"This is... a Mangekyo Sharingan!"
Seeing this unexpected development in Ren Uchiha's eye socket, even a man as powerful as Madara Uchiha couldn't help but freeze.
"I saw the brat's eyes get gouged out with my own eyes. Furthermore, they hadn't even evolved to the Mangekyo level yet."
He fell silent for a moment, then slowly tilted his head back, gazing up toward the mirror-like walls of the cliff. In his mind's eye, he seemed to see a falling falcon—he saw the choice made by that child who had admired him so much, on that night forty-five years ago before Madara left the village.
After a long silence, Madara suddenly exhaled a long sigh and stopped his movements.
"So, that cowardly brat who once followed the crowd finally found his courage, has he?"
Leaning on the handle of his scythe, he stood up slowly and looked down at Ren Uchiha, who lay on the ground in a state between life and death. Madara slowly closed his eyes.
At that moment, a massive roar erupted atop the cliff once more!
As a golden flash leaped from the edge of the circular cliff, a deep black Spiral Flash Super Round Dance Howl (Rasenshuriken variant), carrying a sense of absolute fury, soared into the sky. With one strike, it tore apart the endless dark clouds!
A massive full moon revealed itself in the night sky. The moonlight falling into the abyss was sliced in half by the shadow of the cliff, creating a stark white line that separated the two men like a boundary.
One half of the clear moonlight gently illuminated Ren Uchiha as he lay on the ground. Within the other half—the deep, lightless shadow—Madara Uchiha suddenly snapped open his scarlet Sharingan. Three black tomoe spun slowly as he focused his gaze on the boy.
Under the influence of the Mangekyo technique [Takamimusubi], Ren's wounds, bloodstains, burns, the puncture in his throat, and even the transparent hole in his chest—which had been held together by dense black threads—began to react.
In this instant, they began to reverse and restore!
Mangekyo Ocular Jutsu: Takamimusubi!
As written in the ancient texts: When heaven and earth were first divided, the first of the spontaneous gods appeared, named Takamimusubi-no-Mikoto! The Beginning of Time!
Its effect: In the second before death arrives, it slowly reverts the user's state to how it was thirty minutes prior. Furthermore, it preserves only the facts favorable to the user while turning all unfavorable factors into events that "never happened."
This was a time-based ocular jutsu—similar to Izanagi, yet fundamentally different.
First, regarding the cost: this jutsu's priority is higher than Izanagi. This means even if Izanagi has already been used and resulted in blindness, that blindness is considered an "unfavorable factor." Takamimusubi will reverse that factor back to the state thirty minutes ago where the eye was not blind.
To put it simply, it is a "Refresh CD" buff stacked on top of an infinite "Extra Life" coin. Combined with forbidden jutsus, it could be called: Infinite Izanagi!
It was precisely because of this heaven-defying effect that Setsuna Uchiha had managed to survive countless legendary battles (including the Final Valley, the chaotic war of dozens of Mangekyo users, Indra vs. Ashura, and the Sage of Six Paths vs. Kaguya) until he finally escaped the gap between fantasy and reality. The cost of the jutsu, aside from the eventual blindness inherent to the Mangekyo, was [Oblivion]—the loss of memory.
Second, in terms of preserving favorable facts... this jutsu had an even more specialized effect.
Madara Uchiha raised an eyebrow as he observed the internal state of Ren's body.
"He used the secret technique Earth Grudge Fear to replace the Substitution Technique, and used this specific Mangekyo jutsu to replace Izanagi. Coupled with factors even I can't quite see through, this brat now possesses a constitution that isn't inferior to a White Zetsu fusion... though it's still quite far from Hashirama."
Madara let out a slow breath. Looking at the white line of moonlight separating him from Ren as if they were in two different worlds, he felt a spark of excitement.
"He can... still dance?"
"Interesting!"
After a moment of thought, he shook his head. "However, it seems he's still lacking that final spark, not yet enough to make me truly marvel or hold expectations."
Just then—
"—OYASHIRO!!!"
"HRAAAAAAA! You monster!"
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
A terrifying fifty-meter-tall blood dragon coiled in mid-air. Along with a scream of primal rage, a massive explosion erupted! Scalding spring water surged high, masking the slaughter taking place at the bottom of Hell Valley.
The screams, wails, and curses echoing through the valley—which Madara had ignored—finally reached a dead stop. In his ears, only the sound of endless fire and the crackling of spreading flames remained.
And then, the echo of the massacre's end:
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"HEHEHE... HAHAHAHAHA! It's over! Finally over!"
"Everything is over!"
In the distance, the firelight reflected off a figure who seemed finally liberated, laughing manically while weeping tears of blood. He roared into the valley:
"From this day forward, I renounce this foolish surname! My name shall be—En!"
"En Oyashiro!!"
At that moment, the Chinoike Clan—a dōjutsu bloodline that once stood equal to the Uchiha—was exterminated.
In the silence, a series of footsteps rang out. Thud... thud... Crushing wildfires, treading through pools of blood, carrying a mountain of corpses on his back.
Hearing that mournful, mad laughter and the staggering footsteps of someone dragging a heavy weight, Madara Uchiha—who hadn't smiled in a very long time—showed a flash of intrigue. A strange, twisted smile crossed his face.
"Fascinating..."
"The young master of the Chinoike who just slaughtered his own clan, and the young master of the Uchiha who has lost everything... to think they would meet here."
"Very well. I shall listen a bit longer... to this story called 'Ren Uchiha'."
Madara chuckled. He picked up his scythe, stowed the jar of Sharingan, and a faint blue skeletal hand materialized, crushing the nearby White Zetsu into dust. Then, he turned and faded into the background.
The mirror-like valley floor soon returned to silence. Not long after, a figure arrived—breathless, covered in blood, carrying a swaddled infant in one hand and dragging a corpse in the other. He walked with a wooden expression, looking as if he cared for nothing, seeing nothing.
Until... he saw the boy lying in a pool of blood. He saw the boy's expression: a mix of regret, fury, distortion, and agony.
En Oyashiro froze, stopping in front of the boy. In this moment, it was as if he were seeing his former self through the youth! After his wife's suicide, sitting paralyzed at her doorway... he had worn the exact same expression.
He stood still for a moment, then exhaled. He intended to ignore it and step over the dying boy. But as he staggered forward, his foot caught the boy's tattered clothes, revealing the red-and-white crest of the Uchiha clan.
"This guy... is an Uchiha?"
Looking at the crest of the clan that had imprisoned him for twenty years, and then at the boy's empty eye sockets, En Oyashiro began to laugh for no reason.
Then, possessed by a sudden, inexplicable whim, he gouged out the eyes of the corpse he was carrying and crudely pressed them into Ren Uchiha's empty sockets.
They were a pair of Ketsuryūgan (Dragon Blood Eyes).
Finishing this, En Oyashiro tossed the corpse aside, picked up Ren Uchiha, clutched his daughter to his chest, and continued walking. A bizarre smile stretched across his face—a mad grin mixed with rage, liberation, and the thrill of revenge.
"Did you know?"
"When mortals try to touch the domain of the gods... the gods send down a punishment."
"We call it—the Bloodline Curse!"
"Uchiha, from this day forward... you are a prisoner on death row!"
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