It was over...
He had originally wanted to stall for a little longer...
But in the end, Uchiha Nobuhiko was no ordinary opponent...
Fine raindrops poured down from the sky. Amid the intermittent flashes of lightning, Chiba, held within the skeletal palm wrapped in Black Flames-like Chakra, stood above the lake's rippling surface. Under the gaze of those scarlet eyes, the last trace of light in his own eyes finally faded away, leaving them utterly vacant.
As his gaze became completely dull, Chiba's head slowly drooped, carrying a trace of regret and helplessness.
Originally, he had asked that question to sow doubt and stir conflict and hesitation within Uchiha Nobuhiko. Yet it had backfired. Uchiha Nobuhiko had been so decisive that, without another word, he launched a genjutsu attack directly, completely ending any possibility of Chiba succeeding in his plans.
The cliché of a villain dying from talking too much would never happen to Uchiha Nobuhiko.
That counterquestion had backfired.
There was nothing more he could do. Whether or not Uchiha Nobuhiko specialized in genjutsu, genjutsu at the level of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan had been cast directly upon him. His battle had already ended here! All he could do now was leave behind this one regretful thought.
"Hmm?"
Yet at that moment, as he watched the youth before him lower his head and completely fall into the genjutsu, the smile on the face of the scarlet-eyed young man named Uchiha Nobuhiko, who held the youth in his grasp, suddenly froze.
This feeling...
It failed? Why... why didn't it enter? Beneath that frozen smile, a startled and confused thought flashed through his mind.
Could it be!
As inspiration struck, his scarlet eyes widened slightly, and his frozen expression immediately stiffened.
"Bang!"
The next second, as if confirming his suspicions, the