He was finally dead!
Looking at Uchiha Chen, whose head had been severed from his body, Uchiha Fugaku finally felt the weight on his heart lift.
After all, when he had used Susanoo to glimpse the future earlier, his own carelessness had allowed Uchiha Chen's Mangekyō Sharingan to control him, turning him into a puppet at someone else's mercy!
Seeing all of that had filled him with hatred for Uchiha Chen, the man who had controlled him.
And when he had seen in the vision that his wife, Mikoto, had also been controlled, his heart had filled with fury and resentment. But at least now, with the mastermind dead, the genjutsu controlling Mikoto should have lifted on its own, right?
Determined to lock away everything he had seen and experienced over the past month, Uchiha Fugaku couldn't wait to return to the peaceful life he'd once had.
He walked toward the lone head and slowly crouched down.
He reached out and gently laid his right hand over the dead man's eyelids. He was about to remove those priceless Mangekyō Sharingan and save them as replacements for the day his own vision failed from overuse.
But then, something unexpected happened. The head that had been lying there just fine suddenly began to blur and grow indistinct. Not only that, but the body in the pit vanished into thin air as well!
Witnessing the utterly bizarre scene, Uchiha Fugaku felt an intense jolt shoot from the top of his head through his entire body, making every hair stand on end!
A forbidden jutsu, sealed away by the Uchiha Clan for many years, flashed through his mind like a scene from a movie: Izanagi!
It was an ultimate ocular jutsu that could turn every unfavorable circumstance into a dream, at the cost of sacrificing one Sharingan!
At the thought that Uchiha Chen might still be alive, Fugaku's face turned paper-white, as if it had been covered in a thick layer of flour.
His mind kept flashing back to the life-and-death struggle from moments ago. He had poured everything into a barrage of attacks, and his chakra was nearly depleted.
Realizing how dire things were, Fugaku made an immediate decision to retreat. But when he tried to stand, he was horrified to find that he had completely lost control of his body, as if some invisible force had pinned him in place.
Unwilling to wait helplessly for death, Fugaku gritted his teeth and desperately roused what little chakra remained in him, preparing to use his ocular jutsu to break free of the strange restraint.
Just as he focused and prepared to act, the space around him suddenly shifted. The scene before his eyes blurred and faded away.
In the blink of an eye, Fugaku felt the world spin around him. When he came to, he was bound tightly to a huge cross, and Uchiha Chen was approaching him step by step, holding a long blade that gleamed coldly.
Uchiha Chen raised his blade and thrust. Faced with the sudden agony, Fugaku's face twisted slightly.
As an elite ninja who had seen countless battles—and the head of the Uchiha Clan—he had faced death countless times. This kind of pain was still within his ability to endure.
He stared at the man who had plunged the long blade into his abdomen, forcing himself to bear the pain.
Then the man spoke, smiling even as his voice turned vicious. "Welcome to my Tsukuyomi Space, Clan Head.
"As it happens, Tsukuyomi was supposed to be your son's power. I got mine from Mikoto."
Before Uchiha Fugaku could figure out what Mikoto and Itachi had to do with it, the other man spoke again:
"I control everything here—the time, the space, every last thing. Oh, and three days here are only one second in the outside world." He raised three fingers. "So make sure you enjoy yourself. Let all this pain repay you for the life you took."
Before he had even finished speaking, the long blade in Uchiha Chen's hand was still twisting and stabbing inside Fugaku's body.
In the outside world, a scream rang out from Fugaku. The man who had been crouching on the ground, about to get up and run, stumbled and fell.
Uchiha Chen walked over at a steady pace, his gaze fixed on Uchiha Fugaku, who had passed out. He murmured, "I have you to thank for helping me discover a flaw in Kotoamatsukami.
"Apparently, when Izanagi takes effect, it can reset Kotoamatsukami.
"Good thing I've always been a coward who's afraid of dying. When I saw you, I sensed something was wrong, so I laid down Izanagi in advance. Otherwise, I might have died today.
"I wouldn't dare bet my life on whether I could still use my powers after my head was cut off." As he said this, he couldn't help reaching up to touch his neck, as if he could still feel the terror of having been a hair's breadth from death.
But a moment later, Uchiha Chen's gaze sharpened again.
The light of Kotoamatsukami once more flickered in his eyes. He glared at the unconscious Uchiha Fugaku and said furiously, "Hmph! Let's see if you have another Shadow Clone come out and take the hit for you this time!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a line of bloody tears slid down Uchiha Chen's cheek.
At the same time, Uchiha Fugaku's will, though he lay unconscious on the ground, began to be rewritten bit by bit.
It all meant that the Uchiha Clan was now in Uchiha Chen's grasp.
Uchiha Chen walked over and easily slung his future subordinate over his shoulder. Looking around at the ruined, wreck-strewn house, he couldn't help frowning.
Fortunately, the original owner had possessed a photographic memory and had already etched all the important knowledge deep into his mind. So even as he watched the house before him get completely destroyed, he felt little regret or pain.
He silently turned and set off at a slow pace. Before long, he reached the place where Uchiha Fugaku had set up the barrier earlier.
Standing before it, his doubts instantly vanished.
"No wonder no one came to investigate all this time. There's a barrier here!"
He thought to himself. That made sense. This involved the Uchiha's two strongest fighters, both with Mangekyō Sharingan, turning on each other. Naturally, they couldn't let anyone from Konoha find out.
Even though the current Hokage was on good terms with Uchiha Fugaku, he had only just taken office and had little authority.
If he failed to kill me and was forced to turn to the Third Hokage or Shimura Danzō, the consequences would be unthinkable.
After all, neither he nor Uchiha Fugaku would ever breathe a word to anyone about his controlling Mikoto.
He glanced at Uchiha Fugaku slung over his shoulder. It was easy to guess that although Fugaku also possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan and hadn't suffered a fatal injury in the fierce assault of Tsukuyomi, he clearly wouldn't be waking up anytime soon.
He tossed Uchiha Fugaku aside, then quickly formed Hand Seals, planning to test the barrier's strength with a few ninjutsu.
Just as expected, none of it worked. Worse, the barrier grew a little brighter as it absorbed the chakra, which was rather frustrating.