Breaking Free

"Majestic Attire: Light Spirit Giant Shadow!"

As Uchiha Hikari and Tokiju shouted in unison, a terrifying surge of chakra rampaged through the Sealing Space.

Then, a twenty-meter-tall giant appeared at once.

The giant wore crimson tengu armor, with striking silvery-white joints all over its body.

This was a special technique that Tokiju and Uchiha Hikari had developed together over the past few years.

First of all, Uchiha Hikari was a member of the Uchiha Clan who had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, and her most destructive attack was Susanoo.

To match this form of attack, Tokiju had also developed a corresponding ability, which he had named Light Spirit Giant Shadow.

Unlike the Susanoo of the Uchiha Clan, this technique of Tokiju's was not a special ability of his eyes.

Instead, it was a giant of light formed by releasing the light energy he had absorbed over several months after fusing it with the chakra in his body.

It was much like the complete Nine-Tails Fox form of the main character, except this giant was silvery white.

However, because this wasn't a special ability, the chakra it consumed was far greater than what the Sharingan required.

On top of that, Tokiju's body hadn't yet fully matured, so he couldn't maintain it for long. One attack might be his limit.

Within the pentagonal mark on the giant's brow, Tokiju and Uchiha Hikari clasped hands, constantly pouring out their chakra.

The enormous armored giant slowly drew the long sword in its hand. Uchiha Hikari's eyes flashed. "Amaterasu!"

In an instant, countless black flames spread across the sword until they covered it completely.

Amaterasu was one of Uchiha Hikari's dōjutsu.

As a living weapon of the Uchiha, she had once been forcibly implanted by her clan with enhanced versions of the Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi dōjutsu.

Combined with her own outrageous dōjutsu, Yachihoko, she could be considered an Uchiha ninja with virtually no weaknesses.

Her only real flaw, perhaps, was that her eyes weren't Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, meaning that using too much ocular power would make her go blind.

Seeing that Uchiha Hikari was already shedding tears of blood, Tokiju squeezed every last bit of chakra from his body and poured it all into the blade.

The enormous armored giant gripped its sword and swung it fiercely upward. A tremendous blast of wind immediately tore through the entire Sealing Space.

The strike hit the weak point with pinpoint accuracy, and the black flames of Amaterasu instantly crawled across the barrier.

Under the force of the attack, the sealing barrier began to twist and deform. Cracks appeared, then spread.

Konoha Year 50, somewhere in an uninhabited area along the border of the Land of Fire.

Boom!

With a deafening crash, a giant clad in crimson tengu armor burst out of the ground.

The giant was enormous, its entire body radiating terrifying waves of chakra. Just standing there, it gave the impression that nothing could stand in its way.

The giant towering above the earth slowly vanished, revealing Tokiju and Uchiha Hikari.

They were both panting, in terrible shape. Their chakra was almost completely depleted, and they had nearly exhausted their stamina.

But they forced themselves to keep going, heading toward the distant forest.

The commotion they had made breaking free was enormous. Ninjas from the various villages would surely come to investigate, so staying here would be very unwise.

After running for a while, the two finally found a cave to hide in.

After quickly clearing away their traces, they collapsed on the ground without a shred of grace, gasping for breath.

They had run while holding their breath the whole way. Now that they had finally settled down, their exhaustion came crashing over them.

After resting for a moment, they looked at each other and burst into laughter, perfectly in sync.

"Hahaha! I can't believe we actually broke through by force!" Tokiju lay on the ground, one hand against his forehead, laughing with unrestrained delight.

Uchiha Hikari nodded with a laugh, joy impossible to hide in her eyes. She was finally free again.

She had this boy in front of her to thank for it all.

After resting for a while, Tokiju got up and slowly walked out of the cave.

Standing beneath the warm sunlight, Tokiju spread his arms as if to embrace it.

"It's so warm. I feel like even the mottling on my corpse-like skin has faded."

Tokiju murmured to himself. He sensed that his Eye of Light could continuously absorb the sunlight around him.

And the efficiency was nowhere near comparable to absorbing the glow inside the Sealing Space.

Uchiha Hikari came out just then. Seeing Tokiju basking in the sunlight, she smiled warmly.

She copied him, stepping into the sunlight and savoring the warmth she hadn't felt in so long.

It was warm and comfortable.

After basking for a while and replenishing all the light energy he had used up, Tokiju slowly opened his eyes.

Carefully sensing the light energy in his body, Tokiju realized that sunlight was far more violent than the light energy from the glow in the Sealing Space.

The light energy inside the Sealing Space was extremely gentle, with almost no destructive power.

Only after fusing it with his own chakra and forming the ninjutsu known as Light Release could it become destructive.

But sunlight was different. It didn't need to be fused with his chakra to possess tremendous destructive power.

Sunlight also held an immense amount of life energy, but it was so violent that it couldn't be used at all.

In a sense, sunlight represented the ultimate destructive power. It was light made purely for offense.

At that thought, Tokiju wondered: if sunlight had such properties, what about moonlight and starlight at night?

From a scientific perspective, sunlight, moonlight, and starlight were all forms of stellar light.

But this was the Ninja World, a world of manga. Science didn't exist here.

The only way to find out whether moonlight and starlight had any special properties was to experience them firsthand that night.

Just then, Uchiha Hikari spoke, interrupting Tokiju's thoughts.

"Tokiju, where do we go from here?"

Tokiju pondered for a moment before replying, "Let's see if there are any bandits nearby. We'll borrow some money from them, then find out what we can about this era."

Uchiha Hikari nodded. She didn't know anything about this era either, so she had no reason to object to Tokiju's suggestion.

On the way to look for bandits, Tokiju tore a strip of cloth from his clothes and tied it over his left eye.

The shape of his Eye of Time was bizarre. He didn't want to attract anyone's covetous attention.

There had been no mirrors in the Sealing Space, and he didn't know the Shadow Clone Technique. So before waking Uchiha Hikari, he hadn't realized that his eyes had changed.

The Eye of Light was fine; it still fell within the bounds of normal eyes.

But the Eye of Time was different. It clearly wasn't ordinary, and could easily bring him trouble.

Back in the Sealing Space, Uchiha Hikari had been the only other person there. She was the one who had discovered his eyes anyway, so it didn't matter if she saw them.

But the Ninja World was different. There were crazies everywhere, so it was better to be careful.

Seeing Tokiju cover his left eye with a strip of cloth, Uchiha Hikari smiled. "Haha, so you can be afraid after all. I thought you wanted everyone to see you like that."

Tokiju retorted, "You don't understand. I'm just being cautious."

"And you, too. Don't go showing off your Sharingan."

Uchiha Hikari waved a hand. "I know, I know. You're so naggy..."