~Soutarou POV~
The group seemed to want to say something to Soutarou, before Soutarou's eyes locked onto Naori with his sharingan glowing deeply and omitting a heavy pressure. Soutarou's voice rasped, "Why…? Why did you do that…? Please give me an… explanation…"
The room stilled into an eerie and awkward silence….
Mito's expression tightened, Naori's head drooped lower, Kushina tried to explain it, and Tsunade just made that soft face that said, "It was a mistake."
Soutarou watched calmly and blankly while the group tried to explain, before Mito just said, "Naori was trying to help you… We didn't expect that it would be hijacked by something else or someone else."
Soutarou chuckled angrily, before his gaze hardened and his emotions solidified he stared at Naori before shaking his head, "I see then it's not your fault. But Naori…"
Soutarou's sharingan swirled and his straight tomoe glowed in an oppressive red light before he said, "Remember something very clearly… It's not a person's intentions that defines them. It's their actions. If you try to help someone and they die as a result. The reality is you killed them, not that you were trying to help them…"
"Your intentions may have been good. But I'm sorry to say… Your actions were undeniably wrong."
Naori stuttered and said, "S-soutarou… I-I…"
Soutarou's gaze on her was intense for sure, but what made her hold back and falter was that calmness. That seemed like the calm before the storm. Soutarou's blank gaze and calmness.
Soutarou said nothing else before finally saying, "Where do you need me to go… Mito-onee-chan?"
Mito shook her head and said, "No need-"
Soutarou chuckled and said, "If after all the manipulation and literally trapping me within a genjutsu where I saw all you dead… Over and over again… Where I saw things and I had things done to me that I forget…. If that wasn't enough and now you want to play the soft card. Then I have no words left for any of you. So I'll ask you again. Who do you need me to kill? Which country, which world, which population must I wipe out to keep you all safe?"
Soutarou didn't notice, but his eyes swirled even more and his eyes turned possessive bearing down on the group with a feeling of discomfort. Mito felt the extreme obsession behind Soutarou's eyes more clearly than the others and she gulped visibly. Worse, she felt how strong Soutarou's sharingan was becoming, and how thick his yin energy had become in contrast to his once overly abundant yang.
Mito rushed to Soutarou's side and held him in her bosom and said, "Please don't."
What she failed to notice was Soutarou's lack of reaction to her rejection.
'I know what I must do. Each life I failed to have happiness because I wasn't decisive. Because I failed to root out the enemy and each time it bit me in the ass, by spiraling elsewhere. So I must pull the entire root system out and destroy the nutrients in the ground to ensure not even a possibility of failure remains.'
'I'll start with uprooting all of Iwakagure.'
'Then Sungakure. Then Kirigakure. Then Kumogakure. Then the tailed beast must be… taken. Then I kill Madara and either permanently seal or kill black jetsu with Yin-Yang techniques.'
Mito's shadow clone felt the sheer murderous intent from Soutarou and said, "Soutarou. Enough. While yes I need your help to destroy Sungakure… If the cost is your mental stability… Then we don't need it. I can do it alone."
Soutarou's eyes narrowed, but he finally relaxed and pressed his head into the softness and thought, 'It's bigger than the Genjutsu… So this is reality…'
As he immersed himself in the feeling, even slowly nuzzling his head, Mito's brows twitched hard as she thought,
Mito pulled his cheek and thwacked his head lightly telling him to keep it checked. Only for Soutarou to nuzzle himself close with Mito pulling or at least trying to pull away before Naori jumped in and threw her at Soutarou's waistline causing Soutarou to fall flat back onto the bed while Mito's shadow clone who was nuzzling also fell forwards in surprise.
The result was Mito's loose Kimono strap loosening just enough to forcefully bury Soutarou in whiteness. All while Naori's chest was pressed against his pelvic region and her buried into his v-line.
Soutarou's face which normally would've turned red instead looked normal, if anything there was a bit of fear on it. And as a result he didn't make any moves or take advantage of the situation. Before he buried the memories trying to focus on what was real and what was fake.
Soutarou's sharingan flickered in confusion as flashes and moments of intensity seemed to flood his mind, all while fear seemed to pulse through his vessels off and on.
Still clarity was returning and Mito finally asked, "What did you see in the genjutsu…?"
All while fixing her kimono before glaring at Naori. Tsunade and Kushina just stared awkwardly, afterall that was their grandma….
Soutarou on the hand pursed his lips and let him fall back onto the infirmary bed with a thump, his eyes becoming a bit dazed before he said, "I met. No, I saw the one of the beings… Beings behind the thing we all have… Rather it's better to say I met two of them…"
Mito's gaze sharpened and she realized what Soutarou was implying as did Naori and Tsunade, Kushina on the other hand had no clue what was going on, but confidently nodded her head in feigned understanding.
Soutarou's eyes glazed over… and he said softly, "And I saw all of you die… in front of my eyes… All because I was too weak to make the hard choices…"
"At least that's what I saw at first… then the nightmare became worse… I was… I was…"
Soutarou couldn't finish the sentence, but that hollow look in his eyes said it all, making Mito's eyes literally bore holes into Naori. Before Soutarou's slightly hoarse voice continued, "Then it spiralled… More worlds… More people… More failures… and how weak I was… How indecisive I was… How naive I was. For my goals… I must be ruthless. For my ideals I must be ruthless. That genjutsu was a nightmare… But the truth was painted in front of me… That I cannot continue forwards like this… So I must become… Become the devil who kills for his own interests, or there won't be a world for me to look forward to and I'll fail once again."
Mito's gaze looked at the heavy gaze that Soutarou had and the sort of heavy burden he seemed to have and made a slight realization…
'Even if I try to stop him… He's going to do it… isn't he? Destroy Sunagakure. Iwagakure.'
Mito said firmly, "Safety is one thing, Soutarou… But complete genocidal madness is another. If you lose your soul in the process of protecting us, then what exactly are you protecting? So I refuse you'll go to my main body, yes. But you'll only assist via long range jutsu. I won't allow you to physically step onto the battlefield… Or do you disagree?"
Soutarou's gaze turned blank before he said, "Fine. But kill Onoki first. Iwagakure must fall into disarray and then we must feed the bones to Kiri and Kumo and watch them fight over it."
Mito's gaze tightened and she said, "Soutarou…. That's…"
Soutarou locked eyes with her and said, "Heh. Our so called plan to defend Konoha eternally cannot be made without sacrifices so why are you hesitating. You're from the Sengoku Era aren't you? So make the hard choices. Don't say I'm too extreme, I'm exactly the way you all wanted me. I'll listen to your demand about not wiping out Sungakure by hand, but I'll remind you… What I can do alone will cost the lives of hundreds of Konoha shinobi. Yes I cared about lives, I hated killing… But now that I've thought about it… Past a certain point is just a number. A killer is a killer."
Mito warily said, "Soutarou you're becoming too extreme. I think the genjutsu affected you more than you want to admit. Actually… Please just stay here. I won't take no for an answer. As you said Soutarou… It's not a person's intentions, it's their actions that define them… So don't let your defining actions be ones that make you something we don't recognize anymore… Be willing to protect and kill… But don't lose yourself… "
Soutarou gazed at her and he sighed and said, "Ok I'll stay here then…"
Mito nodded happily and ruffled his hair and said, "I'm sorry Soutarou… If I hadn't pressured you and subsequently Naori none of this would have happened…. Forgive me. Forgive Naori. As for everything else… Just leave it to me."
Mito struck a funny pose and flexed her arm and puffed her chest out and said playfully, "I'm strong dattebasa~! (You know)"
And with that Mito's shadow clone disappeared into a puff of smoke. Sending memories into Mito's main body who immediately clutched her forehead in exasperation and worry. While Tsunade and Naori remained by Soutarou's sides. Even after a few hours of Soutarou staring off into space both remained while Kushina came, in and out bringing food and joking trying to lessen Soutarou's tension.
But it became clear to the group that the genjutsu had left an irreversible scar on Soutarou, as he visibly flickered between a state of fear, normalcy, and madness. Soutarou on the other hand had felt his heart ease a bit after being with the girls, but his worry and fear of losing them kept creeping in slowly eroding his mind.
And in the end he finally lost it like a voice pestering him in the back of his mind, whispering a devil's cry. Bothering him too much. Yet the voice cooed to him over and over again. Even the purest of hearts cannot turn away from the devil's voice and when Soutarou's own restraint could no longer bare it. He folded.
And so while Tsunade and Naori stayed by his side and even tried to coo him into falling asleep he feigned it. All while a small branch broke through the ground forming a Wood Clone that broke into Onoki's holding cell and silently stalked before a small branch jut out of the ground behind the sealed Onoki who was resting and pierced straight through his heart all while another branch had wrapped around Onoki's mouth preventing him from saying anything before Soutarou's wood clone took out a kunai and jammed it into his brain frying all the memories.
All before he removed the branches and vines and set up the crime scene, making it seem as though it were an instantaneous kill. Before going on to kill as many Iwa prisoners as he could before he finally poisoned the prisoner's water.
Soutarou's sharingan glowed deeply, what he didn't notice was another pattern overlapping with his momentarily, before he thought to himself, 'While I regret this… It had to happen. For Kushina. For Mikoto. For Naori. For Mito. For Tsunade. I won't let anyone harm them… Everyone can die… But not them… They're… Mine…?'
Soutarou began shaking his head as if intrusive thoughts had begun to slip into his mind and he was acting on them too much, he suppressed the feeling and dispelled himself quickly after breaking through the tree line outside the camp.
Soutarou's main body's brows furrowed for a moment, before his eyes turned determined…
'They're more important to me than my morals… I won't lose them. I won't. I won't let them fall into depravity. I won't let them become the evil. No… I'll bear it all by myself.'
And so Soutarou's already increasing yin chakra flowed and his straight tomoe began to stabilize and an unmistakable ring rang out in Soutarou's mind.
[Pure Mangekyo Sharingan Fully Awakened.]