Isui did not need his father's approval to validate himself. He would do that on his own with his strength. He would not rely on his father to guide him. He would forge his way and become a great shinobi - a great man - in his rights and protect those dear to him beyond his last breath.
He would make it this creature's hell, staying in his mind. Let's make that thing to feel the wrath of his counterattack, he swore as he felt the heat rising in his veins, dispelling the sting of coldness from his heart, his soul, and his body.
He smirked and concentrated on the seething fury in himself. It strengthened his mind and unveiled the truth of the situation.
The man in the black walked in a straight line through the abyss. Now, the thing barely resembled his father anymore. The black spiked hair he sooner had identified as his father's was gone, and in its place was a black hood. A lilac aura was surrounding the figure.
Every time Isui blinked, it became less and less human-like and could be more compared to a weightless creature gliding without direction, yanking Isui along with him like a chained dog.
The force made him struggle not to misstep and probably was designed to keep his brain occupied. It seemed the creature had recognized his change of heart and given up persuading Isui by dangling the image of his father in front of him. It wanted to keep him in line by sheer force since Isui had rejected the temptation and uncovered its trickery, making him walk through nothingness, wanting to break his mind this way.
Isui stopped walking, only to regret it. Blinding, hot pain shot through his spiritual body. He resumed walking, speeding up until the pain was gone again.
They were in his mind space. Isui repeated the thought over and over in his head. He needed to control it to his advantage and cast the virus infecting it off.
Isui spotted a ghostly blue string attached to his abdomen that blended halfway into a violet one and ended in the hand of the unknown figure. Not wasting any time, he gripped it.
A rush of rainbow flashed before his eyes as pictures appeared. It was the outside world, he was sure of it.
Isui's vision split from his apex through his nose down to his chin as his cognition ripped apart like the welded-together foliages of a pack of chips.
What had been a hazy mist of pictures from the world around him converted on the left side into a long back tunnel. On its end, he saw a clear image of Boruto's face. It was so bright that it hurt like a needle piercing his eye. He could see his brother's mouth moving.
In front of the purple mass
"Punch me!" He called. His voice scraped the flesh of his throat, leaving a burn. Isui was past the fear of being burned.
"The pain helps. Do not hold back."
The blackness thickened and closed the window of light and color. Boruto's face faded away like the screen of a gaming console going into a timeout after being neglected for more than ten minutes.
Isui concentrated back onto the bluish string in front of him. It resembled glass and was as thin as a fishing line. At first glance, he saw nothing that helped him expose more about it. Isui smirked. He was a Uchiha. He was not out of options. Yet.
This was his head space they were in. He concentrated and activated his Sharingan.
The string now looked more like a river full of glimmering blue particles that emerged from his stomach and traveled to the creature's hand, where the energy merged with the creature's chakra system.
It is sucking his chakra away, like a parasite its host. Isui had to cut the line. Losing too much chakra was dangerous. It was like the life force of all living beings. His life force.
It may control his mortal body, but the parasite would not enslave his spirit to its cause. The fires of hell would ascend from the earth before he let his future get perverted by that thing. Having found his resolution, Isui engaged in a war of tug over his chakra and subsequently over himself. He gripped the string tight. He did not care about the outer world. His friends would keep him contained. Isui had to rescue himself.
Apparently, the creature had never played tug of war.
Triumpf filled him as the string became smaller and smaller before his red eyes. Then it snapped.
The violet mist became thicker, but Isui did not care about it. He could see the beastie of Charka in all its shapeless glory. His body moved through the haze. A kunai appeared in Isui's hand. The creature twirled around a white porcelain mask swaying in the air.
Swipe.
Isui uppercut the mask, shattering it into pieces. His sharingan was met with distorted pupilless yellow gleaming eyes before the creature turned and fled.
What a scary cat, he thought.
Isui's red eyes followed the now four-legged creature. It disappeared in a stream of light as if it created a portal out of his mind. His fury waned. He was alone. Lord of his own mind space. Feeling accomplished, he dipped back in satisfaction. Isui knew the next time he would open his eyes, he would be back in the real world and feel whole again.
Isuis eyes shot open. The eyelids stretched so wide that the black lashes attached to them almost touched Isui's eyebrows. His crimson stare was smoldering like the rarest of bloody sunsets over the wasteland of Iwagakure. The black pupils were small in each iris. Two dots were spinning clockwise around them.
Boruto, Shikadai, and Inojin signed simultaneously in relief and smiled as they helped Isui sit back up. They watched him fall unconscious the next second. An unspoken "Thank you" etched on his lips.