Chapter 23: Eye Technique - Yachihoko
Provocation
"A game?"
Upon hearing those words, the nameless Uchiha girl's eyes flashed with intense, burning hatred. "You think all of this... everything I've suffered... is just a game to you?!"
Kazuki's seemingly 'casual' words had struck a devastating nerve.
Extreme anger and overwhelming hatred intertwined within her, burning like wildfire—relentlessly ravaging her already shattered heart.
The girl's inner world was riddled with holes, utterly broken beyond repair.
"What I actually meant was—"
Kazuki attempted to clarify, but was immediately interrupted.
Rat—Rabbit—Dog!
Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere!
The girl's hand seals moved with supernatural speed—so fast that even his three-tomoe Sharingan could barely track the movements.
Almost instantaneously, a bullet formed from compressed chakra launched from her mouth, tracing vacuum-like trajectories through the air with deadly precision.
At such close range, Kazuki could only barely twist his body to avoid vital organs.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
His left shoulder, right abdomen, and calf were pierced cleanly by chakra projectiles—leaving thumb-sized holes that immediately began bleeding profusely.
Despite paying this heavy price in blood, Kazuki successfully closed the distance. His fist—covered in fine golden dragon scales—gathered concentrated chakra into a single point before unleashing it with devastating force.
While this technique was merely a crude imitation compared to Tsunade's orthodox chakra-enhanced strength, its destructive power was undeniable!
BOOM!
A sound like colliding steel suddenly tore through the air.
The shockwave from the violent collision of opposing chakra forces blew away rubble within dozens of meters. Deep trenches spread outward from beneath their feet like spiderwebs.
Blood-red chakra suddenly condensed around the girl's body, forming a structure resembling massive human bones—almost tangible in its density.
With her Mangekyō Sharingan fully activated and her emotions pushed to absolute extremes, her ocular power had automatically unleashed the Uchiha clan's ultimate technique:
Susanoo!
The God of Destruction
"Susanoo, is it?"
Seeing that distinctive layer of crimson skeletal armor, Kazuki wasn't surprised in the slightest. Of course she'd have access to this technique.
"SHUT UP!"
The girl's consuming hatred spurred the Susanoo to grow even stronger. Its massive skeletal arm swept across the battlefield in a devastating arc.
CRASH!
A large section of ruins was crushed to powder beneath the Susanoo's attack.
Kazuki, having leaped high into the air, narrowly dodged the sweeping strike. Gazing down at the enormous palm-shaped crater carved into the ruins below, he felt genuine awe at the technique's power.
The being hailed as the 'God of Destruction' truly lives up to its reputation.
Even in its initial skeletal form, the Susanoo's destructive capability far exceeded anything a typical Jōnin could produce.
Excellent defense combined with formidable offensive power.
Based on these two factors alone, the Susanoo could legitimately be considered a perfect technique—combining both offense and defense seamlessly.
More problematically, with Kazuki's current abilities, he possessed almost no techniques capable of penetrating the Susanoo's chakra-based defenses.
"The Spectator pathway is still far too weak in the early sequences."
Having created some distance, Kazuki couldn't help but feel troubled by his current predicament. His brow furrowed in concentration. "It seems that to decide this battle's outcome, I'll have no choice but to close the distance again and use that ability."
While he contemplated his options, the nameless Uchiha girl clenched her fists tighter. Her chakra boiled with visible intensity.
"AAAAAHHHHH!!!"
Driven by pure, concentrated hatred, her Susanoo grew even further.
From initially possessing only partial skeletal armor, it transformed into a complete humanoid form. The manifestation seemed to reflect the girl's tortured psyche—its limbs braced against the ground like a predatory beast preparing to pounce.
The blood-red chakra exuded an unparalleled aura of malevolent evil.
ROOOAAR!!!
With a furious, inhuman roar, the beast-like Susanoo began gathering violent chakra within its gaping mouth—concentrating destructive energy into a single point.
"Now!"
Kazuki noticed the charging attack and, rather than retreating to safety, charged forward directly.
This is my only opening!
"DIE!!!"
BOOOOOM!
The continuously compressed chakra was finally unleashed like a massive cannon blast.
The violent impact created a brief vacuum in the air around Kazuki's position.
The terrifying roar triggered atmospheric thunder. Crimson chakra dyed the very air red. After a moment of blinding light, that world-destroying energy exploded outward—carving a devastating torrent of force that tore a vacuum channel straight through the atmosphere itself!
Kazuki, suspended in mid-air with no solid ground to push off from, had absolutely no room to dodge. He was completely engulfed by the crimson torrent of destruction.
A deafening explosion shook the forest.
Smoke and dust blotted out the sky. The attack carved a massive furrow through the ancient woodland, setting countless trees ablaze with residual chakra.
Intense heat permeated the air. The Susanoo—still resembling a wild beast—roared triumphantly toward the heavens. Its burning crimson chakra seemed to physically manifest the girl's boundless rage and hatred.
Slowly, the Susanoo began fading as its chakra reserves depleted.
The girl herself, seemingly exhausted from the massive expenditure, swayed weakly on her feet—nearly collapsing to the ground.
"No... it's not over yet."
Her hatred showed absolutely no signs of diminishing. "Uchiha shinobi... I will destroy everything you hold dear!"
But just at that moment—
A calm, composed voice spoke from directly behind her.
"It really took considerable effort to get this close to you."
The Moon Paper Doll
The girl's pupils contracted sharply. She whirled around in shock—only to see Kazuki standing there completely unharmed, as if the devastating attack had never occurred.
She was utterly dumbfounded. "Impossible! I definitely hit you directly!"
It wasn't a genjutsu—I would have sensed the chakra disruption!
It couldn't possibly be a Substitution Jutsu—the timing was wrong!
Before her Mangekyō Sharingan's enhanced perception, every movement the boy had made was crystal clear. There had been no deception, no trick—he'd been hit squarely!
"To reach you safely, I was forced to expend an extremely valuable life-saving item."
Kazuki's tone carried genuine regret about the cost.
He'd been able to appear here intact because he'd used the 'Moon Paper Doll'—a mystical Beyonder artifact capable of absorbing a single fatal blow on behalf of its user, regardless of the attack's magnitude.
One of my most precious emergency items, gone. But necessary.
"While intense anger can certainly make Susanoo grow stronger, your actions are merely meaningless venting," Kazuki continued analytically. "Your hatred is certainly impressive. However, your chakra reserves shouldn't be sufficient to support a second use of that technique, correct?"
He'd specifically targeted this vulnerability—which was precisely why he hadn't hesitated to sacrifice the Moon Paper Doll to close the distance.
"You're not worthy to lecture me!!!"
Faced with Kazuki's repeated provocations—constantly stimulating her already-fragile nerves—the girl finally snapped completely.
Her hatred reached absolute peak intensity. The surging chakra around her burned like fierce flames of fury. "You think you can defeat me without forcing me to use Susanoo again?!"
Tsukuyomi!
Her Mangekyō Sharingan—reflecting the depths of her consuming hatred—released its unique dōjutsu ability.
In an instant, Kazuki offered no resistance whatsoever. That irresistible force grabbed hold of his consciousness and dragged him forcibly into the mental world created by the girl's technique.
The Tsukuyomi World
Rain drizzled endlessly from a blood-red sky.
A massive full moon hung overhead, illuminating countless corpses piled into mountainous heaps. Weapons scattered everywhere resembled a vast forest of blades when viewed from a distance.
The stench of death and despair permeated everything.
"I will make you experience the ultimate pain!"
The girl stood barefoot atop the mountain of corpses, her long black hair whipping wildly in non-existent wind. Her rapidly spinning Mangekyō Sharingan reflected perfectly in the crimson moon above.
"Let me show you the other ability of my Mangekyō Sharingan—the power so terrifying that even the Uchiha clan itself feared it!"
Whoooosh—
The massive moon hanging in the blood-red sky suddenly reflected her windmill-pattern Mangekyō perfectly.
Without warning, eerie purple moonlight—like an inverted celestial river—poured downward from above. The surging illumination flowed like liquid mercury, spreading inexorably to every corner of the Tsukuyomi space.
Kazuki wasn't spared either—bathed completely in that ominous purple glow.
"This is my unique eye technique—Yachihoko!"
The girl's slender fingers clenched into tight fists, her eyes cold as winter ice. "Anyone touched by my chakra will be marked with the 'Yachihoko curse.' And those who bear my mark will fall completely under my absolute control."
Yachihoko—the Eight Thousand Spears of domination.
"I see now."
Kazuki's expression showed understanding despite the dire situation. "When Tsunade attempted to repair the seal, she came into direct contact with your residual chakra. You took that opportunity to use your eye technique to mark her, didn't you?"
"That's absolutely correct. But don't worry."
The girl sneered with dark satisfaction, her hatred burning even brighter. "Very soon, you'll be exactly like that Senju woman—completely controlled by my will, forced to serve my vengeance!"
The purple moonlight intensified, beginning to seep into Kazuki's very consciousness.
This is where the real battle begins...
[End of Chapter 23]
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