Chapter 70: The Will of Uchiha
No sooner had Itachi finished speaking than Shisui, summoning the last of his strength, yanked the katana from his shoulder.
Without hesitation, he drew it across his throat in one clean motion.
In the end, Uchiha Shisui—the genius of the clan—still made the same choice as he had in the original timeline.
Itachi let out a long, weary sigh as he looked upon Shisui's lifeless body.
"I still can't understand why Shisui would choose this path..."
Yusuke glanced at him impassively, but in his heart, he couldn't help thinking:
If I hadn't been here as your teacher… this path would've been yours, Itachi.
Yusuke felt a deep regret over Shisui's wasted potential. If there had been a way to save him, he would have taken it.
But as a descendant of Kagami Uchiha's line, Shisui had been indoctrinated from an early age with the ideals of the Third Hokage.
Shisui was like a blank page already stained black—there was no rewriting it now.
But Itachi was different.
He had met Yusuke while he was still a blank page.
Looking over the bodies of both Shisui and Fugaku, Yusuke asked:
"You're familiar with the Mangekyō Sharingan—but do you know its limitations?"
Itachi shook his head.
He had only just awakened the Mangekyō, and had never read the stone tablet hidden in the Naka Shrine, where many secrets of the Uchiha were recorded.
Yusuke explained:
"The Mangekyō Sharingan grants powers far beyond the regular Sharingan.
But each time you use its abilities, your ocular power is permanently drained.
As your power fades, so does your vision—until one day, your eyes go completely blind."
Itachi's brow furrowed in concern.
He had already noticed a slight blurring in his sight after using Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu.
He'd assumed it was temporary—but now he realized it was the beginning of something irreversible.
"Is there any way to stop it?" he asked.
Yusuke glanced at Fugaku's body, then said calmly:
"The only known method is to transplant another Mangekyō Sharingan—
and I want you to use your father's eyes."
Itachi instinctively began to object, but Yusuke cut him off:
"If your father were still alive, he would have made the same choice.
What father would ever want his son to go blind?"
"And more importantly—this way, your father will witness the rise of the Uchiha through your eyes."
Itachi fell silent for a long moment.
Then, with quiet resolve, he nodded.
"As expected of my student. No hesitation, no sentimentality."
Yusuke placed a hand on Itachi's shoulder with satisfaction.
But he didn't realize how deeply those words struck Itachi.
They echoed the very ones Fugaku had often said to him in life:
"As expected of my son."
After a pause, Itachi turned back toward Shisui's body.
"Sensei… I'd like to bury him here.
He was my dearest friend—I hope you'll allow it."
He looked at Yusuke with quiet sincerity.
Shisui was seen as a traitor by the clan. The Uchiha would never allow his body to be buried in the Konoha Memorial Cemetery.
Yusuke gave a small nod.
"But I must take his eyes."
Itachi didn't fully understand the abilities of Shisui's Mangekyō Sharingan. He assumed Yusuke wanted to use them as material to evolve future Mangekyō Sharingan.
Though he felt uneasy about it, Itachi understood—this was a world where power ruled above all.
A short while later, Itachi quietly finished burying Shisui's now eyeless body.
He then approached Yusuke, a worried expression clouding his face.
He relayed Fugaku's final request to Yusuke, asking for guidance on what to do next.
Itachi was well aware that Danzo and Root's actions had almost certainly been authorized by Konoha's leadership.
Even though the Uchiha had survived this ordeal, he was at a loss for what came next. With a heavy heart, he asked Yusuke:
"Should we… leave the village? Take the whole clan and start over somewhere else?"
When he finished speaking, he noticed Yusuke looking at him with an unusually deep gaze.
For the first time, Itachi felt a rare sense of hesitation—like he'd said something wrong.
Then Yusuke asked,
"Do you know the true origin of the Will of Fire?"
Itachi blinked.
"Wasn't it created by the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju?"
Yusuke shook his head.
"You're only half right."
He caught a falling leaf from a nearby tree, and with a flicker of fire chakra, ignited it in his palm.
"Where the leaves dance, so too shall the fire burn. The fire's shadow will illuminate the village… and allow new leaves to grow."
"This was a philosophy born not from one man—but from both our ancestors, Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama. A union of fire and wood."
"It was Madara who named the village 'Konohagakure,' honoring the Senju's symbol of trees… and Hashirama who coined the 'Will of Fire,' honoring the Uchiha's symbol of flame."
"It was a mutual acknowledgment—an unspoken truce. A symbol of compromise and shared vision."
"So remember: half of the Will of Fire… belongs to the Uchiha!"
Hearing this, a look of realization dawned on Itachi's face.
After a moment of silence, his brow furrowed slightly.
"Sensei… how do you know all this?"
Yusuke waved a hand dismissively.
"That's not important. What matters is what I'm about to tell you next."
Seeing that Itachi was now fully attentive, Yusuke nodded in satisfaction and continued:
"Our Uchiha clan and the Senju clan founded this village together. If we now flee like cowards, wouldn't that be the ultimate disgrace?"
"No. What we must do—what you must do—is lead the village forward with the true Will of Fire!"
Itachi's eyes lit up. For the first time in a while, there was hope in them.
Still, the rift between the Uchiha and the Konoha leadership hadn't been resolved. Worry crept back into his voice.
"But right now, the elders want to eliminate us. Even if our clan is the strongest in Konoha—perhaps even in the entire shinobi world—we still can't match the full might of the village."
Yusuke smiled, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Shisui thought the same way, which is why he went down the wrong path."
"Our enemy was never the village itself. The people Shisui served so faithfully don't represent all of Konoha."
"If we can secure enough political power within the village… then we can stand as equals to the current leadership—or even surpass them entirely."
Itachi felt a wave of clarity wash over him, as if the clouds had suddenly parted.
Yusuke's voice lowered, steady and resolute:
"Our enemies aren't as strong as you think. And soon, Itachi… it will be our time."
"The era of the Uchiha is coming."
---
Meanwhile, lights still burned brightly in the Hokage Tower.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sat quietly in his office… waiting for Danzo to return with his report.