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Izumi raced through the streets of the Uchiha district, her heart hammering in her chest.
The night was thick with the scent of blood.
Panic clouded her mind.
She had to reach the police headquarters, warn the others, tell someone, anyone when a shadow flickered into her path.
She skidded to a halt, instincts flaring.
Her Sharingan spun to life, three tomoe whirling into place.
Without hesitation, she reached for her shuriken and launched them in a deadly arc.
Thud.
Thud.
The weapons passed cleanly through the figure and embedded themselves harmlessly in a nearby post.
Huf! Huf! Huf!
Izumi's breath caught.
The figure didn't even flinch.
From the darkness, a man in a swirling orange mask tilted his head at her, a glint of interest in his lone visible eye.
"Oh," the masked man mused casually. "Nice eyes."
Before Izumi could react, more shuriken spun from her hand in a desperate, instinctual attack.
Again, they passed through him without resistance.
Her blood ran cold.
This isn't possible... she thought.
Is this the one who's been slaughtering everyone?
She barely had time to move before—
Clink!
Chains snapped out of the darkness, wrapping around her limbs like vipers.
In a single, effortless tug, she was yanked off her feet and thrown at the masked man's feet.
Crushed under the sheer killing intent radiating from him, Izumi couldn't even muster the strength to fight back. Tears welled in her eyes as despair clawed its way up her throat.
"Help me... Itachi..." she whispered a breathless prayer.
But Itachi elsewhere in the district was locked in deadly combat with his father, their Mangekyō Sharingan clashing in the darkness.
No one was coming.
The masked man raised his sickle high, and without pause—
Schlunk!
The blade was carved through her chest.
The light in her Sharingan flickered.
Faded.
Vanished.
With clinical indifference, the masked man plucked the precious eyes from her body and slipped them into a pouch.
Another tool for another purpose.
He let Izumi's corpse fall to the ground like discarded trash.
Then he glanced briefly in the direction she had come from, his lone eye narrowing.
"Tch. Looks like the others are moving faster than expected," he muttered.
With a grunt, he activated his space-time ninjutsu the air around him twisting into a black spiral that swallowed his form.
He vanished.
Moments later, a black-clad figure stepped out from the shadows.
Neji.
He stood over Izumi's broken body for a long moment, his face unreadable beneath his mask.
"Was it worth it?" he murmured quietly.
He turned to leave but then stopped.
A faint, almost imperceptible whisper brushed his senses.
"...Itachi..."
Neji's fists clenched.
'Damn it.'
Despite all his resolutions, despite every warning he'd given himself,, he cursed his own weakness.
The heart of a fool... still beats.
Grimacing, he knelt beside her.
A quick check confirmed what he'd suspected: the wound was severe, but not immediately fatal. Blood blocked her airway, simulating death but she was still barely alive.
Green chakra flared in his hand the glow of life, the healer's light.
He stabilized her, sealing the worst of the bleeding. Her body was horribly broken... and her eyes, her beautiful Sharingan, were gone.
Without hesitation, Neji retrieved a pair of artificial implants from his inventory.
White Eyes.
He pressed them into the empty sockets, carefully channeling chakra into the implants.
Instantly, Izumi's world returned to a 360-degree field of vision that no Uchiha could comprehend.
She was alive.
But she was no longer what she had been.
Neji glanced around. His Byakugan swept the area with no ANBU, and no Root operatives nearby.
They were waiting. Hesitating.
Cowards, all of them, were too fearful of alarming the Uchiha before the slaughter was complete.
He snorted quietly.
Konoha's politics are filth.
If they had any real strength, they wouldn't have needed this bloody charade at all.
Checking his inventory, Neji confirmed he had harvested enough Sharingan for his purposes. He didn't need to risk staying any longer.
It was time to vanish.
Before reinforcements arrived.
Before the village's noose tightened around the ruins.
Scooping Izumi's unconscious form over his shoulder, Neji ripped a strip of cloth from her uniform and gathered her ruined forehead protector.
A few burned strands of her hair, some ash from the battlefield all left behind as evidence.
A carefully staged scene.
A perfect illusion of death.
And then he melted into the night, vanishing without a trace.
---
On the way back, he spotted a familiar figure:
Sasuke Uchiha young, oblivious, walking home without a clue about the nightmare awaiting him.
Neji watched for a moment, the faintest pang of sorrow in his chest.
The curtain's about to rise, he thought grimly. The lead actor's in place. The final act begins.
---
By the next morning, the news exploded through Konoha like a bomb.
The Uchiha Clan, once one of the two great noble houses of the Leaf, had been annihilated overnight.
People whispered in the streets. Shock turned to speculation. Speculation turned to fear.
The official version came fast:
Itachi Uchiha.
Slayer of his own clan.
Criminal. Traitor. Missing-nin.
Wanted posters went up across the village, branding him a monster.
It was almost laughable.
Anyone with half a brain could see the truth.
But no one would say it aloud.
Those who understood stayed silent, while the ignorant speculated, inventing wild stories about why Itachi had "snapped" and destroyed his family.
When enough voices repeated the lie, it became the truth.
It always did.
Danzo had played his cards brilliantly but Third Hokage had played them better.
Neji observed the chaos with cool detachment, unmoved.
He went through his day at the academy as usual silent, aloof, untouchable.
After class, he said a quiet goodbye to Hinata and returned to his lab.
---
In the darkness of the underground chamber, a girl lay motionless on a cot, her torso wrapped in fresh bandages.
Neji approached casually, noting that her breathing had steadied.
"You're awake," he said, voice mild. "Don't move too much, or you'll tear your stitches."
Izumi didn't open her eyes.
Her voice was thin but steady.
"Who are you? Why did you save me? What happened to the Uchiha?"
Neji didn't bother hiding his voice.
There was no point.
He answered simply.
"The Uchiha Clan is gone. The official story is that Itachi killed them. The only survivor is his brother, Sasuke."
A tremor ran through her.
"No... Itachi... Itachi wouldn't..." she whispered, her voice breaking.
Neji laughed Coldly.
"You know why," he said.
Deep down, she already understood.
She had seen the signs.
She had simply refused to believe them.
Silence fell.
Finally, Izumi spoke again, voice hollow.
"My eyes... the masked man... he took them?"
"Yes."
A pause.
"Then why save me?" she asked.
Neji's reply was blunt.
"Because I need you."
She didn't press him for details.
She understood enough.
After a long, heavy silence, Izumi asked, "So... am I officially dead?"
"Yes."
Another pause.
This time, she didn't say anything.
And Neji didn't either.
He turned away, focusing on his work.
"Any other questions?" he asked idly, as he adjusted the calibration of a strange device humming on the table.
"I won't hold anything back. Ask whatever you want."
For someone like Izumi, sharp, capable, broken but still breathing, Neji saw no need for lies or chains.
Smart people always understand their options.
Or their lack of them.
Izumi's voice came at last, quiet but unwavering:
"Who are you?"
Neji didn't look at her as he answered.
"Neji Hyuga."
The name hit her like a blow.
"The Neji Hyuga... who tore out his own eyes...?"
Her voice, until now emotionless, finally cracked with a flicker of life.
Neji gave a faint, cold smile.
"I want everything you have," he said simply.
Everything.
Her loyalty.
Her talents.
Her future.
Her soul.
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[Support with 100 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter]