Chapter 73: The Price of a Retreat
Watching his clansmen form a suicidal rearguard, a sacrifice to ensure his escape, Uchiha Madara felt something hot and unfamiliar streak down his face. Tears. For the first time in front of his subordinates, he wept, not from weakness, but from the overwhelming weight of their loyalty and the searing pain of his own powerlessness.
"Elder Raizen! All of you! You must come back alive!" he screamed, his voice raw with a mixture of grief and fury. Then, he turned, and with Uchiha Senna and Yana, he fled into the forest, pushing his speed to its absolute limit.
Behind them, the thunderous booms of explosive tags and the concussive blasts of high-level ninjutsu echoed through the night. Each explosion was a hammer blow to Madara's heart, a stark announcement that another of his clansmen had fallen. Fueled by this torrent of rage and loss, a searing pain erupted behind his eyes. When his vision cleared, the world was sharper, more defined. The tomoe in one of his Sharingan had morphed, twisting into a new, unique pattern. The Mangekyō Sharingan had awoken.
Back in the clearing, Senju Butsuma was no longer pressing a relentless attack. He was methodically, almost casually, deflecting and dismantling Uchiha Raizen's inorganic assaults with powerful, wide-area ninjutsu.
Something's wrong, Raizen thought, his Sage-enhanced perception screaming at him. He's not trying to break through. He's just… stalling.
His eyes, scanning the battlefield, finally caught it. The bodies of the fallen Senju shinobi… they were vanishing into puffs of smoke upon closer inspection.
"No! They're Shadow Clones!" Raizen roared, the realization hitting him like a physical blow. How could I have been so blind?!
He had been so focused on the patriarch, he hadn't noticed the real Senju force had already slipped away, likely in pursuit of Madara. This was all a diversion!
Ignoring Senju Butsuma's clone, Raizen became a blue blur, streaking toward the remaining "shinobi" on the battlefield. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
The massive fireball erupted amidst the clustered Shadow Clones, instantly dispelling a dozen of them in clouds of white chakra smoke.
In moments, the battlefield was cleared. Only two figures remained: the clones of Senju Butsuma and Senju Hashirama, both standing calmly, their forms beginning to flicker.
"Elder Raizen, what's happening…?" one of the remaining Uchiha guards asked, his voice trembling with exhaustion.
"It was a trick! A diversion! I was a fool!" Raizen snarled, slamming his fist into his palm. The guilt was crushing. "They let Madara's group think they escaped, but the main force has already gone after them! I'll hold these two off. You all, disengage and—"
"Izanagi!"
Before he could finish, one of the Uchiha jōnin shouted, his Sharingan spinning wildly before going dark and grey. A wave of strange, reality-warping chakra washed over Raizen. The violent, blue steam of the opened Gate of Opening around his body flickered and then vanished completely. The excruciating physical backlash that should have crippled him simply… didn't happen.
"What… how is this possible?!" the jōnin gasped, staggering. "It didn't work on him?!"
"It doesn't matter! For the Young Patriarch! For Elder Raizen!" another yelled.
"Izanagi!"
"Izanagi!"
One by one, the ten remaining Uchiha warriors invoked the forbidden technique of their clan. They sacrificed the eternal light of their Sharingan, rewriting reality itself not for their own salvation, but to erase the devastating side effects of the Eight Gates from their elder.
The blue aura was gone. The tearing pain in his muscles was gone. Raizen stood whole, unharmed, while around him, his clansmen collapsed, their eyes permanently blinded, their chakra spent.
"You… you shouldn't have…" Raizen whispered, his voice choked.
"Go, Elder Raizen! Save the Young Patriarch! That is your order!" their leader rasped, his sightless eyes staring in Raizen's direction.
There was no time for grief. With a final, agonized look at the men who had given everything for him, Uchiha Raizen turned and shot into the forest, his speed even greater than before.
As he ran, the emotional tsunami of the moment—the sacrifice, the loyalty, the sheer will—triggered a change within him. His own Sharingan spun, the three tomoe sharpening. He felt a barrier break. He had picked up the orbs of their spent doujutsu, and now, his own eyes evolved. He hadn't reached the Mangekyō, but his Three Tomoe Sharingan was now perfected, its perception and clarity at their absolute peak.
A massive explosion rocked the forest behind him, a final, fiery pyre for ten loyal Uchiha souls. Raizen didn't need to look back. He knew they were gone.
He wiped angrily at the tears streaming down his face and pushed his body faster.
Then, his enhanced senses picked up a chakra signature ahead. A powerful one, lying still. His heart sank.
As he burst into a small clearing, he saw it. The one thing he had feared most. Lying on the ground, unmoving, was Uchiha Senna. And beside his body, glowing with a tragic, ethereal light, was an orb that made Raizen's blood run cold.
It was the fallen "Uchiha Intermediate Bloodline."