The world in everyone's eyes collapsed into a nightmarish void—
A bleak sky of shadows, pierced by a blood-red crescent moon.
From the ashen earth, black tendrils writhed like the limbs of some abyssal creature.
Pale skeletons clawed their way up from the dark soil.
Twisted spirits wailed as they were crushed beneath the slapping of tentacles.
The sky ignited—
A crimson blaze that devoured the horizon in undying flame.
And just as quickly—
The fire froze.
The world shifted to pure white, a frozen purgatory that seared the soul with its cold.
"Aaaaahhh!"
"AAHHHHH—!"
The two ANBU Chūnin were the first to crack.
They dropped to the ground, spasming violently.
Their bodies convulsed—mouths foaming—minds lost.
The lone ANBU Jōnin activated a prepared chakra disruption seal and barely severed the genjutsu.
Even freed, he collapsed to the ground, drained.
Only a few seconds…
But it had shredded his mind.
Shisui's genjutsu potential eclipsed even the ancestors of the Uchiha.
The drug had pushed his mental strength through a threshold—
A quantum leap.
Even without awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan,
His three-tomoe had become a lens for pure, weaponized madness.
Everything he was experiencing—
He projected into his enemies' minds, unfiltered.
No one without a Sharingan could endure it.
The two ANBU Chūnin didn't stand a chance.
Their spirits shattered.
Their consciousness torn to pieces.
"So… terrifying. A genius… but you've lost your mind."
The ANBU Jōnin clutched his skull, blood trickling from his ears.
He forced his body upright, pulled a kunai, and staggered toward Shisui's twitching form.
"It's over."
He raised the blade to end Shisui's life—
—but a figure appeared between them.
Lightning shimmered.
The blade stopped.
Raiga's blade.
No—
Rin, wielding Raiga's twin blades—Raijin.
"Blood Phantom: Execute."
A lance of blood erupted from Rin's chest, impaling the ANBU Jōnin through the heart.
He didn't even have time to blink.
The blood-spear retracted, pulling every last drop of blood from the corpse.
"…Huh. So Blood Phantom can do that, too?"
Rin muttered to himself, watching as the last of the blood swirled into his body.
He hadn't planned to intervene.
But seeing Shisui on the brink of Mangekyō…
He couldn't let that die.
A living Mangekyō was far more valuable than a corpse.
More than that—
A path of study.
Most Uchiha today were doves.
Fools who still clung to the village's lies.
Fire Will fanatics.
Trying to convince them was a waste of time.
But after what he saw today, Rin decided:
He would abandon those Uchiha who were too far gone.
He'd gather the outcasts, the ones crushed by both clan and village.
And when the time came…
He would burn Konoha to the ground.
Rin absorbed the dead ANBU's blood—
and memories followed.
Unintentional. Unstable.
Fragments of thought flooded in.
But rejection was immediate.
His body flared with fever.
His blood vessels rebelled.
The foreign chakra was toxic.
Rin spat the blood out.
"Useless. Interesting… but dangerous."
Then—
"…So Root now hides behind the mask of ANBU?"
He whispered.
"Danzo, you rat… You really seized most of ANBU's strength right under the Hokage's nose."
Rin glanced at the unconscious Shisui.
That talent was terrifying.
Crude ephedra alone had nearly pushed him into Mangekyō.
Wasted on a dreamer.
Rin, for the first time, felt envy.
Half a step from the threshold…
Just half a step.
Shisui's body trembled.
His heart still beat.
But he was out cold.
"…You little bastard. I gave you enough for a month and you downed it all in one go."
Rin's smirk twitched.
"Didn't die though. Tough luck."
"This—"
He muttered to himself, voice laced with scorn,
"—is beyond what we can meddle in. Naïve idiot."
He crouched beside Shisui.
Extracted a vial of blood with a syringe.
Then—chakra surged to his palm.
Medical Ninjutsu.
Slowly, chakra flowed into Shisui.
Stabilizing him.
The boy awoke.
"Wh… Why…?"
Shisui's voice was faint.
His eyes blinked rapidly.
His mind was chaos.
Betrayal.
The ANBU had tried to kill him.
Konoha had sent them.
Everything he believed shattered.
"…Because you're an Uchiha."
Rin's voice was flat.
"I saved you for the last time.
Next time you're that stupid, no one will."
Being Uchiha meant being a target.
He reached forward.
Blood rippled from his hand.
It sealed Shisui's wounds.
Blood Phantom.
Combined with his medical chakra, it stabilized the boy.
Shisui didn't understand.
"Uchiha…?"
What did that mean?
Weren't they still Konoha shinobi?
Didn't the village see them as comrades?
He didn't get it.
Why…?
"Uchiha are born wicked.
No one will ever see us as comrades.
Only family will stand by us."
Rin's tone was steel.
"Shisui… can I trust you?"
He handed over a scroll.
Then turned to glance at the other two ANBU corpses.
The memory of their blades—cutting down Uchiha—flashed through his mind.
Rage surged.
His hand moved on instinct.
But he caught himself.
Snuffed the urge.
Are we truly evil?
Shisui caught those words.
He thought back.
Faces of his kin.
Warm smiles.
Laughter.
The truth hit him like a hammer.
The village didn't hate evil.
It feared the Sharingan.
So long as Uchiha possessed those eyes—
They would never be accepted.
"Rin-senpai…
Shisui will always be loyal to the Uchiha!"
"Only you… can make us great again!"
Shisui forced himself upright.
He knelt before Rin.
Eyes full of burning devotion.
His faith in the Will of Fire—
Gone.
The drug had taken effect.
And the fire had been replaced…
With blood.