Chapter 19: A Forbidden Harvest
But he had never imagined that the Uchiha beside Kakashi would be this monstrously powerful.
'If I'd known… I would have checked the black market intelligence first…' he raged internally, a futile regret.
He was Hiruko, a jonin from the Second Great Shinobi War, who had used his Demonic Mirror Technique to fuse with several powerful summoning creatures. Yet in front of this lone Uchiha, he felt brittle, fragile.
'The Sannin weren't this strong at his age!' The thought was a furious, jealous scream in his mind.
The next moment, the gigantic beast-form crashing through the forest froze mid-stride. The world before Hiruko's eyes dissolved into a monochrome hell of black and blood-red. A colossal, malevolent three-tomoe Sharingan spun in the crimson sky above. He looked down to find himself bound to an enormous, charred tree stump.
"The Sharingan's genjutsu…!" Horror dawned on him, cold and absolute.
Before he could muster any resistance, his consciousness was swallowed by darkness.
With Hiruko's mind ensnared, the Demonic Mirror Technique destabilized. The fused chimera dissolved in a swirl of chakra, separating back into Hiruko's human form and the dissipating essence of his summon. He stood limp, vacant-eyed.
Uchiha Akira's left eye now held the distinct, sickle-bladed pattern of the Mangekyō Sharingan. To subdue Hiruko instantly and completely, he had exerted its power fully, just as he had when initially containing the Six-Tails.
The difference was that Hiruko was merely a human shinobi, lacking the bottomless chakra reservoir of a tailed beast. Akira could maintain this control for a considerable time.
His reason for doing so was simple: the Demonic Mirror Technique itself.
The potential of this forbidden jutsu was undeniable. It could plunder the bloodline limits of others and assimilate them. The promise of fusing five such limits to achieve a form of immortality spoke to its monstrous, transformative power. With careful selection of the five bloodlines, completing the "Ragnarok" stage could elevate a shinobi to the absolute pinnacle of the world.
Its ultimate potential depended entirely on the quality of the limits fused.
The moment Akira recognized Hiruko, his target shifted from the man to his technique. A forbidden art of such magnitude, delivered to his doorstep? He had no choice but to claim it.
Looking at the entranced Hiruko, Akira produced a blank scroll and a brush from his pouch. He tossed them at the man's feet. "Write it down. The complete Demonic Mirror Technique. Every step, every caution, every note on its practice."
Swish, swish, swish…
Under the absolute compulsion of the genjutsu, Hiruko bent down without hesitation. For five minutes, the only sound was the frantic scratching of the brush on parchment.
Finally, he stopped, standing motionless once more. The scroll was now covered in dense, meticulous text—the full theory and methodology of the forbidden technique.
A satisfied smile touched Akira's lips. His Sharingan swept over the scroll, photographically memorizing every character in an instant. He then carefully rolled the scroll and stored it away.
With a single hand seal, he exhaled a concentrated stream of fire. The flames engulfed Hiruko's still form. In moments, only a pile of ash remained, scattered by the night breeze.
"See? I told you there was no need to go over. He's back," Hyuga Kamon said with a shrug, glancing at Kakashi and Chiba Ryu as Uchiha Akira walked back into the firelight.
Kakashi ignored the comment, his eye fixed on Akira. "Status, senior?"
"Resolved. Reduced to ash with a fire technique," Akira replied calmly.
"Fire Release…" Kakashi murmured, a flicker of surprise crossing his features.
"Yes, fire," Akira confirmed. He then looked at Hyuga Kamon. "Jonin Kamon should have been able to see that."
Hyuga Kamon shook his head, a faint, dismissive smirk playing on his lips. "My Byakugan's range has its limits. I couldn't see that far."
Chiba Ryu looked between them. "Well, if the matter is settled, I'll return to rest. We have the second watch." Without waiting for a reply, he turned and headed for his tent, the encounter already dismissed as a minor inconvenience.
Silence descended around the campfire once more, shared only by Kakashi and Akira. Kakashi retreated into his brooding stare, his thoughts once again adrift in a sea of regret and loss.
Uchiha Akira, his mind now occupied by the newly acquired forbidden knowledge, had no desire for conversation either. He was mentally reviewing the intricate details of the Demonic Mirror Technique he had just forcibly extracted.
'The potential… is staggering,' he thought, a thrill of excitement coursing through him. No wonder Hiruko had harbored such grand delusions of challenging the great villages. There was arrogance, yes, but the core of the technique held real, terrifying power.
The fusion with summons or other shinobi was just the superficial application. The true mastery of the Demonic Mirror Technique lay in fusing five shinobi, each possessing a potent bloodline limit, under specific, ritualistic conditions. Achieving this "Ragnarok" stage promised not just immense power, but a form of immortality.
The quality of the five bloodlines was paramount. Of course, they couldn't just be any five; compatibility was key. Fusing conflicting or weakening limits could lead to a catastrophic failure, a dilution of power rather than an ascension.
'If I were to pursue this path… the selection of those five limits would require meticulous planning,' Akira mused.
In his assessment, the Wood Release kekkei genkai of Senju Hashirama was a non-negotiable inclusion. Hashirama's cells alone offered the vitality to mitigate the strain of the Mangekyō. Therefore, Wood Release—or more accurately, access to that primordial life force—secured one slot.
'Fortunately, I already possess the Sharingan. That's one major concern addressed,' he noted.
'And I happen to have a Byakugan…' His thoughts turned to the prize taken from the Kirigakure jonin. The Byakugan's potential to evolve into the Tenseigan placed it among the supreme dojutsu. It was a worthy second candidate.
Wood Release's power was highly user-dependent. In Hashirama's hands, it was world-shaping. In another's, it could be merely potent. Fundamentally, it was a fusion of Water and Earth natures—powerful, but not inherently superior to other kekkei genkai. What made Hashirama peerless was not just Wood Release, but the chakra of Asura that flowed through him. For Akira, the true target was the boundless vitality within those cells, not just the elemental fusion.
'The remaining three… require serious deliberation,' he concluded, the possibilities and permutations swirling in his mind, a puzzle of immense power waiting to be solved.
(End of Chapter)
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