Veins bulged in Itachi's bloodshot eyes as he ground his teeth in fury.
On the ground below—
A familiar dark crimson light suddenly flared upward, illuminating the sky.
A chill ran through him as he looked down toward the source of the light, only to discover— in shock— that the earth itself had split open, as though a tunnel leading straight to hell had been torn apart.
Crack—crack—crack—!
From within the fissure, suffused with dark crimson baleful light, a massive skeletal hand crawled up from beneath the ground.
It emerged directly beneath the girl's feet.
Soon after, a dark crimson skeletal skull rose as well, enveloping the girl within it, forming a gigantic skull-shaped "cockpit" of dark crimson gemstone.
The enormous skeleton slowly climbed out of the fissure, as though crawling from hell into the human world.
Under the gaze of countless onlookers, the skull of the dark crimson skeleton fully emerged from the ground.
Even in its initial form, it was taller and more imposing than the black Susanoo—far more terrifying.
Then—
Ungu-tengu armor, a demonic horned helmet, greaves, war boots, and a pair of blood-red wings unfurled behind it— all manifested upon the dark crimson Susanoo's body, burning with hellish crimson flames.
Behind a window.
A faint smile curved at Yu's lips, while Obito stood dumbfounded. That was unmistakably the dark crimson Complete Body Susanoo Yinyue himself had once wielded.
A godlike existence!
At this moment, if someone claimed that girl was not Yu's in disguise, Obito would find it hard to believe.
The sky was dyed crimson.
The dark crimson Complete Body Susanoo stood between heaven and earth like the tallest mountain in the world, radiating an ominous, aura.
Standing within the dark crimson gemstone cockpit, Hikari gazed down upon the world, staring directly at the black Susanoo before her—slightly shorter than her own.
Whether it was ninjutsu or Susanoo, she feared no Uchiha of this era, even if the opponent possessed a Mangekyō just like her.
Uchiha Itachi might be a genius.
But she—
She was the progenitor of the Uchiha clan!
The capital of the Land of Fire.
At this moment, it felt much like what had once happened in Konoha before—
a clash between gods.
Outside the city.
Nara Shikaku and the others shouted in terror,
"Dodge! Get out of there! Don't expose yourselves to the dark red light!!"
Before he could even finish shouting, the fear of that dark red glow—etched deep into the bones of Konoha's remaining ninja—had already been awakened.
The ninja scattered, scrambling to take cover.
Some of them risked their lives to drag the daimyō, who had no idea what was happening and had been abandoned in the street, beneath the shelter of nearby buildings.
"What in the world is going on?!"
the daimyō cried out in panic.
One by one, the Konoha ninja lowered their heads.
Their faces were paler than the last, fear written unmistakably across them.
Rumble—!!
The earth trembled violently.
After the dark red Perfect Susanoo descended, the massive wings on its back spread wide.
Despite its seemingly cumbersome build, the Susanoo shot straight into the sky, gliding down from above toward the black Susanoo that could only stand upon the ground.
"Uchiha Yu?? No… she's not Yu!"
Itachi faced the dark red Perfect Susanoo head-on, his thoughts in complete disarray.
He had gambled wrong.
If the opponent possessed Yu's eyes, then it was only natural that she could also manifest Susanoo!
"Maybe… maybe we can talk this out?!"
Itachi shouted loudly, abandoning resistance as he confronted the fear engraved into his very soul.
He truly couldn't understand why this girl harbored such deep hatred toward him.
"What needed to be said was settled long ago,"
Hikari replied coldly.
From the moment Itachi unsealed her, touched her reverse scale, and even spoke to her with disrespect, the outcome had already been decided.
As the dark red Perfect Susanoo reached the front of the black fourth-stage Susanoo, it drew the two chakra longswords mounted at the tips of its wings.
Slash—!!
Two identical, slender longswords—burning with dark red flames—came crashing down at a diagonal, slamming heavily into the black Susanoo's armor.
"Settled?!" Itachi shouted urgently.
"No—you must have misunderstood something!"
But the blade of the dark red Perfect Susanoo had already fallen.
With just that single strike—
The black Susanoo, seemingly offering no resistance at all, was cleaved diagonally into two pieces.
"There must be some kind of misunderstanding between us!!"
Itachi continued shouting.
The upper half of the black Susanoo barely held together as it rapidly plummeted downward.
But Hikari paid him no heed.
The dark red Susanoo tightened its grip on the twin swords once more and brought them crashing down upon the remnants of the black Susanoo.
Swift.
Decisive.
Gakakaka—
Itachi once again dissolved into a flock of crows that scattered in all directions. The black Susanoo turned intangible and vanished.
"Madara?"
Just as Hikari was about to pursue him, her brows suddenly knitted together. She turned her head and looked back toward the inn.
Without hesitation, she abandoned the chase and manipulated her dark-red, complete-form Susanoo to rush back.
Before the battle had erupted, the three Cloud ninja who had originally been with the Konoha shinobi had quietly slipped away from the group.
As a result, up until now, they had not been affected by Hikari's Mangekyō control.
Moments ago, the three Cloud ninja had hidden themselves inside the inn where Uchiha Yu was staying.
Because Hikari had gone after Itachi, Yu—who was disguised as "Madara"—had been left outside the range of protection she could cover.
Inside the inn.
"C-Captain… what should we do next?"
"Wait for an opening, then get out of here!"
The Cloud ninja captain was visibly shaken. He swallowed hard and raised a hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.
The other two Cloud ninja leaned against the wall, their backs already soaked through with sweat.
Guang's ocular technique and her dark-red complete Susanoo had utterly frightened them out of any thoughts of targeting that girl again.
A wild Uchiha?
That was no wild Uchiha at all—that was a wild god!
Even if their Raikage were here today, he'd probably end up buried in this place.
Let alone capturing her.
"Captain, I don't think the first floor is safe. Let's go to the top floor. If anything happens, it'll be easier to escape," one of the Cloud ninja suggested.
"Mm."
The Cloud ninja captain led the way through the crowd toward the stairs, heading up to the third floor.
The moment they arrived, they saw that the first room on the right side of the corridor had its door open. Standing inside was the man who had earlier been protected by the girl.
It was Uchiha Yu—disguised as "Madara"!
Yu seemed to have been waiting for them for quite some time. The room's original occupant, Obito, had already been driven out.
"You?" The Cloud ninja captain stared at Yu's Madara-like appearance in shock.
"Captain, why don't we take him hostage? That way, we'll have an extra layer of insurance when we leave," one Cloud ninja suggested.
"You're a genius!" another praised.
After a brief moment of thought, the Cloud ninja captain decisively stepped into Yu's room.
But before they could make any move—
Yu suddenly knocked over the items he had just purchased and collapsed straight into the pile of goods and snacks.
He lay completely still, his face rapidly turning deathly pale, as if he had already been dead for some time.
"Hiss—"
The Cloud ninja captain's eyes widened as he sucked in a sharp breath, silently thinking:
What the hell is this guy doing? I haven't even touched him yet!
°°°
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