Sasuke's Change, Orochimaru's Situation.

Sasuke couldn't believe it.

Right in front of him, between him and Itachi.

Was a bloody Shiki with a kunai through his heart.

The young Uchiha could feel his still warm blood across his face.

Finally coming to himself, he creamed in despair.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Itachi was feeling a bit bad for doing this as was Shiki whose real body was hiding nearby dressed as the Reaper. But it was necessary to make Sasuke reach his full potential.

With the scream as if cue, Reaper Shiki charged in, the sheer power of his aura shocking Itachi who still hadn't fully realised how strong his new leader was and even scaring Kisame who was getting up a bit.

Picking up Kisame while saying they had overstayed their welcome and should retreat, Itachi body flickered out with the Reaper following them.

As he tearfully screamed while holding Shiki's cooling "corpse" Sasuke's Mangekyo Sharingan awakened but the shock of the events, getting Tsukuyomied and witnessing Shiki's "death", was too much for his psyche, making him fall unconscious.

Having stopped hs pursuit, Shiki returned and dispersed his corpse, picking up the unconscious Sasuke as he went away before anyone came asking any questions.

'Well! That went great!" He thought as he teleported away.

Since Tsunade was already aware of what was going on, she cooperated by keeping the shinobi away for a bit and then explaining away the events, well, soul clone Tsunade did, the real deal was acting like a crazy scientist inside Shiki's facilities.

A while later, in Sasuke's house, Shiki put the boy down on his bed and started treating him. Since the damage was mostly psychological, it was nearly impossible to instantly cure but so long as he made the Uchiha wake up and show that he was actually alive, it should work to some degree.

After a couple of hours of treatment, Sasuke finally showed signs of waking up and as his eye twitched, they slowly opened.

Seeing Shiki right near him, the boy's first words after waking up were quite interesting.

"Did I die too?" He asked.

"No." Shiki answered but was promptly ignored.

"That's not possible! Aniki should have gone to hell and the exemplary me should have gone to heaven instead so I shouldn't be seeing him!" Sasuke continued.

"Oh? Is that so?" Shiki asked in a chilling tone that instantly brought the whacked out Sasuke back to reality.

"This threatening tone, the chills in my spine, the promise of a fate worse than death. It's aniki! The real one!" Sasuke exclaimed as he locked down trying to hide the tears forming in the corner of his eyes.

"Come on emo-kun! Did ya really think I'd die that easy?" Shiki teased.

"That man's genjutsu just messed me up a little that's all! Otherwise I wouldn't have bought it!" The Uchiha defended himself.

"So you were whammied by a genjutsu and that's why you were fooled, I see . . ." Shiki said.

Sasuke really didn't like the tone and was already fearing for the next words out of his aniki's mouth.

"I guess that means your training in that area was too light then! We must correct that!" Shiki said in a bright tone, confirming all of the Uchiha's fears.

"Hahahaha! You should've seen your face Sasuke!" Shiki mocked slightly pissing the emo off once he realized he was just being teased.

'But I'm glad you're still very much alive aniki! I'll never give you the satisfaction of saying it straight to your face though.' Sasuke thought.

"Oh and by the way." Shiki started, grabbing Sasuke's attention.

"Congrats on awakening your mangekyo!" He said.

". . ."

"WHAT!?" Sasuke broke again causing Shiki to shake him until he recovered.

"What do you mean by that!?" The Uchiha asked.

"What else could it mean?" Shiki said.

"You were so heartbroken over the "death" of the aniki you love and worship so much with all your heart that the pain of that perceived loss led to the awakening of your mangekyo sharingan." Shiki annoyingly explained.

'Did you have to put that way?' Sasuke thought but soon, he was overcome with a sense of achievement.

'Finally! I too, have the Mangekyo Sharingan!'

'Wait a second!?" The Uchiha realised something.

"Is that why you faked your death so realistically aniki!?" He asked.

"Uh . . ."

"That's got to be it! Thinking about it, there's no way those two could have done aniki in even if you had to cover for me!" Sasuke exclaimed while pointing to Shiki.

"Fine, fine! That's right, that's why I did it. Any problem?" Shiki conceded then threateningly asked.

"Thank you . . ." Sasuke whispered.

The Uchiha was no fool and knew that Shiki went through a whole lot of trouble (Not really that much) to help him get stronger, even if that meant making him suffer.

He was glad for that attitude, it was only because of it that he could grow to the point he had now and even more so in the future.

"You're welcome. Take a rest, I'll explain more about the Mangekyo and its characteristics later."

Obediently resting Sasuke slept dreams of his mangekyo's power swirling around in his mind. He ended up sleeping for two old days.

Naruto was constantly pestering Shiki about what happened so he just told him the following.

"Once he wakes up, Sasuke will be a couple more times stronger than you."

It worked like magic and instead of annoying Shiki, Naruto instead began to train harder. Shiki pointed him in Jiraiya's direction, saying he had a super strong technique called Sage Mode and that Naruto should pester him until he taught it, then he would be as strong as Sasuke.

Once the Uchiha woke up, Shiki gave him the speech about the Mangekyo Sharingan's powers and weaknesses worked and to not practice much or he would go blind.

He was working on a stopgap measure to halt or reverse the deterioration without going for the Eternal Mangekyo so he told Sasuke to postpone hard training until then.

For now he just told him that each mangekyo had different and unique abilities with the exception of Susanoo which was present in most relevant historical users.

With the Itachi matter taken care of though, it was time to turn attention to Orochimaru. His genius was quite invaluable and now, he ought to be desperate enough to take a veritable slave contract.

Once the Reaper approached him and cut off his remaining choices, offering only one path to salvation . . . Hehehehe~

Ever since the Konoha Crush, everything suddenly went downhill for Orochimaru. His plan was good, he obtained Danzo's cooperation, successfully manipulated Sunagakure into helping out and even found the perfect vessel for him during the implementation.

Unfortunately for him, reality was cruel when compared to his expectations. Not only had he lost his arms from his fight with his old sensei but his subordinates had also suffered massive casualties while the village suffered very little damage, his chosen new vessel getting away scott free.

The fake Danzo went back on his word and had his goons assist in the village's defence which was something he was not expecting at all. The true nightmare though, began once he returned to his secret hideout.

He found the place utterly wrecked, all the equipment gone, all the data taken and any resources lying around disappeared. This went from stored money to test subjects, just everything even the stuff that was nailed down was taken.

Seeing his hideout compromised, Orochimaru saw fit to retreat to another but much to his shock, it was found in the exact same state.

Some time later, despite his creams of rage and denial that chilled his still living subordinates, Orochimaru had to accept the fact that all of his hideouts, from the big main ones to every small facility had been raided.

Kimimaro was gone, Juggo was gone, such precious resources nowhere to be seen, the guards were gone as well, not even bodies or blood spatters at least, it was unsettling.

He was nearly in despair his subordinates became a lot less respectful and scared of him, even though all of them still obeyed after a few were killed for their disobedience.

But now he was at a loss on how to proceed. Calling in a few favors and establishing communications with some of his contacts, he set up a temporary hideout and laboratory to stabilize his injuries and buy him some time.

Now, Orochimaru's bought time was running out. He needed a new body and he needed it urgently as his current one was already showing signs of rejection. As he grew weaker, his remaining subordinates started deserting him with only Kabuto and the Sound Four remaining.

It was then that a figure appeared before him and his remaining subordinates, figure they knew all to well as the monster that had decimated the majority of their forces during the Crush . . .

Konohagakure's resident god of death. The Reaper.

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.