The Yang Seal was complete!

Baki charged up to Karin and swung his blade. She parried with her kunai. Clang, clang! But her poor taijutsu cost her: before three exchanges had passed, he knocked her kunai away, seized the opening, and kicked her flying!

"Urgh...!"

Pain shot through Karin as her back slammed into a Temple Pillar. Baki lunged forward and seized her by the throat, his gaze icy. "After all that, this is all you can do? Tell me the truth, or my next move will kill you!"

Baki raised his fingers, taking the stance for his signature killing technique, Wind Release: Wind Blade. Back when he and Kabuto Yakushi had joined forces to attack Konoha, he had used it to kill Gekko Hayate, who had been eavesdropping from the shadows!

Wind Blade created powerful, chaotic blades of air at close range, making it virtually impossible to evade. Unless someone possessed a body as tough as the Raikage's, taking that attack meant death or grievous injury!

Karin sensed the killing intent radiating from Baki. Bzzzt! In her desperation, horizontal, toadlike markings suddenly appeared in her blood-red pupils—the telltale sign of the Ketsuryūgan activating!

"What!?"

Baki's pupils contracted. He aborted his technique, released Karin, and hastily sprang backward!

"What's with those eyes? The instant I met her gaze, it felt as though something had grabbed my heart!"

In front of the Temple Pillar, Karin shakily stood up, her eyes half-veiled. With her Ketsuryūgan active, her presence had changed, taking on an indescribably sinister air!

She slowly picked up the kunai he had knocked away.

These eyes were a shrine that sealed away the Evil God, allowing Death Controlling Possessed Blood to be cast as a Dōjutsu!

But this was Karin's first time using them, and she wasn't certain whether she had successfully established a "connection"!

She raised her kunai and pointed it at herself!

Baki stared in alarm. "Is she going to kill herself!?"

Karin gritted her teeth and drove the kunai into her shoulder!

Crunch! A wound deep enough to reach the bone opened instantly!

"Aaagh...!!!"

The shoulder of Baki's ninja uniform was instantly soaked in blood. Pain left his shoulder hanging limply, and his pupils trembled violently. "She... she stabbed herself, and I suffered the same wound? Is this ability for real!?"

"Baki-Teacher!!!"

Seeing her Teacher injured, Temari panicked. She unfolded her Three-Star Fan as she ran and swung it hard at Karin, who stood leaning against the Pillar!

Horrified, Baki shouted, "Stop...!!!"

But he was a moment too late.

Wind Release: Great Sickle Weasel!!!

BOOM...!!!

As the great fan swept through the air, weasel-shaped gusts scythed across the temple. The Pillar shattered, and Karin's flesh was torn open.

"Aaaaaagh...!!!"

She screamed as she was hurled away with the rubble, slamming hard into the Temple's outer wall!!

"Aaaaaaaaaagh...!!!!"

Then a horrifying sight unfolded. Cuts kept appearing out of nowhere across Baki's body, blood spraying from his ninja uniform. Drenched in blood, he collapsed into a spreading pool!!!

Only then did Temari snap out of her daze. "How could this happen? Does that mean Baki-Teacher's earlier injury was also because..."

Lying in the pool of blood, Baki struggled to speak with his eyes half-open. "Don't... attack her again. She's put some kind of technique on me! Any injury she suffers is transferred to me at the same time!!!"

Fear of an ability that defied all common sense made Temari's hands tremble around her fan.

"H-how are we supposed to deal with her?"

She watched Karin struggle to her feet, one hand braced against the Temple wall.

"No, what's even more dangerous than attacking her is that she can seriously injure me at any moment by continuing to hurt herself!!!"

True to his reputation as Sunagakure's strongest jonin, Baki managed to think of a workable solution even while wounded!

"Kankuro, use your Puppet Technique's human manipulation to restrain her without hurting her! Hurry!!!!"

"Ah...!!"

Snapping out of his shock, Kankuro charged forward heedlessly. Chakra Threads gathered at his ten fingertips, ready to wrap around Karin and take control of her!

"I feel like the Chakra pouring out of my eyes is about to tear my body apart..."

Karin pressed the kunai straight against her neck and threatened, "Take one more step, and I guarantee your Teacher will lose his head!"

Whoosh...!

Kankuro stopped dead in his tracks!

Karin seized the opportunity to calmly analyze the abilities of these eyes that housed the Evil God.

I've more or less figured it out. I don't need blood as a medium—eye contact alone lets me establish a Death Controlling Possessed Blood connection with someone. But right now, I can only connect to one person! Also, I don't need any so-called ritual circle to share injuries! There's one more thing, and it's important: probably because I'm not a follower of the Evil God, I haven't gained a naturally immortal body like that man called Hidan!

It's just as Orochimaru said... these eyes might have been tailor-made for me, Karin Uzumaki!

"I can't let Sasuke see me injured!"

Chomp! Karin bit down on her wrist.

Physical Healing!!

Hiss, hiss, hiss...!!

Hot vapor rose from her entire body as her wounds rapidly healed, including the shoulder she had stabbed herself and the injuries caused by Temari's Wind Release!

But Death Controlling Possessed Blood shared only injuries, not healing. Baki alone remained wounded!

Baki was horrified. "How is this possible? Who is she? And just who is the person inside the Temple coveting the Dragon Vein!!!"

At the Temple altar.

As the final portion of the Dragon Vein's Nature Chakra was refined into Yin Release Chakra compatible with the Sharingan, bzzzt! A dark-red diamond-shaped mark appeared in the hollow core formed by the interwoven lines of the Yang Seal formula on Sasuke's forehead!

Whoosh!

The lines of the formula linking the altar to Sasuke's body rapidly contracted, flowing into the mark on his forehead!

After flickering several times, the mark stabilized completely!

The Yang Seal was complete!

Sasuke opened his eyes, his gaze brighter than ever before.

"The vision I lost during my battle with Sasori has completely recovered. And my ocular power feels even fuller than it did before..."

"Whew..." The character for "seat" faded from Kabuto Yakushi's palm, and the eight Wood Dragons slowly sank underground. He lowered the arms he had held up for three days and nights, adjusted his glasses out of habit, then began rolling his shoulders to get his blood flowing and ease the aching numbness.

Orochimaru lowered the hands with which he had maintained the seal, wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead, and smiled. "Sasuke-kun, you can think of the Yang Sealing as an external Chakra source for your Sharingan. When you use Dōjutsu, it will draw on the Yang Sealing's power first. Of course, that power cannot be replenished..."

Sasuke said, "It can't be replenished? So once the Dragon Vein's Chakra inside it runs out, the Yang Seal will disappear too?"

Orochimaru's expression grew serious. "We did take a shortcut, after all. This world is fair, and every shortcut has its drawbacks. If you still need the Yang Seal's power in the future, you can accumulate it yourself. For now, its purpose is to preserve your Mangekyo's sight through intense combat until you retrieve your Father's eyes from Obito!"

"Understood..."

Bzzzt!

The Three Tomoe that had remained hidden since the Second Match flashed into view in Sasuke's eyes. He rose from the altar, where the Dragon Vein no longer existed.

"Karin's been gone a little too long. Let's go out and take a look..."