Five years had passed since the day Thanos fell. The world had changed, but for Itachi, the war never truly ended. He wandered through war-torn realms, remnants of shattered dimensions, where cosmic anomalies and twisted timelines spawned threats that defied logic. No longer bound by a team, Itachi became a myth among worlds—a lone shinobi walking through the storm.
The arc begins in a forgotten sector of the galaxy, a desolate world torn apart by an ancient war. The stars here burned red, and whispers of a phantom army echoed through the dust. Itachi had tracked these whispers for months. Rumors spoke of a warlord named Ka'rel—once a servant of Thanos—who had begun rallying the remnants of the Mad Titan's legions, experimenting with forbidden magic and corrupted technology to build an unstoppable force.
Itachi arrived on the war-scarred planet, cloaked in silence. His eyes, still carrying the depth of the Mangekyō Sharingan, scanned the battlefield. He encountered a group of scavengers—survivors mutated by Ka'rel's dark experiments. Without hesitation, they attacked.
The fight was brutal. Blades clashed with alien weapons. Itachi's Genjutsu fragmented their reality, forcing them to live their worst nightmares before he ended their suffering. But these were only foot soldiers—symptoms of a greater disease. As he moved forward, visions of his own past tormented him—shadows of Lily, of his old life, of a peace that had never lasted.
He ventured deep into a forgotten temple, where Ka'rel had once reawakened a dying god to fuel his forces. The remnants of this being still pulsed in the darkness. Here, Itachi found something more disturbing: echoes of Shinobi energy—chakra sealed within machines. Ka'rel had somehow accessed other worlds, capturing shinobi souls and twisting their essence into his soldiers.
Among these twisted creations, Itachi recognized one: a boy with the same fighting style as Sasuke. Confused, furious, and overwhelmed, Itachi was forced to fight a mirror of his own blood—something between clone and puppet. Their battle shook the foundations of the ancient temple.
"You are not him," Itachi said coldly, driving his blade through the clone's heart.
The puppet collapsed, whispering, "You abandoned him..."
Itachi stood in silence, haunted once again by the cost of his choices. He activated his Susanoo and crushed the temple as he escaped, determined to destroy Ka'rel's entire operation.
The chapter ends with Itachi discovering an encoded message within the ruins—a map leading to Ka'rel's fortress and a list of names… some of which included known Avengers and others... long dead shinobi.
This wasn't just a new war. It was a resurrection of the forgotten.
And Itachi was ready to end it.