Uchiha Fugaku

Uchiha Yuan's life finally came to an end beneath that scarlet moonlight.

Obito stared intently at Yuan's body on the ground, an indescribable chill rising in his heart.

The corpse was shriveled and emaciated, like a withered old tree. The Mangekyo's radiance within those once-bright, eerie eyes had completely gone out, leaving them dull and lifeless...

Beside Yuan's corpse lay that pair of Mangekyō Sharingan. Though they had lost their light, they still exuded a hair-raisingly sinister aura.

Obito instinctively felt extreme discomfort. His intuition told him that these eyes were extraordinarily dangerous and inauspicious, nothing good.

The technique Yuan had activated at the brink of death, that terrifying power, still left Obito shaken.

What it burned was not merely ocular power, but even his own life force. The price of such power had nearly drained everything from him.

"His first Mangekyo ability really did enhance my ocular power..."

When Yuan said the contract had been fulfilled, Obito had indeed clearly felt the ocular power of his Mangekyō greatly increase.

Ever since awakening his Mangekyō Sharingan, even with the power of White Zetsu cells, he had still been unable to avoid a certain degree of depletion.

Yet when Yuan's final ability activated, Obito was astonished to discover that his Mangekyō Sharingan had somehow been eerily restored.

The depletion caused by using his ocular techniques had been resolved out of nowhere.

This unprecedented phenomenon at least confirmed the accuracy of the first piece of information Yuan had given him.

The left eye was support...

Next came the matter of the right eye.

No matter what, what Obito needed to do now

was confirm the truth of what Yuan had said about the destruction of the Shinobi World.

He looked at those fearsome Mangekyō Sharingan, his brow furrowing deeply. After hesitating for a moment, he muttered to himself.

"Though I really don't want to touch your eyes, it's still better than letting Danzo or someone else get their hands on them."

With that thought, Obito slowly reached out and removed Yuan's eerie pair of Mangekyō Sharingan.

The instant his fingers touched Yuan's shriveled body, a cold, sinister aura rushed toward him, steeped in something strange and uncanny.

Obito frowned and severed part of the White Zetsu cells in his body, using them to block that curse-like power.

He paid no attention to the fragments of his body that fell away. "Trying to scheme against me even after death?"

Treating it as nothing more than some tedious sealing curse technique, Obito dismissed it...

Gripping the pair of Mangekyō, he swiftly activated Kamui, phasing his body and rapidly leaving the police force headquarters.

Yet this portion of White Zetsu cells slowly merged into Uchiha Yuan's body...

Not long after Obito vanished, Root's shinobi finally arrived at the Uchiha Police Force under cover of night.

These Root shinobi had been sent by Shimura Danzō.

The moment the Shisui Sharingan on Danzo's body had malfunctioned, he sensed something was wrong and immediately dispatched Root to the Uchiha compound.

The Root shinobi entered the compound swiftly and cautiously. Everywhere they looked, corpses lay scattered in disarray, blood covering the ground.

The Root members wasted no time dealing with the scene.

As they made their way step by step into the deepest room of the police force headquarters, they stopped.

At the center of the room, Uchiha Yuan's corpse stood bolt upright. Black fluid seeped from its hollow eye sockets, making it resemble an eerie statue that sent chills crawling over everyone's scalp.

The Root shinobi cautiously approached, trying to confirm the corpse's condition.

The instant one of them reached out to touch Yuan's body, the corpse abruptly transformed into countless withered, twisted, grotesque trees that spread madly in every direction.

"Wood Release?"

"No, this isn't Wood Release..."

The Root shinobi recoiled in horror, but it was already too late.

Those eerie dead trees writhed and twisted as if alive. In an instant, like tentacles, they tightly entangled every Root shinobi.

The shinobi struggled desperately, but their ninjutsu had no effect. They could only watch helplessly as their bodies were swiftly devoured by the trees...

Amid bursts of strange devouring sounds, the Root members' bodies were completely swallowed.

Immediately afterward, as though they had completed their mission, the withered trees rapidly extended downward, eerily burrowing deep beneath the police force headquarters before slowly vanishing.

The ground returned to calm, without even the slightest sign of anything unusual.

Uchiha Yuan's seemingly frail corpse had, at that moment, completely transformed into countless roots that reached into the deepest depths beneath Konoha.

And those roots of the trees had, in the literal sense, become the true roots of Konoha.

Night fell over the Uchiha Clan compound.

Uchiha Fugaku sat in the quiet room, his expression as calm as still water, as though he had long since seen through everything.

Looking at his son, Uchiha Itachi, before him, an indescribable bitterness rose in his heart.

"Don't be sad..."

Fugaku's voice was unusually gentle and warm, as though the tragedy and death before him had nothing to do with him. "I have never blamed you."

Faced with the failure of the clan's coup, Fugaku felt no anger, showed no fear, and had no wish to slaughter one another with the family member he treasured most.

He calmly accepted the death fate had arranged for him and said gently:

"You made your own choice. I understand your difficulties, and I respect your decision. I have always been proud of you. No matter what, do not be afraid, and do not blame yourself..."

In this vast Shinobi World, was there truly nowhere else for the Uchiha Clan to belong?

Itachi lowered his head in silence, his gaze never meeting Fugaku's.

Fugaku sighed softly, looking at Itachi with gentle calm. "From today onward, Sasuke is in your care. His future depends entirely on you to protect."

Having said that, he slowly closed his eyes, deciding to end everything in his own way.

He had prepared himself to face death, to use his own life to bring an end to the clan's future and Itachi's future.

But at the instant Fugaku prepared to welcome death in his heart, a strange yet clear voice suddenly echoed through his mind:

"Clan Head Fugaku, what is your wish?"

That voice was extraordinarily familiar, yet extraordinarily unfamiliar. It was Uchiha Yuan.

Fugaku froze slightly as memories surged forth like a tide.

Long ago, Yuan had once held a peculiar conversation with him beneath the moonlit night.

At the time, he had merely listened absentmindedly as Yuan asked in an indifferent tone...

"Could your wish be to revitalize the Uchiha Clan?"

Back then, Fugaku had paid no attention to Yuan's question, nor had he answered it.

But now, that conversation he had completely overlooked surfaced in his mind with astonishing clarity. It even seemed that after that day, his Mangekyo ocular power had received powerful restoration and replenishment.

The Mangekyō Sharingan he had hidden for so long and never used now began to move beyond his control...

Revive the Uchiha...

Yuan's words carried temptation as they echoed ceaselessly through his mind.

A strange sensation...

Poured into his eyes, madly drawing away the ocular power he had treasured for so long.

Fugaku realized something was wrong and urgently tried to warn Itachi, only to discover in horror that he could not make a sound.

It was as though an invisible force had clamped tightly around his throat, leaving him able to produce only weak, helpless whimpers.

"Father?"

Fugaku wanted to answer, but could only open his mouth feebly. The ocular power in his eyes drained away rapidly, and his vision gradually blurred.

That sinister, wicked power mercilessly emptied his eyes completely, devouring his life and consciousness.

In the end, Fugaku's head lowered slightly. He could no longer utter another word, and the breath of life completely dissipated into the night.

"Father's ocular power was drained..."