Failed Antidote

After leaving the Uchiha Clan's secret chamber, Uchiha Rei didn't pursue Uchiha Itachi or go looking for Uchiha Obito.

He knew he had something more urgent to take care of.

He needed to deal with the poison in his body.

Rei had spent three days searching Konoha, turning over nearly every possible hiding place, but he still hadn't seen Tsunade anywhere.

Neither the estate in the Land of Fire nor the Ninja Hospital showed any sign of the legendary Medical Ninja. Perhaps she hadn't returned to the village yet.

"As expected, it was too naive to count on that lazy gambler coming back to the village." Rei smiled wryly.

Rei looked at his palm. He knew that if he waited any longer, the poison might completely devour his life force.

He slowly closed his eyes, knowing he still had another option.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had once personally given Rei a bottle of purple antidote, saying it was currently the only way to counter the poison.

But the antidote would suppress the flow of chakra. Once he took it, his combat ability would plummet, and he might even lose the ability to protect himself at a crucial moment on the Night of the Uchiha Clan Downfall.

"Chakra... Every fraction of it, every second, matters."

Rei gritted his teeth, still unable to make up his mind.

But during last night's fight, Rei had accidentally invaded Uchiha Itachi's subconscious. Now, he could finally try to extract the crucial information from that memory.

"Maybe... there'll be a clue in Itachi's memories."

Rei sat cross-legged beneath a towering old tree, his breathing steady. He formed Hand Seals, and his soul sank slowly into the depths of the Mental World, like a stone sinking beneath the water.

Memories flashed through his mind like shattered mirrors: a pitch-black night, a blood-red moon, and flames and corpses reflected in young Itachi's eyes. Every scene was steeped in anguish and pain.

"So this was Uchiha Itachi's past..." he murmured. "Sadness, loneliness, pain, and... Sasuke."

Sasuke was his only light. Shisui was his only friend. One by one, those lights had been extinguished.

But none of that was enough to justify killing people.

"Just because your life was miserable doesn't mean you can force your pain on others."

"Not every tragedy can be called justice."

The scene changed, and a crucial memory surfaced. It was the night he had been hunted.

It was the night they attacked Konoha's Patrol Squad.

Back then, Uchiha Rei hadn't yet awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. Relying only on his mastery of Fire Release and Genjutsu, he had fought Itachi and Obito before escaping a desperate situation. He remembered that only he had survived from the four-man squad.

"That battle... They were too strong."

Now, at last, he could see what had happened behind the scenes.

In the memory, Obito, wearing a mask, sneered as he swung his ninja blade. An eerie blue light glimmered along its edge.

"One of them escaped," Itachi said quietly from the side.

"It doesn't matter," Obito replied carelessly. "I coated my blade with an enhanced form of Salamander Poison."

"Salamander Poison?" Itachi asked, seemingly unfazed. "It might not have any effect on him."

"This poison is linked to chakra." Obito sheathed his blade, his tone smug. "Once someone's poisoned, using chakra makes the toxin spread rapidly through their meridians. They'll be dead within a day at most."

"...I see," Uchiha Rei murmured in his subconscious.

So that was how he had been poisoned.

What truly surprised him was Obito's intelligence oversight. With only a casual prompt from Itachi, he had revealed the poison's properties in full.

No wonder Obito had later been so wary of Uchiha Itachi. Their levels of emotional intelligence were worlds apart.

"Obito wasn't stupid. He was just too arrogant." Uchiha Rei opened his eyes. "He really wasn't fit to be a ninja."

"I see," Uchiha Rei murmured. "That antidote... It was also meant to seal off my chakra and stop the poison from spreading."

At last, he understood the Third Elder's intentions. Perhaps he had misjudged the Third Elder. Maybe he hadn't tampered with the antidote after all.

Uchiha Rei raised his hand, and a scroll appeared in his palm. With a light flick, he unfurled it. A crystal-clear purple potion floated out, mysterious energy seeming to flow through the bottle like a thread of hope.

"If this had been me a few days ago, I would've drunk it without hesitation." The corner of his mouth lifted in a faint, mocking smile, but it soon faded. "But now... I don't want to put my hopes in anyone else's hands."

Rei carefully sealed the potion back inside the scroll, which slowly closed. He turned and headed for his laboratory with firm steps.

He didn't return to his residence. It had already been infiltrated, and based on the information he had unearthed from Itachi's memories, the Infiltration Operation had been carried out by Uchiha Itachi and Obito. Now that Itachi had been driven off, he probably wouldn't come back for a while.

But caution was a ninja's most important trait.

Rei pushed open the door and entered the laboratory. He unfurled the scroll, placed the potion on the central workbench, and stared at it in silence.

"If the poison is connected to chakra... What if I simply purge the chakra from my body?" he muttered, his voice barely audible.

It was an extreme idea.

Chakra was the foundation of a ninja. Without it, there could be no Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, and even Taijutsu would be difficult to use. In the world of the Hokage, having no chakra meant leaving the Ninja Family behind.

"But even if I understand the principle, who would dare do something like that?"

Rei suddenly thought of his former teammate, Kakashi. That White-Haired Man had later gained the Mangekyō Sharingan too, but could often use Kamui only a few times before running out of chakra. It was because his chakra reserves were so low.

"If I sealed my chakra, wouldn't I be even worse off than Kakashi?" He gave a self-deprecating smile, but there wasn't a trace of retreat in his expression.

Unless there was a way.

A way to temporarily put himself in an Extremely Low Chakra State, forcing the poison to stop spreading.

"Kurama Clan Genjutsu can turn illusions into reality." His gaze sharpened.

"If I use Genjutsu to manipulate my own mind and make myself believe my chakra is nearly depleted, could I trick the poison too?"

No sooner had the thought occurred to him than he acted.

He sat cross-legged, pressed his palms together, and formed Hand Seals with flowing movements.

At the same time, he activated his Sharingan.

"Mangekyō, awaken."

Blood-colored Pupils blossomed with eerie patterns, directing the Genjutsu inward as Mental Threads wound through every corner of his consciousness.

"My... chakra is almost completely depleted... even lower than Kakashi's... like an ordinary person..."

Under the Genjutsu, his consciousness warped, and he could clearly feel his body changing. His once-surging chakra seemed to drain away, dwindling into a thin trickle that slowly receded from his meridians.

Haa—

He let out a long breath, cold sweat dampening his brow.

"Did it work?"

Rei lowered his head and sensed that his chakra had indeed dropped to Chunin Level, just as he had suggested to himself. At the same time, a strange sense of relief spread through his body.

"The poison... has slowed down."

His gaze sharpened, and he abruptly opened his eyes. His left pupil still glowed red, but his expression was grave.

"This isn't enough." Gritting his teeth, he tried to maintain the Genjutsu state, but as time passed, the poison didn't disappear completely.

"If I restore my chakra, the poison will spread again." He spoke quietly. "But if I keep my chakra low, how am I supposed to face the real enemies waiting for me?"

He tried adjusting his chakra levels, searching for a balance—

One that would let him fight while still suppressing the poison. But whether his chakra was at Chunin Level or lower, the poison continued to struggle stubbornly and spread.

Rei even tried casting Genjutsu to hypnotize himself into believing he wasn't poisoned. But his body's reaction told him it had little effect.

"As expected, Genjutsu can only affect 'belief.' It can't change objective reality." He sat in a chair, breathing softly.

"Chakra can be controlled in theory, but the poison... no matter how well you hide it, it's still in your body. Unless... I abandon this body."

Rei paused, then gave a wry smile.

"Give me a break."

After a long silence, his eyes suddenly lit up.

"Wait... What if I increased my chakra during battle, then sealed it when I wasn't fighting, keeping my body in an Extremely Low Chakra State most of the time?"

"That might at least slow down the poison's activity."