"Hah… hah… hah…"
Uchiha Itachi gasped for breath. At only twelve years old, having unleashed both Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu back to back, his ocular power was already nearly spent.
His face was deathly pale.
"Cough… cough!" He couldn't hold back two harsh coughs, covering his mouth with his hand. When he pulled it away, his palm bore a vivid smear of crimson—it was his own blood.
"Hah…"
But Uchiha Itachi ignored it. Exhaling heavily, he fixed his eyes on the black flames and Uchiha Keizumi.
"Did it work…?"
"Hm?"
Itachi froze.
As the drifting steam was scattered by a passing breeze, he saw it clearly—around Uchiha Keizumi's body loomed a massive ring of crimson bones. Terrifying surges of chakra and ocular power poured from him.
The jet-black flames of Amaterasu were not burning Keizumi's flesh—they were burning on that colossal framework of bones.
One word spilled from Uchiha Itachi's lips: "Susanoo!"
"Uchiha Itachi."
Uchiha Keizumi's cold voice carried not the slightest trace of exhaustion. Even after using two Mangekyō techniques already, his condition was incomparably better than Itachi's.
His voice rang out steadily: "When I encounter a fool, I deal with him in my own way. I try to beat him awake. If that doesn't work, I'll cut off one arm. If that still doesn't work, I'll cut off all four limbs—until he wakes."
Itachi was startled.
What did those words mean? Did it mean that even though he wanted to kill him, Keizumi still intended to spare his life?
"But."
Uchiha Keizumi's next words shattered that thought: "If the fool I encounter is not only foolish, but wicked as well… and dares to trample upon the taboos of Justice, then I take a simpler, cleaner approach."
As the words fell, Uchiha Itachi watched in shock as the towering ring of bones around Keizumi swelled larger and larger. And from the skeleton's arm, a weapon emerged.
—A gargantuan ninjatō.
"The gap… is it really this vast…?" Uchiha Itachi felt dazed.
He had once believed that, with his own Mangekyō Sharingan, even if he was a little younger than Uchiha Keizumi, even if his strength was slightly inferior, the difference could not be so great. In single combat, perhaps most of the time he would fall behind, but at least he should still hold some chance of victory.
But only when he truly clashed with Uchiha Keizumi did he realize—where the difference truly lay.
"But… don't underestimate my resolve! And don't underestimate my will to protect Konoha!"
Blood spilled from Uchiha Itachi's eyes. His pale, youthful face turned even whiter as a massive ring of crimson bones slowly formed around his body.
His own Susanoo, nearly the same color as Uchiha Keizumi's, began to rise.
"Susanoo!"
The words escaped in a cold, clenched growl.
Susanoo surged rapidly into its second form.
Upon the skeletal frame, networks of flesh and sinew spread swiftly, wrapping the bones in a cloak of chakra. A massive crimson greatsword was clenched tightly in Susanoo's hand.
"Hah…"
"Huff…"
This second form of Susanoo was the limit of a boy only twelve years old. It was the very first time he had ever wielded such power.
He had no idea how long he could maintain it. Perhaps half a minute. Perhaps no more than ten seconds. Perhaps not even that.
"I must… end this quickly…"
But before the words had even faded—
Uchiha Itachi froze. His eyes, his gaze, were drawn upward, until his head tilted back fully. And within the depths of his pupils, shock was plain beyond concealment.
For there—
A towering, fully-armored crimson Susanoo stood arrogantly within Konoha itself. Its height was three to four times greater than Itachi's own Susanoo—if not more.
At the moment that colossal Susanoo appeared in the village, it was like a crimson volcano erupting into being.
"See reality for what it is. Even among Mangekyō Sharingan… there are differences."
The instant Uchiha Keizumi's cold voice reached Itachi's ears, the massive crimson ninjatō, magma flowing across its surface, came crashing down upon him.
Even the blade in the other's Susanoo's hand was larger than the entirety of his own Susanoo…
[Rumble—!!!]
Uchiha Itachi's second-form Susanoo was cleaved straight in half.
His final sight was frozen on that towering, godlike crimson Susanoo.
"It really is…"
"…ending quickly…"
He muttered the words faintly.
As the blade swept past, his frail body was vaporized in an instant—leaving not the slightest chance for Impure World Reincarnation.
Uchiha Itachi…
Was dead!
...
"Has it… already come to an end? Just as it was beginning, it's already over… Hah! Forgive me, Shisui. I've failed your expectations. I couldn't cut away the tumor festering within Konoha."
"The rot in Konoha has grown far beyond what I alone could ever hope to remove. I did find an ally, but in the end… I was still too late."
"So it's true—there really is a Pure Land in the shinobi world. I can feel my soul being called, drawn in that direction."
Uchiha Itachi muttered to himself as his dazed gaze drifted about.
All around him stretched only emptiness—he stood utterly alone.
Lowering his head, he looked at his palm, and in his mind flashed the faces of his father, his mother, and Sasuke.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke. I had hoped that when all this was over, I could teach you shuriken throwing one more time. I wanted to hear you sincerely call me 'brother' once again."
"But… there's no chance now. Maybe decades, or a hundred years from now, we'll meet again."
As Itachi walked, he suddenly froze and lifted his head in shock. Not far ahead, a figure stood waiting.
His eyes widened, unable to hide the shock on his face. A name escaped his lips: "Shisui?!"
The figure before him was indeed Uchiha Shisui.
"Itachi, I thought I'd have to wait here at least a few decades for you."
In the real world, Shisui had already lost both eyes a year ago—one stolen by Danzō, the other entrusted to Uchiha Itachi.
Yet here, Shisui's eyes were whole. He looked at Itachi with a gentle smile.
"Seems you failed too, just like me."
Shisui spoke as he watched Itachi approach. He didn't scold him with harsh words. Instead, he placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry. Even without us, others will step forward. That's how Konoha is. We fallen leaves become the nourishment for the new generation, and they will inherit our will. Sometimes, you just have to trust their wisdom."
Feeling the weight of that hand on his shoulder, Itachi slowly drew a deep breath, hiding the sting at the tip of his nose.
He asked softly, "You… have you been waiting here for me all along?"
"That's right."
Shisui sighed. "I couldn't rest easy with you. After all, when I left, you were what—ten, maybe eleven? Still so young. How could I possibly leave you without worry?"
"I never thought… you'd end up dying even younger than I did." Shisui scratched his head in guilt. "Maybe entrusting my eye to you… only ended up hurting you."
"Tell me… can you explain what happened? From here, it's hard for me to see what became of you."
Itachi fell silent.
Only after a long pause did he finally answer: "I came to believe that the cancer within Konoha was born from both the Uchiha clan… and Uchiha Keizumi. I tried to save Konoha in my own way. So, I chose to cooperate with the man in Akatsuki who called himself 'Uchiha Madara.'"
Hearing this, the expression on Shisui's face visibly shifted into one of shock.
"I had devised two plans. The first was to kill Uchiha Keizumi, to completely destroy his Absolute Justice. Because Absolute Justice posed no less of a threat to Konoha than the radicals within the Uchiha clan."
"The second plan…" Uchiha Itachi paused, then continued, "was to wipe out the entire Uchiha clan. The Uchiha were either consumed by radical thought, or their will was being washed away by Absolute Justice."
"On top of that, the very way the Uchiha awaken their eyes carries an inherent radicalism, making them the greatest destabilizing factor within Konoha."
"Only by eliminating both of these cancers could the two greatest tumors be cut out, allowing the village to achieve true peace."
"But unfortunately…"
Itachi shook his head. "I was no match for Uchiha Keizumi. Before I could act… he killed me."
Shisui stood frozen in place.
He stared blankly at Itachi.
"Then… what about the Mangekyō I gave you? What about Kotoamatsukami?" Shisui asked haltingly.
Itachi drew in a deep breath. "I had planned to use it on Sasuke, to cast Kotoamatsukami on him so that for the rest of his life, he would remain loyal to Konoha. Ah… I forgot to mention, among the Uchiha, I intended to leave Sasuke alive, so he could rebuild a new Uchiha clan."
"Branded with Kotoamatsukami, the new Uchiha he created would be a clan eternally loyal to Konoha and the Hokage, much like the Hyūga clan."
Shisui's mouth fell open. "Kotoamatsukami… on Sasuke? On a child only six or seven years old?"
"Itachi…"
Shisui's voice wavered. "What are you doing? The reason I entrusted you with that eye was so you could use it to protect Konoha, to turn the Uchiha away from their intent to revolt. Not to annihilate the clan and then use it on Sasuke, implanting it into a six- or seven-year-old child…"
Itachi's faint smile faltered.
Shisui muttered, "How can you be so certain that Sasuke, just a child, will be able to revive the entire Uchiha clan by himself? Why would you make him bear such pain? Itachi… what exactly are you doing?!"
Shisui found he could no longer follow Itachi's line of thought.
No matter how he turned it over in his mind, he couldn't understand—why annihilate the entire Uchiha clan? Why target Keizumi's Absolute Justice?
What kind of reasoning, what kind of so-called wisdom, could lead to such an idea of saving the village?
"Itachi, you…"
Shisui parted his lips, his tone bewildered, tinged with concern, and asked pointedly:
"…Did something push you over the edge?"
Itachi froze.
Why… why did Shisui fail to acknowledge his capacity? His father had believed in him wholeheartedly, his father would have felt gratified by his choice.
Shisui…
Had he changed?
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