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Chapter 68: Father Against Son
"Kekeekeke"
Watching the Uchiha clansmen make the right choice, Yasushi's heart swelled with dark satisfaction. His laughter echoed across the battlefield, carrying a madness that made even hardened shinobi flinch.
"Everyone, listen up! Target the sealing corps first!"
"Without the sealing corps, we're unstoppable!"
At his command, the resurrected Uchiha immediately concentrated their attacks on the sealing specialists. They'd all been comrades once, fighting side by side for the same village. Everyone knew everyone else's specialties. Who belonged to the sealing corps? Child's play to identify.
Now that they were enemies, there was nowhere to run. No one to hide behind.
Just as the battle began tilting decisively in one direction, Itachi's eyes suddenly widened with fierce intensity.
"Naruto, wake up now!"
His shout cut through the chaos. The Nine-Tails' massive form immediately began disintegrating, revealing Naruto Uzumaki trapped deep within the beast's chakra construct.
Yasushi had focused most of his attention on maintaining the Reanimation jutsu. His control over the Nine-Tails had naturally weakened. Itachi, while locked in their battle of ocular prowess, had seized the opportunity to reach past Yasushi's control and awaken the jinchuriki's consciousness.
The moment Naruto regained awareness, the Four Symbols Seal inscribed on his abdomen reasserted itself, dragging the Nine-Tails back into imprisonment.
But the prolonged, brutal fighting had devastated Naruto's body. Though conscious, he was completely spent, unable to fight any longer.
"Tch." Yasushi's lip curled in contempt. He launched himself forward, reaching for Naruto as the boy plummeted from the air.
Itachi moved to intercept, but a figure suddenly blocked his path, speaking with a voice heavy with pain.
"Itachi, stop this!"
Itachi froze, his gaze complex as he recognized the man before him.
"Father... you're going to stop me too?"
"Itachi..." Fugaku stared at his eldest son, his voice trembling with anguish. "That night, I thought you were simply eliminating the radicals under orders. I never imagined you would slaughter the entire Uchiha clan!"
"Even the elderly and children, you showed no mercy!"
"If I'd known what you intended, I would have stopped you no matter the cost!"
Itachi's face remained wooden, showing no remorse in the face of his father's accusations.
"A narrow-minded clan. Narrow-minded people. No capacity for greatness, only blame and infighting."
"Such people are a cancer to the village. If not excised completely, root and branch, the next generation would simply grow up to threaten the village again."
"What?" Fugaku stared at him in disbelief. "How can you think this way?"
"Yes, there were radicals in the clan, but there were also many moderates. How can you simply dismiss them all?"
"Hatred is a chain. Once forged, it never stops." Itachi's gaze shifted to the slaughtering horde, his voice cold and detached. "Moderate today doesn't mean moderate tomorrow."
"The clan's bonds ran too deep. After losing friends and family, moderates transform into radicals. Just like those people right now."
"To truly eliminate the threat, you must be decisive. No room for weakness or sentiment."
"What?" Tears streamed down Fugaku's face as he processed his son's extremist philosophy. His voice broke with grief. "Itachi, I can't let you make this mistake again. I must stop you here!"
"Father, you cannot stop me." The Mangekyo Sharingan in Itachi's eyes spun wildly as he struck first against his own father.
"Amaterasu!"
Black flames erupted across Fugaku's body instantly.
The flames carried no heat, yet possessed an absolute dominance that consumed everything they touched. Even as the Reanimation's regeneration pulled fragments from the air to repair Fugaku's body, nothing could halt the flames' devouring hunger.
"Reanimation bodies are difficult to destroy permanently, but their weakness is equally obvious."
"Amaterasu's eternal flames are the perfect counter to Reanimation's regeneration..."
Watching his father being consumed by black fire, Itachi spoke with glacial calm, his voice utterly flat, as if describing some trivial fact that had nothing to do with him.
But before he could finish, Fugaku's Sharingan began spinning frantically, rapidly transforming into a pair of black pinwheel shuriken with hollow centers.
"Itachi, you're not the only one with the Mangekyo Sharingan!" Fugaku roared, his voice filled with regret and terrible resolve.
Violent chakra exploded from his ravaged body, rapidly constructing a massive black half-body Susanoo warrior around him.
The moment the black Susanoo materialized, its enormous hand seized Fugaku's body and brutally tore it in half.
The portion burning with Amaterasu's black flames was discarded onto the ground, left to be consumed completely.
The remaining half, freed from the flames' suppression, immediately began regenerating. Fragments materialized from thin air, drawn by invisible forces, rapidly reconstructing Fugaku's body.
"What?" For once, Itachi showed genuine shock. His Mangekyo stuttered, and his perpetually wooden expression finally cracked into disbelief.
"Father, when did you awaken the Mangekyo? Why didn't anyone know?"
Fugaku looked at Itachi with profound disappointment, slowly shaking his head.
"That very night. The massacre night. When I saw you appear in our home covered in blood, I finally understood the magnitude of my mistake."
"But the damage was already done. Killing you wouldn't have changed anything."
"So I decided to honor your loyalty to the village. Let the radicals die with me that night."
"But I never imagined you would..."
"If I'd known, I should have been more decisive! Either beat the radicals into submission or pressure the Hokage's faction. Either outcome would have been better than this!"
"Itachi, since you've committed such an unforgivable act, don't blame me for what comes next!"
As Fugaku finished speaking, his Mangekyo spun wildly. Storm clouds gathered overhead with unnatural speed, plunging the battlefield into premature night. Lightning serpents writhed through the clouds, rumbling with ominous thunder.
"Haha... yes! Exactly like this!"
Watching this father-son tragedy unfold, Yasushi could barely contain his glee. He clapped enthusiastically, the sharp sound cutting through the battlefield's chaos with jarring clarity.
"Fugaku, magnificent!"
"Use your ocular jutsu to kill that animal you call a son!"
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