Chapter 281: The Clash Of Eyes

​"Adira, is there any setback to this?" Mirabella asked, her eyes narrowing as she stared intently at the glowing screen before her.​’Yup, that there is Sasuke Uchiha... I didn’t expect Adira could actually pull this off,’ she thought, a mix of awe and amusement settling in her chest. To manifest a concept from fictional media into a tangible, lethal opponent was a testament to the terrifying potential of her domain.

​"Well... We are in Master’s Golden Palace, so I can create anything with spirit energy, as long as Master has enough knowledge about it," Adira answered smoothly, her hands glowing faintly as she maintained the complex runic structure that bound the connection together.

​"What about the outside world?" Mirabella asked, probing the limits of her newfound arsenal. If she could summon anime figures into reality, the upcoming apocalypse would be a trivial matter.

​"It’s impossible. These beings created don’t use our energy, so they will be useless in the real world," Adira explained, shattering that brief hope. They were constructs of pure spiritual data, localized entirely to the Golden Palace’s unique dimensional frequency.

​Mirabella slowly nodded her head, accepting the limitation. ’Seems I can’t use them... Oh well, let’s see how Hitachi faces this stubborn guy from Naruto.’ she muttered to herself, settling back into her throne.

​"Hey, Adira, what about their personality?"

​"They will retain their personalities, and also behave and act the way you remember... This is the true power of Spirit energy manipulation," Adira answered with a small, proud smile. She wasn’t just creating mindless puppets; she was synthesizing souls based on Mirabella’s memories.

​The air in the isolated biome crackled with an unnatural, static tension.

​"You don’t look like those mindless monsters," Hitachi said with a slight frown. His grip tightened on the hilt of his Legendary-class sword.

​’Thanks to the one-month rest, I am fully healed. Time to test my true ability and what I have learned,’ he thought. His muscles were coiled like springs, brimming with refined energy.

​Sasuke raised his head toward the boy before him, his expression stoic and unreadable. He slowly moved his cold gaze around the shattered clearing, analyzing the strange environment before focusing back on his opponent.

​"You want to fight me?" he asked, stopping his gaze on Hitachi.

​"What are those eyes of yours?" Hitachi asked with a deep frown. In response to the sheer pressure radiating from the dark-haired swordsman, his natural red eyes shifted, blooming into multiple vibrant colors that began spinning clockwise.

​"This?" Sasuke was momentarily stunned, observing the kaleidoscopic irises. He narrowed his eyes and shook his head dismissively. "No... This isn’t the Rinnegan."

​Sasuke gracefully drew his straight blade, pointing the tip directly at Hitachi. Lightning sparked faintly along the steel.

​"I am older than you, I also have more experience than you. There is no way you can defeat me; but answer this question, what’s your eyes called?" he asked, his tone demanding and absolute.

​Hitachi frowned. Refusing to be intimidated, he channeled his energy and shot forward, his form blurring as he flawlessly divided into three identical clones, striking from multiple angles.

​"Clones..." Sasuke exhaled, unimpressed.

​Hitachi appeared directly in his blind spot, swinging his glowing sword in a lethal arc aimed straight at the ninja’s head.

​"My eyes are called Celestial Eyes!!"

​BOOOOM!!!

​The three blades smashed into the ground with devastating force, blowing away the topsoil and creating a massive, smoking crater. But the target was gone. Hitachi was stunned, his eyes widening as he looked over his shoulder. Sasuke stood calmly ten paces away, his sword already back in the sheath behind him.

​"You? How did you get there? My eyes were on you all the while," Hitachi said in disbelief, his visual tracking completely failing to register the movement.

​"I could have killed you one hundred times with that foolish attack you did," Sasuke muttered with a slight frown, his mind calculating the discrepancies in this world’s chakra—or lack thereof.

"Was I summoned here to kill you? Wait, who even has the power to summon me?"

​A shadow crossed Sasuke’s face as a dark realization hit him.

​"Don’t tell me Kaguya Otsutsuki is back!" Sasuke exclaimed in genuine shock, his hand drifting back to his hilt.

​"I don’t know who you’re talking about, but my goal is to kill you!!" The three clones pushed off the broken earth, shooting toward Sasuke again in a coordinated pincer maneuver.

​"Useless."

​Sasuke’s dark eyes shifted. The crimson red of the Sharingan revealed itself, the three black tomoe spinning to life just as Hitachi appeared before him.

​With terrifying precision, Sasuke struck his hand forward. He flawlessly bypassed the feints of the two clones, reading their kinetic flow instantly, and smashed his palm directly into the center of Hitachi’s chest before the boy’s sword could even begin its descent.

​PIFF!

​Hitachi vomited a mouthful of blood. The sheer shockwave sent him flying backward like a broken doll. He smashed heavily onto the rocky ground, rolling several times before coming to a halt. He vomited another mouthful of blood as his two clones shattered into dissipating dust.

​"Your Mastery over your eyes is pathetic. I also don’t know which eye is much stronger, Your celestial eyes which I haven’t heard before or my Sharingan," Sasuke said, standing perfectly still, his expression icy and calm.

​"How did you know the original? I made sure to hide my presence," Hitachi groaned, forcing himself to stand up despite the agonizing pain in his ribs, a deep frown etching his face.

​"You are weak, worthless and pathetic... Fighting me is useless," Sasuke said coldly, delivering the ultimate verbal blow.

​Hearing those exact words—the very same words his Uncle Sagittarius had spoken as he stood over the severed heads of his family—Hitachi froze. The world around him seemed to mute. His grip on his sword began to tremble, not from fear, but from a violently overflowing rage.

​"I am not weak, I am not worthless!!!"

​BOOOOM!!

​A dense, suffocating amount of killing intent burst out from Hitachi’s core. The sheer malice and trauma manifested physically, spreading all over the clearing in a blood-red aura, momentarily stunning even a seasoned veteran like Sasuke.

​"Oh, such killing intent, how many have you killed?" Sasuke asked, intrigued. He moved his Sharingan to analyze the surging red aura enveloping the boy.

​"You don’t have to know that!!!"

​Hitachi yelled. The colorful spectrum in his Celestial Eyes spun violently, a chaotic maelstrom of emotion. Suddenly, the vibrant colors vanished entirely, consumed and replaced by an endless void of pitch black. From the darkness of his pupils, two stark white circles appeared, spinning steadily clockwise. An evolution triggered by pure, unadulterated trauma.

​"Die!!"

​Hitachi shot forward, the force of his launch destroying the ground beneath him. He was a blur of vengeance, heading toward Sasuke with his absolute maximum force.

​"It seems I have to get serious." Sasuke smiled—a faint, battle-ready smirk. He didn’t draw his sword. He waited, standing perfectly still until Hitachi crossed the ten-meter threshold. Then, his Sharingan morphed into its intricate, bladed pattern.

​"Mangekyou Sharingan, Amaterasu."

​Mirabella watched the black flames of Amaterasu ignite on the screen. Knowing the absolute, inextinguishable nature of the technique, she sat back down heavily on her throne.

​"Ok, Hitachi is dead," she said with a disappointed sigh, preparing to snap her fingers and initiate the Celestial Healing protocol.

​But the very next moment, she froze, her blue eyes widening in utter, stunned speechless disbelief.