Chapter 54: Side Story of the Original Host: Counting How Many Mangekyou Sharingan Are Present in the Room

"She actually recovered?"

Uchiha Yao, who had been watching from the sidelines, saw that the young girl under her control had actually been awakened by Uchiha Gin.

This turn of events was completely unexpected to her. It seemed that the plan to manipulate the girl into destroying the Uchiha clan had stalled.

"However, I still have a backup plan."

Her faded, lifeless eyes swept across Uchiha Gin's face. A trace of struggle flickered in the old woman's eyes, but within seconds, they turned as dead and void as if filled with black ink.

The pattern in the old woman's eyes shifted. A mass of black substance detached from Uchiha Gin's shadow and crept toward the direction of the Kaguya clan.

Kaguya Kousuke, having regained his freedom, cast a wary glance at the two young Uchihas in the distance.

Given the current situation, the battle was lost. So much time had passed that Uchiha Tajima must have already seen through their diversionary tactic. The only sensible option now was to flee before the two young men noticed anything amiss.

"Where do you think you're going, Elder Kousuke?"

Suddenly, a ghostly voice echoed by Kaguya Kousuke's ear. He instinctively turned to search for the source, but found no trace of anyone nearby.

Just as he was about to make his escape, he watched in horror as a human head made of darkness emerged from his own shadow.

The shadowy head smiled eerily, dissolving into a pool of ink that seeped into his body. The familiar sensation of being controlled washed over him once again.

"Hahaha! Uchiha brats, have you said your last words?"

A furious roar shattered the tranquility of the scene. Filled with violent aura and unbridled madness, Kaguya Kousuke's eyes bulged with insanity. The bone spurs erupting from his hands transformed into two massive blade-like weapons as he charged straight toward them.

Uchiha Gin frowned at the menacing Kaguya Kousuke. The girl in his arms was utterly exhausted from overusing her Mangekyo Sharingan.

Having pushed himself to the brink of blindness to break the control of the Eight-Thousand-Spear Jutsu, Gin barely managed to muster the last of his remaining chakra. He hoisted the girl onto his back and leaped backward to evade the oncoming attack.

"Can you only run, brat?"

A crazed Kaguya Kousuke jeered loudly. Refusing to let him off, Uchiha Gin immediately activated his right-eye Mangekyo.

Sensing that he had been targeted, Kaguya Kousuke abruptly twisted to the side. Yet a cluster of black flames—which should have ignited directly on his chest—instead latched onto his right arm.

Having witnessed the terrifying nature of this flame before, he made a decisive choice. Swinging his bone blade, he severed his own right arm at the shoulder. The detached limb, engulfed in black flames, hit the ground and was reduced to a pile of ash within moments.

Cutting off his tail to escape, just like a lizard?

Uchiha Gin thought to himself with a sinking heart. He no longer had the chakra or optical prowess left to unleash the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Flashing to a distant spot, he gently laid the unconscious girl down. Uchiha Gin gritted his teeth and drew his long-unused katana, holding it before him. Three tomoe emerged in each of his eyes—it was time to show them the true combat style of an Uchiha.

[Dead Bone Pulse: Dance of the Camellia]

Seeing that Uchiha Gin was advancing instead of retreating, Kaguya Kousuke brandished his bone blade with his remaining hand and rushed forward to meet the arrogant Uchiha brat.

With his three-tomoe Sharingan active, the drain on Uchiha Gin's stamina was significantly reduced. The Sharingan granted him extraordinary insight. Relying on this precognitive vision, he parried Kaguya Kousuke's tempestuous attacks one by one.

Realizing that his assaults were being systematically neutralized, Kaguya Kousuke discarded his bone blade and closed in for hand-to-hand combat.

[Dead Bone Pulse: Dance of the Larch]

Transforming his body into a human porcupine, Kaguya Kousuke charged at Uchiha Gin. Growing careless for a split second, Gin was grazed by the protruding bone spikes, spraying blooms of blood across the air. The sheer density of the onslaught made it impossible for even the Sharingan to dodge completely.

Just as Gin and Kousuke remained locked in a fierce stalemate, Uchiha Yao—still observing from her leisurely vantage point—sensed Uchiha Tajima and Uchiha Yan rushing over in a panic. A cruel smile spread across her aged face.

"They're finally here. It's time for you to truly experience my pain."

With a violent churning of the black miasma in her eyes, Kaguya Kousuke, currently locked in combat with Uchiha Gin, suddenly froze and retracted all the bone spikes covering his body.

Uchiha Gin stared suspiciously at the abruptly halted Kaguya Kousuke, wondering what trick the Kaguya clan was about to pull next.

At that exact moment, the grim, square-jawed face of his opponent twisted into a bizarre smile, and he slammed both palms flat against the ground.

Feeling the surging chakra rumbling beneath his feet, Uchiha Gin didn't need to think twice to realize the enemy was about to unleash a large-scale area-of-effect jutsu. He spun around and sprinted back toward the girl, intending to carry her out of the blast radius.

When he reached her side, the heightened vision of his Sharingan revealed a horrifying sight that made his eyes split with fury.

His aunt-in-law and her three children were still lying not far behind Kaguya Kousuke, right in the path of the impending jutsu. Meanwhile, Gin himself was positioned far in front of Kousuke, leaving a vast distance between them.

Hoisting the weak girl onto his back once more, Uchiha Gin poured every ounce of his remaining strength into his legs, sprinting toward his aunt like a gust of wind. But as Kaguya Kousuke's hand seals completed, the very scene he dreaded most unfolded before his eyes.

[Dead Bone Pulse: Dance of the Seedling Fern]

In an instant, a forest made entirely of pale white bones erupted from the earth across a radius of a kilometer, instantly swallowing Uchiha Tajima's wife—who had been rendered unconscious from having her chakra drained—along with the three children.

"No...!"

Uchiha Gin let out a roar of absolute despair.

"NO!!!!!!"

In the distance, Uchiha Tajima, who had been racing forward with all his might, watched helplessly as his wife and children were buried beneath the eerie, jagged forest of bones.

Ducking beneath the sudden spikes rising from the ground, Uchiha Gin ignored the razor-sharp bones lacerating his flesh and rushed like a madman toward the spot where his aunt had been buried. Charging right alongside him was Uchiha Tajima.

Both men ignored the fresh wounds opening across their bodies, tearing at the surrounding bone pillars with their bare hands. Even as a shred of desperate hope lingered in their hearts, the reality before them shattered their minds completely.

The gentle and virtuous woman usually found at home had now stopped breathing. Several bone spikes had pierced straight through her delicate frame from bottom to top. The children beside her had not been spared either; their young lives had all been snuffed out by the merciless forest of bones.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Uchiha Tajima completely broke down. The wife he loved most and his young children had been cruelly robbed of their lives in the blink of an eye.

The agonizing, heart-rending shock caused his vision to blur. A massive surge of cold, malevolent chakra erupted from deep within his brain, and the three tomoe in his eyes began to spin at a dizzying speed.

His overwhelming grief catalyzed the evolution of his Sharingan. As the tomoe spun faster and faster, they eventually fused together, transforming into a pinwheel-shaped pattern.

"Hahahaha! Finally, you too get to feel the agony of losing your dearest loved ones!"

Seeing Uchiha Tajima drop to his knees and wail in utter despair, Uchiha Yao clutched the clay jar in her arms and burst into frantic, maniacal laughter, tears streaming down her face.

"Mangyou, kill Uchiha Tajima."

Wiping away the tears at the corner of her eyes, Uchiha Yao issued her command.

Kaguya Kousuke, still manipulated by Mangyou, obeyed without hesitation. With a single hand, he generated another bone spear, preparing to pierce clean through the dazed and broken Uchiha Tajima.

"Patriarch, watch out!"

Several wind-shrouded kunai came hurtling through the air, forcing the bone-wielding Kaguya Kousuke to retreat. Panting heavily, Uchiha Yan finally arrived on the scene. Taking in the horrific carnage before him, he sucked in a sharp breath.

Especially upon seeing the lifeless body of Uchiha Tajima's wife—whom he had watched grow up since childhood—his aged eyes ignited with a chilling, murderous intent.

Before Yan could make a move, the equally shattered Uchiha Gin slowly raised his head. Within his scarlet eyes, only a single tiny black dot remained, spinning at blinding speed in the depths of his pupils.

[Amaterasu]

A mass of black flames, rivaling the size of a Great Fireball Jutsu, instantly engulfed Kaguya Kousuke's entire body.

Having anticipated this, Mangyou forced Kaguya Kousuke to envelop his body in a thick white shell of bone armor via the Dead Bone Pulse, shedding it like a cicada sloughing its skin just in time to evade the fatal blow.

"Mangyou, return."

Seeing that Uchiha Gin had regained his composure and that Uchiha Yan had arrived for backup, Uchiha Yao achieved her objective and immediately ordered Mangyou to withdraw.

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on here?"

Awakening from his trance as if from a dream, Kaguya Kousuke felt a sharp pain in his arm and realized his entire right arm was gone, severed right down to the shoulder. Surrounded by a forest of his own bone spikes, he was completely bewildered and had no idea what had just happened.

"Secondary Tsukuyomi."

A cold voice echoed directly by his ear. As he looked up once more, his vision was filled with a crimson moon descending straight toward him.