Chapter 367: Hikari's Battle, the Power of the Mangekyō Revealed! Their Relationship Takes Another Step Forward [HN]

Kusagakure was less a shinobi village and more a ruin shrouded in an ominous atmosphere.

Most of the buildings that had once been relatively intact had collapsed, and a thick darkness that seemed capable of swallowing light filled the spaces between broken beams and shattered rubble.

There were no bird calls or insect sounds in the air.

Only faint wails and whispers that seemed to come from the depths of an abyss occasionally entered their ears, stirring the deepest fears and malice within their hearts.

Chiya and Uchiha Hikari appeared at the top of the tallest watchtower at the entrance of the village.

Chiya’s Rinnegan swept indifferently across the ghostly scene below, and his brows furrowed slightly.

The concentration of negative spiritual energy here was far beyond his expectations.

It was even interfering with his ability to clearly sense Natural Energy.

“Th… this feeling is terrifying.”

Hikari stood beside him and could not help tightening her grip around the kunai in her hand.

She was not afraid of battle.

It was this darkness that seemed to be everywhere and capable of corrupting the mind that instinctively made her feel repulsed and uncomfortable.

However, when she glanced at Chiya’s tall figure standing beside her like a mountain, her uneasiness strangely subsided.

She had insisted on coming with him.

She could not retreat.

“Stay close to me.”

Chiya’s voice was not loud, but it carried an unquestionable force.

“The Box of Ultimate Bliss is eroding reality. Its core is in the shrine at the center of the village.”

The two figures moved like lightning.

After several leaps, they crossed the silent streets and rushed toward the central area.

The closer they got to the center, the denser the dark chakra became.

It had even formed visible streams of energy that looked like black mist.

However, when they arrived at the ancient shrine covered in strange runes, what they saw was a scene that made their hearts tremble.

The shrine’s main doors were wide open.

Inside was not a hall dedicated to gods or Buddha.

Instead, there was a constantly rotating and bottomless black vortex.

At the center of the vortex floated a simple cube covered with countless distorted human faces.

It was the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

At the edge of the vortex stood a man wearing the uniform of a Kusagakure Jonin.

His expression was twisted and insane.

It was Mui.

He pressed both hands firmly against the surface of the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

His eyes were filled with bloodshot veins and extreme greed as he crazily muttered, “Power… fulfill my wish… rule the Shinobi World… Hahahaha! Uchiha Chiya? The strongest in the Shinobi World? So what if you came! Before the power of the Box of Ultimate Bliss, everything is meaningless!”

He had already sensed Chiya’s arrival.

However, instead of stopping, he seemed to have been stimulated and injected his chakra into the box even more frantically.

“Idiot.”

Chiya’s eyes turned cold.

He raised his hand and released an extremely concentrated chakra shockwave, attempting to interrupt Mui’s suicidal act.

But it was too late.

Just as the chakra shockwave was about to hit Mui, the Box of Ultimate Bliss suddenly erupted with extreme darkness that swallowed all light.

Countless black energy tendrils shot out from the box and instantly wrapped around Mui, who was standing nearby.

“My wish!!!”

Mui let out a shriek that no longer sounded human.

His body visibly withered and shrank at an astonishing speed.

All his flesh, chakra, and even his soul were greedily devoured and dragged away by the dark tendrils, eventually disappearing completely into the vortex of the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

After devouring Mui, the light of the Box of Ultimate Bliss did not disappear.

Instead, it began to tremble violently.

The black vortex suddenly expanded, producing a terrifying suction force that could not be resisted.

Its target was not Chiya.

It was Uchiha Hikari beside him.

“What?!”

Hikari’s expression changed drastically.

She felt as though the space around her had been completely locked down.

The powerful suction made it impossible for her to stabilize herself, and her entire body was pulled uncontrollably toward the black vortex.

“Hikari!”

Chiya reacted extremely quickly and instantly reached out to grab Hikari’s wrist.

But the suction force was far stronger than he had expected.

Even he felt a tremendous force pulling at him, dragging both of them toward the center of the vortex.

A sharp light flashed through Chiya’s eyes as the power of his Rinnegan erupted.

“Almighty Push!”

A powerful repulsive force suddenly spread outward from him, attempting to counter the dark suction.

The repulsive force and suction force collided violently, producing a grating sound as the energy tore against itself.

The ruins surrounding the shrine were instantly reduced to dust under the pressure of the two forces.

Taking advantage of this brief stalemate, Chiya suddenly exerted force and threw Hikari toward the direction away from the vortex.

“Get out!”

Hikari only felt a gentle yet irresistible force wrap around her.

The scene before her rapidly receded, and she was instantly thrown out of the shrine and landed heavily in the clearing some distance away.

When she turned around, her heart nearly stopped.

At the instant she was thrown out, the Box of Ultimate Bliss seemed to become enraged after losing its main target.

The black vortex suddenly contracted and swallowed the nearest person, Chiya, together with the box itself.

Then the vortex and the Box of Ultimate Bliss disappeared from the area.

Only an empty shrine foundation covered in cracks remained.

“Chiya!!!”

Hikari cried out in shock and rushed toward the ruins of the shrine without hesitation.

However, there was nothing there except the remaining dark chakra that made her feel sick.

Just as she was extremely anxious and almost losing her reason, the space ahead suddenly twisted.

“Vmmm…”

The Box of Ultimate Bliss appeared out of nowhere once again.

The human faces carved into its surface had become even more twisted and painful.

The lid made a click and opened a narrow gap on its own.

Darkness as dense as a solid substance poured out from within and rapidly gathered and transformed.

The first thing to appear was Mui’s body.

His eyes were empty, and his body was completely rigid.

But immediately afterward, his body twisted and expanded as though it were melting.

His skin turned black.

His back suddenly split open, and enormous batlike wings emerged.

His head twisted and transformed.

He became a terrifying face with only a gigantic single eye and a mouth split all the way to his ears.

The legendary monster, Satori, was born.

It floated in midair.

Its enormous single eye swept across the surroundings as it released a hoarse and chaotic roar.

“Malice… fear… despair… delicious… where are they?”

Its perception instantly spread outward and covered the entire ruins of Kusagakure.

However, when its perception swept over Hikari’s location, it suddenly stopped.

A trace of confusion flashed through its single eye.

“You… don’t have any malice? No… there is some. Very faint… but it isn’t directed at me… Is it worry? Longing? What a… strange and unpleasant smell!”

Satori seemed unable to absorb the malice it relied on for sustenance from Hikari.

This made it irritated.

What made it even more uneasy was that it could not sense the existence of the terrifying man who had forced it out of the box.

It was as if he had completely disappeared.

This unknown situation and loss of control caused all of its irritation and rage to instantly pour onto the strange smelling girl before it.

“Forget it! I’ll tear you apart first!”

Satori released a sharp roar.

Its enormous wings flapped, and its body transformed into a black bolt of lightning.

Its claws tore through the air with a sharp whistle as they shot straight toward Uchiha Hikari’s face.

It was astonishingly fast.

“So fast!”

Hikari’s pupils contracted.

Her Three Tomoe Sharingan instantly opened to its limit.

She barely tilted her head and avoided the claws, but the fierce pressure of the wind still cut a line of blood across her cheek.

“Amaterasu!”

She did not hesitate.

The pattern in her eyes changed as her Mangekyō ability activated.

Black flames that would never extinguish instantly ignited across Satori’s chest.

However, Satori only lowered its head and glanced at the burning black flames before letting out a disdainful laugh.

“Physical flames? How ridiculous!”

The dark chakra around the area burned by the black flames began to move.

The Amaterasu flames, which were said to burn everything, actually faded and extinguished as if an invisible hand had wiped them away.

“What?!”

Hikari was deeply shocked.

Amaterasu was actually ineffective.

“Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu!”

She quickly changed her technique.

After forming the hand seals, countless flames shot toward Satori.

Satori did not dodge.

The flames passed through its body as though they had struck an illusion.

They only caused a ripple before disappearing without leaving any real damage.

“Useless! Useless!”

Satori laughed wildly.

Its claws swung out again, this time aiming directly for Hikari’s throat.

“I am an aggregation of negative consciousness. Pure physical and energy attacks are useless against me! Feel despair!”

Sharp claw shadows descended over her.

Relying on the perception of her Sharingan and her agile movements, Hikari continuously dodged.

But Satori’s attacks became increasingly violent, and its speed continued to increase.

The surrounding buildings were easily torn apart by its claws and wings.

Hikari’s available space continued to shrink, and danger surrounded her from every direction.

When she failed to dodge in time, the clothing around her shoulder was torn apart, leaving several wounds deep enough to expose the bone.

Blood instantly stained her sleeve red.

“Damn it…”

Hikari gritted her teeth.

The intense pain and her opponent’s strange immunity placed unprecedented pressure on her.

Almost all of her conventional methods were ineffective.

At this critical moment, an extremely calm voice seemed to echo directly in the depths of her mind.

“Hikari, stay calm. It is immune to attacks against its form, not its spirit.”

It was Chiya’s voice.

He was fine?

Hikari’s spirit immediately lifted.

“Your Mangekyō has more abilities than destruction. What is the essence of Yachimata? It is connection. It is a mark. Use your ocular power to connect with it and mark its core instead of attacking its outer form!”

Chiya’s words instantly cleared the confusion and panic from Hikari’s mind.

Yes.

The true power of her Mangekyō Sharingan’s Yachimata was not direct destructive power.

It was the ability to establish a spiritual connection, share and even control chakra and senses, and leave an indelible mark.

Engraved Tsukuyomi could go even further.

Based on the connection, it could forcibly drag the opponent’s spirit into a Tsukuyomi space woven by her, where the perception of time was stretched infinitely, and leave an eternal mark.

This monster was an aggregation of negative consciousness.

Its core was that chaotic and enormous dark consciousness.

Once she understood this, Hikari’s eyes instantly became extremely sharp and determined.

She no longer tried to dodge Satori’s attack.

Instead, she faced the claws tearing toward her and suddenly raised her head.

The Mangekyō patterns in both her eyes began rotating at an unprecedented speed, becoming increasingly complex and sinister.

“Yachimata, Connection Mark!”

An invisible spiritual force that surpassed physical boundaries instantly crossed the distance like the strongest thread and forcibly established a connection with Satori’s chaotic and violent dark consciousness.

“Ughhh?! What is this?!”

Satori’s forward momentum suddenly stopped.

For the first time, shock appeared in its enormous single eye.

It felt an unfamiliar and irresistible force violently invading the core of its consciousness and attempting to leave some kind of mark.

It struggled frantically.

Its dark chakra boiled violently as it attempted to sever the connection.

But once Yachimata established a connection, breaking free was extremely difficult.

Hikari endured the intense pain caused by the violent impact of Satori’s consciousness on her spiritual power.

The Mangekyō pattern in her left eye changed once again, and her ocular power poured out like a tide.

“Engraved Tsukuyomi, Eternal Exile Court!”

Satori suddenly saw the world before its eyes change.

It was no longer the ruined Kusagakure.

Instead, it found itself inside an infinitely vast and strange space constructed from countless enormous mirrors.

Every mirror reflected its own twisted and terrifying figure.

They also reflected Uchiha Hikari standing before it with eyes as cold as a god’s.

“Where… is this?! Let me out!”

Satori frantically attacked the surrounding mirrors.

But whenever a mirror shattered, it instantly recovered.

There were endless mirrors.

Hikari simply stood there and coldly watched it.

The passage of time here had become meaningless.

In the real world, Satori remained suspended in midair.

Its body had become completely rigid.

The light in its enormous single eye had disappeared, leaving it empty and lifeless.

Only occasional slight twitches showed that its consciousness was trapped and being tormented within the endless Tsukuyomi space.

Hikari breathed slightly heavily.

Her face was somewhat pale.

Continuously using such powerful Mangekyō ocular power placed a considerable burden on her.

But as she looked at Satori, which had been completely subdued, her eyes were filled with relief and a trace of pride.

She had done it.

Using her own strength, she had subdued this terrifying monster that was immune to conventional attacks.

At that moment, the space beside her rippled.

Uchiha Chiya’s figure slowly emerged.

His body was completely spotless, as if being swallowed by the Box of Ultimate Bliss had merely been an illusion.

He glanced at Satori, which had been immobilized by Engraved Tsukuyomi.

His gaze then fell upon Hikari’s bloodstained shoulder and slightly pale face.

A trace of an extremely difficult to detect emotion flashed through his deep eyes.

It seemed to be approval.

Or perhaps… something else.

“Well done, Hikari.”

His voice remained calm, but there was a trace of warmth that was almost impossible to notice.

Hikari raised her head and met his gaze.

Her cheeks became slightly warm.

But this time, she did not avoid his eyes.

After experiencing a life and death crisis and the sense of accomplishment that came from successfully protecting herself, some of the barriers within her heart seemed to quietly collapse.

She no longer wanted to run away.

“Chiya, what should we do with it now?”

Hikari asked softly as she turned her gaze toward the floating monster.

Chiya looked at Satori and the Box of Ultimate Bliss behind it, which had once again become quiet but continued to emit an ominous aura.

A cold light flashed through his Rinnegan.

“The Box of Ultimate Bliss… Satori… I’ll accept this gift.”