Absolute darkness.
Sasuke thought he was dead. Time didn't exist here, and gravity had clocked out. He tried to scream, but his voice was gone. He was just floating in a void.
Then, the world rendered. He was in a forest.
Sasuke looked down and saw "himself."
No, wait. That wasn't him.
He realized with a jolt of panic that he had zero control over this body. He was like a ghost haunting someone else's skin—able to see and hear, but powerless to move a muscle.
[Current Status: Spectator Mode]
[POV Locked: Danzo Shimura]
Crimson text flashed in his peripheral vision.
Danzo Shimura?
Sasuke knew the name. The high-ranking advisor to the Hokage. Whenever his father mentioned him at home, he'd frown, his voice dripping with deep suspicion.
Why am I inside this guy? What did the shopkeeper do to me?
Before Sasuke could process it, his host body stopped moving.
Five meters ahead stood a young man. He had a short sword strapped to his back, curly black hair, and deep stress lines etched around his nose.
Shisui Uchiha.
Sasuke wanted to shout.
It's Shisui! The clan's strongest prodigy and Itachi's best friend. The guy who always smiled, trained him and Itachi in shuriken throwing, and bought him dango.
"Lord Danzo."
Shisui spoke.
"The Uchiha have no intention of rebelling. I will use Kotoamatsukami to stop the coup. Please, trust me. Trust the Hokage."
Sasuke heard every word.
Rebellion? The Uchiha are planning a coup against the Leaf?
That was impossible. His dad was the Captain of the Police Force. His job was literally to keep the village safe.
The owner of the POV, Danzo, let out a cold snort.
"Hiruzen is too naive."
"The Uchiha's Sharingan is a disaster waiting to happen. Even if you stop it this time, what about later? Hearts change."
Danzo took a step forward.
Suddenly, a dozen shadows materialized from the trees. Ninjas in animal masks. The Root. Sasuke had seen their uniforms in his father's files.
Shisui's expression tightened. He took a half-step back, hand hovering over his sword hilt.
"Lord Danzo, what is the meaning of this?"
"For the sake of the Leaf, the Uchiha must disappear."
The old man's body exploded into motion with terrifying speed. No ninjutsu, just a raw sprint.
Shisui reacted instantly. He wasn't called "Shisui of the Body Flicker" for nothing.
Sasuke's vision blurred. Shisui vanished and reappeared behind Danzo on his flank.
"Genjutsu: Paralyzing Jutsu!"
The tomoe in Shisui's eyes spun. Danzo froze, completely immobilized.
He won!
Sasuke had just thought it when—
A weird pulse of chakra surged from Danzo's bandaged right eye.
The stiffness vanished.
Danzo's body flickered out of existence and reappeared right in front of Shisui.
That wasn't speed. That was rewriting reality. He had literally deleted the moment he got hit.
Shisui's eyes went wide.
"Izanagi?!"
Danzo didn't waste time talking. His withered hand shot straight for Shisui's face.
Shisui never expected a high-ranking official like Danzo to ambush him with a forbidden Uchiha technique.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
Sasuke's vision was half-blinded by red.
He watched, helpless, as those skeletal fingers dug into Shisui's right eye socket.
"AAAAAHHH!"
Shisui clutched his face, screaming in agony. Blood gushed through his fingers, soaking his green flak jacket.
NO!!!
Sasuke screamed internally. He fought to stop the body, to push the hand away, to help Shisui.
Useless. He couldn't do a damn thing.
Danzo held the bloody eye up, examining it.
"The ultimate genjutsu, Kotoamatsukami... These eyes are wasted on you. For the sake of the Leaf, I'll be taking this."
Danzo pulled out a glass jar and dropped the eye into it.
This is the 'great man' my father said I should respect?
He's a bandit. A butcher. A demon.
"Kill him. Take the other one."
Danzo gave the order cold-bloodedly.
The Root ninjas swarmed. Swords drawn, steel flashing.
Shisui gritted his teeth. One-handed, he wove signs and blasted a massive fireball.
Smoke filled the air.
Under the cover of the smoke, fighting through the pain, Shisui triggered his Body Flicker and bolted.
"Pursue."
Danzo tapped his cane and followed at a leisurely pace.
Sasuke was forced to tag along with the monster.
The scene warped. Glitch transition.
[Time Skip: 30 Minutes Later]
[Location: Naka River Cliff]
Sasuke's perspective shifted.
He wasn't Danzo anymore. He was a free-floating camera, hovering above a cliff edge.
Shisui stood there.
He was running on fumes. His right eye socket was a bloody void, and his body was covered in cuts.
A shadow dropped from the sky. Itachi Uchiha.
"Shisui!"
Itachi rushed over, catching his friend as he swayed. Itachi looked young, his face full of panic.
"Your eye..." Itachi's voice trembled.
"It was Danzo..."
Shisui gasped for air, his voice weak. "He took my right eye... He won't stop until he gets the left... or until the Uchiha are gone..."
Sasuke floated nearby, glued to the scene.
So Itachi knew everything.
"What should I do, Shisui..." Itachi gripped Shisui's arm tight.
Shisui looked up with his remaining left eye.
"Itachi, you are the only hope for the Uchiha. And for the Leaf."
Suddenly, Shisui reached up and gouged out his own left eye.
No hesitation. He ripped it right out.
"Take it."
Shisui pressed the eyeball into Itachi's hand.
"Don't let Danzo get this. Use this eye to protect the village. And the Uchiha name."
Itachi held the eye, his whole body shaking, tears streaming down his face.
"I promise."
Shisui smiled.
It was a smile of relief. With both eyes gone, his face was a mask of blood and gore, terrifying to look at, yet tragically heroic.
"Don't stop me, Itachi."
Below them was a sheer drop into the raging Naka River.
"If there's a next life, let's be friends again."
Shisui leaned back.
"SHISUI!!!"
Itachi lunged for the edge, reaching out, but his fingers grabbed only air.
Shisui's body shrank into the distance, swallowed by the dark water.
Itachi fell to his knees.
Head down, fingers clawing into the dirt.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!"
Itachi screamed at the sky.
Sasuke watched his brother.
Itachi looked up. His pitch-black eyes turned blood red.
Three tomoe spun wildly, faster and faster, until they merged.
The tomoe vanished.
A red and black shuriken pattern emerged. The Mangekyo Sharingan. The price of unlocking it:
Witnessing the death of your closest friend.
This is the truth?
Itachi didn't kill Shisui? No... Danzo drove him to suicide! The village drove him to suicide!
My brother took Shisui's eye, took on his dying wish, and has been struggling alone between the ANBU and the clan ever since.
And me? What was I doing?
I was whining that he wouldn't play with me. I was jealous of his talent. I thought he was a traitor.
I'm such an idiot!
The world around him began to shatter.
The cliff, the river, Itachi... everything broke into digital shards.
Darkness returned.
[Dungeon Complete]
[Rating: E (Spectators cannot be ranked)]
Real World.
Hidden Leaf Village, The Mirage Dojo.
The metal pod hissed open. Sasuke sat up.
"URGH—"
He leaned over the side and dry heaved violently, his face pale as a ghost.
Danzo's withered hand, Shisui's empty sockets, Itachi's scream of despair, that spinning red eye... it all flashed through his mind on a loop.
"It's not real..."
Sasuke clutched his head and tumbled out of the pod onto the floor.
"Danzo is the Hokage's advisor... he's a leader..."
"Shisui drowned himself... that's what the Police said..."
"It has to be fake! It's a genjutsu! You're trying to turn the Uchiha against the village!"
Sasuke glared at Roy, his eyes fierce like a wounded wolf cub.
Roy sat behind the counter, unbothered, sipping a cup of hot tea.
"Wipe your face."
Roy offered him a tissue.
Sasuke didn't take it.
Roy didn't mind. The kid was traumatized; manners were the last thing on his mind.
"Whether it's fake or not... you know the answer deep down."
"After Shisui died, did Danzo's Root agents start patrolling near the Uchiha district more often?"
Sasuke froze. That was true.
On his way home from the Academy, he always felt eyes on him.
"And your brother, Itachi. After Shisui died, was he promoted to ANBU, reporting directly to the Hokage and Danzo?"
Sasuke bit his lip.
His father had been furious about that, calling Itachi the village's dog.
"Also."
Roy set his tea down and looked Sasuke dead in the eye.
"Has your father, Fugaku Uchiha, been holding secret meetings lately—meetings Itachi is banned from attending?"
It all lined up.
These were core clan secrets. An outsider couldn't possibly know them this well.
Unless the simulation was based on facts.
No.
It was a fact. It was the bloody truth that had already happened.
Tears burst from Sasuke's eyes. The overwhelming grief and helplessness broke him.
Itachi had been carrying this alone the whole time.
The stolen eyes. The suicide of his best friend. The paranoia of the village leaders.
Itachi was walking through hell.
And Sasuke? He was standing on the sidelines, complaining that Itachi got mud on his shoes.
"Why..."
Sasuke choked out, slamming his fist into the floorboards.
"Why did you say it didn't cost money? This price is too high... This hurts more than dying..."
"Because you need to grow up."
Roy stood and walked over to him.
"Right now, all you can do is cry. Just like in the dungeon—you were a spectator. You couldn't even touch the hem of Danzo's robe."
Sasuke looked up, face streaked with tears.
"I want to save my brother."
"I don't want him to carry this alone. I'm going to kill Danzo. I'm going to take Shisui's eye back!"
"Kill Danzo?"
Roy laughed. It was a mocking sound.
"With your baby Fireball Jutsu? Danzo has a hundred ways to make you disappear without a sound. He'd probably frame a foreign ninja for your murder just for fun."
"Then... then what do I do?" Sasuke grabbed Roy's pant leg like a drowning man clutching a lifeline. "Boss, if your dojo can show me the past, surely there's a way to make me stronger, right?"
Roy walked back to the counter.
"Getting strong takes time. But time is the one thing you don't have."
"The night that ends everything is in three days."
"Shisui's death was just the appetizer. If Danzo had the guts to hit Shisui, it means he's already decided to butcher the entire Uchiha clan."
"Want to see the next scene?" Roy looked like a devil offering a deal. "The next act reveals the fate of your parents."