Antidote Failure

Leaving the Uchiha clan's secret room, Uchiha Rei did not pursue Uchiha Itachi, nor did he go in search of Uchiha Obito.

He knew very well that he had a more pressing matter to attend to right now.

That was to resolve the potent poison within his body.

Rei had been wandering Konohagakure for three days, searching almost every possible hiding place, but he had yet to catch a glimpse of Tsunade.

Neither the Land of Fire's great estate nor the ninja hospital held any trace of the legendary Medical Ninja. Perhaps, she had not yet returned to the village.

"As expected, it was too naive to count on that idle gambler returning to the village," Rei said with a wry smile.

Rei looked at his palm. He knew that if he delayed any longer, this poison might completely consume his life force.

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

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had personally given Rei a bottle of purple antidote, saying it was the only method currently capable of curing the potent poison.

But this medicine would suppress the flow of Chakra. Once taken, his combat power would be greatly reduced, and he might even lose his ability to protect himself during the critical moment of the Night of the Uchiha Clan Downfall.

"Chakra... every minute, every second, is crucial."

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

But during the battle last night, Rei had inadvertently invaded Uchiha Itachi's subconscious. Now, he could finally attempt to extract the crucial intelligence from that segment of memory.

"Perhaps... in Itachi's memories, there will be a clue."

Rei stood by a large ancient tree, his breathing steady as he sat cross-legged. He formed hand seals, and his soul, like a pebble sinking into water, slowly descended into that deep Mental World.

Memory fragments flashed in his mind like shattered mirrors: a pitch-black night, a blood-red moon, the pupils of a young Itachi reflecting flames and corpses. Every scene was steeped in oppression and suffering.

"This is Uchiha Itachi's past..." he whispered, "Sadness, loneliness, pain, and... Sasuke."

Sasuke was his only light. Shisui was his only friend. And these lights, one by one, had shattered.

But these were not enough to justify his killing.

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

"Not all tragedies can be called justice."

The scene shifted, and a crucial memory emerged. It was the night he was being pursued.

It was the night they attacked a Konohagakure Patrol Squad.

At that time, Uchiha Rei had not yet awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan. Relying solely on his extreme Fire Release and Genjutsu, he had fought Itachi and Obito to a standstill, escaping from a Desperate Situation. He remembered that battle; only he survived from the four-person squad.

"In that battle... they were too strong."

And now, he finally saw what was behind the scenes.

In the scene, Obito, wearing a mask, sneered and swung his ninja sword, its blade emanating a strange pale green glow.

"One more person escaped," Itachi said softly from the side.

"It doesn't matter," Obito replied nonchalantly. "My sword is coated with enhanced salamander poison."

"Salamander poison?" Itachi asked, seemingly unfazed. "Perhaps it will have no effect on the other person."

"This poison is related to chakra," Obito said, sheathing his sword, his tone filled with arrogance. "Once poisoned, as long as the person uses chakra, the poison will spread rapidly along their meridians. They will surely die within a day at most."

"...So that's how it is," Uchiha Rei whispered in his subconscious.

This was the source of his poisoning.

What truly surprised him was Obito's intelligence oversight. With just a casual remark from Itachi, he had revealed the full characteristics of the potent poison.

No wonder Obito had always been wary of Uchiha Itachi later on. Their emotional intelligence was completely mismatched.

"Obito isn't stupid, he's just too arrogant," Uchiha Rei opened his eyes. "He truly doesn't deserve to be a ninja."

"...So that's how it is," Uchiha Rei murmured. "That antidote... was also to seal my chakra and prevent the poison from spreading."

He finally understood the Third Elder's intentions. Perhaps he had misunderstood the Third Elder. Perhaps he hadn't tampered with the antidote.

Uchiha Rei raised his hand, and a scroll appeared in his palm. With a gentle wave, the scroll unfurled, and a bottle of crystal-clear purple potion floated out. The bottle seemed to flow with mysterious energy, like a sliver of hope.

"If it were me a few days ago, I would have drunk it without hesitation," a cold smile flickered across his lips, but he quickly suppressed it. "But now... I don't want to place my hopes in anyone's hands anymore."

Rei carefully resealed the potion back into the scroll, which slowly closed. He turned around and walked resolutely towards his laboratory.

He didn't return to his residence. It had already been infiltrated. According to the information he had extracted from Itachi's memories, the infiltration operation was carried out by Uchiha Itachi and Obito. Now that Itachi had been repelled, he shouldn't return for a while.

But caution was the most important thing for a ninja.

Rei pushed open the door and entered the laboratory. The scroll unfurled, placing the potion on the central test bench, and he gazed at it silently.

"If the poison is linked to chakra... can I solve it by directly clearing the chakra from my body?" he muttered to himself, his voice barely audible.

This was an extreme idea.

Chakra was the foundation of a ninja. Without chakra, there were no ninjutsu or genjutsu, and even taijutsu would be difficult to use. In the world of Naruto, lacking chakra meant being expelled from the ninja family.

"But even knowing this, who would dare to do it?"

Rei suddenly thought of Kakashi, his contemporary. That white-haired man later possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan, but he could only use Kamui a few times before running out of chakra, precisely because his chakra reserves were too low.

"If I seal my own chakra, wouldn't I be even worse off than Kakashi?" he chuckled self-deprecatingly, but there was no trace of retreat in his eyes.

Unless there's a way.

To temporarily enter an Extremely Low Chakra State, thereby forcing the Poison to stop spreading.

"The Kurama Clan Genjutsu can turn illusion into reality." His eyes sharpened.

"If I use genjutsu to manipulate my own consciousness, making myself believe my chakra is nearly depleted, can I trick the potent poison?"

No sooner said than done.

He sat cross-legged, hands clasped together, forming hand seals with flowing fingers.

Simultaneously, he activated his Sharingan.

"Mangekyo, activate."

The Blood-colored Pupils bloomed with a bizarre pattern, guiding the genjutsu inward. Mental Threads snaked around every corner of his consciousness.

"My... chakra is almost depleted... worse than Kakashi... like an ordinary person..."

Under the influence of the genjutsu, his consciousness warped. He could clearly feel the changes in his body. The once surging chakra now felt as if it were being siphoned away, transforming into a trickle that slowly receded from his meridians.

Hoo—

He let out a long breath, cold sweat soaking his forehead.

"Did it work?"

Zero lowered his head to sense. His chakra had indeed dropped to a Chunin Level, just as he had hypnotized himself. At the same time, a strange sense of lightness spread through his body.

"The poison... has slowed."

His gaze sharpened, and he suddenly opened his eyes. The pupils of his left eye still glowed blood-red, but his expression was grave.

"This isn't enough." He gritted his teeth, attempting to maintain the genjutsu state, only to find that as time passed, the poison hadn't completely disappeared.

"If I recover my chakra, the poison will spread again," he murmured. "But if I constantly maintain low chakra, how will I face the real enemies later?"

He tried to adjust the amount of chakra, searching for a balance point.

One that wouldn't affect combat but could suppress the poison's spread. However, whether at Chunin Level or even lower, the poison stubbornly struggled and spread.

Zero even attempted to use genjutsu, hypnotizing himself into believing "I am not poisoned." But his body's reactions told him it had little effect.

"As expected, genjutsu can only influence 'belief,' it cannot shake objective facts." He sat on the chair, breathing lightly.

"Chakra is theoretically controllable, but the poison... no matter how you hide it, it's still in the body. Unless... I abandon this body."

Zero paused, a wry smile on his face.

"What a joke."

After a long silence, his eyes suddenly lit up.

"Wait... What if I increase my chakra during combat and seal it off in a non-combat state, keeping my body in an Extremely Low Chakra State for most of the time?"

"This might relatively slow down the poison's activity."