Sudden Attack

"Uchiha!!?"

That symbol awakened her buried memories. Scene after scene from the past flashed before her eyes—images of her fighting and killing on the battlefield.

The cold commands of her clansmen, the miserable howls of her enemies... seemed to echo in her ears once more.

"You're Uchiha!?"

As if setting off some chain reaction, her eyes flew wide open in a stress response, and her pupils transformed into eerily beautiful Mangekyo in an instant.

"Amaterasu!" Fine blood vessels burst from her Right Eye.

A mass of Pitch Black flames ignited Shin'yu's back, spreading across his entire body in the blink of an eye.

"Fuck!" Shin'yu screamed as he flung off Nanashi's hand. His Body Flicker Technique activated instinctively, sending him more than ten meters away in an instant, like a monkey with its ass on fire.

Nanashi's pupils turned, and with a whoosh, Uchiha Madara beside her was immediately engulfed in Black Flames as well.

Blood seeped from Nanashi's eye sockets and ran down her face. Her once delicate, gentle features now looked savage and vicious!

"I'm on fire!" Shin'yu let out a completely undignified scream.

Amaterasu, the Black Flames said to burn everything, would never go out unless its target had been reduced to ashes.

Its temperature was terrifying. Shin'yu's clothes melted instantly like cotton candy dropped in water.

In less than a second, the skin on his back began carbonizing at rapid speed, the piercing pain relentlessly assaulting his nerves.

He had never expected the seemingly docile Uchiha Nanashi to stab him in the back and launch a Sudden Attack!

But he had no time to think about that.

Years of battle experience had honed his reflexes to an extreme. The instant he was injured, Red Light burst from his Eyes, and the Mangekyo in both pupils began spinning together.

At last, he scraped together the last shred of his reason and rewound his entire state to two seconds earlier. The Black Flames instantly went out as if they had never existed, and his body returned to normal.

Uchiha Madara also easily neutralized Amaterasu. A blue skeletal frame rose around him, blocking every flame outside his body before vanishing along with them.

Nanashi took the opportunity to rush close. The Mangekyo in her left eye slowly turned as she made Eye Contact with Madara's cold gaze.

"Tsukuyomi!"

Madara looked around. The scenery had changed drastically. The world was drenched in blood red, and the original Forest had disappeared, replaced by a battlefield strewn with corpses. Massive torii gates rose from the ground one after another, surrounding Madara from all sides.

Countless Senju Ninja figures emerged from the torii gates. They stared coldly at the figure in the center as they advanced through blood, swords and blades gleaming with icy light.

The terror of death flowed through every inch of the air. An ordinary person would have pissed themselves just standing there.

But... the person in the center was Uchiha Madara!

"Is this what you understand as despair?"

Not only did Madara show no discomfort, he even looked disdainful. "Young girl, a real battlefield is ten times more brutal than this. Your illusion cannot even stir my Fighting Spirit."

As the Senju Ninja charged in to kill him, he shook his head and chuckled deeply.

"Forget it. Let me give you a proper lesson."

He slightly opened his Eyes. A power darker and deeper than before, like hell itself, swept in all directions like a cold tide. This was Eye Power Exclusive to the Eternal Mangekyo!

Before those Eyes, the illusion shattered instantly like ice. The blood-red world vanished in a moment, leaving only a small figure flying backward.

Nanashi crashed into a stone wall, bleeding from all seven orifices and nearly passing out.

"Never cast an Illusion Technique on someone whose Eye Power is stronger than yours. Even Tsukuyomi will bring backlash."

Madara spoke leisurely, wearing that same calm expression from beginning to end. He had not even moved his feet.

Shin'yu instantly appeared beside Nanashi. With a hiss, a Chakra Blade pressed against her pale neck.

"Don't move!"

But he had underestimated Nanashi's resolve. She raised her head and glared coldly at him as blood once more poured from her Right Eye socket.

"Amaterasu!"

The temperature spiked. Shin'yu had sensed it coming and activated the Body Flicker Technique, moving behind Nanashi and making the black flames miss.

Even so, a wisp of flame struck his finger, and the Black Flames quickly ignited his entire hand.

This time, however, he was much calmer. His expression was no longer so pained. He merely frowned slightly and used the Power of Rewind to extinguish the flames.

Nanashi tried to turn around, but a hand suddenly clamped down on her head. Shin'yu pressed himself against her, his knee firmly pinned against her back, using his body weight to keep her from rising.

"Is this how you treat the person who saved your life?" he demanded.

"My saviors? Heh heh, you only want me to become Uchiha's weapon again. That puppet-like fate! I refuse to accept it!"

Nanashi's eyes were filled with hatred. "I'll kill both of you, then escape somewhere nobody can ever find me!"

Shin'yu froze slightly. "Did you misunderstand something?"

Tap, tap, tap.

A pair of feet appeared in Nanashi's field of vision.

"Uchiha Hikari."

Nanashi froze. The instant she heard that name, every expression on her face locked in place, as though Electric current had flashed through her mind.

"Uchiha Hikari!??"

She looked up, her almond-shaped eyes wide open, holding equal parts confusion and surprise as they reflected Uchiha Madara's imposing figure.

The man before her was far too strong. She had personally experienced his power just now—the suffocating pressure like standing before an abyss, and that terrifying Eye Power as deep as the sea. Neither was something she could contend with.

"Yes. It was the name your Parents gave you. Your real name," Madara replied.

"My... name..." She stopped struggling and asked softly, "Who... are you people?"

"We're the same as you. People abandoned by the Uchiha Clan," Shin'yu said helplessly.

"No, we abandoned them," Madara corrected from the side.

Nanashi looked a little dazed. From the moment she recognized them as fellow clansmen, she had instinctively assumed that these two had come to send her back into war.

After all, to the entire Uchiha Clan, she was merely a useful weapon.

Those seals had imprisoned Time and space, yet her consciousness had remained awake! She did not know how many days and nights she had been confined, only that what was longer than a lifetime was the endless emptiness and torment.

During those difficult years, she had gradually come to understand one thing: if she wanted freedom, if she wanted to live again as a person, then she had to fight!

Fight for herself!

At some point, she had secretly made up her mind. If she ever escaped, the first thing she would cast off would be the shackles called the Uchiha Clan!

That was why she had launched a Sudden Attack.

"You... didn't release me for war?" she asked blankly.

Shin'yu curled his lip. "The war you speak of has already ended. Other than Lord Madara and me, the entire Uchiha Clan was won over and thrown into an iron pot called the Hidden Leaf Village, where they are waiting for a slow death."

"Uchiha Hikari." Madara stopped before them and looked down at her. "In the name of the Clan Head, I declare that from today onward, you are no longer a weapon. Live on as a person."