The Hyuga Clan Compound.
Qingwu returned home after his evening lessons.
"Original, you're back." Someone had already been waiting inside.
Huh?!
Another Qingwu.
Original? What on earth was going on?!
He was Qingwu.
A clone refined from Shisui Uchiha's body. His Rinnegan-Sharingan wasn't just for show: the Human Path.
Speaking of which...
It had happened a year earlier, in Konoha Year 55.
"Huh?! Shisui and Danzo? Don't tell me today is the day Shisui Uchiha loses his Kotoamatsukami?!"
Qingwu, who had been keeping a close eye on the Uchiha's situation, noticed Shisui Uchiha meeting Danzo and quietly followed them.
With World Concealment, he wasn't afraid of being discovered.
Everything unfolded exactly as it had in the original story! That naive fool, Shisui Uchiha, hadn't shown the slightest caution when facing the sinister, scheming Shimura Danzō.
Shnk!
In that unguarded instant, Danzo struck like a phantom. The razor-sharp kunai in his hand stabbed straight at Shisui, wounding him in a flash.
"Lord Danzo, why?!"
Shisui's face filled with disbelief. He couldn't understand why Lord Danzo had attacked him when he had trusted him so completely.
Danzo remained expressionless. "Shisui Uchiha, your eyes are too dangerous. If you used them to alter the High Command's perceptions, Konoha would collapse. Only Root can be allowed to control this power."
"Lord Danzo... I... I haven't..."
Shisui Uchiha still tried to explain himself. How could he possibly act against the High Command? He was utterly loyal to Konoha.
"Attack! All of you, kill him!"
Danzo had no intention of wasting more words on Shisui Uchiha. He ordered the Root shinobi to surround and kill him before anything could go wrong.
"Don't damage his eyes. Leave them for me."
Clang! Clang!
"Secret Technique: Kikaichū!"
"Dance of the Crescent Moon!"
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"
"Mind Destruction Jutsu!"
"Leaf Great Whirlwind!"
"..."
Twenty or thirty Root elites immediately launched their coordinated assault. Some pinned him down in close combat, others ambushed him with blades, and a barrage of ninjutsu covered the battlefield. Every part of their tactics meshed seamlessly.
"Lord Danzo, does the Third know?"
Shisui asked in anguish.
"Heh... What do you think?!"
What do you think?
What do you think!!!
Danzo's answer echoed through Shisui's mind over and over.
The answer was obvious.
The Third knew.
"Aaargh! I don't believe it..." Shisui roared.
Danzo kept twisting the knife. "Would I be able to bring this many people to kill you without his approval? Aren't you underestimating the Anbu a little too much? Surrender, Shisui Uchiha!"
Whether he had approved or not...
Danzo would pin the blame on Sarutobi Hiruzen first.
That was what Danzo thought.
He could crush Shisui Uchiha's spirit in the process.
Ideally, he would stop resisting.
"..."
Shisui was falling apart. Betrayed by someone he trusted, his convictions wavered. Yet the instincts his body had honed through years of combat still drove him to fight back.
"Aaargh!"
After a fierce battle, Shisui was covered in wounds, but he had killed Danzo too. He had personally driven a kunai into Danzo's chest.
"So having power is a sin... Aaargh!" Shisui shed tears of blood in agony. His faith had crumbled.
"If you wanted them, you could have just asked! I would have given them up for the village! Why did you have to do this? Aaargh!"
He had trusted the Third so deeply that he had willingly borne the label of traitor and endured his clansmen's insults and contempt.
He had been scorned by the villagers.
All for the village's stability and peace.
He hadn't cared about any of it.
He had never imagined it would end like this.
"What?! Danzo, you're not dead?!"
Shisui had let his guard down. He had never imagined that old bastard Danzo possessed the Uchiha's forbidden technique, Izanagi! With it, Danzo had effortlessly reversed certain death, rewriting the reality of his demise.
"Aaargh!"
Worse still, Danzo took advantage of Shisui's severe injuries and mercilessly gouged out his left eye. "This isn't something you deserve to possess. Hand it over to me, Shisui."
"Izanagi?!"
"So this was your goal. Our Uchiha forbidden techniques have fallen into outsiders' hands. No wonder you've been targeting us..."
"Was it all for our eyes?"
"So everything I've done was pointless." Only then did Shisui finally wake up to the truth, but it was too late... In his despair, tears of blood flowed from his eye... His entire being radiated hopelessness...
"Bastard, die!" The Uchiha were a clan of love. The deeper their love, the stronger they became after losing it.
Shisui.
In his fury, he activated Susanoo with a single eye.
"S-Susanoo... How is this possible...?"
"What?! How can he activate Susanoo with one eye? Stop him! Stop him!"
Danzo nearly wet himself. He remembered that god of slaughter, Madara Uchiha. Terror overwhelmed him, and his body began trembling instinctively. That man had left far too deep an impression on him.
"Get out of my way!"
Shisui didn't linger to fight. Susanoo's enormous hand crushed and burst Root shinobi as easily as swatting flies. After effortlessly killing several of them, he forced his way out along a bloody path and escaped.
"Quick, chase him! He's already badly wounded, and he forced himself to activate Susanoo. He won't last long!
"Bring me his other eye! Go!"
Danzo roared. But perhaps he had grown too accustomed to playing it safe. In the end, he didn't dare follow, afraid Shisui Uchiha would take him down with him. He was going to become Hokage. How could he take that risk?
"Yes!" came a chorus of replies.
A group of wounded Root shinobi set off in pursuit.
"Damn Uchiha!"
Watching them leave, Danzo sat down against a large tree, his hands trembling with fear of the man in his memories.
Then he looked at the Mangekyo Sharingan before him, his gaze burning with greed. "The Uchiha's Power of the Gods belongs to me now..." He fitted the eye into his right socket.
He felt its immense ocular power.
"Ahahaha!"
"As I thought, I, Danzo, am the chosen one. Once I have both of Shisui's eyes, Hiruzen, you'll step down."
"That idiot actually trusted a bunch of politicians."
"Still, I underestimated Shisui Uchiha. Activating Susanoo with one eye... What incredible talent."
Respecting others' fates, Qingwu watched Shisui Uchiha's choices with cold detachment. He saw Danzo ambush him and steal his eye, saw him activate Susanoo with one eye in his fury and flee gravely wounded, then entrust his right eye to Itachi Uchiha before jumping into the river to kill himself. In his anguish, Itachi Uchiha awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan.
He was cold and chilling.
"You narrow-minded clan... You're the ones who killed Shisui..."
Having awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan, Itachi Uchiha went completely mad. He abandoned all hope of maintaining a balance between the village and his clan.
"Extreme emotions lead to extreme choices. Sigh..."
Qingwu witnessed that moment firsthand. Perhaps this was when Itachi had turned dark. The Sharingan was fucking sinister.
After Itachi left, Qingwu emerged and hauled the barely breathing Shisui Uchiha out of the water.
"I saved your life. From today onward, you'll live for me... Become a part of me..."
From then on, the world had one less Shisui Uchiha, and Qingwu had gained a Human Path clone. His plan to travel the Ninja World could finally be put into motion.
Sure enough, on the third day, rumors of Shisui Uchiha's suicide spread, causing quite a stir in the village.
"Fuck! Demon Refining Pot, you bastard! When you gave me that secret method, you never said cultivating a clone with its own will was this dangerous! I almost lost myself in Shisui's memories and got assimilated by him..."
(The Demon Refining Pot flashed: Who do you think you're looking down on? With your world and me guarding your soul, how could anything happen to you? If it did, I'd perish with you! Nobody else is as stupid as you.
When creating a Refined Clone, you just poured your soul power straight into it. Everyone else first separates off a portion of their soul power to take control, then shares the memories at the end. That makes it like reading a story, so it won't affect you. You're the one who charged right in.)
"I... Wasn't it... my first time...? I had no experience..."
Qingwu was speechless and guilty.
Why was this old bastard taking it so seriously?
I was just saying.
I'm still a baby, you know.
Whatever the case, his conscious Six Paths Clone, the Human Path, had arrived.
One month after Shisui's death.
"Come out."
In the hills behind the village, Qingwu spoke coldly.
"There really is something wrong with you, Hyuga Seigo." At his words, Itachi Uchiha emerged from the shadows, his gaze cold and stern. An elementary school student had actually detected him. Something was very wrong with this boy.
Huh?! Was that disdain? No, it looked more like he was looking at an idiot. There was pity too...
Qingwu's stare baffled Itachi Uchiha. Isn't this our first meeting? Why is he looking at me with so many different emotions? Is this kid crazy?
"You know me?!" Itachi asked.
"Itachi Uchiha, the Uchiha Clan Head's dear son."
"Such a filial son."
"The one Yoyogi thinks has the heart of a Hokage."
"A famous genius, the older brother Uchiha Sasuke is always talking about. How could I not know you?" Qingwu said rather theatrically.
"..." Itachi Uchiha could hear the mockery. A narrow-minded Hyuga brat. Or does he hate the Uchiha? Is this what the village's great clans think? That the Uchiha are a nuisance?! In an instant, Itachi Uchiha read all sorts of things into it.
Little did he know that Qingwu had simply watched the anime in his previous life, thought Itachi Uchiha was a brainwashed idiot, and looked down on him.
"Itachi Uchiha, why are you following me?" Qingwu asked with a frown. Has this ungrateful bastard set his sights on me?!
If he's watching me...
That means Konoha High Command might be watching me.
Troublesome.
"Hyuga Seigo, what do you think of Konoha?" Itachi Uchiha didn't answer. Instead, he asked a question of his own. Uchiha arrogance.
"What do I think? I look at it with my eyes." Qingwu was dumbfounded. What the hell? You came to me just to ask that?!
"Hyuga Seigo, what do you think of Konoha?!" Itachi Uchiha repeated, his voice even colder this time, with a faint hint of killing intent.
"Pfft."
Qingwu was utterly dismissive. Trying to scare me? Screw you.
"I'm not the Hokage. Does what I think matter? I'll just enjoy my life as a young master. I can't be bothered to think about anything else."
Hyuga Seigo spoke lazily. Those were indeed his honest thoughts, at least for now. Do whatever you like.
"As a member of the prestigious Hyuga clan, haven't you ever thought about doing something for the village? The village is what gave you this peaceful life."
Itachi Uchiha stared coldly at Qingwu and said slowly, "The Hyuga shouldn't be so shortsighted."
"That's something the High Command should be thinking about. You shouldn't be asking a child like me. I'm still in elementary school..."
Qingwu calmly looked at Itachi Uchiha without a trace of fear and pushed back, neither yielding nor getting aggressive. What's this moron doing? Trying to brainwash me?! Is there something wrong with his head?
Whoosh!
Itachi Uchiha suddenly attacked. He moved so quickly that he appeared before Qingwu in an instant. "What are you doing?!"
"Itachi Uchiha, you bastard! Have you no shame? Ambushing an elementary school student!" Qingwu flickered aside, dodging Itachi Uchiha's attack.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The two traded blows, neither giving ground. In Taijutsu, Itachi Uchiha even felt that he was being overwhelmed.
"Hyuga Seigo, I never imagined you'd hidden so much."
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