"Ahhahaha, I knew I was not meant to die!"
Fugaku swung his kunai wildly, laughter spilling from his throat like madness.
For a brief moment, no one dared to rush forward.
Standing amid the Sand ninja formation, Manase watched Fugaku with undisguised interest.
He had crossed blades with the Uchiha many times. Sudden evolutions on the battlefield were not unfamiliar to him, yet witnessing one firsthand still felt uncanny every single time.
What a pity that non-Uchiha shinobi could not wield the Sharingan.
Otherwise, the number of people hunting it would far exceed those seeking the Byakugan.
That alone was why the Uchiha had never needed something like the Caged Bird Seal.
Feeling chakra flow back into his body and the power of his eyes surge, Fugaku had never felt better.
Confidence flooded him.
With a hoarse shout, he charged back into the fray, engaging several Sand ninja at once. Blades clashed violently. One by one, Sand bodies collapsed to the ground.
At the same time, new wounds continued to open across Fugaku's body.
"Oh? Faster reflexes. As expected of a Three-Tomoe Sharingan," Manase murmured, his eyes glinting with naked greed.
Still, that was all.
He had no intention of gouging out his own eyes for it. That kind of act would only cripple him.
The exhilaration in Fugaku's chest did not last long.
Reality came crashing down.
He still could not break through.
Worse, every movement tore at his injuries. Blood soaked his clothes as his steps grew unsteady, his body swaying on the verge of collapse.
The chakra he had just regained was already close to exhaustion.
How laughable.
Before he could even escape, his legs would fail him again.
Noticing Fugaku's slowing pace, Manase spoke calmly, his voice cold.
"Finish him quickly."
"Yes, sir!"
The instant the order was given, a Sand ninja flashed behind Fugaku, a long blade already raised.
Clang!
Fugaku blocked with his kunai, but the impact sent him sliding backward across the ground. Before he could recover, a flurry of pale blades descended upon him.
Steel struck from every direction.
With the kinetic vision of the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Fugaku barely managed to deflect each strike.
That was his limit.
The Sand ninja sneered, surged forward, and leapt, swinging straight for Fugaku's throat.
Fugaku snapped out another kunai, hooking the greatsword at its ringed pommel.
The stalemate lasted only an instant.
The blade suddenly crackled with lightning. Lightning Release vibrated along its edge, slicing cleanly through the kunai.
Instinct took over.
Fugaku twisted aside, but searing electricity still carved a blackened gash across his cheek.
The Sand ninja followed up without hesitation, driving a brutal kick into Fugaku's thigh.
Crack.
The bone snapped with a sickening sound.
Unaccustomed to such pain, Fugaku tried to scream, but no sound came out.
His body flew backward like a severed kite, smashing into a boulder before rolling helplessly down the slope.
He lay sprawled on the ground like a discarded corpse, breathing faintly, utterly devoid of strength.
Am I… going to die?
Despair crept over him.
No matter how he struggled,
no matter how he roared inside his own mind,
his body would not respond.
Footsteps approached, each one tolling like a death knell.
No… there has to be something I forgot.
He refused to give up.
He had just awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. To die here would mean everything was meaningless.
A faint voice echoed in his mind, stubbornly keeping hope alive.
What was it?
A hazy will whispered to him.
"Grasp those few words buried in your memory, and you will survive this nightmare."
But the agony in his shattered leg scattered his thoughts. His vision blurred, and for a moment he thought he saw his father, his clansmen, standing far away in the village.
Would any of them make it back alive?
Then, suddenly, he remembered.
The secret Uchiha scroll.
At death's edge, Fugaku raised a trembling hand and forced the last remnants of his chakra through three hand seals.
"Boar. Hare. Sheep."
A blinding pain tore through his left eye as the forbidden technique activated.
Izanagi.
…
"Dead?" Manase asked calmly.
"Yes, Lord Manase."
"Good." Manase glanced at Fugaku's face and scoffed. "Dying with such a blissful smile. I wonder what he saw."
"What should we do with the body, sir?"
"Leave it," Manase replied. "Those fleeing Uchiha will come back for him. Let them deliver the corpse to Uchiha Yama themselves."
He laughed softly.
With that, Manase ordered his unit to withdraw toward the Land of Wind.
Once they departed, silence returned to the Land of Rivers. The cold November wind whispered through the dry shrubs.
After an unknowable span of time, the corpse of Uchiha Fugaku suddenly opened its eyes.
The once-crimson Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his left eye had withered into a dull gray.
Groaning, then laughing hoarsely, he croaked, "Haha… I'm alive."
The movement tore at his scorched cheek, and he hissed in pain.
"Isn't Izanagi supposed to turn everything into an illusion, even death?" he muttered bitterly. "Why am I not healed?"
In his current condition, he would die here long before any clansman found him.
"Am I really going to be the first Uchiha to die after using Izanagi?"
Fear clenched his heart.
Just then, a white spore swelled from the ground and attached itself to his numb, broken leg.
With the limb shattered and unresponsive, he felt nothing.
He did not know how long he lay there.
Eventually, sensation slowly returned. His chakra stirred faintly, and the pain in his wounds dulled.
Gritting his teeth, Fugaku forced himself upright.
Dragging his ruined leg behind him, he limped, step by step, toward the Land of Fire.
____
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