A blinding flash of lightning suddenly tore through the darkness of the night. The world was lit up as if it were day! At some point, a fine drizzle began to fall, silently hitting the windows and leaving a few winding trails of water.
Outside the window, two ghostly figures appeared, catching Uchiha Mikoto's eye.
"Itachi? You..."
She looked at her son's bowed back again, her voice trembling with disbelief and a coldness that pierced her heart with the most horrifying thought.
"Mother..."
Uchiha Itachi's voice was like sandpaper, unable to weave any lies. He looked up, his eyes a deep, bloody crimson.
Rumble! !
A deafening clap of thunder followed the lightning. Seeing the crimson in her son's eyes, Mikoto instinctively took a step back, her body trembling with immense fear.
However, in that instant of clashing thunder and light, another figure silently appeared behind her. There were no words, no sounds.
"Cough!"
Uchiha Mikoto felt a tremendous force from behind, tightly holding her arms and upper body. The immense strength seemed to want to crush her bones. The suffocating pressure on her lungs choked her, preventing her from even screaming, leaving only a painful whimper.
Struggling, Uchiha Mikoto turned her head, and the face that came into view made her pupils tremble and her expression fill with terror.
"Fugaku..."
She looked at her husband's face, so close yet so hollow, as if it had no soul. There was no expression on that face, only a dead, indifferent calm. There was no hatred, no apology, nothing! Only a blank numbness!
But this was more cruel than any expression!
This wasn't her husband! It couldn't be!
"Mother..."
Itachi's hoarse, low voice reached her ears, and Mikoto's body trembled as she turned to face him. At this moment, Uchiha Itachi had turned around, his crimson Sharingan with three tomoe watching his father's death grip on his mother's slender body.
Another fleeting bolt of lightning flashed outside the window, its pale light illuminating the sword he was slowly drawing. The blade reflected an icy, bone-chilling glint.
"Itachi," a hoarse voice from Black Zetsu entered his ears. "What are you waiting for?"
"If you stop here, the deaths of those clan members will lose all meaning. Their deaths will change nothing. At that point, you will be the true executioner!"
Rumble! !
The following muffled thunder rang out again and again, making Uchiha Itachi's temples throb with pain. The whispers of 'Madara' and 'Zetsu' echoed in his ears, constantly tearing at his soul.
Yes, 'Zetsu' was right. Having come this far, if he stopped now, the deaths of those clan members would become meaningless. This was absolutely not what he wanted to see. Only by completely eliminating the radical faction of the Uchiha clan, and only by bringing peace and ending the conflict between Konoha and the Uchiha, could the deaths of those clansmen be given meaning!
Finally, Uchiha Itachi took a heavy step, tightening his grip on the sword and walking toward his mother. Watching Itachi approach her step by step, Uchiha Mikoto instinctively struggled, but Fugaku's arms were like steel, holding her body firmly in place.
She stopped struggling, looked at Itachi's face, and her lips trembled slightly as she whispered softly, "Itachi..."
"Is all of this truly worth it?"
Her voice was soft and gentle, like a normal mother squatting down to ask her child a simple question.
Looking at those eyes that had become calm and numb, Uchiha Itachi felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his heart. His chest heaved as he gasped for air. But the sword in his hand trembled as it was finally raised.
In his mental space, the already numb Uchiha Fugaku watched the scene, letting out a hysterical roar:
"No! Itachi!!"
"Let her go! Let her go!"
"Itachi! That's your mother! Please!"
"You can kill anyone else! Anyone! But her! Her!"
His roars gradually turned into pleas, but outside, his face remained expressionless, still holding his wife tightly.
And at that moment, in the rainy courtyard, Uchiha Shisui suddenly stopped. Next to him, he was holding Uchiha Sasuke's hand. Shisui had met Sasuke on the way home and was going to walk him back.
But...
A bolt of lightning instantly filled the dark night sky with a pale light. Under the blinding light, the two saw three figures at the entrance of the house. Sasuke's face was filled with confusion and bewilderment as he witnessed a scene he would never forget.
Mom, being held tightly from behind by Dad?
And big brother, why... why is big brother holding a sword...?
"Itachi! Stop!"
Accompanied by a horrified, cracking scream, Shisui instinctively rushed forward to stop him.
But it was too late.
Puch!
The sword's light arced in a desperate curve, and the sound of flesh being pierced was infinitely magnified, even drowning out the howling wind and rain outside the window.
Time, it seemed, was frozen at this moment.
Mikoto's body stiffened slightly in Fugaku's arms. A cold, bright blade pierced her heart, staining her clothes a startling, dark red.
"..."
The light in her eyes faded. She looked at Uchiha Itachi's face, twisted with pain, and opened her mouth as if to say something. But in the end, only a faint breath escaped her lips without a sound.
Only an endless sense of disappointment and worry was frozen in her unfocused eyes. Not disgust, not anger, not hatred. Only disappointment and worry. This gaze, like the sharpest ice pick, pierced Itachi's heart!
"Uh... ah..."
A sob, as if unconsciously squeezed from his throat, escaped from Uchiha Itachi's tightly gritted teeth. His hand on the sword hilt was shaking violently, his knuckles white from the force. The tremor spread from his arm to his whole body, making him sway like a candle in the wind.
He suddenly pulled the sword out.
Shh!
Warm, living blood gushed out like a fountain, instantly staining Itachi's sword hand and the front of his clothes. It also splattered on his twisted, pale face, making him feel as if the warmth was a red-hot iron.
And the crimson Sharingan in his eyes suddenly underwent a drastic change!
Om! !
An incredibly cold and immense chakra made the three tomoe in his eyes spin madly. In just one breath, the three tomoe completely merged, replaced by a new form that resembled three interlocking blades, spinning like a windmill.
It was deep, cold, and heart-pounding!
The Mangekyō Sharingan!
Under the painful stimulus of killing his own mother, Uchiha Itachi's three-tomoe Sharingan finally broke through its final shackles.
"Ah... ah..."
In the rainy courtyard, Uchiha Sasuke stared blankly at the scene, his young face filled with bewilderment. Unconscious sounds escaped his throat. His small body was frozen by the immense shock, and his mind went blank. Everything that was happening before his eyes was the most terrifying nightmare, tearing his world to pieces.
In front of him, Uchiha Shisui's face also lost all color. The Sharingan appeared in his eyes due to shock, pain, and fury. He stared intently at the bloody sword in Itachi's hand, at Mikoto, who had lost all breath, and then at the two figures at the window!
A torrent of emotions—containing raging fury, immense confusion, and bone-deep coldness—hit Uchiha Shisui's sanity and mind like a tsunami!
How could this be? Why?
Why did it have to turn out like this?!
"Itachi! What are you doing?!"
Shisui let out a painful, angry, and confused roar, his voice twisted by the extreme emotions.
But everything was irreversible.
Uchiha Itachi hunched over, gasping for air from the suffocating feeling. His newly born Mangekyō Sharingan stared intently at his mother's corpse. Blood dripped from his sword hand, pooling on the ground in a shocking dark red.
Uchiha Fugaku, still holding Mikoto, had no change in his hollow face. His arms remained like iron hoops, tightly embracing his wife's cooling body. He was like a puppet, waiting for the next command.
But now, in Fugaku's mental world...
Silence.
Absolute silence.
No longer were there soul-rending roars and pleas, but a suffocating, deathly silence.
Uchiha Fugaku watched everything with a dazed expression. He watched himself clasp Mikoto's body, and he watched the sword from his son's hand pierce his wife's heart... The endlessly gushing, shocking blood seemed to burn his eyes and his brain.
"Heh... hehe..."
Uchiha Fugaku let out a hoarse, inhuman laugh, filled with absurdity, pain, despair, and the sound of something finally being completely shattered. The whispers and curses of the Uchiha clansmen he had killed with his own hands, which had been like a demonic tune in his ears, suddenly became incredibly clear and loud.
"Uchiha Fugaku! Coward!"
"You're trash! You're not worthy of being the clan leader!"
"Kill him! I'll kill you!!"
"You're a sinner of the Uchiha clan!"
"You've lost everything! This is what you deserve!"
"Kill Itachi! Kill Shisui! Kill them!"
The endless voices, like a black tide, were filled with extreme hatred, anger, and curses! The resentment of every voice and every ghost, carrying hatred for Itachi, Shisui, and him, completely shattered Fugaku's numbness and powerlessness.
A powerful emotion swallowed all his reason, and this time, it was no longer powerlessness and pain, but pure, extreme hatred and fury!
"Why?! Why?!" he cried out in a blood-soaked, furious howl. "Uchiha! Itachi!!"
No, not just him. In the sea of blood around him, the ghosts of the dead Uchiha clansmen let out a simultaneous roar filled with madness and hatred. Countless voices overlapped, shaking the heavens and earth and raising a monstrous wave in this mental ocean.
"Hahaha! That's it! That's it!"
In the sky of the mental world, Hyuga Kawa watched the scene, laughing wildly and grinning. "Let me give you one last push!!"
With that, he tightly gripped the Box of Paradise, which spun between his hands.
Bang! Bang! Bang!!
Countless spirits that were suppressed beneath the surface of the sea broke through, roaring madly and pouring into Fugaku's chaotic and collapsing consciousness. They bit, collided, twisted, and merged with each other!
A crimson light gushed out, becoming a physical substance that completely swallowed Fugaku's conscious body!
And so, a being that had merged with the souls of countless dead Uchiha, an existence that had condensed countless resentments, pains, and furies...
was born.
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