'It awakens her Susanoo?'
Seeing the unique, crimson energy avatar towering above them, Makoto couldn't help but sigh, realizing the stimulation this time was indeed a bit excessive.
As everyone knows, the Mangekyo Sharingan doesn't grant all abilities immediately upon awakening.
Take Itachi, for example. He mastered Tsukuyomi between awakening his eyes and the night of the clan massacre, but Amaterasu wasn't unlocked until his battle with Yagura in the Hidden Mist alongside Kisame.
As for Susanoo, that was clearly mastered much later.
The same logic applied to Uchiha Hikari.
Before this moment, she had likely never used Susanoo.
For an ordinary Uchiha with standard Mangekyo, Susanoo is extremely impractical—if their other abilities were even slightly decent, they wouldn't touch this technique.
The chakra consumption for a non-Eternal Mangekyo user is simply too great, usually reserved for extreme emotional fluctuations or when in death's door.
While abilities like Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi might be sustainable for over a decade of use, spamming Susanoo would leave a user blind in ten days flat.
During the Warring States period, Hikari served as the Uchiha clan's "ultimate weapon," so she naturally couldn't be a disposable item that went blind after a few skirmishes.
If she were disposable, there would have been no point in the clan going through the trouble of transplanting the Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi abilities into her eyes.
Therefore, before being sealed away, she truly had never activated this skeletal defense; even if she wanted to protect a target back then, she would have likely just combined Amaterasu with Kagutsuchi to form a flame barrier.
Using Susanoo now meant she was truly desperate.
Now it depended on whether Gaara had "professional integrity."
Some absolute defenses can withstand full-power attacks from taijutsu monsters like Tsunade and the Raikage, while others just spin around uselessly and turn into pincushions because they can't rotate fast enough.
Ultimately, Gaara's "Mother's Love" defense couldn't compare to a genuine Susanoo in terms of offensive pressure.
"Senpai, you've finally been unsealed! Come change this world with us!"
Gaara suppressed his embarrassment, shouting these somewhat cringeworthy lines toward Uchiha Hikari with full conviction.
That's right—even if you don't want to romance an Uchiha, if you want to communicate with one, the heavier and more dramatic your words, the better.
"Huh?"
Sure enough, Uchiha Hikari, who had just erupted from the underground while activating her susanoo, froze upon hearing these words, tilting her head in confusion like a bewildered dog.
Had she been sealed for so long that she was now hearing hallucinations?
Wasn't she supposed to be here to save another "weapon" who shared her tragic fate?
Makoto gave Gaara a mental thumbs-up.
The attack speed of Susanoo couldn't even compare to the speed of Gaara's tactical kneel, the boy deserving praise for sticking to the script and not improvising wild nonsense like his sister.
"You... lied to me?"
Uchiha Hikari glanced back at those she had considered "companions," only to find Makoto and Temari standing there looking perfectly healthy, without any signs of a life-or-death struggle, causing her face to immediately darken.
After the anger and fury faded, disappointment set in.
"As expected... no one could possibly be like me..."
"Don't misunderstand, that was just acting... well, a theatrical performance, you get it, right?" Makoto interjected smoothly.
"And who said no one is like you? There are at least nine others like you right now, and he is one of them."
Makoto walked closer to the towering energy construct, pointing at Gaara.
"I won't believe you anymore! I..."
"The Uchiha clan has been wiped out."
Makoto cut her off, meeting Hikari's glowing gaze. "They say if you want to understand an Uchiha, don't listen to their words—look into their eyes."
Hearing this, Hikari nervously averted her gaze, shrinking back slightly inside her Susanoo.
Makoto raised his hand and stepped forward.
"Don't you dare force a kiss on her!"
"..."
Temari's anxious shout rang out from the backline, instantly shattering the tense atmosphere.
"HUH?"
Hikari froze for a second before panic took over, the massive Susanoo dissipating as she scrambled back several paces to put distance between herself and Makoto, her expression now guarded and wary.
"Temari, if you keep interfering, I'll come over there and force a kiss on you right now."
Makoto turned back and gave Temari a helpless look, rolling his eyes at her lack of chill.
They were already executing Plan B, so why was she still hung up on the rejected Plan A?
"...Mm." Temari instinctively covered her mouth, her face flushing.
"Alright, look at me," Makoto said, his focus returning to Hikari as he stepped forward again. "If you want to know whether I'm telling the truth, use Tsukuyomi on me, and I'll show you with my heart."
Seeing Makoto approach her, Hikari instinctively wanted to retreat, but his request stunned her.
Was there really someone in this world who would voluntarily ask to be hit by a Mangekyo Genjutsu?
Hikari hesitated, wondering if perhaps he really wasn't lying to her.
With this thought, she lifted her head and met Makoto's gaze.
Tsukuyomi.
In an instant, the color drained from the world, and the two found themselves in a inverted, black-and-white mental space.
But Hikari was shocked to discover that Makoto remained unaffected by her control in what should have been her absolute domain.
"Give me permission for the Tsukuyomi Space," Makoto said, extending his hand toward her. "I'll show you what happened to the world after you were sealed."
"..."
Hikari was utterly bewildered.
Why did it feel like this stranger understood her eyes better than she did?
How did he even know she could transfer administrative privileges?
Of course Makoto knew.
Uchiha Hikari's Mangekyo abilities were absurdly versatile; not only could Tsukuyomi transfer partial permissions, it could even be converted into a VR game, allowing others to experience the simulation and role-play as other ninjas.
"If you lie to me again... I'll never believe you anymore."
Uchiha Hikari hesitated for a moment before timidly grabbing Makoto's hand, though the threat sounded more like a young girl throwing tantrun than a warrior's ultimatum.
"Don't worry. Let me tell you about the history of the Shinobi World now, starting with the end of the Warring States period and the establishment of the hidden villages."
Makoto manipulated the Tsukuyomi Space, causing the scenery to shift and two legendary figures to manifest.
"Senju? Uchiha?"
Uchiha Hikari frowned as she looked at the clan emblems on their clothing. Unlike most Uchiha, she felt no sense of belonging to her clan, and held even less goodwill toward the Senju—her enemies who had participated in sealing her away.
Fugaku thought about the clan's glory; Shisui thought about the balance between clan and village; Itachi thought about the village's survival.
Only Uchiha Hikari loved nothing, purely embodying the spirit of a true hater.
Watching the scenes Makoto projected of Madara and Hashirama's entangled history of love and war, her only impression was simply that "two enemies had joined forces."
"The establishment of hidden villages ended the Warring States period, and for at least a short while, the Shinobi World indeed experienced peace."
"But this wasn't because people came to understand each other," Makoto narrated. "It was because with those two monsters around, no one else would dare to start a war and seek death."
Makoto waved his hand, and the scenes in the Tsukuyomi Space changed again.
"They broke up? Not surprising."
Watching Uchiha Madara and Hashirama Senju confronting each other in the Valley of the End, Uchiha Hikari let out a light, cynical laugh.
"Exactly. Unable to withstand the condemnation of worldly eyes, this couple was forced to separate, from then on living worlds apart like yin and yang."
Makoto shook his head dramatically. "The peace in the Shinobi World shattered along with their relationship."
"Oh... huh?"
As a traditional shinobi from the Warring States period, Makoto's romantic framing of the political conflict came as quite a culture shock to Uchiha Hikari.