Uchiha Toru's eyes began to change. The evolution from three-tomoe took only an instant.
Then the three tomoe changed again. New patterns extended outward from the edges of the tomoe, forming a complex and beautiful design within his pupils.
The Mangekyo Sharingan.
Uchiha Toru raised his head.
The entire world slowed down in his eyes.
Every speck of ice dust floating in the air was clearly visible. They reflected faint light as they slowly spun and fell.
Uchiha Toru reached out and caught Shin-chan, the killing intent on his body practically breaking through the sky.
"Toru, your eyes turned red, and they're spinning in circles. That's so cool."
Uchiha Toru froze, his voice trembling slightly. "You... you're okay?"
"I'm okay." Shin-chan lowered his head and looked at his chest. The wound was healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. "I don't know what happened. A lot of chakra just ran over by itself to heal the wound."
"Impossible... That's impossible..." Mizunashi Nagi looked stunned. "It clearly pierced through..."
In just those few short seconds, only a faint red mark remained on Shin-chan's chest.
"It's just a little itchy."
"What exactly are you?" Mizunashi Nagi's voice came from every ice mirror at the same time, making it impossible to tell where her real body was hiding.
"My name is Nohara Shinnosuke."
"That's not what I'm asking!"
Shin-chan tilted his head. "Then I don't know what you're asking anymore."
Mizunashi Nagi stared at that face, innocent to the extreme, and launched another attack.
Uchiha Toru's Mangekyo slowly spun in his pupils, every second stretched out infinitely.
He saw Mizunashi Nagi's real body transferring between the ice mirrors.
But every landing point and every gap between transfers were completely exposed.
Even Kakashi's motion of leaping down from the crossbeam seemed to be dragged frame by frame by some invisible force.
Only Uchiha Toru himself could still move normally.
This was the gift of his eyes: Amatsuhikone-no-Mikoto.
It could slow the flow of time within his perception range to the extreme, while he himself could move freely in that nearly frozen space-time.
Mizunashi Nagi's real body was transferring from one ice mirror to another. At normal speed, that process would be completed in an instant.
But in Uchiha Toru's eyes, it was as if she were slowly squeezing out of one mirror, half her body still inside the ice mirror while the other half was moving out.
He could even see the scene reflected in Mizunashi Nagi's pupils.
She was looking at Shin-chan.
Still looking.
Uchiha Toru gripped his kunai so hard that his knuckles turned white. The image of that ice blade piercing Shin-chan's chest replayed over and over in his mind.
"Amatsuhikone-no-Mikoto."
From Mizunashi Nagi's perspective, Uchiha Toru's figure vanished from where he stood. In the same instant, all the Mist ninja nearby collapsed to the ground.
The next moment, a kunai stabbed in from her blind spot, accurately piercing through her right shoulder.
Mizunashi Nagi let out a muffled groan. Her whole body was knocked out of the ice mirror and slammed heavily onto the living room floor.
"Your eyes..." She clutched the wound on her right shoulder. "Mangekyo Sharingan? Impossible. No one in the Uchiha clan has awakened the Mangekyo in many years, much less someone as young as—"
Before she could finish speaking, Uchiha Toru disappeared again.
Relying on years of battle instinct, Mizunashi Nagi rolled to the right, but she was still a step too slow. The kunai opened a wound on her calf so deep that bone could be seen.
She gritted her teeth and formed seals with one hand. Three ice walls blocked the space between them.
"Your Mangekyo..." She stared at Uchiha Toru's scarlet eyes. "What exactly is its ability?"
"You're not qualified to know."
Uchiha Toru's left eye throbbed faintly with pain. He knew he was overusing it, but he did not care.
The next second, Uchiha Toru appeared in front of Mizunashi Nagi again, kunai in hand.
"Three brats from Konoha actually managed to force me this far." A crazed curve appeared at the corner of Mizunashi Nagi's mouth. "Then let's die here together. Having Konoha's three most promising geniuses buried with me is worth it."
Kakashi shouted at Shin-chan, "Shin-chan, use the Flying Thunder God Technique and leave this place!"
"Too late." Mizunashi Nagi had already finished forming her seal. "There are one thousand seven hundred and twenty-three explosive tags in this villa. I only need one seal to detonate them all at once."
This was also the ending she had considered from the very beginning.
If she could not leave alive, then she would take these three Konoha geniuses with her.
One second passed.
Nothing happened.
Mizunashi Nagi's smile froze on her face. She formed the seal again, but still, nothing happened.
"How could..."
The chakra in her body had indeed been released, but the explosive tags buried all over the villa gave no response at all.
"Explosive tags, you know..." Shin-chan's voice came from behind her. "They need chakra to trigger them before they explode, right?"
Mizunashi Nagi suddenly turned her head.
Shin-chan was standing in the center of the study, both hands still maintaining a seal.
"What did you do?"
"Just a sealing technique."
The four specially made kunai Shin-chan had thrown earlier were now nailed into four perfectly symmetrical positions, forming a neat four-corner sealing formation.
On the handles of those four kunai, the formula patterns were rapidly spreading outward.
The entire villa had been sealed shut.
"Impossible." Mizunashi Nagi suddenly turned to look at Shin-chan. "You planned this from the beginning?"
"Big Brother Minato said that when you fight, you should secretly throw kunai everywhere first."
"What exactly are you?" Mizunashi Nagi looked at Shin-chan and asked the question once more.
Shin-chan scratched the back of his head. "I already said it. My name is Nohara Shinnosuke. You can call me Shin-chan."
"I'm not asking your name."
"Then what are you asking?"
"Forget it." Mizunashi Nagi collapsed onto the floor. "I lost."
Uchiha Toru's Mangekyo lingered on Mizunashi Nagi for an instant before shifting to Shin-chan.
"Then." Shin-chan walked up to Mizunashi Nagi. "I'm going to seal you now."
Mizunashi Nagi did not resist. She knew very well that she had no chance of winning anymore.
The patterns of a sealing formula spread from Shin-chan's fingertips.
After completing the seal, Shin-chan stood up, patted the dust from his hands, then turned to Uchiha Toru and Kakashi.
"Toru, your eyes."
Uchiha Toru froze. Only then did he realize he was still maintaining the Mangekyo Sharingan.
He took a deep breath, and his scarlet pupils gradually returned to their original black color.
The flow of time returned to normal, but in that instant, his legs lost their strength. His whole body staggered forward.
Shin-chan caught him at once.
"Toru, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Uchiha Toru's voice was a little hoarse. "Just a bit tired."
"Your eyes are bleeding."
Uchiha Toru raised his hand and touched the corner of his eye. His fingertips came away stained with warm liquid. "Next time, don't stand in front of me."
"Okay, okay. Next time, I won't."
"You said that last time too."
"This time I'm serious."
"You said that last time too."
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 70 Chapters Ahead of Others!