At the clan leader's residence gates, the Kaguya, enthralled by Uchiha Light's Yachihoko, stood glassy-eyed, forming neat rows at her command, awaiting the battle's end.
Unpracticed at controlling so many, Light struggled with the excess chakra, her head spinning.
"Pass the extra chakra to me," Uchiha Gin suggested, chuckling at her dizzy, adorable state.
Grateful for his help, Light activated her Mangekyo. A blue glow pulsed, and a surge of chakra flowed through the seal from their earlier combo, revitalizing Gin's weakened body like a shot of adrenaline.
"Thanks, Gin," Light said, a shy smile on her flushed face. Tajima's wife watched with a knowing grin.
Caught off guard, Gin fumbled for words. "Light, no need to be so—"
A sudden, terrifying aura erupted from the blushing girl. Her clear eyes clouded with black mist, and a crushing pressure froze everyone nearby.
Sensing danger, Gin reached out, but the seal on his hand throbbed, halting him. His chakra drained rapidly, his mouth sealed, eyes straining to move.
He noticed a seal on Tajima's wife, too, her eyes vacant as chakra was siphoned.
Worse, as the black mist thickened in Light's eyes, the controlled Kaguya began to stir.
"What's happening?" Kaguya Soisuke, regaining awareness, scanned his clan. Their last memory was the red moon rising as black flames trapped them.
"Elder, I can't move!" Kaguya Takuya, Soisuke's aide, also awoke, paralyzed.
"Me neither!"
"Same here!" the other Kaguya cried.
The only mobile figure, Light, swept her lifeless eyes over them, settling on the Kaguya within the black flames.
With a glance, the flames parted. Her ornate Mangekyo spun, and the Kaguya, already immobilized, moved against their will.
A Kaguya's palm sprouted a white bone blade. In horror, he swung, cleaving a clansman in half, blood spraying.
"No!" The victim was his brother. Before grief could settle, a bone pierced his chest, blood flooding his lungs. Speechless, he collapsed atop his brother.
Gin, trapped, watched the slaughter. The Kaguya, cursing and weeping, turned weapons on each other, blood pooling.
"Elder Soisuke, no!" Takuya, lacking Bone Pulse and physically weaker, stood no chance. Soisuke, bristling with spines, impaled him in one strike.
Bone Pulse: Dance of the Willow.
"Don't blame me, Takuya," Soisuke said, unable to stop his body from killing a trusted ally.
"Vile Uchiha! I'll tear you apart!" Soisuke sprouted more bones, hoping pain would reclaim control.
"What terrifying power," an old man remarked, observing Light's manipulation of the Kaguya's self-destruction.
At the institute, Yao had used Wangliang's possession to flood Light's mind with negative emotions, planting a pupil technique trigger. He could unleash her rage at will, turning her into his weapon.
"Why… why do this to me?" Light's mind swirled with memories of clan torment, imprisonment, and experimentation.
In these memories, Gin didn't exist. Her Mangekyo was wielded as a merciless tool.
The black mist in her eyes deepened with her anguish, her face contorting. Blood tears streaked from overused Sharingan.
Gin, watching her pain, trembled with rage. A chilling aura enveloped his eyes.
Move, damn it! With a surge of overtaxed pupil power, he broke Yachihoko's hold.
Freed, dizziness hit, his vision blurring severely.
Ignoring it, he stumbled to Light, grabbing her shoulders. "Wake up, Light!"
Unsure why she'd snapped, he channeled Naruto's signature Talk no Jutsu to snap her out.
Hearing his voice, a flicker of struggle crossed her vacant eyes, her body trembling, fighting something.
"Light, it's me, Gin. We promised to eat seafood in the Land of Water, soak in the Land of Hot Springs, see snow in the Land of Snow…" Gin softly recounted their childhood vows, leaning on shonen-style persuasion.
As he listed their dreams, the black mist in her eyes waned, clarity returning.
"Gin… what have I done?" Regaining herself, she collapsed into his arms, her pale lips trembling, voice weak.
"It's okay. I'm here," Gin said, barely seeing her through his ruined vision, patting her head with firm resolve.
"It's over!" Soisuke's body jerked, his bone spike halting before a clansman's throat.
The surviving Kaguya, freed from the red moon's thrall, were broken—some fled, mad with grief, others stood, souls shattered.
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