Darkness thickened over the Uchiha clan quarters, thick and silent as a shroud. In one of the rooms, bathed in ghostly moonlight, stood a young man.
An alien body. Alien thoughts.
"Have I... shifted?"
The name "Uchiha Yue" surfaced in his consciousness, strange and unpleasant. He raised his hand, examining the slender fingers. Not his hand. Outside the window—a painfully familiar fan-shaped crest. Konoha. The Uchiha clan.
Realization hit him slowly, then crashed down in an avalanche of cold horror. He hadn't simply entered another world. He had entered the world of "Naruto."
"What... time is it?" Yue whispered, his own voice sounding alien. "How much time is left until the massacre?.. No, we need to run, we need something..."
He didn't have time to finish.
An icy blade pierced his chest from behind, erupting in a fountain of crimson blood. The pain was instantaneous and all-consuming. Yue lowered his gaze with difficulty and saw the cold glint of the katana piercing his heart.
A shadow in a fox mask stood silently behind him. Uchiha Itachi.
"So... this is that very night."
The blade withdrew from the wound with a dry, wet sound. Uchiha Yue's body collapsed limply onto the tatami. Itachi, without even a glance, vanished into the shadows. An entire clan lay ahead.
For what? What did I do wrong? To die, barely realizing I was here?
"The system! Cheats! Some kind of divine intervention! Save me!" he silently prayed, clinging to the last shreds of consciousness, to the hopes of his past world.
But there was no answer. Only emptiness and growing cold.
Cursed Itachi. Cursed shinobi world.
Hatred. Pure, unadulterated, burning away the last of his fear. Why him? Why did he have to die like this, senselessly and cruelly, in the first moments of a new life?
A flame of anger flared in his fading eyes. Fury, primal and all-consuming, demanded vengeance. Demanded life.
"Strength... I need strength!" a bloody wheeze escaped his throat. "To live... I must live!"
The thirst for life reached its absolute peak in that moment.
And then something exploded in his mind.
His pupils flashed scarlet. One tomoe, two, three... Three black commas swirled madly, merging into a single, ominous, and unfamiliar pattern.
The fatal wound on his chest healed before his eyes, as if it had never been there. Yue slowly rose, feeling his body filled with a seething, wild power. Chakra boiled, bursting forth, and the pattern in his eyes swirled, distorting reality. Dojutsu, chakra, his very soul—all merged into a single stream of power.
The surface of his skin became frosted with azure chakra, which immediately began to weave into the bones of his ghostly skeleton. The moonlight pouring through the window seemed to be absorbed by his body, becoming fuel for his awakened power.
Meanwhile, Itachi had finished. Parents, friends, neighbors—all had fallen by his hand. All, that is, except little Sasuke, lying unconscious in the street.
The Uchiha clan ceased to exist.
"It's over," Itachi whispered, looking at his brother.
He was about to leave when a wave of monstrous, primordial chakra erupted from the central district, shaking the very earth.
"UCHIHA ITACHI!"
A furious roar shattered the silence of the night. The next moment, a silhouette swept toward him, shrouded in a dark blue glow and ghostly bone armor. The stranger was at his side in an instant and delivered a crushing kick.
A deafening crack of crumbling walls—and Itachi's body, like a cannonball, pierced several buildings. When the dust settled, he struggled to rise from the ruins.
"Cough... cough..." Coughing up blood, Itachi looked at the figure in the distance.
His eyes reflected the ghostly skeleton and the ominous pattern in his opponent's eyes.
"Mangekyō Sharingan..." he whispered, his pupils narrowing. "Where did that come from?.."
The answer came naturally. Was the trauma of his own death the catalyst? Awakening the Mangekyō at the moment of death... Was that even possible?
"And you, Uchiha Itachi... you hit hard," Yue chuckled, feeling an endless stream of power flowing into him. He sensed not only his own might, but also the echoes of hundreds of slain clansmen, their chakra, their hatred.
Phew!
The ghostly skeleton around him grew, transforming into a colossal bony giant. Susanoo. His hand of pure energy crashed down on Itachi.
ROAR!
The ground shook. The spot where Itachi had just stood became a crater, with a giant, skeletal palm smoking in its center.
A soft clang of metal – a kunai thrown from the shadows struck Susanoo and bounced powerlessly. Yue raised his hand again, preparing to crush his killer into dust.
"This... Susanoo," Itachi stood on the roof of the remaining building, glaring coldly at the colossal figure. "The power of Mangekyō. Forgive me... you may have survived, but I cannot allow you to remain."
He took a deep breath. His own blood-red pattern flashed in his eyes.
He dodged another blow with a flicker of shadow.
"Fire Release: Mythical Phoenix Technique!"
Dozens of fireballs crashed into Susanoo, but only scattered into sparks that were immediately absorbed by the azure chakra, making it even denser. The bony giant began to grow ghostly muscles.
Ninjutsu is useless. It's absorbing it.
Itachi's face became unreadable. If someone who had just awakened their power could do this, then so could he.
BOOM!
A column of orange-red chakra erupted from Itachi's body, forming his own giant warrior. The next moment, two titanic phantoms, woven from pure will and hatred, clashed, shaking the ruins of the great clan.
And in the distance, amid the rubble, little Sasuke came to his senses. He watched in horror as the two monsters clashed, one of which was his beloved brother. The boy stood up silently, lowered his head, and, choking on silent tears, ran away. Away from this nightmare in which his entire world had been destroyed.