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It took quite a while for Yuki to accept what had just happened.
Kagaya had said things like "I don't take the Mangekyo seriously." Yuki had held a half-believing, half-doubting attitude toward those words. After all, she couldn't suddenly place complete trust in someone she had only just met.
The reason Yuki had brought Kagaya back wasn't entirely because she trusted Kagaya's strength.
More than that, it was the unwillingness buried deep within her heart.
Just as she had said—there were some things she had to personally ask her father.
Even without Kagaya's appearance, as time went on, one day, Yuki would have found herself unable to resist and would have come running back on her own.
Kagaya's appearance had merely accelerated the process of Yuki's return to the Uchiha.
Before today, Yuki's assessment of Kagaya's strength had probably been something like, "He might be very strong, but probably just the relatively strong type." Before today, Yuki could never have imagined that this gentle, refined young man traveling with her could erupt with such terrifying chakra.
"Let's jump over it, Kagaya-san."
Yuki suppressed the shock in her heart and pulled her thoughts back to the matter of dealing with the Uchiha walls.
"Alright."
Kagaya had no objections. With a light leap, he went from the ground to the top of the wall. Then, with another leap, he entered the Uchiha clan grounds.
This was perfectly normal for a shinobi; there was nothing particularly strange about it. In this shinobi world, things like walls served very little purpose. Generally speaking, walls served to declare that a certain territory belonged to a certain clan or village.
Of course, the wooden walls here at the Uchiha clan grounds couldn't be considered city walls, but they served the same purpose—they were purely declarative. Their defensive function was minimal.
Yuki also easily leaped over the wall and entered the Uchiha clan grounds.
The reason Yuki had hesitated for so long earlier wasn't because she hadn't thought of this method. It was because jumping over a wall and entering a clan's territory without permission was an act of provocation. Yuki didn't really want to do such a thing. In the end, with no other choice, she had resorted to this. After all, jumping over the wall was far better than blasting open the gate.
No one noticed that, in the shadows of the wall, a pair of crimson eyes was fixed intently on Yuki's retreating figure, revealing a strange feeling of both fury and helplessness.
Kagaya glanced briefly in that direction. He was probably the only one who noticed that person's presence. But Kagaya didn't pay it much mind, assuming it was just another Mangekyo wielder who had arrived. He looked once, then looked away.
Although that person's gaze toward Yuki was somewhat strange, Kagaya didn't think in the direction of Yuki's father. Because the Mangekyo wielder standing in the shadows watching Yuki was clearly a woman.
Inside the Uchiha clan grounds, there were all sorts of wooden houses. The craftsmanship was very precise, not at all like the so-called "ancient times." In fact, it resembled the "modern" wooden houses of Kagaya's previous life more than anything. But that was getting off-topic.
Kagaya and Yuki weren't here to sightsee.
After leaping over the gate, there was a straight avenue stretching into the depths of the Uchiha clan grounds. It looked like it could lead directly to the core of the Uchiha territory.
Kagaya couldn't help but chuckle.
"Well, that's convenient."
In any matter, as long as those above yield, those below will follow relatively easily.
As long as Kagaya made the high-ranking members of the Uchiha submit, everything would become much easier.
However, although it was a straight path with no obstructions, Kagaya and Yuki couldn't possibly run all the way without any hindrance.
The first obstacle appeared just as expected.
It was a man blind in his right eye. He blocked Kagaya and Yuki's path.
Kagaya paused for a moment and thought.
"Hm, you seem to be one of those who fled just now, right? What's this? Regained your courage to face me?"
The man before them was none other than Masaru, who had just fled. At this moment, Masaru smiled helplessly.
"Ah, Nameless, your strength shakes me to my very core. To be honest, I didn't want to come back. I even thought—when I just stood before you, you might not give me any chance to speak and simply kill me. But now it seems I underestimated your magnanimity. Allow me to make one thing clear first: I have appeared here not to obstruct you two, but to inform Yuki of certain matters."
Kagaya looked at Yuki and pointed at Masaru.
"You two know each other?"
Yuki nodded with a somewhat unpleasant expression.
"Yes. He was once my father's closest friend."
Kagaya raised an eyebrow, keenly catching two words.
"Was once?"
Before Yuki could even answer, Masaru up ahead spoke.
"That is no longer the case, right? Yuki."
Yuki spoke calmly. "You no longer call me 'little Yuki.' What's the matter? Are you afraid?"
Masaru immediately replied.
"No. You've grown up."
"Nonsense. You're afraid! Afraid that I'll have Kagaya-san kill you!"
"If I were afraid, I wouldn't have shown up again."
"Hah. Fine. Then tell me—why are you here? You didn't manage to kill me when I was little. Are you here to try again?"
Yuki's tone involuntarily carried anger.
Masaru shifted his pupils slightly, glancing at Kagaya beside them, and smiled faintly.
"No. That's no longer necessary. I came here only to tell you—if you're looking for your father, then you'd better change your destination. Your father... is already dead."
As those words fell, Yuki instantly froze in place, unsure whether to feel joy or sorrow.
Masaru furrowed his brow, a flicker of pity passing through his eyes.
"Yuki... you should just go back to wherever you came from. This place isn't suited for you."
Kagaya looked at Yuki and asked.
"What do you want to do? From your conversation, this man seems to have tried to kill you? Do you need me to act?"
In an instant, Masaru's expression changed drastically. He instinctively wanted to flee. But very quickly, he found himself unable to move. An immense, suffocating killing intent enveloped him. He was like a man who couldn't swim, dropped into the middle of the ocean—even breathing became difficult.
If I move even one step... I will definitely die!
Yuki retreated two steps and shook her head. She seemed somewhat on the verge of collapse, muttering to herself.
"Dead? Dead? How is that possible! Father wasn't old! Father wasn't weak! I still need to ask him... what happened to Mother... Why did he die? I... I..."
Memories of the past surged into her mind.
It had been a night when she had seen her mother again after many years.
"Yuki, come here."
Momoko smiled and beckoned to Yuki.
Yuki eagerly ran to Momoko's side.
"Mother! You're my mother? You're back?"
"Yes."
Then, without giving Yuki any preparation, Momoko launched into a torrent of revelations about what her father had done.
Encouraging her to make friends was so he could kill her friends later and make her awaken the Sharingan.
His life-threatening injury had been a staged act, to make Yuki awaken the three-tomoe Sharingan.
Yuki hadn't seen Momoko for years because her father had been preparing to use Momoko as a sacrifice to awaken Yuki's Mangekyo.
And all of it—all of it—was so that Yuki would awaken the Mangekyo and take her father's place in the struggle for the supreme position of clan leader.
"No... this is a lie, right?"
That was Yuki's response after hearing everything.
How could she believe that the father who had always cared for her so attentively was that kind of person?
It wasn't until her father drove a katana through her mother's abdomen that Yuki finally began to believe everything her mother had said.
Run! Run!
The bloodied Momoko fled with Yuki.
Ruffling Yuki's hair, Momoko smiled.
"Thank goodness! You're not hurt! That's all that matters, that's all that matters! Yuki... in the very end, can you listen to Mother just once more?"
"I-I can! I can!"
A tearful voice answered.
Momoko smiled once more.
"Then let me give you my eyes. They're just useless ordinary eyes. But if you continue carrying the Sharingan, your father will never give up. He'll definitely come after you. So... so..."
In the end, Momoko could no longer speak. Her injuries were far too severe.
Then, in the middle of a desolate wilderness, Yuki's eyes were replaced with a pair of ordinary eyes.
"Remember—smile. Go. Don't come back. Don't look back. Use your eyes to see, on Mother's behalf, the sights she never got to see."
With those final words, Yuki left the Uchiha, left her clan. She couldn't even stay by her mother's side until the very last moment.
Deep in her heart, every second of every day, Yuki prayed silently—Mother must still be alive! She must still be alive!
It was that hope that had driven her to run back to the Uchiha, to find her father, to ask—Mother is still alive, right?
Yet, after all that persistence, everything had crumbled in the face of a single sentence. Her father was dead? Then... who was she supposed to ask?
Without another word, Yuki eventually had Kagaya accompany her to visit her father's grave. Then, they left the Uchiha once more.
She could have had Kagaya dig deeper into the matter. But she didn't. Perhaps, in her heart, she had considered such an outcome before. Perhaps, compared to directly hearing the news of her mother's death... this outcome wasn't so bad after all?
The rest of the day passed in silence. Aside from learning the Impure World Reincarnation that Kagaya taught her, Yuki seemed to have lost interest in everything else.
"Old man... aren't you afraid of death?"
Takehara looked at Masaru with a strange expression.
Masaru spoke with lingering fear.
"Afraid! How could I not be afraid! You know me—I'm the most afraid of death."
"If you're afraid of death, why did you still go and block that guy? Judging from the chakra he unleashed earlier, killing you should be easy for him."
"It is easy. But precisely because I'm afraid of death, I had to charge forward. A man as afraid of death as me finally mustered the courage to risk death once in his life, to save a little girl. I didn't want that sacrifice to be for nothing. So I had no choice but to risk my life again."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, for that little girl named Yuki, I risked everything once before. To let her live a better life, I staked my life that time. Now, seeing my efforts about to come to naught, of course I couldn't accept it. So I had to risk my life once more."
"That little girl named Yuki? Didn't you just call her useless, old man? Now you're saying you wanted her to live a better life?"
"Useless? Useless is good! Useless is great! I want that little girl to be useless! Tell me—if I were also useless, unable to awaken the Mangekyo, or even the Sharingan, wouldn't I be able to sit back and relax, munching on snacks while watching you Mangekyo dogs tear each other apart for the position of clan leader? To hell with geniuses. Look at the clan now—who are the ones dying? The more top-tier the genius, the faster they die! If I could, I would wish for all my descendants to be useless, to never get involved in this so-called battle for clan leader."
Takehara fell silent. Faced with the words of this "old man," he found himself unable to refute.
That's right... thinking back, when he had awakened the Mangekyo, had he been happy? His younger brother had died, and in exchange, he had awakened the Mangekyo. But then, he had been seen as a rival by those vying for clan leader, forcibly dragged into this endless slaughter with no victor.
Had he been happy?
No... it was absolutely miserable!
If only he had never awakened the Mangekyo...
The young man named Takehara and the middle-aged man named Masaru sat together, neither saying a word.
If they had never awakened the Mangekyo... perhaps they too could sit down together, quietly play a game of chess, and enjoy the quiet passage of time.
"What is it?"
Kagaya frowned as he looked at the woman standing before him.
After leaving the Uchiha clan grounds, Kagaya and Yuki had found a random spot to serve as today's resting place.
But not long after, Kagaya had been secretly called out by a Mangekyo wielder.
At first, Kagaya hadn't intended to pay her any attention. But after sensing a strange consumption of chakra, he had agreed to meet.
The woman standing before Kagaya had black hair, and in her eyes, the crimson light of the Mangekyo flickered.
"Who are you?"
Kagaya carefully examined the Mangekyo in the woman's eyes, then replied with exactly the same words.
"Who are you?"
"I asked you first!"
The woman seemed somewhat anxious.
Kagaya spoke with calm composure.
"And? Just because you asked, I must answer?"
"You—!"
A large amount of chakra emanated from the woman's body, carrying a threatening air.
Kagaya couldn't even be bothered to defend himself. He spoke in a mocking tone.
"You want to fight? Are you serious? Have you lost your mind? I mean..."
Kagaya paused, then shrugged.
"Right now, even maintaining that Mangekyo is a struggle for you, isn't it? If you really tried to fight... the first one to collapse would be you."
Uncontrollable shock filled the woman's eyes.
"You... you bastard!"
Kagaya spoke unhurriedly.
"You want to know how I know? I'll tell you. Back at the Uchiha gate, since I only glanced from a distance, I didn't notice. But now, at close range, I can clearly sense your abnormality. That is—your chakra consumption is far too fast! Even though you're doing nothing! Even though all you're doing is keeping the Mangekyo active! Why is your chakra being consumed so quickly?"
Kagaya posed these questions as if interrogating the woman before him.
But very quickly, without waiting for the woman to answer, he answered his own question.
"From what I know, your current condition points to only one possibility—the Mangekyo in your eyes isn't yours at all! Most importantly, your chakra consumption is excessively fast. At this rate, I can almost certainly conclude—not only is the Mangekyo not yours, but you yourself are definitely not a member of the Uchiha clan! Do you know why I came out to meet you? Because, to be honest—a person who isn't an Uchiha, yet possesses a pair of Mangekyo... that's very interesting indeed."