Chapter 101: Beginning to Watch the History of the Ninja World
So even Susanoo has come out?
When Shiromo saw the uniquely crimson-colored Susanoo appear, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly. The stimulation this time was indeed a bit too intense.
Everyone knows that awakening the Mangekyō doesn't mean you instantly gain all of its abilities.
Itachi mastered Tsukuyomi sometime between awakening his eyes and the night of the clan's massacre, but Amaterasu only manifested later, when he went to the Kirigakure Village with Biwa Jūzō and fought Yagura.
As for Susanoo, it was clearly something acquired even later.
Uchiha Hikari was the same.
Before this, she had never used Susanoo at all.
And in fact, for most ordinary Mangekyō Sharingan users, Susanoo is extremely impractical.
As long as their Mangekyō dōjutsu is even slightly decent, they wouldn't use Susanoo under normal circumstances.
For a standard Mangekyō, the cost of activating Susanoo is simply too high.
Either you're in an extreme emotional state, or you activate it once when you're on the brink of death.
Using abilities like Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, you might last ten or even dozens of years without issue. But if you fight using Susanoo a few times, you might not even last ten days.
Uchiha Hikari, as the Uchiha clan's "weapon" during the Warring States period, naturally couldn't have been a disposable tool that went blind after just a few battles.
If that were the case, there would've been no need to transplant Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi into her eyes in the first place.
So, before being sealed, she truly had never activated Susanoo.
Even if she wanted to protect a specific target, she would at most use Amaterasu combined with Kagutsuchi to form a wall of flames for defense.
Using Susanoo meant things were genuinely urgent.
Now it depended on whether Gaara could show some "professional ethics."
There are differences even among so-called "absolute defenses."
Some absolute defenses can withstand a full-power blow from super taijutsu specialists like Tsunade or the Raikage.
Others can only spin around once, and might not even spin fast enough, ending up skewered like a hedgehog.
Bootleg Susanoo, in the end, can't compare to the real thing.
"Senpai, you're finally unsealed. Come join us and change this world together!"
Gaara suppressed his embarrassment and shouted this rather shame-inducing line toward Uchiha Hikari.
That's right. Even if you don't intend to romance an Uchiha, as long as you want to communicate with one, your words have to be as heavy-handed as possible.
"Hm?"
Sure enough, Hikari, who had just emerged from underground while maintaining Susanoo, froze when she heard that.
Like a confused gopher, she tilted her head slightly.
Had she been sealed for so long that she was hallucinating?
Wasn't she supposed to have come out to save another "weapon" who shared the same fate as herself?
Shiromo silently gave Gaara a thumbs-up.
The attack speed of Susanoo simply couldn't compare to the speed of a sliding kneel.
Gaara didn't freestyle like his sister Temari, this alone deserved praise.
"You lied to me?"
Hikari turned her head to look at the people she had assumed were her "companions," only to find Shiromo and Temari standing there perfectly fine, without any sign of life-or-death separation. Her face immediately darkened.
After anger and fury came disappointment.
"So after all… it really is impossible for anyone to be like me…"
"Don't misunderstand. That just now was filming a movie, well, acting. You can understand that, right?"
"And who said there's no one like you?"
"There are at least nine people like you right now."
"Him, he's one of them."
Shiromo walked up to Hikari and pointed at Gaara.
"I won't believe you anymore. I…"
"The Uchiha clan has already been annihilated."
Shiromo met Hikari's eyes.
"Someone once said that if you want to understand an Uchiha, don't listen to what they says, look into their eyes."
Hearing this, Hikari flusteredly turned her head away.
Shiromo raised his hand.
"Don't force-kiss her!"
"..."
Temari's anxious shout came from behind, instantly shattering the atmosphere.
"Huh?"
Hikari froze for a moment, then hurriedly stepped back several paces, putting distance between herself and Shiromo, her face full of vigilance.
"Temari-sama, if you keep messing around, I'll come over and force-kiss you right now."
Shiromo turned back helplessly and rolled his eyes at Temari.
They'd already moved on to Plan B, why was she still thinking about the contents of Plan A?
"…Mm."
Temari instinctively covered her mouth.
"Alright. If you want to know whether I'm telling the truth, then use Tsukuyomi on me. I'll tell you with my heart."
Shiromo shifted his gaze back to Hikari, met her eyes, and stepped forward again.
Seeing him approach, Hikari instinctively wanted to retreat, but when she heard his words, she was taken aback.
Was there really someone in this world who would actively ask to be attacked by a Mangekyō Sharingan dōjutsu?
Hearing Shiromo say this, Hikari hesitated.
Could it be that he really wasn't lying to her?
With that thought, Hikari raised her head and met Shiromo's gaze.
Tsukuyomi activated.
In an instant, the two of them were transported into a pure white space.
Hikari was shocked to discover that, within what should have been her fully controlled Tsukuyomi world, Shiromo was not under her control at all.
"Give me the permission control to the Tsukuyomi space. I'll take you through what happened to the world after you were sealed."
Shiromo extended his hand toward Hikari.
"..."
Hikari felt utterly bewildered.
Why did it feel like the person in front of her understood the Mangekyō Sharingan's abilities better than she did?
How did he even know she could do this?
Of course Shiromo knew.
As always, Uchiha Hikari's Mangekyō abilities were simply too insidious.
Tsukuyomi could not only transfer partial authority, it could even, with the help of technology, be converted into a VR game, allowing others to experience a restricted version of Tsukuyomi within VR, freely playing the roles of other ninja.
"If you lie to me again, I'll never believe you anymore."
After hesitating for a moment, Hikari took Shiromo's hand.
But the way she said that… didn't it sound more like something a young girl would say when acting spoiled?
Was that just an illusion?
"Relax. Now I'll tell you about the history of the ninja world. First, the end of the Warring States and the establishment of the ninja villages."
Shiromo controlled the scenery within Tsukuyomi, and two figures appeared.
"Senju? Uchiha?"
Seeing the clan crests on the two figures, Hikari frowned.
Uchiha Hikari was different from others. She had absolutely no sense of belonging to the Uchiha clan, and she had even less goodwill toward the Senju clan, who had been her enemies, and even sealed her away.
Fugaku thought about the glory of the Uchiha clan.
Shisui thought about the shared glory of the Uchiha clan and the village.
Itachi hated the Uchiha and thought about the glory of the village.
Only Uchiha Hikari loved nothing at all, she was a pure war-hating berserker.
Looking at the images Shiromo showed her of Madara and Hashirama's love-hate entanglement, what she felt was simply, "Two enemies have joined forces."
"The establishment of the ninja villages ended the Warring States period. At least for a short time, the ninja world was indeed peaceful."
"But this wasn't because people came to understand one another, it was because those two existed. No one else dared to seek death by starting a war."
Shiromo waved his hand, and the scenery in Tsukuyomi shifted once more.
"They fell out? As expected."
Watching Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama confronting each other below, Hikari let out a soft laugh.
"That's right. Unable to withstand the condemnation of worldly eyes, this pair of ill-fated lovers was forced apart. From then on, they were separated forever, divided by life and death, and the peace of the ninja world shattered along with them."
"Oh… huh?"
As a traditional ninja from the Warring States era, and still a young girl at that, Uchiha Hikari found Shiromo's words far too shocking.
(End of this chapter)