Two sets of scarlet eyes stared down a lone shinobi.
He bore no village symbol, no headband, no crest, yet he was to well-armed to be a mere bandit. His armor was scorched, his movements stiff, but his posture remained alert. Dangerous.
Shisui and I stood side by side. Behind us, the clash of steel rang through the forest as the others engaged their opponents. Still, none of us moved.
Injured or not, this man was alive.
One mistake would mean death.
"Okay," I murmured. "He's hurt. He won't be as fast. We overwhelm him with taijutsu combination attacks."
I moved first.
I closed the distance in seconds, driving a straight punch toward his face. He slipped past it effortlessly and countered with a kick to my back. Pain exploded through me.
I barely tracked it.
Jōnin-level speed… even injured.
Shisui was already moving. As the shinobi dodged my strike, Shisui appeared from the side, tanto flashing downward in a lethal arc. The man twisted, parrying the blade at the last second.
Metal rang out.
Shisui flipped away from the clash, landing lightly on his feet.
Now the shinobi stood between us.
We attacked together.
There was nowhere for him to go but up.
As we closed in, I grabbed a kunai. The shinobi leapt exactly as expected. I released the blade, striking him square in the chest.
A log slammed into the ground between us.
"Replacement!"
I spotted movement in the bush.
"Shisui, move!"
We sprang into the branches as a bolt of lightning tore through the ground where we'd stood moments before, charring the earth.
My jaw tightened.
"This guy's dangerous. We need to end this fast. Shisui use that shunshin technique you told me about. I'll cover you."
He hesitated. "It's still rough. I'll need time to set up the afterimages."
"You'll have it. I'll engage him head-on."
I leapt down.
I opened with a hard kick to his midsection. He blocked with his knee and snapped a punch toward my throat. I twisted aside, countering with a hook. He blocked and answered with one of his own.
Pain flared.
It was obvious now.
I was outmatched.
Then I'll take the hit.
He advanced, pressing the attack. An elbow strike, blocked. A sword slash I sidestepped. Then I saw it.
A straight punch aimed for my gut.
I braced.
The impact knocked the air from my lungs, but I used the momentum to flip backward, hands already forming seals mid-air.
As I rotated, I caught sight of flickering movement to my right, Shisui's afterimages forming. Even if my attack failed, it would mask his setup.
I landed and lashed out with a heel kick aimed at the shinobi's head. He retreated just as I expected.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
The flames roared forward. He evaded, but not completely.
The fire scorched the left side of his body, burning through cloth and flesh alike.
From the shadows, Shisui's voice cut through the chaos.
"Now, Shinji!"
I charged.
He swung wildly despite his injuries. I shoulder-checked him, ignoring the pain as it tore through my arm. The impact sent him stumbling backward over a fallen branch.
Shisui descended from above.
His tanto bit cleanly into the shinobi's shoulder. A short, strangled grunt escaped him, the only sign of pain.
I landed beside them, kunai ready.
The shinobi tried to turn, but he was too slow now.
Shisui's afterimages closed in.
One precise thrust pierced through the chest armor.
The shinobi went still.
Then, without a sound, he collapsed.
I exhaled, sweat and dirt streaking my face. Shisui lowered his weapon.
Fugaku's voice came from above, calm and cold.
"Stand down. The mission is complete."
I looked up.
Even with the Sharingan, I could see the weight in my father's eyes.
We had survived.
But something felt… wrong.
We regrouped with the others soon after.
Raki and Akiro stood near my father, un injured..
"Father," I asked, scanning the area, "where are Jiro and Taido? I don't see them."
Fugaku's jaw tightened.
"Taido pursued the shinobi who fled with the Sharingan. Jiro followed shortly after to support him. We wait."
Unease settled deep in my chest.
I turned to Shisui, forcing a small smile.
"We did good. That technique of yours it's coming along. At this rate, you're going to earn yourself a nickname."
He grinned. "Yeah. Been training hard. You should get one too, can't let me outshine you forever."
I laughed. "Hey, I'll get my"
"Enough."
Fugaku's voice snapped like a blade.
"Two of your clansmen are in pursuit of enemies carrying stolen eyes, and you're laughing?"
His gaze burned into me.
"Be ready to act."
The mood died instantly.
He was right.
We waited.
Minutes stretched into what felt like hours.
Then Jiro emerged from the trees, dragging a body behind him.
"Taido fell in battle."
The words hit like a blow.
He laid the body at Fugaku's feet.
At first glance, Taido looked like any fallen shinobi armor shattered, clothes torn, blood soaking into the forest floor.
Then my eyes drifted upward.
And my breath caught.
His face was… wrong.
The Sharingan flared on instinct. Chakra surged violently, vision sharpening to a painful clarity.
Clean cuts.
Empty sockets.
Taido's eyes were gone.
Taken.
Grief came first.
His laughter on the road.His belief that the clan should serve people not power.
Gone.
Then came the anger.
The Sharingan reacted.
The single tomoe spun wildly, heat flooding my skull as if my eyes were being torn apart and rebuilt.
I dropped to one knee, gasping.
Beside me, Shisui staggered.
"I…I can't," he muttered, clutching his head. "My eyes!"
His Sharingan was changing.
The tomoe stretched, twisting as a second one formed, the red darkening, sharpening into something more dangerous.
Then
Mine followed.
Pressure peaked.
Released.
The world snapped into brutal clarity.
Two tomoe stared back at me, reflected in Taido's blood-darkened armor. I could see chakra flowing through every Uchiha present,
Two tomoe.
Not from battle..
From loss.
Fugaku stepped forward.
He knelt once beside Taido's body, then rose.
"Taido fell completing his mission," he said evenly. "He recovered the enemy's trail and paid the price."
No mention of the eyes.
Only Jiro met his gaze, and looked away.
Fugaku's eyes flicked briefly to Shisui and me, noting the change.
"You both did well," he said. "Remember this feeling. The village doesn't care how much our clan loses only that the mission is completed."
I spoke before I could stop myself.
"Father… that's not fair. The village couldn't have known. We should warn them. Help them stop whoever did this."
His voice sharpened.
"Those shinobi were from the village. From a man named Danzō. He cares only for power."
"Then that's exactly why we should act," I pressed. "Don't resent the village protect it. If we expose him, we can-"
Fugaku snapped "ENOUGH".
"Move out," he said coldly. "We're returning to the village."
"This mission has failed."
That night, the Hokage read the report alone.
He read it once.
Then again.
Villageless shinobi.
Targeted extraction.
Precise timing.
One jōnin dead.
His eyes missing.
Hiruzen set the paper down and removed his pipe, smoke thinning.
Foreign villages would have taken the body.
Bandits would not have known what to take.
He closed his eyes.
And in the silence, the truth settled in.
The enemy might've not been from another village…