Chapter 404: Love and Hate
"Satsuki! Stop—!"
Shisui's shout was drowned in the roar of chakra. He looked at that purple Susanoo rising from the ground, his heart shaking violently.
Satsuki had also awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan?! She could directly summon Susanoo... This meant her ocular power was far from newly awakened—she'd opened her eyes much earlier, and now was merely awakening the most sublime power within her pupils through hatred.
Not awakened through hate.
Losing control through hate.
BOOM—!!!
The purple skeletal claw grabbed toward the ashen-faced Uchiha Yuu with crushing killing intent!
"Stop—!!!"
Shisui's Mangekyo pattern spun madly! A red half-body giant rose from behind him. The red Susanoo's iron fist fiercely collided with the purple skeletal claw!
BANG—!!!
The instant the two massive forces collided, the shockwave exploded like a tsunami! The stone chamber's walls completely disintegrated with wails, the ceiling turning into a storm of rubble pouring down—the entire room was collapsing!
"I need to transfer everyone!!"
Naruto's hands formed seals rapidly! Multiple shadow clones flashed into existence among the falling stones, precisely grabbing Fugaku, Mikoto, Yuu, Shisui, and Satsuki's main body.
Flying Thunder God Technique: Mass Teleportation!
In the flash of golden light, space twisted.
The next instant, everyone—including the two still-struggling Susanoo—was already in an extremely spacious underground plaza.
This was Ember organization's underground training ground. The dome soared like an underground cavern, the floor paved with hard black stone capable of withstanding Kage-level battles.
"What happened?! Enemy attack?!"
"This ocular power fluctuation... is that Shisui-sama?!"
"Quick, notify Kakuzu-sama and Kisame-sama—!"
The surrounding Ember organization ANBU members training at midnight or passing through—many of whom were the Uchiha clan members rescued back then—all stopped, shocked as they watched the two towering energy giants in the center.
"Shisui-sama... who is he fighting?! That's also Mangekyo Sharingan?!"
Satsuki couldn't hear any of these voices at all. Her world contained only blood-red, and at the center of that crimson, the trembling figure with closed eyes.
If among these so-called "resurrected" clan members... there were also hawks who'd planned to use her to harm Naruto back then—
Then crush them all together.
Her killing intent spread like substance. The purple Susanoo under her will's control let out the harsh crackling of grinding bones, the force on its claw increasing by three measures!
Naruto stood in place, face pale beneath his mask.
He was the one who told Satsuki the truth. And now, was he also the one who had to stop her revenge?
The truth had cut open Satsuki's ten-year-old wound, and now he had to personally press down on her bleeding hand—what kind of thing was this? But he couldn't watch her fall completely into the abyss of hatred. Even if it meant bearing the name of selfishness.
At this moment, Shisui was shouting something loudly toward Satsuki.
"Wait!! I know you hate Yuu for hurting your most important person—but the source of all this was me! I acted on my own, I forced the responsibility on her! I'm the real culprit—!!"
Shisui's Susanoo's arms held the purple skeletal claw in a death grip.
"Please! I know I have no right to make excuses—but don't kill her!! I'll spend my whole life watching over her! I absolutely won't let her step one foot outside the organization—!!"
His voice carried almost a pleading tone. Growing up together, to now ten years of close companionship—despite disappointment, despite pain, he couldn't watch Yuu die at Satsuki's hands.
"Get out of my way—!!"
Satsuki's purple Susanoo suddenly exerted force, actually pushing the red giant back several meters, the black stone floor plowed into two deep grooves!
The next moment—the Mangekyo pattern in her eyes suddenly accelerated its rotation, some eerie ocular power fluctuation silently rippling outward.
Shisui had been about to make his Susanoo grow armor to shake off the restraint, but his movements froze without warning at this moment.
In others' eyes, he seemed to have suddenly lost all fighting spirit, standing there dazed, watching helplessly as the purple Susanoo's skeleton began madly growing flesh and armor—
Whoosh—!
Black flames ignited from the void without warning, instantly wrapping around the red Susanoo's arm!
"This is... Amaterasu?!"
Shisui seemed to snap back to awareness, but Shisui wouldn't lose focus mid-battle. That instant of hesitation was absolutely abnormal, yet Shisui now seemed completely unaware of the anomaly just now!
On the sidelines, Naruto's brow furrowed beneath his mask.
Mangekyo abilities reflected the awakener's obsession—Shisui wanted to stop rebellion, so he awakened Kotoamatsukami which could modify others' will. Obito couldn't accept Rin's death, so he awakened Kamui which escaped reality.
But Satsuki's Mangekyo... awakened through love for him.
Why would she awaken Amaterasu, which symbolized "destruction"?
The answer was revealed in the next second—Shisui's red Susanoo began to disintegrate.
Not defeated, but as if its power had been drained, crumbling from the fingertips, fading, vanishing. Shisui's face turned deathly pale. He tried to re-condense his ocular power, only to discover with horror—
"What's happening... my ocular power... disappeared?!"
The Mangekyo pattern in his eyes actually receded like a tide, returning to ordinary black pupils. The Sharingan as if it had never existed. Simultaneously, the Amaterasu black flames wrapped around his arm also quietly extinguished.
BANG—!!!
The purple Susanoo's massive arm slammed down. Shisui, having lost his Susanoo, was violently sent flying by the tremendous force, crashing to the ground. His back struck the black stone floor with a cracking bone sound.
"Ugh—!"
A mouthful of fresh blood choked from his throat.
"Shisui!!"
Though Uchiha Yuu couldn't see, the air's movement, the chakra's chaos, Shisui's pained voice—all the clues instantly assembled a cruel picture in her mind.
She staggered toward the sound's source, footsteps unsteady, hands frantically groping in the air.
She'd been prepared to die.
Everything about her had been denied—her shinobi way, her choices, even that twisted "protection" had all been torn apart by the only sister she wanted to protect. Then, using this life to calm Satsuki's hatred was perhaps her only remaining value.
But when the sound of Shisui falling came, when she heard him take all the guilt upon himself, roaring his pleas—
A fear colder than death pierced through her heart.
She stumbled to Shisui's side, her fingers trembling violently when they touched his blood-stained clothing.
"I... I understand now..."
Yuu's voice was steeped in sobbing with every word. "I'm sorry... I know I really did wrong... If you want to kill me... I won't resist..."
She raised her empty eye sockets toward the purple Susanoo's direction, toward the center of that surging killing intent. "Back then... it was me who twisted Shisui's will... Shisui isn't the culprit..."
"Everything—was all my decision alone!! Don't hurt Shisui...!"
This was the first time in Satsuki's memory that Uchiha Itachi had pleaded with her.
But this "bowing her head" only made her feel deeper irony and coldness. "That's right..."
Satsuki's voice came from the Susanoo's core. "Back then... I pleaded with you the same way."
Before her eyes appeared that night again—herself crying as she begged Itachi, shouting "trade my life for Naruto's life."
"But you still put the blade through his body."
Each word made the purple Susanoo's killing intent condense one measure more.
On the sidelines, after witnessing Satsuki's Mangekyo ability, Naruto decided to stop Satsuki now.
Even if afterward she would blame him, question him "why won't you even let me complete my revenge"—he still had to stop her.
He'd already made Satsuki bear too many truths she shouldn't have had to carry because of his concealment. If he now watched helplessly as she struck down her own blood relative...
Aunt Mikoto's heart would break.
And Satsuki—after "revenge," she would forever be trapped in the nightmare of "kinslaying." ( bruhhhhhh...)
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