Konoha would always have people who had to be sacrificed—if not the older generation, then the next...
The boy in front of him, drenched in sweat as he halted his blade, was a perfect example.
He was a descendant of Uchiha Kagami, one of the most representative among the war orphans.
The difference was that most civilian-born ninja lived ordinary, uneventful lives and achieved little no matter how hard they tried.
Shisui, on the other hand, was different.
Gifted beyond compare.
Even setting aside the original story, where he had already shown extraordinary talent at a ridiculously young age and earned himself the great name of "Shisui of the Body Flicker," even now...
With one slash of his sword, a flaming arc tore through the air and, in an instant, sliced apart several wooden posts ten meters away. He was already showing a hint of the style Roy had once possessed when he first mastered Water Breathing.
[Notice: Detected your follower "Uchiha Shisui." "Flame Breathing" has reached beginner level. Power of Faith +10...]
Roy flicked a towel from his sleeve and tossed it to him. Mikoto had packed it for him in advance.
"I know," he said flatly.
With a single glance, he followed the causal line connecting himself and Shisui, split off a [Heart Worm], and looked through it...
As the Heart Worm wriggled deep into Shisui's inner mind, it brought back an image—
A ninja in a cat-face mask. A black skintight inner suit. A white harness-like vest over it. Two short swords crossed on his back.
He kept talking to Shisui, again and again, slipping Roy's name into the conversation multiple times, fishing for information while trying to entice Shisui to join them under one excuse:
For the sake of Konoha.
A trace of ridicule flashed through Roy's eyes as he recognized who it was—
Root.
Danzo's Root.
The ones controlled by Danzo and branded with the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
As for which particular Root operative it was, that didn't really matter. There were quite a few Root members skilled with twin short blades. The most famous of them was Danzo's most trusted aide—
Torune Aburame.
Of course, the exact identity wasn't important.
What mattered was who had sent him.
Thinking back to his less-than-pleasant first meeting with a certain someone in the Hokage's office not long ago, Roy turned to Shisui and Itachi and said, "Fifty meters ahead to the right. Behind the tallest tree. There's a rat there. Which one of you wants to drag it out for me?"
Shisui and Itachi froze for a split second. Then they exchanged a look, drew their blades at the same time, and cut toward the spot Roy had pointed out.
Two bright sword flashes ripped through the air, heading straight for the tall bushes hidden beneath the tree.
A head poked out from the shrubbery. The neck and body beneath it were still buried underground. The moment Roy exposed him, his face changed drastically, and he immediately tried to flee.
What he hadn't expected was this—
for Shisui and Itachi, at such a young age, to already have swordsmanship this sharp.
Especially Shisui.
The moment his three-tomoe Sharingan opened, his already monstrous visual prowess sharpened further. The flaming slash that came down was fast and precise, forcibly cutting off any thought of continuing to spy.
Damn it! Since when did the Uchiha produce two bratty swordsmen this terrifying?!
The thought flashed through his head.
The heatwave hit his face. The blade-light was already there.
He gave up on looking and instantly tucked his head back down, burrowing into the earth—
only to hear a thunderous boom.
Shisui's slash landed, blasting apart the ground and forcibly carving open the surface, leaving behind a scorched trench.
"Seventy meters west..."
Missed?
Shisui frowned as Roy calmly called out another coordinate.
Taking advantage of that brief pause, Itachi shot forward, brushing past Shisui's shoulder as he sprinted west.
Shisui immediately followed, sword in hand, and the two of them flanked the small ridge of moving soil from opposite sides.
Another two slashes plunged into the earth, barely missing White Zetsu's body and instead shearing off one of his ears. The shock nearly scared him out of his skin. As he fled desperately, he couldn't help cursing inwardly:
Damn it, am I the reconnaissance specialist here, or is he?!
How the hell did Uchiha Ren even find me?!
White Zetsu tunneled frantically through the soil, while behind him Shisui and Itachi kept slashing after him again and again.
What made it even more infuriating was that Roy, following behind them, kept calmly calling out his position like he had an eye literally attached to White Zetsu's body. If Roy said east, White Zetsu didn't dare run west. It was enough to make anyone despair.
"Forty meters south..."
"He turned. Southeast, thirty meters..."
"Don't stop. Stab deeper. He tunneled down again..."
More blade-lights plunged into the earth—
and one of them took White Zetsu's foot clean off.
That one was Itachi's.
The boy hadn't awakened his Sharingan yet, so his dynamic vision couldn't compare to Shisui's. In speed, he was also slightly behind Shisui, who was three years older.
But what Itachi had was exceptional battle instinct.
The moment he realized White Zetsu had circled around and was vaguely shifting northwest, Itachi gathered all his strength and, in a burst of urgency, threw his sword like a giant shuriken.
He had predicted White Zetsu's escape route in advance.
And he was right.
The blade cut off one of White Zetsu's feet.
A shrill scream tore through the air.
Shisui blurred past Itachi in an instant and shouted, "Nice one!"
Then, seizing the opening Itachi had created, he struck at the precise instant White Zetsu faltered in pain—
Shisui of the Body Flicker had arrived.
In less than a single breath, the boy closed the gap, leaped in with his sword, and brought it down in one vicious strike.
Flame Breathing, Third Form: Blazing Universe.
Wrapped in roaring fire, the attack slammed straight into the ground from above.
Another awful scream rang out.
The earth bulged and churned crazily, and Shisui took advantage of it again, stabbing into the spot more than ten times in rapid succession until, finally...
everything went still.
When the dust settled and the earth cracked open, what emerged was a completely white humanoid creature with its head lolling sideways and its tongue hanging out.
Shisui and Itachi, who had just arrived beside it, both froze and looked at each other.
"What, surprised?"
Footsteps sounded behind them.
Roy's dark hair swayed lightly in the wind as he walked over at an unhurried pace. When he reached the two boys, he suddenly raised both hands and struck one palm into each of their backs.
Warm, spring-breeze-like aura flowed straight into their bodies.
In their stunned silence, it drove clusters of white, cottony spores out from within them.
"Nii-san, what is that?"
"Spores," Roy answered. "That's one of this thing's special techniques."
With a thought, he flicked out a blast of Fire Release and burned the drifting white fluff into ash. Then he looked down coldly at White Zetsu.
"In other words... the enemy isn't completely dead yet."
As if to prove Roy right, White Zetsu, knowing he could no longer escape, suddenly widened his eyes and glared at him.
"Uchiha Ren! How did you find me?!"
Shisui and Itachi both started forward again, blades raised, but Roy lifted one hand and stopped them halfway.
"No need to worry. He's not dead yet... but he's only got one breath left."
Roy looked at White Zetsu expressionlessly, with no intention of answering him at all. He flicked a finger, and a [Heart Worm] wriggled along the causal line he had just established with White Zetsu, instantly burrowing into his inner mind.
A life-reel flashed by like a lantern parade.
At death's edge, White Zetsu suddenly froze.
Dimly, he saw Roy standing inside his mind—hands clasped behind his back, standing calmly on the ridge of his inner field as the whole of White Zetsu's life unfolded overhead like a painted scroll.
White Zetsu shuddered violently.
His voice came out weak and horrified.
"You can read minds?!"
"You're not from the Yamanaka clan, so why can you read minds?"
"I know... it's the Sharingan. It has to be your Sharingan..."
Boom.
The life-reel shattered.
His inner world broke apart with it, quaking violently.
Roy's figure faded as he seized the last moment to glance into a corner of the scroll.
Two suns flared to life in his pupils.
And through the blur, he saw a black shadow...
It stood beneath a tree, back against the trunk.
One half of its body was pitch black. The other half was completely white.
Just like White Zetsu.
Across the causal thread, it met Roy's gaze from afar and instantly jolted in shock. It staggered back two steps and slammed into the trunk behind it.
Uchiha Ren...
The soft murmur drifted out through the rustling green leaves.
Black Zetsu covered his eyes and stared fixedly at Roy.
Roy's face remained calm. Then, as White Zetsu's clone finally lost the last of its life, Roy's image faded away with it.
A few moments later, his awareness returned, and he slowly opened his eyes.
"Nii-san, he's dead."
Shisui crouched down, checked White Zetsu's breathing, and reported it to Roy at just the right moment.
Roy merely gave a noncommittal hum and glanced toward a certain spot near the edge of Konoha.
If he had guessed right, then the tree Black Zetsu had just been standing under should be where Uchiha Madara was still hanging on to life.
After a long moment, Roy withdrew his gaze and looked at Itachi.
Head lowered, sword clenched in both hands, Itachi bowed anxiously.
"Nii-san, I was wrong... I shouldn't have thrown my sword..."
Roy said nothing.
He simply reached out and gently rubbed the boy's head.
"You weren't wrong."
"But didn't you say a sword is a swordsman's life, and that you should never abandon it?"
"Did you abandon it?" Roy smiled and tapped Itachi lightly on the forehead. Then he draped an arm over Shisui's shoulder, looking out at the sunlight pouring down through the thick forest canopy and forming patches of light on the ground.
"A desperate throw in the heat of the moment doesn't count as abandonment. Itachi... Shisui... get stronger."
"I hope that one day, even if I'm not beside you, you'll be able to handle something like today with ease."
"Nii-san, that'll never happen. I'll always stand by your side!" Shisui lifted his head sharply and declared it with complete conviction.
"Me too."
Itachi silently tightened his grip on his sword.
In his heart, the young boy swore that in the future, he would become stronger—much stronger—strong enough that he'd never have to throw his blade again to kill an enemy.
Their feelings were open and sincere.
A deep blue emotion of loyalty and affection naturally rose from above their heads.
A warm smile curved Roy's lips.
He didn't say anything more, only, "Go practice your swords."
Shisui and Itachi nodded hard.
As usual, Roy didn't even need to remind them. They went off on their own, loaded baskets with stones, hung them from the tips of their swords, and began their daily ten-thousand-swing practice.
"One hundred... two hundred... one thousand... two thousand..."
His little brothers were sweating hard, full of fighting spirit.
As their older brother, there was no way Roy could lag behind.
Not far from them, at the edge of the training ground, Roy found a large tree and sat cross-legged beneath it.
Then he sank his awareness inward, stirred his aura, and began constructing his own—
Susanoo.
Strictly speaking, this technique born from the Mangekyō Sharingan was less a ninjutsu than the outward manifestation of chakra itself—a towering divine avatar.
Much like Netero's Hundred-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva.
Or the giant Roy had once seen in Great-Grandfather Maha's unconscious domain—the one wielding a cloak-hammer, drawing down lightning, and shaking the heavens in fury.
Because everyone's Nen ability—or Mangekyō power—was different, Susanoo often manifested in different forms as well.
But based on Roy's understanding of the original story, Susanoo could generally be divided into five stages, each with obvious differences in shape and strength.
The first stage was the skeletal form, the initial state. At that point, only a ribcage or arm skeleton could form. Its defense was limited, and at most it could barely wield simple weapons.
The second stage was the muscular form. Muscles and chakra channels covered the skeleton, creating a half-body form that could already use unique techniques such as Yasaka Magatama and other powerful jutsu.
The third stage was the armored form. At this level, the Susanoo wore tengu-like armor, greatly increasing its defense—but at a massive chakra cost. In the original story, Itachi showed this form during his battle with Sasuke, and used it to kill Orochimaru after he emerged from Sasuke's body.
The fourth stage was the humanoid form. It gained legs and a lower body, and the user could enter the head to pilot it directly. Its mobility increased greatly, and it could even be used to armor a tailed beast. In the original story, Madara used this form to armor the Nine-Tails and battle Hashirama at the Valley of the End, a clash later immortalized in stone.
The fifth stage was the complete body—the ultimate form Susanoo could attain. Towering as high as mountains, with wings growing from its back, it could fly and split mountain ranges apart. In the original story, only Madara and Sasuke ever truly reached that level. Part of the reason was that, as reincarnations of Indra, the two of them could bear far more Yin Release than the rest of the Uchiha.
As thoughts raced through his mind, Roy sat beneath the tree and slowly placed both hands on his knees, opening his aura nodes and drawing out his aura...
A smear of blood-red slowly crept across the boy's eyes. Three pitch-black tomoe, linked together like blades, rotated into a nebula, circling around the two suns that flared to life in his pupils.
Then, in the next instant, a massive, pure Ren—enough to make anyone's heart seize—erupted from him in all directions.
Shisui and Itachi, who were in the middle of sword practice, both shivered violently and stopped at once.
They turned and looked—
Crack... crack... crack...
A blue giant, wrapped in searing flames, slowly emerged from Roy's body.
Its skeletal frame was clear and complete.
As it stretched itself out, it blocked out even the sun in the sky.
Then it lowered its head and looked down at Shisui and Itachi as though they were ants.
In its empty eye sockets, two suns flared to life.
They were hotter, brighter, harsher, and more blinding than the pair burning inside Roy's own eyes.
The instant Shisui and Itachi saw them—
their legs gave out beneath them.
Both boys dropped flat onto the ground, and their swords clattered from their hands.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 50 Chapters Ahead of Others!