I Will Beat You Back to Reality

Toji pressed his palms together.

The Earth Grudge Fear clones twisted, their once-solid forms dissolving back into fine black threads that he drew back into his body.

"Mystical Palm Technique!"

The torn skin on his body healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, leaving behind only a faint, shallow mark that barely hinted at the injury.

Having finished, Toji flickered and vanished from the spot in an instant.

A crescent moon hung in the night sky.

Thick, dark clouds obscured the moonlight, leaving the surface of the Naka River reflecting nothing but bottomless darkness.

Naka Shrine.

Two groups of Uchiha ninja stood on either side of the shrine gates, separated by several meters, facing each other in a tense standoff.

What is this about?

Toji frowned slightly.

Since transmigrating, he had not had much interaction with the Uchiha, save for treating a few injured clansmen at Konoha Hospital.

For one, getting too close to the Uchiha was likely to invite the suspicion of Tobirama; for another, in this era, there was no one among the Uchiha worth his special attention, aside from Madara.

This scene of swords drawn and bows bent was somewhat beyond his expectations.

Toji held his breath and focused, suppressing his presence until he seemed to blend into the night, silently creeping to the edge of the woods to observe from the shadows.

Even without expertise in concealment ninjutsu, relying solely on taijutsu, Toji was known alongside Kakuzu as the strongest in the Waterfall Village. The methods of suppressing one's presence and hiding one's tracks to carry out assassination missions were second nature to him.

Uchiha Chirori was born in the 15th year before the founding of Konoha.

Beautiful in appearance and kind and gentle in nature, Chirori had always maintained a stable mental state, unlike many other Uchiha clansmen.

She awakened her Sharingan at nine and unlocked the three-tomoe at twelve.

During the Warring States period, she followed Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Izuna through countless battles. With her decisive and ruthless combat style, she earned the moniker "Purple Reaper" on the battlefield.

She was recognized as the strongest Uchiha after Madara and Izuna.

After Madara left Konoha, Chirori naturally became the acting clan head. Barring any accidents, her succession as the official Uchiha clan head was only a matter of time.

Uchiha Bin led his younger sister, Uchiha Yan, and thirty clansmen, standing in a distant standoff against the fifty people under Uchiha Chirori's command.

"Uchiha Bin, stand down." Uchiha Chirori sighed, her tone earnest as she tried to persuade him. "Are you truly going to destroy the peace our clansmen have worked so hard to achieve?"

"The one who should stand down is you, Uchiha Chirori!" Uchiha Bin retorted without a hint of courtesy. "You don't even have the courage to contend with the Senju, so stop putting on airs and acting like a clan head."

"I am taking my clansmen and leaving today, and I'd like to see who can stop me!"

He had planned this meticulously, choosing the night of the New Year—when the village's defenses were at their weakest—to lead a portion of the clan in a defection to find and join Uchiha Madara.

By the time Konoha reacted, his group would have already flown far away.

Yet, at this critical juncture, Uchiha Chirori had brought people to block their path.

"I will not let you leave."

Chirori's gaze turned cold. "Once you defect, every clansman remaining in Konoha will have to bear the consequences for your actions. I will not allow that to happen. This is your final warning: stand down."

Seeing that reasoning was futile, Uchiha Bin immediately drew his katana. "Kill your way out with me! Izanagi, activate!"

"Uchiha Bin, I will drag you back to reality."

The three tomoe deep within Uchiha Chirori's pupils spun rapidly, eventually coalescing into the shape of a clover.

It's actually the Mangekyou Sharingan...

Toji was stunned.

The Mangekyou Sharingan, the stage that followed the evolution of the Sharingan, was the ultimate power of the Uchiha.

He had not expected that, besides Uchiha Madara, there was someone else in the Uchiha clan who possessed this power.

Toji touched his own eyes.

"What a pity."

He felt a slight sense of regret, then turned his gaze back to the battlefield in front of the shrine.

The situation was a one-sided crush.

Setting aside the vast disparity in numbers, in terms of top-tier combat power alone, Uchiha Chirori, with her Mangekyou Sharingan, was an invincible existence to the Uchiha clansmen present who had only unlocked the three-tomoe.

Before long, casualties began to appear.

The frenzied Uchiha clansmen did not show mercy despite the fratricide. For the sake of their respective beliefs—whether for security or for freedom—they all struck at each other with lethal intent.

At this moment.

Izanagi was activated.

At the cost of the vision of one Sharingan, it could turn unfavorable events that occurred within a period of time as if they had never happened, choosing only to manifest outcomes favorable to the user.

A top-tier genjutsu capable of rewriting reality.

Soon, those Uchiha who had fallen in pools of blood stood up once more.

Could they change the ending just by being resurrected?

The answer was no.

Uchiha Chirori pressed her index and middle fingers together against her lips, and a trail of blood tears slowly flowed from her Mangekyo.

In an instant, all the clan-betraying ninjas who had activated Izanagi, including Uchiha Bin, froze in place. Time seemed to be stretched infinitely, or perhaps it had merely stagnated for a heartbeat.

When Uchiha Bin regained his ability to move, the arrogance and violence in his eyes had dissipated, leaving behind only a calm born of utter despair.

"My path... was wrong."

"Uchiha Chirori, you were right."

As his voice fell, he knelt on both knees, accepting his defeat.

Whoosh—

Like a chain reaction, the defectors knelt down one after another.

At the edge of the battlefield.

Uchiha Bin's younger sister, Uchiha Yan, was severely wounded. Watching the scene before her, her eyes split with rage, and her heart was filled with despair.

She could not accept that her brother and comrades, who had promised to defect from Konoha together and declared "give me liberty or give me death," had simply bowed their heads to Chirori.

Hatred and resentment surged in her chest.

The two-tomoe in her pupils spun rapidly, coalescing into shape to become the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

She etched this humiliating scene into her mind, gritting her teeth as she broke free from the encirclement beside her. Taking advantage of the fact that Uchiha Chirori was too occupied to notice this side, she used her last ounce of strength to dash into the Forest of Death outside Naka Shrine.

She would leave Konoha, pursue the freedom that was not oppressed by the Senju, and follow in the footsteps of Madara.

The dark and desolate Forest of Death.

Uchiha Yan concentrated her remaining chakra into her legs. With a tap of her toes, the branch bent slightly before snapping back, launching her over ten meters away.

The rushing wind caused fallen leaves to flutter down with a rustle.

At the edge of her vision, a hazy moonlight was already visible on the ground.

The path to salvation was right before her eyes.

"Almost there..."

She gritted her teeth and persisted, not daring to stop: "As long as I cross this Forest of Death, I can leave Konoha."

Just the moment before she was about to escape—

"This is as far as you go."

An indifferent, cold voice rang in her ear.

Every hair on Uchiha Yan's body stood on end.

Before she could react, her vision went black, her consciousness plunged into darkness, and she lost all sensation.