Chapter 200: Genjutsu? Since when!
The pattern of the blood moon in the sky changed from Uchiha Hikari's Mangekyo Sharingan pattern to Uchiha Shisui's eye pattern.
In reality.
Uchiha Hikari lay quietly on the ground, her eyes tightly closed and her brow furrowed.
Naruto stood beside her, looking down at the unconscious girl.
After a moment of silence, he reached out his hands and reached toward his own eye sockets without hesitation.
After a faint, tooth-gritting sound, two warm eyeballs carrying a strange Chakra fluctuation were gently "removed" by him.
It was that pair of Mangekyo Sharingan with the strange pattern that had appeared at the final moment of the Genjutsu.
Relying on his perception, he carefully placed the pair of eyes into a pre-prepared airtight container filled with a special nutrient solution formulated by Orochimaru.
Then, he took out his own azure eyes from another container and skillfully "installed" them back into his eye sockets.
The soft green light of the Mystical Palm Technique lit up at his fingertips, gently brushing over the area around his eye sockets.
The subtle meridian connections, vascular anastomosis, and nerve reconnections... were rapidly completed under the exquisite Medical Ninjutsu.
After a moment, the green light dissipated.
Naruto slowly opened his eyes.
The azure eyes, like a clear sky after rain, were clear and deep, once again reflecting the scene of the underground river cave.
He blinked, adjusting to the vision of his "original" eyes.
'I knew I would have to face the Mangekyo Sharingan; one can never be too cautious.'
In the Ninja world, changing eyeballs is more convenient than swapping a hot-swappable keyboard. Therefore, after leaving Hidden Leaf Village, he had switched to Uchiha Shisui's eyes, and the appearance he showed along the way was maintained using the Transformation Jutsu.
Although both were right eyes, aside from some discomfort, it was fine as long as they worked.
Under normal circumstances, a Mangekyo Sharingan cannot trap another Mangekyo Sharingan user in Genjutsu, especially when the opponent also possesses Tsukuyomi.
However, Uchiha Hikari's current ocular power was too weak.
A strong ocular power can control a weaker one.
Furthermore, Kotoamatsukami's primary Domain is also in the field of Genjutsu, so it can still deal with Tsukuyomi.
With the enhancement of his own Physique, the ocular power of Shisui's Mangekyo was significantly strengthened.
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The sound of the flowing underground river became distant and blurred at some point, replaced by a more spacious and quiet sound, occasionally mixed with the slight crackling of burning firewood.
The air was filled with the scent of damp rocks and a warm, inviting aroma of charred, roasted food.
Uchiha Hikari's consciousness slowly surfaced amidst a wave of internal weakness and dull pain.
Hearing returned first, then smell.
Her vision was still pitch black.
She instinctively wanted to open her eyes wide, but only felt something wrapped around them, which not only blocked the light but also faintly suppressed the flow of Chakra in her eyes.
Her heart sank abruptly.
Next, her bodily sensations became clear.
She seemed to be lying on a relatively flat ground covered with something soft.
A large coat was draped over her.
The coat was very warm, shielding her from the chill of the night cave, but this warmth made her even more uneasy.
She tried to move her arms and immediately felt restrained.
Her wrists were bound by something flexible; it wasn't tight enough to be painful, but it was enough to restrict most movements.
Fragments of memory flooded back like a tide: the blood moon space, the bound Naruto.
And, those crimson Mangekyo that had suddenly opened with a strange pattern.
Genjutsu? Since when!
She hadn't expected to be the one caught in a Genjutsu first.
A sense of shame and indignation at being completely fooled and controlled, mixed with regret for her own carelessness and fear of her unknown situation, instantly gripped her heart.
She tensed her body, trying to mobilize her Chakra, only to find that not only was the Chakra in her eyes suppressed, but even the circulation of Chakra in her body was exceptionally sluggish; clearly, other Sealing Jutsu had been applied to her.
Just as her mind was churning violently, trying to calm down to analyze the situation and find a way to escape, a steady sound of footsteps approached from afar.
The footsteps were light, but exceptionally clear in the silence.
Finally, they stopped not far from her.
"Eat a little."
That voice sounded; it was Uzumaki Naruto.
His tone was calm, even gentle; no hostility could be heard, nor the gloating of a victor. It was as if he were stating a perfectly ordinary matter.
Following his words, an even richer aroma of grilled fish drew closer to her.
The steaming, oily, charred scent almost brushed against the tip of her nose.
She could "feel" that the skewer of grilled fish was resting not far from her lips, and could even sense the faint heat radiating from the food.
Uchiha Hikari's entire body was stiff, and her bandage-covered eyes "glared" toward the source of the voice, even though she couldn't see anything.
Seeing her stubborn appearance, Naruto sat cross-legged beside her with interest.
He used to love this kind of scenario when playing GalGames in his past life.
Starting a difficult conquest is the most interesting part; although increasing affection step-by-step has its own fun.
But overcoming the unknown is what brings the greatest sense of achievement.
"As you've seen, I have a pair of Mangekyo Sharingan, but without a close relative's Mangekyo, they can't be synthesized into an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. Your Mangekyo Sharingan is useless to me."
"Heh, the Uzumaki Clan has no way to awaken the Sharingan. You are one of the Uchiha!"
Hikari's voice carried a hint of gritted teeth; clearly, she had a great deal of loathing for the Uchiha.
"This pair of eyes was gouged out by me from the eyes of a guy who stole the Mangekyo Sharingan."
To be honest, Naruto was also very surprised at the time.
Because after Danzo Shimura used Izanagi, his severed arm returned, and as a result of the sealing technique, he grew Mangekyo Sharingan again.
Naruto couldn't see the state of the Sharingan under the bandages on the other's right arm, but he presumed Danzo must have paid a price he didn't know about.
Uchiha Hikari nodded, though it was unclear if she had truly taken it in.
After hesitating for a while, she asked, "How long have I been sealed?"
"One or two hundred years, probably. No one knows the exact time."
Uchiha Hikari's body froze the moment she heard this answer.
Despite being blindfolded by bandages, her sudden frozen breath and slightly trembling shoulders all betrayed the massive upheaval in her heart.
One or two hundred years?
Even... longer?
Two hundred years!
For Ninjas, who have an extremely high mortality rate and a very short average lifespan, this was completely unimaginable.
Many in the clan would marry and have children at fourteen or fifteen, and could become grandparents in their thirties.
If it weren't because she was still young, she might have lived out such a life as well.
When the scale of a "century" truly fell upon her, becoming the time she was deprived of while slumbering, the impact was devastating.
The flames of war, the clan crest, those greedy or indifferent faces in her memory... were they all already matters from at least one or two hundred years ago?
The world she fought for, suffered for, and also hated, had long since changed its appearance.
The Uzumaki are gone, the Senju are gone, even the Uchiha... might really be gone too?
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