They're grim, nihilistic, and dreadfully ominous. Even when they fight on the side of good, they'll never crack a smile or share in the reward; in short, they're edgelords.
Sasuke, rival to Naruto Uzumaki and the solitary survivor of the Uchiha clan. And Hiei, rival to Yusuke Urameshi and lonely orphan to demons.
The combatants in season six's duodenary fight are both dour anti-heroes, and this angst-laden pessimism is rivaled only by their sheer skill in the ways of esoteric fire and ocular mysticism. Both troubled souls talented in martial arts and illusory combat, Sasuke Uchiha and Hiei will soon come to blows as their powers are gauged and measured in a death battle.
The episode opens on Sasuke Uchiha, born into the Hidden Leaf Village of Konoha. The Uchiha dealt with decades of persecution despite being one of the founding families of the village, having estalished its borders after centuries of warfare that put countless Uchiha shinobi on the front lines. When Kurama, the nine-tailed demon fox, rampaged across Konoha, the Uchiha were conspicuously absent in protecting the village; combined with the knowledge that the clan could control Kurama, the animosity heaped upon the Uchiha grew until the distrust they had been burdened with became a mutual feeling. It was under the leadership of their patriarch Fugaku that the Uchiha laid the groundwork for a coup that would give them control over Konoha. Fugaku's eldest son, Itachi, was made into a double agent on behalf of the Konoha administration and forced to slaughter the Uchiha before they could act on their plans; a small mercy was granted upon Itachi in that he was allowed to spare his younger brother Sasuke. Both the horror of finding his family murdered and Itachi's own provocations sparked a desire for revenge in Sasuke, and the younger Uchiha committed his life to honing his martial prowess until it was by his hand that Itachi faced the consequences of his actions.
Sasuke proved to be as much a prodigy as Itachi, helping him in his quest for vengeance. Even by the time he recieved a formal education in shinobi training, Sasuke was well on his way to mastering the three major disciplines of jutsu: taijutsu, essentially unarmed, hand-to-hand combat; ninjutsu, the art of channeling one's life energy for mystical purposes; and genjutsu, techniques that exploit a foe's nervous system through complex hallucinations. It is with ninjutsu that Sasuke demonstrates the widest array of abilities; able to utilize any of the five elements that ninjutsu is built upon, though he feels most comfortale with fire and lightning-based jutsu. As there have been dozens of ninjutsu techniques that Sasuke has performed, a listing of his more iconic skills would be preferred: the Uchiha survivor can conjure up to eight shadow clones, manipulate fire by breathing, and use lightning jutsu in a number of forms, such as the spherical Chidori and summoning a dragon made of electric energy. An Uchiha ninja's greatest weapon, however, lies not with elemental ninjutsu, but the Sharingan, an optical anomaly triggered in Sasuke's case by the massacre of his entire clan. The Sharingan, manifested by abnormalities in an Uchiha's eyes, enables them to see chakra, the natural energy that flows through all living things; perfectly replicate any technique he sees. This power also enables its user to ensnare their foes within more potent genjutsu illusions, such as endless loops or driving the victim to insanity. On its own merits, the Sharingan is a powerful ability, and to make it even stronger, it can grow into the Mangekyō Sharingan. The exact abilities that an Uchiha is gifted with upon unlocking the Mangekyō Sharingan differ depending on the individual; in Sasuke's case, it enables him to create inextinguishable black flames anywhere within his field of vision, as well as condense his chakra into a familiar that fights on his behalf. Sasuke's journeys across the world and a later infusing of chakra resulted in his Sharingan becoming amplified with a similar power in the Rinnegan. As the Rinnegan traces its roots back to Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, one of the very originators of chakra, Sasuke can tap into it for powers of nearly-godlike proportions. The Rinnegan gifts its holder with further chakra reserves and a sextet of abilities known as the Six Paths; Sasuke has been specifically shown to use the Deva Path's gravity manipulation and the energy draining abilities of the Preta Path.
The single remnant of the Uchiha clan is both a survivor and a warrior, and he has proven himself multiple times over. Sasuke bears a similar skill level to fellow Konoha native Naruto Uzumaki, who can evade attacks heading towards him at lightspeed; given Sasuke can fight Naruto to a standstill, it can be reasonably assumed he can move at similar speeds. In the way of durability, Naruto has survived being hit with jutsu possessing 27 exatons of force behind them. Again, being comparable to him means Sasuke should be able to withstand forces on a similar scale. Still, some of Sasuke's greatest achievements come from the man himself, rather than measuring him to how his contemporaries have fared. Using both the Deva Path and the Mangekyō Sharingan, Sasuke can create numerous planetoids before destroying them all in an explosion that could be seen from space; the energy output of such a blast can be estimated as over 35 teratons, 7 billion times stronger than the largest real world nuclear weapons. In short, the menagerie of accomplishments Sasuke has performed may make him comes across as a shinobi whose skill is faultless; alas, this is not the case. Although the Sharingan enables Sasuke to replicate the moves of other ninja, he has to be able to physically do so himself; anomalies unique to other individuals are out of his grasp as an example. While he theoretically has access to the other four powers of the Six Paths in addition to the Deva and Preta, he has never explicitly used them, making it dubious as to how effectively he could utilize them in a fight. A less specific weakness for Sasuke, one that affects most shinobi, is that while he has vast chakra reserves at his disposal, they are not limitless; many of his strongest techniques put a heavy strain on his chakra, limiting their effectiveness. Throughout all of his journeys, Sasuke worked past these limitations to accomplish his goals; taking Itachi's life, making peace with the tragedies that shaped his life, and eventually found himself starting a family. Though he was unable to achieve happiness in a domestic life, he found a renewed sense of purpose in protecting Konoha as a lone vigilante, giving the Uchiha clan a second chance at life through his hardship.
- Sasuke: If anyone who criticizes my way of life were to come forward, I'd turn around and kill every single one of their loved ones, so that they too could grasp what it's like... (opens his eyes, revealing the Mangekyo Sharingan) ... to experience this hatred of mine.
With Sasuke's analysis complete, the episode moves on to his opponent, Hiei. The very nature of his conception was but a prelude to the tragedies that hounded him his whole life; his mother, member of the all-female Koorime race of ice spirits, had left her isolationist home and bore children with a fire demon. Because of his heritage, Hiei was treated as an outcast and thrown off the Koorimes' floating island as an infant. Somehow, Hiei both survived this attempt on his life and remembered those behind it, making it a priority to exact revenge on the Koorime. After a brief stint as a bandit, Hiei's travels led him to the demon surgeon Shigure, from whom he received the Jagan eye implant. Shigure then extended the offer of learning swordsmanship under his tutelage, which Hiei accepted as he lost most of his demonic strength from the Jagan procedure. Time went on, and eventually Hiei and Shigure parted ways as the former continued on his quest to track down the Koorime. By the time he found their floating island, Hiei found that the Koorime lived empty lives; he chose instead to let them live out of pity for their emotionally sterile existences. However, his quest would not yet come to an end. In the village, Hiei found out that his mother also bore a daughter that was his twin. This revelation became the new motivation for the demon as he traveled the world in search of his sister.
Between his demonic powers and the assistance of Shigure, Hiei is more than able to fulfill his goals, regardless of what they may be. Within the setting of YuYu Hakusho, characters are organized through a ranking system that denotes their strength; a C-class entity such as Hiei was when first introduced is considered as a median position. That said, those ranked C-class are still on a magnitude of power well beyond the average human, being able to move faster than the speed of sound and lift several tons. Hiei's fire demon heritage, in addition to giving him such an outstanding physique, enables him to use similar pyrokinetic abilities. Hiei bears not just a heightened resistance to elemental-based attacks, being outright immune to fire and ice in particular, but the ability to direct natural human fire for long-ranged attacks and improve the potency of his hand-to-hand combat. The fires of his demonic heritage are also his to control, such as the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, an entity composed of this fire that burns even greater than normal flames. This demon fire can also envelop the katana that he trained under Shigure with, making it a more formidable weapon; the Dragon of the Darkness Flame can be contained in the katana itself as the sword's very blade. Meanwhile, the Jagan eye Shigure implanted into him grants Hiei a plethora of mental powers; telepathy, telekinesis, remote viewing, memory erasure, and even protection against the mental attacks of others are all some of the abilities that hiei has at his disposal through the Jagan eye. As a last resort, Hiei has been known using the powers of the Jagan eye to reach his Jaganshi state. In Jaganshi form, Hiei has improved strength and speed and can use the eye to paralyze his foes; he can also unleash multiple dragons or even draw them into himself to give him further diversity in his powers.
In his travels, Hiei has stood his ground against numerous foes of comparable strength, yet there is no greater point of reference than his rival turned ally, spirit detective Yusuke Urameshi. Both Hiei and Yusuke eventually reached the rank of S-class, considered to be the highest rank an individual can achieve under normal circumstances; as the two have fought each other on an even standing multiple times, it is easy to assume that any feats one have performed serves as a baseline for how powerful the other is. Yusuke, who can react to and dodge lightning, once witnessed Hiei obliterating a demon through sixteen slashes and could only register half that amount; Hiei would require movement speeds well over 200 thousand mph to perform such a feat. Likewise, within the demon world, Yusuke fought another S-class demon and their punches collided with such a force that they unleashed a pillar of energy reaching nearly 15 million feet. As Yusuke withstood being in the epicenter of the blast, it is fair to say that Hiei is similarly durable. Hiei himself, meanwhile, spent six consecutive months fighting off hundreds of A-class demons over the source of six months, a testament to both his strength and stamina. For all of his might and powers, Hiei has proven his status as an S-class demon, but this does not mean he is without his faults. The Dragon of the Darkness flame, while powerful, is difficult to control and can even turn on Hiei. The Jagan eye is the source of several of Hiei's powers, and to blind it is to temporarily weaken him. The fire demon also operates off a code of honor, refusing to unleash the full scale of his power against those weaker than him; this flaw is exponentially amplified by his arrogance, tending to see his foes as weaker than him by default. Hiei grew from these faults, thankfully, and finally found and reunited with his sister; through his travels, he found a far greater kinship in the foes and allies that made him grow stronger than the ice demons who left him to die.
- Hiei: (surrounding himself with the Dragon of the Darkness Flame) Once your own doom has been unraveled, I assure you there's no turning back.
Both combatants have been studied, thus, the time has come for blood to pour. One advertisement for the ExpressVPN data encryption service later, and now, it's time for a death battle!
Surrounded on all sides by a dense thicket of trees, S-class demon Hiei roams the undergrowth. The ambiance provided by the local fauna is interrupted by a voice directed at Hiei. Sasuke Uchiha, lone survivor of the Uchiha clan massacre, hangs upside down from a tree branch and warns Hiei to deviate from his course. As he drops down to reinforce his demands, Hiei rushes headlong towards the shinobi...
FIGHT!
... and plunges a fist square into the ninja's waist before he can react. The impact behind the punch pushes Sasuke back a scant few yards, yet is still close enough for Hiei to continue the attack. A volley of punches follow at overwhelming speed, with Sasuke able to block the offensive briefly. A pair of straight jabs finally break through the Uchiha's defenses, giving Hiei an opportunity to follow with an uppercut that launches Sasuke skyward. Leaping after the Konoha native, Hiei cocks an arm back as it becomes cloaked in fire. The demon calls out the name of the ensuing attack, his Fist of the Mortal Flame sending Sasuke careening back into the soil below. Despite the ferocity of the attack, Sasuke reorients himself to manage a steady landing, backflipping out the way of a following punch. Sasuke leaps back further and with the increased distance between them, takes the chance to unsheathe the straight sword held alongside his hip. With the Kusanagi gripped tight, Sasuke charges back towards Hiei, only for the fire demon to draw his own bushido-style katana in response. Shinobi and demon clash blades with such deft skill that a vibrant array of sparks flash in the air with each collision.
Sasuke soon catches Hiei off guard with a number of slashes and a sweeping kick to the face that knocks the S-class against a tree; the Kusanagi is flung at Hiei after. With a number of hand seals, Sasuke is enveloped in a lightning aura. The survivor of the Uchiha then taps into the Rinnegan, heralded by the concentric rings that close in on his iris. Hiei braces himself for Sasuke's next attack, which proves to be the ninja rushing towards him with a point-blank Chidori. The ensuing eruption of electrical energy proves enough to shatter Hiei's katana as Sasuke grabs the real Kusanagi and dissipates the decoy. At this close a distance, Sasuke pushes his offensive further, activating the Mangekyō Sharingan the moment Hiei makes eye contact. The ebon inferno of Amaterasu smothers the area around Hiei before the hellish crimson insignia of the Sharingan emerges behind him. A series of Kusanagi emerge from nothingness and run themselves directly through Hiei, yet the demon possesses an amused reaction unfitting the situation. The Jagan eye nestled within his forehead is awoken, breaking Hiei free of the genjutsu illusion. Sasuke's own disquietude lingers for a second as the fire demon walks through the Amaterasu flames unimpeded before sharing his own black flames with the shinobi and unleashing the Dragon of the Darkness Flame upon Sasuke. An amethyst barrier shields Sasuke from impact before he calls upon his chakra to conjure an enormous samurai within the forest.
The summoned Susanoo casts aside Hiei's demonic fire, though Hiei only expresses a grin and small laugh of amusement at his foe's newest technique. The violet samurai swings its massive sword down and carves a path through the forest, but Hiei easily dodges away and conjures a second dragon to meet it. The fiery apparition collides with Susanoo's katana, yet seeing how evenly matched the summoned beings are forces Hiei to unveil his own trump card. A white aura blankets Hiei before turning an equally brilliant green; in the center of this influx of energy is Hiei channeling the Jaganshi form. Three dragons emerge from Hiei's form and being to tear apart Susanoo; Sasuke realizes how outmatched Susanoo and uses the Rinnegan to call his chakra back into him. The samurai vanishes, much to Hiei's amusment, though at the expense of Sasuke being able to sneak behind the S-class demon. Grabbing onto Kusanagi, Sasuke primes a second Chidori, this time channeling enough chakra into it to transform it into a dragon of pure electricity. The skies darken in the presence of the Kirin, but Hiei is undaunted by its presence. Another swarm of dragons barrel towards the Kirin, and in the collision that follows, the forest is enshrouded by a flash of intensely blinding luminosity. The light gradually dies down to reveal a crater where most of the forest once stood, and in its depths, a grievously wounded Sasuke barely manages to upright himself. Hiei, meanwhile, seems unmoving as he rests on the ground.
Sasuke grips onto the Kusanagi and announces his intent to end the battle as the blade becomes inundated with black electrical chakra; Hiei comes to at this sight and haltingly regains a steady position. With Mangekyō Sharingan at the ready, a second blade trails behind Sasuke as he lunges at Hiei. The Jagan eye awakens once more as a Dragon of the Darkness Flame descends into Hiei, its demonic fires crafting a new blade from the hilt of his broken katana. The two swordsmen slash at one another with such a force that a canyon is carved into the crater. Plumes of dust are stirred from the impact as both fighters assess their wounds; Sasuke withdraws his chakra and hacks up blood, an exhausted Hiei struggles to catch his breath. A ringing peal echoes through the canyon as the Kusanagi shatters into pieces. The ensuing confusion as Sasuke stares at where his sword once was seems frozen in time, and proves to be his final act; the ninja erupts into a shower of blood but a moment later. Even with his grip on the handle of his katana wavering, Hiei is confident enough in his victory that he bitterly congratulates his fallen foe for putting up as much of a fight as he did.
K.O.!
Boomstick is at a loss for words regarding the outcome, leaving it to Wiz to explain that it makes sense, considering that the fight was much closer than even his co-host had assumed. Sasuke was not without his advantages in the fight, having better training compared to Hiei and, through scaling to the lightspeed reactions of Naruto, being much faster. However, it is dubious that Sasuke's speed advantage was as vital as it may seem on paper; a C-class Hiei could outspeed lightning, and the difference in ranks is tremendously high, suggesting the gap in speed would be much closer by the time Hiei reached S-class. In terms of the demon's advantages, Hiei being the union of a fire and ice demon meant he could resist elemental attacks like the Chidori. His immunity to fire would render most of Sasuke's ninjutsu harmless as a result; even Amaterasu, which is able to burn other flames, is useless against Hiei, considerng he handles and has mastered the Darkness Flame, which can also burn fire itself. While the Rinnegan gave Sasuke control over gravity and the Sharingan illusory techniques, Hiei's Jagan supplied him with similar telekinesis and a resistance to mental attacks like genjutsu; essentially, their eye-based powers canceled each other out. However, Hiei's own strength proved to surpass Sasuke's by drastic extremes. The Susanoo could destroy meteors through strikes with over 360 teratons of force, and, by once again comparing Sasuke to Naruto, puts his durability at 27 exatons. In comparison, several S-class characters like Yusuke and Hiei himself are stated to possess enough power to destroy the world. Yusuke's fight with the demon lord Yomi provides credence to this claim; their 15 million foot-high pillar would bear a kinetic energy of 285 zettatons; even half that amount is well beyond the greatest durability feat that Sasuke could feasibly scale to. Again, it should be noted that Sasuke surpassed his foe in some fields and could theoretically take victory in certain scenarios, but with his powers perfectly countered by those of Hiei's and much weaker showings to his name, the overall odds of a win shift heavily against his favor, thus costing him the entire match.
- Boomstick: Sasuke lost the edge and was a Sharin-goner.
Wiz: The winner is Hiei!
Sasuke vs. Hiei contains examples of:
- Behemoth Battle: Partway during the fight, Sasuke's Susanoo and couple of Hiei's demon fire dragons duke it out in lieu of their much-smaller masters.
- Call-Back: As Sasuke scales to his main rival Naruto, several feats calculated from Naruto's fight with Ichigo are used to assume Sasuke's own upper limits.
- Darker and Edgier: This isn't the first time Sasuke and Hiei have gone at it. Their previous showing was in a DBX episode, albeit comical since they were both chasing after a rabbit. In this episode, the tone is more serious and they're after each other's blood.
- No-Sell: A major factor in Hiei's victory. The Jagan eye means he can pull this off on Sasuke's various genjutsu and the Deva Path's gravity control, while his fire demon heritage and mastery of the Dragon of Darkness Flame cancels out Sasuke's fire ninjutsu and even Amaterasu. He can even ignore the Human Path's soul-stealing by virtue of being able to fight unimpeded as a spirit separated from his body, and he can counter the Preta Path's energy drain by not only not relying on chakra, but also having energy draining abilities of his own.
- Single-Stroke Battle: The final blow in the fight comes down to a single clash between the Kusanagi and Hiei's Sword of the Darkness Flame.
- Stock Shōnen Rival: Sasuke and Hiei are this to Naruto and Yusuke. So much so, in fact, that the hosts determine the limits of their abilities by scaling them to some of the biggest of said rivals due to them being considered canonically equals.
- This Cannot Be!: Sasuke is notably shocked when Hiei manages to escape a Mangekyō Sharingan illusion with ease.
- Who Writes This Crap?!: Bordering on Take That!, Boomstick after discussing the excessive Eye Scream that the Sharingan revolves around.
- Worthy Opponent: As he walks off, Hiei praises Sasuke for putting up that big of a fight.Hiei: (chuckles) That's more like it. A fight fit for a demon.
