"But in the end..."
Kanzai's jagged-pupiled eyes gleamed, "you haven't let go of that annoying little facade. You lie when others ask. You hide your emotions. You hesitate."
His smile returned—lazy, wolfish.
"Shisui Uchiha-kun..."
A step forward. The earth beneath him curled, grass blackening as if recoiling from his touch.
"Come with me." He extended a hand, fingers splayed like an invitation to dance.
"I'll turn you into something better. Strip you of the lie. No more pretending. No more masks. Just the raw truth of what you really are."
His whisper was a serpent's promise.
"A true human. Just like me."
Silence.
The wind didn't howl. It breathed, soft as a corpse's sigh.
Shisui stood motionless. His grip on the kunai didn't waver, but his Sharingan—those spinning crimson eyes—flickered.
"A true human?" he asked, voice smooth. "How?"
Kanzai's grin deepened. He spread his arms, a showman unveiling his grand trick.
"I told you about it, did I not? A Binding Vow."
Another step. Claws tucked behind his back, posture relaxed, as if discussing the weather.
"A vow between two is far more potent than one made alone. Alone, you might trade your Sharingan for power. But with me?" His tongue flicked over his teeth.
"Take my hand"
Shisui didn't move. "You meant to turn me into a cursed spirit?"
"Into a cursed spirit?" Kanzai echoed, before shaking his head lightly.
"No, no... let's see. An object, yes? A thing that will be immortal and indestructible for a very long time. No—for eternity."
He turned, walking a slow circle around Shisui as if painting the vision for him.
"Once I feed it to a better human vessel... you can turn that body into yours. By then, you'd have human flesh. But your spirit? Undeniably, a cursed one. Ah—let's use a term that'll make it easier, shall we?"
He stopped directly in front of Shisui again, smiling.
"Let's call it... a Cursed Object."
Kanzai leaned forward, his breath cold with truth and temptation.
"See, I figured that most of you fake humans want something called immortality, that runaway snake too was always blabbing about it."
"And in this whole world, I might be the only one who could turn anyone into one. Don't worry, you'd still have that kind of body. That's the only thing you care about, right? Not becoming a monster?"
"I do think a body like mine isn't monstrous at all. But in the end, the only thing that matters is the result, isn't it?"
Kanzai's voice lingered in the air, soft and coaxing.
"You'd evolve. Isn't that exciting?"
The red eyes stared forward—glowing faintly, not in weakness, but in focus.
Not at Kanzai, but through him.
Past him.
Toward something only he could see.
That stillness.
That silence.
Something inside him, memories surfaced, vivid and insistent.
The image of Akai forced itself into his mind—small shoulders hunched intently over his journal, that unsettlingly knowing look on his face.
A gaze far too old for a child who was, what now?
Five?
Had it really been two days since his birthday?
The realization struck Shisui like a misplaced kunai.
He'd only learned the date yesterday during his visit to the Hyuga compound, a casual exchange with Takahiro revealing the milestone he'd entirely missed.
That damn secretive brat hadn't breathed a word.
The memory shifted.
Not Akai this time, but the stark lines of a sketch from that same journal.
Kanzai.
The image burned behind Shisui's eyes. How?
The question cut cold through his thoughts.
He'd long abandoned the idea that Akai's meticulous notes were just childish fantasy.
The journal held truths, no matter how impossible. Which meant one thing: Akai hadn't just imagined Kanzai.
He'd met him.
Face-to-face.
It might've been a stretch, but the possibility coiled tight in Shisui's chest—inescapable. He couldn't stop himself.
"Did you... make the same offer to him?"
Kanzai blinked. Then—laughter. Sharp. Delighted.
"Ah! That one." A careless wave. "He accepted. Well, conditionally." A smirk curled at the edge of his mouth. "Diligent kid. Wanted to 'devour all the curses first.'"
"..."
Something in Shisui broke.
"'Truest human' my ass."
The eyes spun.
"Ha..."
"Your lie's too obvious," Shisui hissed.
Then—movement.
A blur. A flash.
Shisui lunged, kunai aimed for the throat. Kanzai twisted, claws elongating—black, serrated—and met the blade in a shower of sparks.
The impact cracked the earth beneath them.
"Impressive eyes, I've seen that somewhere." Kanzai taunted, but his eyes stayed locked on Shisui's eyes—on the new pattern spiraling within them.
The Mangekyō Sharingan.
Shisui didn't speak.
He just struck again.
The world blurred.
ZSHHH! Shisui burst forward in a flicker of movement, his form vanishing like ink in water. Kanzai's eyes darted—too late.
CLANG! A kunai scraped against blackened claws, sparks flying.
Shisui was already gone.
BAM! Another strike from the left—blocked.
CLANG-CLANG! Two more from behind—deflected in a shower of steel and light.
Kanzai's arms became a whirlwind of furry hands, each elongated claw slicing the air with a shrill SHHNK! as it caught Shisui's blade.
The air filled with ghosts.
One Shisui lunged low—CLANK!—another swept in from above—CHNK!—a third, a fourth, a fifth, each moving with impossible speed.
Kanzai's snarls mixed with the metallic percussion, the rhythm of their fight echoing through the dark field like some chaotic forge.
"Persistent little—!" Kanzai's voice was swallowed by another KLANG! as Shisui feinted high, then carved in from the side.
FWOOM! Kanzai suddenly blurred backward, vanishing from the storm of afterimages.
Dust spiraled where he'd been, his retreat ending in a shallow crater ten meters away.
Shisui skidded to a halt, kunai poised, breath even. The night seemed to hold its breath with him.
Kanzai raised one clawed hand, the other hidden behind his back.
The gleam of those red fur caught the moonlight, dancing in front of his chest—blocking the exact hand seal he was making.
But Shisui's Mangekyō Sharingan spun, tracking the invisible current beneath the flesh.
The flow of cursed energy unfolded in his vision like a map.
"Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
The words rolled out of Kanzai's mouth like an incantation dragged from a well.
WHUMP! The cursed energy exploded outward—not as a blast, but as a spreading, unseen pressure. Shisui felt it against his skin before he saw it.
He looked up.
HSSSSSSSSSS—the night sky bled.
Wisps of oily smoke seeped from nowhere, coiling upward in long, lazy tendrils.
The moon's silver was swallowed first, the stars next, the cool breath of the air thickening into something heavy.
A dark, almost liquid-like matter drips down from the sky to form the outer barrier wall in the shape of a half-sphere.
The curtain changes the beautiful night sky to darkness.
The battlefield dimmed, the horizon vanishing under Kanzai's creeping domain.
Shisui tightened his grip.
"'Purify that which is impure?'" He sneered, mocking Kanzai's chant.
"Was that supposed to be a joke?"
The irony wasn't lost on him.
Cursed spirits were the very definition of impurity.
For one of them to wield such words was nothing short of hypocrisy.
"Does it matter?" His shoulders lifted in a shrug, another grin stretching across his face.
A wet, slicing sound—swish—and crimson streaked across his claws, translucent yet vivid.
Then, from his back, tails burst forth.
One, two... then five, until all nine unfurled behind him, thick and blood-red.
Its fur was damp, matted with a black-and-red liquid that looked like blood.
If Akai or shion had been there, they might've been reminded of something coming straight outta certain ghoul from Tokyo—just far more grotesque than edgy.
The air reeked of burnt ozone and rotting flesh as Kanzai stepped forward.
The tattered jōnin vest clung to his broad frame, the Leaf symbol on his hitai-ate smeared as if clawed at in fury.
But below the neck, the curse took over—red fur bristled along his arms, his fingers ending in serrated talons, and behind him, nine lashing tails dripped blackened sludge onto the earth.
Fear for the Kyuubi.
Resentments of ROOT's tools.
And... Curse of Uchiha's Hatred.
The villagers' dread had twisted into this.
Kanzai didn't fight like a shinobi.
He lunged—teeth bared, muscles coiled like a starving beast.
And then, his jaw split.
Wider.
Wider.
If Akai or Shion had been there, one of them would've cracked, "Damn, he steal the Joker's grin or what?"
His mouth stretched beyond human limits, cheekbones straining, as a flicker of light gathered between his fangs.
Shisui's Sharingan flared.
A Bijū Dama.
The orb hummed, vibrating like a trapped hornet, swelling to the size of a palm. But instead of launching it—
Kanzai grabbed it.
His claws sank into the churning mass, the energy hissing against his flesh.
For a heartbeat, the bomb struggled in his grip—then—
FWIP!
He vanished.
Shisui's Mangekyō spun, predicting the lunge before it happened.
ZSHHH! He flickered away with a Shunshin, reappearing several meters to the side.
The orb struck the ground.
KA—THOOOOOOOM!
The explosion tore the air apart, a deafening roar that rattled Shisui's teeth.
Dust and gravel became a storm, the shockwave slamming into him even at a distance.
He slid back a step, boots digging into the dirt.
When the smoke cleared, Kanzai stood in the center of a fresh crater.
His hands were a mangled mess—burnt, skin sloughing off in strips. And yet...
SCHLK—SCHLK—SCHLK.
The flesh began to stitch itself back together, muscles knitting, skin bubbling over raw meat.
Within seconds, those clawed hands were whole again.
Shisui's gaze sharpened.
Something about it was... off.
He spread both chakra and cursed energy into the air—ripples fanning out in all directions.
The invisible field washed over the battlefield, mapping the unseen.
"No one's inside?" his thoughts clicked into place. "That's good, but..."
He felt them.
Dozens of signatures.
Not Kanzai's—but smaller, more erratic. Skittering things. Snarling things.
Cursed spirits such as Fly Heads and Chained Foxes.
Kanzai's barrier has two effects.
First—it was bait, provoking every curse in the vicinity to crawl toward it or show themselves.
Second—it was a wall, sealing them in, sealing the world out.
That explained why, even after a Bijū Dama-level blast, the village's patrolling jōnin hadn't come running.
They couldn't sense a thing.
---
CRACK—! The ground split beneath Shisui's sandals as chakra and cursed energy spiraled out in a violent storm.
His Mangekyō blazed, the pattern etching itself into the night sky, and with it a translucent frame surged up from his body.
BOOOOM! A skeletal ribcage of pale green energy erupted, jagged and incomplete, but alive—roaring with a guttural cry that rattled the cursed barrier itself.
WHOOOSH! Kanzai's nine tails lashed forward, slamming down like scarlet meteors.
KRA-KA-THOOM! Trenches ripped open where they struck, dirt and stone exploding outward.
"Haha…!!!" Kanzai grinned, eyes darting.
But Shisui was gone—ZSHHH!
His body flickered into blurs, kunai screeching against claws—CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! Sparks rained in a storm too fast for mortal eyes to follow.
FWOOSH! Shisui weaved a seal mid-stride. Flames burst from his mouth, a spiraling inferno snaking forward like a dragon of fire.
Kanzai roared and lunged straight through, his fur igniting. SSSHHHH! Blackened strands crumbled, but his body refused to yield, flesh bubbling and regenerating as he burst through the blaze.
"This weakling actually—!!!" he snarled, claws scything down.
KRAA-DOOOM! Susanoo's skeletal arms caught the strikes, bone grinding against flesh.
The impact quaked the battlefield, the ground splitting under their locked strength.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! Kanzai's tails flared, swelling into orbs of crimson energy—miniature beast bombs.
They launched like artillery—DOOM-DOOM-DOOM! Shisui spun aside, cloak of fire trailing, Susanoo's ribs shielding him as each blast cratered the field in showers of dirt.
ZSHHHHH! He flickered above Kanzai's head, hands blurring into seals.
"Fire Style—Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"
FWOOM-FWOOM-FWOOM! A storm of searing fireballs scattered downward, each ember an exploding shard of flame.
BWOOM! Kanzai's counterstrike detonated the ground, a geyser of earth and cursed energy swallowing half the flames.
He howled, the sound a ragged mix of beast and man, shaking the battlefield.
KLANG! KLANG! Susanoo's skeletal hands swung down like titanic hammers, the impacts thundering like falling mountains.
Kanzai met them with snarling claws and whipping tails, each collision shuddering through the air.
The clash became a forge—green chakra fire against crimson haze, sparks bursting brighter than lightning.
Neither gave ground.
Shisui landed lightly, chest heaving, Susanoo looming over him in its half-formed glory.
His kunai spun in his hand, the Sharingan's tomoe twisting from their spiral.
Kanzai's claws, shattered, hung limply—yet he laughed.
"Heh… hahaha…" The sound was too sharp, too vibrant, rattling like glass about to break.
Shisui froze.
That smile—feral, trembling with madness—it struck him.
The same kind of smile Akai had worn once, leaning weakly against a tree, eyes bright with an unnatural vibrance.
Too happy.
Too alive.
So alive it was sick.
With Akai… it's the same.
Kanzai pressed his ruined hands together—SNAP!—into a seal Shisui had never seen, never read in any scroll. His voice was low, resonant, dripping with madness.
"Domain Expansion…"
Shisui's eyes widened.
ZSHHHHHHHH! His Shunshin flared, Susanoo's arms materializing in a burst of green flame.
KRA-KA-CRUNCH! Two colossal skeletal hands erupted beside Kanzai, seizing both of the curse's arms.
Two of Kanzai's tails moved forward with a loud WHIP! , intercepting the skeletal grip—his arms now free as crimson coils lock the Susanoo in place.
But Shisui was not done
Shisui flickered in front of him, kunai slashing—SHHHK!—while his sharingan burned, genjutsu threading into Kanzai's gaze.
Too late.
Kanzai's lips split in that manic grin, voice grinding out through clenched teeth like a hymn of madness.
"…Malignant Howls."
---