Susanoo

Taming this thing was only the beginning. Uchiha Shaoyu still had several more shikigami to tame.

Great Serpent, Toad, Max Elephant, Rabbit Escape.

Uchiha Shaoyu tamed them one by one.

Next...

Round Deer

Unlike the fierce or bizarre appearances of the other shikigami, Round Deer's phantom was somewhat sacred and serene, though still a little abstract.

Its entire body seemed to be formed from pure light and shadow. Its antlers branched like crystal, its hooves were light, its eyes gentle, and healing ripples that calmed the mind radiated from its body.

However, Uchiha Shaoyu knew well that among the Ten Shadows Technique's shikigami, this seemingly harmless one might be the hardest to defeat.

It possessed almost no offensive abilities, but its core power, the Reverse Cursed Technique, gave it an absurdly powerful regenerative ability.

"No time to admire it."

Shaoyu's gaze sharpened as he launched the first attack. It was the same old approach: he opened with Mangekyō Sharingan genjutsu, trying to disrupt its energy flow.

Yet Round Deer's phantom merely swayed slightly. A lustrous white glow flowed around its body, and the mental interference vanished like a stone sinking into the sea, effortlessly neutralized by its calm and stable energy field.

It was clear that it had extremely high resistance to negative mental effects.

Physical attacks! Shaoyu flashed forward, his short blade wrapped in Wind Style chakra, and slashed at Round Deer's neck!

The blade cut through the light and shadow, genuinely inflicting damage. A clear crack appeared along the deer's neck.

But before Shaoyu could even withdraw his blade, dense white light surged from the crack, rapidly healing it at a visible speed. In the blink of an eye, it was restored to normal!

Round Deer did not even make a sound. Its gentle eyes merely watched Shaoyu quietly, as if asking, "Have you had enough slashing?"

Shaoyu's brows furrowed slightly. Fire Style! He retreated and formed hand seals.

"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" A blazing line of fire shot out, striking Round Deer's phantom in the flank and scorching a blackened patch into it.

The white light surged forth again, like the deftest of craftsmen, swiftly mending the charred wound as the traces left by the flames rapidly faded.

Lightning Style! Wind Style! Water Style!

Shaoyu tried ninjutsu attacks of different attributes in succession, even attempting a series of taijutsu strikes.

Every attack left wounds of varying depths upon Round Deer's phantom, but every time, those wounds were repaired within moments by that seemingly gentle yet incomparably resilient white light.

This thing was like an indestructible, unflattenable piece of taffy!

Hit it once, and it recovered health. Land a full combo, and its health bar was full again. It did not fight back, just stood there and let you attack, yet you simply could not bring it down!

Though perhaps that was because Uchiha Shaoyu's attack speed could not keep up with its recovery speed.

"Damn it..."

For once, a trace of irritation rose in Shaoyu's heart.

With the Six Eyes here, his chakra consumption was minimal, but this thing was more than a little annoying. He had no large-scale attack methods, and the Six Eyes had not yet been developed further. His Fire Style had the greatest range among his ninjutsu, and even that was useless.

This feeling of having nowhere to apply force was more stifling than facing the fierce Nue or the bizarre Rabbit Escape. He could not afford to drag this out. Pursuers could arrive at any moment.

Round Deer's phantom remained gentle and tranquil, like an eternal light of healing. It showed no reaction whatsoever to the commotion from Shaoyu taming the other shikigami earlier and merely stood there in silence.

"I don't have time to waste on you."

Uchiha Shaoyu's eyes turned cold as he made the most direct decision, one that also best suited his current state of mind.

He stopped probing. He stopped using conventional ninjutsu. He did not even use the Mangekyō Sharingan's genjutsu to interfere first.

His consciousness sank into the depths of his Mangekyō, awakening the dormant potential that belonged to one of the Uchiha clan's supreme powers.

Outside, within the simple barrier in the icy crevice, Uchiha Shaoyu's true body suddenly opened his eyes!

The Mangekyō Sharingan in his left eye no longer had flowing bands of light. Instead, it erupted with an almost tangible black radiance filled with destruction and majesty.

"Susanoo!"

The low shout seemed to come from the underworld.

Bzzzt—!

Round Deer: ????????

Big bro, don't lose your temper!

Vast, boundless chakra erupted from Shaoyu's body like a volcanic explosion!

A black, ominous, yet incomparably powerful skeletal framework instantly formed and spread around him!

In the blink of an eye, a skeletal Susanoo several meters tall appeared, possessing only an upper body and one enormous right arm!

This newborn, incomplete Susanoo was black as ink from head to toe, its bones savage and grotesque, radiating an oppressive aura that made souls tremble.

Especially its fully formed right arm, whose five fingers were clenched into a fist, surrounded by destructive energy fluctuations.

Even the space within the barrier seemed unable to withstand this power, letting out an overwhelmed groan.

Within the shikigami space, Round Deer's phantom, which had remained calm all along, seemed to finally sense an unprecedented lethal threat. For the first time, unmistakable fear appeared in its gentle eyes!

The white light around it flared brilliantly as it tried to do something—perhaps strengthen its defenses, perhaps prepare to heal...

But it was too late!

Uchiha Shaoyu's will was completely synchronized with the newborn Susanoo. He gave Round Deer no chance whatsoever to use that troublesome healing ability.

"Die!"

Following his icy intent, the giant skeletal fist of the black Susanoo outside carried berserk power capable of crushing everything, smashing down toward an empty point within the barrier like a falling meteor!

This punch contained no flashy technique and no elemental transformations, only the purest, most tyrannical outpouring of power!

"Rumble—!!!"

It was as though the entire shikigami space shook beneath that unmatched blow! The barrier was instantly covered in cracks before completely shattering! Frigid wind and ice chips flooded in from outside, but even more terrifying was that the space where the fist's force pointed seemed to warp and collapse!

Within the shikigami space.

That gentle white Round Deer phantom, symbolizing powerful healing ability, could not even fully let out a cry before being struck by the phantom of that giant black skeletal fist. Like a crystal sculpture smashed by a massive hammer, it exploded with a crash! It turned into countless white motes of light that scattered in every direction!

What Reverse Cursed Technique? What extreme self-healing? Before the crushing force of absolute power, it had no time to activate them—or rather, even if it had, it would have been useless.

The destructive power contained in that punch exceeded the instantaneous limit of what its healing ability could endure, utterly destroying its very form of existence at the core.

The motes did not completely disperse. Some were forcibly restrained and gathered, rapidly reorganizing and solidifying under the combined effects of the Ten Shadows Technique's contract rules and Shaoyu's Mangekyō ocular power. They became a Round Deer mark, obediently floating before Shaoyu's consciousness, with no trace of resistance remaining.

Overwhelming force. A single fatal strike. Forced taming.

The mark descended, and the contract was completed instantly.

Information about Round Deer's healing ability flowed into his mind. Although this violent method of taming might make it difficult to use smoothly at first and require time to adjust, its core ability was already his.