Naruto: The Uchiha They Should Have Killed

Clang!

The Zanka no Tachi in Uchiha Ren's hand collided with the Wind Release chakra blade in Shimura Danzō's hand, producing a sharp metallic sound.

The crow on Ren's shoulder flapped its wings and took flight, several black feathers shimmering with rainbow-like hues drifting down with the wind.

"That was… a Sharingan?"

"…Wait. Why am I surprised?"

Danzō suddenly froze.

He had clearly known that the crow possessed a Sharingan, yet when he saw it just now, he had still felt a moment of shock.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

In that brief lapse of attention, a powerful force suddenly surged through his wrist. Danzō staggered backward, stepping on one of the crow feathers that had fallen from the sky.

The strange feeling in his heart intensified.

Because this scene…

felt strangely familiar.

But Danzō had no time to dwell on it.

Ren's next attack had already arrived.

Almost instinctively, Danzō's eyes hardened. He abandoned defense entirely and swung his wind blade in retaliation, intending to exchange lives under the protection of Izanagi.

"Caw—! Caw—! Caw—!"

Ren's body scattered into a flock of crows, while Danzō's figure dissolved into a phantom.

The next moment, both of them reformed once more.

Danzō appeared behind Ren again and seized Ren's wrist.

"Release!"

But this time Danzō did not immediately activate the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing.

Instead, he formed a hand sign and disrupted the flow of chakra within his body—attempting to determine whether he had fallen under a genjutsu.

Yet after the attempt, the scenery before his eyes remained completely unchanged.

He hadn't broken any illusion.

"How strange. Elder Danzō… do you think you're trapped in a genjutsu?"

Taking advantage of the moment, Ren slipped free from Danzō's grip and used the Body Flicker Technique to retreat several meters away, confronting him from a distance.

"Caw—! Caw—! Caw—!"

As Ren steadied himself, a crow descended from the sky and landed calmly on his shoulder.

Danzō's face darkened instantly, his expression turning extremely grim.

Once might be coincidence.

Twice might be chance.

But what about three times?

Events that had already occurred were repeating themselves again and again.

Danzō refused to believe it was merely coincidence.

"Release!"

He attempted once more to dispel the illusion.

By now he was almost certain that he had fallen into some kind of genjutsu cast by Uchiha Ren.

But no matter how many times he tried—

the surrounding environment remained unchanged.

"This… how is this possible…"

Danzō muttered through clenched teeth, disbelief filling his voice.

He was a Kage-level shinobi.

Yet there existed a genjutsu in this world he couldn't break?

Not only that—

he couldn't even identify the problem.

"So, Elder Danzō… can you no longer judge your own condition?"

Ren held his sword and looked at the troubled Danzō with a faint smile.

Danzō's eyes flickered.

"…Is this the Izanami you mentioned?"

"Perhaps."

Ren shrugged lightly.

"Don't rush. We have plenty of time."

"You can test your theory as much as you like."

With that, Ren once again rushed forward with the Zanka no Tachi.

Danzō's eyes sharpened.

Instinctively, he activated Izanagi again and engaged Ren in battle.

And then—

the same sequence began repeating.

Danzō tried different strategies, attempting to break the cycle.

But no matter what he did, events always returned to several familiar points:

Ren slashing with his blade.

The crow's Sharingan staring at him.

The two exchanging fatal blows.

Danzō resurrecting.

Grabbing Ren's wrist.

Then the two separating and facing each other again.

It was as if everything had fallen into a deadly loop.

After dozens of attempts, Danzō finally became completely certain.

He was trapped inside a special genjutsu.

He looked down at his right arm.

Two Sharingan were open.

One was half-closed.

If everything that had happened were real, his uses of Izanagi would have long since been exhausted.

Yet the Sharingan on his arm remained exactly as they had been at the beginning.

He could still use Izanagi.

That alone was proof that he was inside an illusion.

But what did that change?

Danzō looked up at Ren standing several meters away.

Even though he had realized something was wrong—

he still couldn't understand the essence of the problem.

Let alone solve it.

"So this… is Izanami…"

Reality

"So this is Izanami?"

In the real world, Shikaku Nara  looked at the motionless Shimura Danzō and asked the question while standing beside Uchiha Ren.

Ren nodded.

"Izanagi is a technique that can rewrite reality and alter fate. When it first appeared, many within the Uchiha clan became arrogant because of it—some even went mad with confidence."

"They stopped being cautious. Whenever they encountered a problem, they would simply charge forward recklessly."

Shikaku nodded thoughtfully.

"That's understandable. After all, Izanagi is essentially multiple extra lives. When you have the ability to correct your mistakes, arrogance becomes easy."

"Understandable, yes," Ren replied calmly.

"But absolutely unacceptable."

"My clan was already proud by nature. When that pride turned into arrogance… they became lawless."

"And because of that lawlessness, no one respected anyone else. The Uchiha clan nearly collapsed from internal conflict, suffering heavy losses."

"That's why Izanagi eventually became a forbidden technique—even within the Uchiha clan. Very few people know about it."

Shikaku nodded again before asking another question.

"Then what about Izanami? How did that technique come to be?"

Ren smiled faintly.

"Izanami was created by one of our ancestors specifically to counter Izanagi."

"It was the appearance of Izanami that finally ended that internal conflict within the Uchiha clan."

"Izanami is the technique that decides reality… and determines fate."

"To put it simply, Izanami creates a looping illusion."

"If you cannot recognize yourself and change your mindset, you will never escape that cycle."

"In other words…"

"Those who became arrogant because of Izanagi would remain trapped forever inside Izanami's illusion—unless they learned humility."

Ren then glanced at the unconscious Danzō.

"As for Shimura Danzō…"

"If he cannot acknowledge his mistakes, abandon his pursuit of the Hokage position, and become…"

"…merciful."

"Then he will never wake up."

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