After years, Uchiha Tajima's Mangekyo Sharingan blazed again, its windmill pattern spinning, icy pupil power purging the black mist from his other eye, reclaiming his body.
"Kotoamatsukami, huh? Troublesome ability," Yao said, shaking his numbed hand, recoiling from the backlash. Retreating, the jailer he possessed eyed Tajima's pattern. "Phew."
Exhaling, Tajima flexed his reclaimed body, his eerie eyes meeting Yao's unflinchingly. "Your tricks are useless before these eyes."
Mastering Kotoamatsukami anew, Tajima raised his blade proudly, ready to end Yao. "I planned to free you after this, let you reunite with Gin."
Advancing, he spoke calmly, a decision made long ago. Yet Yao, restless in confinement, had tried turning Gin against him.
"Should I grovel in gratitude?" Yao's voice echoed mockingly from all directions as the jailer melted into shadows, dodging.
"Rat in the gutter," Tajima remarked, unfazed by the lost target.
"To avenge Kin, I'd sell my soul to demons," Yao hissed, half-emerging from Tajima's shadow, driving a dagger at his back.
Clang! Without turning, Tajima parried, the clash's force disarming the jailer, who sank back into shadows.
"As long as shadows exist, you'll never catch me," Yao taunted, peeking from a tree's shade, smug.
"Shadows, huh?" Tajima's eyes glinted, sheathing his blade.
"Too late for regret. Drown in Wangliang's darkness!" Yao sneered. The ground's shadows writhed, merging into sticky tendrils, surging toward Tajima.
"How can a firefly's glow rival the moon's radiance?" Facing the tidal shadows, Tajima stood unshaken, eyes lowered, voice proud. "Witness Kotoamatsukami's glory—the ultimate genjutsu…"
As he spoke, Yao, in the shadows, froze, pinned by an unseen gaze. Looking up, he saw a Mangekyo-patterned moon pierce the cloudy sky, its boundless light shredding the clouds above.
"What's this?!" Panic crept into Yao's voice. Ancient texts on Kotoamatsukami never mentioned this. The situation was slipping from his grasp.
[Kotoamatsukami: Radiance]
Tajima's right eye flashed gold, the sky's beams illuminating the battlefield. Golden swords rained, obliterating Yao's shadows, the tendrils melting like spring snow, vanishing swiftly.
"Huff, huff…" As the last shadow faded, the moon retreated into clouds, freeing Yao from its weight.
Light gone, Yao lay pale, gasping, his pupil construct decimated by the golden radiance.
"You had this up your sleeve. I underestimated you," Yao rasped, sprawled, his lone eye complex, voice frail, as if near death.
"Teacher…" Tajima, victorious, softened, unsure of the rift that fueled Yao's hatred. For old times' sake, he approached, seeking last words.
"Tajima, you…" Yao, as if expecting this, flashed a hidden black glint, speaking shakily.
"What?" Tajima, guard down, leaned in.
"You're not ready!" Yao's eye erupted in black light, his lucid eye glowing red, three tomoe forming a triangular pattern, unleashing a dark pupil force.
Tajima tensed, cold sweat breaking, too late to dodge. A black-and-white figure shot from his shadow, slamming a dark hand against his skull.
"Jie jie jie, no escape now," Wangliang's voice cackled. Turning, Tajima saw the jailer, now crisscrossed with black, eyes mocking, reveling in revenge.
Having just unleashed Kotoamatsukami's alternate form, Tajima's chakra couldn't sustain another Mangekyo use. The sneak attack exposed a mental chink.
"Got you, heh heh," Wangliang seized Tajima's lapse, detonating a long-buried trigger.
Black sludge activated deep in Tajima's mind, unleashing a torrent of negative emotions—rage, darkness—overwhelming his brain. The black Wangliang detached from the gray jailer, seeping into Tajima as sludge.
Twelve years ago, after the clan invasion, Tajima's eyes entered a long cooldown, his weakest moment. Wangliang had planted a sliver of himself, biding time for this explosion—the source of the malice Gin once sensed in Tajima.
"Uchiha Gin! Why didn't you save them?!" Possessed, Tajima raved, glaring at Gin, memories of his wife and child's deaths twisted by Wangliang into hatred for Gin.
"Heh heh, yes, kill them all!" Wangliang's face surfaced on Tajima, urging him to slaughter the rest.
"Wangliang! Defying my orders?" Yao, who'd faked near-death to strike, sensed the script veering. Staggering up, his lone eye questioned the sludge-wrapped Tajima.
"Who's Wangliang? Your Wangliang's right there," the black face on Tajima sneered, now in the strongest body, feeling invincible.
Yao, alarmed, turned to see the gray jailer silently in his shadow, lifeless. "Wangliang, who is he?!"
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