Chapter 232: Jackpot

Chapter 232: Chapter 232: Jackpot

Under the pull of the Wheel of Will, Hyuga Kagami, enveloped in the sky-blue Tenseigan Chakra Mode, and Uchiha Ryota, encased within his orange-yellow Susanoo, rapidly hurtled toward each other.

The two immense masses of chakra were like a pair of blazing torches beneath the curtain of night, rushing straight at one another.

As he surged forward, the Tenseigan beneath Kagami’s demon-faced mask shone with dazzling brilliance, as though countless stars were contained within those tiny pupils!

Through the Tenseigan, Kagami could clearly observe every single change occurring within Uchiha Ryota’s body.

There was no doubt about it. At this very moment, the chakra activity inside Ryota’s body was suddenly intensifying.

That could only mean one thing—

He was attempting to use the unique ocular ability of his Mangekyo Sharingan!

"His physical condition is restricting the activation of his ocular ability. This is my chance!"

In that briefest of instants, Kagami keenly noticed that although the chakra inside Ryota’s body was reacting violently as he attempted to activate his Mangekyo Sharingan ability, its flow was an absolute mess.

Without question, this greatly slowed down the speed at which he could activate the technique.

Whoosh—!

In the blink of an eye, golden light spilled across the darkness.

Accompanied by a piercing howl, Kagami swung the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion in his hand from above—

and brought it down viciously upon Uchiha Ryota’s Susanoo!

The dazzling golden blade struck the orange-yellow Susanoo in an instant.

BOOM—!

A thunderous explosion immediately erupted!

Yet, contrary to Kagami’s expectations, his Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion did not effortlessly cleave through Ryota’s Susanoo as it had Uchiha Hideki’s.

When the golden blade cut into Ryota’s Susanoo near the shoulder, close to its chest, it was unexpectedly stopped by some mysterious force.

If cutting through Hideki’s Susanoo had been as easy as slicing through a melon, then striking Ryota’s Susanoo was an entirely different experience.

The resistance transmitted back through the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion felt as though Kagami were wielding a treasured sword and hacking into a wall of packed earth. The blade could still cut into it, but it could no longer cleave all the way through and shatter it in a single strike!

"Hahahaha...!"

At that moment, Uchiha Ryota’s unrestrained laughter rang out from within the orange-yellow Susanoo.

The chakra activity within his body was steadily rising as well. Although it remained chaotic, its momentum grew stronger and stronger with each passing moment.

Kagami’s expression sharpened.

He pulled the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion free from the Susanoo’s shoulder and slowly retreated into the air, a faint trace of confusion appearing on his face.

Amid his wild laughter, two trails of bloody tears streamed from Ryota’s Mangekyo Sharingan.

And almost at the exact moment those bloody tears ran down his cheeks, the orange-yellow Susanoo surrounding him began to slowly transform.

The Susanoo, which had originally possessed only an upper body, suddenly began growing larger.

In the blink of an eye, it gradually transformed into a towering orange-yellow giant—

complete with all four limbs!

Then, golden flames suddenly ignited across the giant’s body!

These golden flames, manifested from the chakra of the Mangekyo Sharingan, wrapped around the giant like armor, transforming the originally orange-yellow figure into a heavenly deity that radiated golden light from head to toe, its entire body bathed in blazing flames.

Immediately afterward, a golden diamond-shaped chamber appeared on the giant’s forehead.

Uchiha Ryota, who had previously been concealed within the giant’s body, slowly floated upward before finally entering the diamond-shaped chamber on its forehead.

"Perfect Susanoo!?"

Anyone else witnessing this scene would undoubtedly have been dumbstruck.

Kagami, however, was merely somewhat surprised. He simply hadn’t expected Uchiha Ryota to be capable of manifesting a Perfect Susanoo.

But very quickly, Kagami frowned.

"No... that’s impossible. There’s no way he should be able to do this!"

Although Susanoo was an ocular ability shared by those who awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, even geniuses like Shisui and Itachi could not possibly master the Perfect Susanoo immediately after awakening their Mangekyo Sharingan.

Much less Uchiha Ryota, whose body was already on the verge of collapse and whose chakra was in complete disarray.

Under normal circumstances, with Ryota’s current condition, there was absolutely no way he should have been capable of manifesting a Perfect Susanoo.

Uchiha Hideki, whom Kagami had just disposed of in an instant, was living proof of that.

"Then there’s only one possible explanation..."

As far as Kagami understood, the Perfect Susanoo was practically a privilege reserved for those who possessed the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

Setting aside Obito’s pair of utterly broken, bug-level Mangekyo Sharingan, virtually everyone capable of manifesting a Perfect Susanoo possessed the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan—

such as Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Sasuke.

Based on this, Kagami quickly arrived at the only plausible explanation.

The unique ocular ability of Uchiha Ryota’s Mangekyo Sharingan was some kind of ability capable of enhancing his Susanoo!

The unique ocular abilities possessed by each pair of Mangekyo Sharingan were extraordinarily varied and often impossible to predict. If Kagami absolutely had to classify them, he felt they could roughly be divided into four categories.

The first category consisted of genjutsu-type ocular abilities, such as Shisui’s Kotoamatsukami, Itachi’s Tsukuyomi, and Fugaku’s black-and-white illusion.

The second category consisted of ninjutsu-type ocular abilities, such as Amaterasu, possessed by both Itachi and Sasuke.

The third category consisted of enhancement and shape-manipulation ocular abilities, such as Sasuke’s Kagutsuchi.

And the fourth category consisted of the strangest and most unpredictable of them all—space-time ocular abilities, such as Obito’s Kamui and Shinichi’s Tokiya.

As for the ocular ability of Uchiha Ryota’s Mangekyo Sharingan, it most likely belonged to the third category—an enhancement and shape-manipulation ability.

And astonishingly, the target of its enhancement was none other than—

Susanoo!

The Perfect Susanoo also possessed the ability to fly.

Thus, Uchiha Ryota controlled his brilliantly golden Susanoo and rose into the air. Gazing at Kagami from a distance, he declared, "Hand over my brother’s Mangekyo Sharingan, and I might be merciful enough to grant you a quick death!"

Looking at the golden Susanoo hovering in the sky, Kagami remarked, "Enhancement and shape-manipulation Mangekyo Sharingan abilities are already exceedingly rare. I never imagined that the target of your Mangekyo Sharingan’s enhancement would actually be Susanoo. The value of those eyes of yours... far exceeds what I imagined!"

Even during the final battle against Kaguya Otsutsuki, the Perfect Susanoo had still been a top-tier combat force capable of influencing a battle on that level.

So at this moment, Kagami genuinely felt as though—

he had hit the jackpot.

Hearing Kagami’s cold, clinical assessment—as though he were still nothing more than a specimen lying on an experimental table—Uchiha Ryota flew into a rage.

"You’re courting death!"

With that, Uchiha Ryota coughed up blood even as he urged his golden Susanoo into action.

The towering Susanoo raised the enormous longsword formed entirely from golden flames—

and slashed fiercely toward Kagami in the sky...