Freedom

"Damn it, if only I had enough ocular power, if only I possessed the Eternal Mangekyo..."

The world, however, offers no "ifs." Yue was being hunted through the jungle in exactly this wretched state.

Behind him, the sky was choked with yellow sand, and the various Water and Earth Style techniques of the Senju Clan clung to their trail like bone-deep maggots, tearing frantically at the path of their escape.

"Amaterasu!"

Hikari, tucked under Yue's arm, felt a line of shocking, blood-red tears stream from her hollow eyes.

At the focal point of her gaze, a cluster of eerie, ink-black flames—as if devouring the very light itself—instantly erupted in the center of the most ferocious sandstorm!

"It's Amaterasu! Sealing squad, move!"

The Senju Clan, having thoroughly researched intelligence on Hikari, were fully prepared. They were determined to secure these two ultimate weapons today.

Though the flames failed to injure the pursuers behind them, this wall of death bought them a precious few dozen seconds.

"Well done, Hikari. Close your eyes; don't use them again."

Yue gasped for air, and taking advantage of this brief gap, he plunged into a highly concealed underground karst cave ahead.

The cave was damp and cold. Yue set Hikari down.

He clutched his left eye, his chest heaving violently.

He had one final chance to activate "Yagokoro Omoikane," but if he used it now, his left eye would be completely and permanently destroyed.

In this perilous Warring States period, once your trump cards were played out, you were truly not far from death.

"The enemy will bypass the black flames and surround this place soon."

Hikari knelt on one knee, skillfully gripping her short blade in reverse. Her pale face was devoid of color, looking exactly like a fragile piece of porcelain preparing for its final collision.

"Yue, you go. I'll stay behind to cover the retreat. I'll use Yachihoko and Amaterasu to detonate the entire underground water vein. Even though I'll die, it will be enough to drag them down. Your probability of survival is..."

"Shut up."

Yue interrupted her without a hint of courtesy.

He didn't flick her forehead as he usually did. Instead, with extreme calmness—bordering on madness—he pulled two secret technique scrolls from his robes, along with the corpses of two Sarutobi scouts he had killed on the run.

"Hikari, in this world, if you want to survive, you can't just rely on brute force and desperation; you have to rely on this."

Yue pointed to his head, a cold and cunning arc forming at the corner of his mouth.

As a transmigrator with memories of the future, Yue knew all too well the methods used in those dark corners.

Especially the "Vanishing Facial Copy Technique" and "Dead Soul Technique" frequently used by Orochimaru and the Root—they were top-tier disguises that could even deceive the Byakugan of the Hyuga Clan!

He didn't know the Dead Soul Technique, but he knew the Vanishing Facial Copy Technique.

In this current Warring States period, it had yet to be developed.

Yue began weaving hand signs rapidly, smearing his and Hikari's blood onto the two Sarutobi scout corpses respectively.

"Are you... forging our corpses?" Hikari stared blankly at his fluid, practiced movements.

"No, we're forging the illusion that we were sealed by them. This cave is perfect—a dead end with only one exit, fitting the geographical requirements they need for a sealing ritual."

Yue took a deep breath and formed a hand seal—a cruel, secret technique mark belonging to the future Orochimaru that absolutely did not exist in this Warring States era.

The principle wasn't complex; Yue had developed it long ago to deal with the Konoha Anbu who had been hunting him.

"Vanishing Facial Copy Technique!"

Yue's fingers made a grasping motion in the air over his and Hikari's faces. An invisible chakra, acting like a precision skinning scalpel, replicated the most minute features of their faces and pressed them firmly onto the faces of the Sarutobi corpses.

Accompanied by a bone-chilling sound of squelching flesh, the faces of the two unrecognizable corpses twisted and reorganized, eventually becoming identical to Yue and Hikari!

Even Hikari's bloodless pallor and the blind scar on Yue's left eye were replicated without a single error.

"That's still not enough."

Yue knew the terrifying sensory capabilities of the Senju Clan; two corpses that merely looked the part wouldn't fool those battle-hardened elites.

"We can't be found already dead; that's too fake. Only when the prey struggles frantically in a desperate situation will the hunter drop the cage without suspicion."

Yue wove hand signs again. This time, it was the signature masterpiece of the future Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

Poof! Poof!

Two clouds of white smoke dissipated, and two physical clones possessing chakra fluctuations identical to Yue and Hikari appeared in their place.

"This is... what kind of clone? The chakra is divided so perfectly?"

A glimmer of shock finally flickered in Hikari's hollow eyes.

In this era, there were only crude Water or Earth clones. This high-level ninjutsu, which even the Uchiha couldn't detect, was unheard of.

"Don't just stare." Yue commanded his Shadow Clones to hide the two forged corpses in the shadows of the stalactites behind them, instructing the clones to act as if they were at their wits' end, their chakra completely exhausted.

Afterward, Yue turned his head, his remaining right eye taking a deep look at the dark river in the depths of the cave, and he took a sharp, deep breath.

Though this plan was ingenious, it still carried immense risk.

What if the Senju insisted on taking them alive? What if the Sarutobi sealing formation pierced through the Shadow Clones?

He could not gamble.

At this critical juncture, the slightest uncertainty would lead them to total annihilation!

Yue Uchiha violently tore off the bandages he had just wrapped around his left eye.

That left eye, bloodshot and nearly withered from being forced open, ignited one last time in the dim cavern with that star-patterned iris, spinning frantically like the gears of fate!

"Yagokoro Omoikane!"

Bright red blood gushed from Yue's left eye socket like a bursting stream, and a violent tearing sensation threatened to split his brain in two.

"Increase the success rate of 'the Senju and Sarutobi mistaking the Shadow Clones for our true bodies, and sealing the cavern along with the fake corpses without making physical contact' to 100%."

"Crack."

An incredibly crisp shattering sound echoed in Yue's mind.

"Ugh!" Yue let out a muffled groan and dropped to one knee, his left eye completely losing all focus.

Heh, he was a one-eyed dragon again.

"Go! Into the water!"

Yue grabbed the still-dazed Hikari, suppressed their heartbeats and chakra to the absolute minimum, and like two cold stones, they sank silently into the subterranean river at the deepest part of the cavern.

Almost half a second after they entered the water:

"Over here! I can sense their desperate chakra!"

The Senju commander and the Sarutobi captain, leading a large group of elites, charged into the end of the cavern, reeking of killing intent.

Hikari, being dragged by Yue as they swam frantically through the dark river, clearly saw the scene on the bank through the refraction of the water.

Yue's Shadow Clone was vomiting mouthfuls of blood, shielding Hikari's Shadow Clone behind him, clutching a broken straight blade, and letting out a desperate, crazed roar:

"Senju lackeys! Want to take our eyes? Keep dreaming! Hikari, prepare for mutual destruction!"

"The losses are already heavy enough, don't give them a chance to use ocular jutsu!"

In the unseen void, the law of causality of Yagokoro Omoikane exerted absolute influence at this moment.

Every enemy, in this instant, developed the exact same thought: they must not get close; the losses were already too great, and using the highest-level sealing jutsu immediately was the optimal solution.

"Sarutobi! Seal this cavern completely!" the Senju commander roared.

"Understood! Earth Style: Barrier: Yellow Springs Swamp! Plus the remnants of the Four Violet Flames!"

Dozens of ninja performed hand seals simultaneously, and their massive chakra erupted instantly.

The ceiling of the cavern collapsed with a roar, and countless hard rocks mixed with sealing runes crashed down like a waterfall!

"BOOM--!"

The entire cavern was sealed shut.

The Senju sensory ninja stepped forward, carefully sensing the layer of sealed rock, which was dozens of meters thick.

"Commander, the faint life signs inside have completely vanished, leaving only two traces of the cold chakra unique to the Uchiha..."

"It seems they were successfully sealed. Did you sense physical bodies? Are you sure they aren't some kind of Earth Clones?"

The Sarutobi sensory ninja sensed for a moment, confirming the two humanoid shapes inside, their features appearing consistent.

It was fortunate they weren't sensory ninja from the Hyuga clan; otherwise, corpses without chakra would still have been viewed with suspicion.

"Yes, Commander, there are physical bodies."

The Senju commander gave a satisfied, cold snort and waved his hand. "Withdraw! This round, we have won!"

The thunderous sound of footsteps gradually faded until it disappeared entirely.

Dead silence.

After a long, deathly silence:

"Splash--"

At the far exit of the subterranean river, two dark shadows broke through the water.

It had been a narrow escape; they had successfully fled the area just as the sealing jutsu was about to take effect.

Yue Uchiha breathed in mouthfuls of air mixed with the scent of damp earth and collapsed onto the moss-covered riverbank.

The blood flowing from his left eye socket had stained half his face, and his right eye was half-closed from extreme exhaustion.

But he was laughing.

He laughed until his chest shook violently, laughing like a madman who had danced on the edge of the Grim Reaper's scythe and managed to pluck a whisker from the Reaper's chin on his way out.

This faked death wasn't just for the Senju clan; it was also for the Uchiha clan.

Only in this way could they obtain their freedom.

It was just that the price was equally painful; he had returned to his previous half-blind state.

Fortunately, now that he had the method, restoring his ocular power wouldn't be too difficult.

It was just that, without the ocular technique of the left eye, this process would simply take a little longer.

Hikari sat blankly in the muddy water, soaked to the bone.

Once she steadied herself, a complex mix of emotions—shock, bewilderment, and more—engulfed her.

"You... why didn't you let me die in battle?"

Yue ceased his laughter. He struggled to prop up his upper body and, with a hand caked in mud, reached out to ruffle Hikari's wet hair without a second thought.

This time, he didn't flick her forehead; his movements could even be described as a rough sort of tenderness.

"I told you already, Hikari."

Yue's remaining right eye gazed at her quietly. In that look, there was none of the madness of the Uchiha Clan, nor the coldness of the Warring States period; there was only a clarity that had seen through life, death, and the shackles of fate.

"In this godforsaken world, no one is anyone's tool."

He bared his teeth, flashing a grin that looked worse than crying, yet was incredibly defiant.

"Standing here is just a blind bastard, and a brat who can't even manage to eat a roasted sweet potato properly. We are both living, breathing people; we are... comrades!"