Chapter 6:
"So powerful."
This was the first time Sarada had ever seen her father in action, and her face was full of awe.
"Well, of course. And Sasuke's strength goes far beyond just this."
Naruto, on the other hand, was calm.
The adult Shin Uchiha, who had been knocked down, got up from the ground, patted the dust off his Akatsuki robe, and said to the child version of Shin Uchiha, "Who told you to rest? Get up."
"Yes, Father." After taking a hit from Sasuke's Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu, the child Shin Uchiha, covered in burns, struggled to his feet.
Having experienced the Fourth Great Ninja War and sealed Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, Sasuke's power obviously went far beyond this. The reason a single jutsu hadn't killed the child wasn't because Sasuke was all show and no substance—it was due to the nature of the jutsu he had used.
As everyone knows, Fireball Jutsu is notoriously bad at hitting its target. But that's not its only trait—it also happens to be non-lethal. The first trait is just so prominent that the second tends to go unnoticed.
If Sasuke had used a different jutsu, the child Shin Uchiha would already be dead.
"Are they really father and son? He just used his own kid as a meat shield without batting an eye."
As Naruto spoke, Sasuke walked over to him. With Sarada present, the focus of the battle was her safety.
So whenever there was a lull in the fight, Sasuke would return to Sarada's side.
Another reason Sasuke didn't finish off the adult and child Shin Uchiha was because he wanted to capture them alive to extract intel.
"Naruto, I'm counting on you to protect Sarada."
Seeing the adult and child Shin stand up again, Sasuke turned to Naruto.
"Yeah, don't worry. She's perfectly safe here. You're the one who needs to be careful."
Sasuke didn't reply. He simply gripped his sword and prepared for the next strike.
Just as Sasuke launched his attack, the adult Shin Uchiha activated the second ability of his Mangekyō Sharingan.
Sasuke's longsword suddenly slipped from his grasp and plunged into Naruto's abdomen. Even though no one was holding it, the blade kept burrowing deeper into Naruto's body.
Naruto crouched on the ground, groaning in pain.
"What just happened?" Sasuke said.
Both Sarada and Sasuke looked shocked.
"This is my ocular power. What do you think, Uchiha Sasuke? Not too shabby compared to yours, huh?" the adult Shin Uchiha said as he continued to control the sword embedded in Naruto.
"Seventh... are you okay?" Sarada cried out in concern.
"Don't worry, Sarada. I'm fine." Naruto gripped the sword's hilt tightly, halting its advance, then said to Sasuke, "This guy... he can manipulate other people's weapons using his ocular power."
"He must have marked it when he grabbed my sword."
Sasuke thought back to the earlier fight. His opponent had only one chance to mark the blade.
"My chakra flow is being disrupted."
The golden chakra surrounding Naruto began to fade.
"His blood has the ability to interfere with chakra!"
Sasuke suddenly realized.
When the adult Shin Uchiha reversed Sasuke's attack and grabbed his sword, not only had he marked it, but the blood from his wounded hand had also stained the blade.
"Peace makes people let their guard down. Just look at you now. Control the ninja tools—kill them."
"Yes, Father." The child Shin Uchiha's Sharingan morphed into a Mangekyō Sharingan, and he controlled twenty short blades to fly at Naruto, Sasuke, and Sarada from all directions.
"The same ocular power as his father..."
Having lost his go-to weapon, Sasuke pulled out a kunai to fend off the barrage of blades alone.
Naruto's attention was fully focused on keeping the longsword from plunging deeper into his abdomen.
At that moment, neither Sasuke nor Naruto was in any position to protect Sarada.
"Amaterasu."
Black flames suddenly engulfed the child Shin Uchiha. The short blades under his control fell to the ground.
"Fa...Father..."
Those were the child's final words before he was consumed by the black flames. As he was reduced to ash, the flames also began to fade.
"That's Amaterasu—who's there?!"
The adult Shin Uchiha looked around warily. The situation had just turned against him, and his face twisted in rage at the reversal.
Wearing an Akatsuki cloak and a demon mask, Uchiha Itachi appeared between Sasuke's group and the adult Shin Uchiha.
"Mangekyō Sharingan... and the power of Amaterasu—who are you?!"
Even though the child Shin's blades were no longer a threat and the battle seemed to tip in Sasuke's favor, he remained on high alert.
Based on his clothing, the masked figure clearly looked more like an ally of the adult Shin. But why had he killed the child version?
"I am... a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers—Flaming Cloud Evil God."
In that instant, Uchiha Itachi's body was taken over by Shunhi. After the introduction, control of the body returned to Itachi.
While Shunhi had control, Itachi remained aware of everything he did.
"Sasuke, that's the mysterious masked man who appeared in the Hidden Leaf. In fact, when Sarada was attacked by Shin Uchiha on the road, he's the one who saved her."
Naruto was still doing everything he could to stop the sword from digging further into his abdomen.
"Looks like... my operation failed this time. But we'll meet again. When that day comes, whether it's the Hidden Leaf or that meddling S.H.I.E.L.D., I'll destroy them both."
As the adult Shin Uchiha spoke, his body began to fade.
"That's... space-time ninjutsu!"
Sasuke exclaimed in surprise.
While everyone was focused on the disappearing Shin Uchiha, a grotesque white flesh mass with a single three-tomoe Sharingan crept up beside Sarada and activated a space-time ninjutsu of its own.
"I'll take you with me. That way, this trip wasn't a total loss."
The adult Shin Uchiha said, just as Uchiha Itachi reacted in time and jumped in to follow Sarada, disappearing with her at the final moment of the technique.