Chapter 15: First Kill
"Amaterasu!"
Itachi's eyes were bloodshot, blood mixed with tears continuously streaming from the corners. He drove his Mangekyo to near madness, black flames roaring like enraged beasts, yet still unable to breach that invisible barrier.
Tap, tap, tap—
Yu's footsteps rang especially clear in Itachi's ears, like a death knell tolling for him.
Yu looked at this former genius, the eldest son Fugaku and Mikoto had been so proud of, the brother Sasuko had most admired, his former adoptive brother, and casually waved his hand.
Swish!
A cold gleam flashed. Itachi's legs were severed cleanly at the roots, his body crashing down like a bird with broken wings, splattering vivid crimson across the stone pillar.
On the other side, the masked man frantically tried to activate Kamui, cold sweat soaking through his black robes. But no matter how he channeled his ocular power, space remained completely still—he was trapped here.
"Is it you...?" The masked man's voice carried unprecedented trembling. In this domain that should have belonged to him alone, another controller had appeared—one whose spatial dominance exceeded his own.
Yu slowly approached as the black flames around him gradually dispersed. "In here, your intangibility seems to have failed."
The masked man despairingly discovered that his most prized ocular technique had completely lost its function in this space.
"Perfect." Yu revealed a savage smile. "Dying in your own rat hole is quite a fitting end for you, don't you think?"
Yu's palm slowly clenched as invisible magnetic field lines coiled around Obito like living creatures, tightening ever more. Bones creaked under unbearable strain while blood seeped from beneath the black robes.
Yu stepped forward and removed the masked man's red spiral mask, revealing a face half intact, the other half crawling with hideous scars.
"Who... exactly are you?" Obito forced out these words with difficulty.
This suddenly appearing overwhelming power was like mockery of this false world. Would the ideal he'd pursued for half his life truly end here before this monster?
Yu silently watched him, his gaze cold as if viewing a corpse.
"Wait!" Obito suddenly shrieked. "Itachi killed Fugaku and his wife! I only eliminated the hardliners! Without them, Konoha would be more peaceful, and Fugaku wouldn't have to struggle with difficult choices!"
The magnetic lines tightened another degree, the sound of breaking ribs clearly audible.
"This world... is false!" Obito screamed hysterically. "I only wanted to create a new world without war! You can't kill me!"
"I can't die here! I..."
Yu looked at this deranged man before him, then thought of Itachi's self-righteous "greater good."
"Truly revolting." Yu finally spoke, the magnetic lines suddenly contracting to their limit.
Obito's body was torn and deformed like a broken rag doll.
In his final moments, Obito hazily saw Rin's figure. That world without any war or hatred... had ultimately become mere illusion.
With a dull thud, the man who claimed he would change the ninja world became a puddle of flesh and blood, forever remaining in this dimensional space.
"Finally quiet." Yu exhaled deeply as the madness in his eyes gradually receded.
Time to deal with the other beast.
He turned toward the legless Itachi, stepping on the "genius's" face while using magnetic field rotation to keep him alive.
"Why?"
Now calmed, Yu suddenly wanted to have a proper chat with this scum.
Itachi said nothing, perhaps not even knowing how to answer.
Conspiring with outsiders to slaughter his own clan—his choice seemed to have pushed both the Uchiha and Konoha into desperate straits. Those so-called righteousness and choices were nothing but jokes before absolute power.
"Just kill me..." After much thought, it seemed only death could atone for his sins.
Yu laughed—a wild, unrestrained laugh as brutality returned to his face, the recently calmed fury reigniting.
After committing such crimes, he wanted to escape through death?
"Itachi, do you know?" Yu's voice carried twisted amusement as he spoke to himself. "I was always... very jealous of you."
"You were the clan's pride, a once-in-a-century Uchiha genius."
"The eldest son our parents were most proud of."
"The brother Sasuko most admired."
"From birth, you possessed everything I once longed for."
"You had family, parents who loved you, a cute little sister... why did you personally destroy it all?"
"Just for that ridiculous 'greater good'? For 'loyalty' to Konoha?"
"If Father hadn't evacuated the ordinary clan members in advance, would you and that beast have wiped them all out completely?"
"Why wouldn't you discuss it with Father?"
"Did you think you were the only one concerned with the bigger picture?"
"Self-righteous trash!"
"Say something!"
Yu roared hysterically, his mud-stained shoe sole grinding viciously against Itachi's face.
Those words stirred Itachi's memories. In his recollections, everyone had praised him:
Clan members lauded his talent,
Father saw him as the Uchiha's hope,
Sasuko believed he was an omnipotent brother,
The Third Hokage had publicly praised him for having Hokage-level thinking,
Even Shisui had confidently entrusted the Uchiha's future to him...
He had always believed he was right. Even after committing the sin of clan genocide, he could tell himself: this was all for peace, for the greater good, an unavoidable sacrifice.
But now...
"Was I... wrong?" Itachi murmured, unclear whether asking Yu or himself.
Yu's foot ground across Itachi's face, leaving filthy marks as his voice trembled with suppressed emotion:
"Wrong?"
"You have the nerve to ask if you were wrong?" Yu grabbed Itachi's neck, lifting his broken body high. "Who do you think you are? What gave you the right to make decisions for everyone?"
Itachi's lips trembled as blood continuously spilled from his mouth. That "greater good" he'd once been so proud of now seemed so ridiculous under Yu's questioning.
In his blurred vision, he seemed to see again Father's complex gaze before death, Mother's final unfinished words "take care of Sasuko," and the shocked expressions of those clan members fallen in pools of blood.
"Because the Third praised you for having Hokage-level thinking? Because Shisui placed his hopes in you? Or did Konoha or the Uchiha actually become better because of you?"
The magnetic field effect fluctuated violently with Yu's emotions, causing Itachi's body to convulse uncontrollably.
"I'll keep you alive." Yu suddenly calmed, speaking each word with heavy emphasis. "Alive to bear the fury of all surviving clan members, alive to let everyone see your disgraceful state, alive to... suffer eternally for your ridiculous 'greater good.'"
With that, the pattern in his Mangekyo slowly rotated as he brought the now white-eyed Itachi close, forcing him to meet his gaze. He used magnetic field rotation to stabilize Itachi's injuries, then casually tossed him aside like garbage.
Space rippled as Yu's body distorted and vanished from the spot.
In the gray dimension, only Itachi remained, forever sinking into genjutsu.
*****
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