"Stop!!!" Izumi's sharp cry pierced through the night as she hurled a kunai from her hand.
But she was a step too late. The teenage Itachi's short sword had already slashed across the child's throat, and the bloodied edge flicked upward with precision, deflecting the incoming kunai.
Clang-
Amid the metallic clash, the blade obscured half of Itachi's face, leaving only his left eye, a crimson Mangekyo Sharingan, glowing ominously in the shadows.
"It's you, Izumi..." Itachi's voice was low, his gaze devoid of warmth as he stared at her.
"Itachi! What are you doing?!" Izumi rushed into the house, her voice trembling as she took in the gruesome scene… the family lying in pools of blood, the lifeless child beneath Itachi's blade.
Emerging from the darkness, Itachi stepped into the moonlight. Dressed in combat attire, he now stood noticeably taller than Izumi.
"I just wanted to test my limits." Itachi said coldly, his short sword glinting under the moonlight, reflecting his expressionless face.
At that moment, Izumi barely recognized the Itachi standing before her.
She couldn't believe that the same gentle boy she once knew could commit such cruelty against his own clan!
Faced with Itachi's overwhelming killing intent, Izumi trembled uncontrollably.
Though she had awakened her Sharingan at the age of five, after graduating as a Genin, she had never experienced much real combat.
"Tsukuyomi!" Itachi's Mangekyo spun violently, and Izumi's consciousness was instantly dragged into his Genjutsu.
In the Genjutsu World, Izumi and Itachi fell in love under the cherry blossoms. They grew older, held hands at their wedding, fumbled awkwardly when their child cried, and scolded their rebellious teenager with stern expressions.
Finally, as white-haired elders, they sat side by side on the porch, admiring the moon together.
Just like that, Izumi lived out an entire fabricated lifetime within the Genjutsu.
"How pitiful…" Just as Izumi was lost in the Genjutsu, a cold, mocking voice suddenly rang out.
In the Genjutsu, Izumi jolted awake.
A mysterious figure in a black cloak and a fox mask sat quietly beside her, gazing up at the moon.
"Who!" Izumi leaped to her feet like a startled kitten.
The masked figure turned slightly, amusement flashing in the eyes behind the mask, "Are you really going to stay trapped in the Mangekyo's Genjutsu? With your eyes, you might actually be able to stop all this."
"No! This is still a Genjutsu!" Izumi finally realized that this wasn't the real world.
"You're too slow to react." Menma remarked, slightly puzzled.
Among the Uchiha who had awakened their Sharingan, Izumi was undoubtedly the youngest on record.
At just five years old, during the Nine-Tails Rampage, Izumi had witnessed her father's death and awakened her Sharingan in grief… a feat even Itachi didn't achieve.
Itachi had awakened his Sharingan at eight, Sasuke at seven, Shisui at seven, while Obito and Madara had been around twelve.
Early awakening didn't necessarily correlate with talent or strength. For instance, Obito and Madara had awakened relatively late, yet they became legends.
But for Izumi to awaken the Three-Tomoe Sharingan by age twelve in peacetime was proof enough that, among the Uchiha of her era, her talent was second only to Itachi and Shisui.
However, despite her early awakening, after moving back to the Uchiha Clan's compound with her mother, Izumi remained an ordinary Genin, even with her Three-Tomoe Sharingan. Whether she was overlooked or chose not to advance was unclear.
When Menma was planning his moves for the Uchiha Clan's massacre, he had recalled Izumi… this peculiar Uchiha with a Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
Despite having Three-Tomoe Sharingan, she remained a Genin, taking on trivial missions like pet-sitting for the Daimyo's wife or helping nobles and officials move houses.
He wondered what kind of stimulation she experienced or when she opened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
Menma was simply curious… how would a gentle, emotionally driven Uchiha Clan's woman react upon witnessing the slaughter of her clan?
"In that case, let's continue." Menma rose slowly, leaving those words behind before his figure faded, vanishing from the Genjutsu World.
In an instant, Izumi felt the world spin around her.
The bloody scene dissolved, replaced by the banks of the Naka River. The water flowed gently, and a flock of geese crossed the sky.
It was still early, and the dango in her hand was faintly warm.
"That sneaky bastard...!" Izumi quickly stood up. Of course she refused to believe that Itachi would ever slaughter his own clan. Her first instinct was to report this to the Konoha Military Police Force.
After finishing the last of her dango, she hurried toward the Military Police Force's headquarters.
'Although I don't know what that guy is planning, it's definitely something bad for the Uchiha Clan!' Izumi's heart pounded with urgency.
But she didn't notice that the sky was growing darker.
By the time Izumi reached the Military Police Force's headquarters, the sky had completely darkened, and the interior of the building was pitch-black, without a single light on.
"Strange… Where are Uncle Yashiro and Uncle Tekka?" Panting slightly, Izumi was about to enter the building when she caught the scent of blood.
This sudden change threw Izumi into high alert again. The moment she drew a kunai, a deep voice echoed from the main entrance of the Military Police Force's building.
"Those eyes… they're quite beautiful." A mysterious man wearing a tiger-striped, one-eyed mask slowly stepped out from the doorway.
'He's different from the mysterious man from last time...' Before Izumi could think further, she hurled the kunai in her hand, then swiftly threw two shuriken toward the masked man.
Whoosh- whoosh-
Thud- thud-
However, the kunai and shuriken passed straight through the masked man's body, embedding themselves into the pillar behind him.
"How is this possible!" Izumi's face twisted in shock. The masked man slowly raised his head.
Their eyes met, and through the single eyehole of the tiger-striped mask, Izumi faintly caught a glimpse of a Sharingan!
Realizing she was no match for him, Izumi turned and fled.
But a chain shot out at blinding speed, wrapping around her and binding her tightly.
'Itachi…! Save me!' Facing death, the first person Izumi thought of was still Itachi.
A blade pierced pierced through her body. Feeling her life draining away, Izumi's vision finally faded into darkness.
Quack! Quack! Quack!
The sound of ducks startled Izumi awake.
The scene before her had returned to the banks of the Naka River.
Having experienced 'death' once, Izumi was drenched in cold sweat, gasping for breath.
"Genjutsu? Or am I still in a Genjutsu?" Izumi was trembling all over. She quickly activated her Sharingan and checked the flow of Chakra within her body. She found that everything was normal and she did not feel any interference with her Chakra.
'A layered Genjutsu? Who's doing this?' Izumi frantically scanned her surroundings, but there was no sign of anyone else along the riverbank.
'Those two mysterious men... are they both targeting the Uchiha?' Setting aside the dango she had been holding, Izumi recalled the two masked strangers she had encountered in the Genjutsu… each wearing a different mask.
And the scene of Itachi slaughtering the clan's elders and weak.
'Damn it!' Izumi stood up, intending to head to the Military Police Force's headquarters, but fear that this might still be a Genjutsu made her legs tremble after just one step.
Instead, Izumi turned and ran toward the center of the village.
"Hokage-sama...only Hokage-sama can..." Izumi placed her last hope in the Third Hokage.
As she ran, the sky darkened once more.
Two masked Ninjas suddenly appeared in front of Izumi.
'I need to see...' Before Izumi could finish her sentence, two flashes of cold steel sliced through the air. The Ninja's swords brutally stabbed into her abdomen.
Izumi collapsed in shock and agony, her scattered black hair stained red with blood.
The last words she faintly heard were-
"By orders from above! Not a single Uchiha is to escape!"