The assassins returned to the village and split up, each moving to carry out their bloody work.
The first house was breached without mercy.
"Woof! Woof! Woof!"
The guard dog barked frantically—only to be silenced in an instant by a hail of shuriken.
"Who… who are you people?!"
The homeowner, jolted awake, shouted in terror.
Slash! A ninja blade flashed—blood splattered across the window frame.
"Please, spare my child! He's only three months old…"
A woman, clutching her swaddled infant, curled up in a corner, begging for mercy.
Slash! Slash!
The blade showed no pity. Both mother and child were cut down.
Their bodies, along with the homeowner's and the dog's, were dragged into the courtyard—piled together in a grotesque tableau.
Just then, another of the attackers dragged out the corpse of an elderly woman from the side room, tossing it atop the others.
They set fire to the house, flames devouring the evidence as they prepared to leave.
"...Sob..." Suddenly, a muffled whimper drifted from the inner room.
"Hm?"
The killer paused, turned, and strode inside. He glanced around, then crouched by the bed, finding a little girl, hands clamped over her mouth, eyes brimming with hopeless tears.
He grinned—a butcher's smile.
He seized her by the hair and yanked her out from under the bed.
"Waaah—!"
The girl's terror burst forth in a wail.
Slash…!
The ninja blade fell. The crying stopped, abruptly and forever.
By now, flames roared through the whole house.
The murderers left, cold and unfeeling, stepping over the ruins of an entire family.
"Ahhhhhh—!"
The tiny village, barely a hundred households, had become a living hell of screams.
If you wish to know the world's calamities of blade and blood, listen to the slaughterhouse at midnight.
All of this carnage, sparked by a single Byakugan, was spiraling out of control.
Unaware of the massacre, Ari was tending to the unconscious Madara.
She carried a basin of hot water, heading outside to pour it out—only to see flames licking the sky. Alarmed, she froze. Then, a neighbor's agonized screams shattered the night, making her drop the copper basin with a clang!
"Ari? What's happening?!"
Startled, Ari's father and brother scrambled out of bed and rushed to the courtyard.
Her father grabbed his fishing spear; her brother, a sickle.
"They—they're back!" Ari stammered in terror.
"Who?"
"That group! The ones after Madara—they've come back, they're ninja!"
"What?!"
Footsteps echoed outside the door.
"Ari, quick! Wake Madara—take the back door!" her father barked.
"Madara is still unconscious!" Ari cried.
"Then go yourself, now!" her father urged.
"No—I can't leave you and Madara behind!" she protested.
Bang!
The courtyard gate rattled violently.
Her father's eyes reddened with desperation. He charged the door, fishing spear in hand—years at sea had forged him strong as an ox.
Bang!!
The spear punched through the door, impaling the intruder's chest on the other side!
A ninja is still flesh and blood—pierced by steel, they die like any other.
But the attacker's comrade, startled for only a moment, let out a cold snort and hurled a kunai laced with an explosive tag.
Boom!!
The gate exploded—Ari's father fell, blood pooling beneath him.
"Father!!!" Ari screamed in despair.
"Sis, wake Madara—maybe he can get you out!" her brother shouted, hefting his sickle and charging.
But how could a civilian match a ninja? He was cut down within moments.
Swallowing her grief, Ari turned to flee.
Whoosh!
A shuriken struck her ankle. She crashed to the ground, crawling forward despite the pain.
The ninja leered, advancing—but was suddenly seized by the ankle!
It was Ari's brother, clinging to life for one final act.
Without mercy, the ninja drove his blade down.
Slash!
Her brother's hand went limp, life fading away.
Now the ninja, blade dripping red, stalked toward Ari, a cruel glint in his eye—relishing the prey's last struggles.
"If you want someone to blame, blame yourselves for meddling—harboring a ninja. You have no idea what that man's eyes are worth. A Byakugan! Oh, commoners like you wouldn't know, but those eyes are priceless. Enough to cost every one of you your lives."
He pressed his foot hard on Ari's leg.
Ari turned, glaring with defiance. "You'll get what's coming to you!"
"Retribution?" He laughed, as if hearing the world's best joke. He raised his blade and plunged it toward her back—right where the heart should be.
Slash…! Blood spilled, staining the steps crimson.
The ninja cackled madly. "Hahahaha! Retribution? Where? Let it come—!"
Creak!
At that moment, the door swung open.
—
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, Sasuke—adrift on a small boat—suddenly clutched his empty left eye socket.
"What's happening? Why does my left eye still ache…?"
Hissss…!
A blur of images flashed through his mind.
"What… is this?"
From a first-person view, he saw a courtyard—a woman lying in a pool of blood, a man nearby, face twisted in terror.
The vision moved forward.
The man scrabbled backward, desperate. But the focus didn't shift to him—it stayed on the dying woman.
Madara reached out, brushing the woman's cheek.
Ari's gaze, unfocused, finally saw his face—familiar, yet now so strange.
Madara's earlier coma had been the prelude to his memories returning.
She knew—the man before her was no longer the gentle, simple Madara.
"Can… can you tell me your real name?" Ari asked.
Slowly, Madara replied, "Uchiha Madara. A wraith who should've died long ago, yet still clings to this world."
A wistful smile touched Ari's lips. "I see… You must have suffered a lot."
Madara asked, "Do you regret it? If you'd let me die, none of this would've happened to you."
"I regret… I regret not listening when you warned me about that quack doctor, bringing trouble to you, to my father and brother, to everyone. But saving you, loving you—I don't regret that. Not even if it means dying…"
"You're a fool…" Madara smiled faintly. "But I won't let you die. You're different—your heart's on the right side…"
"Rest. I'll take care of the rest."
Whoosh! Green chakra glowed in Madara's palm, enveloping Ari's wound.
The ninja, who'd been cowed by Madara's aura, now grew bold again at the sight. He swallowed hard, then hurled a kunai.
Madara didn't even lift his head.
Clang! The kunai stopped, three meters away—blocked by an invisible wall.
The ninja stared, dumbfounded. "Wh-what… how…?"
Whoosh! Madara looked up. Through the gap in his long bangs, the left eye he'd taken from Sasuke blazed—the Six Tomoe Rinnegan had awakened!
—
"Huff… huff…!"
Thousands of miles away, Sasuke slumped over the boat's edge, gasping for breath.
The Hashirama cells Kabuto had transplanted surged toward his ocular pathways.
His reflection wavered on the water's surface.
He parted his fingers from his right eye—just a sliver.
Sizzle!
The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan's pattern rippled outward, morphing into the Six Tomoe Rinnegan.
In that instant, a surge of power crashed through his mind.
Sasuke collapsed—unconscious.
Somewhere in the void, a voice murmured in awe: "Such a thing… is possible?"
Both reincarnations of Indra, both with all the conditions for awakening—and, by fate, each possessing one eye of the same pair. Only then could such a resonance occur—
When one awakened, so did the other.
—
Land of Water, the village courtyard.
Having healed Ari's wounds,
Uchiha Madara rose, his gaze cold and contemptuous.
The way one looks at ants.
The ninja before him, trembling, forced bravado. "Y-you'd better not do anything crazy. Our boss's backer is—"
Slash!
In the next instant, Susanoo's blade sliced him clean in two!
Slash…!
The sword wave carved a deep trench through the earth, surging forward into the night.
That thunderous display shocked every ninja mid-slaughter—they turned, faces blanching.
Advancing, Uchiha Madara spoke coldly, anger simmering beneath each word: "Tragedy isn't my style. I'm just here to wash this place clean with the blood of scum—nothing more."
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
The story isn't over...
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