A spray of vivid crimson blood splattered against the windowpane. A woman's desperate, unreconciled scream pierced the air before falling silent. Inside, the dim yellow light flickered and died, plunging the room into darkness.
Itachi moved with increasing speed, weaving through the compound from house to house. No one could escape his blade. After claiming hundreds of lives, he finally encountered his father, Fugaku, standing in the middle of the road.
"Itachi... what can this slaughter possibly achieve?!"
Fugaku's voice was heavy with interrogation. "I showed you the future of our clan. Can you really bring about a different result?"
In response, Itachi's Sharingan began to spin, morphing into a three-pointed blade, the unmistakable symbol of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
…
Meanwhile, at the top floor of the Uchiha Police Force headquarters, a body crashed through the glass. Blood erupted from the impact, painting the shattered shards red. Beside the corpse, a man wearing a red tiger-striped mask stepped away in silence. He, too, had joined this feast of slaughter, having already ended the lives of hundreds of Uchiha clansmen.
"Time for his next request..." the masked man muttered to himself.
As he stepped out, a shuriken whistled through the air, aimed directly at his head. He turned casually to see a girl with flowing black hair standing below.
"Oh? Not a bad pair of eyes."
Izumi Uchiha threw a kunai, aiming for the masked man's skull. But in the next heartbeat, she froze. Her pupils shrank in terror. The kunai passed through his head as if he were made of air, leaving him completely unharmed.
"How is this possible!" Panic seized Izumi's heart. This was not an opponent she could defeat.
She turned to flee, but she hadn't taken two steps before a heavy chain snaked through the air and bound her body tight. In her desperation, a single name echoed in her mind: Help me... Itachi, please save me...
…
Back at the main estate, Itachi stood in a confrontation with Fugaku. Behind him lay a wasteland of corpses and a river of blood.
"This is the future of the village as I see it," Itachi said tonelessly. "And the future of the clan."
Through Genjutsu, Itachi channeled his entire plan and his reasons into his father's mind.
"I see. So, it's for Sasuke?"
In a puff of smoke, Fugaku's form vanished. It was a Shadow Clone.
"A Shadow Clone?" Itachi stiffened, his brow furrowing. He knew his father would be his greatest obstacle this night. He had entrusted the task regarding Kanon to the masked man, but his father was his own cross to bear.
Itachi walked cautiously into his childhood home, checking every corner of the hallway and the surrounding rooms with clinical precision. Suddenly, Fugaku's voice drifted from a room further in.
"Over here. There are no traps."
Itachi followed the voice into a room bathed in brilliant, white moonlight. But through the blood coating his face, the white light looked like a sickening, visceral red. Inside, Fugaku and Mikoto sat kneeling on the floor.
"Father..." Itachi's voice trembled.
"I have no desire to engage in a death match with my own son," Fugaku said, sensing Itachi behind him. He closed his eyes. "I see. You've chosen the other side."
"Father... Mother... I..."
Mikoto, who had remained silent until then, finally spoke. "We understand, Itachi." Her voice was impossibly gentle. "The only one you truly owe an apology to is your sister, Kanon. Once your father and I go to the other side, we will apologize to her on your behalf."
As Itachi slowly raised his sword, Fugaku spoke one last time.
"Itachi. Promise me one last thing. Take care of Sasuke."
Tears streamed uncontrollably down Itachi's face. His hand shook violently; he felt as though his heart was being shredded, vibrating with a pain so intense it felt ready to explode.
"Do not fear," Fugaku said, his voice calm and rational. "This is the path you have chosen. Compared to yours, our pain will be over in an instant. Even if our philosophies differ... I am still proud of you."
"Has Kanon already gone?" Mikoto whispered.
"Yes... she should be gone by now," Itachi managed to choke out.
"Then do it," she murmured.
Itachi was sobbing now, the blade in his hand rattling. His soul was split in two: one half bound by loyalty to the village and the promise of peace, the other by a profound love and respect for his parents. He knew that once the blade fell, there was no turning back. He would sever his ties to the past forever, becoming a traitor to his kin, a madman who murdered his own parents.
"Itachi, you truly are a gentle child. I will always be proud of you."
With those final words from Fugaku, Itachi swung the blade down.
…
At the training ground near the cliffside, Kanon sat on the grass. She noticed her palms were breaking out in a cold sweat.
"What's wrong with me? Am I just tired from training all day?" She stared at her hands, a sense of dread pooling in her stomach.
Suddenly, she somersaulted through the air just as a kunai buried itself inches deep into the soil where she had been sitting. This was a killing blow.
Under the silver moonlight, someone was trying to kill her.
Kanon scanned her surroundings. To her left, the space began to warp and ripple. A man in a red tiger mask emerged, clutching a katana. But what stopped Kanon's heart was the girl he held in his other hand. It was Izumi, gasping for breath, her face deathly pale from blood loss.
"Izumi-neesan!" Kanon's eyes flared with rage.
"Run... Kanon... run..." Izumi managed to wheeze.
Squelch.
Without a word, the masked man plunged his katana through Izumi's brow.
"Izumi-neesan!!"
An explosion of fury and agony erupted within Kanon. Her dark, bright eyes bled into a deep crimson under the moonlight. A single black tomoe began to spin slowly into existence within the red iris.
[The Sharingan... Kanon, you've awakened it!] Konin's voice echoed in her mind, but Kanon couldn't hear it. Her mind was consumed by a single thought: kill the masked man and avenge Izumi.
"Who are you?!" Though she was small and consumed by rage, she maintained her combat instincts, demanding an answer.
The masked man said nothing. He lashed out with a heavy chain, attempting to bind her just as he had Izumi.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A terrifying gale erupted from Kanon, the sheer pressure blasting the chains aside. The massive gust of wind tore toward the masked man's face, only to pass straight through his body as if he were a ghost.
"It went right through him..." Kanon's mind raced, frantically calculating a way to counter such a terrifying ability.
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