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Chapter 34 - Shadow of the Crow – Part II: The Legacy of Crows

Izumi didn't just land lightly beside Sasuke; she descended like a vengeful spirit, kunai a silver gleam in her hand, her expression not merely shadowed, but etched with the profound sorrow of a past she'd brutally buried for years. Her chakra flared—not wildly, but with an unnerving, razor-sharp control, each pulse saturated with the bitter tang of suppressed memories.

Itachi stood motionless, a statue carved from grief, his gaze not just flickering, but staggering as though he were truly seeing a ghost, a phantom from a life he'd ruthlessly severed.

"Izumi…" His voice wasn't just barely audible; it was a raw, broken whisper, a name he hadn't dared to utter in years, heavy with unspoken agony.

"You said I was dead," Izumi whispered back, her voice brittle as ice, yet vibrating with a deep, cutting pain. "You let me believe you were a monster. You let me think you abandoned us all… abandoned me."

The silence between the three Uchiha wasn't just louder than thunder; it was a deafening, suffocating void, filled with unspoken accusations and years of desolate emptiness.

Sasuke didn't just push himself up; he staggered, forcing his battered body upright beside her, blood still trickling from his temple, a crimson testament to his fury. "Izumi… you shouldn't be here. This is my fight."

"I should've been here from the start," she replied, her gaze fixed on Itachi, refusing to acknowledge Sasuke. "This fight was never yours alone, Sasuke. We both lost everything, but I'm done watching from the shadows. I'm done hiding from the truth you buried."

Itachi slowly lowered his hand, his eyes still locked on Izumi, a profound regret warring with his stoicism.

"I didn't want either of you to follow this path," he murmured, his voice laced with the weariness of a man who had walked through hell.

"And yet you carved it," Izumi snapped, her voice no longer brittle, but sharper than any blade, slicing through his composure. "You murdered your family, our family, and left us to pick through the wreckage of our lives. Now… give us the truth, Itachi. All of it. Or we'll rip it from you by force."

Without another word, Sasuke and Izumi didn't just charge; they moved as one, a singular, unstoppable force, their hatred and grief synchronized into a deadly dance.

Itachi, already drained, weakened from a battle that had torn apart his very soul, didn't just summon his Susanoo one final time; it erupted around him in a desperate, last-gasp burst of flickering chakra. It was incomplete, ragged, its spectral arms twitching under the agonizing strain, a dying guardian. Still, it raised its ethereal blade, a final defiance.

Sasuke's Chidori didn't just slam into the spectral ribs; it screamed with incandescent fury, tearing into the fading Susanoo. Simultaneously, Izumi didn't just dance around it; she became a blur of motion, a vengeful shadow, flanking from the side with a deadly barrage of fire kunai, each one a tiny, burning ember of her rage. Her hands, impossibly fast, wove through seals mid-air.

"Fire Style: Crescent Phoenix Barrage!"

A ring of spinning flames didn't just surge around Itachi's Susanoo; it erupted in a dizzying inferno, obscuring his vision, forcing him to desperately divert his last reserves of chakra into defense. Sasuke didn't waste the opportunity—he didn't just pierce through the gap; he tore through it with a roaring bolt of his Chidori, a focused, piercing strike that bypassed the fading defenses and reached Itachi directly.

Their blades didn't just meet—katana to kunai—in a moment of brotherly silence; they clashed with a chilling whisper, the sound swallowed by the maelstrom of their emotions.

"Why…?" Sasuke whispered, his voice hoarse, broken, his eyes glowing not just crimson, but with raw, agonizing confusion. "Why did you let us hate you? Why did you condemn us to this darkness?"

Blood didn't just spill from Itachi's lips; it gushed, a dark stain against his pale skin.

"I wanted you to survive," he rasped, the words barely audible, the truth a heavy weight on his failing breath.

He coughed, a wet, rattling sound, his strength finally giving way. The Susanoo didn't just dissolve; it imploded into shards of fading, shimmering chakra, collapsing around him like shattered glass, leaving him exposed, vulnerable.

Izumi and Sasuke stepped back, their own forms swaying with exhaustion, as Itachi stumbled forward. There was no more fight left in him, no more pretense. He dropped to one knee, not just his eyes misting over, but filling with the weary resignation of a man finally reaching the end of his unbearable journey. But his voice, though weak, remained steady—resolute, infused with a final, desperate strength.

"I made a deal with Konoha's elders… to protect the village from civil war. The Uchiha clan was planning a coup… planning to overthrow everything."

Sasuke's breath didn't just catch; it lodged in his throat, a cold, terrible realization washing over him.

"I was given a choice—kill my family, slaughter every single Uchiha… or watch the village burn in retaliation, consumed by a war that would have devastated everything. Danzo… he gave me the final, chilling orders. But I made one change to the mission… one impossible alteration."

He looked up, his fading eyes locking with Izumi's, a desperate plea in their depths.

"I begged them to spare you. I told them you were already dead. I swore on my soul to protect you."

Izumi's mouth didn't just tremble; her entire body shook, the horrific truth splintering her carefully constructed world. "You… you spared me? You… sacrificed everything for me?"

Itachi nodded weakly, a single tear tracing a path through the blood on his cheek. "I forced a Genjutsu on you. Put you to sleep for a year. Gave you false memories… gave you a life free of the horror. So you wouldn't have to suffer… wouldn't have to carry the burden of what I did."

Tears didn't just trace down her cheeks; they streamed, hot and heavy, carving rivulets through the dust and grime. "You let me think you died… You let me believe you were the murderer… the monster responsible for everything."

"I couldn't live with what I did," Itachi rasped, his voice fading. "But I could live with you forgetting me. With you hating me, if it meant you lived."

Sasuke didn't just drop to his knees; he collapsed, his blade falling from his hand with a dull clatter, suddenly meaningless.

"I wasted years hating you," he said hoarsely, the words torn from his raw throat, laced with an unbearable agony of regret. "You… you should've told me. All this time…"

"If I had," Itachi whispered, his voice barely a breath, "would you have grown strong enough to protect what truly matters? Would you have found your own path, free from my shadow?"

Silence stretched between them, heavy with unspoken answers.

"I'm dying," Itachi whispered, the finality in his voice chilling. "But I have one last gift… one last hope."

He reached into his cloak with trembling, bloodied hands and withdrew a scroll, aged and worn, marked with a stark crow symbol.

"This is the Crow Contract—the summoning pact of the Uchiha lineage. Passed down from Shisui. It recognizes only those who carry the will to see the truth… and protect the future."

He held it out, his hand shaking violently.

"Take it. Together. Both of you."

Izumi, her face awash with tears, stepped forward, not just gently supporting his hand, but cupping it with desperate tenderness, as if trying to hold onto the last vestiges of his warmth.

Sasuke took the scroll, his fingers brushing Itachi's. Their hands met—for the first time, without violence, without the intention to harm, only to receive a fragile legacy.

"This isn't redemption," Itachi murmured, his eyes glazing over, "but maybe… it's a start. For you both."

And then Itachi didn't just collapse forward; he slumped completely, his body giving out, barely conscious, the last of his chakra fading into the turbulent wind, a life extinguished by the weight of impossible choices.

Izumi caught him as he fell, cradling him gently, tears still streaming down her face.

Sasuke crouched beside her, his face pale, eyes hollowed by the sudden, overwhelming wave of truth and grief. "We can't leave him here. If there's a chance he lives… we have to try."

"There is," Izumi said firmly, her voice regaining a steel she hadn't known she possessed, a flicker of hope amidst the despair. "There's a base—hidden beneath the old Uchiha shrine. Father showed me when I was a child. It was meant to be our last sanctuary… a place for our clan to hide, if all else failed."

Sasuke looked at her, a new resolve hardening his gaze. "Then we go. We'll find out everything… every single secret. And then, we'll decide what to do with that truth."

Izumi nodded, her grip on Itachi tightening.

But just as they prepared to move, to carry their fallen brother to this hidden refuge—

A tremor didn't just shake the earth; it ripped through the ground with a violent, unsettling force, sending cracks spiderwebbing through the shattered ruins. The sky rumbled again—this time not from weather, not from their battle.

From the far north, a blast of chakra didn't just split the sky in three; it tore it open, a searing, apocalyptic pillar of power.

Sasuke and Izumi turned, their eyes narrowing, dread coiling in their guts.

From the dust-choked horizon, a massive, ominous figure emerged—not alone, but radiating an oppressive, malevolent aura. It was Tendo Path, moving with an unnatural, terrifying calm.

Flanking him were not just monstrous creatures, but abominations summoned by the Animal Path, howling with guttural ferocity, their colossal forms stomping through the outer districts of Konoha, leaving devastation in their wake.

Izumi stiffened, her body going rigid with a cold, sickening realization.

"The next wave… It's already begun," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the distant roars.

Sasuke clenched his fists, the crow scroll held tightly in one hand, its ancient weight suddenly feeling like a crushing responsibility. His gaze hardened, no longer filled with just personal vengeance, but a grim, new resolve.

"Then we finish this… together."

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