[1 Hour Until the Night of the Clan Massacre]
A full moon hung in the night sky, its pale light casting a silver glow over the buildings and streets of the Hidden Leaf Village in the Land of Fire.
Uchiha Clan Grounds.
Police Force Holding Cell.
On the rooftop, blood flowed like rivers. The bodies of Uchiha Police Force members lay scattered, their eye sockets bleeding, every last Sharingan plucked from their skulls.
At the center of the corpse pile stood a young man clad in the Uchiha Police Force's ninja uniform. His short black hair framed a handsome face, and he gripped a katana, standing tall and unyielding.
[Side Mission: Evolve the Sharingan]
[Condition: Absorb the power of 50 pairs of Sharingan]
[Mission Complete]
[Reward: Yachihoko — Mangekyō Sharingan]
Uchiha Tsukikage panted heavily. Suddenly, the three tomoe in his eyes spun, transforming into three sharp blade-like patterns—the Mangekyō Sharingan.
A surge of ocular power flooded his mind, wild and chaotic, like a waterfall crashing through every neural pathway, filling them to the brim. His eyes bled, veins bulging, but within ten seconds, he adapted to the destructive, violent spiritual energy.
His aura turned sinister.
A mental description of his new ability surfaced:
Yachihoko:
"The Mangekyō's chakra can, through eye contact or touch, regardless of distance, place a seal on others, allowing complete control over their mind and chakra through the seal!"
Tsukikage's lips curled into a smirk.
He crouched, carefully storing the pile of blood-red Sharingan eyes into a cylindrical liquid container. The scarlet pupils pressed against the glass, staring in all directions, like some unspeakable, eldritch horror.
Then, he sealed the container into a storage scroll.
In the week since transmigrating to Konoha, with the [System Mission]'s guidance, he had finally claimed the ninja world's badge of power: the Mangekyō Sharingan!
Though its abilities required further testing, he now had the qualifications to defect from Konoha.
In the corner, one person still lived.
Uchiha Inabikari leaned against the wall, drenched in blood, his remaining three-tomoe left eye glaring as he witnessed the scene. Trembling, he spat, "Uchiha Tsukikage, one of the Police Force captains, slaughtering your own clan to awaken the Mangekyō—you'll never escape justice!!"
Tsukikage tucked the scroll into his robe, calculating the time. He approached Inabikari and crouched before him. "The Uchiha patrol teams will arrive in about a minute. I can spare a moment to chat, Inabikari. You reported my contact with an S-rank rogue ninja, had me thrown in this cell, took over my Police Force duties, and then came to taunt me. That must've felt good, right?"
Inabikari lowered his head, trembling, silent.
He had come to the cell tonight intending to use the Uchiha dungeon's torture tools to teach the seemingly refined, yet secretly rogue-aligned, imprisoned Tsukikage a lesson. As long as he didn't kill him, Clan Leader Fugaku wouldn't care.
But the moment Tsukikage saw him, he went berserk, activating his three-tomoe Sharingan and breaking out, slaughtering the dungeon's guards single-handedly with his katana, like a frenzied demon.
Tsukikage's strength far exceeded Inabikari's expectations.
"You're wrong," Tsukikage said. "I didn't kill them just to awaken the Mangekyō. Normally, killing them wouldn't even unlock it." He paused, then smiled. "Oh, and the letters you intercepted between me and the rogue ninja? I let you find those on purpose."
Inabikari's eyes widened. Piecing together the details, he realized the truth, his face ashen.
"The clansmen guarding the dungeon tonight were your subordinates," Tsukikage continued, standing slowly. "And the three patrol teams arriving soon? Their captains are Izumi, Minamikaze, and Tamao—exactly the duty roster I arranged before my imprisonment. I knew your personality, Inabikari. You'd only confront me when the dungeon was staffed entirely by your people."
As they spoke on the rooftop, nine dark figures leaped across the tiled roofs under the moonlight, rapidly approaching.
"Why are you doing this?!" Inabikari roared, desperate to stall until the clansmen arrived.
Tsukikage's gaze shifted from the distant figures. He patted Inabikari's shoulder, like a final farewell to an old friend. "To survive in the ninja world. Don't worry—I don't like owing debts. From now on, I am the Uchiha. As long as I live, the Uchiha will endure with dignity in the ninja world."
With that, Tsukikage sheathed his katana, walked to the rooftop's edge, spread his arms, and fell backward, plummeting to the ground. His final words echoed: "Inabikari, keep your remaining three-tomoe eye wide open and witness what happens next to the Uchiha clan grounds!!"
Mid-fall, Tsukikage flipped in the air, landing in a crouch. He activated the Body Flicker Technique, darting through the streets toward the village's forest.
"You killed so many clansmen, yet claim it's for the Uchiha… You won't escape! Clan Leader Fugaku and Itachi won't let you go!" Inabikari muttered weakly, his heart broken.
Whoosh—
Nine ninja in Uchiha Police Force uniforms landed around Inabikari. Men and women surveyed the scene, their scalps tingling, expressions frozen in shock and confusion.
The rooftop, stairwells, and streets near the dungeon were littered with clansmen's bodies. The air reeked of blood. Most corpses bore a single, precise fatal wound—no unnecessary cuts.
For the first time, the nine saw the Uchiha clan pay such a horrific price in battle.
Inabikari's lone three-tomoe eye confirmed the patrol team captains: Uchiha Izumi, Uchiha Minamikaze, and Uchiha Tamao, just as Tsukikage predicted. His heart sank.
"What… what happened here?" Izumi's face paled, her waist-length hair swaying, her large eyes—marked by a tear-shaped mole beneath the right—filled with disbelief and fear.
"Tsukikage did this," Inabikari said weakly.
Izumi trembled, picturing the gentle, smiling captain who mentored her, always radiating warmth. "Impossible! How could Captain Tsukikage kill so many clansmen?!"
Uchiha Tamao's veins bulged, his baby face twisting with rage. He grabbed Inabikari's collar, pressing a kunai to his throat. "Even if Captain Tsukikage killed them, he must've been freeing their souls!"
"Ha… Spoken like someone Tsukikage pulled from the hospital's psych ward," Inabikari sneered, his three-tomoe eye glaring. "Would you defend him even if he killed your parents?"
"Captain Tsukikage doesn't enjoy killing!" Tamao snapped.
Inabikari blinked, confused, then remembered—Tamao's parents were already dead.
The others froze, stunned.
A shadow lunged at Tamao, shoving him away from Inabikari. It was Uchiha Minamikaze, glasses glinting. Unlike Izumi and Tamao, he hadn't been mentored by Tsukikage.
"Enough!" Minamikaze glared at Inabikari. "Which way did Uchiha Tsukikage go?"
Inabikari pointed toward the forest at the village's edge.
"Pursue!" Minamikaze's face darkened, but before he could move, Tamao, visibly anxious, led two teammates toward the forest with Body Flicker.
As tonight's patrol, they were duty-bound to hunt the killer.
Izumi and Minamikaze exchanged a glance, then led their teams in pursuit.
Inabikari couldn't fathom Tsukikage's true motives.
The others, fueled by confusion, anger, and questions, raced forward. Nine figures leaped through the moonlit forest.
Rustle—
Birds scattered from the trees. The nine leaped from branch to branch, then froze, hairs standing on end. A powerful sense of danger loomed ahead. They halted, faces grim, holding their breath, drawing katanas.
Moonlight pierced the leaves, dappling the ground.
A familiar, upright figure stepped from the mottled light. He raised his head, revealing blade-shaped Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Everyone, it's been a while," Tsukikage said, his lips curling. "We'll catch up later. For now, help me test my Mangekyō's power!"
His eyes spun.
"Yachihoko—!!"
(End of Chapter)