Inside the house, an elderly couple wept in angry desperation. "Itachi, why... why must you do this?"
Beside them, Uchiha Tekka lay in a pool of his own blood, his life force already extinguished.
Itachi remained silent for a moment before his gaze turned glacial. "Because of your inflated ambitions, Shisui is dead. Because of you, the Uchiha and Konoha are on the brink of war."
" You lack the necessary capacity, yet you harbor ambitions far beyond your measure..."
"You deserve to die!"
His tone was frigid. He raised his blade without a shred of regret.
Schlick!
Another strike.
The old man's scream was cut short as he collapsed into the crimson pool beside his wife.
A second later, Itachi walked out of the house, his eyes devoid of warmth. Following his memory, he moved toward the homes of clansmen who possessed the Sharingan and were not on duty at the Police Force tonight.
Bang!
Another door was shattered.
The clansman inside charged with a drawn katana. The bloodshot rage in his eyes was masked by the scarlet glow of his Dōjutsu—two spinning pairs of three-tomoe Sharingan.
Itachi's expression remained placid. The unique pattern in his own eyes spun.
[Tsukuyomi]
Under the dominance of this supreme visual jutsu, even an Uchiha wielding the Sharingan could not resist. In the blink of an eye, the victim was dragged into a world of illusion.
An instant later, the clansman collapsed in agony.
Itachi raised his hand and brought the sword down, claiming yet another life.
Just then, a voice filled with anguish shouted from outside. "Itachi, it really is you!"
The blade in Itachi's hand paused slightly. He turned to face the door.
Fugaku stood there, having rushed to the scene. His face was a twisted mask of pain, confusion, and disbelief. His emotions were in chaos.
"Why?"
Itachi fell silent, then answered, "To test the limits of my capacity."
"To become stronger."
"To..."
He tilted his head slightly, his gaze severe.
"To take revenge!"
Itachi's voice hardened with resolve. "Fools only drag the clan into the mire. This is all their fault. As long as they breathe, the Uchiha Clan will never know peace."
"The Hokage had not yet made his final decision! Why did you act without authorization? Did Danzō say something to you?" Fugaku demanded.
"Lord Hokage?"
Itachi paused for a few seconds, then let out a low, cold laugh as he scanned the destruction around them.
"When Shisui met his end… where was the Hokage?"
"Even now… where is he?"
He looked up at his father.
"There is nothing left to say. Father, you too are on the list to be purged!"
"Itachi... you have disappointed me greatly."
Fugaku drew his blade with a pained expression. "I foresaw that the Uchiha might face a day like this, but I never imagined the executioner would be you!"
"..."
"I am sorry, Father."
Uchiha Itachi gripped his sword tight. Though his sentence was unfinished, the meaning was clear.
Father and son locked eyes on the desolate street.
A trace of sorrow flashed through Fugaku's eyes. He took a deep breath. "Itachi, you are still too young. Your view of the world is too one-sided."
"Promise me one thing. Take care of Sasuke."
He stared intensely at Itachi.
The silent Itachi finally nodded. But in the next instant, the figure before him suddenly blurred.
Uchiha Fugaku dissolved into nothingness.
The man standing there had been a Shadow Clone. The real Fugaku had long since departed.
Itachi immediately expanded his sensory perception. He quickly located Fugaku's trail, but alongside it, he sensed a violent fluctuation of chakra.
Who is fighting over there?
He sensed that "Madara" had already moved in that direction. After a moment of consideration, Itachi decided not to interfere. He gripped his sword and continued down the street, killing according to the list.
The epicenter of the violent chakra fluctuation was in the most densely populated area of the Uchiha district.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Two blades collided in rapid succession, the steel ringing out in a frantic rhythm.
What shocked Kakashi was not just the speed, but the sheer weight behind every strike. Each blow was heavier than the last. In just the blink of an eye, the webbing between Kakashi's thumb and forefinger went numb, the skin beginning to split.
The opponent, however... seemed completely unaffected.
Zzt! Zzt!
Kakashi flooded his body with massive amounts of chakra. Lightning Style stimulated his cells, pushing his speed and strength to the next level.
Simultaneously, his opponent erupted with powerful Lightning Style chakra as well, matching his speed boost instantly.
Kakashi immediately used the Body Flicker Technique to dodge.
In the split second they crossed paths, thunder roared in Kakashi's palm.
[Lightning Cutter]
But out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi saw the opponent's free hand aim at his back. The fingers splayed open in a grotesque, unnatural manner.
In the next second, finger bones fired out like bullets.
"Shikotsumyaku?!!"
Kakashi's hair stood on end. It was too late to flicker away. He was forced to channel lightning into both hands simultaneously, altering the shape of his chakra.
He spun around, expanding the lightning into a shield to intercept and dissolve the bone projectiles.
[Lightning Style: Double Lightning Quake]
The attack was neutralized, but before Kakashi could counter, the opponent had already leaped back to create distance, hands forming seals mid-air.
A massive surge of water erupted, flooding the surrounding area.
The opponent rode the current, retreating instantly. In the blink of an eye, he vanished along with the waves, taking the surrounding corpses with him.
Only a voice remained, echoing through the empty street.
"Kakashi… your true opponent isn't me."
"It's the one hiding in the shadows."
The lightning in Kakashi's hand faded. His gaze was grave.
In that brief exchange, he realized the enemy knew his fighting style and habits intimately, deliberately avoiding a prolonged frontal confrontation. Furthermore, the moment the strike failed, the enemy retreated with Water Style without a second's hesitation.
"The Kaguya Clan?"
Hatake Kakashi recognized the ability but was deeply confused. That clan had once been glorious, but after their suicidal assault on the Hidden Mist Village, they should have been extinct.
Suddenly, Kakashi sensed something and looked toward a different direction.
He saw Uchiha Fugaku burst from the earth, thrusting a kunai toward another ninja wearing a swirling orange mask.
What happened next was bizarre—
The kunai passed straight through the masked man's body as if he were a phantom.
Thud!
The masked man slammed a fist into Fugaku's head. The body shattered—another Shadow Clone. The masked figure then vanished into the night.
Kakashi immediately realized that this shadow figure was the "true enemy" the previous opponent had mentioned. But now, he too was gone.
The Uchiha...
His thoughts were a chaotic mess. He couldn't make sense of the situation, but remembering Sarutobi Hiruzen's orders to monitor and protect the Uchiha, Kakashi sprang into action.
"I have to save Fugaku first!"
He chased after the fading chakra signature.
However, in a mere instant, Uchiha Fugaku's chakra vanished completely from its location. There was no trace left to track.
Kakashi arrived at the spot where the signal had disappeared.
Blood. A dropped kunai. Fragments of a flak jacket.
And—
From the distance, faint screams of agony.
Space-Time Ninjutsu?
Kakashi felt a chill run down his spine. He realized Fugaku had likely met a grim fate.
This was a massacre targeting the Uchiha, and the participants behind the curtain were far more numerous than he or Hiruzen had imagined.
He rushed toward the source of the distant screams.
Above him, crows circled, their cries piercing the night air.
In a separate dimension.
Uchiha Fugaku gasped for air. His body was impaled by thick, sharp wooden spikes, pinning him in place. His consciousness was fading.
"Wood Style? Who... who are you?"
"You don't need to know."
A cold laugh echoed from behind the mask.
The masked man appeared beside Fugaku and delivered a swift blow, knocking him unconscious.
Then, his hands formed seals.
Fugaku's wounds began to heal rapidly.
Once stabilized, he grabbed the unconscious—but alive—Fugaku and warped out of the dimension, reappearing beside Itachi.
"Let's go."
"There are still a few names left on the list..." Itachi said.
"It doesn't matter. I will kill them," 'Madara' said in a low voice. "You have a more important mission right now."
Itachi looked at his father, who was still breathing. He remained silent for a long time before finally nodding.
After a disorienting warp through space, Itachi opened his eyes to find himself back in a familiar place.
His home.
"I will come back for you later."
With those words, 'Madara' vanished into the spatial distortion.
Itachi lifted his father's body and carried him toward the inner room. A moment later—
"Is that you, Itachi?"
A voice called out from inside.
Itachi's Adam's apple bobbed. Finally, he choked out a response. "Yes. I brought Father back."
The door slid open.
Smelling the thick stench of blood, Uchiha Mikoto instinctively stepped back. When she saw Fugaku in Itachi's arms, a look of disbelief washed over her face.
Itachi offered no explanation. He walked silently into the room.
Uchiha Mikoto's cheek twitched. "Did... did you do this?"
"Father isn't dead yet," Itachi replied.
Though he said this, his hand remained gripped around the hilt of his sword, fresh blood dripping from the blade onto the tatami mats.
The light in Mikoto's eyes dimmed.
"I see."
She looked up, gazing at the son who felt so familiar yet so estranged. "You finally chose that path."
Itachi maintained his silence.
"It's alright. A choice had to be made eventually. My child, this is not your fault. You simply... walked the hardest path of all."
Mikoto took Fugaku from his arms.
She could feel that Fugaku still had a pulse, but it was faint. Blood bubbled continuously from his mouth. Outwardly, he looked intact, but his internal organs were shattered.
He was beyond saving.
Suddenly, she understood. She understood why her husband had been so distracted since Itachi failed to appear yesterday, why his expression had been so grave after dinner.
So, that is how it is.
She could barely conceal the grief on her face, but she forced it down. "Itachi, do not blame yourself. We... we do not blame you. Just let us walk this final stretch of the road by ourselves."
With that, she slid the shoji door shut.
Moments later, the lights inside the room dimmed. A slow trickle of blood began to seep out from under the sliding door.
When Itachi pushed the door open again, he saw his mother lying on the floor. The sword in her hand had pierced through her own body and driven deep into Fugaku's abdomen.
His legs gave out, and he knelt on the floor, utterly silent.