The night air is cold against my skin, but it's nothing compared to the chill settling in my gut. My footsteps are quiet against the damp earth, the rustle of leaves above the only sound cutting through the silence. The village is close, but it feels like I'm walking toward a noose rather than home.
A deep, weary sigh escapes me as I glance down at my left hand. The blood is already drying, sticky against my palm. Nestled in my fingers like a cursed relic is Shisui's eye.
'What the hell am I supposed to do with this?'
It's not even the first question I should be asking. The bigger issue is—what the hell am I supposed to do at all? One moment, I was me. The next, I'm here, stuck in Itachi Uchiha's body, watching him—no, watching myself—murder Shisui like I was just an observer in a movie I never agreed to watch.
I didn't get a choice. My body moved, my hand gripped the tanto, and I drove it into Shisui's back like it was nothing. Just like Itachi did.
And just like that one of the most talented Uchiha's to grace the clan died like a dog under a waterfall. Why? Because his head was brainwashed by an old monkey with the concept of the will of fire. If Lord Madara could see you now he'd surely curse your mother while shaking his head and give your head a good beating. And that rat Obito is no better.
I exhale sharply, shaking my head.
The moment Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan awakened, a searing pain erupted behind his eyes, sharp and blinding, like molten iron being poured into his skull. His vision pulsed—blurring, sharpening, distorting—as if reality itself was fracturing and piecing itself back together in ways it wasn't meant to. The air around him felt heavier, denser, as though the very act of seeing had become something far more demanding than before.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears, in sync with the throbbing ache in his temples. The raw power coursing through his eyes wasn't just something he felt—it was something he knew. An instinctive understanding of the darkness they held, the destruction they were capable of.
For a brief moment, the world looked different—sharper, more defined, every detail carved into existence with eerie clarity. The colors were deeper, the movement of the wind visible in ways he had never perceived before. It was like peeling back a layer of reality itself.
And yet, beneath it all, there was an emptiness. A cost.
The Mangekyō wasn't just a gift—it was a curse, carved into his very being through the loss of someone irreplaceable. It wasn't just his vision that had changed.
It was him.
"This is such a drag…" I mutter under my breath, but the words are empty. Saying it doesn't change the fact that this is my reality now.
Itachi remembers the last moments with Shisui and how much the original Itachi teared up.
Flashback
Shisui stood at the edge of the cliff, his dark eyes heavy with a burden too great for someone so young. The wind howled around them, carrying the scent of damp earth and the distant roar of the waterfall below. The setting sun cast long shadows, painting the world in hues of orange and red—a color that felt far too fitting for the moment.
"Itachi..." Shisui's voice was calm, yet there was something final about it, something unshakable. He extended a trembling hand, his fingers slick with his own blood, and pressed something into Itachi's palm.
It was his eye.
"This is as far as I go," Shisui continued, his smile faint, tired. "The Uchiha Clan... the village... things can't continue like this. And if they do, war is inevitable."
Itachi's hands clenched around the eye, his breath unsteady. "No... there has to be another way."
"There isn't," Shisui said, shaking his head. "Danzo's already taken my other eye. If I stay, he'll come for me again, and this time, he won't stop at just my Sharingan. I won't give him that chance."
Itachi's throat tightened. "Shisui—"
"I'm entrusting my remaining eye to you, Itachi. With it, you'll awaken powers far beyond what either of us have known. Use it to protect the village, in the way I no longer can."
His smile widened, but there was sorrow in his eyes.
"Protect the village... and protect Sasuke."
And then—he let go.
Itachi lunged forward, but it was too late. Shisui's body plummeted over the cliff's edge, swallowed by the mist and the churning waters below.
The wind carried his last words, barely above a whisper.
"Live on… Itachi."
Silence followed.
Itachi stood frozen at the edge, his bloodied hand trembling as he clutched the eye Shisui had given him. The weight of it—of everything—settled onto his shoulders like an unbearable force.
And in that moment, something in him shattered.
The Uchiha Compound is ahead, the glow of lanterns warm and unbothered by the blood on my hands. My father's probably still awake, as calculating as ever. Sasuke is home too, no doubt fast asleep, dreaming about whatever a seven-year-old obsesses over.
And me? I just killed my best friend.
Correction—Itachi killed his best friend. I just had front-row seats to the show.
I flex my fingers around the eye, sighing again. I don't have time to break down over this, not if I want to live long enough to figure things out. The Uchiha Clan's fate is barreling toward a massacre, and I'm caught in the middle of it, forced to play a role I never signed up for.
I glance at the eye one more time before closing my hand around it.
'First thing's first. I need a plan.'
For starters the Konoha higher ups are going to convince me the only way to peacefully end this conflict is to kill my entire clan. The fact they rightfully believed I'd do this just shows how crazy both him and Shisui were for them to even feel comfortable enough to suggest it in front of us. No matter what other people think Itachi had other options other than kill his entire family. If anything the guy was by the end threatened to do it or they'd kill his little brother too. With Sasuke growing up to be a bargain chip to make sure Itachi stayed in line. No matter what this is something I absolutely won't do. This is nothing but a psycho assassins mindset to think everything needs to end in killing the problem. But the same to be said about my dumb ass clan. For starters my father isn't a coward but too big of a pacifist, not to mention he probably knew the clan stood no chance in winning unless they took a smaller approach. As theirs no way a small family in the Uchiha could take over the village, even if we're the strongest. Lets do some simple math for the dumb people in the back.
This is the weakest Konoha could have been, there's no Minato, Kushina, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Orochimaru, Sakumo, or any other powerful figure from the Senju or any other clan. Not to mention Danzo and Hiruzen are past their prime. And yet we'd still lose at this moment. During the fourth great shinobi war the five major villages and the samurai put together an army of 80,000 meaning that's roughly 13,333 per village. But we know that's not the case as Konoha has the biggest military as its the most populated country by a lot. Not to mention places like the sand and Mist have had major population shortages and clan exterminations. This being the reason the sand specializes in using puppets and the mist losing three clans at least in the blood mist era. Not to mention in this war they said they're weren't' any Genin allowed in the fight.
So the leaf probably filled in their numbers. So its more accurate to say that the leaf has about 150,000 people. And of those people about 10,000 - 15,000 active shinobi. This number sounds absurd but seems possible given the numbers Kishimoto gave us. The Hyūga are the biggest ninja family and even they don't 3,000 ninjas. The Uchiha when we count for all ranks and non-shinobi are about 2,000 in total. This is going off of percentages of policemen, as theirs roughly 3 police officer stationed for every 1,000 people. Using real world metrics this shortens the actual amount of fighters in the clan. Giving us a fighting force of 500- 1,000. Luckily 1 Uchiha is known for being the ultimate 1 on 1 machine, with it never being a good idea to fight us one on one. But it has been said its best to fight an Uchiha as a team. So one Uchiha Jonin is worth three Jonin.
We could beat a Yamanaka, Inuzuka, Nara, and any of those clans with low chakra. But a clan like the Hyuga, Sarutobi, Akimichi could still beat us. For example, Choji and his dad Choza beat back the ten tails in the future. A power on the level of gods. In an all out battle between the Uchiha and the village, we'd lose. Keeping in mind one of our strongest ninja of all time Shisui, died to Sugaru Aburame and Danzo, but mainly Sugaru as he has a slow acting poison that's guaranteed to kill.
We'd be outnumbered 10 to 1. And with enough time Jiraiya could be reversed summoned or show up in time. This is why my father had the plan for a quick operation in which the Uchiha would face off against the Konoha higher ups. Being the Sarutobi clan, Homura clan, Shimura clan, Utatane Clan, Anbu and Hiruzen and his lover Danzo.
In match ups it would be my father would face off against the Hokage, Shisui would take on Danzo and his root, I'd be tasked to fight Kakashi and the Anbu, with on of the other Uchiha elites taking on Asuma, Kurenai and whoever shows up. The remaining Uchiha would be tasked in getting Naruto and we'd threaten to release the nine tails.
A good plan right?
Well theirs still one problem. We don't have a person to deal with Might Guy, a man who for sure could use at least 6 to 7 gates if needed. And if anyone questions this then remember that rock lee only needed 2 years of training until his body was ready to use 5 gates in the chunin exams. So you tell me how many gates you think an adult Might Guy who's had the technique since the end of the war can use.
In this scenario I'd probably be the one tasked with fighting the man. Which is the last thing I want to do.
'So yeah I have no plans in fighting in the coup.'