"ability?"
Uchiha Itachi blinked in surprise.
When he awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan, his left eye held Tsukuyomi, and his right eye, Amaterasu.
Uchiha Izumi's Mangekyō, however, manifested as Ōkuninushi-no-Mikoto.
He had already known about the ability to link their lives and chakra through the red thread—this bond that let them share power, memories, and even pain. But now she was suggesting there was more?
"Ōkuninushi's left eye grants the red thread of fate," Izumi explained softly, her Mangekyō shimmering. "But the right eye gives me another power: the ability to perceive—and control—a person's karmic lines."
As she spoke, a single glowing red string appeared, connecting her and Itachi.
From Itachi's perspective, dozens of glowing lines suddenly filled his vision, stretching out toward the people beyond the villa—Kazuma and the others.
"Each string represents a different aspect of karma," Izumi said. "These seven... they represent the Seven Emotions. And those six… the Six Desires."
"If I cut even one of them, that aspect is lost—permanently."
She raised her hand and plucked a line labeled "sight" from one of the fleeing samurai outside.
Snap.
The thread broke.
A scream erupted from the woods.
The samurai collapsed, groping wildly, eyes wide with panic. "My eyes! I can't see—why can't I see?!"
"Aaaahhh!!"
"Someone—help me!"
Itachi swallowed hard.
The Mangekyō was said to reflect the heart—an eye born of sorrow. Izumi had awakened hers when she vowed never to be a pawn of the Daimyō's wife again. And now… she could see the emotional and physical threads binding every soul.
It was terrifying.
The Seven Emotions—joy, anger, sorrow, thought, grief, fear, and shock.
The Six Desires—sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and thought.
"All of them psychological or sensory anchors," she continued.
"What else can you do with it?" Itachi asked.
"There's more," Izumi said. "In Onmyōdō, they say: 'First is fate, second is fortune, third is environment.'"
She pointed to three more threads on the same man.
"This one here is his life thread—if I cut it…"
She pulled. The samurai dropped lifeless to the ground.
Kazuma: "…"
Chiriku: "…"
Good thing we stayed put, Chiriku thought. If we'd tried to run... we'd be dead right now.
Even Itachi paused.
"If I cut their fortune thread, then…"
Izumi flicked one of Kazuma's lines.
A bird flew overhead.
Splat.
A massive pile of droppings landed squarely on Kazuma's head.
He looked up in disbelief—just in time for a wasp nest to fall out of a tree and smash onto his face.
Chakra sealed and helpless, Kazuma howled and flailed blindly. As he stumbled away, he tripped and crashed face-first into a pit.
Crack.
Right where he landed, a jagged rock barely missed his heart by a hair's breadth.
Itachi: "…"
Izumi's power was terrifying.
Even if someone fled to the ends of the earth, she could manipulate their fate like a puppeteer. Her power was more like a cursed technique—inescapable and unstoppable.
She calmly reattached the threads.
The samurai staggered to his feet, confused. One moment he'd been gasping for breath, the next, back to normal.
Kazuma slowly peeled the wasp nest off his head. The wasps had already flown off. Not a single sting. The sharp rock had missed his heart—by millimeters.
Chiriku stared at the villa in horror. This isn't coincidence. This is deliberate.
That woman is no ordinary kunoichi.
"Did you catch all that?" Izumi rubbed her tired eyes.
"Yeah," Itachi nodded. As long as he was connected to her via the red thread, he could use the ability too—but only if they were nearby. Too far, and it wouldn't work.
"Any limitations?" he asked.
"Of course," she said. "It only works on people whose strength is lower than mine. I can completely sever them."
"If someone is equal to me or stronger, I can only interfere—not destroy. I might bend their fate or distort their emotions, but not outright kill them."
"If it comes to that, I'll just twist their fate and fortune until they can neither live nor die."
"Or… I can flood their emotional threads with chakra—amplify joy into mania, fear into paralysis. They'll suffer worse than death."
"And even if they're stronger, I can sever their life thread from afar—it just takes more time."
Itachi scratched his chin thoughtfully. "What about drawbacks?"
"Well… people with exceptionally strong mental resistance might detect me," she admitted. "And if I use the eye too much, it starts to hurt—a lot."
"Typical Mangekyō side effect," Itachi nodded. "We can deal with that."
He already had solutions in mind: either acquiring the Tenseigan from the moon or merging their Mangekyō with those of Shisui or Obito to strengthen their ocular power.
As long as their chakra was stable, the pain could be mitigated—or even cured.
Izumi hesitated, then looked up at him. "Itachi… if I overuse my Mangekyō and go blind someday… will you still want me?"
He reached out and gently ruffled her hair. "Don't say such nonsense."
"I'd never abandon you. Besides, you don't need to worry about blindness."
He activated his Mangekyō. The red thread between them pulsed into view, and from Izumi's body, her own emotion and desire threads bloomed in his vision.
"See here?" He touched the 'vision' thread within her Six Desires and sent chakra into it.
The thread glowed, swelling with vitality.
Izumi gasped as a warm current surged through her eye. The soreness faded. Colors returned. Vision sharpened.
"Amazing…"
She hugged his arm, face glowing with affection.
Why hadn't she thought of this?
Leave it to Itachi.
"Oh, right," she said. "When I awakened my Mangekyō, my chakra changed."
"Jiri-senpai said this new chakra can manifest as Susanoo—or fuel Mangekyō abilities."
Itachi nodded. "Yes, that's the source of your Mangekyō's power: that special chakra."
"When a Uchiha suffers great emotional trauma—especially grief over losing someone dear—it floods their brain with a unique chakra that targets the optic nerve, transforming the eye."
"That's what the Mangekyō Sharingan is—a mirror of the soul."
"Chakra, after all, is a fusion of spiritual and physical energy. We use it to cast jutsu—but it can also be shaped, like threads, to bind enemies or disrupt their own chakra."
"The chakra you manifested after awakening Mangekyō—if you direct it into your eyes, it forms ocular techniques. That's how I created Amaterasu."
To demonstrate, he opened his right eye. Blood trickled down his cheek.
Fwoosh—a distant tree erupted into black flames.
"And once you master this chakra," he added, "you won't need your eyes to use it."
"Like Blaze Release."
He held out his right hand.
Fwoom—black fire danced in his palm, identical to Amaterasu, but summoned without using his eye.
"Susanoo works the same way."
He closed his eyes, but Susanoo still surged to life—an enormous skeletal warrior forming around him.
Izumi's eyes widened in awe.
"So it's not the eyes themselves," she murmured. "It's the chakra behind them."
"I get it now."