Land of Demons, hospital.
Opening his eyes on the bed, Obito felt an emptiness in his left eye, as if something was missing there.
Staring at the white ceiling, with the room filled with the scent of disinfectant, the place was bright and simply furnished, clearly meant for patients to rest in.
This wasn't a hospital room in Konoha Village, much less a makeshift hospital built by the Konoha Camp in the Land of Grass.
"Where is this…"
Obito had no idea where he was; the hospital layout and the scenery outside the window all proved this was his first time in such a place.
He held his left eye, that hollow emptiness, feeling nothing there but medical bandages wrapping it tightly.
"My eye…"
In an instant, Obito remembered everything.
All the events before he lost consciousness rushed back to him.
Lin is dead.
Killed by his own hands.
After that, some inexplicable guy came out of his body and removed the Sharingan from his left eye.
Then, an explosion suddenly happened in the forest. Clutching Lin's body, he was caught in the blast, and then he blacked out.
Uncontrollably, his body began to tremble violently. A crushing remorse and pain instantly flooded his mind, and an immense surge of chakra instinctively gathered in his only remaining right eye.
Something unfathomable happened in his right eye—the intricate pattern of the Mangekyo emerged in his crimson eye. He panted heavily, his right eye burning with pain.
"So that's your Mangekyo Sharingan, huh?"
A voice cut in suddenly.
This voice was both familiar and unfamiliar to Obito. He jerked his head around; there, leaning with arms folded against the left wall, stood a man with messy black hair and a white lab coat.
"Long time no see, Obito. It's been nearly two years, hasn't it? You've grown quite a bit."
Hakushi greeted him with a smile.
"Aren't you that guy who lives off others?"
Obito blurted out blankly.
"..."
Hakushi's mouth twitched.
In a way, this brat hadn't changed at all.
"Why are you here? And where is 'here', anyway?"
Obito rubbed his forehead, starting to get a headache.
When he looked up again, a flicker of wariness appeared in his gaze toward Hakushi.
This man was a renegade ninja from Konoha, the enemy of both Konoha and the Uchiha Clan, a dangerous S-Class Renegade Ninja wanted throughout the Ninja Realm.
Even though he didn't know the details, Obito knew about the incident two years ago—Hakushi's defection had left Konoha with a devastating wound.
"No need to be on alert around me. Relax, I'm not going to do anything to you. Still, you don't seem very self-aware right now."
"What?"
Obito's wariness deepened, laced with confusion. He didn't understand what Hakushi meant.
"Take a look at your right eye."
Hakushi pulled a mirror from his pocket and tossed it to Obito.
Obito caught the mirror and looked at his own reflection.
His left eye, hollow and tightly bandaged, made his whole face look a bit comical, almost ridiculous.
His right eye—when did it activate the Sharingan? Yet even among all the Sharingan he'd seen, this looked entirely different.
The pattern in his red eye wasn't the usual magatama; instead, it was an intricate, mysterious design.
"This is… the Sharingan? Why did it become like this?"
Obito's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at his right eye in the mirror.
How did his Sharingan turn into this?
What happened?
Is this really a Sharingan?
"To be precise, it's the Mangekyo Sharingan."
Hakushi corrected Obito's terminology.
"Mangekyo Sharingan!?"
Obito's face froze in shock.
As a ninja of the Uchiha Clan, even if not a high-ranking member, he'd at least heard of the legends surrounding the Mangekyo Sharingan.
It was a legend passed down in the Uchiha Clan for generations. Supposedly, only Uchiha Madara and his brothers had ever awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, according to the clan's records.
He had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan? Such an absurd notion—Obito's mind couldn't process it at all for a moment.
"Finally catching on, are you?"
"What… what's going on?"
"Normally, the secret of these eyes wouldn't be revealed to members of the Uchiha Clan. The method is too twisted and easily breeds darkness in the heart. But since you're now an awakened one, I guess you deserve to know. To awaken Mangekyo Sharingan, you must kill someone important to you, or watch someone important die right before your eyes."
Hearing this, Obito's head throbbed as if splitting. He hung his head, gasping for air.
It seemed he had connected all the dots about how he came to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Painful memories came flooding back; his hands clutching his head, trembling endlessly.
"It was… because of Lin that I awakened these eyes…?"
Obito squeezed out the words through gritted teeth. Hakushi could hear remorse and self-loathing in his tone.
"No need to blame yourself. That was Lin's own decision. If anything, it's because you had the talent for awakening that you were targeted. Still, it's true I used you all against Madara—though you're the one who got abandoned."
Hakushi scratched his head, a little embarrassed.
But if he had to do it all over again, Hakushi thought, he would still make the same choice.
"Madara? Now I remember, the guy who took my left eye… he mentioned 'Madara' too… What the hell is going on? Why did you save me? Why did Lin, back then…"