Torture Chamber
The room was dim, shrouded in shadows that seemed to swallow the very light itself.
All around hung countless instruments of pain — cruel tools gleaming with menace.
Iron chains twisted together and dangled from the ceiling, their weight echoing softly in the still air.
Rows of hooked spikes lined the walls, each one crusted with dried, dark-red blood.
Sweat streamed down Morino Ibiki's face, tracing along his hardened features before soaking into his collar.
His chest heaved violently as he gasped for breath, like a man who had just fought through a storm.
His hands pressed against his knees, his body leaning forward to steady his exhausted frame.
Across from him stood Uchiha Yujin.
A wild, almost maddened expression spread across Yujin's face.
His eyes were wide, gleaming with a mixture of frenzy and exhilaration — as if the scene before him was something he took a twisted pleasure in.
The corners of his mouth curved upward into a warped, eerie smile.
Low laughter rumbled from his throat, echoing around the silent chamber like the whisper of something unholy.
He was lost in the moment — completely consumed.
In his world, there was nothing else — only Morino Ibiki and this bizarre, dangerous game between them.
Ibiki hadn't expected to meet someone this stubborn — someone whose will refused to break, no matter the pain.
All his previous hesitation about dealing with an Uchiha vanished.
Turning around, he picked up a wooden bucket.
Holding it up, he said in a cold, even voice, "This is chili water made from the hottest peppers in the world. Its burn is so fierce it can even corrode stone."
He glanced at Yujin's leg, where the skin had already split open and bled.
"If I pour this over your wound," Ibiki warned, "how do you think it'll feel?"
"How it'll feel!?"
Uchiha Yujin froze for a second — then burst into a wild, thunderous laugh.
The sound exploded through the torture chamber, shattering its suffocating silence.
His entire body trembled, shoulders shaking as he clutched his own hair with both hands, as if he were trying to tear his very soul out.
His mouth stretched open wide, laughter turning hoarse and raw.
Spit flew from the corners of his lips, but he didn't care in the slightest.
He swayed on his feet, unsteady, as though pulled by invisible threads.
"HAHAHAHAHA!!! Chili water, HAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Ibiki felt a shiver crawl up his spine.
"This chili water will burn right into your wounds—"
Before he could finish, Uchiha Yujin suddenly opened his eyes wide, saliva flinging everywhere as he shouted, almost gleefully—
"Hurry! Hurry! Pour it into my eyes!"
A single day felt like ten months to Morino Ibiki.
When he finally limped out of the interrogation room, body and mind utterly drained, he even considered taking ten days—perhaps half a month—just to rest.
Even with only half of the pain feedback reflected onto him, Ibiki could hardly bear it.
He couldn't understand it at all.
How could a child barely in his teens withstand such relentless torment?
An entire day of interrogation had passed, yet not a single useful word had been forced out. Instead, Ibiki himself was the one who nearly collapsed.
At the far end of the corridor, unfamiliar footsteps echoed softly.
Ibiki frowned.
No outsiders were ever welcome here. So who had the audacity to stroll in, ignoring every rule and boundary?
He straightened his back and strode forward.
"Lord Danzō."
Ibiki bowed slightly, forcing a tone of respect. "Is there something you need?"
"How did the questioning go?" Danzō asked, his voice quiet, eyes half-shut in their usual calculating squint.
"This…" Ibiki hesitated, feeling his entire body stiffen. He wanted to reply, but the words simply wouldn't come.
How could he admit that he, the head of the Interrogation Division, couldn't handle it and had stepped out for a breath of air?
Before he could form an answer, a cluster of footsteps sounded again from the end of the corridor.
Ibiki's frown deepened.
What was going on today? Was everyone taking turns to challenge his authority?
Danzō was one thing—but the next group—
When Ibiki saw who it was, his expression froze.
The head of the Uchiha clan, the man known as the Wicked Eye Fugaku, had come in person… leading a squad to retrieve someone.
Danzō's face darkened immediately. His cane struck the ground with a heavy crack.
"Fugaku! Who gave you the right to take someone from the Interrogation Department?"
Uchiha Fugaku didn't even glance his way. He simply turned to the purple-haired kunoichi beside him.
"Take him," Fugaku ordered.
The kunoichi nodded silently, lifted the unconscious Uchiha Yujin, and followed her clan head out of the hall.
When the Uchiha squad finally disappeared from sight, the corridor fell silent again.
From the shadows, masked Root operatives emerged one by one.
"Lord Danzō," one of them reported quietly, "the Hokage… has given his approval."
Danzō closed his eyes, his tone laced with scorn.
"Foolish old man."
"Outrageous! How could Konoha treat the genius of our clan like this?!"
"They're despicable! Even Hatake Kakashi admitted that Uchiha Yujin saved his life, yet Konoha still dares to treat him this way! They truly don't see the Uchiha as people anymore!"
Several Uchiha elders slammed the table and cursed Sarutobi Hiruzen, along with his ever-present advisors.
Fugaku, however, remained silent.
He sat motionless at the head of the room, expression calm, eyes deep in thought.
Among the crowd, Itachi quietly shook his head.
At the very moment everyone's anger boiled over, he slipped away from the meeting without a sound.
The night wind swept over the Hokage Building's rooftop.
Sarutobi Hiruzen stood at the edge, pipe in hand, gazing down at the lights of Konoha.
When he sensed movement behind him, he turned.
Itachi appeared out of the shadows.
"Hokage-sama," he said softly. "The resentment within the Uchiha clan is growing stronger. Their actions… may come sooner than expected."
Hiruzen exhaled slowly, smoke curling into the wind.
"I understand," he murmured. "Continue to observe them. Report again when you have more."
"Yes, sir."
In a quiet room far from the Hokage Tower, Uchiha Yujin struggled to sit up from his bed.
His body ached, wounds still fresh from interrogation.
At the window, a figure appeared, silver hair gleaming under the moonlight.
Yujin forced a weak smile.
"Sorry," Kakashi said, his voice low and tired. "You've been through a lot because of this."
Yujin chuckled softly.
He knew why he had been treated this way.
After all, his connection with Orochimaru wasn't exactly easy to explain.
Nor could he understand why Kakuzu seemed to hate him so much.
"It's fine," Yujin said with a grin, scratching the back of his head. "At least I'm alive. For an Uchiha, it's normal that the village doesn't trust us. Still, it's better to be back home than wandering outside. I mean, come on—I've got a three-tomoe Sharingan now. What if someone from another village decides to steal my eyes? Worst case, I'd get caught and used for… experimentaion or something."
Kakashi's single eye softened.
Three-tomoe…
He understood what that meant.
As someone who also bore the Sharingan, he knew how much pain and loss it took to awaken it fully.
Yujin had only been gone from the village for a month or two—just what kind of suffering had he endured?
"Rest for a few days," Kakashi said finally. "The academy's graduation season is coming soon. You'll probably be assigned two teammates… though that's not certain."
"Got it, Kakashi-sensei~" Yujin replied cheerfully. "By the way, I've been wanting to learn Lightning Release. Think you could teach me?"
Kakashi rolled his eye.
"Recover first. Then we'll talk."
Kakashi came and went without a trace, like Batman—here one moment, gone the next.
Once Kakashi had disappeared, a smile faded from Uchiha U's face, replaced by a cold, silent resolve.
This time, the debt would be repaid to Konoha's leadership—double, without fail.
This rotten village… it was time for a change of blood.
Perhaps they should open the gates and let Orochimaru in.
Or perhaps it was time to rally the Fugaku faction and rise against them.
These were the thoughts that deserved his attention now.
****
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