom!
A massive dog-like beast emerged in a puff of smoke, roaring as it lunged at Hikari.
Using the distraction—or rather, the opening Hikari deliberately allowed, since she could dispatch such a summon in seconds—Hiruko mobilized every ounce of his remaining chakra, forming hand signs.
Boom!
A surge of chakra flames shot skyward, piercing the clouds a thousand meters above. His chakra resonated with the heavens, drawing thick storm clouds that swirled and grew into a massive vortex of thunderclouds. Blinding lightning bolts collided and merged, radiating an overwhelming pressure.
"…Like Sasuke's Kirin, using nature's power?" Hikari mused, looking up. "Wonder how it stacks up against General Budo's Adramelech…"
As she watched, Hiruko completed his preparation, letting out a fierce shout. He commanded the lightning and thunder to crash down.
"Storm Style: Storm Dragon!!"
A ten-meter-wide pillar of lightning, carrying the wrath of the heavens, plummeted down, connecting sky and earth in an instant. It engulfed Hikari and everything within a hundred-meter radius.
"Dodge!" Yugito, cloaked in her Tailed Beast chakra, grabbed a Kumo ninja by the collar and dragged him away from the blast zone.
Kakashi, Hayate, and the others scrambled to escape.
Only Tsunade, worried for Shizune, activated her Creation Rebirth: Strength of a Hundred and rushed toward the lightning's impact zone. But before she could get close, the area was swallowed by the massive bolt.
In that moment, Hikari, along with Kikyo, Miroku, and Shizune inside the Blood Jade Barrier, vanished from sight. All that remained were countless boulders, shattered and pulverized by the lightning, reduced to scattered dust.
Cracks spread like a spiderweb from the impact point.
"Huff… huff…" Hiruko panted heavily.
Storm Dragon was the ultimate Storm Style technique, far surpassing Sasuke's nature-powered Kirin. The lightning, striking at light speed, was impossible to dodge. Its only drawback was its massive chakra cost, leaving even Hiruko, who wasn't chakra-starved like Kakashi, gasping for breath.
But still…
"That should've done it," he muttered. "Even the Uchiha ancestor should be badly hurt after that. With luck, it might've killed her outright…"
If he'd taken down Uchiha Hikari, it'd prove the Chimera Technique's worth. The former nobody could finally hold his head high.
Just as Hiruko started to entertain the thought, a shadowy figure emerged from the smoke, catching his eye.
"What… is that?!"
Red. No, a deep crimson.
A chakra skeleton faintly appeared through the haze, rapidly growing and expanding. Flesh and dense armor formed, rising like a skyscraper from the ground. As the white smoke cleared, Hikari's figure, borne by the chakra skeleton, rose dozens of meters into the air.
Crimson chakra flames burned like a raging inferno.
Susanoo, Fourth Form!
"So… tall!" Eri, perched beside Susanoo's "shell," peeked out cautiously, her face full of awe.
At the critical moment, Hikari's Susanoo had shielded them from the Storm Dragon, which had nearly shattered the high-density Blood Jade Barrier. It saved Miroku and Shizune—Eri and Kikyo could've escaped to their own worlds if the barrier broke, but Miroku's spiritual power might've only bought her a moment, and Shizune would've been vaporized.
Now, both stood with Eri and Kikyo inside the Susanoo, staring out in stunned silence.
From this height, everyone below looked like ants, identifiable only by their positions, their clothes and faces indistinct.
On the ground, Yugito and the others who'd fled the lightning's core turned back, gaping at the towering crimson giant, speechless.
But even in its Fourth Form, Hikari wasn't done.
As she channeled more chakra, the crimson flames surged, and Susanoo's form swelled further, piercing the sky like a divine pillar. It was as if a god from the heavens had descended, majestic and imposing.
A 200-meter-tall Perfect Susanoo, as grand as a mountain!
Even Eri and Kikyo were stunned. They'd never seen Hikari's Perfect Susanoo in person. Back in the Akame ga Kill world, only Esdeath and Night Raid had witnessed it, and Brand only mentioned it in passing without streaming it to the group chat.
As for Tsunade, Kakashi, and the others? No words could describe their shock. The last person to wield a Perfect Susanoo was likely Uchiha Madara. Apart from Tsunade, who'd seen him as a child, the others had only read about Susanoo in scrolls. Now, they finally understood what "the power of the Uchiha" truly meant.
Hikari exhaled softly, commanding her Susanoo to raise its crimson greatsword.
Not Fire Thunder God—she wasn't sure if Obito or Black Zetsu were lurking nearby, so she held back on revealing that ability from the Akame ga Kill world. Instead, she used the weapon that had been with her Susanoo since its inception.
No need for anything more, anyway. With Perfect Susanoo active, pulling out a spiritual artifact would be overkill.
"Pay attention," Hikari said, her voice steady. "This is the true power of the Sharingan."
With her words, the crimson Susanoo raised its sword with one hand and swung.
A wave of sword energy sliced through the air, traveling kilometers before crashing into a low mountain. After a brief silence, the mountain's peak was cleanly severed, like a lid flung away.
Hiruko was dumbfounded.
"What the…?! A single slash to cut a mountain? Even for a Mangekyo Sharingan, that's absurd!"