In an instant!
Uchiha Hikari's movements froze, her body rigid as if her mind had been hijacked, stripped of all ability to act.
Seizing the fleeting moment, a Root ninja lunged forward, thrusting his short blade with full force, piercing straight through her back!
A flicker of triumph crossed the Root ninja's face.
But in the next moment…
*Poof!*
The Uchiha Hikari impaled by the blade dissolved into a fleeting afterimage, leaving the knife-wielding Root ninja's pupils shrinking in shock.
"A clone?! When did she…?"
Before he could process it, Hikari's real form descended from the treetops above, the wind whistling around her. As she passed him, she raised both arms, wrapping them around his neck and giving it a sharp twist!
*Crack—*
Neck snapped!
Hikari smoothly snatched the Root ninja's short blade, using his corpse as a shield to block the line of sight of the Yamanaka clansman. With a flicker of the Body Flicker Technique, she darted behind a tree several meters away. After completing her maneuver, she exhaled softly, her mind unfurling like a vast blueprint—
"Not counting the first two, there are twelve Root assassins in total. I've taken out three so far, leaving nine…"
"Their positions are… the closest is about ten meters away, the farthest around forty. The Yamanaka guy has two Root ninjas guarding him—they're covering each other. I need to take him out first, or he'll be a massive problem…"
"And there's a chance they've got reinforcements coming…"
As she rapidly calculated, a surge of nameless fury ignited within Hikari—
Danzō, Root…
These gutter rats…
Daring to come after *her*?! Thinking they're *worthy* of hunting her?!
If that's how they want to play… they'd better be ready to be wiped out entirely!
In the next moment, Hikari's eyes snapped shut and opened again, her gaze now sharp as a blade:
**"Amaterasu!!!"**
With a surge of pupil power, Hikari leaped from her hiding spot. With a single glance, a blaze of searing black flames materialized out of thin air near the Yamanaka ninja, igniting him. He frantically tried to shed his burning clothes, but the black flames seemed alive, slithering through his collar and sleeves, charring half his body to ash in the blink of an eye!
**Amaterasu: Kagutsuchi!**
This was a technique akin to Sasuke's, an advanced form of Amaterasu infused with shape manipulation!
"AAAAHHH!!!"
Even a supposedly emotionless Root ninja couldn't withstand the agony of being consumed by black flames, letting out a wretched scream.
But Hikari didn't spare the "dead man" a second glance. She shifted her position, leaping onto a tree branch several meters high, then turned to face the other side.
Another glance, and two more Root ninjas erupted in black flames. Their comrades nearby unleashed Water Release to douse the fire, but Amaterasu, a pupil technique, wasn't something ordinary water could extinguish.
"Six left…"
"End this quick!"
Hikari took a deep breath, commanding the black flames to erupt outward in all directions. As the surrounding Root ninjas scrambled to dodge, she summoned **Susanoo** and charged forward. She shattered an earthen wall raised in her path, then reached out with Susanoo's massive hands, seizing two Root ninjas at the end of the debris and slamming them together!
*BOOM!!*
In the fierce gust of wind, the two Root ninjas collided, their bodies exploding into a mist of blood under the immense pressure!
"Four…"
Next, leveraging the dynamic vision of her Sharingan, Hikari dove into the midst of the remaining Root ninjas. Her left hand caught an incoming blade, while her right hand's kunai sliced through the attacker's throat. In one fluid motion, she hurled the stolen blade, the short sword whistling through the air and piercing another Root ninja's skull!
The blade lodged in the hard bone, blood and milky fluid splattering!
"Two…"
From the moment Hikari revealed herself to the point where she took down seven Root ninjas, the entire sequence unfolded in mere seconds. Witnessing this, the last two Root ninjas' eyes trembled. Instead of charging forward, they turned to flee.
Hikari sprang up, using the Body Flicker Technique to close a few meters. Her body glided through the forest like a nimble cat, stepping lightly on a tree trunk before pouncing on one of the Root ninjas with the ferocity of a tiger. As they collided, she knocked aside his slashing blade with her shoulder, then drove her kunai into his throat!
*Thud—!*
With the momentum of her lunge, Hikari and the Root ninja crashed into a tree. Using his body as a cushion to absorb most of the impact, she struggled to her feet and turned to the final target.
By now, the last Root ninja had fled over a hundred meters, nearly escaping through the other side of the forest.
But…
Hikari extended her right hand, pointing forward.
In the next instant, a dragon-like roar of wind erupted. A shadowy black dragon, formed from Amaterasu's flames, surged past Hikari, crashing through dense foliage and engulfing the final Root ninja. In a flash, he was consumed, reduced to ashes!
"Zero!"
Twelve elite Root ninjas—completely annihilated!
"Huff…"
Hikari stood in place, taking deep breaths, calmly scanning her surroundings.
Only after confirming no other living presence remained did she deactivate her Mangekyo Sharingan.
As her Sharingan faded, the dark red Susanoo dissipated into the air, and Amaterasu's black flames gradually vanished. The forest fell silent, leaving only scattered corpses and a landscape ravaged by various ninjutsu to tell the tale of what had just happened.
It was only now that Hikari felt a faint sting in her eye sockets, her eyes slightly watery, with the faint trace of blood tears.
"Come to think of it… my eyes are still just regular Mangekyo, aren't they…?"
Back in the Warring States era, Uchiha Hikari had no siblings, and her parents were ordinary tomoe-wielding ninjas.
In other words, she'd never had the chance to upgrade her eyes to the Eternal Mangekyo.
Theoretically, her "Yasaka no Magatama" could absorb others' pupil power to bolster her own, slowing the rate of pupil power depletion—after all, pupil power was a specialized form of chakra. But this method wasn't a permanent fix and still carried the risk of blindness.
Moreover, the "Yasaka no Magatama" was a technique so feared that no ninja clan could tolerate its use. If anyone caught wind of it, it could bring endless trouble.
That was precisely why Uchiha Hikari had been sealed away during the Warring States era. It was also why she hadn't used that technique just now.
"Looks like I need to find a way to deal with this weakness…"
Hikari reined in her thoughts.
After confirming no one else was coming, she wiped the cold sweat from her brow, picked up a long blade from the ground, and slowly circled the area, delivering finishing blows to each of the Root ninjas who'd come to assassinate her.
**(End of Chapter)**