Chapter 24: The True Master of Mind Games
The Mark of Yachihoko
"An eye technique!"
Upon hearing this revelation, Kazuki immediately sensed something was wrong.
He lowered his gaze to examine the back of his hand, where a pale purple mark had become clearly visible—glowing faintly with malevolent chakra.
"Your body and mind, your chakra, your memories, your very senses..."
A cruel glint appeared in the girl's eyes, her voice dripping with vindictive satisfaction. "I will strip them away piece by piece, making you experience the most terrible suffering this world has to offer—just as you and your clan did to me!"
One second passed.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
However, after waiting for what felt like an eternity, Kazuki showed absolutely no reaction whatsoever.
The girl's confident expression gradually began to shift—confusion replacing certainty.
"You can't actually control me, can you?"
Under the blood-red moonlight of the Tsukuyomi world, Kazuki's expression remained perfectly calm and composed. "Here's a question for you: knowing that you possess the ability to manipulate others' wills, why would I deliberately approach you so recklessly?"
"Why... why can't I control you?!"
The girl was visibly stung by his unnervingly calm demeanor. She couldn't quite believe what was happening, desperately pouring more power into her Mangekyō Sharingan. "This is impossible! The Yachihoko curse clearly marked you! Why... why can't I seize control of your mind?!"
"The answer is remarkably simple, isn't it?"
Kazuki adjusted his glasses with one finger, his tone almost professorial. "Because I was deliberately inducing you to use this specific ability."
"Inducing... me?"
Suddenly, understanding began to dawn on the girl. Her face gradually paled as realization struck. "You were... manipulating my emotions from the very beginning?"
Only now—after finally calming down enough to think rationally—did she recall everything that had transpired. Every interaction, every word, every provocation.
Something had been wrong all along.
She'd been so consumed by rage that it had completely clouded her reason and judgment.
"That's correct. From the very first moment we met, I've been systematically working to destabilize your mental state."
Kazuki smiled slightly, adjusting his glasses again with practiced ease. "I apologize for the deception, but my primary expertise is psychology—not combat. Unlike most shinobi, I don't possess overwhelming physical strength or devastating ninjutsu. I can only rely on... alternative methods."
Manipulation. Suggestion. Psychological warfare.
From the absolute beginning, he'd been laying carefully constructed groundwork.
He'd continuously stimulated the girl's traumatized psyche with precisely chosen words and deliberate suggestions—causing her to become increasingly influenced by anger, which progressively clouded her judgment.
And once the girl's remaining fragments of rationality were completely consumed by that all-encompassing rage, everything that followed became simply a matter of leveraging the Spectator pathway's inherent advantages.
Using carefully crafted language, deliberate body language, strategic eye contact, and countless other subtle behavioral cues, he'd trapped her within a sophisticated web of psychological suggestions.
All her subsequent actions, decisions, and even her thoughts had been influenced—guided—by those layered suggestions.
This is the Spectator pathway's true combat methodology.
"The battle is over," Kazuki stated with finality. "Release your control over Tsunade, and perhaps we can have a reasonable conversation."
"Don't you dare give me orders!"
The girl stomped against the ground and charged forward with desperate fury. "So what if you broke through Yachihoko's control?! Don't forget—you're still trapped within my Tsukuyomi space! The outcome remains uncertain!"
"Sigh..."
Kazuki released a weary exhale, watching the relentless girl with something resembling pity. "Didn't I already tell you? The battle is finished."
He slowly withdrew a peculiar talisman from within the inner layer of his clothing.
Whispers of Madness
Sssssss—
The talisman ignited silently, burning with an eerie, colorless flame.
Instantly, an extremely evil and utterly filthy sound invaded the girl's ears—bypassing all normal defenses.
The tearing, shrieking howl was impossibly penetrating!
Like the screams of the damned echoing from the deepest pits of hell itself!
"What... what IS this?!"
The girl clutched at her eyes desperately, pain overwhelming her senses. Veins bulged prominently across her delicate face, pulsing with agony.
The sound shrieked. It howled. It roared.
Like countless red-hot needles being driven deep into her brain—twisting, turning, boring violently through her consciousness!
"You mean this little thing?"
Kazuki shook the burning talisman casually, his tone almost conversational. "I call it 'Whispers of Madness.' You can think of it as... the authentic voice of a genuine lunatic, distilled into pure auditory form."
Whispers of Madness—a Beyonder artifact that forces enemies to hear terrifying, sanity-eroding screams, potentially infecting them with genuine madness.
The girl writhed in extreme agony. Tears of blood streamed from her eyes. Veins and blood vessels bulged all across her body like writhing parasitic worms—seemingly about to tear free from her very skin. The malevolent whispers and screams surpassed all normal limits of human endurance.
CRACK!
The entire Tsukuyomi mental space—like a massive mirror struck by an invisible hammer—became covered in countless spreading fractures.
The next instant, that mirror reality shattered completely with a thunderous crash.
The Nameless Girl's Tragedy
Reality reasserted itself violently.
Looking at the girl who had been tortured beyond all recognition by the artifact's effects, Kazuki finally ceased channeling the 'Whispers of Madness.'
"Can you calm yourself now and speak with me rationally?"
"Do you... do you have any idea what it feels like?"
The nameless Uchiha girl's voice emerged broken and raw. Her face was covered by trembling hands—twisted by accumulated anger and overwhelming resentment. Her crimson Mangekyō eyes reflected nothing but pain. "To exist... in absolute darkness... for years? Don't... don't you dare look at me with that expression! That pitying gaze! You don't understand me! You can't possibly understand!"
Kazuki remained silent, his three-tomoe Sharingan beginning to spin hypnotically.
Hypnosis!
The girl's defiant eyes first glazed over, then her chaotic thoughts became completely muddled and susceptible.
Kazuki's consciousness directly entered her mental island—delving deep into that utterly desolate sea of traumatic memories.
Fragments of the girl's shattered past flooded into his awareness.
No parents. No friends.
No one to rely on. No one to protect her.
Living like a tool—a weapon—mechanically obeying the cold commands of those around her.
Memories played out like a horrific theater performance:
"Your birth served only one purpose—to continue the prosperity of our clan!"
"Nameless! With the resolve to die, eliminate our enemies!!"
"You don't need emotions! Emotions make weapons unreliable!"
"Don't forget, Nameless—you are merely our instrument! Strive to survive on the battlefield only so you can kill more efficiently!"
"You have no family! You exist solely to unleash your power for the Uchiha clan's glory! Do you understand?!"
Those harsh voices echoed endlessly through her consciousness—a chorus of cruelty.
Countless pairs of cold Sharingan eyes—regarding her as nothing more than a disposable tool—commanded her without any trace of human warmth. They led her into one bloody, brutal battlefield after another.
She'd had her emotions forcibly suppressed, her humanity stripped away, transformed into a perfect killing machine for the Uchiha clan's wartime victories.
However...
Despite becoming their most effective weapon, despite winning countless battles for them, her final fate remained inescapable.
Betrayal.
The Uchiha clan had ultimately abandoned her—sealed her away in the dark underground like a monster too dangerous to keep but too valuable to completely destroy.
Alone in that suffocating blackness, she'd tormented herself with accumulating resentment, sealed within boundless darkness for years.
No sound. No light. Only the terrifying, absolute silence of eternal night.
That soul-crushing despair—like maggots endlessly gnawing at rotting bones—had relentlessly devoured the girl's remaining sanity, dragging her slowly, inexorably into the abyss of complete destruction.
Why?
Why could those shinobi who tormented me continue living carefree lives?
Why must I alone bear all this pain and hatred?
Why? Why was no one ever willing to help me?
It was as if the entire world had been born specifically to hate her, to despise her, to fear what she represented.
Ultimately, trapped within that boundless darkness, her spirit ravaged and tormented beyond all recognition, the nameless Uchiha girl had transformed into something resembling a vengeful ghost.
Revenge became her only remaining reason to exist.
She would utterly annihilate every shinobi who had inflicted pain upon her—and then destroy the entire shinobi world itself!
Understanding
"Hoo..."
Kazuki withdrew from her memories, rubbing his temples as profound weariness settled over him.
Just as the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, once observed...
The Uchiha were simultaneously blessed and cursed—born with the capacity for the most intense "love" of any clan in existence.
But that overwhelming love also concealed tremendous risk. Once an Uchiha experienced the devastating loss of something they loved intensely, that emotion would inevitably transform into equally powerful "hatred"—driving them down increasingly extreme paths.
The Curse of Hatred, manifest before me.
"I've lost."
The girl's eyes were completely empty now, devoid of any remaining spark of life. "Now... you can seal me away again. Or... you can kill me."
Only when she mentioned death did the faintest ripple appear in those hollow eyes.
Perhaps she was actually hoping he would end her suffering permanently.
"Nameless Uchiha..."
Kazuki removed his glasses slowly, his calm gaze resembling a deep, still pool—rippling with strangely captivating waves of spiritual energy.
"Do you believe that our encounter held meaning? That it wasn't merely random chance?"
Those profound eyes seemed to possess special power—gently soothing the girl's utterly shattered heart.
At that moment, the nameless Uchiha girl felt something stirring within her consciousness. Something she'd believed completely dead.
Hope?
"I believe that all encounters between people are ordained by fate—guided by forces beyond our comprehension."
Kazuki walked slowly to where the girl sat broken, reaching out to gently lift her delicate chin so their eyes met directly.
His voice was gentle, magnetic, seemingly possessing genuine magical power that resonated with her damaged psyche.
"Just like our meeting here and now. If I had to identify a reason for it... I believe it was the guidance of destiny itself. You and I were meant to meet—so that I could offer you something you've never had before."
His Sharingan met her Mangekyō directly, without fear or hatred.
"A choice. And perhaps... a purpose beyond revenge."
[End of Chapter 24]
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