Itachi Uchiha Awakens His Sharingan

"Damn Uchiha! Is this the true power of the Mangekyō Sharingan?"

By now, almost all the Root Division members who had come with Danzo were dead or wounded. Fewer than ten remained, huddled around him and still carrying out their duty of protecting him.

As for the rest, they had long since been crushed into minced meat by the Spiral Sword in Susanoo's hand, their remains scattered around the battlefield.

Shisui's fury, which had once soared to the heavens, had gradually subsided as he vented it through slaughter.

His reason had returned.

"Is this still a dead end?" Shisui asked coolly, standing with Itachi inside Susanoo and staring straight at Danzo.

An eight-year-old Uchiha had driven him to this point, and the Root organization he had built with his own hands had been all but wiped out. Danzo felt his face burn with humiliation.

"You brat, don't get too cocky. How much chakra do you have left?"

So far, Danzo hadn't made a move himself. He had simply used the Root Division's suicidal attacks to steadily wear down Shisui's chakra.

Danzo himself still had eighty percent of his chakra reserves.

Shisui knew that a tough battle lay ahead.

"Cover me. I'll deal with him myself."

As he spoke, Danzo reached for the black patch over his right eye. The remaining Root Division members charged at Shisui again, trying to buy Danzo time.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire."

Phoenix Sage Fire was only a C-rank jutsu, but this time Shisui cast it through the Susanoo behind him.

Countless flames shaped like phoenix flower seeds engulfed the entire area in front of Susanoo. The Root Division members were already at the end of their strength and could no longer withstand its attacks.

One figure after another was struck by the flames in midair, becoming human-shaped pillars of fire before dropping to the ground as charred corpses and heaps of ash.

By then, however, Danzo had already ripped off his eyepatch and begun unlocking the mechanism on his right arm.

What stunned everyone was that the eye beneath Danzo's patch wasn't injured.

The moment Danzo opened his right eye, a scarlet gaze was revealed. Three black tomoe slowly spun in his eyeball.

"The Sharingan?!"

Shisui knew perfectly well that Danzo had more than one Sharingan, but he still had to pretend to be surprised.

Itachi Uchiha, on the other hand, reacted genuinely. He was the only person present who didn't know the truth.

"Shisui, his right eye..."

"That's right. It's a Sharingan from our Uchiha Clan, and it even has three tomoe..."

The Uchiha Clan kept close track of every Sharingan.

Even when a clan member died in battle, their body and Sharingan were either destroyed on the spot or brought back to the village.

Under normal circumstances, it was impossible for a Sharingan to fall into outside hands, let alone one with three tomoe.

Once every other possibility was ruled out, only one truth remained.

At that moment, the Will of Fire in Itachi Uchiha's heart had not yet had time to grow before it was snuffed out.

But Shisui knew that there was something even more world-shattering to come.

After Shimura Danzō unlocked the device fastened around his right arm, the pale limb was revealed. Sharingan after Sharingan slowly turned across it.

From palm to back of the hand to arm, five three-tomoe Sharingan were embedded in the flesh.

The Uchiha had not yet been wiped out, and Danzo hadn't collected any more three-tomoe Sharingan. He had yet to reach the eleven eyes he would eventually have implanted.

Even so, the sight of Danzo's arm was enough to enrage any Uchiha.

Each eye had lost its owner, yet the eyeballs turned randomly in different directions, as if they were alive. They looked like something out of a nightmare.

Shisui knew that this was probably the effect of Hashirama Cells, which kept the eyeballs alive.

Even though he knew what Danzo was capable of, Shisui still couldn't hold back his anger at the sight.

Every Sharingan on Danzo's arm represented the life of an Uchiha.

And Itachi, standing beside Shisui, was so shocked he couldn't speak.

The worldview Itachi had held since birth had completely collapsed.

The Konoha elder, who had always presented himself as a paragon of virtue—the man Itachi had once wanted to join and serve—was, in truth, so utterly vile.

At that moment, Itachi understood what Shisui had told him before.

All this time, he had failed to see things for what they really were, blindly treating the so-called Will of Fire as his faith.

His profound self-doubt began to draw Itachi into darkness. He wanted to destroy all of it—to destroy this filthy truth.

As Itachi's negative emotions continued to build, his eyes began to change without him noticing.

A scarlet hue began to spread across the whites of his eyes, gradually replacing them as it crept toward his pupils.

It was the precursor to Itachi awakening his Sharingan.

Just as Itachi's mind was about to fall into darkness, a hand appeared, like an angel of salvation, shielding him from the abyss's grasp.

"Itachi is already a shinobi. Being a shinobi means enduring what you can't bear, and that's how you get the chance to become who you want to be."

Shisui reached out and ruffled Itachi's hair, messing it up all over again.

"No matter what difficulties you face, Itachi, I believe you can overcome them."

Itachi felt the warmth radiating from Shisui. That encouragement was precious beyond measure at that moment, and it began to drive the gloom from his heart.

Itachi looked up again and saw Shisui's warm smile and encouraging gaze. Behind him stood Susanoo, imposing and domineering, yet gloomy and murderous. The image was etched deep into Itachi's mind.

Throughout the countless years that followed, whenever Itachi thought back to those moments with Shisui, he felt that they had been the happiest moments of his life.

"Shisui, thank you. I finally understand the things you told me. I was too foolish before."

As he spoke, Itachi knelt before Shisui.

It was the highest form of etiquette in the Shinobi World.

"From now on, I, Itachi Uchiha, will do my best to follow in your footsteps and become a shinobi as exceptional as you."

At the same time, both of Itachi's eyes fully transformed into Sharingan, with two black tomoe circling each pupil.

This was the two-tomoe form of the Sharingan.

The intensity of his emotions had made Itachi awaken with two tomoe from the start.

It was a testament to the depth of his bloodline talent.

Though surprised, Shisui quickly pulled Itachi back to his feet.

His Mangekyō fixed on the two-tomoe Sharingan in Itachi's eyes as he spoke slowly. "Then I'll watch closely with these eyes until Itachi grows up to become the person he wants to be."