9: Yin Release

9: Yin Release

In an instant, the calm of the night was disturbed.

BOOM!

Crashing in the middle of the clearing, two figures, like blurry smudges, collided repeatedly with each other, making the wind swirl, swaying the nearby grass and stirring the tall trees around.

Fists, kicks, elbows, and knee strikes—agile, fast, and precise movements—were executed without hesitation in barely a breath.

Eyes as red as blood glowed intensely as their bearer easily blocked and deflected every attempt to reach her.

'he's strong,' a thought and assessment that came to her mind after exchanging more than a dozen moves against her opponent.

'But not strong enough.' Sharpening her gaze, the girl did not hesitate, and determined to end this senseless fight, she stepped forward, causing the ground beneath her feet to sink, and her blurry figure appeared in front of Sukuna in an instant.

Seeing this, Sukuna didn't waver either and lunged without fear, beginning an even fiercer and closer exchange than before.

'She's reading me completely.' The pink-haired boy smiled with excitement as he saw and felt how each movement, each punch and kick, was predicted with absolute ease.

It was like a chaotic dance where Sukuna tried every possible way to land a hit, and the Uchiha simply deflected and blocked each attempt as if it were a pre-rehearsed routine for both of them. Nothing he did seemed to faze her in the slightest, and Sukuna couldn't have been happier about it.

"If this is all you can do, then this fight ends here," she said in a cold voice as she blocked his next strike and, without hesitation, counterattacked without a shred of mercy.

Sukuna barely saw the counterattack that nearly knocked out several of his teeth. In swift and practical movements, the girl unleashed a flurry of punches, elbows, and kicks on his body, making his insides churn uncomfortably.

He tried to block them, of course, but his defense seemed nonexistent in the eyes of the red-eyed girl.

"Ugh!" Sukuna spat out a stream of blood, his body recoiling with his feet digging two trenches several meters long into the ground until he finally stopped, crashing into a tree, splintering its wood into shards and raising a cloud of dust.

The Uchiha exhaled the air from her lungs slowly as she clenched her fists and looked in Sukuna's direction. Was that it? She couldn't help but feel deeply disappointed for some reason, while that frustration inside her seemed to worsen even more due to the dissatisfaction of such a brief exchange.

She should feel happy. Being so strong, being the strongest, was her goal, after all.

But for some reason, she didn't feel content.

Before she could delve further into those thoughts, a broken laugh filled the clearing, interrupting her and making her raise an eyebrow.

"Ha-hahaha! This is exactly what I was looking for!" Sukuna stood up with a leap as if the damage he had just taken hadn't bothered him in the slightest.

"You…" The girl snapped out of her surprise and once again took a combat stance, ready to continue the fight with an almost imperceptible glint of excitement in her eyes.

"Izumi." Her voice came almost as a whisper, making Sukuna raise an eyebrow.

"My name is Uchiha Izumi."

"Oh? So I finally get the honor of knowing your name, and here I was thinking you wouldn't say it," he couldn't help but mock, completely ignoring the fact that he had done something similar to Anko not too long ago.

For her part, Izumi looked Sukuna up and down. Although he looked somewhat battered on the outside, she could tell he didn't seem genuinely injured, at least not to the level she had expected after hitting him the way she did.

One must know she hadn't held back in her blows at all.

"You're strong," she finally voiced her thoughts aloud.

"Of course. You're not the only 'genius' around here, you know?" Sukuna wasn't humble in the least and responded confidently.

"Arrogance is dangerous," the girl frowned, but before she could continue speaking, Sukuna interrupted her.

"Only for those who don't have the strength to back it up. But let's leave the idle talk aside. I'd appreciate it if you stopped wasting your chakra in vain trying to use genjutsu on me. You should've already realized it's useless."

Genjutsu, a ninja art undoubtedly interesting but completely fruitless when it came to Sukuna. After all, even if he didn't have an elegant dojutsu like the Sharingan, he still possessed his spiritual perception, which gave him the ability not only to sense but also to see the chakra surrounding him with perfect clarity.

"How?" Izumi couldn't help but ask, true curiosity in her eyes. After all, no one had ever been able to escape her genjutsu before.

"Maybe someday I'll tell you, who knows," Sukuna shrugged before raising one of his hands in front of him, smiling mysteriously as he formed something resembling the tiger hand seal.

Izumi immediately went on guard upon seeing the chakra in Sukuna's body begin to concentrate, a clear sign that a jutsu was about to be unleashed.

"Ever since I heard about the Uchiha Clan and the Hyuga Clan, I've been thinking of a way to counter their famous dojutsus. I'm still not entirely sure about the Byakugan, but thanks to this little exchange, I think my idea should be useful against your Sharingan."

A way to counter the dojutsu? Izumi almost let her father's influence take over, and a mocking laugh nearly escaped her lips, but she controlled it and instead carefully observed every move the boy in front of her made.

Regardless of whether it was just a bluff or not, underestimating your opponent was a grave mistake she would never commit.

Seeing her take him seriously and go on full alert, Sukuna smiled in satisfaction.

Normally, he didn't follow the stereotype of announcing the names of his techniques or abilities out loud, but this time he decided to make an exception, not just for the drama but also because he genuinely wanted to show off one of his new "techniques." Though, in reality, they were just his old techniques renamed and adapted to the style of this world.

After all, he was now an aspiring ninja, and his techniques now used chakra. Sukuna really felt it would be inappropriate if he went around calling them cursed techniques or sorcerer's skills.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, or something like that was the saying

Putting all those thoughts aside, Sukuna began circulating his chakra in preparation. He saw Izumi tense up, ready to counterattack at any moment, while he noticed the three tomoe in her eyes spinning rapidly, surely trying to decipher what kind of jutsu he was about to use and without hesitation he decided not to make her wait any longer.

"Yin Release: Simple Domain!."

As those words fell, Izumi couldn't help but widen her eyes in astonishment as she witnessed how, in less than a second, Sukuna's body was enveloped by an invisible barrier that blocked the sight of her sharingan almost completely.

It wasn't as if she had lost sight of him, of course—he was still there, illuminated by the glow of the moon in the sky—but at the same time, his chakra flow had disappeared, hidden behind a veil of shadows.

One of the primary abilities of the Sharingan had been blocked.

Understanding this made the Uchiha girl feel a shock deep to her core, and she unconsciously took a step back. This action let Sukuna realize that his idea had succeeded.

It was simple, really. Though the Simple Domain was originally designed to counter the guaranteed hit of a true Domain Expansion, that didn't mean it couldn't be useful in other ways.

Sukuna had thought a lot about it while doing some research on the Hyuga Clan during his little "visit" to the Konoha General Hospital.

How do you hide from a vision capable of seeing through "everything"?

The answer was simple: by altering and distorting the nature of the surrounding environment, creating a barrier that such vision couldn't penetrate.

And there was no better tool for achieving this than a technique capable of establishing a personal, simple space around the user.

A technique Sukuna, of course, possessed.

"From your reaction, I can see I've succeeded. In that case, it's time for this fight to continue," he said, snapping the Uchiha girl out of her astonishment.

Izumi remained silent for a moment before speaking.

"That jutsu you just used… if I defeat you, I want you to teach it to me."

Oh? Sukuna was surprised. Were they setting terms for the fight now?

Well, having something to gain besides the satisfaction of victory was also a great motivator, and surely the girl would fight even more fiercely because of it.

"Agreed. If you defeat me, I'll teach it to you."

Of course, Sukuna had no intention of losing at all.

"But if I defeat you, you have to promise not to tell anyone." Of course, Sukuna didn't plan to trust her promise just like that, but even so, he felt the need to also set some terms, even if he didn't really care about gaining anything from this.

Izumi seemed to think about it for a few moments before nodding seriously.

"Alright, I won't tell anyone," and she really meant it, something that would undoubtedly be criticized and judged by the most loyal members of the Uchiha clan if this were known.

After all, as the heir to the clan and daughter of the clan leader, it was her duty to protect the clan at all costs. The jutsu she had just witnessed was a complete and clear threat to her bloodline. Killing Sukuna and ensuring that such a jutsu would cease to exist was the path a loyal member of the Uchiha clan would undoubtedly take.

But she wasn't a loyal member of the Uchiha clan. In fact, in her eyes, the clan had begun to seem less and less important.

And if what she feared most actually happened, then this could be a hidden card the village could use against the Uchiha clan in the future.

That's why she didn't plan to lose at all.

"Then let's begin." Sukuna took a step forward, his figure disappeared in a blur, reaching Izumi with a ready punch.

'I can't see his chakra flow but…' the girl dodged the attack and countered with her own strike, which hit the mark, piercing Sukuna's defenses once again.

'Not being able to see his chakra flow doesn't matter if he's still using taijutsu.'

Even though the main ability of the Sharingan had somehow been blocked, the Sharingan could still do more than just see chakra flow. The enhanced perception and reaction speed that her eyes gave her, along with the ability to predict her opponent's movements, were enough to maintain an absolute advantage when it came to taijutsu.

Or at least, it should have been.

Fast, much faster than before, the pink-haired boy twisted his body and struck with a kick that hit Izumi's side directly, making her involuntarily step back as a sharp pain assaulted her.

'How?!' With eyes wide in surprise, she saw Sukuna close the distance and continue attacking. Hastily, she ignored the pain in her side and raised her defense, but this time things seemed to have undergone a qualitative change.

Where before she could block every attack, now, for every blow she avoided, two more pierced through her defenses.

What changed? What did Sukuna do?

His battle style remained the same, but his physical abilities seemed to have taken a significant leap all of a sudden.

'I can't see him,' squinting her eyes, she decided to change her approach and focus on a sense different from any other.

Not many knew, but she had been able to sense chakra in a much more direct way than other ninjas from a very young age. When she curiously asked about this, her father had said that she was a sensor, a ninja who could sense chakra much more clearly than other ninjas.

A skill that had been useful in her early days as a genin but that she soon stopped using in battles in favor of her Sharingan, relegating its use only to reconnaissance tasks or similar ones.

After all, in the middle of a real battle, seeing the chakra of your enemy was much better than just sensing it.

'Is he blocking this too?!' It seemed that the jutsu Sukuna had used not only worked on vision; her chakra perception also seemed unable to reach him.

At least until one of her strikes connected with his body.

'Is this!?'

It was only for a moment, but she was able to sense Sukuna's chakra when their bodies made contact.

Clinging to that sensation, she moved even closer to increase the body-to-body contact.

'Is this why he wanted to block my Sharingan?' With every exchanged blow, Izumi noticed how Sukuna's chakra surrounded his body in a way completely different from anything she had seen or felt before.

Like a completely unknown taijutsu technique, or rather, a completely new type of taijutsu technique.

'He didn't want me to copy this,' he was clever. If she had managed to obtain such an ability combined with her Sharingan, then her strength would have increased instantly by several levels.

'I want it,' she very rarely had such a feeling, normally she was not greedy by nature, but this time she couldn't help a bit of greed from growing inside her.

Whether it was the jutsu that blocked her Sharingan or the taijutsu technique that increased Sukuna's strength and speed by several levels in an instant.

She wanted them because they could make her stronger, because they could bring her even closer to her dream.

To be the strongest of all, to be Hokage.

And to stop all wars and conflicts in this world.

'Huh?' Sukuna blinked in confusion. Why did a thought like that suddenly pass through his mind?

Stop all wars and conflicts in the world? What kind of nonsense was that?

Are you kidding?! If that happened, where would he get all the fun? Without wars and conflicts, where would he find worthy opponents to fight until his body burned with pain and his heart beat with satisfaction?

Where else would he find that thrill that kept him feeling alive?

This time it was Izumi's turn to blink in confusion. Abruptly, both of them interrupted their intense exchange of blows and took a step back, looking at each other with bewilderment.

'Genjutsu?' For a moment, Sukuna wondered if Izumi had somehow managed to do what should have been impossible.

'No, aside from my spiritual perception, my simple domain is still active. No genjutsu can reach me in such a state.'

Suddenly, a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"I didn't think it was real," it was almost a whisper, but it drew all his attention toward the Uchiha girl.

"Do you know what that was?" At his question, she looked up, hesitating for a moment before speaking.

"My mother once told me that when two first-class ninjas cross fists, they can read each other's minds and know the other's thoughts without saying a single word. It had never happened to me before, so I thought it was just a tale."

At that moment, Izumi could even see that her mother hadn't believed it either.

Sukuna thought about her words. He had the feeling he had heard something like that before but couldn't pinpoint exactly where.

Shrugging, he returned to his combat stance.

"If that's the case, there's no need to keep talking, right? We just need to let our fists do the talking."

To that, the girl agreed. Strange feeling or not, she had a clear goal and wasn't about to give it up.

Thus, their movements resumed in an instant. They clashed again in the middle of the clearing, this time with much more strength and intensity, causing a shockwave to explode, lifting dust and dirt.

Sukuna raised his arm, blocking a precise kick aimed at his face. Then, with quick and measured movements, he deflected a combination of strikes directed at different parts of his body and finally launched a counterattack toward Izumi's side.

But his blow didn't meet flesh. Instead, his target exploded into a cloud of black feathers, revealing a rock that shattered as his fist collided with it.

'Kawarimi?'

With the sound of air being cut as his only warning, the boy spun around sharply, seeing a dozen shurikens speeding toward him.

Without hesitation, he agilely leaped back and fluidly dodged each one, letting them land uselessly in various parts of the clearing.

Zziiii!

'Oh?' Thanks to the moonlight in the sky, Sukuna was barely able to see the reflection of steel wires tightening around him like a spider's web, trapping its prey in a cocoon.

"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Technique!"

The flames came to life with great intensity, a torrent of blazing fire crashed against Sukuna, enveloping his body in an instant and causing the ground beneath his feet to glow red hot.

Boom!

Then an explosion engulfed the area.

Izumi looked at the fire with a frown. She didn't believe for a second that it had been enough, and as if to answer her thoughts, the sound of cracking earth was the only warning she had when the ground beneath her suddenly shattered, and a fist shot up toward her jaw.

The girl's body flew into the air before exploding into a cloud of smoke in the next moment.

'A shadow clone,' Sukuna frowned as he suddenly saw dozens of Izumis appearing around him.

'Multiple shadow clones?'

No, with his spiritual perception active, he could see that these were simple bunshins, spectral images without any substance.

Then why, when blocking the first of her strikes, could he feel it collide against his arm? Counterattacking, his kick passed through the illusory clone's body without causing any harm.

Thus, from all directions, the clones began attacking him, and every time he blocked their strikes, he could feel the weight and impact behind them, but every time he tried to hit back, his attacks simply passed through them as if he were striking air.

The strange exchange lasted only a few seconds until he realized what was happening.

"I found you!" With a wide grin on his face, Sukuna struck one of the clones with his elbow, sending it flying.

"Ugh!" Izumi grunted in frustration as she maneuvered in the air, landing heavily on the ground. When she looked up, it was only to see her bunshins vanish into nothing.

"What an incredible way to use and combine the bunshin and the Body Flicker Technique." Quickly and instantly switching places between illusionary clones to confuse the enemy was undoubtedly something only a Uchiha with a truly strong Sharingan could achieve.

After all, controlling the travel direction of the Body Flicker Technique was quite difficult, and even Sukuna couldn't claim that he would be able to use such a jutsu in the middle of combat with the same skill and fluidity as the girl in front of him.

If it weren't for his spiritual perception, he wouldn't have been able to figure out which one was real and which wasn't.

"Come on! Show me what else you can do!" At his roar, the Uchiha girl's eyes gleamed, and without hesitation, she charged back into the fray, once again engaging in a chaotic dance with Sukuna.

A clash of strength and wills that lasted until the dark night in the sky began to turn orange, and the first rays of sunlight started to strike the leaves of the trees.

The clearing in the forest had long since ceased to exist. Its surroundings had been forcibly altered, with the entire terrain changing in various ways due to the different high-powered and intense attacks that had struck the area throughout the battle.

"Y-you can surrender now," Izumi panted, staggering as she felt the sweat dripping from her face.

"I-I should be saying that to you," Sukuna spat on the ground, and mixed with his saliva and blood was a small broken tooth.

Both, standing across from each other, clearly exhausted, looked at one another with no intention of giving in despite the wounds and fatigue weighing on their bodies.

'She really is as stubborn as a mule,' Sukuna couldn't help but think with satisfaction. This fight had been everything he had been looking for and more. Now, he felt like he could relax for a while before needing another similar battle to calm his thirst for combat.

Sighing, he felt the chakra he had left, which was actually quite little. His natural reserves weren't large to begin with, and the only reason he had lasted so long was because he had occasionally snatched and consumed some of the negative emotions that had been affecting the girl in front of him to replenish his energy.

First-class negative emotions, without a doubt.

Though, he probably shouldn't have done it. The lighter Izumi's negative emotional burden became, the more her fighting spirit and competitiveness seemed to intensify by several degrees, to the point where she even started smiling from time to time during their exchanges of blows.

Something that might have been cute to see if not for those red eyes she bore and the blood covering her face, battered by the fight.

That only made it look creepy.

Shaking his head, he pushed those thoughts aside, deciding it was time to end this.

"I have to thank you. This fight really got my blood pumping. But in the state we're in, there's no point in continuing. Surrender; you can't beat me." In a rare display of kindness, Sukuna offered to end the fight simply.

"No..." The answer, of course, was exactly what he expected.

Seeing that fire of resolve in her eyes, Sukuna couldn't help but remember that feeling, one that had repeated itself several times during their encounter—a strange connection between their spirits that allowed him to understand the thoughts of the girl in front of him, even though they had barely exchanged words.

"To be the strongest, huh?" He couldn't help but feel nostalgic. After all, not so long ago, that had also been his greatest dream, the goal and ideal he had pursued with all his might.

And he had achieved it. He became the strongest sorcerer of all… though it lasted only for a moment.

A dream worth fighting for until death… Sukuna missed having that.

With a sigh, the pink-haired boy let himself fall to the ground, causing dust to rise.

"Huh?" Seeing this, Izumi, who was ready to keep fighting, couldn't help but blink in confusion.

"I'm tired. You win… for now."

Without waiting for a response, the boy simply closed his eyes, sinking into his subconscious, seeking to dream of the past, when his life had purpose.

When he had a reason to fight.

'Is it a trick?' Izumi didn't lower her guard. She waited and waited until she saw Sukuna's breathing become slow and steady, a clear sign that he had fallen asleep.

But what really made her lower her guard was seeing how that "simple domain" disappeared, and her Sharingan was once again able to see the flow of chakra in his body.

"He… gave up?" Comprehending such a fact left her dumbfounded for a moment.

Perhaps others couldn't grasp the significance of such an act, but somehow, she could. After all, through the brief moments when their spirits clashed and that strange connection was formed between them, she understood that for Sukuna, the battle was more than just an act of senseless violence.

It was a way to fill the emptiness in his heart with emotions, a desperate way to feel something other than just darkness.

To keep feeling alive.

"An existence without meaning."

It wasn't a conclusion she had come to on her own, but rather the deepest thought of Sukuna that she could feel through the connection they had formed during their battle.

It was a bitter feeling, a terrifying emptiness—living without truly being able to live.

It would have been utterly hopeless if not for the fact that within him, even amidst all the darkness, there burned a fiery flame. A will that refused to die.

A desire to live so strong that it seemed nothing could extinguish it.

"A purpose"—that was all he needed, and that flame would turn into a fierce wildfire that could sweep through the entire world.

It was dangerous, but at the same time, it opened up a possibility.

'With his help...' Maybe it was just a foolish thought, but Izumi felt that if it was him, perhaps her dream could really come true.

Because in the end, it didn't matter whether it was her or someone else; as long as someone strong enough rose above all others, then without a doubt, the ninja world could be changed—it could be saved.

If Sukuna could hear her thoughts, he would have laughed out loud until he ran out of breath. Him? Change the world? Save it? What a funny joke. In his hands, the world would surely end up in pieces without him even realizing it.

And if Izumi could hear those thoughts, she would have laughed too, though more calmly, while shaking her head.

After all, she didn't believe that someone kind enough to lose a fight he had already won could make the ninja world worse than it already was.

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Note:

A chapter full of interesting things, huh?

First off, the name—I considered different options, including keeping the classic one (even though it would've been strange since it's a masculine name), but I finally decided on one that, while different, isn't too far off.

So, here we have Izumi Uchiha. Don't confuse her with her cousin, who shares the same name.

Secondly, to explain what that "spiritual" connection mentioned so much in the chapter is, I need to give a few examples.

In Jujutsu Kaisen, Itadori Yuji has the innate ability to connect deeply and in strange ways with others (something that, I think, becomes clearer with his "domain expansion," whatever it may be—damn Gege, about to finish the series without telling us anything about it yet).

(this was written before jujutsu kaisen ended so I'll correct my words... Damn Gege for ending the manga without explaining it at all!)

On the other hand, in Naruto, chakra can connect the minds and hearts of people through various means when their chakras "mix" in one way or another (it was never fully explained). 

With this in mind, and the already explained ability of Sukuna to sense negative emotions and, in a way, "devour" them, I thought it would be extremely easy for him to accidentally and unintentionally learn Ninshu (what ninjutsu was originally supposed to be).

Whether that will be a good thing for him or not, I guess we'll find out together.

(I foresee some people asking or pointing out that most sorcerers who know simple domains don't seem able to move while keeping them active. To that, I'd like to say that Gojo was able to move while maintaining his simple domain during his fight with Sukuna (the original), and of course, our Sukuna learned to do the same).

I think I've been writing too many fights lately (both in this and my other series). I hope you enjoyed the exchange because I don't think there will be another fight (at least in this series) for several chapters.

For now, I'll focus on advancing the plot as best as I can. I know many of you are eager for more time skips, but I still have several things to explore before that happens.

I just ask for patience. After all, this series has only just begun, and I don't like to rush things.

comment, share your opinions and criticisms, and leave a like. I'll be reading them. If you find any errors, don't hesitate to point them out so I can correct them as quickly as possible.

remember that You can already find the next chapter of this story on Patreon (patreon.com/EmmaCruzader )All the support received is appreciated ;D