When Uchiha Fugaku and Kaguya Ren both fell perfectly still, Uchiha Shisui immediately understood what was happening.
A battle of genjutsu.
He wanted to help Fugaku—but the blood tears streaming from Fugaku's right eye made that thought die on the spot.
The Mangekyo Sharingan was a realm Shisui hadn't stepped into yet. Even with his unparalleled talent for genjutsu, there was no way a nine-year-old could interfere in a clash at that level.
As for using the opening—while Ren couldn't move—to attack his real body?
Shisui quickly reviewed every technique he knew, then abandoned the idea.
Konoha had already learned the hard way just how absurd Ren's physical body was. There was no need to add his own attempt to the pile—especially not when he was still a child whose skills were built for fighting people, not monsters.
"Please… win, Fugaku-sama…"
While Shisui prayed for Fugaku's victory and tried to figure out how to dispel Ren's Mist concealment, Fugaku gave a muffled groan.
Blood surged from all seven orifices.
He collapsed backward.
Shisui hurried to catch him, bracing Fugaku's weight from behind. Looking at Fugaku's unconscious face, Shisui clenched his teeth until they hurt, then lifted his head—
Ren was walking toward them as if nothing had happened at all.
"A limited simulation… a Mangekyo that can glimpse the future." Ren's tone carried a faint amusement. "Interesting ability. Shame your ocular power isn't strong enough, and as the caster… your caliber and ambition are lacking. A waste, really."
As Ren reached for the unconscious Fugaku, a small figure stepped forward without hesitation.
Shisui planted himself between them, his voice steady—so steady it didn't sound like a child at all.
"I won't let you pass… not unless I'm a corpse first!"
"Tch. And what am I supposed to do with a corpse?" Ren clicked his tongue.
"…Huh?"
Shisui froze for the briefest instant, caught off guard by the sheer casualness of the reply.
And in that instant, Ren's hand shifted—directly toward Shisui.
Deep-blue chakra flickered at his fingertips.
Then Ren's palm slammed into Shisui's chest.
"Sage Art: Four Symbols Seal."
"Ugh—!"
Shisui choked out a pained sound and tried to Body Flicker backward—but the Four Symbols Seal, powered by senjutsu chakra, was far beyond anything he could resist.
In a heartbeat, his chakra flow was completely suppressed.
The Body Flicker he'd started was crushed mid-formation. Even his three-tomoe Sharingan trembled, on the verge of being forcibly shut.
"Damn it… Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes…"
Shisui refused to give up. He forced his gaze up at Ren, trying to use the last scraps of chakra he could still move.
But the genjutsu birthed from his three-tomoe didn't even cause a ripple in Ren's chakra.
Ren's senjutsu chakra repelled it cleanly—like swatting away a speck of dust.
"Alright, brat. Accept reality—you've already lost." Ren yawned, stretching lazily. "I'm not interested in repeating to you what I said to Fugaku."
As Shisui's eyes faded back to plain black, Ren dispelled the fog technique around them and shaped a small ball of water with Water Release, tossing it onto Fugaku's face.
"Cough—! Cough, cough!"
Fugaku jolted awake amid violent coughing.
For a moment, he looked around in a daze—then his eyes landed on Ren, completely unharmed, and on Shisui—
held under Ren's arm as casually as luggage.
Fugaku's face twisted into bleak despair.
"I… lost?"
"You did," Ren said with a nod, as if confirming the weather. "But you at least held on through my warm-up phase in Sage Mode. All things considered, you're a decent strong one."
Ren's smile turned faintly mocking.
"I'll honor my word. You and the other Uchiha will return in one piece."
"…Shisui," Fugaku rasped, forcing himself upright through the aftershock of his shattered dojutsu. "Did you… come for him from the start?"
"No." Ren waved it off. "At first, I was just here to teach the idiots who ran into my sights a lesson."
"Then why—"
"Whim."
A long, slender serpent slid from Ren's sleeve, coiling around Shisui and binding him tight. Ren looked down at Fugaku, who was struggling to stand.
"Instead of worrying about a brat you might not meet again for a long time, think about how you're going to bring your clanmates back to Konoha's camp."
Ren's eyes were cool.
"I'm sparing the Uchiha for personal reasons. But the comrades of mine you've killed? They won't be so eager to let you walk away once the fog clears."
"The fog will disperse soon."
With that, Ren hoisted Shisui—still bound—and vanished into the thinning mist.
Fugaku stared at the empty space where Ren had been.
His teeth ground together.
A surge of rage and helplessness boiled over, and he slammed his fist into the earth.
"Damn it… damn it, damn it, damn it!!! Kaguya Ren!!!"
He roared until his throat burned, until he had nothing left to throw at the sky but hatred.
Then reality forced itself back into him.
The ambush squad was almost completely destroyed—yet the Uchiha participants were nearly all alive.
Fugaku understood exactly what kind of public storm that would create. He understood, too, that this was Ren's open, shameless scheme laid out right on the table.
But what could he do?
Blame Ren for not slaughtering him and every Uchiha who joined the raid?
Or preserve Uchiha honor by killing the few clanmates who survived?
Impossible.
Fugaku wasn't the sort of man who could turn on comrades who had fought at his side.
So he could only grit his teeth, dig his clanmates out of the ground, and carry them toward Konoha's base while the fog still lingered—praying the higher-ups wouldn't listen to the bitter rumors sure to follow.
As for Shisui's safety…
It was almost laughable.
Fugaku's intelligence on Ren was so lacking that he couldn't even use his left-eye Mangekyo—Void Cognition—to simulate what might happen to Shisui in Ren's hands.
"Even with the Mangekyo, all I've earned is the qualification not to get instantly crushed by his presence…"
Fugaku's gaze drifted toward Konoha's outpost ahead, and toward his eldest son—
Itachi—who was clumsily helping the other shinobi inside.
Fugaku bit down hard.
A decision, miserable and cruel, settled in his chest like lead.
"I'm sorry, Mikoto. I'm sorry, Itachi…"
His eyes darkened.
"I'm sorry… to my second child who hasn't even been born yet."
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