Chapter 373: Sasuke’s second free attempt

Sasuke’s second free attempt

Just when Amaterasu's black flames were about to appear, a small piece of ice formed between Sasuke and Yuna, blocking Sasuke's view.

Black flames engulfed the ice piece, but one of Yuna's ice chains pierced into it before it could melt, sending hundreds of minuscule seals into the ice.

The burning piece of ice started glowing, and moments later, the black flames were sucked into the ice while the ice clump turned into a perfectly round, transparent sphere with a tiny black ember burning inside it.

While Sasuke was utterly dumbfounded that his Amaterasu was blocked so effortlessly, Yuna grabbed the still floating sphere and started inspecting it before nodding in approval.

"Instant Amaterasu? Or maybe, One-Shot Amaterasu? Meh, since it can only be used once, I'm not interested in giving it a proper name. Besides that, are you interested in starting a business, Sasuke? I'm sure that there are quite a few shinobi out there that are interested in a one-time-use tool that engulfs the target in Amaterasu's flames when thrown at someone."

Sasuke opened his mouth, kept the position for a short moment, and then closed it again. He had no idea what he was supposed to say to what he had just witnessed.

Naturally, Yuna was not someone who needed the other person to actually answer her questions to hold a conversation, so she happily continued talking.

"Nah, that won't work out. Since these require my ice and your eyes to make, we would have to spend time together making more, and there are like hundreds of things I would rather do."

While Yuna was talking to herself, Sasuke managed to get out of his stupor and decided to resume his attack. Yuna might have blocked his Amaterasu, but he could still feel more power dwelling in his eyes, which meant that his confidence and arrogance were still burning brightly.

He used Amaterasu yet again, but this time, his other eye got involved as well and directly manipulated the black flames to spread out and surround Yuna's current position.

Yuna sighed deeply when she saw Sasuke continuing his assault. If he had stopped, she would have been willing not to count this as his second attempt, but that chance was out of the window now.

Ice started rising around Yuna, contesting with Amaterasu's flames. Amaterasu was a fire that could burn everything, but Yuna's ice had a similar feature. Just like Amaterasu, it kept growing endlessly until everything was frozen. Three years ago, after Yuna killed Danzo, Tsunade feared that the snowstorm Yuna left behind would never stop growing, and she was actually correct with her assumption.

So, right now, endlessly burning flames and endlessly freezing ice were clashing with each other, pushing back and forth without the other party gaining any ground.

However, despite seemingly being of equal strength, Yuna's ice was created through her will alone, while Sasuke actually had to sacrifice some of his visual prowess to start his fire, so it was evident that Sasuke couldn't continue like this.

He unsheathed his sword and approached Yuna at high speed, ducking and diving through the clashing fire and ice while fully activating his curse seal, causing Yuna's eyes to widen in surprise.

'Damn, the pattern in his eyes actually turned heart-shaped after transforming!'

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[Really? Really!? Are you seriously pretending that this has nothing to do with you right now?]

'*Cough* Sorry about that.'

Sasuke slashed down his sword, but Yuna blocked it easily with an ice sword that materialized out of nowhere, and moments later, the duo had already clashed dozens of times.

"Really, Sasuke? Swordsmanship? Against me of all people?"

"It seems to be working rather well. I don't see you handling me as easy as your words make it out to be."

"Is that how you perceived our clashes? Very well then."

Yuna's sword started changing mid-clash, becoming longer, bigger and covered with an intricate network of finely carved ornaments. The moment Yuna and Sasuke's swords separated, Sasuke could instantly feel that something was wrong.

While previously he could easily follow and predict the movement of Yuna and her sword, now, everything was obscured. It felt like everything around Yuna was captured by his Sharingan's abilities except Yuna herself. All those tiny movements his Sharingan would usually capture, process, and remember no longer pooled into his mind.

"As if a baby's eyes could trace my swordsmanship."

Before Sasuke could understand what Yuna meant, she moved again, seemingly not faster nor stronger than she previously did, but despite that, Sasuke was instantly driven into a corner. Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

Strong shinobi relied on predicting their enemy's movements even if they didn't have the Sharingan to help them, so now that Sasuke couldn't read Yuna's actions at all, he had to react the moment he saw Yuna move, which was usually already too late.

Reading and predicting your enemy's actions heavily depended on the experience of the people fighting. Naturally, someone with about three to four years of actual combat experience like Sasuke stood absolutely no chance against Yuna.

And so, bloody gashes kept appearing on Sasuke's body, every little cut reducing his confidence and arrogance a little more. Additionally, the fact that Yuna's clothes were unruffled while she had a leisurely smile on her face didn't help improve Sasuke's condition either.

Another clash happened, but instead of continuing the fight, Yuna and Sasuke separated and stood opposite each other.

"Well, you can always put away your weapon and accept your beating, Sasuke."

Sasuke's frown deepened when he heard Yuna's words. Considering the mess with Itachi, he didn't have any time to think about his current situation yet. But now that he had an idle moment to think about it, something certainly was weird.

'I attacked her with the intent to kill, but it seems like she is entirely unbothered by that. Heck, she even knocked me out after my first attack, so she had all the chances in the world to kill me for trying to kill her. Why didn't she do it? Is there another promise between big brother and her?'

Yuna noticed the gears in Sasuke's head turning and patiently waited for him to finish his thoughts, and a few seconds later, Sasuke opened his mouth.

"When I attacked you the first time, you said something about the first attempt, and after I attacked you the second time, you mentioned a second attempt. What is that about? Did you make another deal with Itachi?"

Yuna nodded in acknowledgment after hearing Sasuke's words.

"Correct! Since I knew you would try to get your revenge on me as well and would very likely attack me the moment you see me, I gave Itachi another promise. Since me killing you would defeat the purpose of Itachi's request, I promised him that I would allow you two attempts to get your revenge against me without any consequences. Obviously, you are currently on your second attempt."

Sasuke widened his eyes in surprise when he heard Yuna's words before gritting his teeth in anger. After all, Yuna's words pretty much meant that she wasn't worried about Sasuke trying to kill her at all and instead saw it as something she could easily handle.

"In other words, you perceive me as no threat at all. Even though I am after your life, you are willing to let me go simply because you do not believe I could do anything against you?"

A kind smile appeared on Yuna's face as she answered Sasuke's question.

"Yes."

"I WILL KILL YOU!!!"

Sasuke's anger burst forth as his hatred for Yuna increased even further.

"SUSANOO!!!"

A chakra rib cage started forming around Sasuke as both of his eyes started bleeding like crazy. Then, two bone arms appeared, closely followed by a skeleton head, creating a complete upper torso entirely made out of bones around Sasuke.

When Yuna saw that, she nodded her head with a satisfied smile on her face.

"So it was Susanoo and not Susan, huh? That name is still not to my taste, but I guess it's better than Susan."

-

Yuna eyed the skeletal structure surrounding Sasuke with quite a bit of interest. Although she had previously seen Itachi use it, it gave off a totally different feeling now that she was facing it directly.

Unaware of Yuna's thoughts, Sasuke resumed his attack and charged towards Yuna, his skeleton armor following each of his movements.

He smashed his hand down to instantly squash Yuna, but before his hand could reach Yuna, a dome of ice formed above her, blocking the strike.

"Ohh, not bad at all. You became significantly stronger and even a little faster just by activating your armor."

Sasuke ignored Yuna's words and moved his other hand, trying to grab Yuna to squish her. He succeeded in his endeavor, but when he tried to squeeze Yuna to death, he knew that she dodged his attack, as the Yuna he was holding turned into ice that covered his hand.

"Incredible power, but just as always, it's useless if it can't hit."

Sasuke swiped Susanoo's arm toward where Yuna's voice was coming from, smashing it into another ice wall. Although cracks appeared on the wall, in the end, it blocked Sasuke's attack.

Yuna casually landed on the shoulder of Sasuke's skeletal frame and shook her head.

"Simply increasing your power won't be enough to defeat me, Sasuke."

Yet again, Sasuke tried smashing Yuna into bits, but before his hand could reach her, she had already vanished from his shoulder.

"Too slow."

"STOP RUNNING AWAY!!! FACE ME, COWARD!!!"

Sasuke's anger increased further as nerves and muscle tissue slowly covered Susanoo's body. His whole body was screaming in pain, with his eyes being especially bad, but he refused to back down.

"Coward? What a peculiar insult to use against a shinobi, but I will allow it."

A massive ice spear crashed into Sasuke's Susanoo, causing a trickle of blood to flow out of his mouth due to the short moment of extra pressure the attack caused him.

"Come, Sasuke, I will show you what it means to fight me while trapped inside my domain."

For a split second, some semblance of rationality reappeared on Sasuke's face when Yuna mentioned her domain. He looked around the room and noticed, to his surprise, that all the black flames were gone, and the only thing that remained was a seemingly endless ice tundra.

"Where am I? Is this still the same room?"

"It is, but now, everything is covered in my ice. You should have paid more attention, Sasuke. Now, you are already in the stomach of the beast, and there is no longer any getting out."

Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise when he heard Yuna's voice coming directly from behind him. He wanted to quickly spin around and attack her with Susanoo's outstretched arm, but before the attack could hit, an ice pillar smashed into his back, sending him flying through the room and ultimately crashing him into one of the frozen walls.

Sasuke coughed out some blood, and the muscles of his Susanoo faded after a short moment, but before it could vanish entirely, Sasuke regained the grip on his consciousness and pumped even more power into his eyes.

He wanted to get up and continue fighting, but he noticed, to his surprise, that he couldn't move. He glanced at Susanoo's arms and saw that they were actually frozen to the wall and that the ice was slowly encroaching its whole body.

"Shit, [Inferno Style: Flame Control]"

Black flames burst forth all over Susanoo's body, freeing him from the ice and allowing him to stand back up again.

His gaze wandered through the room to locate Yuna. However, instead of hiding like she previously did, she still stood at her previous location, eyeing Sasuke with indifference while leisurely having her arms crossed in front of her chest.

A shiver went through Sasuke's spine as Yuna's purple eyes seemed to pierce through his very being directly into his soul.

"Come, Sasuke."

For a split second, Sasuke could feel fear creep us his spine due to the eerie feeling Yuna was giving him, but moments later, he squashed it and prepared another attack.

By now, Sasuke's Susanoo had completely formed its muscle tissue and was currently getting covered by a layer of skin, quickly followed by a layer that appeared to be clothes. Additionally, items that seemed to be a bow and arrows formed in its hands.

Another point that should be mentioned was that Sasuke's Susanoo currently possessed clearly female features. Although nothing much could be seen yet, the two small mountains protruding out of its chest were clear indicators of that.

Sasuke nocked the arrow into the bow and shot it at Yuna, who was still unmoving. Nine chains burst out of her back and clashed head-on with the arrow, resulting in a powerful explosion.

"A powerful move. Without my chains, I might not be able to stop it head-on."

The dust settled, revealing Yuna's nine chains holding Sasuke's arrow.

"But in the end, it's useless."

Sasuke gritted his teeth as another arrow appeared in his hand. He could already feel his consciousness fading away, but he was unwilling to surrender no matter what.

He nocked the next arrow into his bow and shot it towards Yuna. Additionally, some more blood started pouring out of his eyes, resulting in the arrow being set ablaze with black flames.

"*Sigh* you are really determined to lose all of your eyesight in this fight, huh?"

Yuna's voice was still unbothered despite the dangerous attack flying towards her. Her ice chains vanished as her sword rematerialized in her hands.

"Since you are determined to fight to your last breath, I will allow you to experience it. Your death."

Killing intent flooded the room and crashed into Sasuke, almost causing him to faint while Yuna slashed down her sword resulting in a massive ice slash colliding with Sasuke's arrow, cutting it in half instantly while extinguishing the black flames.

Sasuke's eyes bulged out when he saw Yuna's attack easily overpowering his own. He wanted to move out of the way, but his whole body was in so much pain that he couldn't move at all, so all he could do was hope that Susanoo's armor would protect him.

Unfortunately, the moment the sword slash came into contact with Susanoo, it stopped for a split second before moving forward unhindered, directly slicing through Sasuke's body vertically.

However, while the Susanoo was split vertically, Sasuke's body remained intact.

"I only cut what I want to cut. Did you enjoy experiencing death, Sasuke?"

Despite having no dangerous physical wounds, Sasuke's mind was in turmoil. After all, he was certain he would've died just now. His Sharingan deactivated by itself, as his whole body started trembling in fear.

Although that wasn't Sasuke's first life and death experience, this was the first time that he genuinely thought that he was going to die and that nothing could change that.

He didn't even notice that Yuna was walking towards him as he was staring at his hands, which he was repeatedly opening and closing as if he wanted to confirm whether his body was still capable of moving.

Moments later, the flat side of Yuna's sword touched Sasuke's chin, making him flinch and forcing him to look up.

The moment Yuna saw the fear in Sasuke's eyes, a deranged smile appeared on her face as she licked her lips in delight.

"Ahh~ pride and arrogance turned into fear and terror. Is there anything more delicious in this world?"

Sasuke's whole body trembled in fear when he saw Yuna's expression and heard her words, and moments later, he lost consciousness.

"Well, well, I wonder if there will be a third try?"

[At least not until he gets another power-up.]

"Indeed."