Wh... when...
Black Chakra slowly gathered like a thin mist, winding around that stiff, discolored face. The eyes that had fused into the strange pattern of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan were moving downward inch by inch, bearing an expression of terror just like the one on his face.
At that moment, time seemed to slow countless times over. The swelling ground, the Black Flames flying into the air, the scattered rubble, the thunderous roar of the earth—in front of him, in front of Uchiha Nobuhiko, everything was slowly shattering and scattering, starting from deep underground! His Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, with its astonishing insight, perceived every last bit of it.
He could even see the process of the ground rising from flat to curved: the trajectory of every speck of dust from the first crack spreading across the earth to the eruption of the fissure; the snake-like arm of deep-red Chakra revealed as the gap burst open; and the fist of that deep-red Chakra arm, which had already reached his chin. Nothing escaped his eyes.
Yet amid that thunderous roar, amid that all-seeing awareness, amid the countless evasion paths suddenly flashing through his mind, his face seemed to have frozen, unable to move.
Or rather, his muscles were still unable to react from the shock of this sudden, utterly unexpected attack.
Damn it!
I underestimated this Nine-Tails Jinchuriki too much! She did it on purpose—she was waiting for this moment, waiting for the instant I prepared to attack! The moment the attack began was the instant most of my attention was focused on attacking, allowing her to launch an attack I would never expect! It was the simplest principle!
And also the principle least likely to fail!
They seized the initiative! In that instant, the terror still lingering on Uchiha Nobuhiko's