Everyone else heard Black Zetsu's shout before he was sealed, each with their own thoughts. Uchiha Koku, for example, didn't know who the 'mother' Black Zetsu referred to was. He was an executor Black Zetsu had brought forth, but Black Zetsu had not told him many things—nor would he. Therefore, on this matter, Uchiha Koku also had a huge lack of information; he didn't even recognize the Totsuka Blade, only thinking that Black Zetsu had been annihilated by a chakra beam.
Despite knowing that Black Zetsu possessed a certain degree of immortality, Uchiha Koku still believed there was no way Black Zetsu could survive a Susanoo's attack. If he had recognized the Totsuka Blade, he might have had other ideas, but he simply didn't possess Black Zetsu's depth of knowledge.
Uchiha Kagami, however, had a different view. Upon hearing Black Zetsu's unwilling cry as he was sealed, he immediately determined that the opponent was indeed the person orchestrating a conspiracy against reincarnators. The 'mother' Black Zetsu mentioned made Uchiha Kagami instinctively think of Kaguya Otsutsuki from the myths.
According to legend, Kaguya Otsutsuki was sealed by the Sage of Six Paths and his brother, who spent their lives guarding the seal to prevent Kaguya from returning to the human world—this event was very sparsely documented. Fumori Masaki had gone to great lengths to find and translate it for Uchiha Kagami, who only then learned that the Sage of Six Paths had a brother.
Later, in discussions with Fumori Masaki, Fumori Masaki theorized that the mastermind was continuously searching for reincarnators, aiming to unify all creation. Their goal was not only to recreate the power of the Sage of Six Paths but possibly also to unseal Kaguya Otsutsuki.
Uchiha Kagami found this conjecture too bold and didn't fully believe it. One reason was that while the mastermind wanting to obtain the Sage of Six Paths' great power was understandable, why would they want to unseal Kaguya Otsutsuki?
And now, Uchiha Kagami finally understood why. This fellow might be Kaguya Otsutsuki's child, having survived until now through unknown means, all to allow its mother—Kaguya Otsutsuki—to return to this world.
Although there was no concrete evidence, and everything was based on a conjecture, the logic between the pieces still held for now. And the reasons, in fact, weren't important; what mattered was that Black Zetsu, the conspirator, had been sealed.
—As expected of Masahiro, his intuition is sharp, seeing the extraordinary nature of this guy at a glance.
Uchiha Kagami, of course, wouldn't know that this was due to Fumori Masaki's omniscient perspective. The advantage of being a transmigrator allowed Fumori Masaki to make various predictions, which were all proven correct afterward, gradually leading people to have no doubt in his judgment. It was precisely because of this that Uchiha Kagami had always trusted Fumori Masaki, even maintaining a neutral stance on the incredible speculation of reviving Kaguya Otsutsuki.
From the outbreak of the battle between the two sides to Black Zetsu's sealing, less than a minute had passed. Everything happened very quickly. Although Uchiha Koku regretted the disappearance of his capable assistant,
his attention was now entirely on Uchiha Kagami and Fumori Masaki.
The dark purple Susanoo clenched its fists, then swung them hard, sending a barrage of magatama-shaped chakra projectiles raining down on the opponents.
Fumori Masaki could use the ubiquitous natural energy as a foothold for himself. Although he hadn't reached the point where Naruto Uzumaki, in his Six Paths Sage Mode, could fly gravity-free, relying on his astonishing physical prowess and reaction speed, not a single one of the lightning-fast projectiles hit him.
Uchiha Kagami's eyes flickered with blood-red light, and blood slowly seeped out. The snowy silver Susanoo reinforced its heavy armor, blocking the continuous explosions of projectiles. On one hand, he truly had no other means of defense, and on the other hand, it was to prevent such large-scale attacks from damaging the residential areas.
Before the enemy launched their attack, Uchiha Ken leaped upwards. Uchiha Kagami, understanding implicitly, immediately covered him with his Susanoo, protecting Uchiha Ken's safety.
When the explosions ceased, a dark purple chakra weapon pierced through the remnants of the blast, stabbing towards Uchiha Kagami. Uchiha Koku understood very well that Fumori Masaki's body was too small for Susanoo, and he was faster than Susanoo, making him very difficult to hit. Uchiha Kagami's Susanoo, however, was an easy target, and Uchiha Kagami himself didn't possess such speed.
Uchiha Kagami's heart tightened slightly. After the previous explosions, the surface of his Susanoo was already covered in cracks. With the concentrated weapon thrust, it would likely be pierced through.
Susanoo was indeed an attack and defense technique, especially high-level Susanoo. There weren't many people in the entire ninja world capable of breaking its defense.
For instance, in the original timeline, facing a second-form Susanoo, Danzo Shimura, who was proficient in Wind Release, had to find a relatively weak spot of the Susanoo and then summon the Baku to amplify his Wind Release power to destroy it. Of course, Danzo Shimura was very old; even with Wood Release prolonging his aging, he couldn't be in peak condition.
However, the opponent was also using Susanoo, and for some unknown reason, the opponent's burden seemed to be less than Uchiha Kagami's, which caused the Susanoo's power to change as time passed.
Seeing this, Uchiha Ken immediately intended to summon his Susanoo to help. Although he had lost one Mangekyo Sharingan, the awakening of Susanoo certainly depended on a complete Mangekyo Sharingan, but the Mangekyo Sharingan mainly served as a key. Once the two Mangekyo Sharingan dōjutsu awakened, Susanoo could be used, and after that, a complete Mangekyo Sharingan was not necessarily required.
When Itachi Uchiha's eyes had almost lost their light and he could no longer maintain his Mangekyo Sharingan, he could still sustain his Susanoo; Madara Uchiha was even more extreme, able to summon Susanoo even without his eyes, which was astonishing and unbelievable.
However, just as the dark purple chakra weapon stabbed the surface of the snowy silver Susanoo, a spiral of light descended, its surface extending into a saw-like edge, instantly severing the dark purple chakra weapon.
"..." Uchiha Koku clutched his eyes. Even with his soul serving as chakra consumption, the burden on the Mangekyo Sharingan itself truly existed. Now his vision had become blurry. No matter what, he did not possess the same Mangekyo Sharingan as Madara Uchiha.
But he knew that the jutsu just used was by Fumori Masaki, very similar to the Eight-Trigrams Wind Wheel, but seemingly more powerful and larger in size, actually capable of directly severing a Susanoo's weapon.
At this moment, Uchiha Koku saw another saw-shaped light wheel appear nearby, very close to him. Susanoo was already too late to defend, and a look of terror appeared on his face.
The saw-shaped light wheel did not cut immediately but rapidly spun around the head of the dark purple Susanoo. After several rotations, it pierced through from one end, instantly appearing before Uchiha Koku, sweeping past his head. A moment later, his head fell off.
Within two or three breaths, both the Susanoo and Uchiha Koku's head were severed, but Fumori Masaki was slightly surprised, because he saw the headless body of Uchiha Koku shatter like a mirror, and another Uchiha Koku appeared nearby, looking shaken.
On the surface, it was very similar to the manifestation of Izanagi, but Fumori Masaki's keen perception found a difference. If it were truly Izanagi, then Uchiha Koku would definitely have truly died, then revived by transforming into an illusion. However, judging by the ripple of energy he had just caught, Uchiha Koku seemed to have used some method to swap positions with something else, which was the thing that was truly decapitated.
"So that's it, is this why he survived fatal situations time and time again?" Fumori Masaki murmured to himself. He recalled the reports of Uchiha Koku surviving explosions unscathed and escaping Asuna's barrage of Vacuum Spheres, and seemed to understand something.
—It should be related to this person's Mangekyo Sharingan, just like Sasuke Uchiha's Amenotejikara, performing some kind of displacement.
Vaguely guessing the type of the opponent's ability, Fumori Masaki, however, shifted his body and instantly appeared beside Uchiha Kagami and Uchiha Ken. Seeing the luminous golden humanoid figure appear nearby, Uchiha Kagami let out a breath and asked, "What do we do now, Masahiro?"
"Let's leave here. This guy has a special life-saving technique; we can't kill him in one go. Fighting here will affect many people," Fumori Masaki replied.
"I see. Indeed, we can't fight recklessly here. We must protect the people here; they will all be useful in the future," Uchiha Kagami nodded.
"I'm sorry, Ken-kun, your eye can't be retrieved immediately. We need to leave here first," Fumori Masaki said apologetically to Uchiha Ken.
"I understand." Uchiha Ken expressed his understanding. He felt that dealing with Uchiha Koku was indeed not easy, as evidenced by him surviving even after being decapitated by the Hokage. It was better to leave now. He hadn't lost control of his emotions because of losing one Mangekyo Sharingan; he had long since outgrown such impulsiveness.
"I'll take you," Fumori Masaki said. Invisible natural energy and the chakra on his body enveloped the two, and they vanished in an instant before Uchiha Koku's furious counterattack could arrive.
"That guy—!" Uchiha Koku quickly turned his head, seeing the flash of light darting away. Even with Susanoo, he couldn't catch up, and his face immediately twisted in anger. "He actually ran away!"
Anger aside, reason told Uchiha Koku that Fumori Masaki and the others leaving was best for him right now, because the war hadn't broken out on a large scale yet, and he hadn't collected enough souls to reach his best state. Furthermore, the consumption of his Mangekyo Sharingan was already very severe. If he fought, the probability of victory was not high.
"However, since he didn't choose to kill me here, it means he can't maintain that state for long either." Uchiha Koku coughed and said, "So he's not entirely without weaknesses."
Uchiha Koku's guess wasn't entirely correct. Fumori Masaki's state couldn't be maintained for an exceptionally long time, but it wasn't short either. The real reason was that Fumori Masaki didn't want to wage a large-scale battle in this location. If there was large-scale destruction and heavy losses among important officials in the capital, it would be very detrimental to stabilizing the political situation in the future.
If he, a dangerous enemy, weren't present, Uchiha Koku probably wouldn't do anything to the officials in the capital, because Uchiha Koku intended to fish in troubled waters. Since he wanted to utilize the Daimyo's power, he would have to rely on these people to issue commands, and Uchiha Koku should be clear about this.
Uchiha Kagami and Uchiha Ken were being carried through the air by Fumori Masaki's power. Although it looked like they were flying, it was merely the immense power generated by using natural energy as a foothold that propelled Fumori Masaki, and Fumori Masaki controlled the natural energy and chakra to drag them along.
Under the protection of natural energy and chakra, the strong winds didn't affect the two of them at all. At such high speed, one would normally feel a painful sensation as if their face were being cut, but chakra could provide protection, just as ninjas don't feel excessive pain when using the Body Flicker Technique.
However, the natural energy and chakra controlled by Fumori Masaki were even gentler on this basis. Whether it was strong winds or anything else, upon touching the surface of the power, they transformed into harmless, even mild forces, slowly alleviating the pain Uchiha Kagami and Uchiha Ken experienced from their Mangekyo Sharingan.
Previously, Uchiha Kagami had heard that natural energy possessed stimulating recovery powers. The Sage Art of Shikkotsu Forest had astonishing regenerative abilities, and Fumori Masaki might be using such power to greatly reduce the burden on their bodies.
Looking at the figure before him, filled with intense light—yet not dazzling—Uchiha Kagami felt a sense of emotion. This good friend was probably getting closer and closer to the legendary Sage, and his strength might not be far off from that of Lord Hashirama.
Fumori Masaki quickly brought the two to the city gate, where Asuna and others were engaging chakra samurai. Besides them, Hatake Sakumo had also brought people to help defend against the chakra samurai's attacks.
Chakra samurai didn't just fight in close combat with samurai swords; they also used ranged weapons like arrows and chains. Although their individual combat capabilities were inferior to ninjas, relying on their tight formations and coordination, they could still stalemate ninjas in battle. Even if the casualties were heavy, if they could eliminate Asuna and the others, these losses would be insignificant.
Asuna and the others could fully handle the chakra samurai's attacks, but the problem was the sheer number of opponents. As time passed, their chakra and stamina would weaken, and their counterattacks would decrease. However, the enemy had fresh reinforcements joining, which would become troublesome.
Of course, at that point, they could unhesitatingly retreat into the jungle, where the chakra samurai certainly couldn't follow. If they hadn't been worried about the safety of the three people still in the capital, they might have already planned to leave. However, with Fumori Masaki and Uchiha Kagami's strength, they should be able to take Uchiha Ken and leave.
The group didn't wait long before they saw light approaching from afar. Then, a distorted force formed in mid-air and smashed downwards, instantly engulfing the chakra samurai below in the light generated by the explosion.
After Fumori Masaki landed with the two, before the others could express their surprise, he said, "Let's leave here first. We can talk about everything else later."