The underground training ground was silent.
Sasuke recovered from his initial shock and slowly straightened up, looking into the distance at the figure holding the black flame longsword.
Although its appearance was different, based on this unique aura, Sasuke was certain… this was absolutely that thing entrenched deep within his soul.
The atmosphere was tense.
"Coward."
A hoarse voice broke the silence.
The long-haired young man, beneath the deathly white tomoe mask covering half his face, curled his lips into an extremely mocking arc.
This time, he looked at Sasuke with complete disdain.
"You crave power, yet you fear its true nature. Your so-called 'search for truth' and 'revenge for your clan' are nothing but excuses for the purest 'desire for destruction' within your heart."
Hollow Sasuke took a step forward. The rocky ground beneath its feet was silently eroded by the black flames, turning into scorched earth.
"You dare not admit it."
His voice was like the whisper of a devil, "You simply want to burn everything that has caused you pain to ashes!"
"Shut up."
Sasuke's voice was cold, "Hatred is my power, but it is not my entirety."
He slowly drew Takemikazuchi, the blade pointing obliquely at the ground. There was not a trace of hesitation in his eyes, "I am the one who decides where the blade points. I am the King."
"King?"
Hollow Sasuke laughed maniacally, as if it had heard a joke.
With his laughter, the ominous black-red flames around his body shot into the sky, dyeing the simulated blue sky an ominous crimson, as if reflecting the blood moon of the night of the massacre.
"A King who doesn't even dare to face his own heart?"
His laughter ceased abruptly. The three crimson tomoe on the mask locked onto Sasuke, and killing intent erupted with a boom.
"Then let me see what qualifications you, this cowardly King, have to wield me!"
The moment the words fell, Hollow Sasuke's figure vanished from its original position.
A crescent-shaped slash of black-red flame appeared out of thin air, carrying an aura of hatred, melting the ground into a vicious trench of magma.
Sasuke's pupils constricted sharply. He did not meet it head-on, but instead released his Zanpakuto.
"Takemikazuchi, Swift Thunder Form!"
His body instantly transformed into a blur of lightning, narrowly avoiding the attack.
The black-red flame slash missed, slashing hard into the distant rock wall. There was no explosion, it only silently melted a huge gap in the solid rock.
"All you can do is dodge?"
Amid the roars of the Hollow Sasuke, his attacks grew even more frenzied.
His swordsmanship was without form or pattern, yet filled with the most primitive wildness and destructiveness. Every swing of his blade was accompanied by a wave of black-red flame.
Sasuke's expression grew increasingly grave. His figure weaved through the sea of fire, each swing of his blade aimed at the openings revealed by Hollow Sasuke's attacks.
The battle became dazzling and deadly.
Black-red flames and purple-black lightning wildly intertwined within the vast space.
Unable to gain the upper hand after a prolonged assault, Hollow Sasuke roared, plunging its black flame longsword fiercely into the ground!
"Burn it all!!!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Centered on him, several pillars of black flame erupted from the ground, shooting into the sky and weaving into an impenetrable cage of fire. With an aura intent on destroying everything, it violently closed in on Sasuke at the center.
But Sasuke, at the heart of the inferno, showed not a trace of fear in his eyes.
He did not retreat. Instead, he advanced!
He raised Takemikazuchi high overhead, pouring all of his Reiatsu into it without reserve.
"Takemikazuchi, Roaring Thunder Form."
With his cold murmur, the sky responded and changed!
"Heaven's Lament!"
A black thunderstorm, like divine punishment, descended from the heavens!
Countless black bolts of lightning crashed madly against the rising pillars of black flame.
Thunder and flame, sky and earth, formed the most spectacular scene of opposing forces at this moment.
The entire underground space trembled violently under this power.
The thunder and flames dissipated.
On the ruins, Sasuke and Hollow Sasuke, both covered in wounds of varying depths, stood facing each other from a distance.
Sasuke breathed heavily, his Reiatsu nearly depleted.
The black flames around Hollow Sasuke had dimmed considerably, but his aura of hatred had not decreased. Instead, it had grown.
"Not enough..."
Hollow Sasuke grinned. A crack appeared on the half-mask covering his face, blood trickling down the fissure, making his pale face appear even more sinister.
"Not enough! You're still holding back! Release it! Release all your hatred!"
Sasuke did not respond.
He slowly put the Takemikazuchi in his hand back into the scabbard, gripping the hilt tightly with both hands. His body sank low, assuming the purest Iaijutsu drawing stance of the Hatake Clan's Kenjutsu.
All lightning and Reiatsu were forcibly suppressed at this moment, condensed within that small Zanpakuto.
The world was left with nothing but a heart-palpitating silence.
Seeing this stance, the madness in Hollow Sasuke's eyes gradually subsided, replaced by excitement.
He also held his black flame longsword horizontally before his chest. The flames on the blade were no longer rampant, but condensed into a blade as solid and black as obsidian.
This was the final confrontation.
In the next instant, both moved simultaneously.
They transformed into two streams of light impossible to capture with the naked eye, passing by each other at the center of the ruins.
Only the purest clash of blades remained.
A piercing sound exploded at the center of the training ground.
Time seemed to slow down infinitely at this moment.
Sasuke's Takemikazuchi and Hollow Sasuke's black flame longsword collided with precise accuracy.
In that instant, an indescribable sense of resonance spread throughout Sasuke's entire body from the point where the two blades met.
It was a power from the same root, tearing at each other, yet also attracting each other.
Immediately afterwards, the extremely compressed energy suddenly ran out of control.
Black-blue lightning and black-red flames erupted madly from the seam between the blades, instantly swallowing both figures completely.
Sasuke only saw a dazzling white light before his eyes, and then, everything fell into silence.
…
Consciousness returned like the tide. The familiar sensation of the ground beneath him registered.
Sasuke's eyes snapped open. He gasped for breath violently, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
What met his eyes was not the vast underground space of the Urahara Shop, but the cold cemetery of Konoha.
The cool moonlight spilled onto the two tombstones of his parents, standing side by side.
Everything was exactly as it was before he entered his Zanpakuto Meditation.
'I'm back.'
Sasuke subconsciously clenched his fist, feeling the Reiatsu within him, though greatly depleted.
That final confrontation had ended in a draw. Neither had subdued the other.
"Damn it..."
Sasuke cursed under his breath, his voice filled with unconcealed frustration and resentment.
'In the end... I still failed to learn Bankai...'
That power, enough to rival Captain-level fighters, remained out of reach.
He took one last look at his parents' graves, picked up the Asauchi from his knees, and prepared to leave.
But the moment his hand touched the sword, the blade suddenly shifted.
Its appearance had changed.
Its length was the same as before.
But the entire blade had turned an ominous purple-black. The tsuba now bore an incomplete Uchiha Clan's fan emblem.
A long, deep purple cord was tied to the end of the hilt.
A chant suddenly appeared in his mind.
This sudden change made Sasuke pause.
It was a name!
He now knew the name of this Zanpakuto.
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