Night fell over Konoha's outer forests, cold moonlight filtering through tree gaps to cast fractured shadows along the cliff's edge. Below, a stream gurgled, its sound unnaturally clear in the still darkness.
Two figures stood silently opposed atop the precipice.
Both wore standard ANBU tactical vests with tantō strapped across their backs. The youth standing forward possessed refined features, his dango nose adding a touch of boyishness that his current expression utterly negated—terror incarnate written across every line of his face.
Uchiha Shisui.
His right eye remained tightly shut, blood trailing down his cheek. The unbandaged left eye radiated deep exhaustion mixed with grim resolve.
Facing him stood a black-haired, black-eyed girl.
Uchiha Itachi.
She possessed delicate features, her gaze carrying composure far beyond her years. Only the twin tear troughs extending from her eyes to her jaw marred that beauty, lending her an aura of quiet nace even in neutral expression.
"Shisui... your eye..."
Itachi's voice ca barely above a whisper, yet seed frozen by the night wind. She stared fixedly at his sealed right socket.
Shisui managed a bitter smile. "Itachi... I tried using Kotoamatsukami to stop the hawk faction's plans. But I failed completely."
"Danzō never trusted from the start."
"He stole one of my eyes, but he won't stop there." Shisui raised his hand, fingertips gently touching his closed right eye. "Before he acts again... I want to entrust my remaining eye to you."
The night wind suddenly ceased, air seeming to crystallize.
"Please..." Shisui's voice approached pleading. "You must stop the hawk faction's plan."
His gaze moved past Itachi toward Konoha's distant lights, a flicker of faint hope surfacing in his remaining eye.
"Just wait for your sister... and the Nine-Tails jinchūriki to mature. When that ti cos, the Uchiha's fate within Konoha... will be completely rewritten."
Uchiha Itachi stared at her closest friend's hollow right socket, blood still slowly dripping to stain his clothing. Her knuckles clenched involuntarily, nails digging deep into her palms.
Why?
The Uchiha already had their chance to prove trustworthiness. Satsuki, her own sister, now remained inseparable from Konoha's Nine-Tails jinchūriki.
Just a few more years of waiting for them to grow, and the Uchiha's position in Konoha would inevitably change. Clan Head Fugaku used exactly this reasoning to pacify the radical faction—that the Uchiha's destiny would be completely rewritten by the next generation.
But... those hawk faction mbers refused to wait even that long.
When they learned the clan head's daughter had grown so close to Konoha's "ultimate weapon," instead of feeling relieved, they secretly began brewing an even more insane plan. Since Satsuki could approach the jinchūriki... why not exploit that advantage?
Logically, Konoha's leadership would never allow Uchiha mbers near the Nine-Tails jinchūriki. Yet now, Satsuki could interact intimately with Naruto right under Konoha's nose. In that case...
They need only manipulate Satsuki into bringing Naruto back to Uchiha territory, then use Sharingan to control the Nine-Tails.
With the Nine-Tails' power, the Uchiha coup would face no obstacles. Why wait for so uncertain future? Now they could seize the Hokage position imdiately!
This notion was quietly spreading through hawk faction ranks.
Night wind moaned as loose stones crumbled beneath Shisui's feet, tumbling into the black abyss below. Only after a long mont did faint echoes return.
Uchiha Shisui gazed at Itachi with his remaining left eye—this girl who had followed him in training since childhood, now capable of standing independently.
His gaze lingered on her face for an instant, so barely perceptible reluctance flashing in his depths before being swiftly replaced by absolute resolve.
He slowly raised his hand, fingertips touching his left eye.
"I can only... entrust everything to you."
Blood seeped between his fingers, yet he didn't even furrow his brow. With an almost inaudible tearing sound, he extracted his final Mangekyō Sharingan, extending it toward Itachi.
"Protect the village, and the Uchiha na as well. Never... let them near the Nine-Tails jinchūriki."
Night wind surged, lifting several withered leaves. Just then, a black raven silently swept through the darkness, landing steadily on Itachi's shoulder—her summoning creature. The raven's blood-red pupils rotated, quietly observing the bloodstained Mangekyō in Shisui's palm before gently lowering its head to grasp it in its beak.
The next second, the raven's form suddenly collapsed, transforming into countless feathers that scattered on the wind into the night.
"I accept." Her voice remained so calm it approached ice. "Then what... do you plan to do next?"
Shisui didn't answer imdiately, instead stepping backward twice.
His heels now balanced at the cliff's very edge, loose stones pattering downward.
"If I die... perhaps it will buy a bit more ti."
"I must create the impression that I've simply vanished... the clan absolutely cannot know Danzō moved against ."
Night wind caught his clothing hem. "Otherwise... it will only drive more clan mbers to support that insane plan."
Itachi's pupils contracted sharply. What was he saying?
The mask of composure she'd maintained finally showed cracks, panic flooding her gaze like rising tide.
"Wait! Shisui—!"
She lunged forward, hand reaching to catch him.
"Don't stop , Itachi!"
Shisui shouted harshly, "Right now, because of the Ember organization's warnings, all major nations dare not act rashly... The hawk faction knows clearly that even if they trigger civil war, other great nations won't invade opportunistically."
A bitter smile tugged at his lips. "So... if they stage their coup now, this will be... a war without worries of external threats."
Uchiha madness would have no restraints.
The wind at cliff's edge suddenly stilled.
Shisui dragged his battered body forward one step. His bloodstained fingers rose gently, tenderly adjusting the braid behind Itachi's head—just as he had countless tis before.
"...Moreover, Danzō's subordinates... Abura poison insects are already parasitizing my body."
"Even without this choice..." Shisui's voice grew weaker, "I'm already beyond saving."
Beneath moonlight, the youth with both eyes sealed and blood streaming from empty sockets suddenly smiled. That expression contained too much—reluctance, nostalgia, concern—but ultimately, all transford into release.
Then he fell backward.
Farewell... Itachi.
"SHISUI!!!"
Itachi finally could no longer maintain composure. She threw herself toward the cliff edge, fingers grasping futilely at empty air, catching only scattered night wind. A dull splash echoed from below as rushing water instantly swallowed her closest friend's form.
"Shisui..."
Itachi collapsed at the precipice, hands desperately clutching rocky ledges. Her chest felt torn apart, so emotion heavier and darker than re grief proliferating wildly within.
"Urgh..."
She suddenly doubled over in agony, hands covering her eyes. Warm liquid seeped through her fingers—not tears, but blood. Crimson blood-tears slid down her pale cheeks, dripping onto stone.
When Itachi raised her head again, her eyes had changed. The original three-tomoe Sharingan had vanished, replaced by slowly rotating, shuriken-shaped complex patterns—Mangekyō Sharingan.
Atop the cliff, only howling wind remained, and a girl's suppressed sobbing.
---
Rushing water carried bone-deep cold, battering Shisui's broken form. Skin drained of blood had turned blue-white, each feeble breath bringing blood foam that dispersed faintly in the icy current.
So this is... my ending...
Eyeless darkness. Painless numbness. Death approached while consciousness flickered like a candle in wind, ready to extinguish at any mont.
Just as awareness prepared to fade completely—
"Found you."
An unfamiliar voice pierced his eardrums. "The idealistic sacrifice."
Moonlight penetrated the surface, casting distorted shadows through his blurred vision. Shisui's scattered consciousness barely captured an outline.
...Who?
Above the stream, a figure wearing a fox mask gazed down at him. The current suddenly slowed, and Shisui felt a hand grab his collar, yanking him violently from the water.
"Cough—!"
Cold air flooding his lungs triggered violent coughing, blood spilling from his lips.
The masked figure held him one-handed while casually pressing the other palm to his chest.
Strange chakra fluctuations spread outward. Space began warping, and in the next mont, both figures vanished instantly from above the frozen stream.
---
OG Author's Note: Regarding Gold Experience's limitations: Gold Experience can grant life, converting inorganic matter into biological tissue, but Sharingan represents inherited abilities from Ōtsutsuki descendants. Gold Experience's creations are typically independent life forms, unable to replicate bloodline inheritances or soul characteristics.*
*Simply put—no hand-crafting kekkei genkai or Sharingan.*
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