Shisui's hand pressed death-tightly upon that ferociously terrifying wound upon his abdomen, the severe pain near-causing him to suffocate.
Fresh blood was gurgling and flowing out through his finger joints, dyeing his shattered garments red.
If the battle were ended, he could accomplish bandaging it himself; this was a basic skill every single ninja knew.
But at this moment, the battle was not yet concluded!
Shisui fiercely bit his teeth, and his palm abruptly burst forth with matchlessly blazing flames!
The flames licked his flesh and skin, emitting a scorched crackle; the severe burning pain instantly covered over the tearing sensation of the wound.
This was using a near-self-mutilating method to forcefully stop the bleeding, merely to exchange for the opportunity to continue standing and continue fighting.
He also heard Minato's words wishing to end it; that voice clearly traveled into his ears.
However...
Like this... is it enough?
Shisui's heart sank downward; relying merely upon this seemingly intense battle, could it cause those fellow clan members eyeing him like tigers looking at prey to believe that he, Shisui, truly had already exerted his full power?
One must know, precisely before this sudden change, between him and Minato, within the view of his fellow clan members, there existed a fairly harmonious relationship.
Could this sudden battle truly thoroughly dispel everyone's misgivings?
He dared not be certain; perhaps at this flash, the clan members would temporarily believe.
But what about subsequent to the matter? When the gunfire and smoke thoroughly disperse, when calmness returns, would those seeds of suspicion once more break through the soil and emerge, growing wildly?
At that time, all effort and all sacrifices could possibly collapse, letting everything return once more to the original point.
This was something Shisui was incapable of accepting.
He thirsted for Konoha and the Uchiha clan to be able to break the hard ice and truly fuse into one single entity, no longer possessing suspicion and estrangement.
Even though today's actions within the clan deeply stabbed and hurt him, at this moment he was also matchlessly clear.
Amidst this chaos and crisis, precisely therein lay a turn of events not met with in a thousand years!
For the sake of grasping this faint yet precious fire of hope, he was willingly content to pay any price, even if it were... burning his own life!
His field of vision became blurry, and it was not merely pain.
That pair of Mangekyō Sharingan hailed as the eyes of the strongest genjutsu was currently enduring a massive burden; boiling-hot fresh blood, like tear stains, continuously slid down from his eye-corners.
In a trance-like flash, the faces of those Uchiha clan members who fell beneath his hands clearly manifested within his mind.
They wordlessly stared at him, their eyes filled with incomprehension, resentment, and accusation, as if wordlessly roaring: "Return my life to me!"
These clan members perhaps in daily life did not have deep acquaintance with him, and perhaps had also once held opinions at variance with him during clan meetings...
But at this moment, the fact that they died because of him was something he also would not go to evade.
His hands were already thoroughly soaked with the fresh blood of his fellow clan members.
No matter how many reasons there were, no matter how helpless it was, this was all a sin he was unable to wash away in this life and must back-bear!
However...
He absolutely did not regret it!
This decisiveness burst forth from the bottom of his heart.
For the sake of the future that must be striven for regarding the village and the Uchiha clan, and also for the sake of offering an apology to those departed fellow clan members who died beneath his hands.
He only had the choice of pouring out everything!
"Ugh-ah!"
A strand of even more wild chakra, accompanied by a low roar, crashed into eruption from Shisui's broken body!
This strand of power far surpassed that of previously, interweaving with the Mangekyō Sharingan's surging pupil power, crazily assembling and climbing!
In a flash, the grand earth trembled!
A green giant shadow even more massive and even more towering than before rose straight up from the ground! Susanoo descended once more!
This time, it was no longer a half-body; its form was even more complete, its massive breastplate split open with an imposing flash, and a fire-red magatama akin to a burning core was dazzlingly beautiful at the position of the chest cavity, radiating a heart-palpitating, destructive energy fluctuation.
The green Susanoo titan stood touching heaven and grounding earth, its existence itself being the materialization of Shisui's will.
He did not speak any more words to Minato.
That burning flame wound, that Mangekyō flowing with blood-tears, as well as that single Susanoo... everything he performed at this moment was his ultimate answer.
Continue fighting!
He wanted to let every single Uchiha clan member present who witnessed all of this, even if possessing doubts in future days, be unable to find a single fraction of a flaw to question that he did not exert his full power!
Minato tightly locked his gaze upon that even more powerful Susanoo ahead, as well as Shisui whose form within it already appeared slightly hunched, admiration tumbling within his eyes.
Shisui's choice caused Minato, this battle-seasoned Fourth Hokage, to also irrepressibly have a strand of respect rise genuinely from the bottom of his heart.
However, Minato clearly saw that wound upon Shisui's body forcefully suppressed by the flames, as well as those two lines of eye-striking blood-tears currently winding and flowing down from Shisui's Mangekyō Sharingan.
This forcefully stimulated, even more powerful Susanoo form—every single fraction of its power was crazily overdrawing the other party's potential.
"The battle must be decided swiftly!" Alarm bells masterfully rang within Minato's heart; this battle must absolutely not be allowed to drag on any longer.
For the sake of Konoha's future, and also for the sake of Shisui's young life, he must rapidly terminate all of this.
Precisely at the flash when Minato made up his mind, that emerald-green Susanoo abruptly underwent a change.
Countless arrows constituted by pure green chakra, bearing a sharp hiss that tore through the air, densely and closely shot out wildly from that red magatama core!
The target pointed straight at Minato below!
The arrows had not yet arrived, yet the destructive energy contained within them had already caused the air to distort and scorch because of it.
Minato's figure abruptly blurred at the original place; near-simultaneously with the arrows leaving the string, he had already relied upon the Flying Thunder God Technique to break away from the original place.
"Boom-boom-boom-boom!!!"
The ear-deafening explosion sounds chained together into a patch of terrifying wave-troughs.
Those arrows that fell empty crashed fiercely into the grand earth, as if meteorites were descending from heaven.
The instant every single arrow contacted the ground, it triggered a violent explosion not inferior to high-tier ninjutsu.
The wild shockwave crazily expanded in a ring shape, rolling up smoke-dust and broken stones that covered the sky and blanketed the earth.
Even if those battle-watching radical faction ninjas had long since retreated to a far place they themselves believed to be safe enough, at this moment they were also thoroughly submerged by this terrifying energy aftermath and sky-filling smoke-dust.
The grand earth violently trembled within its wailing, and the cracked patterns rapidly expanded toward the surroundings like a spiderweb.
Within the smoke-dust, the onlookers who by good fortune were not directly flipped over by the shockwave—all without exception were lost to striking alarm.
They did not have half a fraction of a doubt that if previously when Shisui attacked them he had mobilized this kind of heaven-destroying and earth-extinguishing power, no matter how many people they gathered, beneath that patch of destructive green light-rain, all would instantly transform into fine dust, absolutely lacking half a fraction of life-chance!
"So... previously when attacking us, he basically did not use his full power?"
This thought stabbed fiercely into the mind of every single radical faction ninja.
An difficult-to-describe, complex taste diffused out within their hearts; there was the lingering fear of having survived a disaster, and even more a sense of humiliation from being slighted or even pitied.
They forcefully endured the stinging pain brought by the smoke-dust, opening their eyes perfectly round.
What the majority of people opened was the one-tomoe Sharingan, while a minority of outstanding individuals were two-tomoe.
These Kekkei Genkai endowed them with a visual capability that far surpassed common people.
Penetrating the smoke-dust gaps that had not yet completely dispersed, they could clearly see that shaking-and-appearing-to-fall figure at the core position of Susanoo.
That eye-striking wound upon Shisui's body, as well as that pair of Mangekyō Sharingan which originally ought to be dazzling—at this moment were gurgling and flowing with dark-red fresh blood, dripping down along his cheeks, leaving piercing traces upon the emerald-green Susanoo's body surface.
This scene let them understand that this even more powerful Susanoo form before their eyes was basically not a power Shisui could easily drive and harness.
He was using the tragic price of burning his life and squeezing his potential to barely support up this titan!
Even if in this battle he could miraculously defeat that "Yellow Flash," subsequent to the matter he would also boundingly pay an difficult-to-imagine, heavy price!
Even more so, even if this Susanoo displayed such a causing-people-to-despair destructive power, could it truly defeat that Fourth Hokage Minato who was everywhere-present and impossible-to-capture like a golden flash?
At the start of the battle, they had once believed in the Mangekyō's power without a single fraction of a doubt, absolutely never suspecting that this strand of power was incapable of defeating Minato.
But when Shisui's initial Susanoo was mercilessly smashed to pieces by Minato, that blind confidence had long since collapsed like a reflection of the moon in water.
Suspicion cloaked everyone's heart.
Yet what caused these radical faction ninjas' inner hearts to be most filled with a mixed five-flavors was conversely another thought that could not be brushed away:
Shisui... does he detest us to such an extent, and desire to place us in a dead place to such an extent?
To actually not hesitate to endure such a price just to carry this battle through to the end?
This question carried a sharp stinging sensation, crashing fiercely against their beliefs.
A strand of blankness and shaking quietly manifested upon these faces written full of fury.
Did we... truly do wrong?
The shaking within the inner hearts of the Uchiha radicals had not yet quieted down when at the center of the battlefield, the fierce battle between Shisui and Minato had already climbed to an unprecedentedly blazing peak.
Every single time a golden light representing the "Yellow Flash" suddenly manifested, attempting to utilize the Flying Thunder God Technique to transfer positions or launch a sudden raid, it would be precisely captured by that pair of Mangekyō Sharingan housing a powerful pupil power.
Responding to this instantaneous movement was boundingly a emerald-green light-arrow slicing through the air and emitting a sharp, fierce hiss!
The light-arrow broke through the sky and arrived, pinning with extreme precision upon the spot where Minato intended to land his feet.
Every single time it crashed into the ground, it was like a meteorite landing on earth, triggering an ear-deafening, terrifying explosive roar.
The wild shockwave wrapped with broken stones and earth-waves, crazily tearing the grand earth, leaving behind one after another eye-striking massive deep craters.
This caused Fugaku, who was watching the battle from the side, to have his eye-corners twitch uncontrollably.
Every single explosive roar caused his heart to tighten; watching with open eyes the clan territory area being so devastated, the difficulty and price of post-war reconstruction were simply unable to be estimated.
However, this moment was by no means the time to feel heartache for territory!
Within that pair of Sharingan of his, at this moment was filled with an even deeper worry, locking tightly onto that figure within Susanoo.
This brat Shisui... is staking his life too hard!
Every single time he condensed that destructive light-arrow, it was accompanied by Susanoo's violent energy fluctuation, clearly causing an difficult-to-imagine, heavy load upon his body.
This was completely overdrawing the power of life!
Fugaku's tightly clenched double fists turned slightly white, shouting out for Minato within his inner heart.
Hurry up and end this battle! Do not let Shisui continue burning himself like this anymore!
Minato at the center of the battlefield conversely possessed a mind-lake that was completely clear and transparent, as if isolating the clamor and worry of the outside world.
While moving at high speed and evading those fatal light-arrows, he was by no means blindly yielding.
His spirit was highly concentrated, and the massive chakra inside his body was currently condensing in a profound method... he was performing a critically vital preparation.
Time quietly slid away amidst the thrill-infused offense and defense.
Finally.
A strand of completely distinct power crashed into eruption from within Minato's body!
His temperament underwent a heaven-turning and earth-flipping change.
Orange-red eye shadow manifested at his eye-corners, and that pair of azure, pure eyes at this moment thoroughly transformed into a majestic and mysterious gold, the shape of the pupils also becoming a horizontal pupil just like Mount Myōboku's Toad Sage.
Sage Mode! At this moment, activate!
Senjutsu chakra leaped and danced around his body, bringing a matchless power and perception.
Minato also knew this state of his was unable to be long-sustained; the battle must be decided swiftly!
His sharp golden pupils instantly locked onto that green Susanoo ahead, his right hand fiercely lifting up, five fingers opening out.
In a flash, a heart-palpitating, terrifying chakra fluctuation crazily assembled, rotated, and compressed within his palm!
A sharp energy hissing sound even rang out within the air.
Near-simultaneously in the exact same flash, Shisui inside Susanoo also felt that strand of absolute and irresistible sense of crisis!
The Mangekyō Sharingan rotated at high speed, and a massive amount of chakra was injected without any reservation into Susanoo's core; three massive magatama burning with deep emerald flames condensed and took shape, surrounding each other and radiating a destructive breath.
"Yasaka Magatama!"
The three massive magatama, bearing a hiss that tore through space, crashed fiercely toward Minato!
And at this moment, the technique within Minato's palm had also completed its ultimate form! That was by no means a simple Rasengan, nor was it a Rasenshuriken.
It was a high-speed rotating, edge-extremely-sharp disc of light, the core at the center faintly revealing the spherical structure of the Rasengan, but the form of the entire technique ran closer to a light-wheel that cut all things!
The light at the disc edge was blazing to the point of being near-pure-white, radiating a sharpness sufficient to cut space.
"Sage Art: Wind Release: Spiraling Light Wheel Void Severing Third Style!"
Minato gave a low shout within his heart; this was the form most fitting his own battle style among the advanced Rasengan ninjutsu he had concentratedly developed and fused with Wind Release nature transformation!
His arm fiercely swung out, and that spiraling light wheel harboring senjutsu chakra and ultimate cutting capability boldly met the three massive magatama flying and shooting over!
And they collided together at an extremely rapid speed.
However, the earth-shaking grand explosion within expectations did not happen!
In a spark-and-flint flash, one could only see that strand of spiraling light wheel, with an unimaginable sharpness, cut into the Yasaka Magatama without a single fraction of lag!
It was by no means a frontal collision to destroy it, but was conversely like the sharpest scalpel slicing through thin paper, instantly cutting those three magatama harboring terrifying power apart right through the center wordlessly!
The two halves of the magatama that were cut apart—the massive kinetic energy they harbored did not completely vanish, and their trajectories did not even deviate, still bearing a frightening lingering power.
Smoothly crashing upon the position where Minato was originally located, triggering a violent explosion once more.