Fifty-sixth year of Konoha.
Six years had passed since the Nine-Tails rampaged through the Hidden Leaf. That single night not only took the life of the village's young Fourth Hokage, but also cast an enduring shadow over one of Konoha's founding clans—the Uchiha.
After all, the Sharingan's pattern etched into the Nine-Tails' eyes could not be denied, nor faked.
And so, as suspicions mounted, the clan's position grew ever more precarious.
Within the Uchiha gatherings, tempers burned hotter by the day, radicals fanning the flames of rebellion. Shisui Uchiha—upholder of the Will of Fire—watched all this with growing despair. The clan had become a powder keg, a single spark away from disaster.
Though their endless meetings never reached a consensus, Shisui had already steeled himself to act.
> "So it comes to this…"
Emerging from yet another fruitless assembly, Shisui raised his gaze to the pale moon above. His hand drifted to his left eye.
Time was running out. Tonight, he would go to the Hokage Building and report everything to the Third Hokage. To avoid unwanted eyes, he would cut through the Forest of Death.
But the moment he stepped into its shadowed paths, a figure appeared.
At first, Shisui's instincts screamed enemy—but the familiar face in the moonlight loosened the tension in his shoulders.
"Douhuan… it's you?"
The man was no stranger. Uchiha Douhuan—once hailed as a prodigy rivaling Shisui himself. Unlike most Uchiha, who mastered fire release and illusions, Douhuan was an anomaly: a lightning specialist. During the Third Shinobi War, his summoned lightning Kirin had struck like a natural disaster, obliterating fifteen Mist squads in an instant. From that day, he carried the name Azure Thunder, Uchiha Douhuan.
Yet, beyond his power, what Shisui respected most was his heart. Douhuan served with the Police Force, but always treated villagers with kindness. He rarely attended clan meetings, which made him unpopular with the radicals, but in Shisui's eyes, he was one of the few who truly carried the Will of Fire.
"Finished training," Douhuan said lightly, smiling as he approached. "But you, Shisui-san—what brings you to the Forest of Death at this hour?"
"I couldn't sleep," Shisui replied, masking his true purpose. "So I thought I'd walk."
"Because of the clan… and the village?" Douhuan asked, his tone soft but probing.
Shisui let out a weary breath. "Yes. You know as well as I do, if the clan rises in rebellion, they won't stand against the village. And even if they did, the Leaf would bleed, and peace—hard-won and fragile—would shatter."
He wasn't guarded with Douhuan. If anything, he had hoped to draw him closer, as an ally in these troubled times.
"Peace is rarely cherished by those who live in it," Douhuan said calmly. "And the vision of a clan is often bound by its own blood. That is why such conflicts are inevitable."
Shisui's eyes widened, relief flickering across his face. Besides young Itachi, whom even the Third Hokage praised as Hokage material, perhaps Douhuan too was a rare voice of wisdom in the clan.
But then, Douhuan's next words struck cold.
"Brother Shisui… I have a solution to the clan's dilemma. But for that… I'll need your eyes."
Shisui froze. A chill ran down his spine—then came the flash of blue lightning.
Steel rang out as Shisui barely managed to draw his blade, intercepting the fatal strike. Sparks scattered in the dark forest.
"Douhuan… why?!" Shisui demanded, their blades locked.
"You were heading to the Hokage, weren't you?" Douhuan's voice was ice. "To betray the clan, you even took this long detour to avoid suspicion."
They broke apart, three-tomoe Sharingan gleaming in both sets of eyes, watching, circling.
"I thought you bore the Will of Fire," Shisui said bitterly. "But you're just another prisoner of the clan's hatred."
"Hah!" Douhuan threw back his head, laughter crackling with thunder. "You and Itachi think yourselves visionaries, carrying the village on your shoulders. Yet you're blind! Frogs at the bottom of a well, staring up at the moon!"
Lightning coiled around his frame, searing the night with its brilliance.
"My vision is far beyond this village, beyond this clan. This sick world needs reform—and I will bring it!"
"You would plunge us into war? You're mad!" Shisui spat, his knuckles white on his sword's hilt. "I thought you avoided clan meetings because you sought peace. But you're worse than those old fanatics—you've been hiding behind a mask all along."
"No," Douhuan replied coldly. "I avoided them because I refuse to waste time with insects. They scream of rebellion without ever offering a plan. How could insects ever hope to wield true power?"
Shisui's heart sank. He understood now. And he could not allow this man to go free.
"Douhuan," he said, voice steady, "for the sake of the village, I'll stop you here."
The tomoe in his eyes whirled, fusing into the windmill-like pattern of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Kotoamatsukami…"
Douhuan smirked. "So that's your trump card. A genjutsu that rewrites a man's will."
Shisui's breath caught. He had never revealed this power—how could Douhuan know?
"You're surprised?" Lightning flared in Douhuan's eyes. "I told you, my gaze reaches farther than yours."
And before Shisui's widening eyes, the tomoe in Douhuan's Sharingan twisted—reshaping into three jagged lightning bolts that encircled his pupils.
"Mangekyō… Sharingan?!"
Shisui staggered back, disbelief etched across his face. He had never dreamed Uchiha Douhuan also possessed such eyes.
The night crackled with thunder.
(End of Chapter One)