Bury Them All Alive!

In an instant!

Uchiha Hikari's movements halted. She stood rigidly in place, as though her mind had been controlled and she had lost the ability to move.

Seizing that fleeting opening, a Root ninja darted in front of her and drove the short blade in his hand forward with all his strength, piercing straight through her back!

The Root ninja's face lit up with delight.

But the next moment...

Bang!

The Uchiha Hikari pierced by the blade turned into an afterimage and vanished, leaving behind the blade-wielding Root ninja with suddenly contracted pupils.

"Clone Technique?! When..."

Before the Root ninja could react, Uchiha Hikari came plummeting down from the canopy above with the sound of rushing wind. As she brushed past him, she raised both arms, wrapped them around his neck, and gave a light twist!

Crack—

His neck snapped!

Uchiha Hikari casually picked up the Root ninja's short blade. Using the corpse to block the Yamanaka Clan member's line of sight, she used the Body Flicker Technique to shift behind a large tree several meters away. Once she had done all that, she let out a soft breath, while a vast blueprint seemed to unfold within her mind—

"Excluding the first two, there are twelve Root members who came to assassinate me. I've already dealt with three. Nine remain..."

"Their positions are... the closest is roughly ten meters away, while the farthest is around forty meters. There are also two Root ninja watching each other's backs beside that Yamanaka Clan member. I need to find a way to deal with him first, or he'll severely restrict me..."

"There's also the possibility that they have reinforcements..."

As she rapidly calculated, an inexplicable fury rose within Uchiha Hikari—

Danzo, Root...

These sewer rats...

They dared to hunt her down?! They thought they were worthy of hunting her down?!

In that case... they should be prepared to be buried alive, every last one of them!

The next moment, Uchiha Hikari closed and opened her eyes, her gaze already sharp as a blade.

"Amaterasu!!!"

As her eye power surged, Uchiha Hikari leaped from her hiding place. With a single glance, a ball of scorching black flames appeared out of thin air beside the Yamanaka Clan ninja and set him ablaze. Although he immediately tried to tear off his clothes, the black flames seemed alive, crawling in through his collar and sleeves. In the blink of an eye, half his body was burned into charred black ruin!

Amaterasu: Kagutsuchi!

Like Sasuke's, it was an Eye Technique that added further shape transformation atop Amaterasu!

"Aaaahhh!!!"

Even Root, who claimed to be without emotion, could not endure the agony of black flames burning their flesh, and the man let out a miserable scream.

But Uchiha Hikari did not spare this "dead man" another glance. She immediately shifted position. As she leaped onto a tree trunk several meters high, she turned to face the other side.

With another glance, black flames ignited on the other two Root ninja as well. Although those nearby immediately unleashed Water Style in an attempt to extinguish the flames, the Eye Technique known as Amaterasu could not be put out by ordinary water.

"Six left..."

"End this quickly!"

Uchiha Hikari drew a deep breath and controlled all the black flames to erupt outward. While the surrounding Root members scattered and dodged, her true body once more controlled Susanoo and charged out, smashing through the Earth Style Wall that rose before it. Then it extended its hands, seized the two Root ninja at the end of the rubble in Susanoo's enormous palms, and clapped them together with force!

Bang!!

Amid a violent howl of wind, the two Root ninja slammed into each other and, under the immense pressure, were crushed into a cloud of bloody mist!

"Four..."

Next, relying on the dynamic vision provided by the Sharingan, Uchiha Hikari lunged directly into the midst of several Root ninja. Her left hand grabbed the blade of one man before her, while the kunai in her right hand had already slit his throat. Then she seized his sword and flung it in one smooth motion, the short blade piercing another Root ninja's skull with a sharp whistle!

The blade lodged in the hard skull as blood and milky-white brain matter splattered together!

"Two..."

From the moment Uchiha Hikari reappeared to the moment she killed seven Root ninja in one breath, only a dozen or so seconds had passed. After witnessing all of it firsthand, the remaining two Root ninja's eyes trembled. Rather than charging forward, they began trying to flee.

Uchiha Hikari rose and used the Body Flicker Technique to shoot forward several meters. Her body swept into the forest like a nimble cat. She lightly stepped off a tree trunk, then pounced at one of the Root ninja with the ferocity of a tiger. The instant their bodies collided, her shoulder knocked aside the short blade he swung down at her, and she drove her kunai into his throat!

Thud—!

Carried by the momentum of her dive, Uchiha Hikari and the Root ninja slammed into a large tree. Using his corpse as a cushion, she absorbed most of the impact, then struggled to rise and looked toward the last man.

At that moment, the Root ninja had already fled over a hundred meters away and was about to escape from the far side of the woods.

However...

Uchiha Hikari extended her right hand and pointed forward.

The next moment, a piercing rush of wind that sounded like a dragon's roar exploded through the air. A jet-black dragon formed from Amaterasu's flames swept past Uchiha Hikari, crashed through the dense undergrowth, and pounced upon the final Root ninja. In an instant, it swallowed him whole, reducing him to ashes!

"Zero!"

Twelve elite Root ninja, annihilated!

"Phew..."

Uchiha Hikari stood where she was, breathing deeply as she calmly swept her gaze around.

Only after confirming that she could no longer sense the presence of another living person nearby did she deactivate her Mangekyō Sharingan.

As the Sharingan closed, the Dark Red Susanoo dispersed into the air, and Amaterasu's black flames gradually faded away. Silence returned to the surroundings. Only the corpses strewn across the ground, along with the earth and forest ravaged in turn by various ninja techniques, told the story of what had just happened.

Only then did Uchiha Hikari feel a faint sting in her eye sockets. The corners of her eyes seemed slightly damp as well, as though bloody tears were about to flow.

"Come to think of it... these eyes of mine are still only ordinary Mangekyo, aren't they..."

Uchiha Hikari of the Warring States Period had no brothers or sisters, and her parents had both been ordinary tomoe-wielding ninja.

That meant she had no chance to evolve her eyes into the Eternal Mangekyo.

In theory, "Yachihoko" could absorb the eye power of others to replenish her own and slow the rate at which her eye power was depleted. After all, eye power itself was also a special kind of Chakra. But this method was not a permanent solution, and the risk of blindness remained.

Moreover, Yachihoko's effects were too frightening. No ninja clan could tolerate it. Once discovered, it would likely bring endless trouble.

—That was why Uchiha Hikari of the Warring States period had been sealed away. It was also why Uchiha Hikari had not used this Eye Technique just now.

"Looks like I need to find a way to eliminate this hidden danger..."

Uchiha Hikari gathered her thoughts.

After confirming that no one else was coming, she wiped the cold sweat from the tip of her nose, picked up a long sword from the ground, and slowly made a circuit around the area, finishing off each of the Root ninja who had tried to assassinate her.