In the midst of her rapid dash, Uchiha Hikari flicked her left hand. A single shuriken whistled through the air.
Mid-flight, the projectile suddenly split, multiplying into a dozen spinning blades that saturated the air, sealing off every possible path of retreat for Uchiha Shisui.
"What?!"
Shisui's eyes widened. The trajectory and technique bore the distinct hallmarks of the Uchiha Style Shurikenjutsu. Realizing he couldn't afford to be careless, his hands blurred through a series of seals.
"Afterimage Body Flicker!"
In an instant, Shisui's silhouette warped and blurred. Several shimmering afterimages manifested around him. These phantoms swung their kunai with pinpoint precision, parrying the incoming shuriken before transitioning into a counter-offensive, charging directly at Hikari.
"Clones?"
Hikari's brow furrowed as she watched the afterimages deflect her attack. At first glance, it looked like a standard Clone Technique. However, as she swung her kunai to engage them, her blade passed through their forms as if they were mist. They had no physical substance.
Just as Hikari began to wonder what kind of jutsu this was, a prickle of danger rose at her back. She spun, delivering a powerful reverse kick.
This time, her foot connected with solid resistance.
The impact told her senses one thing: this wasn't just a simple illusion or a shadow clone.
"An Uchiha brat, huh?"
Glimpsing the three-tomoe Sharingan spinning within the eyes of the afterimages, Hikari's interest was piqued. Her own dark pupils underwent a sudden transformation as her three-tomoe Sharingan began to rotate at high speeds, instantly tracking the movements of the flickering phantoms.
She saw through the trick behind the afterimages in a heartbeat.
Hikari ghosted through the pincer attack of several images, her own form becoming a blur. The next second, she materialized directly in front of one specific "phantom."
Before Shisui could react to his technique being bypassed, a heavy kick slammed into his chest!
THUD!
The blow was devastating. Shisui's chest buckled under the force, and he was sent spiraling back several meters until he crashed into the trunk of a massive tree.
"Cough... cough!"
Shisui spat out a glob of blood as his remaining afterimages flickered out of existence.
"How do you have..."
Shisui struggled to push himself up, his gaze filled with pure shock. Across from him, the black-haired girl stood tall, her long hair swaying in the wind to reveal a pair of crimson Sharingan watching him with chilling indifference.
This girl, who looked barely older than himself, was undeniably an Uchiha! And it was those very eyes that had seen through his pride and joy—his perfected Body Flicker.
"I thought it was some kind of illusion or clone at first, but it's just a specialized Body Flicker," Hikari said, her head held high as she walked slowly toward the wounded Shisui.
"You've pushed the Body Flicker Technique to its absolute limit. You use the speed to create afterimages capable of physical strikes, yet let them turn into mere shadows when attacked. Meanwhile, your real body hides among the decoys—truth in lies, and lies in truth."
Hikari's calm analysis sent a shiver of dread through Shisui. He had never heard of such a powerful member of the clan.
"Leaf Jonin, Uchiha Shisui," he wheezed, clutching his side where at least two ribs were snapped. "You are an Uchiha... but why have I never seen you before?"
Upon hearing his question, the slight look of appraisal on Hikari's face vanished, replaced by a cold sneer.
"Hmph. Uchiha brat... you can call me 'Nanashi'."
Whoosh—!
Before the words had even fully left her lips, several blades of wind erupted from the shadows behind her!
"Vacuum Sword!"
Shirakumo Hayama, having waited for the perfect opening, launched his ambush. His chakra-infused blade sent arcs of wind slicing toward the girl.
BOOM!
Just as Hayama thought his surprise attack had landed, dark-red flames erupted from Hikari's body. Like a living entity, the fire formed a wall behind her, swallowing the wind blades whole.
Hayama gritted his teeth, refusing to back down.
"Leaf Style: Crescent Moon Dance!"
He swung his blade, diving toward Hikari from the rear. Simultaneously, Hyuga Tokuma emerged from the forest on the opposite side. With his Byakugan flared and chakra focused in his palms, he moved in perfect synchronization with Hayama for a coordinated strike!
However, the moment Shisui saw those dark-red flames, his face paled.
"Get back! Both of you!"
He didn't even have time to call them by name. His Uchiha combat instincts were screaming at him—those flames were terrifyingly lethal.
Hayama and Tokuma sensed the shift in the air, but as they moved to retreat, the girl protected by the wall of fire vanished.
"Oh no!"
Tokuma's Byakugan caught a flicker of movement just as a kunai arrived inches from his face. He jerked his head to the side; the metal grazed his cheek, leaving a thin trail of blood.
On the other side, Hayama wasn't as fortunate. Hikari appeared before him in a blur, her hand clamping onto his head like a vice. With a brutal downward motion, she slammed him into the earth.
CRASH!
The ground shattered into a spiderweb of cracks, and Hayama's blade clattered to the side as he lost consciousness instantly.
"Shisui! Who is she?!"
Tokuma scrambled back to Shisui's side, his body trembling as he stared at those eyes—eyes that were all too familiar to any Leaf shinobi.
"There's no doubt... she carries the Uchiha bloodline..." Shisui watched as the girl picked up the unconscious Hayama by the collar and tossed him aside like a piece of trash.
Tokuma felt an unprecedented sense of crisis. As a member of the Hyuga clan, he understood the power of the Sharingan better than most. He forced his gaze downward, desperate to avoid making eye contact.
"Nanashi!"
Uchiha Shisui shouted, suppressing the agony in his chest. "I don't know how you ended up outside the clan, but the Uchiha have joined the Hidden Leaf! You can come back! You can come home!"
Even in the face of such a dangerous foe, Shisui's deep love for his clan and village moved him to try and reach out.
"Home?"
Hikari let out a hollow, mocking laugh, as if she had just heard a pathetic joke.
"I once thought of the Uchiha as my only refuge, my only support. Instead, they treated me as a weapon and locked me away. In all my time with the Uchiha, I never felt a single ounce of 'family' or 'love'."
"The clan abandoned me for so many years... they never even bothered to look for me. And now you want me to go back?"
Hikari thought of the centuries spent sealed beneath the earth, wrapped in an endless, suffocating darkness. No one had come for her. The Uchiha had acted as if she were already dead.
That was, until that figure appeared and rescued her from the void.
Having vowed to stay by that boy's side forever, Hikari looked at Shisui now, and her eyes held nothing but hatred.
"If that's how it is... then I have no choice but to take you back by force!"
Shisui's three-tomoe Sharingan suddenly distorted, spinning into the four-pointed star pattern of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
At that moment, Shisui believed he was facing an opponent with only a standard Sharingan. He had no idea what he had truly provoked.