But then.
"Enough, Itachi!"
A hand reached out and firmly grabbed Itachi's arm. Itachi turned his head and met a pair of crimson Mangekyo Sharingan.
"I understand now. You have become too self centered," Shisui Uchiha said with a dark expression. "To achieve your goal, you have abandoned all limits. I failed as an elder brother to notice and correct this in time."
"But now you want Sasuke to live in darkness for his whole life just like you. I, Shisui, will not allow you to continue making the same mistake."
Itachi Uchiha was silent for a long time before speaking. "Do not block me, Shisui."
"And if I say no?"
Shisui Uchiha stared straight into Itachi Uchiha's eyes, speaking each word clearly. "Will you kill me too?"
At this moment, Obito Uchiha paid no attention to their confrontation. He stepped forward, ignoring the pools of blood and corpses on the ground, and walked straight toward Mikoto Uchiha's lifeless body.
As the clan head's wife, Mikoto Uchiha naturally possessed Three Tomoe Sharingan. Obito Uchiha had no intention of letting those eyes go.
He reached out, preparing to store Mikoto's body into the Kamui space. At the instant his fingertips were about to touch the corpse, a sound rang out.
Crack. Crack crack.
The faint noise was like porcelain breaking, abrupt in the dead silence.
Obito Uchiha froze, and Black Zetsu instinctively turned toward the sound.
The source was Fugaku Uchiha, who was still holding his wife. His once puppet like, empty face now showed muscles writhing under the skin like countless poisonous snakes.
Those black eyes that had been like stagnant water were instantly swallowed by crimson light.
Buzz.
An enormous, chilling Chakra erupted from Fugaku Uchiha without warning. The invisible shockwave spread outward, splashing the blood pooled at his feet.
Under the shocked gazes of Obito Uchiha and Black Zetsu, the three tomoe in Fugaku Uchiha's eyes spun wildly, twisting and merging at a visible speed.
In a single breath, an unprecedented Mangekyo Sharingan pattern formed.
But it was far from over.
The newborn Mangekyo Sharingan moved like a living thing in Fugaku Uchiha's eye sockets. A colder and more violent surge of Dojutsu Power followed, instantly overwhelming Itachi Uchiha, who had just awakened Mangekyo Sharingan.
In another breath, it surpassed Shisui, who had possessed Mangekyo Sharingan for years. It even began to approach Obito Uchiha, who was empowered by White Zetsu.
"This… how is this possible?!" Obito Uchiha's pupils shrank sharply beneath the mask, disbelief seizing him from the depths of his soul.
Crack crack crack.
Countless fine, web like dark red Lie marks began to appear across Fugaku Uchiha's body. Face, neck, arms, and torso were all covered.
Along with a thick stench of blood, crimson light seeped out from the cracks. It was as if what filled his body was not flesh, but a boiling sea of blood and resentment.
Obito Uchiha snapped awake and raised his hand without hesitation, reaching toward Fugaku Uchiha's Mangekyo Sharingan. But it was already too late.
"Roar!"
Fugaku Uchiha let out a low, inhuman roar filled with pain and destructive desire.
Boom.
A heavy, heart shaking explosion rang out as Fugaku Uchiha's body burst apart like an overinflated balloon. Flesh, bones, and clothes were blown into the air, turning into flying red fragments and sticky blood mist.
Obito Uchiha instinctively used Xu transformation to retreat outside, widening the distance from Fugaku Uchiha. Hearing the explosion, Itachi Uchiha and Shisui Uchiha also turned their heads.
The blood mist filled the air and blocked their vision. Within it, they could only see a hunched figure, almost as tall as Fugaku Uchiha, faintly visible.
It was like a cicada shedding its shell.
Yet an even more terrifying and pure chill spread from that figure like something tangible. Everyone present shuddered uncontrollably.
That aura had a name. Hatred.
Whoosh.
A sharp tearing sound pierced the air.
The figure in the blood mist appeared in front of Obito Uchiha without any warning, as if it had teleported.
It was fast. Too fast for the eye to catch, as if space itself had twisted.
So fast that Obito Uchiha did not even have time to use Mangekyo Sharingan to enter the Kamui space.
It was no longer a matter of speed. It was as if the distance between them had become zero.
A hand covered in pale bone, fingers long like claws, pressed down on Obito Uchiha's face with irresistible force.
Boom.
With an earth shaking crash, the ground exploded into a massive Crater. Mud and Gravel mixed with rainwater shot into the air.
kacha.
The crisp sound of a skull shattering echoed clearly, chilling everyone to the core.
In the crater, Obito Uchiha's head, still wearing the Uzumaki mask, had burst open like a watermelon smashed by a hammer. Blood, brain matter, and mask fragments splattered across the muddy pit in a shocking red.
In the rain, that figure slowly straightened its body.
Everything happened too fast to follow.
From the moment Fugaku Uchiha's body erupted with Lie, to the horrific white figure taking shape, and then to Obito Uchiha being killed with his head blown apart, the entire sequence lasted no more than a single breath. It was so brief that the mind could not catch up.
"Madara… dead?"
Only then did Shisui Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha pull themselves out of shock. Both pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan locked onto the tall figure that was slowly straightening its back.
Lightning tore across the night sky, dyeing everything in a burning white glow. Every person's shadow stretched long and thin across the ground like something unnatural. That instant of harsh white light burned the scene into their eyes, etching the figure's appearance onto their vision.
The body stood over two meters tall, its pale white form wrapped in bone across its hands and feet. Rain struck the surface and flashed into steam, as if it had hit heated iron. The shape was long and twisted, muscles carving inhuman lines beneath the skin, like a sculpture polished for a single purpose.
Shisui Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha were certain they had never seen a humanoid form so complete. It looked as if it had been born only to kill, a machine made for slaughter. The only flaw was a smooth circular hole at the center of its neck, where the throat should have been.
That hollow did not lessen its terror. Instead, like a broken limb on a flawless statue, it gave the figure a disturbing sense of imbalance that made the sight worse. The absence itself drew the eye.
"What is that thing?"
Itachi Uchiha stared in disbelief as the figure rose from the crater and its face emerged through the curtain of rain. That face was not human at all.
A pale white bone mask covered it completely. Only two narrow and deep eye slits remained, like cracks opening into the Abyss. Within those slits burned crimson eyes filled with hatred and a desire to destroy Wang.
Those eyes…
"Mangekyo Sharingan?"
Shisui Uchiha's voice was hoarse and dry, fear finally breaking through his control. The unfamiliar patterns in those Mangekyo Sharingan and the warped yet familiar presence behind them forced a terrible guess into his mind.
Could this monster actually be…
The moment that thought formed, the pale eyes turned without emotion and fixed on Shisui Uchiha. There was no warning at all.
A sharp tearing sound cut through the air. It felt as if the distance between them had been erased, as if the act of moving itself had been removed. This was Dojutsu?