Next Bonus, 100PS!!
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You guys owe me a bonus chapter. I'll release it tomorrow!
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"Understood."
Uzuki's voice came out rough at the edges. "If it was Kitsune's dying wish, I'll honor it."
She turned to the five Senju fighters at her back. "Wait outside the compound. I'm going in alone."
They didn't like the order. Every instinct told them it was wrong. But no one argued with the strongest shinobi in the Senju Clan. They bowed and moved aside.
Moments later, an Uchiha attendant appeared and politely guided the five escorts to a side building for refreshments. Uzuki watched them go, then turned and walked through the gate by herself.
The corridor to the funeral hall was long and quiet. Heavy white silk draped from the ceiling. Incense filled the air, making each breath feel thick. With every step, the world seemed to grow darker.
She reached the main hall.
At its center, an open casket rested on a stone bier.
Inside, Uchiha Kitsune lay with his eyes closed, his face calm and his hands folded on his chest. He looked peaceful, as if he had just fallen asleep and not woken up.
Uzuki's chest caved in.
The grief she'd been managing, containing, holding at arm's length since the news arrived, smashed through every barrier she'd built and flooded everything at once.
He's really gone.
'The only person in the world who ever knew the real me. The boy who grabbed my hand in a forest and ran. The man who never married because he couldn't have the one person he wanted.'
Gone...
All the memories she had pushed away for twenty years came back at once. The river. The clearing. The stolen meals. The sparring match that became something more. The day on the road when she said something she could never undo.
She was so deep inside her own grief that she didn't notice anything else.
Didn't notice the shadows shifting in the corners of the hall.
Didn't notice the cold, predatory stillness of the Uchiha positioned behind screens and pillars, eyes open and waiting.
Didn't notice that the "Corpse" in the casket had a finger that twitched.
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Kitsune's eyes snapped open.
Three-tomoe Sharingan blazing crimson, cutting through the funeral hall's dim light like two red stars igniting at point-blank range.
Everything happened at once—
Steel wires shot out from the rafters, walls, and floor, coming from every hidden spot in the room. They wrapped around Uzuki's arms, legs, and torso before she could even react to the change in Kitsune's eyes.
"WHA—??"
The wires dug in, cold metal pressing into her skin and locking her joints, leaving her unable to move.
Uzuki's head snapped up.
And there he was.
Kitsune jumped out of the casket in one smooth motion, landing three meters away with the ease of someone who had never been asleep. He wore black battle gear under the funeral shroud, his Sharingan spinning. There was no sign of death or weakness.
He had never been dead or dying. He had just been lying in the box, breathing quietly, listening to her footsteps and her struggle not to cry, waiting for the right moment.
"You're still too trusting, Uzuki." His voice was quiet, almost gentle. That only made it hurt more.
"Kitsune??"
Uzuki felt her world turn upside down. All the emotions she had been feeling were suddenly replaced by something sharp and intense.
"YOU'RE ALIVE??"
She forced her chakra outward. Senju's strength surged through her limbs, the same power that could break boulders, straining against the wires until the metal vibrated.
"Genjutsu: Shackle Technique."
Kitsune's Sharingan spun. Invisible chains of psychic force added to the physical ones, making the restraint even stronger. Uzuki's muscles locked, and her chakra stopped flowing.
She couldn't move. Couldn't even twitch.
"UCHIHA KITSUNE!!!"
The scream tore out of her with enough force to rattle the funeral banners on the walls.
Everything made sense at once. The fake assassination, the mourning period, the personal invitation, and the request to come alone—every detail of his 'Dying Wish' had been a trap, and she had fallen for it.
His years of reform, the charity work, the peace treaties, and the friendly Uchiha who visited villages with rice and goodwill—none of it had been real.
And her grief—the tears she had shed in front of her elders, the pain she carried for miles just to stand over his casket, and the love she had never spoken—had all been exposed in front of enemies who watched her suffer for their leader's amusement.
Every bit of love she had ever given him had been turned into a weapon against her.
Kitsune watched the realization finish landing, then turned to his operatives.
"All of you, out. Deal with the five Senju outside."
"Sir!"
The hidden Uchiha melted from their positions and vanished. The hall emptied in seconds.
Two people. One bound. One standing.
Kitsune crouched in front of her. His hand reached out and brushed a tear from her cheek with his thumb. The touch was careful. Almost tender.
"Uzuki. Do you ever regret not running away with me that day?"
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" She wrenched her face sideways, eyes boiling with a hatred so strong it was almost beautiful. "You LIED to me! You were never dead! Is this what you brought me here for?? To KILL me??"
Kitsune laughed softly. "Kill you? No... Not yet."
He stood and paced slowly, his voice sounding like someone who had spent too long alone with his thoughts.
"I found something buried in the Uchiha archives. A secret that's been lost for generations. A power beyond the Sharingan. Something even Uchiha Senichi once possessed."
Uzuki's jaw locked. She said nothing. Crimson hatred burned behind her eyes.
"Above the three-tomoe Sharingan, there exists a higher evolution. I call it the Mangekyō Sharingan."
"Senichi awakened it during the old wars. But the method was never documented. I spent years combing through every surviving record until I found the answer."
His pacing stopped. He turned to face her.
"The Mangekyō Sharingan awakens through one act. You kill the person closest to you."
Uzuki's pupils shrank quickly, as if the shock was almost visible.
"And you... What does that have to do with ME?"
She already knew the answer. She asked out of reflex. Her body reacted before her mind, and she felt cold all over.
Kitsune's eyes changed. The calm look faded, revealing something vulnerable, desperate, and deeply broken underneath.
"Because you ARE the person closest to me."
"I'm an orphan, Uzuki. I've always been an orphan. No parents. No family. No clan that ever gave a damn whether I lived or died. In my entire life, the only person who ever mattered—the only person who was ever REAL—was you."
His hand closed around her throat.
"If I kill you, I get the Mangekyō." His grip tightened, but not completely. It was just enough to make her struggle for each breath.
As his fingers pressed into her skin, tears ran down from his spinning crimson eyes without warning.
His obsession and grief were so mixed together that nothing in the shinobi world could separate them.
Uzuki felt the pressure building against her windpipe. Felt the warmth of his tears landing on her collarbone. Felt the impossible contradiction of being murdered by someone who was crying while they did it.
Betrayal, heartbreak, and rage hit her all at once. The love she had hidden for twenty years was finally confirmed in the worst way—he had felt it too, and now he was going to kill her because of it.
Every emotion she could feel overwhelmed her at once, with nowhere for them to go.
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