Moonlight, fragmented by branches, cast shadows on the ground like ghostly claws.
"Hah! Hooo!"
Shisui Uchiha knelt on the ground, slowly closing his eyes. The Mangekyo's glow gradually receded as he gasped for breath.
Sweat, mixed with thick, crimson blood-tears, snaked down from the corners of his tightly shut eyes, carving a bloody trail on his pained face.
"Shisui!" Itachi Uchiha asked urgently, "Are you alright?"
Shisui shook his head with his eyes closed, feeling countless steel needles churning in his skull. After a good while, the sensation gradually faded.
To be safe, he had used the maximum effect of Kotoamatsukami on Fugaku, which not only drained his chakra but also almost exhausted his dojutsu power.
And the final result...
Before him, Fugaku Uchiha stood, his posture still upright. But the moment the genjutsu was complete, the crimson Sharingan, which had activated instinctively, reverted to black pupils.
The astonished expression on his face also quickly receded like a tide. In its place was the usual calm, slightly melancholic demeanor of Clan Head Fugaku.
However, this seemingly normal aura seemed to lack something, as if it were a perfect portrait that had lost the warmth and depth of the subject's true soul.
Most eerily, Fugaku showed no hint of the expected caution or suspicion regarding his presence here or Shisui's clearly abnormal state with bleeding eyes.
"Shisui?"
Fugaku Uchiha spoke, his voice steady, with his usual low tone. His gaze fell on Shisui as he asked, "Why are you here? Are you looking for Itachi?"
His matter-of-fact tone, as if Shisui's presence here was the most normal thing, sent a chill down one's spine.
"Lord Fugaku."
Shisui Uchiha endured the excruciating, tearing pain in his head and looked up. He forced a smile on his blood-stained face and tentatively asked, "You called me here, don't you remember?"
Itachi Uchiha, behind Fugaku, held his breath, his heart pounding like a drum.
"Hmm? I called you?"
A perfectly executed hint of confusion appeared on Fugaku's face. He showed no doubt about the truthfulness of Shisui's words. Instead, his eyes revealed an expression of trying hard to recall something.
"Perhaps you've been too tired lately and forgotten?" Shisui continued.
Hearing this, Fugaku's tightly furrowed brows relaxed, as if he had suddenly realized something. He gently rubbed his temples and shook his head, saying, "I've been overthinking things lately, my memory's gotten worse."
It was too natural.
So natural it was bone-chilling.
Itachi Uchiha watched his father's incredibly "natural" reaction, feeling an indescribable chill crawl up his spine.
His calm, cautious, and experienced father showed not the slightest suspicion towards any of the strangeness and abnormalities before him, unhesitatingly accepting Shisui's fabricated explanation.
Is this the power of "Kotoamatsukami"? Is this the "Mangekyo Sharingan"?
Seeing Fugaku's complete acceptance and lack of resistance, the heavy stone in Shisui's heart finally crashed down. He turned, and his gaze met Itachi's in the dim light.
Kotoamatsukami had worked!
The core part of the plan had succeeded!
The will of this clan head had been quietly rewritten, becoming a perfect puppet that would obey all commands!
This was the true horror of Kotoamatsukami.
It wasn't about devastating destructive power, but about its ability to perfectly and silently rewrite a person's perception and will, turning them into a puppet on strings without them even realizing it.
Witnessing the terror of "rewriting cognition" firsthand, Shisui couldn't help but recall Hyuga Kawa's genjutsu, thinking, "Fortunately, his genjutsu only manipulates the five senses and hasn't reached this level yet."
With this thought, he took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the waves of weakness emanating from his spiritual plane, and stood up, looking at Fugaku Uchiha.
"Lord Fugaku."
Shisui's voice regained its composure, speaking with an undeniable tone: "You might be under too much stress and sleepwalking. Since there's nothing urgent, please go back and rest."
"If there's anything you need to do, Itachi and I will inform you."
Fugaku showed no sign of offense or displeasure. He nodded without hesitation, his tone steady as he replied, "Alright, then I'll leave it to you two."
He turned naturally and calmly, walking back into the study. His steps were steady and familiar, showing no hint of the dullness of being controlled.
The naturally exuded calm demeanor perfectly matched his usual self from before.
Watching his figure disappear from view, Shisui's taut body suddenly swayed. Itachi, seeing this, quickly reached out to support him.
"Cough, cough." Shisui coughed lightly, his voice weak. "Next is to manipulate Lord Fugaku, have him lure out those radical clan members, and then..."
Perhaps out of guilt and reluctance, he didn't continue, but Itachi Uchiha's eyes flickered as he said gravely, "Can we alone silently eliminate all the radical members?"
"Moreover, many individuals are constantly on missions outside the village, their whereabouts uncertain. To eliminate all radicals, we would need to coordinate missions like Danzō did before, requiring the help of the village's higher-ups."
"Also, even if we succeed, the remaining clan members will find out sooner or later. By then, facing the wrath of the rest of the clan, what are you and I going to do..."
Hearing this, although Shisui Uchiha was still in a daze, he fell into a long silence after being reminded.
If he attempted to use the ultimate power residing in his Mangekyo Sharingan, he was confident he could kill all those radical clan members at once.
However, as Itachi said, it would be difficult to gather the clan members. Even during previous clan meetings, many were absent.
Especially Shisui and Itachi, who knew that the Anbu were monitoring the clan, were even more aware of the consequences of forcibly summoning all clan members.
At that point, they might not even have time to act before the Konoha higher-ups would notice the anomaly, suspect them of planning a coup, and preemptively move against the Uchiha clan.
"So, do we still need to inform the village's higher-ups?" Shisui hesitated in his heart.
If it were the former Shisui Uchiha, he might have chosen to trust the village's higher-ups.
But after witnessing the eerie effect of "Kotoamatsukami," even he himself felt a chill from this terrifying power, let alone the four higher-ups, including the Third Hokage.
This was no longer a question of mutual trust; it was something anyone who witnessed it would fear, and suspicion would spread like wildfire.
No one could accept their will being tampered with by another, not even if it meant personally killing their closest kin without hesitation.
"..."
The night wind swept through the courtyard, rustling a few withered leaves, making a whispering sound.
Just as this suffocating silence was about to completely engulf the two of them.
"Heheheh..."
A deep, aged, and undisguised mocking laugh echoed without warning from above their heads.
Itachi Uchiha and Shisui's hairs instantly stood on end. Almost instinctively, they both leaped up like cats whose tails had been stepped on.
They distanced themselves from the voice, arriving in the open courtyard.
Their crimson Sharingan activated, looking towards the direction of the sound.
Under the startled and solemn gazes of the two, the air above the house, which had been empty, seemed to twist and rotate as if by an invisible hand.
A long-haired figure wearing an orange one-eyed mask silently materialized out of thin air!
Whoosh!!
Without the slightest hesitation, several kunai, flashing with cold light and carrying the killing intent of Shisui and Itachi, shot towards the figure's throat and heart!
But those kunai passed through the figure without any obstruction, as if shot into empty space. There was no blood, not even the slightest sensation of impact.
"What is that?" Itachi Uchiha's expression subtly changed.
But beside him, the moment the kunai passed through the opponent's body, Shisui's Sharingan sharply narrowed, clearly catching a flash of crimson beneath the mask's eyehole.
Those eyes were clearly Sharingan.
And that pattern...
"Mangekyo Sharingan!"
Shisui's heart pounded like a drum. He stared intently at the masked man and said gravely, "Who are you? How do you have the same eyes as me?"
Hearing this, Itachi abruptly turned to look at him, his face full of horror.
Besides Shisui, the Uchiha clan actually has a second pair of Mangekyo Sharingan?!
Undoubtedly, the newcomer was Tobi, who had resumed his old role.
"Hmph..."
Tobi let out a sneer, looking down at the two below, mimicking Madara Uchiha's tone: "Brat, you seem to have misunderstood something."
"It's not that I have the same eyes as you, but rather, you have the same eyes as I do."
At these words, Shisui Uchiha's eyes narrowed, but soon, as if realizing something, his pupils couldn't help but slightly constrict.
After awakening his Mangekyo Sharingan, he had consulted countless ancient texts and knew that in the past hundred years, besides himself, only one other person in the Uchiha clan had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.
"My name is..."
Tobi slightly lifted his chin, speaking with the indifference of accumulated age: "Madara Uchiha."
An immense sense of absurdity and a bone-deep chill instantly gripped both Shisui and Itachi.
"Impossible!" Itachi Uchiha blurted out, "Madara Uchiha is dead!"
"Hmph, what naive brats," Tobi's tone carried the mockery of someone in control. "Has my appearance made you lose the ability to think calmly?"
"Or perhaps, you are merely nothing special?"
Hearing this, Itachi Uchiha forced himself to calm down. He stared intently at the figure, finally feeling a sense of familiarity, recalling the events of three years ago.
Three years ago, due to the deaths of his teammates and his sensei, due to fear and his own powerlessness, he awakened the Two-Tomoe Sharingan.
At that time, the one who killed them was this very individual in front of him!
"So it was you," Itachi's voice was hoarse. Shisui beside him frowned and asked, "Itachi, you know him?"
Itachi nodded and said, "He's the one I told you about, the one who killed Tenma."