Poison needles, flying knives, and puppet fragments from the self-destructing puppet all came at Fucheng from behind.
The people some distance away had no time to react!
Faced with the explosion, they could only instinctively throw themselves to the ground.
Only Uchiha Fugaku's Sharingan widened.
Fugaku used the Body Flicker Technique with all his might, putting his own body between Fucheng and the attack!
"Fugaku, you—?"
In that final moment, only one thought remained in Fugaku's mind: My younger brother must not die!
It was hard to compare, but Fugaku's determination to sacrifice himself to save his younger brother was almost on a par with the overwhelming love Itachi felt for Sasuke.
Feeling Fugaku slam into his back, Fucheng could clearly hear the wet thuds of weapons and fragments piercing flesh.
"Fu! Gaku!"
Rage and helplessness sent Uchiha Fucheng's blood pressure soaring.
He didn't know whether it was his predecessor's memories or the shock of Fugaku throwing himself into the attack, but even Fucheng, who thought himself cold-hearted, was moved to tears in an instant.
Two streams of blood flowed from his eyes.
Time gradually came to a standstill.
The wet thuds of weapons piercing flesh grew farther and farther apart.
The three Tomoe in Fucheng's eyes spun wildly, their afterimages merging into one.
The poison from the puppet mechanism's self-destruction had taken effect. Before Fugaku even hit the ground, he spat out a mouthful of red blood streaked with dark green, splattering it across Fucheng's hem.
"Chiyo Poison!"
Fugaku was on the verge of death.
The Three-Tomoe Sharingan in Uchiha Fucheng's eyes formed a graceful arc.
Four lightning-bolt symbols, each with a curved tail, encircled a concentric ring and divided the entire eye into four sections.
The Three-Tomoe Sharingan transformed into a mysterious pattern in Fucheng's eyes.
Mangekyō Sharingan!
Awakened!
Fucheng glared viciously.
Bang!
The puppet master, already wounded by the blast, was struck by a strange black-and-blue bolt of lightning.
His entire body was charred beyond recognition!
Sparks and flashes crackled over what remained of his corpse.
His shattered abdomen and chest looked like a blazing furnace.
The flames of burning blood clashed fiercely, and choking smoke rose from the Sand Ninja puppet master's body.
Two streams of blood flowed from Fucheng's eyes!
Uchiha Fucheng cradled Fugaku and ran toward Lady Tsunade's reinforcements.
As a much larger stream of blood flowed from Fucheng's left eye, the pallor in Fugaku's face, where he lay in Fucheng's arms, faded at an astonishing speed.
Mangekyo Eye Technique: Okuninushi!
This was the Mangekyō ability in Uchiha Fucheng's left eye.
[Okuninushi] possessed the miraculous power to heal wounds and even restore limbs.
Its only shortcoming was that it could only treat external physical injuries.
It might not be very effective against poison, mental attacks, or other special kinds of damage.
Fugaku still wasn't completely healed.
This ability could make the wounds across Fugaku's back force out the puppet fragments and repair his body by healing the external injuries.
The Chiyo Poison was extremely potent and still posed a threat to his life.
"Lady Tsunade, Fugaku was hit with a large dose of Chiyo Poison!"
Uchiha Fucheng rushed to Tsunade and gently laid Fugaku on the ground. He turned Fugaku onto his stomach, clearly showing Tsunade his back.
Tsunade had seen the puppet's self-destruction from a distance.
As a member of the Senju Clan who had been raised by Hashirama from childhood, Tsunade naturally knew about the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Hashirama and Tobirama had taught her plenty about the most dangerous Shinobi World knowledge, including the Uchiha Clan's highest-level Sharingan.
Looking at Uchiha Fucheng, whose eyes streamed with blood, and Uchiha Fugaku, whose back wounds were healing visibly, Tsunade knew Fucheng had awakened a Kekkei Genkai talent on a par with Kage Level strength.
"A healing eye technique?"
Tsunade unrolled a scroll containing surgical instruments and, as she cleaned the wounds on Fugaku's back, asked softly, "How long can this ability keep the wounds healing? I need to reopen some of them to completely draw out the poison inside."
Fucheng carefully wiped away the blood from the side of his hand. Both his eyes had returned to normal.
"Rapid healing can last five minutes. The slower process of stopping the bleeding and closing the wounds might continue for more than three hours."
Tsunade nodded. "Then we still have time. I can neutralize the latest version of the Chiyo Poison. Don't worry. Fugaku won't die."
Tsunade formed Hand Seals. "[Delicate Illness Extraction Technique]!"
As Tsunade released green chakra, the reopened wounds on Fugaku's back expelled a mixture of dark brown and blue-green poison, which rose into the air in several streams.
Tsunade guided the poison out of the wounds.
Mikoto and the others caught up just then.
Mikoto looked worried as she anxiously asked, "Big Brother Fucheng, are you hurt? How is Big Brother Fugaku?"
Uchiha Fucheng still looked somewhat dazed.
He hadn't expected Fugaku to care so much about him, his younger brother.
In the instant of the explosion, Fugaku had pushed himself past his limits, injuring his ankles with the strain, and used a Body Flicker Technique that surpassed the limits of the human body to shield Fucheng.
It wasn't that he didn't want to answer Mikoto. His original memories were flooding his mind in such disarray that he could barely think.
Scenes from Fucheng and Fugaku's childhood tumbled through his mind like images on a film reel.
Fugaku teaching him to practice with Kunai, and even looking after him after their parents died, taking care of his daily needs...
"Sometimes, it takes someone disappearing for people to remember them."
Memories came rushing back, one after another.
The Uchiha Fugaku before him seemed like a completely different person from the "indecisive, ineffectual" Fugaku in his memories!
Fucheng reined in his jumbled memories and took a few seconds to calm down before answering Mikoto in a slower voice.
"I'm not hurt. Lady Tsunade is treating my big brother. His life isn't in danger."
Mikoto checked Fucheng and saw that he really had no wounds. Only then did she relax.
She didn't know why, but when Fucheng had been attacked, she had been consumed by an overwhelming terror.
It was as if she were about to lose the most important thing in her life.
Fucheng could clearly sense her anxiety.
Since Mikoto had become his contracted follower, Uchiha Fucheng could clearly check her personal information.
Follower: Misaka Mikoto (Uchiha Mikoto) Age: 14 Level: Chunin Kekkei Genkai: One-Tomoe Sharingan Status: Panicking and anxious
"Mikoto awakened her Sharingan too?"
Fucheng looked up, greatly surprised. "I didn't expect my being in danger to awaken her eyes too."
"There's great terror between life and death. Maybe this Mangekyō Sharingan awakening wasn't only because Fugaku risked his life to save me. The painful experience of being electrocuted to death and then reborn may have nourished the Mangekyō too."
As he watched Tsunade treat Fugaku, Fucheng sat quietly off to the side.
He sank into his mind and reviewed the Mangekyō abilities indicated by the system.
The two eye techniques corresponded perfectly to those two rare experiences of "understanding life and death": saving Fugaku and being electrocuted to death.
[Left Eye: Okuninushi]!
Before you continue