Fugaku for the first time in his life felt a crisis that truly seemed to pull at him from all sides of his heart. All his life, people of the Uchiha had always worshipped the Sharingan. Unlocking it was a rite of pa.s.sage that would guarantee a basic level of respect towards you. Fugaku feared the potential consequences of losing it, but he feared losing his comrades even more.Despite wanting to give his eyes up, there was one big reason that he couldn"t. He couldn"t trust the ninja present. They could easily kill him if he handed his Sharingan over. Fugaku and the other ninja were in a deadlock, but the pressure began to grow.
With a solemn look, Pakura formed an orb of fire in her hand. The orb formed with scorch release slowly moved closer and closer to the old man. As it got closer, the moisture was beginning to be evaporated and the old man was also starting to look worse. The side of his face closer to the ball began to melt like candy next to a flame. His ear began to look disfigured and his face began to tilt downwards like melting wax.
His eye was starting to disappear from the lack of moisture and his limited hair was shriveling away. Despite the pain, the old man locked eyes with Fugaku and shook his head. Seeing that Fugaku had not cracked nor did his sensei, Pakura was going to move it over to him, but the Jounin holding the old man had something to say.
"Pakursama, I think i"m going to melt if I keep holding onto the old man. He lifted his hands to reveal wrinkles in them making the hands look like an old man even more frail than the sensei. In the instant he let go of the old man, the sensei went right into action. A fist surrounded by a red, b.l.o.o.d.y aura smashed into the Jounin sending him away while the old man tore through the metal wire surrounding him resulting in cuts forming in his hands.
The old man inwardly scolded Pakura and her scorch release in his mind as he noticed the red aura. The color was the color of burning blood, but he hadn"t activated the eight gate. He had only activated the sixth gate. The seventh gate burned sweat because of the heat generated from it, but the use of Pakura"s scorch release made his body extra hot and the fuel was his blood.
Death was swiftly approaching and the sensei could tell. He looked for any signs of a person hiding and Teuchi knew who his sensei was looking for so he shouted to Fugaku.
"Tell sensei where the hiding shin.o.bi is!"
Fugaku quickly looked underground where most shin.o.bi liked to hide, but he didn"t spot the ninja. The Chakra aura near a tree gave the shin.o.bi away.
"Near the tree with a scar marked on it!"
The tree was destroyed in an instant. As pieces of bark and other leaves fell, the sensei spotted a shin.o.bi trying to leave. A fist punched through the shin.o.bi and the old man quickly searched the body. He found a bottle with what was probably the poison that was able to knock him out. He looked back to find Teuchi and Fugaku facing off against the rest of the Suna ninja along with Pakura.
The Jounin all looked at Pakura who hadn"t moved since the old man went into action. She finally sighed before jumping away as the Jounin followed her. Within moments they were gone and the old man collapsed onto the ground as Teuchi and Fugaku hobbled over, both incredibly worn out.
Taking a couple breathes as he wheezed, the old man was finally able to whisper some words of advice to his young students.
"It"s only going to get worse now. Stay safe. I don"t want to see you when I"m in the pure land. Lastly, make sure to burn the books under my bed after you look at them. And make sure Duy is with you."
Fugaku and Teuchi exchanged grins as tears dripped down both their dust and grime covered faces.
"What the heck sensei. Sensei you"re such a perv."
"Hehe"
As the old man giggled tiredly, Teuchi and Fugaku kept on talking to him while sharing his weight across their backs. Several minutes pa.s.sed and the old man was still alive, but he could feel that death was truly present and waiting for him now.
"Teuchi. Fugaku. You somehow managed to keep me from death for so long, but I have to go now."
The duo could also tell that their sensei was about to leave. They had no tears to shed, but the grief in their eyes was completely visible. They placed the old man onto the ground and waited for him to pa.s.s in peace. As the wind blew around and the leaves moved about, the old man breathed out a sigh and pa.s.sed with a smile on his face.
As Fugaku closed the old man"s eyes, he felt so much older. Teuchi leaned on Fugaku"s shoulder and the duo began to walk back with their pa.s.sed away sensei stored away in a scroll for those pa.s.sed away.
Minutes after the old man"s pa.s.sing, several squads of shin.o.bi arrived including the one that had run off at first. When Fugaku spotted the particular squad of Chunin, he glared at them with grief and smoldering rage, but he controlled himself. He simply walked past them, but he stumbled and tripped onto the ground.
Several shin.o.bi went to help him get up, but he slapped their hands away before stumbling away. Teuchi got help from other shin.o.bi and stared at Fugaku as he forlornly stumbled towards the home base.
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In the base, Fugaku stared long and hard at his eye through a mirror. The death of his sensei weighed heavily on him and the greed for the Sharingan was shocking. He was filled with rage at his sensei"s death, but he wanted to fulfill his sensei"s wishes.
He got up from the chair he was sitting on and went to the room adjacent to this one in order to get to Duy who needed rest before being combat ready again. As he walked out of the room, Teuchi joined him and they went to the room Duy was recuperating.