"This really is..."
Covering her eyes and feeling her ocular power slowly recover, Uchiha Hikari could not help letting the corners of her lips curl upward.
But the next moment, a familiar voice suddenly came from above.
"Hey, you down there. You're not allowed to throw firecrackers around here."
Uchiha Hikari's hand froze over her eyes. When she looked up, an unfamiliar figure with an extremely familiar voice came into view.
Her Mangekyō Sharingan slowly spun, as though she wanted to commit the person before her to memory.
"You're... better-looking than I imagined..."
"???"
Looking at the stunned woman below, Uchiha Gen paused slightly. The next moment, a wisp of green flame suddenly ignited behind Uchiha Hikari, and a small green blob slowly took shape.
In the next instant, a surge of ocular power erupted from Uchiha Gen's right eye.
Scarlet flashed. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan activated in an instant, then began spinning rapidly until it fully transformed into a Mangekyō Sharingan.
Click...
With a faint click, a piece of information flooded Uchiha Gen's mind. Immediately afterward, the Dōjutsu contained within his right eye awakened!
"So... that's how it is."
Sunagakure.
"Ebizo, do we really have to do this?"
At the very center of Sunagakure, Chiyo looked up at the enormous disc suspended in the sky, reluctance in her eyes. She could sense the terrifying power within that enormous disc, but it was also a curse.
"Sister, if we want to win this war for Sunagakure's future, we have to sacrifice something. In the end, Sunagakure's strength falls short of Konoha's...
"So the Incarnation Ritual... may be the only way for Sunagakure to close the gap in combat strength with Konoha. If we properly use those Cursed Spirits in the Land of Whirlpools that were sealed by the legendary Sage