Chapter 21: The Mangekyō's Price
Biwa Jūzō, wielder of the Executioner's Blade. Kuriarare Kisame, wielder of Samehada, the Great Swallow. Fuguki Suikazan, wielder of the Blastsword, Kabutowari. Ringo Ameyuri, wielder of the Thunder Swords, Kiba. And finally, Hōzuki Mangetsu, wielder of the Longsword, Nuibari.
Uchiha Kagami took in the five figures arrayed against him. His mind was calm, prepared. The tomoe in his Sharingan spun with frantic speed.
"Don't meet his gaze!" Jūzō barked.
The others nodded grimly. No one was a fool. Facing an Uchiha, eye contact was an invitation to a swift and silent death. Most Uchiha genjutsu were triggered visually, making them insidiously difficult to counter.
"Uchiha Kagami," Jūzō called out. "Come with us to Kiri peacefully."
A cold sneer was Kagami's only reply. Capturing him would be no simple task.
"So be it. We have no choice but to use force." Jūzō wasn't perturbed. He gestured sharply. The other four Swordsmen fanned out, closing in on Uchiha Kagami from multiple angles.
Kagami's hands flashed through seals. He drew a deep breath, chest expanding, and expelled a roaring sphere of concentrated flame. Jūzō, leading the charge, was forced to swerve aside, avoiding the brunt of the attack. Without pause, Kagami formed another sequence, exhaling a vortex of chakra-laden wind that merged with the lingering fire, birthing a colossal tornado of fire.
It roared towards the Swordsmen.
Hōzuki Mangetsu's hands were already moving. "Water Style: Wild Water Wave!" A torrential surge of water erupted from his mouth, a miniature tidal wave meant to crash against the fiery tornado.
The two colossal forces met with a deafening hiss. Fire and water warred, canceling each other out in a massive explosion of scalding steam that once again shrouded the battlefield.
In that moment of sensory deprivation, Uchiha Kagami moved. Kunai flew from his hands, their trajectories intertwining mid-air, ricocheting off one another to strike at Mangetsu from every conceivable angle.
The kunai found their marks, piercing his body, but Mangetsu merely smirked. His form liquefied, the kunai passing through harmlessly before he reformed. The Hōzuki clan's Hydrification Technique rendered pure physical attacks useless.
"Careful!" Jūzō shouted. His Executioner's Blade swept out in a wide arc, severing the nearly invisible chakra wires Kagami had used to guide the kunai. Kagami, holding the wires' origin, had lightning crackling at his fingertips, ready to channel it through the wires. The plan was foiled.
The Hōzuki's Hydrification was potent, but it held a fatal flaw: a profound weakness to Lightning Release. Kagami had sought to eliminate Mangetsu first, but Jūzō's sharp eyes had thwarted him.
"Thanks," Mangetsu muttered, reforming fully.
Jūzō gave a curt nod, his focus never leaving Kagami. A truly elite Jōnin of Konoha. Troublesome.
"Enough talk. He's only one man!" Fuguki Suikazan grunted, hefting the massive Kabutowari. He charged, the spiked, hammer-like blade leading the way.
Kagami didn't meet the charge. He retreated fluidly, pelting Fuguki with a volley of kunai. The explosive foam coating Kabutowari deflected them effortlessly.
Just as Fuguki closed the distance, a needle-thin blade—Nuibari, wielded by Ringo Ameyuri—shot from the mist, aiming to sew Kagami in place. But in that instant, Fuguki faltered. The scene before him felt... unreal. Sure enough, the Uchiha Kagami he was about to strike dissolved into nothingness.
"Damn it! A genjutsu!" Fuguki cursed internally.
A surge of foreign chakra jolted through his system, violently disrupting his own. He snapped back to reality to find Jūzō beside him, a hand on his shoulder. "I said, don't look at his eyes," Jūzō reminded, his voice low.
Fuguki was baffled. He was certain he hadn't made eye contact. How had he been caught so easily?
A pity, Kagami thought, maintaining his distance. They cover each other's weaknesses well. Their individual abilities are suited for single combat, but as a group... my three-tomoe Sharingan alone may not be enough.
"As expected of an Uchiha. Impressive," Jūzō conceded. "But this ends now!" He slammed the flat of the Executioner's Blade into the sodden earth. "Earth Style: Earth-Style Spike!"
Sharp pillars of rock erupted from the ground, shooting towards Kagami like a forest of stone spears.
Kagami stood his ground. Jūzō was puzzled. Why wasn't he dodging? Ameyuri's Nuibari was already weaving a web of chakra threads in the air above, a trap for anyone leaping to safety.
But he didn't move. He didn't play by their expectations. Did he have a death wish?
They soon had their answer. The tomoe in Uchiha Kagami's eyes spun with impossible speed, morphing, shifting, until they settled into a distinct, four-pointed pinwheel pattern.
The Mangekyō Sharingan.
A luminous, golden skeleton erupted around him, encasing him in an instant. Jūzō's earthen spikes shattered harmlessly against its ribs.
"What is this?!" Jūzō and Fuguki gasped in unison. What kind of ninjutsu was this? They'd never seen or heard of its like. Because they dared not look directly at his eyes, they missed the transformation, the source of this terrifying power. They simply didn't comprehend this strange, defensive construct.
It had been nearly two decades since Uchiha Madara's death. Who remembered Susano'o?
The golden skeleton grew arms. A massive, half-formed fist of chakra swung down, hammering the ground where the Swordsmen stood.
The five scattered, diving for cover. But the skeletal fist was too fast, its sweep too wide. Jūzō took the brunt of the shockwave, blood spraying from his mouth as he was hurled backward. Fuguki, fleet-footed, managed to evade the worst. Hōzuki Mangetsu, slower, was caught by the edge of the impact. His body splashed into a puddle of water—his Hydrification Technique saving him from immediate physical disintegration, though the force still rattled him to his core.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!" From within the safety of the golden skeleton, Kagami's hands formed another set of seals. The massive skull of the Susano'o opened its jaw, and a sea of all-consuming flame roared forth, washing over the puddle that was Mangetsu.
His Hydrification could withstand physical blows, but not this. There was no escape, no defense. Under the incinerating heat of the flames, Hōzuki Mangetsu was vaporized into nothingness.
Only the twin blades of Kiba, the Thunder Swords, clattered to the scorched earth where he had been.
"So... powerful!" Jūzō choked out, clutching his injured chest. "Retreat! Now!"
They were utterly outmatched. They had to run, to survive, to report this new, terrifying power of the Uchiha.
Uchiha Kagami did not pursue them as they fled. The golden skeleton flickered and dissolved. He stood alone on the ravaged battlefield, his Mangekyō Sharingan slowly receding. A single trail of blood, black as pitch, traced a path from his eye down his cheek. The price for such power was already coming due.