[One hour remains until the Night of the Massacre]
A full moon hung suspended in the night sky, casting a cold, silver pallor over the architecture and streets of Konohagakure.
In the heart of the Uchiha compound, atop the roof of the Police Force prison, blood flowed like a river. The corpses of Uchiha officers lay scattered across the tiles, their empty sockets oozing crimson. Every single one of them had been stripped of their Sharingan.
Amidst the heap of bodies stood a young man clad in the dark uniform of the Uchiha Police Force. He had short black hair and a refined, handsome face, currently illuminated by the pale moonlight. He held a shinobi blade in a steady grip, his posture as straight and unyielding as the steel he carried.
[Side Mission: Evolve the Sharingan][Condition: Absorb the ocular power of 50 pairs of Sharingan][Mission Complete][Reward: Yachiyamato — Mangekyō Sharingan]
Uchiha Kuroya gasped for air. Suddenly, the three tomoe in his eyes began to spin violently, bleeding into one another until they resolved into the sharp, lethal shape of three interlocking blades.
The ocular power within his mind surged. It was chaotic and primal, a torrent of energy that forced its way into his neural pathways like a waterfall crashing into a narrow creek. Kuroya's eyes became a roadmap of ruptured capillaries. He breathed raggedly through both nose and mouth, but within ten seconds, he had subdued the violent, destructive spiritual energy.
His very presence shifted, taking on a sinister, chilling edge. Information regarding his new ability surfaced naturally in his mind.
Yachiyamato:"The Mangekyō's chakra can ignore distance through eye contact or physical touch to place a 'Seal' upon others. Through this connection, the user may freely control the spirit and chakra of the marked individual."
A thin smile played on Kuroya's lips.
He knelt, gathering the sheer quantity of Sharingan he held in his hands and placing them into a cylindrical glass container filled with preservative fluid. The scarlet orbs, packed tightly together, stared out through the glass in every direction—a macabre, eldritch sight.
He then sealed the container into a storage scroll.
It had been one week since he had crossed over into the world of Konoha. With the help of the System's missions, he had finally obtained his credential for true power in the shinobi world: the Mangekyō Sharingan.
While the full extent of this power remained to be tested, he now possessed the baseline qualification to defect from the village.
In the corner of the roof, a lone survivor remained.
Uchiha Inabi slumped against a wall, drenched in blood. He stared with his remaining three-tomoe left eye, trembling as he witnessed the scene. "Uchiha Kuroya... you are one of our captains. To murder your own kin just to awaken the Mangekyō... you will meet a wretched end!"
Kuroya tucked the scroll into his vest. Calculating the time, he walked over and crouched before Inabi.
"The Uchiha patrol should arrive here in about a minute. I can spare a moment to talk, Inabi." Kuroya's voice was calm, devoid of heat. "You reported me for contacting an S-rank rogue ninja. You threw me in this dungeon, seized my rank and duties in the Police Force, and then came here to gloat. That felt good, didn't it?"
Inabi lowered his head, his entire body shaking.
He had come to the dungeon tonight intending to use the Uchiha's interrogation tools to 'teach a lesson' to the man who was usually so polite, yet secretly a traitor. As long as he didn't kill him, Fugaku wouldn't have cared.
But the moment Kuroya saw him, he had snapped. He unleashed his three-tomoe Sharingan and tore through the prison. Single-handedly, blade in hand, he had slaughtered every guard stationed at the facility like a frenzied demon.
Kuroya's strength far exceeded anything Inabi had imagined.
"You're mistaken about one thing," Kuroya said after a brief silence. "I didn't kill them to awaken the Mangekyō. Normally, killing them wouldn't have been enough." He smiled. "Oh, and by the way? The letters you 'intercepted' between me and the rogue ninja? I left those openings for you on purpose."
Inabi's pupil dilated. He mentally connected the dots, the details of the past week clicking into place. His face went ashen.
"The clansmen guarding the dungeon tonight were your subordinates. And the three patrol squads about to arrive are led by Izumi, Nanfu, and Tamao. Those are the duty rotations I arranged before I was 'imprisoned'."
Kuroya rose slowly. "I knew your character, Inabi. You would only come to strike at me if you felt completely safe—if every man inside and outside these walls belonged to you."
As they spoke, nine dark silhouettes could be seen leaping across the terraced rooftops under the moonlight, closing in rapidly.
"Why?! What is all this for?!" Inabi roared, trying to buy time for his comrades to arrive.
Kuroya glanced at the approaching figures, then reached out and patted Inabi on the shoulder, a gesture like a final farewell to an old friend.
"To survive in this world. Don't worry, I don't like owing favors. From now on, I am the Uchiha. As long as I live, the Uchiha name will endure in this world with dignity."
With that, Kuroya ceased his explanations. He sheathed his blade across his back, walked to the edge of the roof, and stepped off backward into the void.
"Inabi, keep that remaining eye open. Watch closely what happens next in the Uchiha compound."
During the fall, Kuroya executed a mid-air flip and landed in a steady crouch. Using a Body Flicker, he vanished into the streets, heading toward the forest on the village outskirts.
"Killing so many of our own... and claiming it's for the clan... You won't escape. Fugaku and Itachi will never let you go!" Inabi muttered weakly, his spirit broken.
Whish—
Nine shinobi in Uchiha Police uniforms landed around Inabi. Men and women alike looked around, their scalps tingling with horror. They froze in place, faces pale with shock.
Bodies were everywhere—on the roof, the stairs, and the streets surrounding the prison. The scent of iron saturated the air. Most had died from a single, surgical strike to a vital organ. There were no wasted movements, no unnecessary wounds.
It was the first time they had seen the Uchiha clan pay such a staggering price in a single engagement.
Inabi looked at the three squad leaders and felt his heart sink further. It was exactly as Kuroya had said: Uchiha Izumi, Uchiha Nanfu, and Uchiha Tamao.
"This... what happened here?" Izumi's voice cracked. She stood trembling, on the verge of collapse. Her long, waist-length hair swayed in the wind, and the beauty mark beneath her right eye twitched with terror.
"Kuroya did this," Inabi rasped.
Izumi flinched. Her mind conjured an image of the captain who had raised her—a man who was always refined, always smiling, as gentle as a spring breeze.
"Impossible! Captain Kuroya would never murder his own kin!" Uchiha Tamao shouted, his veins bulging. He grabbed Inabi by the collar and drew his blade, pressing it against the man's throat. He had a youthful, baby-faced look, but his anger turned him into a predatory beast.
Inabi stared at him coldly.
After a moment of silence, Tamao's voice lowered, filled with a desperate, warped conviction. "Even if Captain Kuroya killed them, he must have been helping them find peace!"
"Heh... truly a dog Kuroya dragged out of the psychiatric ward," Inabi spat through gritted teeth. "If he killed your parents, would you still make excuses for him?"
"Captain Kuroya doesn't like killing!" Tamao barked.
Inabi: "???"
He had forgotten. Tamao's parents were already dead.
The others stood in a stunned daze. A dark figure suddenly rushed forward and pushed Tamao away from Inabi. It was Uchiha Nanfu, his glasses glinting in the dark.
"Enough!" Nanfu turned to Inabi, his expression icy. "Which way did Uchiha Kuroya go?"
Inabi pointed toward the forest at the village edge.
"Pursue him!" Nanfu ordered.
Before he could even finish, Tamao had already vanished into the trees with two of his men, his face twisted with worry. Regardless of the circumstances, they were the patrol on duty; they had a responsibility to hunt the perpetrator.
Izumi and Nanfu exchanged a grim look and followed immediately with their respective squads.
Inabi couldn't understand Kuroya's goal. The others, fueled by confusion, doubt, and rage, pushed themselves to their limits. Nine shadows blurred through the forest under the brilliant moon.
Flap—
Startled birds took flight. The nine shinobi leaped across the branches, but suddenly, the hair on their necks stood up. A crushing sense of crisis loomed ahead. They skidded to a halt, drawing their blades and holding their breath.
Moonlight filtered through the canopy, dappling the forest floor.
A familiar, upright figure stepped slowly into a patch of light. He raised his head, revealing the lethal, blade-like patterns of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
"It has been a long time, everyone. We can catch up later."
Kuroya's lips curved into a slight, dangerous smile as his eyes began to rotate.
"For now... please help me test the limits of this Mangekyō."
"Yachiyamato!"