Orochimaru’s situation had turned disastrous.

He had expected the possibility of failure. That was only natural. A shinobi’s life was built on uncertainty.

A man with only the rank of genin might possess terrifying power.

A mighty shinobi might still die to someone far weaker, brought down by a single betrayal from the shadows.

But even so, Orochimaru had never expected Uchiha Fugaku to be this difficult to deal with.

Nor had he expected those eyes to be so dangerous.

He had never truly fought the Sharingan before, but he understood enough of its nature to stay wary. He had taken every precaution he could.

Yet in front of Uchiha Fugaku, those precautions felt pitifully weak.

He could not create any real trouble for the man at all.

Every movement of his was seen through.

Every method of attack was neutralized.

And worst of all, that pair of eyes of Fugaku’s seemed to radiate some strange power at every moment.

It spread through him constantly.

At times it made him hallucinate.

At times it caused him to make severe errors in judgment.

By now, Orochimaru understood.

Even though he had avoided looking directly into Fugaku’s eyes, he had already fallen under their genjutsu long ago.

That invisible influence never stopped pressing down on him.

It was already interfering with his battle to a serious degree.

He did not know how much longer he could hold on.

But he did know one thing—

if this continued, the end waiting for him would not be pretty.

"So this is the power of the Mangekyō..."

Gritting his teeth, Orochimaru narrowly avoided another attack from Fugaku.

He could tell that Fugaku was still restraining himself.

Even now, the man was worried about the relationship between the Uchiha and the village.

That was why he had never truly struck to kill.

And that hesitation was the only reason Orochimaru had managed to survive this long.

But once he realized that, the expression on his pale face grew darker and darker, until anger surfaced.

He was not angry at Fugaku for suppressing him.

He was angry at himself.

Angry that he had not grasped enough knowledge—had not transformed enough knowledge into strength—and so had fallen into a losing position again and again lately.

His experiments had stalled.

A mysterious enemy wielding the power of the Nine-Tails had attacked him.

Danzō had pushed him to the wall.

And now, in the end, he had been forced into a dangerous alliance, bargaining with that Senju from ANBU.

Only to end up in this miserable state.

There was frustration in him.

Helplessness.

And a deep, vicious resolve.

He had to seize his own fate with his own hands.

Fugaku, meanwhile, was not in an easy position either.

Though he still held the initiative, the truth was that he had gone too long without real combat.

Ever since inheriting his father’s position and becoming clan head, the opportunities for him to fight personally had become fewer and fewer.

Even in the Land of Grass, when he dealt with the already collapsing Iwa-nin, he had not needed to fight seriously.

Now, against someone like Orochimaru, he could feel the strain clearly.

If not for the Mangekyō Sharingan, what he faced now would not be strain at all—

it would be certain death.

And on top of that, he still did not dare kill.

After all, Orochimaru was Hiruzen Sarutobi’s disciple.

"I need to end this quickly."

The thought flashed through Fugaku’s mind.

His chakra surged.

His foot stamped the ground—

and in the next instant, he had already reached Orochimaru.

A flash of cold light split the air.

The blade he had taken from a Root operative swept toward Orochimaru’s left leg in a vicious, elegant arc.

Crippling him outright was unrealistic.

Better to destroy his mobility first.

Orochimaru reacted instantly.

He twisted backward and to the side, leaping away while drawing a kunai in his right hand and slashing toward Fugaku from an awkward, unnatural angle.

But the move was already seen through.

Under the Mangekyō, everything was different.

Fugaku’s left hand shot forward.

Just before Orochimaru’s wrist carrying the kunai could pass, Fugaku turned his palm upward sharply—

perfectly aligned to seize the man’s wrist.

Yet in the same moment, Orochimaru’s body twisted strangely in midair and accelerated backward.

His arm remained extended, however, as if deliberately offering it.

"Hmph."

Fugaku withdrew his hand at once.

Beneath Orochimaru’s sleeve, a snake was already there, tongue flicking.

This time Fugaku did not pursue recklessly.

Instead, he stopped and formed hand seals with astonishing speed.

Heat spread through the air around him.

"If you want to retreat, then retreat all you like."

His voice dropped.

"Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Technique!"

A massive dragon of flame burst from the earth and roared toward Orochimaru.

An instant later, a violent explosion tore through the lakeside.

Fire surged skyward, brilliant and furious even beneath the sun.

The flames spread rapidly.

Orochimaru emerged at the edge of the blaze, looking far more ragged than before.

He had barely slipped past the fire dragon itself, but once it exploded there had been almost no room left to evade.

Part of his hair had been burned. So had parts of his clothing.

There was a faint scent of scorched flesh in the air.

"This is going badly."

Orochimaru’s expression darkened. Almost by instinct, he licked his lips.

Chakra churned violently within him.

He had made up his mind.

He was retreating.

Failing Hikaru’s assignment would bring consequences. He knew that.

But he no longer had another choice.

That enormous fire dragon had not just been an attack.

Fugaku had almost certainly used it to draw the attention of the other Uchiha.

If Orochimaru stayed here any longer, he would be surrounded.

And once that happened, the end would be ugly.

He had already decided—if he escaped this place, he would leave Konoha immediately and use the Orochimaru-style Body Replacement Technique to sever Hikaru’s mark from himself altogether.

After seeing Fugaku’s Mangekyō, he had become convinced that this had been Hikaru’s true goal all along.

Hikaru wanted those eyes.

Even if Orochimaru handed over the three-tomoe Sharingan he had already secured, that would likely not satisfy him.

So escape was his only path.

The best path.

The only path.

"Damn it."

But Fugaku gave him no such chance.

Taking one great stride, he closed the distance again.

The blade in his hand tore through the air once more, cutting straight toward Orochimaru—

At the forest’s edge, Hikaru watched the pillar of fire in the distance, and his expression darkened slightly.

"So it became this loud after all."

He had not thought especially highly of Orochimaru’s chances against Fugaku in the first place.

Even so, for the battle to deteriorate this badly was disappointing.

A Fire Release of that scale, with that range and impact, could not possibly avoid drawing attention.

He scarcely needed to guess what Orochimaru was thinking now.

The man was almost certainly preparing to run.

Orochimaru was both highly intelligent and painfully cautious.

Either trait by itself was admirable.

Together, at a moment like this, they were a nuisance.

"After seeing Fugaku’s Mangekyō and recalling the mark I placed on him—and the fact that I explicitly demanded Fugaku’s eyes—he’s definitely thinking too far ahead now."

Hikaru’s guess was uncannily close to the truth.

"And now he’s likely convinced I set him up deliberately. Once he fails, he’ll assume I’ll turn on him without hesitation."

That could not be allowed.

If Orochimaru fled now, who would continue doing experiments for him later?

The thought settled it.

Hikaru moved at once.

He pulled out a mask.

It was an unusual one, made without any openings for the eyes, completely concealing that part of his face.

At the same time, he quickly changed his hair color to black with a prepared solution, then pulled on a black robe.

He did not head straight for the center of the battle.

Instead, with the mask on, he activated the divine Eye beneath it.

Through his sight, he could already see the state of the battle between Orochimaru and Fugaku.

More importantly, he could also see the Uchiha shinobi who had already begun gathering around the outer edge of the forest.

"I’ll clean these up first. Then I’ll deal with Orochimaru."

His chakra stirred.

And the next moment, he vanished.

One after another, Uchiha reinforcements silently dropped in the forest.

The battle between Orochimaru and Fugaku continued.

Orochimaru was being driven back harder and harder. He could not find any opening to escape.

Under those cursed Mangekyō eyes, he felt as though every movement of his body was being watched clearly.

He had to break that gaze somehow. Only then could he create a chance to flee.

He was clever enough to have considered using Earth Release to obstruct Fugaku’s vision and retreat under cover.

But Fugaku’s speed was not the slightest bit slow.

Each time Orochimaru raised an Earth-Style Wall, Fugaku either crushed through it directly, or attacked with Fire Release and circled around from the flank.

Against that style of combat, Orochimaru was at a clear disadvantage.

Worse, he was still unaccustomed to fighting without ever trusting his own sight.

Fugaku’s chakra remained inside his body, interfering with him constantly.

The fight only grew more difficult.

Another slash came for him.

Orochimaru twisted away and leapt back.

Fugaku pressed forward immediately.

Though the strain of the Mangekyō was beginning to show on him too, he knew he held the advantage.

And when one held the advantage, one had to finish the battle before that advantage faded.

"Earth Release: Earth Spear Ramparts!"

Facing Fugaku’s relentless pursuit, Orochimaru formed hand seals rapidly and completed the jutsu at once.

He had been waiting for even the smallest opening to counterattack.

This time, he finally found one.

Spikes of earth burst up from the ground in great numbers.

For the first time, Fugaku’s forward momentum was disrupted.

"Hmph."

But he still had the Sharingan.

He cut through one spike immediately with the blade in his hand.

His eyes moved.

He read the entire field of earth spikes in a glance.

Then, like a butterfly weaving between reeds, he moved through them and came on toward Orochimaru again.

"Ninja Art: Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"

Orochimaru thrust one hand forward.

Countless venomous snakes shot from his sleeves and lunged at Fugaku.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Fugaku did not try to push through them with taijutsu.

He formed hand seals and spat out a massive fireball.

The snakes collided with the flames.

Their shrill death cries filled the air, along with the smell of burning flesh.

Orochimaru did not seem to care at all that the snakes had been incinerated.

Instead, excitement rose in his eyes.

He had his chance.

"Ninja Art: Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes!"

His hands flashed through seals once more.

A summoning-like array appeared beneath Fugaku’s feet, and from it erupted an even larger mass of serpents.

The sight was enough to make anyone’s scalp crawl.

For the first time, Fugaku looked genuinely troubled.

His blade danced through the air, one snake after another losing its head to a clean strike.

But there were simply too many.

Even he had no choice but to give ground.

After severing yet another snake, he leapt back and began forming hand seals at once.

Chakra surged violently around him.

"Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Technique!"

"Got you."

Orochimaru’s expression lit with sudden delight.

Just moments ago, he had been thinking only of retreat.

Now that impulse was gone entirely.

With one hand he formed a seal.

Several small venomous snakes had already slipped silently onto the sleeve of Fugaku’s robe.

They struck without hesitation, biting deep into his arm.

"Ninja Art: Exploding Snake Strike!"

Orochimaru’s chakra flared.

The snakes grew unstable, writhing violently with a murderous intent of their own.

Fugaku’s arm immediately began to numb from the venom.

Before he could free himself—

the snakes exploded.

The blast tore through him.

"It’s over..."

Orochimaru licked his lips and stepped forward slowly.

Fugaku looked utterly wretched now.

One of his arms had been blown off.

He lay in a pool of blood, seemingly no longer able to resist.

At last, Orochimaru breathed out.

This man had been monstrously troublesome.

If not for that single error—if not for the crack in his pacing and the overextension that let Orochimaru seize his chance—this battle would never have turned.

But as Orochimaru approached, something suddenly felt wrong.

His eyes found Itachi.

Uchiha Itachi.

Fugaku’s son.

And at that instant, a chill ran through him.

If he truly wanted to leave Fugaku helpless, if he truly wanted to force surrender—

shouldn’t he have used the boy?

Why had he never even considered it?

Why had he practically forgotten Itachi’s presence altogether?

"And Exploding Snake Strike... it should have used giant snakes, not those small ones."

The realization hit him like cold water.

Everything that had just happened felt profoundly wrong.

Fugaku’s opening had appeared too naturally.

Itachi’s presence had slipped from his mind too completely.

Even the jutsu he himself used had been distorted.

None of this should have happened.

Yet all of it had happened as if it were only natural.

"Noticed at last."

A voice sounded by his ear.

Cold.

Calm.

Orochimaru’s skin prickled instantly.

That voice—

Fugaku.

"So it really was a genjutsu..."

He had guessed correctly.

And that only made it worse.

He had guarded himself this fiercely, refused to look directly into Fugaku’s eyes, prepared against the Sharingan every way he knew—

and still he had fallen.

"This is the Mangekyō Sharingan..."

As he muttered the words, the world around him began to distort.

The blood-soaked Fugaku lying on the ground grew transparent.

In the next instant, everything around him dissolved into black and white.

Even the blazing sun above had become like a silver moon.

Fugaku stood calmly to one side, his eyes bearing those strange patterns as he watched Orochimaru without emotion.

"How did you realize it was a genjutsu?" Fugaku asked. "I left no opening."

"Your son," Orochimaru answered heavily. "I saw him. The moment I saw him, I knew something was wrong."

"Is that so?"

Fugaku nodded once, faintly.

So that was the flaw.

And now that he understood it, his expression only turned colder.

Anyone who tried to threaten his family was an enemy.

In his heart, Orochimaru had already been condemned to death.

Still, Fugaku was not yet ready to kill.

Not until he understood everything.

He needed evidence.

Needed to know how many others were involved.

Only then could he act without hesitation.

"How many took part in this?"

The pattern in his Mangekyō rotated.

That peculiar chakra poured deeper into Orochimaru.

"And what was your true objective?"

"There were others involved..."

Orochimaru began to answer almost instinctively.

Then suddenly he resisted.

Inside his head, he could feel two minds operating at once.

One told him to obey Fugaku.

The other resisted with all its strength, insisting he absolutely must not yield.

Orochimaru ground his teeth so hard it hurt.

His logic was beginning to collapse.

His awareness was slipping.

He could barely tell which voice in his own mind was truly his.

"Tell me," Fugaku’s voice echoed again, this time reverberating directly through Orochimaru’s mind. "Who else was involved? What was your objective?"

Pain.

Confusion.

Submission.

Resistance.

Suppression.

His own will clawing for purchase.

In that overwhelming pressure, Orochimaru felt himself steadily losing control.

"Those involved include... Danzō..."

The words escaped him.

His eyes widened slightly.

He could still feel his own resistance.

Still feel his own refusal.

And yet his mouth had moved anyway.

His body was no longer his.

He had already been seized by Fugaku’s control.

"And..."

But just as he was about to speak the next name—just as Hikaru himself was about to be exposed—

an alien force rippled through that black-and-white world.

In an instant, Orochimaru became clear-headed again.

The second will inside him—the one that had not been his—was swept away.

The voice that had haunted him vanished.

He looked up sharply.

The silver moon that hung in the black-and-white sky was changing.

It had turned azure.

Brilliant.

Flowing with impossible light.

It drew the eye so completely that it felt as though even the soul might be pulled into it.

"How beautiful..."

Hikaru had just knocked the last of the Uchiha reinforcements unconscious when he moved.

He had not bothered counting how many there were.

It did not matter.

There were certainly more still coming.

But he no longer had the luxury to care.

Orochimaru’s condition had grown too strange.

Under the divine Eye, he could see it clearly.

Alongside Orochimaru’s own chakra, more and more of that black chakra from Fugaku’s eyes was spreading through him.

It had already linked Fugaku and Orochimaru together.

And once that link formed, Orochimaru’s own chakra began to collapse beneath it.

Such a tyrannical method was the first of its kind Hikaru had ever seen.

Worse, Orochimaru’s battle had become completely disordered.

He was striking at empty air.

Fighting something no one else could see.

"He’s completely under."

Hikaru narrowed his eyes.

"Is this the effect of a Mangekyō genjutsu?"

The Orochimaru of the future would be one thing. His soul, after so many transfers, had been damaged to the point that powerful illusions were disastrous for him.

But the Orochimaru of now did not have that weakness.

Which meant if he was performing this badly, the fault could only lie in the sheer dominance of Fugaku’s Mangekyō.

Then, as Hikaru’s gaze pushed deeper, he saw it.

Another world.

Black and white intertwined.

And inside it, Fugaku was interrogating Orochimaru.

Orochimaru resisted desperately, but his will was being shaved away. His thoughts were being torn apart.

He had already begun speaking.

Then he would briefly wake.

Then the black chakra would seize him again.

"So this is the world inside the illusion..."

Hikaru’s eyes sharpened.

Ordinary genjutsu were mental collisions. One man against another. Even if some techniques could affect multiple targets, no one outside the illusion should be able to watch what happened within it.

Yet now, through the divine Eye, Hikaru could.

"This so-called complete insight... it really is terrifying."

The thought flickered through his mind, but vanished quickly.

More important things demanded his attention.

He understood the structure now.

Fugaku had used his Mangekyō to build a special genjutsu space, something vaguely similar to Tsukuyomi—but not quite the same.

Orochimaru could still resist inside it.

And unlike Tsukuyomi, this jutsu seemed able to directly invade and control thought itself.

Whatever its name or full nature, Hikaru could not allow Orochimaru to keep speaking.

Fugaku was extracting information, and that information absolutely included Hikaru.

His chakra shifted.

Then he vanished.

He appeared beside Orochimaru at once.

Blue light burst from his hidden eyes.

If he wanted to break the illusion, the simplest method was to shatter the stable chakra structure that supported it.

The power spilling from the Mangekyō was not something ordinary force could easily undo.

So Hikaru used the strength in his own eyes instead.

Azure light surged forward and pierced into Orochimaru.

The moment it entered him, Orochimaru snapped fully awake.

And inside that black-and-white world—

the silver moon overhead transformed.

It became the same brilliant azure as Hikaru’s eyes.

"What?"

Fugaku’s composure finally broke.

The strange world he had built shattered like glass.

The black chakra linking him to Orochimaru snapped apart as the illusion collapsed.

Fugaku gave a muffled grunt.

Blood began to run from his eyes in thin streams.

"So it really is a dōjutsu."

Seeing that reaction, Hikaru immediately confirmed what he needed.

That illusion-space had been one of Fugaku’s unique eye techniques.

And by forcibly tearing it apart, Hikaru had caused direct backlash to its owner.

Even if Hikaru did not yet know its name or full effect, one thing was certain—

the advantage was his now.

"Who are you?"

Ignoring the blood flowing from his eyes, Fugaku maintained his Mangekyō and stared at Hikaru.

"Who I am doesn’t matter."

Hikaru looked back at him calmly.

"What matters is that your eyes are very interesting."

Then he glanced down at Orochimaru.

"You all right?"

"If you’d come any later," Orochimaru answered in a low voice, "I really might have been finished."

By now, he knew exactly who had saved him.

That azure eye hanging in the illusion-sky had been Hikaru’s.

He had seen those eyes before, and he knew the pressure they carried was almost unimaginable.

Even now he still had no idea what kind of eyes they were.

But today he had understood one thing very clearly:

they were not weaker than the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Otherwise they could not have broken Fugaku’s illusion and caused such obvious backlash.

"Good."

Hikaru nodded lightly.

Then he turned his gaze back to Fugaku.

"I have to admit I’m disappointed. You couldn’t complete Konoha’s mission, and you couldn’t complete mine either."

"You?" Fugaku’s eyes sharpened immediately. "Orochimaru was working with someone outside the village?"

"If your village wants you dead, why can’t I take the chance to get what I want?"

Hikaru lied with perfect ease.

"After this, Orochimaru won’t be able to stay in Konoha anyway. Rather than let your eyes fall into Danzō’s hands, it’s better for him to offer them to me in exchange for protection."

As he spoke, Hikaru cast Orochimaru a subtle glance.

Orochimaru’s lips curved, and he gave the smallest of nods.

He understood.

Since that was the case—

Hikaru slowly drew a ninja blade.

An immense wave of chakra rose inside him.

"It should all end here..."