Shock.
Absolute shock.
Uchiha Itachi didn't move often—but when he did, it was breathtaking.
A Sage Mode Susanoo was terrifying beyond words.
"How… how is this possible?"
After finally snapping out of it, Uchiha Fugaku stared at the senjutsu-empowered Susanoo before him, his face filled with disbelief—as if he'd seen a ghost.
Itachi could use Sage Mode?
And this Sage Mode felt eerily similar to what Fugaku had witnessed when he watched the Fifth Hokage clash with the First Hokage—almost identical to the First Hokage's Sage Mode.
It was simply impossible to accept.
"Fugaku—what's going on with Itachi?"
After exchanging a clash with Jūzō Biwa, Hyūga Hiashi flashed backward dozens of steps. His face was dark as he spoke.
"Doesn't the Mangekyō have severe side effects? How can Itachi use it so recklessly—and even enter Sage Mode?"
"I don't know."
Fugaku shook his head blankly.
There was no way around it. Itachi's current abilities had already gone beyond anything Fugaku could understand.
"Itachi transplanted the First Hokage's cells."
A cold voice cut in.
Ren appeared beside Fugaku, utterly calm. "Right now, Itachi carries not only Hashirama's chakra… but also White Zetsu's."
As he spoke, even Ren looked mildly surprised.
He hadn't expected Black Zetsu and Obito to go so far—grafting Hashirama's cells and White Zetsu into Itachi, and even forcing Itachi into Sage Mode.
As for why they grafted White Zetsu as well—
It was obvious.
To control and influence Itachi more effectively.
"Transplanted the First Hokage's cells…"
Fugaku and Hiashi both showed sudden understanding.
No wonder Itachi could enter Sage Mode.
No wonder he could sustain high-intensity Mangekyō use for so long.
So that was it.
"Wait," Hiashi said, frowning. "Then what is 'White Zetsu'? Another kind of cell?"
The next moment, Fugaku and Hiashi both gave bitter smiles and fell right back into confusion.
That term alone had stepped straight into their blind spot.
"Hahahaha!"
At that moment, the happiest person on the field was Jūzō Biwa. One of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, he threw back his head and laughed loudly.
"Itachi—well done! You're ridiculously strong!"
"Annoying."
Ren's eyes turned cold.
Murakumogiri appeared in his hand. His body blurred into an afterimage as he shot straight at Jūzō.
"So fast—!"
Jūzō's expression froze. He snatched up the Executioner Blade and threw it up in front of him.
Clang!!
Metal screamed.
Murakumogiri and the Executioner Blade collided head-on, detonating a shockwave that blasted outward. Ren's raw strength was so overwhelming that the ground beneath Jūzō cracked apart at the moment of impact.
"It's over…"
Feeling both arms go numb from the vibration, Jūzō's heart tightened.
"Murakumogiri—Tremor."
Ren didn't give him a second.
A pale-white tremor force surged along Murakumogiri's edge and slammed into the Executioner Blade.
Clang—clang—clang!
A rapid chain of metallic impacts rang out.
Then, before anyone could blink, visible cracks spiderwebbed across the Executioner Blade.
And in the next instant—
It shattered.
At the same time, Murakumogiri's blade flashed.
A clean line opened across Jūzō's throat.
"So fast…"
Jūzō hadn't even fully processed what had happened.
But when he did, he already understood—
He was dead.
Thud.
His head hit the ground.
Perhaps even in his final moment, Jūzō couldn't believe it.
He was one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, and the Executioner Blade had been broken—shattered by force alone.
And he himself had been decapitated in a single slash.
"Fifth Hokage…"
From within the Susanoo, Itachi's face didn't change. His voice came out like a blade.
"Do you have any idea… how much I hate you?"
"Itachi," Ren said evenly, not rushing at all, "spare me the nonsense."
"As a disgrace to the Uchiha," he continued coldly, "and an S-rank criminal wanted by Konoha, you still didn't dare return to the village."
"How dare I not return?!"
That struck a nerve.
Itachi roared, his voice turning vicious. "If it weren't for you, would I have ended up like this?! Would I have become something neither human nor ghost?!"
His anger surged higher.
"Now even my brother—Uchiha Sasuke—won't recognize me anymore. That's your doing!"
As his emotions spiraled, the Susanoo twisted slightly. Its overwhelming power made the ground tremble.
"All my fault?" Ren laughed, unable to stop himself.
Even now, Itachi was still this deluded?
He was the one who chose to be a traitor. The one who chose to be Hiruzen Sarutobi's lapdog. The one who chose to slaughter his clan—to kill his own parents.
And in the end—
He blamed someone else.
Ren had thought perhaps White Zetsu and Obito were corrupting Itachi from the shadows.
Now it was obvious he'd worried too much.
Itachi was simply beyond saving.
"Right," Itachi snarled, eyes wild with madness. With a thought, he made the Susanoo tighten its grip on the Totsuka Blade.
"Today I'll kill you—then I'll slaughter the Uchiha clan."
"I'll kill my foolish father… and my foolish mother."
"Hopeless."
Ren shrugged, no longer interested in talking.
There was no point wasting words on someone who had already rotted through.
Humm!!
In the next instant, terrifying ocular power and chakra surged.
Ren's eyes snapped into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
A massive blue Susanoo formed around him in an instant.
No more words.
Today, he would smash Uchiha Itachi to pieces—completely.
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