"Looks like this is the end, Sasuke-kun."
Hikari, still disguised as Madara Uchiha, had once again knocked Sasuke flat to the ground.
Sasuke had been consumed by rage, but in front of this opponent, that rage was nothing more than helpless fury.
Because of Madara Uchiha.
"It seems the Uchiha clan's downfall really was inevitable."
"…Shut up!" Sasuke still hadn't conceded.
[Sasuke's a tragedy]
[The only hard part of his entire body is his mouth]
[Can't be helped. Of all of them, Sasuke's the only one with no cheat code]
[Hanabi's basically possessed by an evil deity right now, Naruto's got Kurama and his mom backing him up. Sasuke's got nothing—just a slightly special pair of eyes]
[Those eyes don't even do much]
[They work pretty well on the other side, though]
[Goes "darker = three times stronger," doesn't it]
[Bro, that's three hundred times by now]
[Sasuke went into a fit of rage, and all it produced was helpless fury. Pity Sasuke]
"The day that man destroyed the Uchiha clan, I made up my mind."
Sasuke clenched his fist.
"Oh, you mean—right, I think it was Itachi. Your own older brother, wasn't it?"
Hikari remembered Hanabi mentioning the name.
Not only that, but Hanabi had also walked her through some analysis of the Uchiha massacre. Sasuke had heard pieces of it himself. Had this kid not absorbed a single word of it?
"Shut up!" Sasuke clenched his fist tighter.
[Lmao, he's got an older brother]
[The "Sa" in Sasuke's name kind of means "second" in Japanese, doesn't it?]
[So you're saying Sasuke's actually number two?]
[Perfect. From here on out we'll call him Number Two]
[His strength didn't change but his nicknames keep getting worse, poor Number Two]
[True or not?]
[True (echoed by the entire group chat in unison)]
"Hm…?"
Hikari suddenly noticed something. Sasuke didn't seem nearly as furious as he was acting.
He actually looked rather calm.
—Think it through carefully.
Sasuke. Think it through carefully.
Hanabi's words echoed in Sasuke's mind.
Then he opened his eyes.
"Hm, what—?!"
In that same instant, Hikari noticed several explosive tags somehow stuck to her back!
"Bang bang bang!"
The moment before they detonated, Hikari pulled off a Body Replacement and Body Flicker, vanishing to the side.
But just then, Sasuke threw something at her—a Hanabi doll!
Hikari's mind seized up the second she saw it. Her hand reflexively snapped out and caught the doll.
"Hanabi!"
Sasuke shouted.
"Boom—!"
The Riddle Doll detonated. The blast was violent enough to nearly throw Sasuke himself back. His ears rang—he couldn't hear a thing.
But Sasuke didn't retreat. The instant he saw the dark figure still inside the explosion, he hurled out a shuriken trailing steel wire.
Ugh—
Caught off guard by the Hanabi doll, Hikari ate the full slap straight on.
A point-blank critical hit.
Luckily, she still had her disguise around her, plus the Zhuixia Clone wound around her body sustaining her Hushen.
Otherwise that one would have put her down on the spot.
Hikari was still recovering when the steel wire snared her.
"Wait—is this Manipulating Windmill Triple Blades?"
She recognized the technique instantly. It was a head-family move.
The wire pinned "Madara Uchiha" against a tree. Sasuke then poured the last of his chakra into a hand seal.
"Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique!"
Flames raced up the steel wire and slammed into "Madara Uchiha," reducing the figure to charred coal.
"Huff… haha… huff…"
Sasuke had emptied his last reserve on that Dragon Fire. He collapsed limply to the ground.
But before he could even catch his breath, that haunting voice rose again.
"Not bad. As an interlude act, you pass."
"…What?!"
The shadow-cloaked figure stood beside him once again.
Those nightmarish Sharingan stared at him without a flicker of mercy.
The thing he had burned was just a Body Replacement.
A wave of helplessness washed over his entire body.
He had given everything he had, and he still couldn't beat this person.
Why was it like this…
"Damn it. I'm supposed to be… an avenger…"
He was supposed to be an avenger. But he couldn't even cross the enemy standing right in front of him.
How was he ever going to take revenge?
"You—you'd actually try to summon back the spirits of dead Uchiha?" Hikari, an Uchiha herself, didn't care one bit about the Uchiha.
If anyone was going to diss the Uchiha clan, she'd be the first one over there to give them a thumbs up.
A pity the Second Hokage was already dead. Otherwise Hikari would have personally gone to cheer him on.
Oh, no, the Second was a Senju—those naturally evil Senju—Hikari hated them too.
"I won't let you… insult the Uchiha…" Sasuke pushed himself up, trying to rise again.
"Uchiha this, Uchiha that. So irritating." Hikari kicked him sprawling. "You—have you ever once thought about living for yourself?!"
"My life… doesn't matter…"
Even if his opponent really was a fellow Uchiha, he wouldn't tolerate them dragging his ideals through the mud.
The world was wrong, not him!
"Then have you ever thought about who you treasure? The ones still alive."
"Hm…?"
Why was she asking him this?
Naruto.
Then Hanabi, Kakashi, Iruka…
In a haze, the faces of all of them rose before Sasuke's eyes.
But…
"The Sharingan's power evolves with emotional turbulence. Regret and hatred over the loss of family and friends—those feelings can grant these eyes power beyond comparison."
"——!!! Itachi!!"
Sasuke's mind leapt straight to Itachi Uchiha.
So the man had wiped out the entire clan… for power?!
"That's why some call the Uchiha eyes the Cursed Eyes."
Hikari kept going.
"Curse, schmurse. Power—I need power…" Sasuke was screaming inside.
"But that path is the wrong one. The true power of the Uchiha only reaches its peak when you want to protect someone." Hikari continued. "The ultimate power of the Sharingan—comes from love."
[Huh? Frigging love?]
[What the hell]
[Hatred and love—what an outrageous twist]
[So you're a Warrior of Love too]
[Read the first half thinking it was Hungry Ghost Path, then it pivots to Warrior of Love]
[At least with the first half I was prepared for him going dark. The instant "love" dropped, I freaked]
[Welp. This time he's looking at a fate where he can neither live nor die]
In truth, Hikari herself didn't actually understand the principles behind the Sharingan's awakening.
But this was what Hanabi had told her.
And Hikari thought it made perfect sense.
Only when she was obeying Hanabi's orders, when she wanted to protect Hanabi—only then did she feel the most driven, the most powerful.
Hikari believed that with absolute conviction.
And as for this evil Uchiha in front of her, who knew nothing but hatred—he should just die! Yeah!
"Find what you want to hold onto. What you want to protect."
Hikari turned away.
"When you've found that resolve, come find me…"