Author's Note: Hello, dear reader. This time, I has more free time, and as a result, I have more time writing more chapters for this story. So, this is the fourth chapter of the story, Curses and Bonds. And Miriel being naturally curious about many things, it is only natural for her to be curious about Itachi's Tsukuyomi. Please be noted that at the start of this story, Itachi is weakened slightly due to him being recently alive again after spending quite a while as an undead lackey of Kabuto. He needs some time to properly adjust himself as a living being because he's no longer an undead ninja with unlimited chakra supply. There has to be some limitations for him despite his status as a prodigy. He may end up growing stronger over time, but that will be something to look forward in future chapters.
Because this is a Fire Emblem fanfiction, in case Itachi ends up marrying any of the Fire Emblem female characters, his child may end up inheriting some of his skills, which includes his Uchiha blood and Sharingan. I suggest you to look forward for this in the future, because of the nature of the Sharingan itself. So, I hope you like this chapter.
Summary: Itachi Uchiha should be dead at this point, but somehow, he found himself not only alive, but also in a completely different world where shinobi never existed. After fighting a group of undead, unintentionally seducing a red-haired merchant girl, he stumbled upon Chrom and his Shepherds, where he came to know a certain enigmatic tactician.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Fire Emblem Awakening. Don't be silly.
Enjoy, and if you have time, give me your opinions. May subject to improvement soon.
A Plegian soldier screamed in pain as his body was engulfed in fire, courtesy to Miriel's Elfire. The soldier was soon taken out of his misery as Lon'qu cut him down with a slash of his Killing Edge. The Feroxi myrmidon gave the bespectacled mage a nod before he went ahead to cut down more Plegians. The burning remain of the soldier Lon'qu had slain was on the ground, the smell of burnt flesh lingered in the air.
Ever a curious person, Miriel looked at the corpse. There were no Plegian soldiers nearby, and the rest of the Shepherds were dealing with the Plegians that emerged from their hidings, so she was free to satiate her scientific curiosity on how fast a human body could burn after being hit by a fire spell. It happened that she couldn't test it on herself due to the inefficiency of using one's own body in order to collect data. This perfect opportunity could only come in the battlefields, and the mage would seize the opportunity whenever she saw it.
Miriel scrunched up her face and adjusted her glasses while she was observing the burnt corpse. The smell of burnt flesh was a tad unbearable, but for the sake of her scientific curiosity, she had to endure it for a while. But her concentration was broken by the sounds of shouting and screaming, which came from the enemies. Miriel looked at the direction of the sounds, and she was unable to hide her surprise as she saw what was happening before her eyes.
Four Plegian soldiers were on fire, black fire to be exact. The bespectacled mage's eyes widened as she saw the phenomenon occurring before her eyes. She never saw such thing before. It had to be some kind of magic. Unlike ordinary fire, the black flames consumed all, and they seemed alive. The black flames consumed their victims wholly, not even leaving any charred corpses behind. How a person could conjure such horrifying things, Miriel had no idea. Being a woman who actively pursued knowledge, the thought of having no idea slightly infuriated her.
It had to be someone who conjured the hellfire. Most probably Robin. She was quite exceptional in many things, swordsmanship and magic in particular. Having her conjuring hellfire to defeat the enemies wouldn't be off the mark, the mage thought to herself.
But then, she spotted a man clad in black cloak with red cloud patterns on it. She barely recognized the man as the new addition of the team, a person who was recently recruited by Chrom a few days earlier. She remembered seeing him in action when he rescued a group of merchants from Risens, in which he displayed exceptional yet unconventional swordsmanship, while at the same time, breathing out fireballs. She assumed that it had to be some kind of sorcery that she had yet to learn or know.
And being naturally a curious person, Miriel thought that it was a case worth studying. But perhaps it was for another time, in which she could properly study this matter leisurely. She adjusted her hat before she joined the rest of the team, hurling fireballs at the enemies.
"Hmm?" Robin noticed that Miriel was taking a more active role this time. "Is it just me or does Miriel seem more motivated?" she muttered. Most of the time, the bespectacled mage would wander around the battlefield to sate her scientific curiosity rather than engaging the enemies. At the same time, she held an Elthunder tome, electricity flickering on her fist. "Well… time to tip the scale!"
The female tactician unleashed a concentrated lightning spell onto one of the enemy soldiers, causing his body to convulse violently. Quickly taking out her sword, Robin charged towards the enemy before she sink the blade into his body. The sword pierced through the soldier's body as Robin stabbed him in the torso. Then, she pulled the sword out, and the enemy fell down, dead.
Smiling triumphantly, Robin slashed the air. "Now that's strategy." And then, she rushed forward, aiming to assist Chrom.
"Don't look down on me!" Ricken shouted, releasing a gale of wind towards the enemies, holding his Elwind tome in one hand. Maribelle stood behind her, holding a spare staff that Chrom had given to her so that she could assist the young mage in battle. A few dark mages of Plegia were blown off their feet while a wyvern rider lost control of his mount, losing balance before falling to the ground, breaking his neck. He spent the last seconds of his life in agony before expiring while his wyvern mount flew away.
Not too far from them, Chrom was busy fighting a group of myrmidons. Despite fighting multiple opponents at the same time, he seemed to be handling the situation without difficulty. Armed with Falchion, he deflected the attacks from the Plegian myrmidons with ease before he killed one of them with a slash. The slain myrmidon fell to the ground, his chest sliced open by Chrom's attack.
Seeing the prince of Ylisse in action, Ricken couldn't help but to smile. Before, he was always brushed off due to his youth, and it was a fact he couldn't exactly appreciate. But now, he was fighting side-by-side with Chrom and the rest of the Shepherds, and he had promised to himself that he wouldn't let him and the others down. After all, he was tasked to protect Maribelle from any harm by Chrom himself. There's no way he could disappoint him.
"Ricken, watch out!"
The young mage could barely react to Maribelle's warning when he felt a sharp pain on the side of his head. Before he knew it, he was on the ground, his hat was no longer on his head. He could feel his head throbbing and bleeding.
Then, he saw a wyvern rider, armed with an axe not too far from him. Apparently, he was the one who attacked him from behind. He was lucky that his attack only grazed on the side of his head instead of hitting him head on. If he took the direct blow, he might ended up having his skull split open. Even so, the attack left quite a nasty wound on the side of his head.
The wyvern rider, probably the leader of these soldiers, was looking at Ricken who was assisted by Maribelle to stand up. The wyvern rider, Orton was grinning as he licked the blood on his axe.
Despite being injured, Ricken remained standing, holding his tome open. Maribelle used her staff to heal Ricken's wound. Orton was about to deliver another attack when his wyvern mount was shot in the head with a fireball. Orton almost lost his balance, but as an experienced soldier and wyvern rider, he regained control. He was about to turn around to look at the person who attacked him and his wyvern mount, only to have someone jumping onto his mount.
He looked in front of him, and his eyes met a pair of crimson pupils, three black pinwheels spinning in each of them.
"Tsukuyomi…"
Orton felt strange.
One second ago, his soldiers were fighting against the Shepherds. And then, everything went black. When he came back to his senses, he, along with his wyvern mount, were the only ones here. There was no sign of his fellow Plegians or the Shepherd. The landscape was empty, and there was no single living thing could be found except him and his mount.
Orton looked up. Somehow, the sky seemed red. Blood red.
Feeling discomfort from his surroundings the wyvern rider got down from his mount, watching his surroundings warily. He held his axe in one hand, preparing himself for anything that might show up to attack him.
Then, he saw a man, standing before him. The man's features were silhouetted in shadow, but he could perfectly see a pair of glowing crimson eyes. Unnerved, the Plegian wyvern rider stepped back before he brandished his axe.
"Who the hell are you?!" Orton shouted. He could feel those crimson eyes boring deep into him, as if staring into his very soul. Orton was a proud soldier and he would proudly admit that he was afraid to only a few things.
But those crimson eyes frightened him.
"Answer me, damn you!" Orton said, trying to not be intimidated by the crimson-eyed man.
"…" the man did not say anything as he held his Killing Edge in one hand. His crimson eyes stared unblinkingly at Orton.
"S-say something, will you?!" Orton started to sound desperate. "O-or… I'm going to kill you!"
The crimson-eyed man took a step forward.
"Kill me? I wish to see you try."
Orton sensed that someone was standing behind him. The wyvern rider immediately looked back, and saw he crimson-eyed man standing right behind him. The one who was in front of him turned into a murder of ravens.
"H-how…?"
"The moment you looked into my eyes, I trapped you into an illusion. The only ways for you to break yourself free from this illusion is by disrupting the flow of my chakra or having someone else applying a sudden surge of chakra into you. Since you are capable in doing neither, you are completely under my mercy."
Orton was surrounded by a dozen of similar-looking men with crimson eyes, each of them holding a Killing Edge. Orton was trying to do something, to say something, but he was unable to do either. He felt like his whole body was turned into a giant slab of ice, and his mouth felt like it was sewn shut. The red sky was filled with crows and ravens, their obsidian feathers scattered everywhere.
"In this illusion, your perception of time is altered. A few seconds seem like many days. And considering that we have more time to spare, why don't we test something? Let us see how long your mind can withstand before it breaks beyond repair."
"What did you do to him?" Chrom asked as Itachi jumped down from the wyvern, still holding the prone Orton, his eyes rolled back, his mouth foaming. The prince saw the Shinobi looking into Orton's eyes before the wyvern rider started screaming.
"I cast an illusion on him," Itachi answered, dropping the now despondent Orton to the ground. "His mind is completely broken. It's unlikely he will recover from this…" the Uchiha let out a soft sigh. "I suppose a Tsukuyomi is too much for someone like him…" a normal Genjutsu would suffice in order to incapacitate the wyvern rider. And because of the usage of both Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu required a great amount of chakra, he almost completely drained his whole chakra reservoir, making him feel tired.
Apparently, being alive again after spending quite some time as an undead that could use unlimited chakra reserve, he couldn't exactly predict the exact amount of chakra he needed to use in battle. He probably needed to get used to being alive again.
"An illusion…" Chrom muttered, sheathing back his sword. "It is my first time seeing someone applying illusions in the midst of battle," he looked at Orton, still despondent. "Someone like you makes a terrifying enemy, and a valuable ally." He also saw Itachi conjuring the black flames earlier that burned those Plegian soldiers to ashes, without even leaving burnt corpses behind. A terrifying enemy, indeed.
"I am glad that you think highly of me, Prince Chrom," Itachi responded to the prince of Ylisse. The battle was already over, and both King Gangrel and Aversa were nowhere to be found. They might have already escaped the battlefield, thinking that Orton and the rest of the Plegian soldiers would eliminate the Exalt and the Shepherds due to their great number. Thanks to Robin's planning and strategies, however, they were able to fight back the Plegians without much effort. Emmeryn was safe and unharmed, thanks to the protection from both Stahl and Vaike, and the only one who was terribly injured was Ricken, who was caught off-guard by Orton's surprise attack earlier while the young mage was protecting Maribelle. Even so, Ricken fought valiantly against the Plegian soldiers, displaying his prowess in battle. Despite his young age, the mage fought admirably well.
Itachi looked at the corpses of the Plegian soldiers that they killed in the battle earlier. Being exposed to death since young age, he already got used to seeing dead bodies right in front of his eyes. That was how he got his eyes, the Sharingan. Unlike the rest of his clansmen, however, he did no succumb to the inherent curse of his bloodline, the Curse of Hatred.
The Curse of Hatred made an Uchiha more violent, more dangerous. The Uchihas were a group of people who were greatly devoted to love and friendship. It could be said that these Uchihas were obsessive, because the moment they lost their loved ones, their love would transform into hatred. As a result of the change, they got their eyes, the Sharingan as the byproduct of the curse.
In a way, it could be said that Itachi himself did succumb to his own brand of Curse of Hatred, due to all the deaths he saw before his own eyes. Instead of being selfish due to the effect of the curse, however, the curse caused him to devote himself fully to the Hidden Village of Konoha to the point of ridiculousness. Due to his love to his village, he was willing to commit atrocities like massacring his own clansmen in order to protect his village from an imminent civil war.
"Itachi, are you alright?" the Shinobi felt someone tapping on his shoulder. He looked behind and saw the concerned face of Robin, who gasped when she saw his face. "Y-your eyes!"
"Hmm?" Itachi looked at the tactician bemusedly before he realized what she meant. He felt stinging pain in both of his eyes, particularly in his left. After conjuring the black flames of Amaterasu earlier, tears of blood poured out endlessly from his left eye, which was caused by the strain from using the Ninjutsu. If used excessively, his eyes might waste away, causing his sight to deteriorate to the point of blindness. "Oh, this?" he pointed at the trail of blood on his cheek. "There is no need to worry. Just a side effect of using Amaterasu, I assure you."
"Amaterasu?" Robin gave Itachi a curious look, her brows furrowing. "Do you mean the black flames you conjured?" she was curious about the black flames as well. It was her first time seeing such thing, and despite her excessive reading and studying, she had never seen such thing before.
"Yes," Itachi nodded before he fell on his knees. "Urgh…" he grunted. "I was careless. I used too much of my chakra." His skin was pale and he had difficultly standing up due to his chakra deprivation. Despite being a Shinobi prodigy, he was not an Uzumaki, the people who were naturally gifted with ridiculously enormous chakra reserve. At best, he was just above average in term of chakra reserve.
With Itachi being exhausted (and left eye continuously bleeding), both Lissa and Maribelle offered to heal him. In the meantime, Chrom went to speak with his sister, Emmeryn. Both Frederick and Robin walked alongside him.
Chrom lowered his head as he stood before the Exalt. "Forgive me, Emm," he said. "I acted rashly." Due to the provocations from the Mad King himself, he was the one who dealt the first blow.
"It's alright, Chrom," Emmeryn shook her head. She was fully aware of the reason behind her brother dealing the first blow earlier. "King Gangrel is the one at fault here. You were only protecting me." The Exalt also believed that she was at fault as well for the failed negotiation attempt with the Mad King of Plegia. If only she could have done better, the outcome wouldn't turn out like this.
Folding his arms on his back, Frederick interjected, "The Mad King will be rallying his forces, if they have not mobilized already." Frederick the Wary then advised, "I suggest we make haste back to Ylisstol and discuss our strategy."
Nodding grimly, Emmeryn looked at the most experienced member of the Shepherd and war veteran. "Of course, Frederick."
The Exalt closed her eyes. Then she turned around and opened her eyes before she looked up to the sky.
"It seems war is upon us."
Then she glanced over her shoulder, looking at the three people behind her, a determined expression seen on the Exalt's beautiful visage.
"We must protect the Ylissean people at all costs."
TO BE CONTINUED