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The victorious clone watched the Third Raikage depart with a peaceful smile. It didn't intervene in the other battles, instead sinking slowly into the earth and dissolving into a rotten log.
Meanwhile, the chaotic skirmishes had centralized in the heart of the island, creating what could be called the main battlefield. There, Sasuke's true body had just been handed a death sentence by a man who looked eerily like himself.
Ayaka—a technique that cost the caster thirty years of his own life, all to lock in a victim's death within three months.
A technique even Orochimaru acknowledged as having killed Hashirama Senju.
Sasuke, on the battlefield, didn't know that. But he did see the unmistakable surge of ocular chakra in Izuna's left eye. That, combined with Izuna's expression, made him certain this was no bluff.
Yet, he felt no panic.
If this jutsu truly surpassed even Orochimaru's abilities and was a genuine threat to my life, he would have shown up already. He'd have taken me away and started working on a countermeasure. The fact that he hasn't… is proof he can handle it.
Izuna watched Sasuke's calm, unflinching composure from the moment his death was declared, a deep confusion settling in. "Hey, Sasuke. Do you really think I'm lying to you?"
Sasuke didn't answer.
"I made a promise with my brother," Izuna said, his voice low. "An Uchiha does not lie to an Uchiha."
Sasuke thought of Madara's manipulation of Obito. "Your brother… probably broke that promise."
Izuna snorted. "Hah. As if you've ever met him."
"Who knows," Sasuke replied flatly.
Izuna's expression hardened. "I see it now. You genuinely aren't afraid. I suppose that makes sense. So young, even with this power… you have no real, visceral understanding of death."
"Let me tell you something. I was younger than you when death became… routine. Whether it was justified or senseless…" Izuna's voice trailed off. Sasuke noticed the fist clenching beneath the Uchiha-styled sleeve.
"I grew accustomed to killing. Because if you didn't kill the other, you were killing yourself. And your family."
"So," Sasuke asked, his tone cool. "Who do you think is to blame for all that?"
Izuna laughed, a sharp, humorless sound. "That's a question my brother would ask. Me? I never bother with morality. We shinobi have chakra. Techniques beyond normal people's reach. Combat is our destiny. We fight for our clans. The strong clans laugh last. The weak ones get trampled into the dust of history. That's all."
Extreme racial loyalty. A love for kin so fierce it consumed. These forged Uchiha Izuna—a might-makes-right pragmatist whose sole purpose was the preservation of his clan.
The Uchiha's inherent, obsessive love was concentrated in him.
It wasn't wrong. It was just the limitation of his era.
"But history proves," Sasuke countered, "that those who live by the sword end as bones in a grave. Only principles endure. The Senju and the Uchiha—the two strongest clans of the Warring States—are both in decline. Yet the Senju's will has taken root. It spread with the fire lit by Konoha, blooming everywhere…"
Izuna's face twisted with bitter resentment.
"Sasuke. You saw our clansmen slaughtered by the so-called 'Konoha' the Senju created. Did it not move you at all? I see no spark of vengeance in your eyes! Why?! When Konoha drove the last of our people to the brink, why do you not seek revenge? Why do you not burn that village to the ground?! Instead, you defend it! Do you know…" His voice rose to a snarl. "What truly enraged me enough to use 'Ayaka' on you? It wasn't you wielding Senju power. It's the Senju's damnable hypocrisy oozing from your very bones!!!"
BOOM—!!!
Responding to Izuna's fury, a violent amethyst chakra erupted around him. It coagulated into a skeletal frame—the Susano'o. Tendons and ligaments swiftly wrapped around it, elevating it to its second stage.
Words were pointless. Sasuke released his own Susano'o. Though only in its first, skeletal stage, it was now reinforced by the power of the Shikotsumyaku.
K-CHAK! A length of heavy chain spilled from the right fist of Izuna's Susano'o. CLANG!! The spiked meteor hammer at its end smashed into the earth.
SHK-SHK-SHK-SHK!!
The colossal hand of the Susano'o yanked the chain, whirling the hammer overhead in a wide, terrifying arc before hurling it straight at the ribcage of Sasuke's construct.
Sasuke recognized the threat. He formed a seal with two fingers.
—Shikotsumyaku: Iron Shroud!
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
Bone erupted, filling the gaps between the Susano'o's ribs, welding them into a solid, monolithic shield.
K-KOOM...!!!
The earth-shattering blow of the meteor hammer struck the reinforced ribs… and did absolutely nothing.
"What…?!"
Instead… the hand of Sasuke's Susano'o shot out, seizing the chain behind the hammer head. It yanked forward with brutal force.
KRRRK—!!
Izuna's Susano'o was hauled off balance. The hardened fist-bone of Sasuke's construct followed through, driving forward in a vicious punch.
KRA-KOOOM!!!
A thunderous crack echoed as Izuna's Susano'o's chest cavity shattered open.
"Not bad!!" Izuna grinned ferally, his own hand snapping closed.
The chain behind the hammer suddenly lengthened from its point of connection. It whipped around the neck of Sasuke's Susano'o, reversing the grapple in an instant.
"RAAAAAAAAAGH—!!!"
Izuna roared. His Susano'o pulled with all its might. WHUMP! Sasuke's Susano'o was violently yanked forward, crashing face-first into the ground.
Izuna and his construct leaped, landing squarely on the back of the fallen Susano'o. His right eye trembled, its focus locking onto Sasuke's figure within the skeletal frame.
—Ayaka!
SHWIP!
The space around Sasuke solidified once more, trapping him.
CRUNCH-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK…!
Bone sprouted rapidly across Sasuke's Susano'o. He was trying the same trick—to create a visual barrier, to forcibly shift Izuna's line of sight and the focal point of his ocular technique.
But Izuna had no intention of letting him succeed. "Don't think the same trick works twice!!" He formed a vicious series of hand seals.
FWOOSH! FWOOSH! FWOOSH!
Flames erupted from thin air inside Sasuke's Susano'o, directly surrounding his body.
"He can manifest Fire Release… inside the Susano'o?"
Izuna's laughter was cruel. "You think my right eye's power is just spatial locking? It creates a direct channel for my chakra. I can bypass any medium, apply my jutsu directly into the space I've sealed! Think of yourself as a cat… trapped in a tiny, closed box. Completely at my mercy!!!"
WHOOSH!!!
The intense, searing flames engulfed Sasuke's flesh. The air crackled with the sound of popping fat and sizzling skin.
His Susano'o dissolved around him.
Izuna watched the nearly charred figure of Sasuke. A flicker of something complex passed through his eyes. "Forgive me, lost descendant. My hatred for the Senju… knows no bounds."
Sssssssss…
Suddenly, Sasuke's burned body collapsed into a dry, deflated husk.
"?!"
Before Izuna's shocked gaze, the ground beneath him split open.
ROOOAR…!!
A blinding pillar of crimson fire erupted from the fissure, instantly transforming the area into a sea of flames.
CRACKLE! CRACKLE!
The heat was so intense it began to melt even Izuna's second-stage Susano'o.
From within the inferno, a new, vibrant purple skeleton stood tall.
Inside it, Uchiha Sasuke's gaze was deadly calm. "That last attack… was impressive. It made me see you in a new light, beyond just a name from the past."
Within the flames, Izuna stabilized his Susano'o's form. "Alright. I admit I still underestimated you…"
The massive hands of the Susano'o clapped together. As they pulled apart, a longsword materialized between them, wreathed in swirling amethyst mist.
Sasuke knew instantly—this was no ordinary weapon.
Izuna declared with pride, "This sword… is named Sobitchi. 'Sharpness' incarnate. I once used it to cleave through Hashirama Senju's Wood Dragon. Today… I'll use it to split your Susano'o in two!"
SWISH—!!
The blade rose, and the surrounding flames were forcibly parted by its sheer aura.
"..." Sasuke's eyes narrowed.
CRUNCH.
From the top vertebra of his Susano'o's spine, a protrusion shot upward.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK…!
A bone-hand formed, grasping it, and pulled it free—a towering, jagged blade of pure, dense bone.
—Shikotsumyaku: Heavenly Spine Sword.
Seeing this extraordinary weapon, Izuna's eyes slowly focused. Then, his fighting spirit blazed anew.
"RAAAAAAAAH, HAVE AT YOU!!!" Izuna bellowed. His Susano'o gripped the sword with both hands and charged.
"Bring it." Sasuke's expression turned icy. His Susano'o raised its bone-blade and met the charge head-on.
BOOOOOOM...!!!
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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