That white streak of death was no longer a flash in the eyes of the Uchiha—it was a vengeful wraith, silent, swift, and uncanny, carrying the Senju Clan's distinctive, surging vitality and icy killing intent as it thrust straight toward Uchiha Madara, whose guard was wide open after saving his father!
Time seemed to freeze in that instant.
Uchiha Tajima's eyes were nearly bulging from their sockets, but his grievous injuries and the outburst moments earlier left him unable to rush to the rescue. Izuna's cry was swallowed by the roar of the explosion. The other Uchiha shinobi were even more caught off guard by the rapid succession of events, unfolding in the blink of an eye.
Only Uchiha Sou kept his eyes fixed on the wraith, his Double Tomoe Sharingan locked onto it as his mind raced at full capacity. He could "see" its trajectory, but couldn't keep up with its speed. All he could do was watch helplessly as death closed in on the older brother he revered most—and feared most.
At that critical moment—
"Gah—!!!"
A roar burst from deep in Uchiha Madara's throat. It wasn't one of pain, but of overwhelming rage and hatred!
The poisoned kunai still jutted from his shoulder, blood gushing from the wound, but his aura underwent a dramatic transformation!
His Three-Tomoe Sharingan trembled violently under the force of his extreme emotions. The pupils at their center contracted to pinpoints, while the three Tomoe around them seemed to be yanked wildly by an invisible force, warping before finally... connecting and merging!
An unprecedented Dojutsu Power, cold and shadowy yet suffocatingly powerful, erupted from him like a tsunami!
Even the air seemed to twist and wail!
Those eyes... were no longer a simple Tomoe pattern. They had become something more intricate and uncanny, a new design brimming with boundless hatred and power—like a swirling downpour, or a black mandala in bloom!
The Mangekyō Sharingan opened in the face of utter despair!
"What?!" Senju Tobirama, charging in as a wraith, was the first to feel the crushing pressure of this Dojutsu Power from an entirely different realm! For the first time, his ever-composed face showed a look of utter disbelief and shock! His body instinctively faltered for the slightest fraction of a second—a creature's most primal response to an unknown danger!
That tiny falter was enough!
With his Mangekyō awakened, Madara's dynamic vision and reaction speed had risen by several levels! In his field of vision, Tobirama's movements, once as swift as a wraith's, seemed to slow ever so slightly!
That was enough!
Madara didn't even turn around. He shot a glance over his shoulder with his newly awakened Mangekyō, brimming with terrifying power!
Dojutsu Power—activated!
It wasn't some world-destroying technique, but the most basic—and most direct—manifestation of the Mangekyō's power: an extremely potent visual genjutsu that disrupted his opponent's perception!
Tobirama's vision suddenly blurred. Madara's figure seemed to distort for an instant, and the strike that should have landed true missed by a hair!
Thud!
Blood sprayed!
Tobirama's kunai failed to pierce Madara's heart. Instead, it sank deep into his side!
At the same time, enduring the agony of his grievous wounds, Madara whipped around and hurled a punch at Tobirama's face, his fist wrapped in violent Chakra and seething fury!
Tobirama reacted in an instant. When his strike missed, he used the wound in Madara's side as a pivot and flipped backward, narrowly evading the enraged blow. Even so, the fierce wind of Madara's punch stung his cheek, and several strands of white hair were sliced off and drifted to the ground.
He landed lightly and pressed a hand to his cheek, where Madara's fist had grazed him. With wary uncertainty, he stared at Uchiha Madara as he slowly turned around—and at those unfamiliar eyes, radiating an ominous, powerful aura.
"Those eyes..." Tobirama was shaken to the core, a powerful sense of danger rising in his heart.
"Madara!" Izuna finally rushed over and shielded his brother. When he saw the wound in Madara's abdomen, the horrifying poisoned kunai in his shoulder, and those unfamiliar eyes, his face filled with both alarm and shock.
"I'm fine." Madara's voice was hoarse and icy, filled with boundless killing intent. His Mangekyō Sharingan remained fixed on Tobirama. His gaze seemed to come from the depths of the underworld, sending a chill through even the battle-hardened Tobirama.
From the main battlefield came a Senju shinobi's piercing cry: "Clan leader!"
Senju Butsuma's chest had caved in, blood dripping from his nose and mouth. He was already dead, yet even in death, he still held Uchiha Tajima in his grasp. Tajima had broken free, killed both his ambusher and Butsuma, but a kunai had carved a wound to the bone across his back. The poison, his age, and his earlier injuries left his face ashen and his strength rapidly ebbing away. Only sheer will kept him standing.
The two clan leaders, who had fought each other all their lives, were about to die together in this battle in such a brutal fashion!
"Father!" Madara and Izuna cried out in unison, trying to rush to him.
"Stay back!" Tajima growled with the last of his strength. His gaze swept over Madara's newly awakened Mangekyō, and a profoundly complicated emotion flashed through his eyes—shock, relief, and finally, utter exhaustion and a trace of release.
"The Uchiha... future... is in your hands..." he managed to say before his body slowly toppled backward.
"Father!!!" Madara and Izuna let out anguished cries.
The Mangekyō in Madara's eyes spun wildly under the force of his unbearable grief. Its cold Dojutsu Power spread beyond his control, making the temperature around them seem to drop several degrees.
Seeing Butsuma slain, Tobirama unable to finish the job, and Uchiha Madara seemingly awakened to some terrifying new power, the Senju forces' morale plummeted.
"Retreat!" Tobirama ordered at once. He cast a cold glance at the dying Uchiha Tajima and the Mangekyō Sharingan that made his heart pound, then gave the order without hesitation.
The Senju shinobi immediately lifted Butsuma's body and retreated like a receding tide. Tobirama brought up the rear with his Ghost Shadow Body Flicker Technique, vanishing into the forest after a few flickers and leaving behind a battlefield strewn with wreckage and grieving Uchiha.
No one pursued them. The Uchiha had paid a terrible price as well.
Their clan leader, Uchiha Tajima, was gravely wounded and near death. Uchiha Madara had been struck by a poisoned blade and wounded in the abdomen. Many elite shinobi had fallen.
Izuna and several clan members rushed to Tajima's side and tried to treat him, but nothing could be done.
Uchiha Madara stood where he was, blood pouring from the wound in his abdomen as the poison's numbing effects began to spread, yet he seemed not to notice. He simply stared at the direction the Senju had retreated, at the spot where Tobirama had disappeared.
In his newly awakened Mangekyō Sharingan, towering hatred and the overwhelming grief of losing a loved one churned together, at last settling into a near-frozen, destructive coldness.
The two warlords of the old era had played their final notes with their lives.
But the hatred and power of the new era had been kindled that night in a far more brutal and extreme way.
Uchiha Sou stood some distance away, watching the devastating scene and the ominous, powerful new eyes in Madara's face, his heart filled with shock and dread.
The Mangekyō Sharingan... were these the eyes that harbored an even deeper power? Awakened at the cost of a loved one's death and an overwhelming emotional upheaval...
He looked at the grief-stricken Izuna, at Madara, cold as a prison, and thought again of Senju Tobirama, who came and went like a wraith.
The cruelty of war, the cost of power, the uncertainty of the future... it all weighed heavily on his heart.
He knew that from that night on, nothing would be the same. The Uchiha's future would rest upon those Mangekyō, brimming with boundless hatred.
And what place did his own "Causality" power, as faint as a Fire Fly, have in this storm of hatred sweeping everything away? What could it illuminate?
The night deepened, and the stench of blood grew too thick to dispel. The Uchiha's lament rose slowly above the ruins.
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