Half his body turned pitch-black.
The moment Fugaku sensed something wrong, he realized—too late—he couldn't move.
"Wh… who… are you…?"
His voice was forced out through clenched teeth.
The other half of his face—now swallowed by the blackness—pulled into a strange, crooked smile.
"Who am I?"
"If we're talking seniority…"
"I'm your great-great-great-uncle."
"A descendant of Indra… an Uchiha."
"Your eyes are mine."
The possessed Fugaku lifted a hand.
A kunai slid across his throat.
SHNK—!
Artery and windpipe split at once. Blood erupted, drenching Fugaku in seconds.
"Ghk… ghk…"
With his throat torn open, Fugaku tried to speak—
but every breath he dragged in was thick with blood. Not a single word came out.
A black arm reached for his eyes.
A wet, brutal sound followed.
Fugaku's eyelids fell shut over two raw, bleeding hollows.
At that moment, something pale rose from the floor.
The darkness that had clung to Fugaku peeled away bit by bit—like rotting sludge—merging into that white mass.
In its hand were two glass tubes:
One held Obito's Mangekyō.
The other—
held Fugaku's pair of Sharingan.
"As one of Madara's pieces, Obito can't die yet."
"And that Mangekyō with a space-time ability can't be left in Konoha."
"So…"
"I'm afraid you'll have to die, current head of the Uchiha—Uchiha Fugaku."
"Shhk!"
Fugaku's head jerked.
A kunai was driven into his eye socket, destroying the brain.
After that, Black Zetsu and White Zetsu sank into the ground, vanishing into the earth.
White Zetsu's voice lingered, complaining like an idiot:
"Did you have to be so fast? I wanted to ask him what it feels like to need the toilet."
Black Zetsu answered coldly:
"The Fourth and that Mangekyō Uchiha just left. We have to get Obito out now."
"And someone in this village knows we exist. Otherwise Obito wouldn't have failed."
"Move."
…
Ten minutes later, screams tore through the Military Police headquarters.
Minato and Shisui—who hadn't gotten far—returned at full speed.
But Fugaku was already lying in a pool of blood.
His Sharingan were gone.
And in the sealed cell—
Obito was gone too.
"—!"
Shisui yanked open a hidden compartment under the desk.
The Mangekyō they'd stored there last night—
was missing.
"So he had accomplices," Minato said, voice tight. "To slip into Konoha unnoticed… and kill Captain Fugaku without a sound…"
Shisui's lips parted, then closed. He didn't finish his thought.
But Minato understood what he was about to say:
Uzumaki Kong.
The one who cut off Obito's arm last night.
The one who used Flying Thunder God with ease.
Was that figure connected to the "black shadow" from the Information Exchange?
But based on that conversation, the shadow seemed biased toward the Uchiha.
So why rescue Obito?
And Fugaku wasn't weak.
A man like him shouldn't be controlled so easily…
A medic-nin hurried forward with the report.
"The deceased died of blood loss—artery and windpipe severed by a kunai."
"And from the body position… it resembles suicide."
"But the kunai driven into the brain afterward was likely done by the enemy."
"Suicide?" Minato's brows knit.
Fugaku would never kill himself.
Which meant the enemy had a control-type ability—like the Nara clan's shadow techniques, forcing the body to move.
The brain-stabbing was familiar too.
In the Third War, it wasn't rare. Every great village had methods that targeted the brain—sometimes to prevent intel extraction, sometimes to damage it before retrieval.
Still…
Uzumaki Kong?
From Shisui's brief clash last night, that person wasn't strong.
Without Flying Thunder God and abnormal reaction speed, he wasn't even chūnin level.
Even catching Fugaku off guard, he should've wounded him—at most.
Not controlled him.
Uzumaki, not Uchiha…
Uzumaki genjutsu?
No.
Or maybe "Uzumaki Kong" was just a name planted to mislead.
Minato's orders came out sharp and immediate.
"Get the Barrier Team here. I need the status of the village barrier."
"And tell the jōnin squads to form a tracking unit—include a sensor jōnin."
"Shisui—take an ANBU team and follow. Support them if anything is detected."
The Hokage's personal anbu vanished in a Body Flicker to carry out the orders.
Shisui also left—fast.
His mind was already spiraling.
The Uchiha had been balancing on a knife's edge.
Now Fugaku was dead.
The hawks and doves would tear at each other again.
And if a hawk became clan head…
…
Deep underground, inside a cavern—
Obito sat recovered.
His right arm was back.
He slotted in a Sharingan as casually as if it were an everyday tool.
Then his voice turned ugly.
"So who leaked my information to Konoha?"
"And Kakashi's eye…"
White Zetsu answered in a singsong tone.
"Uzumaki Kong. I saw it when you got caught. You were really pathetic, Obito."
Obito's fist slammed down.
BANG!
A wooden table shattered.
"If it weren't for that bastard Kakashi!"
"Using my own eye to counter me—damn it!"
He raged, venting like a storm for a long time.
Only when he finally calmed did the black figure speak again, tossing him a scroll.
"Information about Hashirama's cells and the Mangekyō has fully leaked."
"You need to settle down and learn."
"This is the scroll he left for you. The power inside… is what you need right now."
Obito took it.
White Zetsu leaned in with a glass tube and giggled.
"Uchiha clan head Fugaku's eyes. Nice three-tomoe, huh? I remember Uchiha genjutsu needs Sharingan."
Obito stared at what he held.
And his tomoe began to spin.
Power.
Only power could capture the tailed beasts and begin the Eye of the Moon Plan.
And that person in the shadows—
Uzumaki Kong.
…
Three days later—Konoha.
Uchiha Fugaku's funeral.
Dressed in black, Yun stood before the memorial stone, staring.
Fugaku's death… wasn't something he'd expected.
He'd tossed "canon" aside already, but what came next for the Uchiha was obvious.
Fugaku was gone.
Itachi was only five—he wouldn't even enter the Academy until next year.
At that age, there was no way Itachi could become clan head.
And Shisui…
If he could be convinced—
then Fugaku's death might not be entirely bad.
Because of Kotoamatsukami.
Around Yun, Uchiha voices murmured in low, nervous clusters.
"The Fourth had just left the Military Police, and then the captain gets assassinated…"
"They say the jōnin tracking squads and ANBU found nothing…"
"Shisui's team too. The enemy vanished like smoke…"
"A power that disappears instantly…"
"In the Third War, didn't the Fourth wipe out fifty enemy ninja with one jutsu?"
"Space-time ninjutsu… only the Fourth can use that…"
"Hush! Don't say nonsense!"
Yun frowned slightly.
In the original history, Fugaku didn't want rebellion.
Even so, the clan still pushed him toward the edge.
Now they'd lost a clan head like that…
Yun honestly didn't care if the Uchiha chose to run.
But as a modern person used to peace and good food—
Konoha life was simply better.
Then Yun's gaze landed on the figure standing in the front row.
Uchiha Shisui.
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