Yae Miko's Shikai, Hakuhime, manifested as a fox that could heal the soul and coordinate secondary strikes. However, it was fundamentally a support-type Zanpakuto; its raw offensive power was limited.
But the power of Bankai was an entirely different realm.
In an instant, Hakuhime shattered. Wisps of eerie blue smoke drifted through the air, and a new figure materialized beside Yae Miko. It was a petite, doll-like girl who looked no older than Klee. She had large, innocent eyes and a dazed, almost vacant expression that immediately drew everyone's gaze.
She floated in the air like a ghost, tiny and delicate, but she carried an ancient, ornate lantern. Inside, a single flicking blue flame pulsed with a life of its own.
Obito Uchiha and Black Zetsu had already reached Yae Miko's position. Seeing the small, adorable girl appear from thin air made them pause. How could a fox transform into a human girl so instantly?
A primal sense of dread flooded Black Zetsu's mind. He hissed to Obito, "Retreat! Now! This woman is dangerous!"
But Obito, overconfident in the intangibility of his Mangekyo Sharingan, kept reaching forward. He believed himself untouchable. However, the moment he extended his hand, the floating "ghost girl" looked up, her expression turning from dazed to indignant.
"Do not... approach my Master..."
BOOM!
A torrent of blue fire erupted from her ancient lantern, sweeping outward with a speed that defied logic. It was faster than Black Zetsu's retreat, engulfing a radius of several hundred meters in a heartbeat.
Initially, Black Zetsu felt nothing as the flames licked his body. But a second later, his expression twisted in agony. The blue fire was clinging to him. He was a creation of Kaguya Otsutsuki—how could ordinary fire affect him?
The fire began to eat away at Zetsu's arm. An unimaginable pain—a searing heat that pierced through the physical and bit directly into his soul—rushed to his brain.
"ARGH!"
Faced with a fire that was destroying his very essence, Zetsu made a split-second decision. He severed his own arm, letting the limb drop as a mass of black sludge. He wasn't arrogant enough to think he was invincible against a power that clearly ignored the laws of the world. The blue flames consumed the severed arm instantly before returning to the little girl's lantern.
"Wah..."
The girl opened her mouth and "ate" the blue flame. The lantern, which had dimmed slightly, flared with renewed brilliance.
Obito's hand never touched Yae Miko. As he tried to manifest, the flames followed the spatial ripples of his Kamui, nearly creeping into his physical body. If he hadn't aborted the attack and fully phased out, he would have ended up just like Zetsu.
"What a troublesome woman..." Obito's eye behind the mask was bloodshot. Her "illusion" was stronger than any Uchiha's, and her flames could actually harm the "will" of Kaguya. If this woman lived, his plans were in grave danger.
On the other side of the bridge, Sasuke Uchiha found his path to Danzo blocked by the same blue fire. Unlike normal ninjutsu, this flame radiated no heat, yet his instincts screamed at him to back away.
Sasuke looked at Danzo—the man who slaughtered his clan—and tried to push through.
"Sasuke! Your armor is melting!" Karin's terrified voice rang out.
"What?" Sasuke looked down, his eyes widening. His Susanoo—the ultimate defense of the Uchiha—was literally dissolving. The blue fire was liquefying his spectral armor. If he continued, he would be erased.
Thinking quickly, he unleashed his own ultimate flame. "Inferno Style: Flame Control!"
Amaterasu's black flames bled from his eyes, coating the Susanoo like a secondary armor. But to his horror, the "inextinguishable" black flames were ignored. The blue fire passed through the black flames as if they didn't exist, continuing to eat his Susanoo.
Sasuke didn't hesitate. He used a Substitution Jutsu and blinked away. The blue flames passed through the spot where he stood and fell upon the helpless Danzo Shimura.
Standing safely outside the fire's reach, Sasuke watched Danzo with lingering fear. He realized the truth.
I see...
Danzo was screaming in a way that chilled the bone, yet his skin and clothes weren't turning to ash. The fire wasn't burning his body; it was burning his soul. If Sasuke had lost an arm to that fire, even Orochimaru's medical ninjutsu wouldn't have been able to fix it. His ability to weave signs would have been gone forever.
Before everyone's eyes, Danzo Shimura was consumed by the blue fire. No one dared to step in to recover Shisui's Mangekyo from his body; to touch the fire was suicide.
Yae Miko looked around, her expression full of mockery. "Hmph... a pack of rats entering my territory. You truly don't know the meaning of death. If I weren't in a hurry to finish this mission, none of you would leave here alive."
Protected by the blue flames, she casually reached out and collected Shisui's eye for her collection, incinerating Danzo's remains completely. No one dared to stop her.
In the distance, Sakura and Kakashi were paralyzed. "Sensei, she's too strong... she's the one who helped save the village during the Pain attack!"
"I know," Kakashi whispered. He remembered dying during that attack, only to be brought back by the mysterious "Sovereign." Seeing this fox deity today only confirmed that the power levels of the world had been rewritten.
After securing the Mangekyo, Yae Miko turned her gaze toward the masked man and smiled mischievously.
"Hey... Obito Uchiha... how long do you plan on pretending to be Madara?"
The silence that followed was deafening.
"I wasn't going to expose you, but honestly? You're just so... nauseating," Miko continued, her voice light and teasing. "Don't think I don't recognize you just because of a mask. Is Kamui fun to play with? If I wanted to kill you, I'd just take Kakashi's eye and enter your little dimension myself."
The bridge exploded in chaos.
"What? He isn't Madara? He's... Obito?" Sasuke and Sakura had no idea who that was, but Kakashi Hatake felt as if he had been struck by lightning. Obito was his best friend—the one who died to save him.
The "Shrewd Fox" laughed. "Oh, you like to disgust me? Well, I like it too! Kakashi, your 'dead' best friend is right there. And Sasuke... half the blame for your family's massacre lies with the man in the mask. Oh, and look! Naruto Uzumaki is arriving! Hey, Naruto! The man who killed your father and mother is right here! He's the one who released the Nine-Tails years ago!"
She wasn't done. "Everything—the Akatsuki, Nagato's Rinnegan, the tragedy of the Uchiha—it's all because of this pathetic little kid who couldn't handle a girl's death. Oh, by the way... did you know the Rinnegan is just an evolved Sharingan? You just need Senju cells and an Eternal Mangekyo... Hahaha!"
"SHUT UP!"
Obito was beyond furious. His secrets were being stripped bare in front of his greatest enemies and his former friend. In a fit of rage, he unleashed a massive Fire Style attack, desperate to silence the fox once and for all.