Chapter 2: A Test of Blades
A ferocious grin twisted Uchiha Tensho's face as his hands flew through a sequence of hand seals. "Fire Release—!"
Watching this, Uchiha Naoki's eyes narrowed into icy slits. "You brought this upon yourself. Don't blame me for what happens next."
Did this fool truly believe Uchiha Naoki was a soft persimmon, ripe for the picking?
"Genjutsu: Gold Binding!"
This was the only illusion technique handed down from this body's parents. When cast through the power of the Sharingan, its potency was magnified tenfold.
"Two Tomoe? And a Genjutsu?!" Uchiha Tensho's eyes widened in sheer shock, his body locking up completely, unable to move a single muscle. He stared at Naoki's cold, impassive face, his voice rising to a disbelieving shout. "Impossible! How can a waste like you have awakened the Sharingan, and with two tomoe in both eyes?!"
To awaken the Sharingan before the age of ten was already a sign of a genius. To have both eyes bloom directly with two tomoe? That was a peerless prodigy, a once-in-a-generation talent. He refused to believe that the Uchiha Naoki standing before him could be such a person.
"Hmph, there are far more things you don't know than you can possibly imagine," Naoki snorted coldly, a palpable wave of killing intent rolling off him. "Now, die."
This place was remote; no one would notice the commotion, and no one would find the body. It was the perfect spot to erase a problem.
As he spoke, the skin on his right arm flushed a deep, angry red. With a sizzling, visceral sound, it bubbled and transformed, erupting into a torrent of glowing, viscous magma that solidified into a devastating fist. "Great Eruption!"
BOOM!
The air itself seemed to scream as it was scorched, the terrifying heat of the magma fist roaring forward to completely engulf the paralyzed Uchiha Tensho.
"Ahhh! NO!!!"
A single, abbreviated shriek of pure terror was all that escaped before it was brutally cut short. Uchiha Tensho was utterly annihilated, vaporized within the incandescent fury of the magma, leaving behind not even a speck of ash.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Naoki calmly exhaled several searing fireballs, scorching the ground and the surrounding area to erase all traces of the unique, molten damage. The evidence was now gone. Without a body and without proof, any suspicion directed his way would remain just that—a baseless suspicion.
After taking a moment to steady his breathing and quell the slight tremor in his hands—the natural discomfort of taking a life for the first time—Uchiha Naoki made his way to the Naka River to continue his daily training regimen. The incident was behind him.
One Week Later
It was time for the evening return to the clan district. As Uchiha Naoki walked the familiar path, he was met by an unexpected and unsettling figure blocking his way.
"Itachi? What is this about?" Naoki asked, his heart giving an involuntary lurch in his chest.
He had known that Uchiha Tensho's disappearance would inevitably attract some attention. But he never expected Uchiha Itachi himself to be the one investigating.
"You are aware that Uchiha Tensho has been missing for a week," Itachi stated, his voice flat and devoid of emotion.
Naoki nodded, keeping his expression carefully neutral. "I know."
Uchiha Itachi continued, his dark eyes boring into Naoki. "There has been no trace of him until today. The clan elders now suspect he is dead. And it is known that on the day he disappeared, he came to confront you. So..."
He paused, his gaze intensifying. "I suspect you are the one who killed him."
Hearing this accusation so directly sent another jolt through Naoki, but he forced a look of helpless exasperation onto his face and spread his hands wide. "Uchiha Tensho was a shinobi capable of fighting on par with a Special Jonin. My abilities are, at best, a match for a Chunin. Is it even possible for me to have killed someone of his caliber?"
Uchiha Itachi's response was calm and immediate. "On the contrary, I believe your true strength is greater than that. Therefore, I wish to verify it for myself." He took a ready stance. "I advise you to use all of your power in this fight. Otherwise, the suspicion hanging over you will be difficult to clear."
A spark of competitive fire ignited in Naoki's eyes. "Fine, then let's do this!" A chance to test his skills against a shinobi of Uchiha Itachi's caliber was a rare and valuable opportunity, even under these circumstances.
Of course, I cannot reveal the two-tomoe Sharingan just yet, he reminded himself.
In the blink of an eye, he closed the distance, kunai flashing in his hand as he executed a series of swift, precise strikes. "Uchiha Style Saber Technique!"
Swish! Swish!
The attacks were sharp and clean, but the kunai only sliced through empty air as Uchiha Itachi effortlessly sidestepped and weaved through the assault, his movements a blur. Before Naoki could reorient himself, Itachi's form dissolved into a flock of cawing crows that swarmed around him, disrupting his vision and sense of direction.
Naoki's eyes darted rapidly, trying to track any minute detail, any flicker of movement within the disorienting cloud of black feathers.
There!
Suddenly, Itachi materialized from the flock of crows behind him, his hands already completing a seal. He drew a deep breath and unleashed a torrent of terrifyingly condensed flame. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
It was like a miniature sun had descended upon the forest. The sheer, focused heat of the fireball was on a completely different level from Naoki's own, making him feel as if his skin would blister and peel from the proximity alone.
"As expected of the prodigy, Uchiha Itachi. He's truly monstrous, to have mastered the chakra nature transformation of Fire Release to such a degree!" Naoki thought, a sliver of genuine admiration cutting through his focus.
There was no time to dodge. The colossal fireball slammed into him, engulfing his form completely before continuing its path to crash into the forest behind, smashing through several large trees before finally dissipating, leaving a scorched, smoldering crater in the ground. The space where Uchiha Naoki had stood was now empty, seemingly vaporized by the inferno.
"So fast!" Uchiha Itachi suddenly exclaimed, his body already spinning. He lunged forward, not away from the point of impact, but towards an empty space to his left, his fist shooting out in a perfectly aimed strike.
The next instant, Uchiha Naoki flickered into existence right where Itachi's fist was heading! The fireball from moments before had clearly not harmed him in the slightest—he had moved too quickly for it to land.
Facing Itachi's impossibly fast counter-punch, Naoki seemed to have anticipated it. He crossed his arms in a guard over his head, bracing for the impact. The force of the blow sent him skidding backward, but as he flew through the air, his hands were already a blur, hurling a volley of kunai to pin Itachi down and prevent an immediate follow-up.
He twisted his body in mid-air, planted his feet firmly against the trunk of a large tree behind him, and used the rebound to launch himself back towards Itachi, his hands forming another seal. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
His fireball was not as immense or intensely hot as Itachi's, but it still held considerable power, forcing the older boy to give ground. Itachi leaped backward, but Naoki was already on him, a low sweep of his leg aimed at Itachi's ankles. Itachi jumped over the sweep effortlessly, and in that moment of suspension, he delivered a sharp, powerful kick that sent Naoki flying back once more.
Then, Itachi vanished in a flicker of movement, easily avoiding the path of Naoki's fireball.
BOOM!
The fireball exploded against the ground, adding another charred mark to the battlefield.
Naoki, who had been kicked away, was just pushing himself up from the ground when a phantom-like blur appeared before him. The cold, sharp point of a kunai rested against the space between his eyebrows. Uchiha Itachi looked down at him, his expression unreadable as he announced the result. "It's over."
Uchiha Naoki immediately raised his hands in surrender. "I lost." He let out a shaky breath, a wry smile touching his lips. "As expected of Itachi. You're far too strong. I'm simply no match for you."
Uchiha Itachi retracted the kunai. "Thank you for the match," he said, his tone still calm. Then, addressing his clansman of the same age, he continued, "I have a sufficient understanding of your strength now. I will report the details of this battle truthfully to the elders and the clan head. They will make the final decision."
From the test, he could confirm that Uchiha Naoki had shown his full capabilities. While his speed was slightly better than reported, his overall power was not far from the Chunin level he had claimed. It was simply impossible for a shinobi of this caliber to have killed Uchiha Tensho, who was comparable to a Special Jonin.
"My apologies for the trouble," Naoki said, bowing slightly, a genuine wave of relief washing over him.
Good. He didn't see through my act.
Soon, the official conclusion regarding Uchiha Tensho's disappearance was announced.
Uchiha Naoki was cleared of all suspicion.
The Uchiha clan elders could not bring themselves to believe that a boy of Naoki's known strength could possibly have eliminated a powerful fighter like Uchiha Tensho. Instead, they directed their suspicions and anger towards Konoha's higher echelons, believing it to be another one of their provocations.
This baseless accusation, in turn, displeased the Konoha leadership. The biggest suspect, Shimura Danzo, was particularly incensed. To be blamed for an act he did not commit was an insult to his authority.
"Damnable Uchiha," he muttered in the darkness of his chamber. "Just you wait."
He would make the entire Uchiha clan understand the grave price of slandering him.
Uchiha Naoki, having cleanly extricated himself from the situation, was content to remain on the sidelines, throwing himself back into his intense, secret training.
And so, time flowed onward. Another month passed.
During that month, the voices calling for rebellion and a coup d'état within the Uchiha clan grew louder and more insistent, reaching a fever pitch that not even their leader, Fugaku Uchiha, could any longer hope to suppress.
"The night has finally come," Naoki whispered to himself, standing in the darkness and looking up at the bright, full moon hanging in the sky like a cold, unblinking eye.
Just half an hour ago, the Uchiha clan had held their final, fateful meeting. The plan was set: to use Uchiha Itachi's unparalleled abilities to swiftly subdue Konoha's leadership, to launch a bloodless revolution, and to realize their long-held dream of seizing control of the village.