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"Have you gone mad?! Do you know how many Mangekyo there are in this clan? Do you even understand what Izanagi is?!"
Momoko stared at Kagaya in utter disbelief. She completely dismissed his words just now as the ravings of a madman.
One didn't need to understand anything else. One only needed to understand Izanagi to clearly grasp just how terrifying a weapon the Mangekyo truly was.
Kagaya simply reply. "Then do you understand me?"
Momoko replied. "I have indeed felt your chakra. I admit you are very strong. One or two Mangekyo might not be your match. But the Mangekyo in this clan number not one or two—they number dozens, even up to a hundred! That is an unstoppable, peerless power!"
"Up to a hundred, huh? That really is a lot."
"Good that you understand. No matter what, you cannot take me away while I possess the Mangekyo."
"No. What I mean is, if it really comes down to slaughtering a hundred Mangekyo... it might take a bit of time."
Kagaya cast a genjutsu to restrain Momoko's movements. Then, he turned around and walked toward the outside.
"Let's go, Yuki. Bring your mother."
Yuki's eyes were filled with hesitation. "Kagaya-san... can we really do this?"
Kagaya walked outside without pausing for a moment.
"I know full well what the Mangekyo is. And I also know what Izanagi is. I am not someone who want to die. So... trust me!"
Yuki hesitated several times. But in the end, she still hoisted the immobilized Momoko onto her back and chased after Kagaya.
Moving by leaping across rooftops was obviously very fast. After a short while, Kagaya and the others arrived before the main gate of the Uchiha clan grounds.
As if waiting to welcome them, the area before the gate was now packed with over a dozen people. Their eyes all gleamed with a piercing crimson—every single one was a Mangekyo!
Kagaya came to a stop. "That gate I didn't blast open last time... seems it'll have to be blasted open this time."
Standing at the very front was a middle-aged man who looked to be around forty. He stepped forward and stared at Kagaya on the rooftop.
"Stranger! The place you stand in now is the Uchiha. Remember that! Stirring up violent winds above our clan grounds as you did earlier was already an act of extreme rudeness. And now, you intend to take a pair of Mangekyo with you as well? Are you provoking the Uchiha?!"
His tone was filled with admonishment, carrying the air of an elder scolding a junior.
Kagaya didn't bother responding to his words. Instead, he asked.
"Um... don't you think there are a bit too many people standing in front of your gate? Would you mind moving aside? I need to leave."
An immense chakra instantly erupted from the middle-aged man's body. "Are you ignoring me, brat?!"
Kagaya spoke flatly. "Although you are indeed older, so calling me 'brat' is fair enough... could you please put away your chakra?"
Kagaya didn't attack immediately. After all, no matter what, he was a member of the Uchiha. No matter how twisted the Uchiha before him might be... it was still the Uchiha.
However, it wasn't that Kagaya wouldn't attack. If the other side didn't move aside, he would still act. The people before him were all Mangekyo wielders. To put it bluntly—even if Kagaya didn't kill them, they would kill each other to death in the not-too-distant future anyway.
If they were civilians, that would be one thing. Kagaya would never harm Uchiha civilians. But this group of Mangekyo wielders before him? Forget it. Their hands had long since been stained with the blood of their own clansmen, who knew how many times over.
The middle-aged man's gaze turned completely cold. The Uchiha had a defining trait—pride. The Uchiha were exceedingly proud. No matter what, this trait never changed. Kagaya's lack of respect clearly infuriated the middle-aged man in an instant.
"Uchiha Osamu! Remember this name—it is the name of the man who will kill you!"
The middle-aged man, Uchiha Osamu, shouted, then immediately vanished from his spot.
Kagaya couldn't even be bothered to move. He reached out and caught the kick coming from the side.
"Trying to compete with me in speed? Are you sure you've picked the right opponent?"
Massive amounts of white steam erupted from Kagaya's hand. Then, with a thunderous boom, Kagaya grabbed the leg and swung Uchiha Osamu away with sheer, brute force.
That single strike even produced a sonic boom!
No holding back!
This strike carried the maximum power Kagaya could unleash with his physical body. Combined with the Five-Tails' power, it could even produce a terrifying effect akin to a miniature Tailed Beast Bomb.
In this world of Naruto—where offense vastly outstripped defense—below the Six Paths, no one could take this attack head-on with their physical body and survive. Except for Hidan and Orochimaru.
Uchiha Osamu, of course, couldn't possibly survive. He knew this too. So—
Golden ribs materialized, blocking the massive fireball from behind. Kagaya turned his head and saw Uchiha Osamu reappearing there. One of the Mangekyo in his eyes had already turned white.
"Izanagi, huh?"
Osamu stared at Kagaya with a face full of ferocity.
"You little brat! You actually forced me to use one of my Mangekyo!!" His voice was brimming with fury.
For someone like Uchiha Osamu—who had fought for half his life and still possessed both Mangekyo—his combat ability was undoubtedly extremely formidable. Moreover, having grown old and shrewd, he understood all too well how precious the Mangekyo was.
Strong as he was, he had never imagined he would lose a Mangekyo in the act of stopping some brat.
He had thought this would just be a formality—a simple appearance. After all, anyone who saw over a dozen Mangekyo would lose their will to fight. There would be no need for battle at all.
That was what Osamu had thought before coming here. What he hadn't expected in the slightest was that this brat before him would react so quickly. That slender arm—it looked like he was just lightly swinging it, but Osamu had felt as if a peerless giant had flung him. His body, still in midair, hadn't even reached the ground before it had begun rapidly fracturing. He had no choice but to use Izanagi immediately.
"All of you, attack together!" Osamu roared.
A young Uchiha clansman, after being injured, might—due to pride—refuse the help of others and insist on a fair, one-on-one victory.
But Osamu was no longer young. Although he still carried the pride of the Uchiha, compared to his life... his life was clearly more important. So Osamu immediately cast aside his pride and called upon the other Uchiha clansmen.
Kagaya turned his head to look at Yuki.
"Come stand by me."
For others, the way to protect the weak was to keep them far away from the battlefield. But for someone with the Susanoo like Kagaya, the best form of protection was to have them stand right beside him—inside the Susanoo.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Over a dozen Mangekyo instantly surrounded Kagaya and the others.
Wave after wave of killing intent swept over them. Kagaya had to admit—these Mangekyo wielders, who had survived endless slaughter, might not have much else, but their presence and battle aura were truly terrifying.
"Since you're ganging up on me... then shouldn't I also fight back with overwhelming force?"
Kagaya smiled. Then, a massive amount of golden chakra began to appear around his ribcage, and the entire ribcage rapidly expanded.
Hands appeared. A head appeared. Flesh appeared. Finally... it donned its armor!
A half-body giant, roughly six meters tall, materialized.
Although Kagaya didn't take these Mangekyo seriously, to avoid any unforeseen circumstances, this time he had armored his Susanoo from the very start.
"What is that?!"
"H-hey, hey... th-this couldn't be—"
"Do you know something? Spit it out!"
"This couldn't be that legendary Susanoo, could it?!"
"Ha?! Are you insane?! That's just a legend!"
The surrounding Mangekyo wielders began discussing the sudden appearance of the golden giant.
Years of slaughter had ingrained in these Mangekyo the instinct to immediately gather intelligence on any unexpected element.
Generally, the opponents these Mangekyo fought were also Mangekyo. So they understood the power of intelligence very well. They placed great importance on information.
"The Susanoo? That legend? It does look somewhat like the descriptions in the legends. But it probably isn't. This golden, humanoid thing... it isn't nearly as large as the legends say."
"As large as the legends say? You mean over a hundred meters? How could something like that possibly exist!"
"Which is why it's a legend!"
"Mm, right. This golden humanoid thing probably isn't the legendary Susanoo."
During this period, although the Uchiha clan had many Mangekyo, the constant slaughter and death among Mangekyo wielders meant that this era—the one most likely to birth an Eternal Mangekyo—had instead produced not a single one.
Every Mangekyo wielder, upon death, had certainly already used up their two Mangekyo, sacrificing them to Izanagi and becoming permanently blind. And no one else would ever give up their perfectly good Mangekyo to transplant a pair of permanently blind ones.
And for an Uchiha who had never birthed the Eternal Mangekyo... the Susanoo was nothing more than a legend.
Although the Mangekyo could also awaken the Susanoo, it required an agonizing price just to attempt it. To the Uchiha of this era... "My Izanagi is invincible. Why the hell would I bother researching something like the Susanoo?"
Perhaps, in the past or the future, when there was no slaughter between Mangekyo and no Izanagi, the Mangekyo-wielding Uchiha clansmen might have had the interest to research the Susanoo.
Kagaya was also stunned to see that these Mangekyo didn't recognize the Susanoo. He had assumed they all possessed it. Now, it seemed they didn't.
But it didn't matter either way. The Mangekyo was still just the Mangekyo. The gap between them and Kagaya was far too vast. Even if every single one of them possessed the Susanoo, the outcome wouldn't change in the slightest.
Forget the Mangekyo—even if an Eternal Mangekyo were born right this very second, it would still be utterly crushed by Kagaya.
Even eyes of the same level had disparities.
Take the Kagaya who had just awakened the Eternal Mangekyo—compared to Madara, who also possessed the Eternal Mangekyo, the gap between them had been enormous.
Moreover, Kagaya wasn't just an Eternal Mangekyo wielder—he was also the Five-Tails Jinchuriki. Looking across the entire history of the shinobi world, below the Six Paths, probably only a full-power Hashirama could restrain Kagaya. Even Madara would have a hell of a time.
A colossal, shattered golden blade materialized in the Susanoo's hand. Then, with a fierce horizontal sweep, it slashed toward the surroundings!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The Mangekyo wielders were all very fast. In an instant, they retreated far beyond the reach of Kagaya's greatsword.
But...
"Ha! As expected! A massive body brings sluggish movement! Although that sword looks intimidating, its swing speed is so slow—who could it possibly hit? Hahaha!"
"H-hey, wait... you—"
"Me? What about me?"
"Your body! Your body! It's split in half!"
"Ugh... aaahhh—"
The Mangekyo wielder whose body had been bisected seemed to have had his nervous system severed as well, so much so that he hadn't even felt any pain at first and was still there mocking Kagaya's Susanoo.
In fact, it wasn't just him. Every single Mangekyo around him was horrified to discover that their upper bodies were beginning to slide downward!
The swing speed of Kagaya's Susanoo wasn't fast. But almost no Susanoo relied on speed to fight. Kagaya's was no exception. His speed was slow... but his sword ignored distance!
Simply retreating backward... was completely useless!
If Kagaya's fully formed Susanoo sword were out right now, these Mangekyo wouldn't have merely been sliced in half—they would have been smashed into meat paste in an instant.
At that moment, crimson lights flickered one after another.
Over a dozen people activating Izanagi simultaneously—to be honest, it was quite a spectacular sight.
"Th-this... what is this?! Cutting down over a dozen Mangekyo in one instant... you..."
Momoko, leaning on Yuki's back, watched everything that had just happened with utter disbelief. The Mangekyo she had feared so deeply... had just been cut down in a single stroke, over a dozen at once?
Yuki was also astonished. But she didn't fully understand the power of the Mangekyo. Throughout her journey with Kagaya, she had only ever seen Mangekyo being crushed. So compared to Momoko, Yuki's shock wasn't nearly as great.
After using Izanagi, those Mangekyo all shifted positions, appearing in Kagaya's blind spots.
That was one of Izanagi's abilities—to erase unfavorable circumstances and create favorable ones.
Clearly, appearing in Kagaya's blind spots was a very favorable circumstance.
Firelight blazed. Dozens of Fire Release techniques of all kinds struck the Susanoo with lightning speed.
And then—
The Susanoo didn't even emit a wisp of smoke.
The level of Susanoo Kagaya had activated now was already fully armored. Its defensive power was extraordinarily high. Ordinary elemental ninjutsu could forget about breaking through this level of defense.
It would require at least the destructive power of Tsunade's monstrous strength to have even a faint chance of leaving cracks on this golden giant.
Yes—only cracks. Even Tsunade couldn't break through an armored Susanoo.
Among the Five Kage of later generations, probably only Ohnoki's Dust Release had the power to breach this golden giant's defense.
The Susanoo raised its sword and swept horizontally once more.
Although this strike still wasn't fast, those Mangekyo wielders still failed to dodge it!
They didn't understand the special properties of Kagaya's greatsword. It was purely a disadvantage in intelligence.
Compared to last time, they had merely retreated with even greater effort. But that was useless. Kagaya's sword ignored distance. To avoid the blade's slash, one either had to stay out of Kagaya's field of vision entirely, or, at the very moment the sword was swung, time it precisely and evade the direction of the slash.
Kagaya closed his eyes. The golden greatsword vanished.
"It's over."
Crimson lights flickered.
These Mangekyo all activated their second Izanagi. That meant—from this moment on—they had all lost their Mangekyo and become blind men with roughly Jonin-level strength.
To Kagaya, opponents of this level were no different from ordinary people. Even Yuki might be able to beat down a few of them, let alone Kagaya.
The whole process ended very quickly. But that was just how it was—to the current Kagaya, the Mangekyo was truly very weak.
Let alone these trash Mangekyo who only knew how to use Izanagi. Even the finest Mangekyo of later generations—Itachi—if he came personally, and Kagaya got serious, he could still be dealt with quickly.
The golden giant vanished. The surrounding clamor seemed to vanish along with it. The entire area fell silent. No one dared to say a word.
What had just been displayed... was already beyond the comprehension of the Uchiha clansmen.