"The seal..."
Hikari Uchiha never imagined she would return to the place that had imprisoned her.
Centuries had passed, yet the site looked much the same as it always had.
"Is it... in there?"
The Sharingan couldn't see through solid rock, but now that she knew something terrible was sealed within the mountain, that was enough.
What she hadn't expected was this: the moment she arrived, a cold had seeped into her bones—not the cold of weather, but something else entirely.
The space around her radiated a chilling dread.
Like someone had left a freezer door cracked open. Through that gap, cold air bled steadily out.
"Is this it?"
She swallowed.
Tense.
But.
"No—it's fine. Even if I can't win. Even if I die. The problem still gets solved."
Death. A word that felt somehow distant, and yet very close.
In the Warring States era, death had been a constant companion.
Strange, then, that since arriving in this era she hadn't felt that same dread.
The comfortable life here had made her afraid in a different way.
Afraid that none of it was real. That it was all a dying hallucination, vivid and false.
"So... this is fine."
She pressed forward and found a concealed passage.
"This way? Ugh... it's freezing."
Stepping inside, she found herself in a world locked in ice.
Something was in here.
Something was waiting at the other end of the passage.
Hikari felt her way forward through the dark.
And then—every hair on her body stood on end.
Danger. Danger. Danger.
Going to die. Going to die. Going to die.
Her Sharingan snapped open.
Those eyes caught an ice-blue silhouette.
But beyond that, she couldn't do anything. The figure's techniques and movements were impossible to replicate—copying that form would tear her muscles apart; her body simply wasn't built for it.
"You're the one, aren't you? Jashin!"
Her body was in perfect condition right now. No need to hold anything back.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Chant!"
Dragon Flame Chant—chakra compressed to its limit inside the body and released as a fire dragon. One of the most destructive Fire Style techniques in existence.
And this place was a narrow passage with no room to dodge.
In other words—the advantage was hers.
Crimson flames lit up the entire tunnel, and in that light Hikari finally got a clear look at her enemy.
A humanoid figure formed of ice crystals—its body layered in crystalline growth that obscured every feature. And from it radiated something that made her stomach drop. A terrible wrongness she'd never felt on even the bloodiest Warring States battlefield.
"What?!"
The fire had no effect.
An ice storm whipped up around the figure and snuffed out her flames entirely.
"How—!"
Even Hikari could see: the ice storm didn't have much raw power behind it. It had simply read the trajectory of her fire ninjutsu and used it against itself—a feather redirecting a boulder, extinguishing her fire with four ounces against ten thousand.
Like standing at the edge of a cliff, and someone had merely brushed her elbow as she was already falling.
This was an absolute gap in combat experience.
Amaterasu!
Black flames bloomed before her.
A dōjutsu of the Sharingan—summoning undying black fire that consumed everything it touched.
True, in this world's peculiar framework, these flames could still be suppressed by sealing jutsu.
But against flames that could not be extinguished, the puppet couldn't attack without burning itself—could it?
"What?!"
The black fire didn't work either.
The ice-crystal puppet charged straight through Amaterasu.
The ice crystal layers coating it shattered one by one—and the Amaterasu clinging to them shattered with them. Layer by layer. Shed like a skin.
It had tanked Amaterasu at minimal cost.
If jutsu were useless, then taijutsu.
"Ha!"
But that failed too.
The figure's biggest threat in close range was that massive ice blade—locking it down first was the logical move.
Her gamble didn't pay off.
Hikari's strike shattered the ice sword in an instant, but that was the trap. The sword was nothing but a decoy. The wild over-commitment that followed left her locked rigid for a split second, every guard open.
The ice-crystal puppet poured into that gap—a taijutsu combination, precise and merciless—and launched Hikari backward.
"Ugh..."
Ribs broken. Her arms and legs were likely dislocated.
The puppet's chakra wasn't particularly strong. But its technique was terrifying. Not a drop of waste. Not a single unnecessary motion.
"So... it looks like this is where I die."
"But that's fine."
"At least then I won't have to keep agonizing over everything..."
And Hanabi wouldn't be hurt because of her anymore.
So this was fine.
"No, it isn't."
A streak of red sliced down the passage at blinding speed.
The Jingliu Puppet released Hikari at once. An ice blade materialized in its grip—and caught the incoming strike.
But then the red umbrella snapped open, and dozens of senbon erupted from inside in a fan with no blind spots.
Yet from the puppet's body, ice spikes erupted in the same instant—one for one—intercepting every senbon simultaneously.
And the umbrella itself—the ice-crystal puppet snatched it cleanly out of the air.
"I'm sorry—but this time, the real attack is this—"
Crack.
The umbrella burst apart and became Hanabi.
She was already in Red Attire Mode—the layered kimono gone, replaced by a sleek off-shoulder combat outfit.
Explosive tags slapped onto the ice-crystal puppet's body. Then Zhuixia caught on behind her and yanked her back at speed. She caught Hikari as she went and broke free from the tunnel.
"Ninja Art: Multiplying Explosive Tags!"
The tags stuck to the puppet were no ordinary explosive tags—they were Hanabi's multiplying variant. The first time they'd been used in actual combat, drawn from the Scroll of Seals' forbidden techniques.
A chain of explosions collapsed the passage.
"Hanabi..."
Hikari looked up.
Double blades in hand, a fox mask over her face—this Hanabi looked nothing like the person she knew.
"Don't talk."
Hanabi had Zhuixia wrap around Hikari at once.
[Safeguard Life] activated once more.
"Why..." Hikari stared at Hanabi. "Why do you keep coming to save me...?"
"Because we're friends," Hanabi said.
"You're going to die because of this, aren't you! I heard everything—that curse on you. It's on me too. If I die—if I just die—"
"Don't say that."
None of Hanabi's usual lightness remained.
The moment Hikari had broken from her script and acted alone, Hanabi finally understood: for a true Uchiha, feelings carried enormous weight.
She'd made this mess herself. She had to be the one to finish it.
And the fight wasn't over.
An enormous crystal spike punched through the collapsed tunnel rubble. Then the Jingliu Puppet emerged once more.
"This time... this one's going to be a little tricky."