"Did he actually recover?"

On the sidelines, watching everything unfold, Uchiha Yao's expression twitched when he saw the girl he had controlled actually being brought back to her senses by Uchiha Gin. He let out a surprised little sound.

This turn of events was completely unexpected. His plan to use the girl as the weapon to destroy the Uchiha clan was, for now, ruined.

"But I still have a backup plan."

His withered eyes swept across Gin's face. A trace of struggle flickered, but only for a few seconds. Soon his eyes darkened, like ink, into lifeless pits.

Yao's eye pattern shifted, and from Gin's shadow behind him, a blob of blackness detached itself, crawling toward the Kaguya clan's side.

Kaguya Cangjie, having regained his freedom, now eyed the two young Uchiha warily.

The situation was already lost. So much time had passed that Uchiha Tajima must have realized their diversion. The only option left was to run while these two kids were distracted.

"Where are you trying to go, Cangjie-dono?"

A ghostly voice whispered in his ear. He instinctively turned to look, but no stranger was visible.

Then, to his horror, his own shadow stretched and grew a black human face.

That face grinned grotesquely and melted into Cangjie's body. The familiar sense of being controlled surged back into his mind.

"Hahahaha, Uchiha brats, have you thought of your last words?"

A roar shattered the tense silence. Cangjie's eyes now glowed with madness as he let out a cruel laugh. His hands sprouted two massive bone blades and he charged straight at them.

Gin's brow furrowed. He still held the weakened girl in his arms. After forcing himself free of the Eight Thousand Spears before, his eyesight was near gone, and even summoning the last bits of his chakra made him feel faint.

Still, he gritted his teeth, scooped up the girl, and flashed aside to evade Cangjie's attack.

"Is dodging all you can do, boy?!"

Cangjie taunted, eyes wild. Gin didn't dignify him with a reply — he simply activated his right Mangekyō.

Cangjie felt the lock-on and jerked sideways just in time to keep the jet-black flames from landing on his chest. Instead, the black fire latched onto his right arm.

Having already witnessed this ability, he didn't hesitate to swing his bone blade and sever his own arm, letting the fire devour it into ash.

Cutting off your own arm without blinking? Was every brawler this fierce?

Gin knew this wasn't good. He was running dangerously low on chakra already.

He set the girl down gently and drew the sword he hadn't touched in a long time, holding it before him. His Sharingan swirled with three tomoe.

Time to show how an Uchiha really fights.

"Dance of the Camellia."

Seeing Gin actually stepping forward, Cangjie sneered and rushed him, his single hand brandishing bone blades.

The three-tomoe Sharingan was far less taxing than the Mangekyō. Its insight was still sharp, allowing Gin to predict and parry Cangjie's furious barrage.

Cangjie's eyes narrowed when he saw his strikes deflected. He discarded his bone blades and dove into close-quarters combat.

"Dance of the Larch."

He turned himself into a spiked ball and charged. Gin misjudged slightly and got cut, his body blossoming with thin lines of blood, unable to dodge them all.

As the two clashed back and forth, Uchiha Yao sensed Tajima and Yan rushing back at full speed. His lips curled in a cruel smile.

"They're finally here. Time to let them feel my pain."

With a surge of black energy in his eyes, Cangjie froze mid-charge and abruptly stopped attacking.

Gin squinted in confusion, wary of what came next.

Then he saw the crazed grin on Cangjie's square-jawed face as the man slammed his palms into the ground.

Feeling the surge of chakra beneath him, Gin realized immediately: an area-of-effect jutsu. He dashed to the girl's side to grab her and flee.

But when he scooped her up and looked, his heart sank.

His aunt and the three children were lying unconscious just behind Cangjie, right where the technique would strike. He and they were too far apart.

Carrying the girl, Gin pushed himself to his limit, streaking toward them, but he was still too late.

"Dance of the Early Fern."

A field of white bone trees erupted across a kilometer radius, swallowing his aunt and the children in its cruel embrace.

"No!!"

Gin's anguished roar filled the air.

"Nooooo!!!"

From a distance, Tajima's voice bellowed too, as he finally arrived just in time to see his wife and children impaled in the bone forest.

Gin tore through the deadly thicket, his hands bloody from snapping bones as he desperately reached the bodies. Tajima was right behind him, just as frantic.

But their hopes were crushed.

The once-gentle woman lay lifeless, skewered through her frail body. The children too were limp, struck down by those merciless spines.

"Aaaaahhhhhhh!!!"

Tajima's scream of grief split the night. His whole world collapsed.

The pain in his heart sent a rush of icy chakra flooding his brain. His Sharingan spun, the three tomoe whirling faster and faster.

This can't be real.

He tried to hypnotize himself, to erase this moment from his mind. He wished it were daytime, full of light to drive away the darkness.

But the anguish only deepened, and his Sharingan evolved. The tomoe fused together, forming a windmill-shaped pattern.

"Hahahaha! Finally you know what it's like to lose everything you love!"

Yao clutched his jar and howled with laughter, his tears streaming.

"Wangliang. Kill Uchiha Tajima."

He wiped his face and issued his cold command.

Still controlled by Wangliang, Cangjie obeyed without hesitation. He formed another bone spear and advanced on the stunned Tajima.

"Watch out, clan head!"

A flurry of kunai whistled through the air, forcing Cangjie back. Panting, Uchiha Yan finally arrived. When his eyes took in the scene, he too gasped.

Seeing Tajima's wife on the ground, the child he'd watched grow up now gone, Yan's aged eyes blazed with hatred.

But before he could act, Gin silently lifted his head. His own Sharingan now showed a lone black dot spinning madly.

Amaterasu.

A huge jet of black flames engulfed Cangjie.

Wangliang, however, was prepared. Controlling Cangjie, he wrapped himself in bone armor and shed his outer layer to escape the lethal blaze.

"Wangliang. Come back."

Seeing Gin regaining his senses and Yan on the scene, Yao decided he'd achieved his goal and called his shadow back.

"What… what the hell just happened?"

Cangjie stared at his severed arm and the eerie bone forest, completely lost.

A cold voice answered him as a red moon rose above.

"Tsukuyomi."

(End of Chapter)

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