Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui were cut from the same cloth. The moment Uchiha Kaede revealed a face that proved he was no longer walking their path, the two stopped holding back. A fierce, desperate struggle erupted in the darkness.
Shisui launched a surprise attack, but his blade pierced only a Fire Clone. The resulting explosion transformed into a purgatory-like cage, binding Shisui in place.
"Shisui!"
Under the suppression of the flames, Kaede swiftly lunged and grabbed the heavily injured Shisui. Looking at his cousin, who had already lost an eye, Kaede's gaze held a flicker of complex emotion. "It's all over."
Shisui tried to stand, but Kaede pressed a palm against him, channeling a torrent of high-temperature chakra directly into his body.
Coughing up blood, Shisui looked at him with resignation. "Is power... really that important to you?"
"Yes."
Seeing his best friend being tortured, the three-tomoe in Itachi's eyes began to spin and warp violently. Under the weight of this immense psychological trauma, his Sharingan finally evolved into the Mangekyo Sharingan.
It evolved?
Kaede noted the change. Itachi had been living in a state of extreme emotional repression for a long time; Shisui's plight was the final break.
Using Land of the End and Turbine Flame had drained a significant amount of Kaede's ocular power, yet he remained calm, facing the two legendary ninja alone.
However, using the Mangekyo was different for Kaede. Through the Shiraishi Mind Network, he could offload the mental strain.
Instead of bearing 100% of the spiritual erosion, Kaede only felt 20%, while his four other split-bodies absorbed the remaining 80%. This "distributed processing" allowed him to fight with terrifying longevity.
Staring at Itachi's new eyes, Kaede let out a cold laugh. "Since when did the Mangekyo become so cheap?"
In a blur, Kaede's body flickered like a leaping flame, appearing instantly in front of Itachi.
Clang!
A streak of red light flashed—a blade of fire drawn with such speed it left no trail. It was a perfect fusion of the Body Flicker and Iaijutsu. To Kaede, this was as natural as breathing; the "Shiraishi-style" swordsmanship was defined by its brutal simplicity and speed.
Itachi's reflexes were peerless. He flickered back, creating distance while snapping a kunai forward to deflect the edge of the flaming blade.
Kaede didn't let up, imbuing his blade with surging chakra and thrusting forward. Itachi countered with the Phoenix Sage Fire Technique, sending a barrage of small fireballs that clashed with Kaede's strikes in a shower of sparks.
Kaede's offense was relentless. He fought with a fierce, overbearing momentum, using the "Shiraishi-style" three-hit combo to suppress Itachi with raw physical force.
This style... Itachi realized. If any veteran of the Third Great Ninja War were present, they would recognize this as the signature fighting style of the legendary Sand ninja, Shiraishi.
"Boom!"
The sheer power of Kaede's strikes forced Itachi back step after step. Ninjas in this world were "glass cannons"—high attack but low physical defense. Kaede's frenzied, close-quarters pressure made it difficult for Itachi to weave signs for complex techniques.
Just as Shisui broke through the flame prison, causing Kaede to momentarily divide his attention, Itachi seized his opening. He unleashed his newly awakened Mangekyo ability.
Amaterasu!
Black flames erupted at the point of Itachi's focus. The inextinguishable fire surged toward Kaede. Not to be outdone, Kaede forced his Turbine Flame to its limit, creating a swirling vortex of air to buffer the black fire.
As the Amaterasu clashed with the vortex, Kaede clapped his hands together. A massive fire dragon, formed from concentrated flame whips, lunged toward Itachi and Shisui. When the dragon pierced through their chests, Kaede suddenly cursed.
He had fallen into Shisui's genjutsu again.
By the time he broke the illusion, the clearing was empty. Itachi and Shisui had vanished.
The Aftermath
In the mental space, the primary consciousness, Shiraishi, wasn't surprised by the failure. "Taking down both Shisui and Itachi at once, even with the Mangekyo, was never going to be easy."
However, Shiraishi had seen the truth through Kaede's eyes. "Shisui is a dead man walking."
Danzo's ambush had been lethal, and Kaede's follow-up strikes were vicious. Shisui wouldn't survive the night.
Hozuki Kaigetsu flicked his prayer beads, his voice cold. "Once Shisui dies, Itachi will be the prime suspect. He will be trapped between the clan and the village with no way out."
Just as in the original history, though the path was different, Shisui chose to entrust his remaining eye to Itachi. Overwhelmed by regret and the weight of his mission, he committed suicide to prevent the eye from falling into the hands of ambitious men like Danzo or Kaede.
"If I had noticed Kaede's state earlier... if I had guided him... maybe it wouldn't have come to this," Shisui told Itachi before he fell. "But my eyes have become targets for men like Danzo and Kaede. I can only trust you now."
In Shisui's eyes, Kaede's "corruption" was a result of his father's death and the village's cold treatment—a tragic descent into the pursuit of power.
"Itachi, protect the village... and protect the Uchiha. I leave it all to you."
Shisui's final act was an attempt to use his death to pause the brewing conflict. Holding Shisui's left eye, Itachi felt a crushing pressure, and blood-tears fell from his Mangekyo.
The Encounter
A suicide note was found, and while the Uchiha clan's coup was delayed, suspicion immediately fell on Itachi. The village leadership, however, believed Shisui had simply lost hope and ended his life to stop the infighting.
Itachi mentioned nothing about Kaede's Mangekyo to the elders. He feared that revealing another powerful, radicalized Uchiha with those eyes would cause the village to initiate an immediate purge.
Walking through the streets of Konoha, Kaede spotted Itachi coming out of the Hokage's office. The two locked eyes for a split second, passing each other like strangers.
As they crossed, Kaede let out an involuntary, mocking smirk. It was a deliberate provocation that made Itachi's stoic expression twitch.
"Why?" Itachi's voice was a low, calm whisper, but the fury beneath was palpable.
"Weaklings who choose suicide to escape... to me, his only remaining value was that final eye," Kaede replied.
Itachi's chakra flared, nearly losing control.
"Careful, little brother Itachi," Kaede added, his back to him. "Restrain yourself. If you strike me here, the 'peace' you and Shisui dreamed of will vanish into soap bubbles instantly."
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