Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyo Sharingan could not catch any trace of movement before the pale figure appeared right in front of him. A bone-covered hand swung down with terrifying force toward Shisui's face. The compressed air burst with a dull boom.
The presence of death clamped onto Shisui's throat. His instincts screamed louder than thought, and he drove his dojutsu power with everything he had.
"Susanoo!!"
A dense surge of green Chakra burst out, forming a rough rib-like frame around his body. The pale bone fist smashed into it head-on.
Cracks exploded through the ribs with a shrill and horrifying kacha sound. The initial form of Susanoo lasted less than half a second before it shattered. A crushing force passed through and slammed into Shisui Uchiha's chest, forcing the air from his lungs.
He could not even grunt before his body was hurled backward like a broken shadow. His form flew uncontrollably through the rain.
Before Shisui could adjust his posture in midair, the pale figure vanished again. It reappeared above him in the rain, moving faster than his own fall. The bone-armored arm struck down once more.
This blow was faster, heavier, and more violent than the first. Shisui Uchiha had no time to react as his vision filled with the shadow of death.
The punch landed squarely on the shattered Susanoo frame with a sound like artillery hitting the earth. Shisui Uchiha's body was driven straight into the soaked ground like a nail. The impact carved a crater webbed with Lie-like cracks.
Mud and gravel burst upward in a fountain, mixed with the blood spraying from Shisui's mouth. The shockwave carried rain and debris outward in a violent surge.
"Shisui!"
Seeing this overwhelming violence, Itachi Uchiha felt his heart clench and shouted in fear. From the cloud of rain and dust came Shisui's strained roar.
"Run!!"
Itachi Uchiha did not hesitate. He turned, grabbed the unconscious Sasuke Uchiha, and prepared to flee the battlefield he could not influence. He had only just awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan and developed the left eye's dojutsu, Tsukuyomi.
This dojutsu could drag the enemy's mind into a Genjutsu space where time and all conditions were under his control. But it required eye contact with Itachi Uchiha. That monster's speed was far beyond what he could track.
Staying would only get in Shisui's way. He had to escape and at least bring Sasuke Uchiha somewhere safe, then come back.
The instant he turned and lifted Sasuke Uchiha, a chilling presence descended behind him. The hair on his neck stood on end. The pale figure stood silently at his back, radiating crushing cold.
Its hand rose, fingers spreading. Itachi Uchiha's Mangekyo Sharingan spun wildly as his blood seemed to freeze.
At that critical moment, a thunderous crash erupted. A massive green skeletal arm tore through rain and dust, slamming toward the pale figure behind Itachi Uchiha. The attack forced the pale figure to halt and turn, raising its bone fist to meet it.
The green bone fist and the pale figure collided, two terrifying but different forces crashing together. The deafening impact echoed across the area. Itachi Uchiha seized the chance and vanished without hesitation.
The shockwave burst outward, sweeping the courtyard clean as wind tore away rain and dust. Visibility returned at once.
At the edge of the massive crater stood Shisui Uchiha, half kneeling and soaked in blood. Towering over him was a far larger presence. A giant formed of dense green Chakra, shaped like the upper body of a skeletal warrior, shielded Shisui within its chest.
This was Susanoo's first form. Flames burned in its skull-like eye sockets, ribs and spine clearly defined. The strike just now had come from its right arm.
But Shisui Uchiha was gasping hard, his chest heaving. He stared at where the skeletal hand had landed. The pale figure stood beneath it, having blocked the blow head-on.
It had only lowered its center of gravity, the ground beneath its feet collapsing from the force. Seeing this, Shisui Uchiha's expression grew grim. No Ninjutsu or Taijutsu at all, just raw flesh resisting Susanoo's first form.
That level of strength and speed could not belong to a human. He had seen it clearly. This monster was born from Fugaku Uchiha's body.
Zetsu could never be human. This was a monster reborn from hatred.
"Fugaku Uchiha, I do not know why you became this," Shisui Uchiha said softly as he fixed his gaze on the pale figure. "I do not know what went wrong with Kotoamatsukami. But I am sorry."
"I have to kill you again."
The green skeletal giant pressed down harder, its hand closing as if to crush the pale figure into pulp. The pale figure only looked back, the red light in its mask holes flickering.
Then it spoke.
"Shi…sui…"
The voice was hoarse and broken, like something unused for years. Shisui Uchiha's pupils shrank.
The pale figure continued, its words scraping out slowly. "Uchiha… Itachi…"
"You…"
"All of you…"
"Must die."
The words grew clearer, turning into a howl filled with poison and hate. "All of you must die!"
"Kill!"
The shout came layered with countless voices, overlapping like a wind blowing up from hell. The pure hatred and urge to destroy Wang made every hair on Shisui Uchiha's body stand on end.
With a roar filled with endless resentment, thick crimson Chakra burst from within the White figure. The Chakra was so dense it was almost solid, carrying a heavy stench of blood and a bone-deep chill of hatred. It moved like a living thing, wrapping around the skeletal body and swallowing it whole. The bone hand of the green Susanoo that had been clenched tight was forced open inch by inch.
Under Shisui Uchiha's shocked gaze, the sticky crimson Chakra began to twist and take shape. Sharp cracking sounds echoed again and again, like bones growing at a mad pace. The red Chakra condensed and hardened, forming huge, thick, and vicious bones layered upon bones.
"Susanoo?!" Shisui Uchiha's expression changed at once as he suppressed the surging blood in his chest and abdomen. The Chakra inside his body boiled like fire.
The Susanoo around him let out a low hum, and the massive skeletal right arm lifted as the fingers clenched into a fist. It tore through the curtain of rain and smashed down toward the White figure wrapped inside. A deafening explosion followed as the green skeletal fist struck the ground, scattering rain into mist and cracking the earth beneath it.
Yet Shisui felt as if he had punched a mountain. In the blink of an eye, a terrifying half-body giant skeleton several meters tall had already taken shape. Four strange skeletal arms rose up and forcibly blocked his attack, holding it in place.
This was only the beginning. Thick, wet sounds followed as if flesh were growing, making the scalp crawl. Crimson Chakra writhed and intertwined over the towering skeleton.
Dark red muscle fibers grew at a visible speed, twisting and knotting together. Like the toughest vines, they filled the gaps between the bones and turned into powerful flesh. In the end, a half-body giant far larger and more terrifying than Shisui's Susanoo fully formed within the crimson glow, releasing crushing pressure.