"You want to measure the gap between us?"
Shisui's brows lifted slightly.He hadn't expected Itachi to challenge him.After the Third War, after awakening his Mangekyō in the shadows of loss, he had believed no one in the clan would dare ask for such a comparison.
But here Itachi stood, unwavering.
"It won't be helpful," Shisui said quietly. "You're not at my level."
It wasn't arrogance. It was simple fact.
"I need to see it for myself," Itachi replied, voice steady. "Only then can I grow. Without a target, I'll stagnate."
For a moment, the two locked eyes.Shisui saw nothing but resolve inside the younger boy.
He sighed. "Now?"
"Yes."
Itachi stepped back, settling into a stance sharp enough to cut air.A kunai flashed in his hand."Please don't hold back. I want to understand the real distance between us."
"…Very well."
Shisui straightened, letting the silence settle.
The moment he nodded—
shff—
Five shuriken tore toward his forehead.
"Decisive. Good," Shisui murmured.
He vanished.Not a swirl of leaves, not a puff of smoke—just absence.
Itachi's eyes followed the blur, already predicting the landing point.He moved first, appearing at the spot Shisui would reemerge.
"I've studied your fighting style, Shisui-san," Itachi said confidently.
"You can track my movement," Shisui answered as he materialized, "but you can't match it."
Their kunai clashed.
The difference in strength was immediate.Itachi slid backward, boots tearing grooves through the dirt.
Yet even as he lost ground—
"Fire Style — Great Fireball!"
A blazing sphere roared toward Shisui.
All in one breath.No hesitation.A clean transition from taijutsu to ninjutsu.
Shisui grinned.
"Not bad."
His kunai cut the fireball apart in a gust of pressure, and then—He disappeared again.
He reappeared directly in front of Itachi.
The younger boy barely brought his kunai up in time.
The impact hurled him backward.He struck the ground, rolled, and came up on one knee, gasping.
Shisui was already there.
"Your Sharingan," Shisui said softly. "Two tomoe now? Good. Very good."
The tomoe spun in Itachi's eyes, widening with focus.Even so, he couldn't fully read Shisui's motion.
And Shisui… was done testing.
He accelerated.
Substitution sparks.A burst of chakra.Clashing metal.
Itachi fought hard enough to impress any jōnin, his timing razor-sharp and his transitions fluid.
Even so, the gap was immense.
Within minutes he was panting, sweat stinging his eyes, arms trembling as he blocked the next strike.
"Use your full strength," Itachi said through ragged breaths.
He knew Shisui wasn't fighting seriously.And that truth frustrated him more than any wound.
Shisui studied him a moment.
Then nodded.
"…Very well. I'll show you."
He formed a single seal.
Six silhouettes flickered into existence around him.
Perfect Shisui duplicates—appearance, posture, aura.
"Shadow Clones?" Itachi murmured.
No. Something was off.His Sharingan strained, and the uncertainty only deepened.
He threw a shuriken at the nearest Shisui.
It passed straight through.
An illusion?
But the next Shisui that closed in—
struck him hard enough to lift him off the ground.
"Impossible—!"
Another hit sent him spinning.Then a kick.A strike to the ribs.All from "illusory" bodies that should not have had mass.
Illusion and reality interwoven.Shisui's signature.
"This… this is the Body Flicker Master?" Itachi gasped.
He was being overwhelmed by phantoms that weren't phantoms.
Shisui's voice reached him from somewhere within the blur.
"This technique blends three elements: real clones, illusionary projections, and instantaneous movement. Opponents misread reality faster than they can react. Even with the Sharingan, the mind hesitates."
Itachi was knocked down again before he could respond.He hit the ground hard, breath torn from his lungs.
He couldn't keep up.Not even close.
High above, on the rooftop of a distant estate, Kuroha sat munching dried snacks, legs dangling.
"Heh… now they're fighting. That's more like it."
From a kilometer away, his heavy-pupiled gaze tracked every exchange effortlessly.The enhanced perception saw through even Shisui's layered illusions.
Six silhouettes.One true body.Two real clones.Three illusions woven to mask the switching of positions.
A masterpiece of deception that even the Hyūga would struggle to unravel.
"No wonder he's called Shisui the Body Flicker."Kuroha tapped his chin."If I didn't have this vision, I wouldn't catch half of that."
The battle ended exactly as expected.
Itachi collapsed, bruised but conscious.Shisui stood over him, breathing calm and even.
The difference between them was overwhelming—and honest.