"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
Itachi responded calmly, his hands a blur as he rapidly wove hand seals. A massive water dragon roared into the sky.
The water dragon collided with the blazing fire bullet, mutually annihilating each other in a violent explosion. Dense white steam instantly blanketed the forest.
"Not a bad counter to my ninjutsu. Itachi, your growth is truly beyond my expectations," Jie chuckled. "When I was your age, I definitely wasn't this strong."
Jie paused for a moment, realizing something wasn't quite right. Weren't he and Itachi twin brothers? Shouldn't they be the exact same age? Even though they were physically both ten years old, Jie had always felt like a fully mature ninja.
"Brother, be careful! This is my final attack!" Itachi warned, panting heavily, entirely ignoring whatever Jie had just muttered.
Unlike Jie, who possessed a Mid-level Sage Body and a terrifying volume of chakra, Itachi was nearing his absolute limit after chaining several high-level jutsu together.
"Fire Release: Dragon Flame Caterwaul!"
"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"
"Combination Ninjutsu: Blazing Fire Dragon Flame!"
The combination of two B-rank jutsu completely drained Itachi's remaining reserves, turning his face deathly pale. A colossal fire dragon materialized, radiating a terrifying heat that rapidly yellowed and charred the surrounding trees.
'Itachi's gotten even stronger', Izumi thought, watching the raging inferno from a distance. 'The power of that jutsu… it might be even greater than what Jie showed during his graduation exam three years ago. I really need to focus more on my own training. After all, Jie is already so strong.'
Her thoughts continued.
'In the future, Jie will become the head of the Uchiha clan. If his wife is only a genin… that would be embarrassing for him.'
The moment she realized where her thoughts had wandered, Izumi's face flushed bright red.
'Izumi, what are you thinking? Becoming the clan head's wife is way too soon!'
Even so, she quietly added a stricter training plan to her mental schedule. There was still plenty of time—but real strength wasn't something you could build overnight.
"Brother Itachi is so amazing! That fire dragon is huge and so pretty. I want to learn that jutsu too when I grow up," Sasuke said, a trace of awe rising in his heart.
Knowing Jie's true capabilities, neither Izumi nor Sasuke were worried; they firmly believed Jie was invincible. Even Itachi believed that. Otherwise, he never would have unleashed such a devastating combination jutsu during a simple spar between brothers.
Only Naruto, upon seeing the terrifying flames, felt a sudden surge of pure anxiety. 'Hey, are you kidding me? With a fire dragon that terrifying, is he trying to kill that older brother? Aren't they brothers? Isn't this just a spar? He's really going to die!'
However, seeing Izumi and Sasuke looking completely unconcerned, Naruto swallowed his words, burying his worry deep in his chest.
'A perfect opportunity. It wasn't for nothing that my little brother showed me the power of his combination jutsu, 'Jie thought, a faint smile touching his lips as he watched the inferno rush toward him.
'If you're going to put on a show, you have to commit. Even playing a corpse takes dedication.'
'This is the Uchiha way of acting.'
"Showtime," he whispered. "Setsuna!"
In an instant, an intricate triangular pattern materialized in Jie's eyes. The pattern in his right eye emitted a faint glow. Crimson-gold chakra surged around his body, making it look as though he were preparing to use Susanoo for defense.
In reality, Jie was merely using the golden aura to obscure the others' line of sight. Hidden within the blinding glow, he pulled out a kunai and plunged it directly into his own heart with a sickening squelch.
Compared to burning to death, a quick stab was a far more convenient and considerably less painful way to fake a suicide. With his heart pierced, a trail of fresh blood spilled from his mouth, and the crimson-gold chakra rapidly dissipated.
To Itachi, however, this scene looked entirely different. It appeared as though Jie's defensive jutsu had failed, subjecting him to a severe chakra backlash. Itachi's pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks.
"No!" he screamed desperately.
But it was too late. The powerful fire dragon completely engulfed Jie. Amidst the sea of flames, Jie's figure slowly and powerlessly collapsed.
The sudden turn of events shattered everyone's expectations. No one could have ever imagined that Jie Uchiha—the prodigy who had successfully assassinated the Fourth Raikage and killed Danzo—would fall to a B-rank combination jutsu.
"Brother!" Sasuke shrieked agonizingly. He tried to throw himself into the searing flames, but Naruto desperately held him back.
"Jie? How could this happen?" Izumi murmured, two lines of clear tears silently streaming down her face. She simply couldn't believe what was happening right in front of her.
Only Itachi remained completely silent, his jaw clenched so tight it looked like his teeth might shatter. Within his scarlet Sharingan, a third tomoe materialized, and the three commas began to spin rapidly.
Deprived of a chakra supply, the intense fire quickly died out, leaving behind a charred, unrecognizable body in the center of the clearing.
Sasuke let out another tragic cry. Two flashes of red light briefly ignited in his eyes before they rolled back, and he fainted on the grass.
Staring at the charred remains, Izumi clamped a hand over her mouth. Under the overwhelming mental trauma, her pupils unknowingly bled into a brilliant scarlet. One tomoe. Two tomoe. Three tomoe rapidly surfaced.
"Older brother!" Naruto bawled out loud.
In all the short years of his life, no one had ever treated him so kindly. Jie was the very first person to ever buy him a bowl of ramen. And now, such a good man had just died right in front of his eyes.
For a moment, volatile, blood-red chakra continuously surged from Naruto's body, and his blue eyes morphed into feral, fox-like vertical slits.
"Why? Why did you kill that older brother? Aren't you two brothers? Why!" Naruto screamed frantically at Itachi, who had collapsed to his knees.
Itachi slowly raised his head. Seeing the dazzling triangular shuriken pattern newly awakened in Itachi's eyes, and the suffocating, heavy sorrow etched onto his face, Naruto suddenly found himself unable to speak.
"You're right. It's all my fault," Itachi said hoarsely after a heavy silence. "Knowing he killed the Fourth Raikage and his body hadn't fully recovered, I didn't spare a single thought for his well-being. Knowing he's vastly stronger than me and was just acting as a sparring partner, I shamelessly unleashed my strongest jutsu on him. Knowing..."
"I kind of zoned out for a second. Is everyone alright?"
Itachi was about to continue listing his sins when a familiar, casual voice cut him off. His scarlet Mangekyō Sharingan snapped upward.
The charred body that had been lying in the ashes was gone without a trace.
'A Mangekyō, a three-tomoe… and even little Sasuke awakened a two-tomoe and one-tomoe before passing out,' Jie thought, barely suppressing a grin as he took in the newly evolved eyes of his family. 'Faking my death once really paid off.'
He gave himself a silent thumbs-up.
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