"The Mangekyo..."
Uchiha Hikari narrowed her eyes, gazing at the kaleidoscopic patterns blooming in Shisui's pupils. She instantly understood the source of his confidence. Even in her era—the bloody days of the Warring States—those who managed to evolve the Mangekyo Sharingan were as rare as phoenix feathers.
It was exactly why the clan had reacted with such a volatile mix of awe and terror when she had awakened those same eyes as a mere girl. They were shocked that such power had manifested in one so young, and terrified of the sheer devastation she could command.
"I'll pin her down. Find a way to get Captain Hayama out of there."
Taking advantage of the brief lull in combat, Shisui lowered his voice, speaking rapidly to Hyuga Tokuma.
"Remember: the moment you have him, retreat immediately!"
Despite possessing the Mangekyo, Shisui was acutely aware of the red-haired woman nearby, still guarding the bound Iwa shinobi. He surmised that the mastermind behind the Land of Bears' upheaval and the Hidden Star's rebellion had to be an extraordinary powerhouse to have an Uchiha of this caliber serving them.
His priority now was to ensure the intelligence reached the village.
"What about you?!" Tokuma hissed, hurriedly slapping a hemostatic patch onto his bleeding wound.
"I have my own ways of escaping. Your mission is to bring Hayama back!" Shisui's voice hardened, emphasizing the word mission.
Tokuma's Byakugan flickered with grim resolve. He nodded. Their original objective had already failed; they hadn't even reached the Star Village before encountering these monsters. Three Hidden Leaf elites had been intercepted by a single girl—and Hayama, a master of Taijutsu, hadn't lasted a single exchange.
As a veteran of the Third Great Ninja War, Tokuma knew when a gap in power was insurmountable. Staying would only hinder Shisui. His only task now was to seize the opening and rescue their comrade.
With the plan set, Shisui gave a curt nod and blurred into motion, charging Hikari.
"Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Crimson!"
With a flick of his wrist, Shisui launched several shuriken enveloped in spiraling flames. Hikari remained composed, meeting the assault with her own shuriken. The sharp tang of metal on metal echoed across the clearing as she swatted the burning blades aside.
It was merely a distraction.
Shisui activated his Afterimage Body Flicker again. Six phantoms appeared in a triangular pincer formation, descending upon Hikari with lethal intent.
"Show me something real," Hikari said, her voice cold. "If this is all you have, I won't be merciful."
She had already deciphered the secret of the technique.
"You are an Uchiha; you should know that the same trick doesn't work twice on these eyes!"
She moved with terrifying economy, shattering the afterimages with a few swift strikes before lunging toward Shisui's true form.
"Then behold the power of the Mangekyo!" Shisui roared.
A towering surge of green chakra erupted from the earth, manifesting as a colossal spectral warrior.
The Susanoo—only a half-body manifestation—encased Shisui in its protective ribcage. Its chest plates slid open, revealing a glowing orange magatama at its core.
"Susanoo: Tsukumo!"
In an instant, a barrage of green chakra arrows erupted from the magatama, raining down like a localized hurricane of light.
"I told you—"
Hikari's three-tomoe Sharingan bled into her own unique Mangekyo pattern. Dark-red chakra exploded from her like a volcanic eruption, solidifying into a physical titan that dwarfed Shisui's.
"—If this is all you have, I won't be merciful!"
A pair of massive, dark-red wings swept forward, forming an impenetrable shield that absorbed the rain of arrows without a scratch.
"How is this possible?!"
Shisui's Mangekyo-clad eyes trembled in disbelief as he looked up at the completed form of the Susanoo towering over him. Standing within the armored helm of the dark-red giant, Hikari's eyes blazed with overwhelming power. She commanded the titan to draw its chakra blade.
The strike fell with the weight of a thunderbolt.
Shisui desperately manipulated his green Susanoo to raise its drill-like spiral sword in a block.
BOOM!
The collision of these two terrifying powers sent a shockwave ripping through the landscape. Trees were uprooted and pulverized, and the forest within a hundred-meter radius was reduced to a wasteland of dust and splinters.
"This... this is madness..."
Tokuma seized the moment. He reached the unconscious Hayama, heaving him onto his back. As he prepared to flee, he looked back at the apocalyptic scene. Two spectral giants of the Uchiha clan were tearing the world apart.
He didn't dare linger a second longer, disappearing into the woods toward the border.
In the center of the crater, Shisui—once so confident in his abilities—was experiencing what could only be described as a "beating from a great-grandmother."
Hikari's Susanoo was a complete manifestation, a fully-realized adult compared to Shisui's stage-two fledgling. Before the dark-red titan, the green giant looked like a child. Shisui was being hammered back, step by agonizing step.
The chakra blade of the red giant swung relentlessly, each blow carrying the force of a collapsing mountain. Shisui, who had likely only awakened his Mangekyo recently, could barely maintain his defense.
"Who are you?!" Shisui cried out, blood beginning to leak from his eyes. His voice was hoarse from the strain.
An Uchiha this powerful could not be a nobody! It was impossible for the clan to have simply "discarded" her!
"I told you! My name is Nanashi! The nameless one of the Uchiha!"
The more she thought about it, the more her fury flared. Hikari swung the great blade again. She had been the clan's ultimate weapon, stripped of her birth name, branded "Nameless," and left to rot in darkness for centuries while her descendants forgot she ever existed. That feeling of being erased stung deeper than any physical wound.
CLANG!
The dark-red giant's assault grew more ferocious. Cracks like spiderwebs began to spread across Shisui's green spiral sword.
I have no choice... I have to use that... Shisui finally accepted the disparity in their raw power. If they continued this clash of titans, he would eventually be crushed.
"Nanashi!" Shisui shouted, looking up.
High above, within the red titan's helm, Hikari looked down. Their gazes locked.
"Kotoamatsukami: Light!"
Shisui's Mangekyo erupted with a golden radiance, dragging Hikari's consciousness into a mental world of his making.
They stood in a desolate, dim wasteland. A twilight sun hung low on the horizon, perpetually sinking. Here, the Susanoo were gone. They stood face-to-face in the sand.
"In this place, I control everything..." Shisui began, a massive Mangekyo-patterned blood moon rising behind him.
But before he could finish his sentence, the entire mental space shuddered violently.
Behind Hikari, a second red moon rose—one engraved with her own Mangekyo pattern.
"What?! Impossible!"
For the third time that day, Shisui was shaken to his core. His ultimate visual jutsu was being forcibly broken! Her ocular power far surpassed his own.
Suddenly, a searing pain tore through his right eye. The illusionary world shattered into a thousand shards.
The moment they snapped back to reality, Shisui saw the girl standing directly in front of him. Before he could move, her slender fingers plunged deep into his left eye socket.
"ARGHHHHH—!!!"
A blood-curdling scream tore from his throat. With a sickening squelch, the crimson Mangekyo Sharingan was ripped from his head.
Shisui staggered back, clutching the gory hole where his eye had been. His remaining right eye leaked a trail of blood from the overexertion. He shook uncontrollably from the agony and the total exhaustion of his chakra.
"Your eyes... they really are beautiful," Hikari said. She held the blood-stained orb up to the light, a faint, chilling smile playing on her lips.
"He will definitely love this gift."