"This... what's happening? Aren't I dead?"
The moment Uchiha Shisui opened his eyes, he was confronted with a baffling scene.
A Susanoo-clad Wood Golem was facing off against two other Susanoo. Two of the figures looked very familiar.
"Lord Fugaku? Itachi? Why are you here?" Shisui asked, stunned.
"Cut the crap, Uchiha Shisui. Just tell the truth. Did you or did you not use your Kotoamatsukami, day after day, year after year, to brainwash Itachi and change his will?" Uchiha Nagi sneered.
After obtaining the Mangekyo from Danzo, he had realized that its Kotoamatsukami ability was no less powerful than the one Itachi possessed.
The two eyes worked in different ways but achieved similar results. Danzo's was even more terrifying. It could silently and subtly change a person's will, like water dripping on a stone. The most frightening part was that the target would be completely unaware. Over the years, all of Danzo's Root members had become his most loyal subordinates.
Even without the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal, those men would not have been loyal to Konoha, but to Danzo. What was even more absurd was that this eye, unlike the one Itachi held, wasn't a one-use-and-done deal with a years-long cooldown. It could be used frequently, as long as the user had enough ocular power.
And over time, a person's will would be as thoroughly changed as if they had been hit by Itachi's Kotoamatsukami.
Sometimes, Uchiha Nagi wondered: Sarutobi Hiruzen had once been assassinated by Danzo. After learning the truth, he had let Danzo off lightly, not holding it against him or stripping him of his power. Could it be that his subconscious had already been affected by the Kotoamatsukami in Danzo's eye?
"What's going on? Why are you dead too, Lord Fugaku? Reanimated just like me? And why are three Uchiha fighting each other with Susanoo?" Shisui didn't answer Nagi's question, instead asking in confusion about the Uchiha civil war unfolding before him.
His sharp eyes had also noticed another group of Uchiha in the distance, also reanimated. Regrettably, their strength was not enough to participate in the Gundam battle; they could only watch from the sidelines.
"Because the Uchiha clan was destroyed long ago. Annihilated by the very Itachi you entrusted your hopes to, all to protect Konoha. How about that? Are you satisfied with that answer?" Nagi said sarcastically.
"How... How could this be?" Shisui looked at the silent Fugaku, then at Itachi. He collapsed to the ground in despair. "The Uchiha clan... is gone? How could this happen..."
"Shisui, tell me the truth. Did you use your Kotoamatsukami to change Itachi's mind?" At this point, Fugaku was no longer in a hurry to help his son fight Nagi. Instead, he turned to demand the truth. He could not rest in peace. He had to know if his son was a true traitor, or if he had been led astray by Shisui.
"I..." Shisui opened his mouth, but no words came out. He looked at the reanimated Uchiha in the distance, being consumed by black flames only to regenerate, all of them staring at him and Itachi with eyes full of venomous hatred. A wave of dizziness washed over him. This was even worse than being betrayed by the Hokage he had so admired.
Caw, caw~~
An illusory crow flew out and perched on Uchiha Nagi's shoulder. He had used Danzo's eye and his own chakra, sealed with a Transcription Seal, to create it. If Shisui broke free of his control and tried to use Kotoamatsukami on him, this crow would activate, and he would fight magic with magic.
"Uchiha Shisui, answer me!" Uchiha Fugaku roared, questioning Shisui. "Did you or did you not use Kotoamatsukami to change Itachi's will?"
"I... I only wanted Itachi to protect both Konoha and the Uchiha clan. I did nothing else..." Shisui finally managed a vague answer.
It was confirmed.
Fugaku felt as if he had been struck by lightning. All the fight went out of him. His Susanoo dissolved. He no longer had any motivation to help his son fight Uchiha Nagi. He collapsed to the ground limply.
His wife, Mikoto, rushed to support him. They both looked at Itachi with expressions of sorrow and despair.
Itachi, however, frowned. As far as he was concerned, he had never felt that his actions were the result of a changed will. They were the result of his own careful consideration.
"So, Itachi chose to side with the Third Hokage and then wiped out his own clan. Are you happy now that you know the truth, Uchiha Shisui? You had a Mangekyo Sharingan, but instead of protecting your own people, you were obsessed with the so-called Will of Fire. Are you satisfied?" Nagi asked.
"I never wanted the Uchiha clan to be destroyed! I just wanted both sides to coexist peacefully," Shisui said, his face full of despair. Was I wrong? All he had wanted was for the two sides to live in peace. That was why he had subconsciously used Kotoamatsukami to impart his will to Itachi.
"You used this eye at the time, didn't you? To slowly, over the years, change Itachi's will to match your own." Nagi pointed sarcastically at the crow on his shoulder. "You know, I took this eye from Danzo. And the cells I used to reanimate you also came from this eye. I know its abilities inside and out."
"How laughable. Uchiha Itachi, brainwashed and still unaware, still believing that what he did was right. Hahahaha!" Nagi laughed maniacally. "Uchiha Shisui, you couldn't even achieve it yourself, yet you expected someone else to? Under the control of your Kotoamatsukami, the wills to protect the Uchiha and to protect Konoha clashed, and in the end, Itachi chose to annihilate his clan. How about that? Are you happy now?"
"That was truly not my intention. Itachi, you have to believe me," Shisui tried to explain. "Protecting the village and protecting the Uchiha clan... they aren't mutually exclusive. It's all for the sake of peace."
Itachi remained silent, but his mind was racing. To him, that was all in the past. Even knowing the truth, even if his will had been changed, he didn't feel that his own intentions had been any different. He was who he was.
His only headache now was that he had used his one Kotoamatsukami on his father, thinking they could fight Nagi together with their Gundams. But Nagi had pulled the rug out from under him, summoning Shisui and revealing a so-called truth that had instantly shattered his father's fighting spirit.
Now it was one-on-one again. No, there was another way. He had to act fast. His mother was still here. If he was in danger, she would surely beg Fugaku to save him.
Though Fugaku didn't say it, Itachi knew he loved his wife dearly. If she asked, no matter how dejected Fugaku was, he would step in to help him.
At that thought, Itachi was no longer willing to drag things out. He opened his eyes again and unleashed his strongest ocular power on Uchiha Nagi: Amaterasu.
[Amaterasu]
The black flames of Amaterasu instantly flew towards his Wood Style Susanoo Golem. A body as massive as the Susanoo naturally couldn't dodge like the Raikage. Once a part of it was hit, the flames quickly spread over the entire body.
It would be just like in the other world, when Sasuke fought the Eight-Tails, or when Itachi fought the Fourth Mizukage. A single burst of black flames would solve the problem.
However, the black flames also had a weakness: isolation. If you could put something between you and the flames, you could block them, just as Gaara had used his sand to block them.
But Uchiha Nagi wasn't foolish enough to block it head-on and then split another wood golem from the first, like Hashirama. He chose to fight fire with fire. He was curious to see what would happen when his flames collided with Itachi's.
"Amaterasu, is it? I can do that too," Nagi said, quickly opening his eyes. Black flames just like Itachi's appeared.
[Amaterasu]
Two torrents of black flames, the inextinguishable fire from another world, collided. Though both were black, Nagi's and Itachi's flames were strangely distinct.
The two forces wrestled with each other, neither giving an inch. They seemed to be immiscible, like oil and water, and their interaction produced some kind of chemical reaction, causing them to burn even hotter and expand.
Finally, everyone on the battlefield was forced to retreat a few steps. If even a single spark touched them, the fire would consume their entire body.
"Why... do you have Amaterasu?" Itachi was in disbelief. Amaterasu was his unique ocular power. Based on previous intelligence, he had thought his opponent's eye ability was space-time ninjutsu.
"Hmph. You want to know? No problem. When you're dead, I'll reanimate you and answer your question then." Nagi formed hand seals and unleashed his ultimate move.
"Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!"
It had to be said, Wood Style was exceptionally useful. One of its characteristics was its ability to absorb an enemy's chakra and use it to strengthen itself.
Once it entangled a Tailed Beast, the beast's chakra would be rapidly absorbed by the wood, which would in turn become stronger and bind the beast even more tightly, creating a vicious cycle that would ultimately drain and seal the beast completely.
So, when the sea of trees appeared, Itachi immediately began to mow them down with his Susanoo, constantly cutting down the trees that tried to entangle him. He knew that if he was caught, his already dwindling chakra would be gone.
And without his Susanoo, how could he fight?
Only now did he begin to realize that in a large-scale battle, genjutsu was truly worthless. Could genjutsu pass through a chakra-construct Susanoo and directly hit the person inside? Obviously not.
It was like the Fourth Raikage's Lightning Release Armor. Once it was active, any genjutsu would be blocked by the outer layer of chakra armor before it could reach its target, because genjutsu itself was cast with chakra.
And now, with a Gundam as thick as the Susanoo, what use was a little genjutsu?
As Itachi was trying to figure out how to continue the fight, Nagi had already teleported behind him.
Itachi's pupils shrank. Only then did he see that within the trees of the Wood Style, there were several tiny, inscribed formulas. They were Flying Thunder God Stage Two.
Minato could carve his Stage Two Flying Thunder God formula anywhere. Of course, Uchiha Nagi could too. He had carved his formulas directly onto the Wood Style and then teleported his Gundam over.
Although the Gundam was large and heavy, the teleportation distance wasn't far, and it wasn't an energy ball like a Tailed Beast Bomb, so the chakra consumption wasn't that great. Minato had easily teleported the Nine-Tails out of Konoha, but teleporting a Tailed Beast Bomb had drained all his chakra.
Appearing behind Itachi, Nagi used his Sun Breathing's Thirteenth Form, ten-fold stack.
The Sword of Totsuka instantly transformed into hundreds of slashes, relentlessly striking Itachi's red Susanoo. To Nagi's surprise, Itachi pulled out another treasure.
[Yata Mirror]
One of the Uchiha clan's heirlooms, a weapon exclusive to the Susanoo. One was the Sword of Totsuka, the other was the Yata Mirror. One for offense, the other for defense. Together, they were a perfect combination of offense and defense.
All the attacks of the Sword of Totsuka landed on Itachi's Yata Mirror. But the immense impact forced Itachi back. A careless step, and his Gundam's leg was entangled by the Wood Style. Seeing that the wood was about to completely envelop Itachi's Susanoo, Mikoto grew anxious.
"Dear..." Mikoto grabbed Fugaku's hand, hoping he would save her son.
Fugaku was still lost in remorse and regret. He knew now that his pride and joy of a son hadn't made his own choices, but had been influenced by Shisui's Kotoamatsukami, inheriting his so-called Will of Fire.
The two conflicting wills—to protect the village and to protect the Uchiha—had clashed, and the result was Itachi's horrifying decision to annihilate his clan.
If I had known, if I had only known, I would never have let him get close to Shisui...
"Shisui, you bastard!" Fugaku pushed his wife aside and looked at Shisui with rage.
[Amaterasu]
The black flames of vengeance. Fugaku had them too. He had awakened them during the great war, to avenge a fallen friend. It seemed the three of them—father and two sons—shared a common lineage.
The black flames hit Shisui, continuously burning him to ashes. But his reanimated, immortal body quickly regenerated.
"I didn't want this either. I never wanted to destroy my own clan," Shisui muttered blankly. He was dead; he couldn't feel physical pain. But the torment he felt was in his soul.
"I just wanted the clan and the village to coexist peacefully... I just wanted them to coexist..." Shisui clutched his head in agony. He truly had no other motive. Itachi was the clan head's son. The Kotoamatsukami he had cast on the young Itachi had only been to instill the will for the clan and the village to coexist peacefully. Even on his deathbed, he had still believed it. That was why he had entrusted his other eye to Itachi. He had never imagined it would lead to such a tragedy.
"No, there's still a chance to make amends." Shisui suddenly looked up and asked Fugaku, "How many clansmen are still alive?"
Beside him, Mikoto answered for her husband. "Besides those two, there's only Sasuke left..."
[There are three survivors.]
Shisui's eyes lit up. He said to Fugaku, "I'm sorry, Lord Fugaku. I must find a way to atone for my mistake. Before I do, I cannot return to the world of the dead."
His right eye then opened, and the Mangekyo pattern appeared. It transformed into a Transcription Seal crow, which then flew into the sky, circled, and then flew back, covering himself.
Uchiha Shisui had released himself from the Edo Tensei's control.