In a dark, damp cave, a single oil lamp swayed, casting a dim, flickering light.
Akizawa Uchiha slowly opened his eyes. He scanned the cave, then looked down at his bound hands and feet. He fell silent.
He was alone.
His Sharingan slowly rotated as tears slid uncontrollably down his cheeks.
Why did it turn out like this?
Shinnosuke... Okawa... Ryoko...
Ah, that's right. They're already dead.
Dead. Dead. Dead.
He muttered the word over and over, his expression gradually twisting into something hideous and distorted.
The people he had spent day and night with were suddenly gone, leaving his heart feeling hollow. It was like a balloon floating into the sky—drifting gently, slowly upward.
Perhaps at a certain moment, the balloon would suddenly burst.
With a bang, it would turn into fragments and scatter over the earth.
This feeling was familiar.
Right, Akizawa remembered now. When he heard the news of his parents' death, it had felt exactly like this.
That time, the flower of the Sharingan had bloomed, bewitching and beautiful. Yet he felt no joy at all, only burying his head in his blanket and letting his tears soak the pillowcase.
What finally woke him up was his younger sister Rika's crying from hunger and dizziness.
Thinking of Rika, Akizawa's expression gradually returned to normal.
No matter what, he had to survive. Rika was still waiting for him.
With the desire to survive returning, Akizawa regained his ability to think clearly.
What do those three guys want to do by throwing me here?
He remembered Cocklebur mentioning before he passed out that they wanted to use him to draw out Konoha ninjas. A complex expression crossed Akizawa's face.
It seems I'm being used as bait...
Why do this? do they have a grudge against Konoha?
Just as Akizawa was pondering this, the sound of footsteps echoed from outside the cave. He quickly closed his eyes, feigning unconsciousness.
The footsteps got closer and closer, then suddenly stopped.
One minute passed. Five minutes. Ten minutes.
Still hearing no movement, Akizawa quietly cracked his eyes open a slit.
Yuhaku's cute little face came into view—extremely close, practically hovering over him.
Akizawa was startled and instinctively shrank back.
Yuhaku smiled faintly. "Looking up close, the Uchiha really do produce handsome guys."
Shiroso, standing behind Yuhaku, sneered. "What's the use of being good-looking? The key for a person is still the brain."
"Being able to think of pretending to be unconscious shows he still has a brain," Yuhaku countered.
"Are you praising him?"
"Can't I?"
"Whatever Big Sister says goes. Anyway, I want to chop him up right now."
Listening to the two of them banter, Akizawa's eyes darted around. He didn't see Cocklebur, the one who had knocked him out earlier.
"Who exactly are you people, and why are you doing this?"
Yuhaku wrinkled her nose and deliberately spoke in a childish, milky voice. "Onii-chan, welcome home."
As she spoke, a malicious smile bloomed on her face.
Akizawa's face changed drastically. Was this little girl imitating Rika's tone?
"How would you know..."
Yuhaku's eyes suddenly turned crimson. Three tomoe slowly rotated in her pupils.
Akizawa's face lost all color. "You are an Uchiha... Impossible. I haven't seen you in Konoha."
"The Sharingan is truly convenient. Not only can it enhance strength, but it can also peek into other people's memories. Ah, I'm really liking these eyes more and more."
Yuhaku blinked at him playfully. "These are that Jonin's eyes. The other two pairs have already been transplanted into Shiroso and Cocklebur."
Akizawa gritted his teeth. "Is this your goal?"
"That's right." Yuhaku reached her hand toward Akizawa's eyes. "Since you already know, hand yours over to us too."
Watching that small hand creep closer, Akizawa's heart beat violently, and the three tomoe in his eyes began to spin crazily.
Yuhaku's hand froze in mid-air. A second later, she started blinking. "What did you do? Genjutsu?"
Akizawa's eyelids twitched frantically. "Genjutsu is actually completely ineffective? You are definitely not normal humans."
"How boring. Even in this state, you won't give up? Even if you know what we are, what use is it? We only need to move a finger to kill you."
Footsteps sounded outside the cave again. Cocklebur walked in, dragging a corpse.
The moment Akizawa saw the body, the tears in his eyes couldn't be stopped.
Ryoko...
Yuhaku rolled her eyes and retracted her hand. "I just peeked into that girl's memories and found something very interesting."
Akizawa glared with wide eyes, staring fixedly at Yuhaku.
Yuhaku quickly patted her small chest mockingly. "Scary, truly scary. Is Onii-chan going to break? That wouldn't be very good."
She leaned into Akizawa's ear with a wicked smile and whispered softly, "Onii-chan, did you know? That girl liked you. Liked you incredibly much. Liked you the most!"
Ryoko liked me?
Hey, what is this guy saying?
Who can tell me what is going on with these guys?
Two lines of bloody tears flowed from Akizawa's eyes, and the three tomoe in his pupils began to show signs of merging.
"Only you... only you cannot be forgiven! I absolutely won't let you bastards go!"
Strangely, after he shouted this, the signs of fusion in his eyes began to dissipate.
"This is..."
Yuhaku wrinkled her small face and winked at Shiroso. Shiroso understood and vanished from his spot in the blink of an eye.
A minute later he returned, dragging another corpse.
The corpse's face was shockingly Rika Uchiha.
The moment Akizawa saw her, a beast-like wail ripped from his throat. He spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, and the tomoe in his pupils spun crazily again.
This time, no one could stop it.
The advanced form of the Sharingan—the Mangekyo—finally bloomed!
Seeing the Mangekyo in his eyes, the expressions of all three enemies became excited. Finally, it had reached this step...
In the next instant, black flames suddenly ignited on Yuhaku's body!
"This is... the flames of Amaterasu?"
Yuhaku seemed unable to feel the pain of the burning flames. She wrinkled her nose and reached out to touch the black fire.
Seeing the Amaterasu flames burning on her hand, a look of disinterest appeared in her eyes.
"The legendary flames of the sun, the strongest physical attack that will absolutely not extinguish until the target is burned to death."
"What the hell? Does every Mangekyo possess this kind of ability?"
Yuhaku sighed. "The strongest eye technique of Fire Release is just like this, huh? Boring!"
Akizawa stared blankly at the black flames on Yuhaku's body, a thoughtful look in his eyes.
Mangekyo?
Was this what these guys were after?
He roared with a hideous expression, "I will absolutely never forgive you! Taste this!"
In the next instant, the black flames on Yuhaku's body suddenly disappeared.