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"What a difficult guy."
Seeing her walk away, Sawara Kiri finally breathed a sigh of relief and completely deactivated his "Limitless: Full Power" mode.
Because he couldn't be sure if this Uchiha would suddenly go crazy, Sawara Kiri had maintained this combat mode until just now, in case of any unforeseen circumstances.
As he reopened his eyes, a tide-like exhaustion immediately surged into every cell of his body.
A faint, throbbing pain also spread through his head.
He covered his forehead and even closed his Six Eyes to minimize the burden on his brain.
However, he still found some dark humor, saying, "Now, I've challenged my weakness."
Although he seemed to have the upper hand in the recent battle, it was because his intelligence hadn't been leaked. Uchiha Hikari didn't know that his mode had a time limit, nor did she know that his Void Style had a limited number of uses.
Otherwise, the dozens of Izanagi she mentioned would have been enough to exhaust him until his time limit expired.
Sawara Kiri silently summarized the shortcomings exposed in this battle, which could barely be considered 'evenly matched.'
After this battle, he could finally confirm that his combat power in the Ninja World should be considered at the absolute peak of the relatively well-rounded Kage-level—counting through all the previous Kage, perhaps only Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha could consistently suppress him.
If he had to compare, he might have a certain advantage over those two in terms of speed and defense.
However, in terms of destructive power, he was overwhelmingly inferior.
If Sawara Kiri remembered correctly, during the Valley of the End battle, Madara Uchiha's Armored Susanoo was easily broken by Hashirama Senju's Wood Golem, hardly playing any role.
It's important to know that compared to the third-stage Susanoo used by Uchiha Hikari just now, Armored Susanoo is two stages higher.
Even Sawara Kiri himself wasn't sure if his Limitless would become unsustainable due to massive Chakra consumption if it encountered Hashirama's full-power Sage Art: Wood Golem.
After all, all the abilities granted by this system were supposedly 'localized information.'
These were all unknowns.
With a large influx of knowledge, Sawara Kiri also clearly understood how these abilities functioned through Sealing Technique, utilizing the Chakra within his body to form different jutsu.
The ultimate foundation was still Chakra.
No matter what world's powerful dragon came to this river, it had to follow the rules of the Hokage World's local snakes.
Otherwise, various forms of collapse would become unavoidable.
Because of this, Sawara Kiri never placed absolute trust in his own abilities.
Everything had to be experimented with first.
"Hiss."
Perhaps he was thinking too much, but in just a short while, the throbbing pain in his brain began to intensify.
Just as he was thinking this, a pair of cool small hands suddenly rested on his temples.
Sawara Kiri was startled at first, realizing that he had been too relaxed just now, not even noticing someone approaching from behind. He subconsciously wanted to activate his Power of Stopping.
However, upon smelling the familiar orchid fragrance from behind him, his body relaxed a little again.
This was Megumi's scent.
"Don't move."
"Let me massage it for you."
Miss Megumi's voice was as gentle as ever.
Sawara Kiri tugged at the corner of his mouth, a somewhat relieved smile appearing amidst the throbbing pain in his brain:
"Then just—"
As he spoke, he subconsciously tilted his head back.
Then, his expression froze.
Reflected in the young man's clear blue eyes were Uchiha Megumi's unconsciously activated crimson eyes.
Three black tomoe silently outlined themselves on the surface of her dark red pupils, slowly rotating.
Only—
Why were there three tomoe?
The moment he noticed this, Sawara Kiri, who was a half-beat slow to react, seemed to suddenly remember something, and his entire body involuntarily tensed up.
Sweat poured down him.
Even the intense battle just now hadn't elicited such a reaction from him.
Sawara Kiri endured the pain in his brain and quickly thought about how to explain the recent events as a reasonable action, subconsciously attempting to argue:
"Megumi, what just happened isn't what you think!"
"What happened?"
However, Uchiha Megumi showed a somewhat puzzled expression, tilting her head slightly as she looked at him.
If it weren't for the three tomoe rotating in her eye sockets, even Sawara Kiri himself would have been fooled by her.
But before he could continue to argue, he heard Miss Megumi calmly state her conclusion, as if settling the matter:
"The battle is over."
"Nothing happened just now."
"…"
Those crimson eyes stared intently into Sawara Kiri's eyes.
It seemed as if if he were to offer even the slightest rebuttal, those eyeballs would immediately connect right there and then, their gaze too sharp to allow him to speak.
"You're right!"
Sawara Kiri could only comply.
Miss Megumi then seemed to let out a long sigh of relief, her sharp gaze dissolving like melting snow, and a gentle smile bloomed on her delicate face.
Even her Sharingan unconsciously faded away.
At this moment, Sawara Kiri understood a truth.
You can never know for what strange reason an Uchiha will suddenly and inexplicably awaken their Mangekyo.
"Let's go back."
"The mission is considered a failure."
Meanwhile, on the other side.
"Huff… huff…"
Pakura, her upper body stained with blood, struggled to drag a wounded arm as she painfully crawled out of the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, her other hand carrying Rasa's half-remaining body.
From the surface, a person who had lost half of his organs clearly couldn't survive.
However, for any strong individual who could master a special Kekkei Genkai, the information contained within the Kekkei Genkai factors in their corpse was extremely important and must not be leaked under any circumstances.
Out of a sense of responsibility to the Village, Pakura, despite her equally severe injuries, managed to drag his corpse out.
As for the puppet parts of the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets, she was truly powerless to retrieve them.
Rasa.
The most important pillar among Sunagakure's new generation of young people, had actually died in this battle. Even for the entire Sunagakure, the loss was undoubtedly heavy.
Before this mission, no one had imagined that Konoha Village would hide such a terrifying young man.
In terms of lethality alone, perhaps only Lord Third in the entirety of Sunagakure could compare to him?
Yet, this person had feigned the level of an ordinary Taijutsu Jonin on the battlefield.
"Kakashi Hatake,"
Pakura murmured the name:
"No, that's not right."
"I remember, at that time, his teammate seemed to have called out 'Kiri'?"
"Did he hide information again?"
"What a despicable fellow."
Just as she was thinking this, Pakura suddenly looked up towards a certain spot in the forest. Her only usable hand immediately threw Rasa's remains aside and thrust it upwards, unleashing a crimson Scorch Release fireball.
"Who! Come out!"
Pakura urgently whispered twice.
It wasn't that she wanted to alert the enemy, but because she truly had no more room to maneuver—she had serious injuries on both her legs and hands.
It seemed they recognized her voice.
The few people in the forest paused for a moment, then immediately revealed themselves from their hiding place.
Pakura looked over, and her vigilance greatly dispersed.
All of them were dressed as Sunagakure Sealing Squad Ninja, and the two at the back were carrying clearly heavy Sealing Technique platforms—they should be the Sealing Squad that usually acted with Monzaemon-sensei.
"Lady Pakura."
The oldest Ninja among them stepped forward, his voice mournful: "Monzaemon-sensei has sacrificed himself."
"…"
Hearing this, Pakura fell silent again.
Although she had already had some suspicions before, suspicion and verification were ultimately different concepts.
Now, another name had been added to the death list.
Upon realizing this, even though Pakura's heart was filled with an unexplainable heaviness, she still encouraged everyone:
"You've all worked hard during this time."
"However, we must not let the lives of the fallen be in vain!"
Pakura looked at them and took a deep breath: "No matter what, we must bring all the intelligence from this mission back to the Village."
And then—
Prepare for a failed war.
Although Pakura thought this in her heart, she did not speak the latter half of the sentence aloud.
Konoha had truly hidden too deeply.
'He ran away.'
Uchiha Hikari flew aimlessly over the tall ancient trees, not even knowing where she wanted to go, just desperately wanting to get away from where that guy was.
Her clothes were tattered, and her heart was pounding.
Even the girl herself didn't know what she was thinking right now.
Ever since she became a 'weapon,' whether it was the entire Uchiha Clan or the rival Senju Clan, everyone Uchiha Hikari had come into contact with no longer treated her as a 'person.'
In her midnight dreams, the girl would occasionally recall how her parents cared for her when she was young. She would also sometimes connect these memories with the children in the clan territory who were held by their parents, imagining if she hadn't been so 'special,' would she have been like those children?
Touching, embracing, gentle kisses.
That was 'love.'
Aside from her parents, no one had ever done such things for a monster like her.
Fourteen years of a secluded 'weapon' life had given her a shallow understanding of the world, preventing her from further comprehending deeper issues.
This unfamiliar feeling made her subconsciously want to hide, to flee far away.
However, her fingertips involuntarily touched her brow, feeling the lingering warmth there, her mind a chaotic mess.
'But that person is also a Ninja.'
'And a very powerful Ninja.'
Uchiha Hikari thought this in her heart, recalling everything she had experienced before she was sealed.
All suffering originated from this mutually murderous Ninja World, whether it was the hatred of her clansmen, the hatred of her parents, the hatred she personally created... all originated from this world primarily composed of Ninja.
This sense of contradiction made the girl unsure whether she should harbor hatred for the young man who showed her 'love,' or reciprocate with 'love.'
Or, after killing all Ninja, would the things she had experienced no longer occur?
Big problems filled her small head.
Just as the girl was thinking so arduously and aimlessly, a black figure silently appeared on the path in front of her.
Black Zetsu looked up, staring intently at her with his dull yellow eyes.
Uchiha Hikari narrowed her eyes, revealing a somewhat wary expression.
However, his second sentence easily captivated Uchiha Hikari:
"Greetings, Uchiha Hikari."
"May I ask, would you like to visit your parents' graves and pay your respects?"
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