Hikari Uchiha in Animeverse

The moment she heard that sharp clack sound, Uchiha Hikari froze in her tracks— 

He's here! 

The King General was nearby, just as she'd suspected! 

As she scanned her surroundings, Genji Chika, already battered and bruised, lifted his head again. A surge of immense power erupted from his slender frame, and he lunged at Hikari! 

Hikari darted back a few steps, dodging his attack, her eyes locking with his. 

In that instant, the delicate boy's gaze turned as menacing as a vengeful Onryō. His dark golden eyes shimmered with intricate, mandala-like golden patterns. 

"*Word Spirit: Dream Tapir!*" 

The Dream Tapir, a dangerous ability tied to the White King's bloodline, wasn't listed in the human Word Spirit catalog. It was rumored to create a mental prison like a nightmare, trapping the victim's soul. If you believed you died in the dream, your real body would follow suit. 

At the same moment… 

Hikari's own eyes flared with a strange pattern—not golden mandalas, but the black, spinning tomoe of a great windmill. 

"*Genjutsu: Tsukuyomi!*" 

The two stood face-to-face, both plunging into a dreamworld. 

In that fleeting moment, on a hillside nearly two kilometers away, a hidden sniper pulled the trigger of an AS50 rifle. 

Bang! 

A dark red bullet streaked from the barrel, crossing 1,500 meters in under a second, whistling through the air with deadly precision, aimed straight at Uchiha Hikari, who stood before Chika! 

This was a carefully planned assassination. 

From the start, the Fierce Ghost Clan's heavy artillery, mercury smoke bombs, and even Chika hyped up on evolution drugs were just decoys—smoke and mirrors to set up the real strike. 

All of it was to create an opening for the sniper, hidden over a kilometer away, to fire this fatal shot. 

Word Spirit: Winter. 

With this ability, the sniper could lower their breathing and blood flow to reptilian levels, sustaining only the bare minimum to stay alive. Parts of their body went numb, leaving just the muscles needed to pull the trigger. Until the shot was fired, no one could sense their presence. 

And now… 

The dark red bullet—Fifth Element, Philosopher's Stone—rocketed from the barrel! 

The sniper could already picture Hikari's heart pierced clean through. 

But… 

"*Susano'o!*" 

Without warning, a crimson aura flared into existence mid-air! 

Even with both "Uchiha Hikari" and Chika locked in their dreamworlds, Susano'o activated in a flash, morphing into its second form—a towering, fleshy giant over ten meters tall! 

Crack— 

The dark red bullet slammed into Susano'o's armor with ferocious force. 

But from the moment it made contact, its momentum plummeted, like a piece of chalk smashing against a stone wall. In mere seconds, it crumbled into a pile of dark red crystal dust, sliding off Susano'o's surface, leaving only a faint white scratch, barely visible. 

Only then did a second Uchiha Hikari appear at the head of Susano'o. 

Or rather, she reverted from a thumb-sized miniature form back to her full size. 

That's right. 

The Hikari inside Susano'o was her real body! 

The "Hikari" fighting Chika was a Shadow Clone infused with half her chakra. 

Just like the King General's scheme, everything Hikari had done was a decoy to lure him out. Before she'd even stepped out of the car, she'd created a Shadow Clone, while her real body shrank with the Mini Bracelet, took to the skies with the Sky Dance Technique, and surveyed the battlefield from above. 

She didn't know if the King General was absent or hiding with some trick, but even after ten minutes of fighting, she hadn't spotted him. 

Not until Chika unleashed Dream Tapir. 

In that moment, Hikari caught a faint, almost imperceptible killing intent. She swooped down to her clone's side and activated Susano'o. 

The Philosopher's Stone was a dragon-slaying alchemical weapon, but a sniper bullet traveling at three times the speed of sound could still shred a flesh-and-blood body. If that shot had hit her clone's heart or head, it might've forced the clone to dispel. 

And now… 

"Game over." 

Hikari lifted her head from within Susano'o, tracing the bullet's trajectory to a hillside over a kilometer away. A bright smile spread across her pale face. 

"Found you… King General!" 

In the next instant, her figure, wrapped in Susano'o, shot into the sky! 

"!?" 

The sniper's eyes widened in shock, firing again. 

But in his panic, the shots went wild. Even if he'd stayed calm, it wouldn't have mattered—against a target moving near the speed of sound, shielded by meters-thick chakra armor, even a howitzer would struggle to land a killing blow. 

Mere seconds later, Hikari landed on the lush green hillside, her eyes locking onto the sniper. 

A face hidden behind a Noh mask. 

The moment their gazes met, the windmill pattern in Hikari's eyes spun again. 

"*Engraved Tsukuyomi!*" 

Minutes later, Hikari crouched on the hillside, staring at the "King General," now reduced to a limbless torso. She reached out, tugged at his chin, and yanked at the mask. 

"Huh, this mask is really stuck to his face? Can't even peel it off without ripping his skin." 

"Ew, he's even drooling. Gross…" 

She'd just used Yasaka Magatama to forcefully probe the "King General's" memories. 

The results? Disappointing. 

This guy was just a shadow warrior, a disposable pawn for this assassination. He wasn't the real Fierce Ghost Clan leader. His mind held barely any useful intel—less than what Tachibana Masamune knew. 

His bloodline was weak too, with only a low-tier Word Spirit: Winter. 

Still, not a total loss. 

Word Spirit: Winter, paired with his professional sniper skills and the AS50 rifle, made for a solid package. Plus, there was an unused Philosopher's Stone bullet. Hikari planned to pack it all up and keep it for herself. 

As the price for her memory probe, the shadow warrior's brain was fried, leaving him a drooling husk. 

After confirming there was nothing more to gain, Hikari's blade flashed, slicing the "King General" in half. Leaving the mangled corpse behind, she took off again with the Sky Dance Technique, returning to the battlefield. 

Back at the fight, her Shadow Clone and Chika's duel had ended. 

Chika stood frozen in place, his expression blank—neither crying nor smiling, like a puppet with cut strings. 

"…What's up with him?" Hikari asked her clone, puzzled. 

"He shut down," the clone replied curtly. 

"Huh?"