'Danzo's scent...'
Lexon was still wary of Danzo, the troublesome schemer of the Naruto world.
'So Shisui is injured... Did he clash with Danzo over the Uchiha coup...'
'I should go take a look.'
Lexon, in his room, put down the controller, and his figure suddenly vanished.
...
Blood dripped. Shisui clutched his empty eye socket, continuously retreating.
He looked at Danzo's unwrapped bandages and the pupil beneath that was gradually turning white, somewhat stunned. "Sharingan... Izanagi..."
Izanagi, a forbidden jutsu of the Uchiha clan. It records a previous state and allows the user to revert to it within the jutsu's effective time. Any damage received, including death, becomes null and void. The price is the loss of light in the Sharingan that cast the jutsu.
Just now, Shisui had subdued Danzo with genjutsu, but he hadn't expected the other to possess a Sharingan and use it to cast a forbidden jutsu.
Thus, in a moment of carelessness, his right eye had been gouged out.
"It will become the replacement for this eye of mine," Danzo said indifferently, gripping the Sharingan he had gouged from Shisui's eye.
Danzo knew about the powerful genjutsu contained within Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan, "Kotoamatsukami," so he wanted to seize both of his eyes.
"Give me the other eye as well..." As Danzo's voice fell, numerous masked "Root" ninjas appeared beside him, staring intently at Shisui.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Shisui quickly formed hand seals, and an extremely hot flame transformed into a large fireball, rushing directly towards the ninjas opposite him.
The Root ninjas reacted promptly, quickly forming hand seals and spitting out a stream of water to counteract the incoming fireball.
Instantly, water and fire clashed, sending up clouds of steam.
When the steam dissipated, Shisui's figure was already gone.
"Body Flicker Technique..." Danzo looked at the empty space and muttered to himself.
Suddenly, he felt an extremely ominous aura from a distance. His whole body went cold, and his spirit shook.
In an instant, a silver thread shot out from the dense forest far away.
Before Danzo and the surrounding ninjas could react, it instantly wrapped around the Mangekyo Sharingan, still stained with blood, held loosely in Danzo's hand. Then it pulled back, retracting into the forest with the speed of lightning.
"After him!" Danzo's voice seemed to contain the turbulent fury of an erupting volcano.
The surrounding ninjas immediately leaped into motion, rushing towards the dense forest.
But after a few minutes, they returned empty-handed.
"Useless!" Danzo could only rage impotently, berating the kneeling Root ninjas.
...
"How exciting," Lexon said, tossing the Sharingan wrapped in silver thread, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.
Danzo's current combat power was roughly Kage level. Lexon, after five years of signing in and demonization, was clearly somewhat stronger than him.
But the tricky part was that Shimura Danzo possessed the terrifying self-destruct move, the "Reverse Four Symbols Seal."
If he were hit by this move, even Lexon's seemingly immortal life recovery ability after demonization would be useless. Moreover, this was Konoha territory, and if he fought Danzo, other Konoha ninjas might come to support him.
So Lexon wouldn't choose to engage Shimura Danzo head-on for anything he wanted to do right now.
At least not now.
'Where did Shisui go...'
Lexon once again activated his sense of smell to search for Shisui's location.
'After all, I have to return this eye to him...'
Lexon had no interest in Shisui's Mangekyo.
He also had "Kotoamatsukami"; holding onto Shisui's eye was useless.
Most importantly, Lexon was still waiting for Shisui to learn how to summon Susanoo so he could sign in for it...
A single eye meant decreased ocular power, which would surely make learning Susanoo harder.
'But isn't today the day Shisui jumps off the cliff and dies?'
Lexon suddenly thought.
'Didn't Itachi awaken his Mangekyo Sharingan precisely because he witnessed Shisui's suicide today...'
'Then should I stop Shisui from jumping off the cliff or not? I also really want Itachi's "Tsukuyomi" and "Amaterasu"...'
'Ah... whatever...'
'Getting tangled up like this isn't my style.'
Lexon tucked Shisui's eye into his pocket. Thankfully, it was wrapped in silver spider silk; otherwise, Lexon felt it would be rather disgusting.
'A sticky human eye...'
'Tsk.'
He located Shisui's position and leaped rapidly in that direction.
In a few minutes, he saw Shisui's figure.
He was standing on the cliff above the Naka River, his back to Itachi, who was dressed in Anbu attire, saying something.
"The Uchiha coup can no longer be stopped. Once Konoha falls into civil war, other countries will surely take advantage," Shisui's tone was solemn. "War is inevitable. I originally wanted to use Kotoamatsukami to stop the coup, but... Danzo took my right eye."
He turned his head. His right eye was closed, and the sight of blood flowing from it entered Itachi's eyes.
Lexon just watched the two of them talk quietly from a hidden spot not far away, neither interrupting nor revealing himself.
"He doesn't trust me," Shisui continued. "He insists on protecting the village in his own way. I'm afraid he won't let my left eye go either... Before that happens, I'll entrust this eye to you."
His fingers reached towards his remaining left eye, and he gouged the eyeball out of its socket alive.
'That looks a bit painful...'
Seeing such a scene, Lexon couldn't help but think.
"I can only entrust this to you, my dear friend... Protect the village, and the Uchiha name..."
Shisui's eyes closed, blood seeping from the sockets. He held up the gouged-out Mangekyo Sharingan and extended it towards Itachi.
A gentle breeze blew...
Under the moonlight, a black crow flew from mid-air, landed on Shisui's palm, and touched the eyeball.
The entire crow instantly dissolved into a flurry of flying feathers.
This was a crow manifested by Itachi's genjutsu, not a real one. Shisui's eye had already been accepted by him.
"I accept it. What do you plan to do?" Itachi's three-tomoe Sharingan looked directly at Shisui as he asked.
"If I die, the situation should change somewhat..."
Shisui smiled at his dear friend before him and stepped backward.
"I've already left a suicide note..."
"Wait! Shisui!" Itachi guessed Shisui's intention and called out, wanting to stop him.
"Don't stop me, Itachi," Shisui smiled, calling his dear friend's name. "If... you are still my friend."
Itachi's body froze. He then reached out a hand, wanting to grab him, but in the end, he just watched as Shisui fell straight off the cliff.
Watching Shisui gradually fall into the cliff waterfall, what swirled in Uchiha Itachi's eyes were no longer tomoe, but instead... a strange pattern.
Witnessing the death of his dear friend, Uchiha Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan had awakened.
"Shisui..." he murmured his friend's name, put on his Anbu-exclusive cat mask, concealing his face, turned, and left.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]