Nightmare

The world passed safely into the midnight of the second day.

With a shrill cry, Sasuke suddenly woke from his sleep. He panted heavily, his forehead covered in sweat.

As if something were driving him, he hurriedly threw off the covers, got up, and ran to Itachi's room. Yet it was still empty. Only a raven stood by the window, tilting its head at him.

"Was it... a dream?"

He wiped away his sweat, and his tense emotions gradually settled.

—The thing about his brother being killed by someone using despicable means had to be a dream, right?

Why had he dreamed of something like that? Seriously...

Awakened by the nightmare, Sasuke had lost all sleepiness. His entire body was soaked in sweat.

His brother and father had not returned all night, and his mother was already asleep. Firelight still glowed on the streets outside, though he had no idea what they were doing, nor did Sasuke care to know.

He lay on the floor of his brother's room, still shaken.

As if sensing something, he raised his head. At some point, the raven had landed on his chest. Only then did Sasuke notice that the raven's other eye was not pure black, but black and red, strikingly similar to his father's eyes!

Just as Sasuke was feeling confused,

the raven opened its beak.

"Sasuke... sorry..."

Sasuke froze. The raven had spoken human words?

"Ugh—"

He jolted upright in panic. The raven was no longer on his chest. Looking around, he realized he was still lying in the bed in his own room.

What did that mean?

A dream within a dream?

Sasuke gathered himself and cautiously went to Itachi's room again. Pulling open the door, he found the room arranged exactly as it had been in the dream. His brother still had not returned. The only difference was that the window was half-open, and the raven from the dream had vanished without a trace.

It was only a false alarm. Sasuke patted his chest, but just as he was about to return to his room, he suddenly froze.

He carefully recalled the raven's tone from earlier.

"That sounded like... my brother's voice..."

"Stay sharp, everyone. Don't let your guard down. The Uchiha Clan may very well launch their coup during the day, but no one knows whether they'll suddenly go crazy and decide to act now."

The ANBU forces hidden in the night each sharpened the long blades in their hands, preparing for the battle to come today.

"Are they really going to start a civil war in Konoha?" After a long silence, someone could not help asking.

Due to secrecy requirements, many of them had only learned the truth moments ago. They had previously been gathered under the pretense of routine drills. Who would have thought that just after midnight, their captain would inform them that the drill was fake, and the conflict with the Uchiha Clan was real?

"Let me repeat this: it isn't a civil war. It is stopping an Uchiha coup!" the ANBU captain at the head of the group emphasized. "We will only punish the ringleaders. Only a small number of high-ranking Uchiha will face judgment. Innocent Uchiha clansmen will not be implicated."

The group was somewhat more encouraged. As ANBU members directly under the Hokage, they had always followed orders without question while carrying out missions, placing mission completion above all else. Even without knowing the truth, it would not have affected their loyalty.

But clearly, now that they knew their enemy was a group of ambitious people preparing to launch a coup and overturn Konoha, while they themselves stood on the righteous side defending Konoha's stability, they would be even more decisive when swinging their swords.

Not far away, Firefly, secretly watching this group of ANBU, sighed with a somewhat bleak expression.

Danzo's order was not for her to fight those Uchiha ninja, but to slaughter the unarmed civilians remaining in the Uchiha compound. This was clearly contrary to the Third's will. After this was over, who knew how far the conflict between the Third and Danzo would escalate because of it...

She slowly wiped the long blade in her hand.

Soon, this blade would be stained with the blood of innocents.

The Uchiha Clan and Konoha were actively preparing for war. Out in the wilderness, another battle likewise stood on the brink of eruption.

"...Is this guy Madara Uchiha?"

"That Sharingan is unmistakable. He must be the trump card the Uchiha Clan kept in reserve!"

"Hey, you bastard! What did you do to Ning Qi?"

Konoha's elite strike team had completely surrounded the masked Madara Uchiha.

Kakashi surveyed the area. Not long ago, an astonishing battle must have broken out here. The surrounding soil had been overturned, the tree trunks were covered in sword marks, and many trees had fallen nearby. These should have been the traces left behind after Ning Qi was discovered while tracking this Madara Uchiha.

But... why was Ning Qi nowhere to be seen?

Hearing their words, the masked man's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Ignorant fools. You've been used, yet you still don't realize it..."

Ning Qi wanted these people dead, yet they were still worrying about Ning Qi's safety.

How laughable!

He glanced at Kakashi, who was deep in thought not far away.

This guy too.

Even now, he had made no progress.

It was one thing that he had failed to protect Rin back then.

But he held his Sharingan and still could not see through such obvious human motives.

Utterly foolish!

At that thought, the masked man's killing intent slowly subsided instead.

It was fine to keep such a foolish opponent alive.

It only further proved that such an ignorant world was not worth clinging to at all.

"I don't want to be used by Ning Qi, so I won't hold this against you this time. Cherish this rare opportunity. I am not merciful very often," the masked man said calmly. A tremendous suction force emerged from the hole in his mask and swallowed his entire body.

"He's trying to escape!"

The incoming kunai passed straight through the masked man. Every member of the strike team widened their eyes.

This guy... what kind of ability was that?

They stood where the masked man had disappeared, looking at one another.

"The Yata Mirror... truly is a fine thing." Ning Qi narrowed his eyes, sheathed his sword, and looked down at the valley below.

He had schemed for so long and prepared so much, yet after Itachi brought out such an absurdly powerful divine artifact, it still proved insufficient.

Ning Qi knew that Itachi possessed the Yata Mirror and the Totsuka Blade, two divine artifacts, but he had never known that Itachi had acquired one of them so early.

Ning Qi had never made a contingency plan for this.

Just like Shisui's eye—on a battlefield filled with flashing blades and flying shadows, Itachi temporarily replacing his own eye with Shisui's and using Kotoamatsukami was the sort of thing one could only imagine. Ning Qi was not foolish enough to give him such an opportunity, so naturally he had made no contingency plan for it.

"What a pity about those eyes." Ning Qi sighed softly.

After being ambushed by him, Itachi had already resolved to leave nothing behind for him. He had kept drawing the battlefield toward the cliff's edge, his determination exceptionally firm.

Though he could not use chakra, the Yata Mirror did not require chakra to shield him from Ning Qi's sword techniques. Like a turtle shell, its only weakness was that Itachi might not have the stamina to keep up that turtle shell and fight Ning Qi for long. Thus, upon realizing his strength was about to run out, he chose to jump off the cliff without hesitation.

Just like Shisui two years ago.

"You'd better die down there." Ning Qi withdrew his gaze.

The cliff was deep, the current swift, and even after Ning Qi used the Byakugan to expand his vision to ten kilometers, he had already lost sight of his opponent.

He had fallen from a cliff after suffering grievous injuries. It sounded like some melodramatic plot from a novel.

But in truth, whether Itachi lived or died, Ning Qi had already achieved his goal. The Uchiha Clan would launch their rebellion as planned during the day, and every obstructive factor had been eliminated.

After continuing his search to no avail, he turned and left.

On a riverbank where hundreds of ravens had gathered, the masked man emerged from Kamui Space. He looked strangely at the dying man at his feet, a short blade embedded in his chest.

He knew this man.

"Uchiha... Itachi."

He also knew the short blade lodged in the man's body.

—Ning Qi Hyuga.

Not long ago, he had fought Ning Qi's sword clone. The identical short blade that had transformed into Ning Qi's clone still remained in Kamui Space.

He raised his face to look at the cliff above, but ultimately suppressed the impulse to go up and seek trouble with Ning Qi.

As if noticing something, he crouched down and examined the short blade in Itachi's body.

Then his eyes narrowed.

This was... a pressure-point strike?

So that was it.

"He doesn't merely know sword techniques of different attributes."

"That Ning Qi actually has a sealing sword technique similar to pressure-point strikes hidden up his sleeve."

"No wonder you lost so miserably..."

Can everyone just pretend they didn't see that?