Chapter 53: Extra of the Original Host: Clumsy Rhetoric

At the entrance of the Patriarch's estate, the members of the Kaguya clan controlled by Uchiha Hikaru stood with vacant eyes. Obeying the young girl's command, they formed orderly queues, waiting for the battle outside the clan grounds to conclude.

Having used the Yachihoko on so many people for the first time, the young girl was still somewhat unaccustomed to it. The absorbed chakra had nowhere to vent, leaving her little head dizzy and throbbing.

"Share the excess chakra with me."

Seeing the adorable, intoxicated look on the girl's face, Uchiha Gin could not help but smile and make the suggestion.

Knowing that the young man wanted to help share her burden, Uchiha Hikaru immediately channeled her Mangekyo Sharingan. A flash of blue light swept past, and a torrent of majestic chakra slowly flowed from the seal left behind during their earlier combination technique.

The young man's body, which had grown weak from using his own Mangekyo, was instantly revitalized as if injected with adrenaline.

"Thank you, Agin."

A faint smile appeared on the young girl's face, a trace of shyness lingering on her slightly flushed cheeks, which left the young man momentarily entranced. Beside them, the aunt looked on at the two of them with an indulgent, maternal smile.

Just as the young man was desperately formulating a response, unsure of what to say, the girl—who had been full of coy shyness just a second before—suddenly erupted with a terrifying aura.

Her clear eyes were rapidly veiled by a layer of dark Qi, and a formidable pressure made the breathing of those around her hitch.

Sensing that something was terribly wrong, Uchiha Gin tried to step forward, but the moment he raised his hand, the seal on the back of his hand suddenly surged with intense agitation, and his body froze involuntarily.

He felt his chakra rapidly draining away. Unable to open his mouth, he could only struggle to turn his eyeballs.

Only then did he realize that, apart from himself, a seal had also appeared at some unknown moment on Uchiha Tajima's wife, who was now standing with vacant eyes as her chakra was being siphoned away.

Yet this sight was not even the most terrifying part. As the dark Qi spread within the girl's eyes, the consciousness of the Kaguya clansmen she had previously controlled began to revive.

"What is going on here?"

Kaguya Sosuke, having regained consciousness, looked at his clansmen in bewildered suspicion. Their last memory before being trapped by the black flames was the red full moon rising in the sky.

"Elder, I cannot move!"

Kaguya Takuya, who had always remained by Kaguya Sosuke's side, also regained consciousness. He found himself unable to move an inch, as if bound by a full-body paralysis jutsu.

"Me neither!"

"Same here!"

The rest of the awakening Kaguya clan members called out one after another.

The only person on the entire scene capable of movement, the young girl swept her lifeless eyes across the people around her, finally fixing her gaze on the Kaguya clan enclosed within the black flames.

Raising her eyelids slightly, the black flames obediently parted to leave a gap. The bewitching patterns in her eyes began to slowly rotate. Under the enhancement of her pupil power, the Kaguya clansmen she controlled found their paralyzed bodies beginning to move of their own accord.

A Kaguya clansman grew a white, bone-like sharp blade from his palm. Amidst a look of utter terror, he swung it down fiercely, hacking a nearby comrade in two. Bright red liquid splashed all over him.

"No...!!!"

The Kaguya clansman he had cut down was his own younger brother. Before he even had time to grieve, looking down at the bone blade protruding from his chest, blood overflowed into his lungs. Unable to speak, he collapsed straight onto his brother's corpse.

"!!!"

A controlled Uchiha Gin could only watch helplessly as this slaughter unfolded. Weeping and cursing, the members of the Kaguya clan wielded their weapons to kill one another, and the scene instantly became a river of blood and corpses.

"Elder Sosuke! Don't!"

Compared to the exceptionally sturdy physiques of ordinary Kaguya clansmen, Kaguya Takuya—who had awakened a mutated Byakugan—possessed rather ordinary physical capabilities. Lacking the Dead Bone Pulse, he was naturally no match for the other clansmen when fighting bare-handed.

Especially Kaguya Sosuke before him, who looked like a hedgehog; a single encounter was all it took to pierce straight through him.

[Dead Bone Pulse · Dance of the Willow]

"Don't blame me, Takuya."

A controlled Kaguya Sosuke could not stop himself from slaughtering his own kin, and could only watch helplessly as Kaguya Takuya, who trusted him deeply, died beneath his own Dead Bone Pulse.

"Wicked Uchiha! I'll tear you to pieces!"

Bone spurs grew all over Kaguya Sosuke's body as he attempted to regain control of his body through sheer, agonizing pain.

"To think she can reach such a degree; truly a terrifying ability."

The old man, who had been watching from the sidelines all along, could not help but sigh as he gazed at the scene of the young girl controlling the Kaguya clan to slaughter one another.

Earlier, back in the laboratory, he had used Moryo's possession ability to inject numerous negative emotions into the girl's mind while simultaneously leaving a visual jutsu implanted in her consciousness.

Whenever he wished, he could activate the visual jutsu at any time and place, causing the girl's negative emotions to erupt and reducing her entirely to a weapon in his hands.

"Why... why are you doing this to me!"

Uchiha Hikaru's mind was now flooded with various scenes of being tormented, imprisoned, and experimented on by her clansmen.

Within these memories, Uchiha Gin did not exist; having awakened the Mangekyo, she was treated by her clan merely as a ruthless weapon to be exploited at will.

The dark Qi in her eyes grew even denser with the fluctuation of her emotions, and her facial expression twisted into something terrifying. A stream of bloody tears traced down the corners of her eyes from the overuse of the Sharingan.

A controlled Uchiha Gin watched the young girl's painful expression, every muscle in his body twitching. Driven by a powerful surge of emotion, Uchiha Gin's eyes were shrouded in a chilling, cold aura.

Relying on a sudden burst of ocular power, the young man actually broke through the shackles of the Yachihoko.

Regaining his freedom, the young man felt a wave of dizziness, and everything before his eyes suddenly blurred significantly.

Ignoring the blurred vision, he rushed to the young girl's side despite his severe nearsightedness, grabbed her shoulders, and tried to snap her back to her senses.

"Wake up! Hikaru."

Not knowing why the girl had suddenly gone berserk, Uchiha Gin could only attempt to use "talk no jutsu" to restore her sanity.

Hearing the familiar voice, a trace of struggle flashed through the girl's lifeless eyes, and her body began to tremble slightly, as if resisting something.

"Hikaru, it's me, Uchiha Gin. We promised to go to the Land of Water to eat seafood together, to the Land of Hot Springs to soak in the baths, and to the Land of Snow to admire the snow..."

Seeing that his words were having an effect, the young man recounted all their childhood promises as if reciting a family treasure.

"Sob~~~"

As the young man spoke of these childhood promises one by one, the dark Qi in the girl's eyes was suppressed, and her gaze gradually regained clarity.

"Agin, I... what have I done!"

Having regained her sanity, the girl looked at the battered Uchiha Gin before her. Her body grew limp as she collapsed into his embrace, her pale lips parting slightly as she breathed and asked weakly.

"It's fine, I'm here."

Uchiha Gin could no longer see the girl's face clearly, but he reached out to stroke her head, promising her in a firm and resolute tone.

"It's restored!"

The panting Kaguya Sosuke froze abruptly, the bone spur in his hand stopping right in front of a clansman who had closed his eyes waiting for death.

The surviving Kaguya clansmen had escaped death by a hair's breadth. Having been controlled by the red moon to slaughter their peers, they were left utterly soul-broken, and several whose minds had shattered completely went mad and fled in all directions.