With Uchiha Setsuna's fall, nothing remained to stop the bloody slaughter.
The three elite Uchiha who could take down Itachi were laughably fragile before Uchiha Obito.
A chain-blade cleaved through moonlight, and the three corpses collapsed limply. Obito gouged out the three pairs of Sharingan from their sockets, then split up with his partner, beginning the plan to massacre the Uchiha from two directions.
Outside the Uchiha compound.
In the dark forest, faint unrest stirred. One of the Uchiha Police Force members grew increasingly uneasy, glancing repeatedly toward the clan grounds behind him.
Half an hour ago, a comrade had gone to report, and normally, Uchiha Setsuna should have arrived within minutes. Even if Setsuna didn't come, that comrade should have returned with orders.
But after half an hour, not only had Setsuna not appeared—there was no sign of the messenger either.
"What on earth is…"
"N–Not good!"
A ninja wearing a dog-headed mask appeared before Danzō in a rush. Even through the mask, his panic was obvious.
"Lord Danzō, a heavy stench of blood is coming from the southern sector of the Uchiha compound. Per your orders, we did not enter to investigate, but… but…"
"Calm yourself."
Danzō's cane struck the ground hard, his face stern but cold.
"As a Root operative, have you lost even the most basic composure of a shinobi?"
"Forgive me, Lord Danzō!" the Root ninja swallowed hard. He was trained for this, but the horror of what he'd sensed had rattled him to the core.
The Uchiha jōnin standing nearby didn't care for Danzō's scolding. What caught his attention was the Root ninja's words.
The south sector reeking of blood? Impossible. That was a residential district—beyond it lay the clan's shrine. How could there be such bloodshed there?
With the messenger's unexplained absence, and the knowledge that Danzō had come here under the pretext of pursuing an intruder, a wild, absurd thought entered his mind.
The Uchiha…
…were in trouble!
"Jōnin Tetsugen, are you going to keep blocking me here?" Danzō's grip tightened on his cane, voice low. "I don't know what's happened within the Uchiha, but if the intruder we were chasing infiltrated their compound, there's likely a connection.
"The Uchiha are one of Konoha's great clans, indispensable to the village. If something really has happened—"
"Don't be ridiculous!"
Uchiha Tetsugen took a deep breath, his three-tomoe Sharingan locked on Danzō as he growled,
"The Uchiha couldn't possibly be in trouble. Stop spouting nonsense here!"
He pulled a special signal flare from his flak vest's inner pocket, ignited it, and launched it skyward.
Under the blood moon, the fan-shaped crimson firework bloomed—its pattern unmistakable to the Uchiha scattered across Konoha. Those in key positions dropped what they were doing and rushed toward the compound.
...
Crack.
Obito snapped another Uchiha's neck, plucked the man's Sharingan, and glanced at the flare outside.
Through the doorway, Itachi stood amid a carpet of corpses, hands dripping blood, eyes vacant—like a puppet stripped of its strings.
Behind the swirling vortex of his mask, Obito's mouth curled into a mocking smile.
"Are you ready to experience despair, Itachi?"
His blood-red Mangekyō spun as Obito's ocular power slowly surged outward. Itachi's body trembled, the haze in his eyes beginning to clear.
"I… I…"
Looking down at his blood-covered hands, Itachi began to shake violently.
"What… what have I done? I…"
The coppery stench filled his nostrils. Fatigue and numbness made his limbs feel leaden, but memories surged back like crashing waves—each one a brutal punch to his mind and heart.
Disbelieving stares of comrades. Pain-stricken, shocked faces of family.
Warm blood dripping down his blade… and one by one, the kind, gentle faces he'd known all his life turned into cold, lifeless corpses.
Scene after scene flashed before him. His Sharingan spun wildly. And then—
She appeared before him.
A beautiful young woman. Purple outer robe. Long, glossy black hair. A single tear mole beneath her right eye. Delicate features promising a beauty's future.
But now, her face was twisted with agony and disbelief. Her hands clutched at the short blade buried in her chest—its hilt still smeared with his bloody fingerprints.
"Izumi—no! How can this be—no!"
Itachi collapsed to the ground, stunned, then scrambled to her side, gathering the now-cold body into his arms.
The pain flooding him was beyond words.
He had killed Izumi.
"No… this isn't real… this isn't real…"
Tears spilled from his blood-red eyes. His chest felt ready to burst with grief.
He sat limply, soul hollowed, sobbing silently as his tears refused to stop.
What had he done?
He had slaughtered his clansmen, his kin… and his childhood sweetheart.
For the first time, Uchiha Itachi felt a pain that tore at his soul. Even his usual composure shattered into blank nothingness.
"Experience despair! Experience the true nature of this disgusting, fake world!"
Obito Uchiha looked at Itachi, who was sitting on the ground. He could clearly feel the almost broken and despairing emotions of the other person. At the same time, a cold chakra emerged from his body along with his violently fluctuating emotions.
"Come on, that's the power! In the midst of despair, open the Uchiha's Pandora's Box, Itachi Uchiha!"
The extreme negative emotions continued to fuel the Uchiha bloodline. The Yin Release chakra it produced stimulated his eyes, making the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in Itachi's eyes spin wildly until it formed the pattern of a three-bladed shuriken.
Raw, immense ocular power poured into him. But Itachi closed his eyes in pain.
He could feel the change in his eyes, but there was no joy—only rejection of the nightmare before him.
If "heartbreak" had a form, it was him now.
"That Mangekyō… is mine."
Without a sound, Obito appeared behind him. In one smooth, unnatural motion, he plucked Itachi's right eye from its socket.
The searing pain snapped Itachi's mind back to the present. Clutching the bleeding hollow, he felt Obito's hand reaching for his left eye—
—and in that instant, the newly awakened Mangekyō's power surged forth.
Blood tears streamed down his cheek, crimson veins webbing his sclera. The vast ocular power burst out, wrapping toward Obito.
Obito's body jolted, his hand stopping just short of Itachi's left eye. A moment later, he drew back, breathing hard, fury and shock on his face."
"You—!"
Itachi rose slowly, one hand covering his wound, his lone eye locked on Obito.
"You bastard… you controlled me!"
That brief clash of ocular powers had told him everything—Obito's chakra matched exactly the residue lingering in his mind.
The truth was clear.
This man had puppeteered him… and caused the Uchiha massacre.
"Damn genjutsu… Tch. One Mangekyō is enough to make up for my shortcomings."
Obito activated Kamui, glancing coldly at the enraged Itachi before storing the stolen eye in his Kamui dimension.
From down the street, shouts echoed—others had discovered something was wrong. Surviving Uchiha and Konoha shinobi were already entering the compound.
Obito smirked.
"How will you face this, I wonder? As a 'survivor'… or as the hero who awakened the Mangekyō to repel invaders? Or will you be the butcher who slaughtered his clan—Uchiha Itachi?"
"You—!"
Itachi wanted to scream his innocence—but the slaughter was undeniable. His hands were soaked in his kin's blood.
"They're here."
Obito looked into the distance and snorted.
"The Nine-Tails' jinchūriki? Hmph. Looks like you're lucky this time."
Before Fugaku left the village, he specifically entrusted the two brothers, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki, to Hiashi Hyūga, hoping that Hinata could take the two brothers with her when she trained.
Hiashi had wanted to decline. Hinata's training method was personally designed by Yuki Yoru. If Fugaku found out, wouldn't he be at a disadvantage?
But under Fugaku's repeated requests, and a subtle hint about Kushina Uzumaki's existence, Hiashi reluctantly agreed to Fugaku's proposal.
And in order to better understand the training plan that Yuki Yoru had made for Hinata, Fugaku had the audacity to let the two brothers live in the Hyūga compound, which by a strange coincidence, allowed them to avoid Obito's slaughter this time.
"Sasuke…"
Itachi's body trembled at Obito's words, his lone eye burning into the masked man.
"If you dare touch Sasuke… I'll kill you, even if it costs my life!"
"Kill me?"
Obito chuckled.
"Better worry about explaining yourself, butcher."
Space twisted, swallowing Obito's form.
"No—you can't just leave—you—!"
"Nii-san!"
The childish voice from behind froze him. Soaked in blood, Itachi's body shook—he didn't dare turn around.
The jōnin who had come with Sasuke rushed forward, catching his swaying body. At the sight of his Mangekyō, their faces lit up—only for their joy to vanish when they saw the gory, empty socket where his other eye had been.
"Itachi, you…"
"I…"
No words came. He didn't know how to face them. If Sasuke learned he'd slain so many of their kin…
The thought was unbearable. His feet shifted back to retreat—
—and darkness claimed him. He collapsed.
"Itachi!"
"Nii-san!!"
The Uchiha surrounded him anxiously.
And behind them, Danzō arrived with his shinobi. He glanced to the side—received a subtle nod from his subordinate—and a slow, satisfied smile crept across his face.
...
The next day.
Inside the secret Iwagakure base.
On the operating table, Obito slowly sat up. His familiar spiral mask was gone, revealing the twisted face crushed by a boulder years ago.
But in his sockets gleamed two different Mangekyō Sharingan.
"It seems the fusion was successful." A Zetsu wearing a surgical gown curiously looked at the eyes in Obito's eye sockets and clicked his tongue in amazement: "The power of this Mangekyō is quite compatible with yours. Plus, with my cells, there won't be any rejection issues."
"After that, you'll be able to fully fuse this eye and turn it into your own power through the Chimera Technique!"
"Yes… I can feel the power inside it."
Obito brushed his fingers over his eye, savoring the raw energy within this Mangekyō he'd engineered into existence.
Being freshly awakened, its energy was brimming—and its jutsu, Amaterasu, was nothing short of the strongest physical offense.
It solved his current flaw: strong defense, but insufficient offense.
One eye for attack, one for defense—perfection.
With both eyes intact, he could finally perform the Chimera Technique Ritual without any worries.
After coming back to his senses from the vast ocean of ocular power, Obito looked at Zetsu:
"How's the situation in the Land of Rain?"
"Complicated," White Zetsu scratched his head. "The Allied Shinobi Forces are no real threat—but Yuki Yoru's Shinigami have acted.
"Once they release their Zanpakutō, their power's immense. Even Hiruko couldn't handle them."
Obito wasn't surprised; he already knew how dangerous the Shinigami could be.
"And Nagato?"