Divine Artifacts?
Kisame's forehead protector lay discarded nearby. His hair stood on end like a shocked porcupine. The once-imposing Akatsuki cloak hung in tattered shreds, scorched rags clinging to his burned and bleeding frame. Jagged wounds, part blade cut, part lightning burn, marred his skin.
Across the field, Kakashi and Itachi both looked haggard. But Kakashi's exhaustion ran deeper, his visible eye dulled by the psychic trauma of Tsukuyomi.
"You alright, sensei?" Gen asked, steadying his own breathing.
"Holding together..." Kakashi rasped, leaning heavily on Gen's shoulder. His gaze lingered on the violet sparks still dancing sporadically around Gen's fists. That purple lightning... It ripped through Tsukuyomi?
He'd seen the phantom flicker in the genjutsu hellscape. He'd felt its alien resonance disrupt Itachi's control. And Kisame's ruined state screamed volumes about its raw power.
He actually did it... Kakashi felt a surge of awe mixed with dread. He knew the theoretical leap Gen aimed for, knew the sheer impossibility. Yet here was the proof, crackling and lethal.
But awe faded before cold reality. Itachi remained. And that Mangekyō...
Gen needs to run. Now. Kakashi pushed himself upright, stepping protectively in front of his student.
Before he could speak, Kisame coughed, spitting blood. "Not bad, brat." He glared, Samehada trembling in his grip. "But let's see you handle this!"
"Handle what?" Gen tilted his head, purple energy flaring brighter around his palms. "Seems you forgot the game plan, Shark-face. We just need to stall. ANBU's coming. And it's two-on-two."
"ANBU..." Kisame's confidence flickered. Fighting elite Konoha forces while injured was suicide. His eyes darted to Itachi.
"We withdraw." Itachi's voice was flat, final. His eyes were closed, but tension radiated from him.
"Itachi? He's—"
"My Mangekyō technique was disrupted by that lightning," Itachi stated coolly, opening eyes that held no trace of the Sharingan. "I cannot guarantee a swift victory against Kakashi now. Engaging risks entrapment if reinforcements arrive."
Kisame scowled, understanding the unspoken peril. He fixed Gen with a venomous stare. "Next time, brat... pray your luck holds."
With twin bursts of smoke, the Akatsuki vanished.
Gen watched them go, a silent thought echoing: Next time? Survive the Fourth Mizukage first...
---
"They're gone, sensei." Gen exhaled, the tension draining. Relief washed over him. It had been far closer than he'd liked. Without Itachi's hidden loyalties and the shocking impact of his fledgling Purple Lightning...
"Yeah..." Kakashi slumped back to the ground, the adrenaline crash hitting hard. The sheer, suffocating weight of Itachi's Mangekyō lingered like phantom chains. The gulf between a standard Sharingan and the Mangekyō was terrifying.
No wonder he slaughtered the Uchiha... Kakashi shuddered. Gen's intervention had been nothing short of miraculous.
Then he fixed Gen with a stern look. "I told you to run." His voice held a rare edge of anger beneath the exhaustion. "That technique... it's incredible. But reckless! If they hadn't bought the ANBU bluff—"
"Relax, sensei." Gen cut him off with a tired grin. "The bluff worked, didn't it?"
"And if it hadn't?" Kakashi pressed, his eye intense. "You could have died!"
Gen met his gaze, the grin softening into something earnest. "Couldn't leave you in danger, sensei."
He stood, brushing dirt off his torn clothes. "Maybe I disobeyed orders. But..." He paused, echoing words that resonated deep within Kakashi. "Those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum, right?"
He nodded towards the shattered palanquin. "Rest up. I'll check on our dearly departed employer."
As Gen walked away, Kakashi remained frozen.
Those words...
Memories flooded back—a graveyard of losses. His father's suicide. Obito crushed beneath the rocks. Rin impaled on his own Chidori. Minato and Kushina swallowed by the Kyuubi. Years of drowning in guilt and darkness within ANBU's shadows...
His first student had seemed like just another casualty of his cursed existence. Until the boy spoke those words with startling conviction. And now... now he'd lived them.
Last time someone saved me with those words... they died. Kakashi's chest tightened. This time...
He watched Gen kneel by the palanquin wreckage. The relentless, cursed trajectory of his life seemed... shifted.
Slowly, Kakashi lowered his forehead protector over the Sharingan. His visible eye crinkled into a genuine, weary crescent moon.
Maybe... a new dawn?
[Side Quest: Kakashi's New Crescent Moon – Complete!]
[Reward Acquired: Intel on Divine Artifacts]
Gen felt the system ping as he sifted through debris. The power of Obito's catchphrase... works every time.
But the reward made him pause. Divine Artifacts?
His first thought went to the eccentric Kumo brothers and their bizarre tools. But the information flooding his mind painted a different picture.
Totsuka Blade (Sword of the Ten Fists)...
Yata Mirror (Eight Span Mirror)...
Gen's brow furrowed. Wasn't that... Itachi's Susano'o gear?
He vividly recalled the legends—how Itachi had sealed the monstrous Orochimaru, wielder of the forbidden Yamata no Jutsu, with a single, decisive thrust of the ethereal Totsuka Blade.
Why is the system pointing me towards his weapons?
A chill, unrelated to the battlefield's lingering smoke, ran down Gen's spine.