Yagura departed quickly, without the slightest hesitation, and Madara Uchiha did nothing to stop him.
Yagura's ability was indeed impressive, and their battle had been a worthy dance. But that was all. Nothing more.
What interested Madara far more was the one now standing before him—this seemingly young figure who had so naturally taken Yagura's place.
That alone spoke volumes. It wasn't just strength surpassing Yagura's. No, it was because, from this youth… Madara sensed something achingly familiar.
Chakra.
And… a certain bearing.
Between Uchiha and Uchiha there was always a strange pull of recognition. Even if two had never met, one glance was enough to stir that inexplicable sense of familiarity. At its root, it was the unique aura all Uchiha carried.
Either an air of absolute supremacy, or the weight of endless sorrow—whatever form it took, that presence marked them unmistakably. In any crowd, one could always spot the Uchiha.
"State your name!"
Madara crossed his arms, looking down from his colossal form, his tone openly contemptuous.
"To dare take the baton from Yagura's hands—I acknowledge your courage to march toward death."
"March toward death?"
The girl in the Uchiha's traditional indigo attire looked at him calmly. Her eyes were but simple three-tomoe Sharingan, yet she met his Eternal Mangekyō gaze without faltering.
And then—perhaps it was only his imagination—but the corners of her lips curved faintly upward.
Was that… disdain?
"Good… good… very good." Madara laughed, anger laced with amusement. "I'll see for myself what makes you think you can send Yagura away and face me alone!"
As his words fell, Madara's Perfect Susanoo moved. From the heavens, its immense blade came crashing down, aimed squarely at Uchiha Hikari.
Yet Hikari did not flinch. She stood poised and unmoving, her scarlet three-tomoe eyes shining like lightning. Her deep-blue robes rippled, and her waist-length hair lifted in a stormless wind.
In the next instant, a dark crimson aura surged from her body, expanding rapidly. In the blink of an eye it solidified into a towering Susanoo, vast and terrifying. With a metallic shriek, its blade intercepted Madara's massive strike.
This Susanoo—blood-red, two to three hundred meters tall, with a ferocious visage—was no weaker than Madara's own. In fact, with its sinister hue and aura, it looked even more menacing.
"So… she is Uchiha!"
Madara was not surprised to see Susanoo, but the sheer might of this girl's construct went far beyond what he had anticipated.
That such a Susanoo could be summoned by one so young?!
"Interesting… very interesting." A laugh thundered from within his crystalline brow. "It seems that after Obito, yet another remarkable genius has risen among the Uchiha!"
"Awakening the Mangekyō at such an age… commanding power of this magnitude… Young Uchiha, I see your potential clearly. Join me!"
There was no doubt: at that moment, Madara felt a rare spark of admiration.
For to awaken the Mangekyō was to endure agony so profound it could shatter the mind. To wield it was proof of the will to bear such pain.
And for someone this young—armed with such vast ocular power—Madara had to admit, even he was impressed.
But soon enough, Madara read the girl's response in her eyes.
"What a pity." Uchiha Madara sighed softly, shaking his head. "You won't be my opponent. Since you insist on this path… I'll have no choice but to kill you."
Susanoo drew its blade in a flash, deep blue flames of chakra rippling and leaping along its edge.
Hikari did not flinch. In the palm of her blood-red Susanoo, a massive chakra longsword suddenly condensed.
The two Perfect Susanoo collided with devastating force. In that instant, high-density chakra erupted into a storm of energy, blasting everything around them skyward.
Behind Madara's Susanoo, wings spread wide as it soared into the sky, cutting downward with a colossal arc of light.
"Amaterasu!"
From below, Hikari's Susanoo swung its tainted crimson blade upward, and in her Mangekyō eyes, sinister colors flashed. The inextinguishable black flames of Amaterasu engulfed the blade, staining it in pitch black.
"Oh?!"
Madara's eyes burned even brighter with excitement, his Perfect Susanoo's radiance growing fiercer still.
The two titanic, godlike Susanoo clashed again and again in midair, each strike of sword against sword unleashing shockwaves like roaring tempests.
Fortunately, Kirigakure was built upon an island—by the time the two had summoned their Perfect Susanoo, their battlefield had already shifted away, into the skies and seas beyond.
Madara's Susanoo—fierce, armored, with the wrathful visage of a great Tengu, wielding a long katana.
Hikari's Susanoo—sinister, blood-red, cloaked in the black flames of Amaterasu, a demon incarnate.
A god.
A devil.
On the endless sea, two Uchiha clashed in their Perfect Susanoo, each blow making hearts pound and blood race.
The Uchiha clan had always been a people of battle—their very bones ran with pride, conflict, and fury. Freshly returned to life, Uchiha Madara found himself utterly exhilarated by Hikari's strength. And Hikari, in turn, felt her blood ignite—blood that belonged to the "ultimate weapon" of the Uchiha.
"Dance! Dance harder still!"
Madara's laughter rang out across the sky, wild and thunderous. His vast Susanoo suddenly grew four additional arms. Six arms in total, each wielding a blade of chakra. Six swords poised to cut down everything beneath heaven.
Each slash split the air with a scream, each stroke stirred the ocean into towering waves.
BOOM!!
With one tremendous impact, Hikari's Susanoo was hurled back dozens of miles. Its armor shattered, leaving only a gaunt ribcage behind.
Though Madara's Susanoo still stood firm in the heavens, it was now engulfed in Amaterasu's black flames. The fire spread wildly, devouring every inch of its colossal frame, turning the construct into a blazing black inferno, a torch that reached the skies.
But Madara remained calm.
"Flames that cannot be extinguished until they consume their prey… Amaterasu."
He even raised his hand, deliberately letting the black fire lick at it, as if toying with a trinket. Then, in a single instant, a suction force erupted—swallowing all the flames into nothingness.
"A shame. Against me, it's meaningless."
In that exchange, however, Madara had already gauged the true strength of Hikari's eyes.
Dangerous—without a doubt. Despite being mere Mangekyō, what Hikari displayed was on par with the Eternal Mangekyō itself. In fact, Madara believed her eyes already surpassed Obito's.
Obito's Kamui was strong, but its strength lay in its mechanics.
Hikari's eyes, on the other hand, brimmed with raw ocular power.
And at the root of every dojutsu—power of the eye was everything.
If Hikari's eyes were ever to evolve into Eternal Mangekyō… Madara dared not even imagine what heights that strength could reach.
"What a pity."
Uchiha Madara shook his head. A jewel, yes—but one who had chosen the wrong side.
Hikari's ocular power was vast, but no matter how vast, it was still only a pair of Mangekyō. There was no way it could compare to his Rinnegan. What's more, her eye techniques—Amaterasu and Kagutsuchi—posed no real threat to someone like him who wielded the Rinnegan.
Amaterasu and Kagutsuchi were devastating against weaker foes, perfect tools for clearing the battlefield of small fry. But once the battle rose to the level of the super-kage, to warriors such as himself, those techniques lost nearly all of their value.
Against someone who could wield powers like the Rinnegan, Yin Release, or Wood Release—abilities that absorbed or sealed away jutsu—Amaterasu and Kagutsuchi were reduced to nothing more than ordinary fire techniques.
All of this led Madara to a single conclusion.
The battle was already decided.
"Of all the people I have ever seen, no one has ever reached your level at such a young age!" Madara declared, standing proudly within his Perfect Susanoo, arms crossed. "In terms of raw talent and potential, I, Uchiha Madara, will call you the strongest!"
"And as payment for the joy you've given me in this battle, I shall grant a fellow clansman such as you… a perfect end!"
The blood-red light of his Eternal Mangekyō flared to its utmost. His Perfect Susanoo swelled even larger, its immense frame expanding further still.
Then, behind Madara, a vortex tore open—vast streams of chakra flowed out of it, pouring into his Susanoo.
It was tailed-beast chakra.
Normally so violent and unrestrained, under Madara's command the chakra became docile, like a housecat, flowing steadily into Susanoo's form.
"Ahhh—yes! More!"
As the endless stream of chakra fused with Susanoo, Madara's shout rose higher and higher. His Susanoo expanded once again, its armor thickening as if overlaid with a second layer of massive plates, more majestic and awe-inspiring than before.
This brute-force infusion of tailed-beast chakra couldn't rival what he had once achieved by controlling the Nine-Tails and unleashing the Tailed Beast Susanoo. Still, with its blessing, his Susanoo's strength had risen dramatically.
And for an opponent like Uchiha Hikari, whom even he acknowledged as a true genius, only the strongest of techniques would suffice to end her.
"It's over!"
"Yes. It's over."
Hikari's expression barely shifted, even as the Susanoo before her surpassed anything she had ever seen an Uchiha summon.
Her cool, beautiful face showed no fear. Under Madara's slightly furrowed gaze, her Mangekyō spun—releasing its power.
The strongest eye technique. The pinnacle of all Mangekyō powers. One that even a Six Paths Naruto could not resist.
"Eight Thousand Spears!"
At her soft invocation, the arrogance on Madara's face froze. His lofty gaze faltered, touched not only with confusion, but with sudden realization.
Before his eyes, the Susanoo he had pushed to its very limit—even empowered with the chakra of the Three-Tails—began to collapse at a speed visible to the naked eye. In just a few breaths, it shrank from its expanded form back to its normal Perfect state, and then dwindled further still.
Within moments, the mighty Susanoo scattered completely. Madara himself dropped from the sky. He tried to call forth more chakra—but to his shock, his reserves were draining rapidly.
"What—impossible… wait, this mark?!"
He quickly noticed a dark red sigil glowing faintly on his left arm.
Familiar. Something from long ago. From his time as clan leader, when he had read of such things in the ancient records of the Uchiha.
"Eight Thousand Spears…"
At once, Madara's Mangekyō spun into the Rinnegan. With the overwhelming force of its ocular power, he managed to forcibly purge the Eight Thousand Spears' mark.
But when he raised his gaze again to Uchiha Hikari, his expression was more solemn than ever.
The Eight Thousand Spears. A Mangekyō technique recorded only once in Uchiha history. And that single time had been enough for its name to be etched forever into both the Uchiha clan's annals and the chronicles of the Warring States.
Its wielder had been called nothing less than the Uchiha clan's ultimate weapon.
Until now, Madara had been shocked that while he kept constant watch over his clan for decades, not long after his death, the Uchiha had produced such a prodigy in his absence.
But now, seeing this technique with his own eyes…
"There are several beyond-limit existences under Yuki Yoru," Obito's voice echoed in his memory.
"At the peak of the Sternritter's power stands the Royal Guard: Hyūga Hinata of the Hyūga, Kaguya Kimimaro of the Kaguya, Uchiha Hikari of the Uchiha, and the shrine maiden Miroku."
"Uchiha… Hikari."
Madara's eyes locked on the towering, blood-red Susanoo before him.
"The ultimate weapon of the Uchiha clan… under Yuki Yoru's command?"
Hikari gave him no reply. She only looked down on him from above, her eyes calm and assessing. After a long silence, she shook her head.
"You are indeed a figure who carved a bold, unforgettable mark into Uchiha history. But compared to Yuki Yoru… your measure still falls far short."
"What?!"
Veins bulged on Madara's forehead. For the first time since this battle began, true rage ignited in his heart.