Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: [Undisclosed]
Chapter Title: Illusion's Intruder
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"Stop!!!" Izumi's sharp cry sliced through the night, the kunai flying from her hand.
But it was ultimately one step too late. The young Itachi's short sword slashed across the child's throat, the bloodied blade flicking upward to precisely block the incoming kunai.
Clang—
In the sharp ring of clashing metal, the blade obscured half of young Itachi's face. Only the scarlet glow of his Mangekyo Sharingan in his left eye spun within the shadows.
"It's Izumi..." Young Itachi's voice was low and沉重, his gaze fixed on her utterly devoid of warmth.
"Itachi! What are you doing?!" Izumi rushed into the house. Staring at the family lying in a pool of blood—and at the young child dead beneath Itachi's blade—her voice trembled as she demanded answers from him.
Itachi slowly emerged from the shadows. Under the moonlight, clad in his combat garb, his frame was noticeably taller than Izumi's.
"I just wanted to test my own mettle." Uchiha Itachi gripped his short sword, its cold gleam reflecting his impassive expression.
In that moment, Izumi felt the Uchiha Itachi before her was a total stranger.
She couldn't believe it. The once-so-gentle Itachi... committing such cruelty against one of his own clansmen!
Faced with Itachi's crushing pressure and the thick killing intent radiating from him, Izumi trembled uncontrollably, too scared to move a muscle.
Though she had awakened her Sharingan at age five, she'd remained a genin since graduation—with hardly any real combat experience.
"Tsukuyomi!" Uchiha Itachi's Mangekyo abruptly spun. Izumi's consciousness plunged straight into the genjutsu.
Within the illusory world, Izumi and Itachi fell in love beneath blooming cherry trees. In adulthood, they clasped hands tightly at their wedding... Itachi fumbled helplessly as their baby wailed... He grew stern when their child turned rebellious...
Until their twilight years, when white-haired and frail, they leaned together on the veranda, admiring the full moon.
And so, Izumi lived out an entire false lifetime in the genjutsu.
"How pathetic." As Izumi lost herself utterly in the illusion, a cool voice laced with mockery suddenly echoed.
Izumi in the illusory world snapped awake.
A black-robed figure in a fox mask sat quietly beside her, gazing up at the moon.
"Who?!" Izumi leaped to her feet on reflex—like a startled wild kitten.
The mysterious man turned his head slightly. From the mask's slits gleamed a playful gaze fixed on Izumi.
"Are you going to stay trapped in that Mangekyo's genjutsu? Your eyes might actually be able to stop all this, you know."
"No! This is genjutsu!" Izumi finally realized. This wasn't the real world at all.
"Your reaction's too slow." Uzumaki Menma felt a twinge of puzzlement, too.
When it came to Sharingan awakenings among the Uchiha, Izumi held the record for youngest known—without question.
At just five years old, during the Nine-Tails Night, she had witnessed her father's death. Grief had forced open her Sharingan—even Itachi had envied her for it.
Itachi himself had awakened at eight, Sasuke at seven, Shisui at seven. Obito and Madara had been around twelve.
By the night of the Uchiha Massacre, the twelve-year-old Izumi already wielded a Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
Talent-wise, she shouldn't lag far behind Shisui or Itachi.
Yet after awakening early and moving back to the Uchiha compound with her mother, Izumi received no real attention. Even with Three-Tomoe, she remained an ordinary genin.
As Uzumaki Menma planned his layout for the Uchiha extermination night, he had recalled Uchiha Izumi—this peculiar clan member with her Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
She had awakened Three-Tomoe... yet still languished as a genin. Her daily missions? Pet-sitting for the daimyo's wife, hauling luggage for Fire Country nobles and officials.
Menma had no idea what trauma had triggered her Three-Tomoe—or when exactly.
He was simply curious. A gentle Uchiha woman who prized her emotions so highly... What would her reaction be upon witnessing her clan's slaughter?
"In that case... carry on." Menma rose slowly, leaving those words behind. His figure faded—vanishing entirely from the illusory world.
Uchiha Izumi suddenly felt the heavens and earth spin. The courtyard and its stench of blood warped and shifted once more before her eyes.
She was still seated by the Naka River's edge. The waters murmured gently. Overhead, a flock of wild geese soared across the sky.