Following through on your word was a kind of ninja way too, and Hikaru wholeheartedly approved of that.

Of course, he also knew that if the saying were applied to him, it would probably turn into something more like, If I say I’ll wipe out your whole family, then I’ll wipe out your whole family.

But to him, that wasn’t a big deal.

After all, ANBU was still ANBU.

True, exterminating entire families wasn’t usually their style—that was more Root’s territory.

But that didn’t mean ANBU couldn’t do it.

If they really wanted to, they could probably make it look even more like a natural accident than Root ever could.

Hikaru stood quietly, looking at Uchiha Tatsumi in front of him.

Wrapped in that azure chakra, he looked almost divine.

The divine Eye’s chakra mode was different from Hikaru’s other chakra modes.

The Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, for instance, still let people clearly recognize who he was. Its features remained distinct enough that no one would mistake him for someone else.

But the divine Eye Chakra Mode was different.

Strangely enough, when he entered that state, even while looking straight ahead, he could still somehow perceive himself.

And what he saw was blurred and unreal.

The dense power of the divine Eye enveloped him so completely that his facial features were hard to make out.

In overall appearance, he looked very much like the Ōtsutsuki Toneri from his memories.

And under the cloak of that power, Hikaru discovered something else as well—

something he had longed for.

Yin Release.

Even though he himself had never mastered Yin Release, the moment that power appeared, he recognized it at once.

It was completely opposite to Yang Release—a force that seemed to work more directly on spiritual energy and the mind.

And yet what confused him was this:

he could sense it, he could control it, but the feeling it gave him was strange.

It obeyed him—

but it did not truly belong to him.

"Do I need to possess that power myself before I can fully make it mine?"

Hikaru wondered inwardly.

He really wasn’t taking Tatsumi and the others too seriously at the moment.

Because he could already tell—

even at this mere initial stage, the divine Eye Chakra Mode was no weaker than the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.

And just how powerful was the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode?

Just look at the destruction he had unleashed in Kirigakure and the answer was obvious.

What mattered even more was that the divine Eye Chakra Mode had another very special property.

A frighteningly powerful one, so overwhelming that even Hikaru found it hard to describe.

Compatibility.

"In divine Eye Chakra Mode, I can use Nine-Tails chakra and senjutsu chakra together without resistance or backlash?"

That trait suited Hikaru perfectly.

After all, one of his biggest limits right now was age.

Or rather, the limits that came with his current stage of growth.

His own power, no matter how terrifying, was still only ranked by the system as quasi-Kage.

Though honestly, Hikaru strongly suspected that by the system’s standards, true Kage level might mean reaching the realm of people like Hashirama Senju or Uchiha Madara.

His chakra reserves had multiplied many times over compared to a year ago.

And yet the system had only moved him from Chūnin to quasi-Kage before refusing to push further.

If that really was the standard, then even across the entire ninja world, only a tiny handful of people would qualify as Kage-class purely in terms of chakra quantity.

Which was exactly why, in order to truly push his overall battle power into that realm, almost everything Hikaru had developed or obtained so far had been amplification-based.

And if those amplifying powers could be stacked and fused together—

then the increase to his strength would be unimaginable.

"There’s just one problem. Why can’t I fly yet?"

After sensing the state of his body for a moment, Hikaru suddenly thought of another issue.

Flight.

If he remembered correctly, both the Rinnegan and the Tenseigan seemed to grant the ability to fly.

But his divine Eye didn’t seem to have that ability.

That left him a little frustrated.

Still, a moment later, he thought of something else.

Whether it was the Tenseigan or the Rinnegan, their flight likely came from controlling repulsive force.

And Hikaru could indeed vaguely sense that he was capable of manipulating repulsion.

The problem was that the degree of control was still far too weak.

Far too weak to let him rise into the sky.

"Looks like I’ll have to take this slowly too."

By now, he had already walked to within five meters of Tatsumi.

Tatsumi’s face was full of wariness.

He showed no intention of launching a sneak attack.

Because at this moment, facing Hikaru felt like facing some terrifying monster that instinctively inspired fear from the bottom of his soul.

That fear seemed to come from bloodline itself—

like the innate terror lower lifeforms felt when confronted by something higher on the chain.

Tatsumi had no idea why he felt that way.

But the feeling was real.

Relentlessly real.

It pressed in on him from all sides, suffocating and oppressive.

After a long silence, he finally managed to speak.

"Who are you, exactly?"

His voice was low.

"You’re supposed to be from the Senju clan, so why..."

"That has nothing to do with you."

Hikaru cut him off before he could finish.

"The dead should act like the dead. I have no obligation to explain anything to you. Perhaps the gods in the Pure Land will."

The words had barely fallen when Hikaru moved.

Five meters vanished in an instant beneath a speed that felt like teleportation.

Without warning—

without even a proper prelude—

he was suddenly beside Tatsumi.

Then he threw a punch.

A single punch, carrying a terrifying wind pressure, aimed straight at Tatsumi’s chest.

Tatsumi’s reaction speed was incredibly fast.

The instant Hikaru moved, his Sharingan caught at least a trace of it, and he immediately raised his blade to defend and counter at once.

But even as he did so, his heart shook violently.

Because he realized that even with the Sharingan, all he could make out was a blur.

This was the Sharingan.

And not just any Sharingan—

a fully matured three-tomoe Sharingan.

And yet even with such an eye, without Hikaru using the Flying Thunder God Technique, he could only barely catch a vague motion trail.

How fast was this man?

And that was only the beginning.

Because the very next instant, before Tatsumi could fully process Hikaru’s speed, Hikaru let him experience a despair as cold as winter itself.

The fist wrapped in divine Eye chakra collided with Tatsumi’s blade with frightening ease.

A vast, overwhelming force surged through the weapon and smashed straight into Tatsumi’s body—

and the blade shattered into fragments on contact.

Fast enough to suffocate.

Strong enough to break hope.

Tatsumi’s heart was full of shock.

But he was still an elite shinobi forged through countless killings.

Even while being blown backward, he adjusted his body in midair.

Just before hitting the ground, he braced himself, twisted, and landed cleanly.

But the instant his feet touched the earth, Hikaru was already beside him again.

Another seemingly casual punch came sweeping out.

That punch was still too fast to breathe against.

Yet Tatsumi displayed the terrifying quality of a true Uchiha.

He knew he could not block it.

So instead of meeting force with force, he chose a different method.

With the aid of his Sharingan, he barely caught the strange line of Hikaru’s movement.

And because both his eye and his own ability were exceptional, he chose the most dangerous but practical option—

he tried to redirect Hikaru’s power instead of defending directly.

He knew very well that if the strike landed cleanly, he would likely die on the spot.

Only by slipping around that power could he create even the slightest chance to counterattack.

He shot out his hand, endured the terrifying impact, and guided the force outward.

At the same time, he pulled a kunai and stabbed at Hikaru.

Even Hikaru hadn’t expected a counterattack under such circumstances.

But unfortunately for Tatsumi, that kind of attack meant almost nothing in Hikaru’s eyes.

The boost provided by divine Eye Chakra Mode was far beyond Tatsumi’s imagination.

At this stage—essentially comparable to the first layer of the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode—Hikaru was almost godlike.

Facing Tatsumi’s desperate move, Hikaru didn’t even bother dodging.

He simply slapped the kunai aside as if brushing off dust.

Then, without any pause, he threw another punch.

This time, Tatsumi saw it—

but his body could not keep up.

Boom.

The fist struck his abdomen.

At once, he felt as though his insides had been flipped upside down, as if everything inside his stomach had been twisted together.

But Hikaru’s attack hadn’t ended.

He reached out, seized Tatsumi’s wrist, and twisted outward sharply.

Crack.

Bone snapped.

Tatsumi’s hand instantly hung limp.

And yet the man didn’t utter a single cry.

Instead, with his other hand, he attacked again without hesitation.

Hikaru couldn’t help feeling a bit of admiration for that level of shinobi discipline.

He had seen plenty of people suffer broken wrists before.

He knew exactly how excruciating it was.

Yet Tatsumi endured it in silence and still counterattacked immediately.

That kind of willpower was worthy of respect.

But respect was one thing.

Hikaru never hesitated when it was time to strike.

He lifted his right hand and casually parried the attack.

Just one effortless motion was enough to erase Tatsumi’s counter completely.

Then Hikaru shifted his body slightly—

and his right leg lashed out like a whip, slamming hard into Tatsumi’s stomach.

"Urgh—"

This time Tatsumi finally couldn’t endure it anymore.

A muffled grunt escaped him as he was sent flying.

And yet even then, the man was still trying to retaliate.

With the divine Eye, Hikaru saw it clearly.

Even while being blown backward, Tatsumi was already forming hand seals with his uninjured hand.

A vast amount of orange-red chakra rapidly gathered inside him.

Clearly, it was another Fire Release.

"He’s tenacious."

Hikaru raised a brow.

Tatsumi’s stubbornness really was impressive.

And Hikaru also noticed something else.

Under the divine Eye, he no longer needed to rely on an opponent’s hand seals to judge a technique.

Simply by watching the color and movement of their chakra, he could tell what type of jutsu they were preparing.

It was an absurdly convenient ability.

Reading the enemy’s move in advance was one of the Uchiha’s greatest strengths.

Hikaru lacked their miraculous ability to instantly predict movement and pinpoint weaknesses.

But while his insight had taken a different route, the result seemed no worse.

"Ordinarily, I’d play along. Use Water Release, wear you down step by step, crush your morale a little at a time. Unfortunately..."

Unfortunately, Hikaru had no interest in dragging this out.

More importantly, he could tell Tatsumi was gathering an enormous amount of chakra.

The man was clearly preparing a large-scale jutsu.

And inside the Uchiha compound, even with the ANBU and the Police Force sealing off the surrounding area, a major jutsu would still expose everything.

Even setting aside sensory perception, the blaze of a massive fire technique alone would draw attention from every direction.

That was the last thing Hikaru wanted.

Not because he feared trouble—

but because unnecessary trouble was still unnecessary trouble.

With that thought, his own chakra stirred.

In a single instant, countless Wood Release seeds, already inscribed with sealing marks, emerged beneath the ground.

After consuming that mid-grade sealing-type fruit, Hikaru’s speed at engraving curse seals had reached a frightening level.

By now, he could almost do it instinctively—

the very moment a seed formed, the seal was already carved into it.

The chakra within Tatsumi was growing more and more violent.

At this point, he had already completely abandoned the thought of defeating Hikaru.

The man was too terrifying.

He could tell very clearly that Hikaru had not even gotten serious.

After all, he hadn’t even used the Flying Thunder God Technique or Wood Release.

And yet Tatsumi still had no answer.

This wasn’t a battle between equals at all.

"If I can’t beat you alone, then I’ll drag everyone into this and force them all to fight you!"

That was Tatsumi’s final thought.

But in the next second, he froze.

Because the Senju youth before him moved like a ghost.

Soundless.

Omenless.

Suffocating.

While Tatsumi was still flying backward, Hikaru appeared beside him again.

Then he grabbed the fingers of the hand forming seals—

and twisted.

Crack.

Another sharp snap of bone.

Pain exploded through Tatsumi’s nerves.

And the worst part was this—

his hand seals had already been completed halfway, and his chakra had already gathered.

Now that the sequence had been forcibly interrupted, he could no longer control it.

The surging chakra lost all direction and began crashing wildly through his body like a swarm of headless beasts.

It twisted, spun, and slammed chaotically through his pathways.

Tatsumi could clearly feel his chakra network being torn open in multiple places.

If this continued, no one would need to kill him.

He would die by his own technique.

"Was that... Flying Thunder God...?"

The thought flickered through his mind as his body smashed hard into a wall.

His vision dimmed.

He knew he couldn’t hold on much longer.

Especially when he saw Hikaru—the one wrapped in azure chakra, his entire figure faintly blurred—already walking calmly toward him.

Tatsumi still couldn’t understand how Hikaru had activated the Flying Thunder God.

And even more than that—

he couldn’t understand what those blue eyes were.

Why was it that against them, even his three-tomoe Sharingan had been so utterly helpless?

In the forest behind the Uchiha compound, Hikaru and Kakashi walked forward aimlessly.

The matter in the Uchiha clan had already been settled.

After crushing Tatsumi, Hikaru had also ended the divine Eye Chakra Mode.

Its effects were undeniably excellent.

The power it displayed was more than satisfying.

But the flaws were just as obvious.

Its endurance was even worse than Hikaru had expected.

It wasn’t that the eyes lacked energy.

On the contrary, the power contained within them was abundant.

It even regenerated on its own.

The real issue was that controlling that power placed a burden on the eyes themselves.

And once that destructive force—what Hikaru was tentatively calling divine Eye chakra—spread across his body, it also placed strain on his body as a whole.

Which meant the answer was simple:

he still wasn’t strong enough.

Or more accurately—

his eyes weren’t strong enough yet.

At his current level, he still couldn’t control those forces properly.

He couldn’t keep his eyes from aching.

He couldn’t stop the power from injuring his own body.

So ending it had been the right choice.

Besides, the rest of the mess no longer required his direct intervention.

The most troublesome enemy had already been dealt with.

If Uchiha Shin and the rest still couldn’t handle the aftermath after that, then they had no right to continue working with Hikaru at all.

So Hikaru had simply taken Kakashi and left.

After all, he had promised Kakashi some explanations.

And more than that, he was genuinely curious about Kakashi’s eye.

In Hikaru’s memory, the moment Kakashi finally entered the "correct Wi-Fi password" state didn’t happen until fourteen or fifteen years later.

And yet now he was already showing signs of it.

How could Hikaru not be curious?

"Could it be that he’s always been faintly resonating with the Mangekyō’s power, but just never noticed?"

The more Hikaru thought about it, the more that seemed to be the only explanation.

After all, Kakashi’s Mangekyō had awakened together with Obito’s.

If the eye had been stirring beneath the surface this whole time, that wouldn’t actually be that strange.

At that thought, Hikaru suddenly stopped.

Kakashi, who had been following quietly behind him, stopped as well.

Kakashi’s head was full of questions.

He had spent the entire walk thinking about what had happened tonight.

Still, Kakashi was no fool.

Especially after spending so long in ANBU—and especially after Hikaru had made him acting minister—his ability to think politically had improved enormously.

He had access to information he never could have seen before.

He could reach materials he never would have touched in the past.

So he knew that the Uchiha’s situation was far worse than most people imagined.

And he also knew that those who had entered ANBU, along with Shisui who had long remained close to Hikaru, all belonged to one faction.

Which meant the people he had fought tonight were likely part of the other faction—

the faction that was not standing with Hikaru, and perhaps not even standing with Konoha.

Still, Kakashi had once received the Uchiha’s kindness.

Even having figured things out, all he could do was sigh helplessly.

Because in the end, Hikaru had not told him in advance what exactly he would be doing tonight.

And on top of that, his eye had malfunctioned.

As if even fate itself had been telling him that he should never have involved himself in this.

"All right. I know you’re full of doubts right now."

Seeing the look in Kakashi’s eyes, Hikaru shook his head with a sigh.

"You’ve probably already guessed part of it—why I sent you there, and what your role tonight really was."

He sat down against a tree and continued in an easy, almost lazy tone.

"It’s simple. You should’ve seen it in the reports already. There are two voices inside the Uchiha clan."

"One faction wants to move closer to Konoha, reintegrate with the village, and repair the division. By our terms, they’re the doves."

"They don’t want the clan and the village to split further, because they can see farther than the others. If things keep going like this, the clan won’t get any good ending out of it."

"Uchiha Shin is the leading figure of that side. And Shisui was the bridge he sent into ANBU so the Uchiha could establish contact with Konoha."

Hikaru paused very slightly.

"It’s just a pity that the Hokage went to Mount Myōboku."

His tone remained relaxed, even lazy.

But the mention of Minato still stirred something in his heart.

After all, he was the one who had personally sent Minato to Mount Myōboku.

Kakashi listened quietly.

He didn’t interrupt.

He had already seen some of this in the files, but Hikaru’s explanation made it much clearer.

And the more clearly he understood, the better he could judge what he himself had done tonight.

"As for the other faction..." Hikaru smiled faintly. "Their intentions are far less simple."

He adjusted against the tree and went on.

"We call them the hawks. The hardliners. Or, to be even more direct—the coup faction."

At those words, Kakashi’s eyes changed slightly.

But Hikaru had no intention of letting him interrupt, so he raised a hand in a silencing gesture.

Kakashi immediately held his tongue, though his gaze sharpened.

"Don’t look so surprised. I can tell you openly that ANBU has no hard evidence."

"But think about it."

"If your clan’s relationship with the village keeps worsening, until both sides have practically become strangers..."

"And you still refuse to leave the village, because the village was built by your ancestors with blood and life..."

"But in the end, as time passes, you still hold none of the authority you believe should belong to you."

"In fact, you’re pushed farther and farther out. More and more isolated from the village."

"What would you think then?"

Hikaru’s tone remained even.

"Right now, the people led by the Third Hokage are dissatisfied with the Uchiha’s attitude toward the village."

"They also allowed the Police Force to become privatized. What should have been a public institution of Konoha became the private department of one clan."

"And the way they handled things only made the villagers hate them more, which made unity in the village even harder."

"At the same time, the Uchiha are dissatisfied with their current treatment."

"As one of the most powerful clans in Konoha, they don’t even get to participate in high-level decision-making."

"So you have a contradiction of status and power."

"A contradiction between clan and village."

"And if no one mediates that contradiction, then the result..."

"...will be an explosion."

Kakashi’s voice was strained as he finished the thought.

Using Hikaru’s words—and the materials he himself had seen—he could now see it clearly.

If things really went that far, then the result would absolutely be war between the village and the clan.

And judging from Hikaru’s phrasing alone, Hikaru clearly didn’t believe the Uchiha could win.

Otherwise he would never have used the word coup.

And that made sense.

If Konoha and the Uchiha went to war, the most likely outcome would be the Uchiha’s total destruction.

Once he understood that, Kakashi also understood Hikaru’s choice.

Compared to letting Obito’s clan vanish entirely into history—

wasn’t it better to kill a handful of extremists and leave behind those willing to negotiate with Konoha?

Those who could still help build a better future?

"There’s just one thing..." Kakashi sighed. "Why me? You know that I..."

"Because of Obito?" Hikaru cut in with clear disdain. "Because you don’t want to raise a hand against the Uchiha?"

"And because your Sharingan acted up tonight, you think it was Obito punishing you?"

As he spoke, Hikaru stood and walked over to Kakashi.

There was still a warm smile on his face.

But for some reason, Kakashi suddenly felt enormous pressure.

Hikaru wasn’t even using chakra.

He was simply standing there, looking at him.

And yet Kakashi felt as though he could barely withstand it.

"Don’t be ridiculous."

Hikaru’s voice was calm and firm.

"If you ask me, that wasn’t punishment from Obito."

"That was a gift."

Kakashi’s face showed only confusion.

How could that be called a gift?

Before he could think further, Hikaru continued.

"The secrets of the Sharingan go far beyond what you imagine. Those eyes are treasures. Enough that anyone who understands them would covet them."

At that point, Hikaru paused again.

He was thinking about how exactly to draw out Kakashi’s Mangekyō Sharingan.

Judging by what Kakashi had described, the change had occurred in the middle of his battle with Tatsumi.

Did that mean resonance between eyes?

If so, that was troublesome.

Hikaru himself didn’t have a Sharingan.

But then again... maybe he could still try.

He didn’t have the Sharingan, but he did have the divine Eye.

Even if this divine Eye was only a rough, improvised version, it was still—more or less—power derived from the Ōtsutsuki line.

"Look into my eyes," Hikaru said softly. "Especially with your Sharingan."

He closed his eyes.

And when he opened them again, brilliant blue light flowed within them.

The moving radiance was dazzling, mysterious, and dangerous all at once.

The moment he activated those eyes, Hikaru intended to stir his own aura—

especially the Senju aura within him that carried Yang Release.

If a mere three-tomoe Sharingan could trigger a reaction in Kakashi’s eye, then his own Byakugan-derived divine Eye, combined with a Senju aura, should surely be enough to stir the eye’s bloodline memory.

Or so he thought.

What Hikaru never expected—

not even in his dreams—

was that before he even got the chance to do any of that, Kakashi’s Sharingan reacted on its own.

As if stimulated by something.

It began spinning slowly.

Then faster.

The three tomoe seeming as if they were about to merge into one.

Kakashi frowned.

His head was beginning to spin.

Suddenly, Hikaru noticed something was wrong.

Because he could clearly see that the space before him had begun to distort ever so slightly.

What was stranger still was that the distortion did not seem to exist in normal reality at all.

If one relied on normal sight, it simply wasn’t there.

And most alarmingly of all—

that distortion was locked directly onto his head.

"Kamui?"

Hikaru became instantly alert.

His chakra tightened.

At once, seeds connected to him emerged beneath the surrounding ground.

He had no interest in having his head twisted off by Kamui.

That would be a truly stupid way to die.

"So super-insight can see distortions in space itself?"

For some reason, his mind immediately went to Obito and Minato.

Both of them were masters of space.

Minato, thankfully, was on his side.

And Hikaru already understood Minato’s style well.

As for Obito—

under these eyes, Hikaru suspected he would be able to see exactly which part of Obito’s body was in the real world and which part remained in the Kamui dimension.

Time passed slowly.

Hikaru remained on guard against Kamui, while Kakashi felt the pressure in his eye growing heavier and heavier.

It no longer felt like an eyeball inside his socket.

It felt like a mountain.

A massive mountain that was devouring his chakra.

The weight was suffocating.

The pressure almost unbearable.

And just when Kakashi felt he was about to collapse under it, the burden suddenly eased.

At the same time, however, the speed at which his chakra was draining became even faster.

"Did he hold through it?"

Hikaru let out a slight breath of relief.

The distortion in space before him had vanished.

That meant Kakashi had likely succeeded.

Looking at Kakashi standing there with his eyes closed, Hikaru knew the man was still adjusting to the changes.

So he quietly took out a kunai and waited.

When Kakashi finally opened his eyes, Hikaru handed it to him.

"Take a look."

Kakashi silently accepted it.

Under the moonlight, the reflected image in the kunai was blurry.

But it was more than enough.

At that moment, Kakashi felt his sight become incredibly clear.

As though he could see through anything.

In the kunai’s reflection, he still looked like himself.

But the Sharingan in his left eye had changed completely.

"This is..."

Kakashi murmured.

He didn’t recognize the eye at all.

"This is the Mangekyō Sharingan."

Hikaru placed a hand calmly on Kakashi’s shoulder.

"It’s the power the Uchiha dream of. An eye that stands above the three-tomoe Sharingan."

"And it is also the power Obito left to you."

"Obito’s gift to me..."

Kakashi’s eyes quietly reddened.

"Mangekyō... Sharingan..."

"Yes."

Hikaru smiled at him, his tone steady and warm.

"Normally, nothing ever changes. But tonight it reacted."

"That means Obito was helping you."

"He was a gentle person. I doubt he would want the village to descend into chaos, or his clan to walk toward destruction."

"So he passed this power to you in silence."

"He was probably hoping you would help him."

"Help him settle his clan."

"Is that so..."

Kakashi lowered his head and murmured softly.

After a long while, he lifted his face to the sky.

His gaze had become firm.

"I understand now."

"I won’t hesitate anymore."

He breathed out slowly.

"Thank you, Hikaru."

"And thank you too, Obito..."

◇ One bonus Chapter will be released for every 150 Power Stones.

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