Tears streamed down Sasuke's face as he watched his older brother, covered in blood, force himself to his feet. "Brother… Brother…" he cried out. He was still just a child and couldn't understand the complex conflict unfolding before him. He didn't know what the Mangekyo Sharingan was or why the man on the throne was so angry. All he knew was that his brother was hurt, and he couldn't let anyone harm him further. The bond between them was all that mattered.
"Sasuke!"
Before the young Uchiha could move, Itachi, bleeding and broken, shot out an arm to stop him. The air grew quiet once more as Fugaku and the other Uchiha turned their attention back to Itachi. They all knew his greatest weapon, his Mangekyo Sharingan, had just been stolen by Tsukihiko. Could he possibly have another trump card left to play? If so, they had severely underestimated the strength and resourcefulness of their clan's young heir.
A powerful aura suddenly flared to life around Itachi's body. In his now-empty eye sockets, a terrifying, blood-red pattern began to glow.
"Tsukihiko… you are unbelievably powerful," Itachi snarled through the pain, his voice filled with a desperate resolve. "But that's all the more reason why I can't let you harm the village!"
With a furious roar, Itachi moved with lightning speed, pulling a small object from his robes and shoving it into his left eye socket. It was a single eyeball, the last gift his friend, Shisui Uchiha, had entrusted to him before he died. Itachi had never wanted to use it, but now, he had no other choice.
"What is he doing!?" one of the Uchiha elders exclaimed.
"Is that another Mangekyo Sharingan? But how could he have one…?" another questioned.
The sight shocked the Uchiha to their core. They all remembered the tragic death of Shisui, the genius known as "Shisui of the Body Flicker." He was supposed to have committed suicide by jumping into a river after losing his eyes. Now, seeing Itachi produce one of those very eyes, their simmering anger towards him instantly boiled over into pure rage.
High above, Tsukihiko watched the scene from his ice throne, a flicker of amusement in his eyes. He saw Itachi's desperate gamble for what it was: a clown's performance. The boy truly believed he could reverse this hopeless situation by transplanting Shisui's eye. Tsukihiko had to admit, the boy's stubborn refusal to accept defeat was almost impressive. But it was still just a show, and he was content to watch it play out.
After fitting Shisui's eye into place, a new wave of power coursed through Itachi. A sharp light shot from his new Mangekyo Sharingan as he locked his gaze onto Tsukihiko. "Tsukihiko… is that your name?" he laughed, a wild, pained sound. "Now I'll show you what a real Mangekyo Sharingan can do!"
The ultimate ability of Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyo Sharingan was Kotoamatsukami. It was the most powerful genjutsu in existence, capable of subtly altering a person's thoughts and perceptions, turning them into a loyal puppet without them ever realizing they were being controlled. It was Itachi's final hope. If he could trap Tsukihiko in this genjutsu, he could end this.
"This is… how can this be?"
"Lord Tsukihiko should be able to counter it, right?"
Fugaku and the others were once again thrown into a state of confusion. They were too terrified to interfere, knowing their intervention would only make things worse. But they also held onto the belief that the man with the titles of ageless, immortal, and undefeated couldn't possibly fall for a simple genjutsu, no matter how powerful.
Just as Itachi focused his power, a strange, black-robed figure suddenly appeared behind Tsukihiko's throne. Then, in a flash, the figure stepped forward and shot towards Itachi with terrifying, lightning-like speed.
"Is that… one of the Twelve Divine Moons?" someone whispered in terror. The legends of Tsukihiko's twelve divine envoys, each one a top-tier ninja of immense power, were well known. Now, one of them was here.
"You… you are…" Itachi's eye widened as the figure closed in. There was something about his build, his movements, that felt both incredibly strange and horrifyingly familiar. Before he could react, the figure vanished, reappearing right at his side as if out of thin air. A hand gently patted his shoulder.
"Itachi… what's wrong? Don't you recognize me anymore?"
A familiar voice, yet one that sounded so alien, boomed in Itachi's ear like a clap of thunder. The black-robed figure's mask disappeared, revealing a face that Itachi could never forget.
Uchiha Shisui.
"It's… it's you," Itachi stammered, his mind reeling. "But you were… you're supposed to be dead!"
Before Itachi could process what was happening, Shisui smiled. In one swift, fluid motion, his finger moved. With a sickening pop, he nonchalantly gouged the Mangekyo Sharingan right out of Itachi's eye socket.
"Before we catch up, let's return this to its rightful owner," Shisui said calmly, his voice echoing in Itachi's ear as searing pain exploded through his head.
"Let's reintroduce ourselves. I am a subordinate of Lord Tsukihiko: one of the Twelve Divine Moons. Upper Moon Six, Uchiha Shisui."
As his words fell, the entire world plunged into a dead, stupefied silence.
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