Konan's previously furious expression froze for a moment when she heard the physician's words.
She should have been angry—truly angry—but why did she suddenly feel like laughing?
This peculiar feeling, however, was fleeting.
"Leave now. Take your time and figure out if there's any way to save him," she said.
Though she cursed the physician as incompetent in her heart, Konan herself had no solution either, so she had no choice but to let the physician withdraw.
Hearing Konan's words, the physician breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly fled, as if he had narrowly escaped the gates of hell.
...
**A few hours later.**
Konan sat beside Itachi's hospital bed.
"What's going on?"
A figure appeared in the room—it was Pain.
His brows were furrowed, and his expression revealed his displeasure.
"Leader… Itachi may have developed a Kekkei Genkai-related illness…"
Hearing Pain's voice, Konan stood up and replied softly.
"How is he? Can he be treated?" Pain asked in a low voice, a trace of disappointment flickering in his eyes.
"The situation isn't looking good. The physician hasn't found any effective treatment yet…" Konan muttered softly in response.
Pain's immense sensory perception spread across the room, focusing on Itachi, who lay on the bed.
A moment later, his expression returned to calm.
He couldn't detect anything specific—only that Itachi's body was in terrible condition.
It was as if…
Cell A (pumped with drugs): "Finish him! He's done for!"
Cell B (also pumped with drugs): "Smash him! He's toast!"
If it had to be described, that was the mental image.
"You should go back. There's still a lot of work waiting for you in the organization," Pain said after a pause, looking at Konan's tired face. His tone was indifferent, but a hint of concern flickered in his eyes.
"But…" Konan hesitated before nodding lightly.
She glanced longingly at Itachi, lying on the bed, before leaving.
"You'd better recover quickly, you little troublemaker," Konan murmured to herself as she left the room. "I'm still waiting to go on missions with you…"
Pain quietly watched Itachi, who lay pale and covered in tubes on the bed.
"I thought you were an excellent companion… Someone of great value…"
"I didn't expect this."
Pain's figure disappeared from the room. Itachi's standing in his heart diminished rapidly now that he had lost his value.
...
**Time passed, and three days went by.**
During that time, Konan visited Itachi several times, but seeing no improvement, she could only leave each time with a heavy heart.
The hospital room was quiet when Pain appeared again.
This time, he said nothing. His expression cold, he removed the ring from Itachi's finger before vanishing from the room.
Pain had many matters to attend to, and now, he needed to find someone to replace Itachi.
Not long after Pain left, the room remained silent for a moment before a new figure appeared—a shark-faced man.
Kisame looked deeply at Itachi, recalling how the latter had extorted him just a few days ago.
"Well, Mr. Itachi, everything in the world can change. Can you change your own fate?" Kisame muttered.
After a moment's hesitation, Kisame swiped an orange from the table and left the room with a casual air.
...
A swirling vortex appeared in the hospital room, and a masked figure sat down in a chair.
"Arrogant little brat. It's only been a few days, and you're already like this… Come on, jump up and hit me," Obito said with a wicked sense of humor, his voice echoing in the room.
"Damn, I worked so hard to bring you into this, and this is what I get? How could you do this to me…" he muttered after a moment of silence, his tone a mix of sarcasm and regret.
"I thought you'd be a rising star, a brilliant beacon of the future. And yet you've fallen so quickly… Has the Uchiha clan truly declined so much after Madara?"
Obito stood up, his emotions complicated.
Placing a hand gently on Itachi's stomach, Obito quickly unraveled the seal technique.
Then, with a smooth motion, he reached inside.
A miniature Three-Tails was pulled out—Itachi hadn't yet had the chance to use its chakra or bond with the tailed beast, and now it was gone.
---
Fortunately, Itachi merely sealed the tailed beast without forming a symbiotic relationship with it.
Thus, the extraction of Isobu had no real impact on him.
...
After Obito placed the Three-Tails in the Kamui dimension, he turned and prepared to leave.
However, his raised foot halted mid-step. He turned back around.
"A bloodline sickness... What a terrifying disease..."
Obito looked at Itachi, lying weakly on the bed.
"I'm still short one Mangekyō Sharingan. Consider this your final contribution… Let this be your last use, as payment for when you attacked me back then..."
Obito gently opened Itachi's left eyelid, staring at the bloodshot eye. His actions were surprisingly delicate, as though he were afraid of causing pain.
After some thought, Obito turned his attention to Itachi's right eye. He remembered this brat's right eye had quite an impressive ability. That terrifying black flame—it left an indelible impression.
There was no need to differentiate between left and right eyes anyway. The eye could simply be implanted into the socket.
...
With fingers brimming with sharp chakra, Obito reached out.
Itachi's right eye, imbued with Amaterasu, was extracted.
"With Hashirama's cells in me, I shouldn't need to worry about the bloodline sickness…"
Obito muttered smugly to himself, holding the bloodstained eye as he prepared to implant it into his own eye socket.
The swirling Uzumaki mask dissipated slowly, revealing his other eye—a simple Three Tomoe Sharingan that had been kept hidden in darkness for years.
Obito raised his hand and removed this ordinary Sharingan before inserting Itachi's right eye into his socket.
With the power of Hashirama's cells, the wound in his eye socket quickly healed. Before long, Itachi's eye rotated within Obito's socket, moving up and down, before revealing a windmill-like Mangekyō pattern.
...
"What immense ocular power. Such a shame…"
The sentence appeared in a version from "Book Bar," guaranteed to have no errors!
Obito felt the surge of power from the eye and, with some regret, glanced at Itachi, who lay weak and covered in tubes on the bed.
"Hmm. I wonder what ability your other eye possesses…"
Obito reached into the distorted space beside him. The void warped as his hand reached in.
He intended to extract Itachi's other eye as well and save it for future use.
Obito's hand reemerged holding a container filled with green nutrient fluid.
He reached toward Itachi's left eye.
...
Itachi's body jolted with sharp pain in his eye socket, awakening his consciousness. He could hear Obito's words clearly.
But he still couldn't open his eyes or move a muscle.
For Itachi, this was torture.
Just as the burning pain in his right eye had subsided, his eye was plucked out. This left Itachi utterly frustrated.
Now, hearing Obito talk about taking his other eye only fueled his rage.
Even though these eyes had become somewhat dispensable to him, they were still his original ones.
This guy didn't just take his eyes—he even mocked him! Itachi was seething.
So much so that he almost blurted out a retort.
It was as if his central nervous system had sensed his indignation and emitted faint flashes of light.
...
Obito gently lifted Itachi's left eyelid, his hands stained with blood.
What Itachi couldn't bear was that this guy wasn't even wearing gloves and intended to dig in barehanded!
Just as Obito prepared to dig out his left eye, a hand riddled with tubes shot up and grabbed his arm.
Those hollow eyes slowly regained focus.
"As an elder, how could you take a junior's eyes without so much as a word?"
Itachi's parched, raspy voice broke the silence.
Itachi's sudden movement and voice startled Obito, causing him to tremble.
"You're awake, Itachi…"
Obito's mask quickly re-formed, though this time it left a gap for his new eye socket.
Seeing the malice in Obito's eyes and sensing the killing intent radiating from him, Itachi hesitated momentarily.
"I'm sick anyway, and my eyes are useless now. Take them as a parting gift."
Recognizing his dire condition, Itachi spoke softly, trying to think of a way to turn the tables.
"Oh?"
Itachi's words caught Obito off guard, momentarily softening his expression.
"Your hands are filthy, covered in blood. If you want this eye, let me take it out myself…"
Sensing Obito's demeanor relax slightly, Itachi quickly calculated his next move while speaking in a calm, albeit raspy, tone to buy some time.
...
"If you're that willing, my excellent junior, I'll leave it to you…"
Obito, somewhat reassured, didn't feel like fighting at the moment, given the sacred nature of what he was doing.
He watched as Itachi slowly removed the tubes from his body, feeling a bit impatient but saying nothing.
Obito's gaze toward Itachi was akin to a predator watching its prey.
Itachi's right hand slowly lifted, gathering chakra as it approached his left eye.
Obito's Mangekyō Sharingan rotated slowly as he observed Itachi's chakra flow.
...
Itachi focused intently, inserting three fingers into his left eye socket and, under Obito's watchful gaze, carefully extracted the Mangekyō imbued with Tsukuyomi.
Slowly, Itachi handed the eye to Obito.
His empty sockets were bloodied and ghastly.
As Obito relaxed and reached out to take the eye, his expression suddenly changed.
Just as Obito focused entirely on the Mangekyō in Itachi's hand...
Itachi crushed it with all his strength.
Before Obito could explode in anger, Itachi's figure flickered and disappeared before his eyes.
Obito was utterly stunned, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
...
Itachi had sacrificed one Mangekyō to distract Obito, freeing his other hand to perform a reverse summoning jutsu.
He feared the eye might be stolen and used against him. So, to prevent that, he decided to destroy it outright.
He was far too weak—his body was still engaged in internal combat. Even manipulating such a small amount of chakra was a struggle.
...