I Died Young?

Compared to losing face, losing his substance was something Obito found even harder to accept.

"Where did the Eternal Mangekyo in my right eye go?"

"Goddammit..."

He cursed this world's version of himself in his heart ten thousand times over.

How could you be so useless?

Brother, I came all this way to deliver you an Eternal Mangekyo, and you died?

"Is his body still there?"

Obito asked Sasuke with a trace of hope.

Sasuke shook his head.

"His body was left on the battlefield and disappeared long ago. Even the Uchiha and Hidden Leaf Village cemeteries only have his cenotaph."

"Damn it..."

Sasuke fell into hesitation, but out of his desire for power, he still tentatively spoke. "Senior, that's all the information I know. About the reward you just mentioned..."

Before he could finish, Naruto interrupted him. "Hey! Sasuke! You really believe these two weirdos? They just knocked out Kakashi-sensei!"

Sasuke's expression immediately darkened as he looked at Naruto.

Damn it, if this person misunderstands and thinks I'll blame them, I'm finished!

The Hidden Leaf Village or whatever has nothing to do with me!

"What does that have to do with me? I only seek the highest power. Whoever can give me that power, I, Sasuke, won't hesitate to betray everything for him!"

"What?"

Naruto's pupils trembled violently, while Sakura also looked at Sasuke in disbelief.

"Sasuke! The Hidden Leaf Village raised you! How can you be so ungrateful?"

Sasuke felt even more disgust toward Naruto when he heard that. The little goodwill he had finally begun to develop vanished without a trace.

"Naruto! You don't understand anything about other people, so don't use your arrogant and presumptuous ideas to judge them! Not everyone can be as shameless as you, desperately trying to please people and get them to accept you even though everyone hates you!"

"I, Sasuke, do what I wish. Why should I explain myself to anyone?"

For the first time, Naruto felt that Sasuke was actually a stranger to him.

In his eyes, Sasuke was an orphan just like him, so they should have had something in common.

He didn't understand that compared to having nothing from the beginning, losing something after having it was what truly carved itself into one's bones.

Obito looked at Sasuke with admiration.

As expected of an Uchiha! If it's the Hidden Leaf Village, then just rebel! With power, where in the world could one not call home?

But what did Minato-sensei's child mean by saying everyone hated him?

Seeing that Naruto was already starting to lose control, the Nine-Tails Chakra leaking out and even beginning to break through the Chakra seal Obito had just placed on him, Obito struck the back of Naruto's neck again and knocked him unconscious.

This world is still too complicated. I'll figure it out slowly!

"Sasuke, you're twelve this year too, right?"

"Yeah..."

"As expected. You're exactly the same as the Sasuke in the Empire..."

Obito muttered under his breath.

"Senior, what did you say?"

"Oh, nothing."

"I saw that you could switch effortlessly between the One-Tomoe and Two-Tomoe states just now. You should have awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan by now too, right?"

Sasuke was rendered speechless. His face flushed bright red.

Obito immediately understood when he saw his reaction.

"Oh, you haven't awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan yet? Don't worry. Twelve isn't too late."

"Bring out your Three-Tomoe Sharingan for me to see. I want to check how far you've progressed."

Obito stared intently at Sasuke.

Sasuke lowered his head even further.

Obito was puzzled.

"Why are you still embarrassed? Let your senior take a look. Don't worry, your senior doesn't have any strange fetishes."

Sasuke finally couldn't hold it in any longer. His face turned red-hot. "I... I've only awakened the Two-Tomoe Sharingan!"

Obito was startled when he heard that.

What the hell? I thought being able to switch so effortlessly between the One-Tomoe and Two-Tomoe states meant you had reached the pinnacle of Sharingan control.

So you only just awakened the Two-Tomoe?

I awakened with the Two-Tomoe from the very beginning, and you only awakened yours at twelve?

Under the other party's aggressive, even disdainful gaze, Sasuke immediately felt that he was being looked down upon.

Sasuke explained, "My body currently isn't strong enough to support awakening the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. My Sharingan awakened into the One-Tomoe five years ago!"

He explained it with a hint of pride.

Awakening the Sharingan at seven. That's already an excellent talent, right?

One had to know that many members of the Uchiha clan couldn't awaken even a single tomoe in their entire lives.

Obito couldn't hold it in any longer when he heard that.

Seriously?

Do you know that in another world, you're about to awaken the Rinnegan, to say nothing of the Eternal Mangekyo?

It took you five years to advance from One-Tomoe to Two-Tomoe. Is your bloodline even pure?

He felt fortunate for Sasuke from the Empire.

Luckily, Itachi is his brother. Otherwise, relying on this Sasuke from the parallel world, he probably would never awaken the Eternal Mangekyo in his entire life, right?

If Obito had known that Sasuke had awakened his One-Tomoe only after his entire clan was sacrificed, he would certainly have made Wu Zetian a widow—by taking Li Zhi away from her.

"All right. For now, follow me. I'll help you awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan as soon as possible."

"You awakened the One-Tomoe at seven and still feel proud of it. Do you know that the you from our world is already preparing to awaken the Rinnegan?"

Sasuke was confused.

"What is the Rinnegan?"

Obito held his forehead. Hopeless. Completely hopeless!

He couldn't help but question Kakashi's earlier deduction.

"Kakashi, I think you're being too sensitive. This world is completely just a fragile, low-power world! It's far inferior to the Empire in every respect!"

Obito transmitted his voice to Kakashi.

"All right, forget about that for now. We can discuss your talent later. Right now, I want to know what you meant by the Uchiha clan's extermination."

A trace of coldness finally appeared on Obito's usually flippant face.

"Ahem, well... Nagato, things like this happen every moment in the Shinobi World. It's not limited to our Land of Fire. In fact, comparatively speaking, our Land of Fire is already considered exceptionally well-governed..."

Jiraiya looked at the scene before him and cursed his rotten luck inwardly.

Why did he have to run into Nagato under circumstances like this?

"This is what you meant by the Land of Fire being peaceful and prosperous, with a wealthy nation and strong people?"

Nagato forced out each word through gritted teeth.

How could the scene before him be described with merely the word "chaotic"?

Hundreds of corpses lay strewn about, and blood flowed for miles.

The raging fire spreading through the village had already reduced most of the buildings to ruins.

The civilians were panicking and fleeing in all directions, yet they had nowhere to run.

Screams and sobs rose one after another.

These Rogue Ninjas were mercilessly harvesting the lives in this village simply because one civilian had defied them.

They spared no one, whether old people or children.

One civilian after another collapsed into pools of blood. Their eyes were filled with terror and helplessness. They tried to resist, but in the end, they were powerless to change their fate.

There was no compassion in the Rogue Ninjas' eyes, only indifference toward life and the thrill of slaughter.

Facing these cold-blooded ninjas, many civilians could do nothing but watch in fury as their families and friends fell one after another, brutally murdered one by one.

The land was dyed red with blood, while helplessness and despair filled the air.

Nagato had gone mad with rage. His eyes were filled with pity for the innocent civilians and fury toward the Rogue Ninjas.

A force led by just three Genin actually dared to slaughter an entire village of a hundred people. If there had been a Jonin, would they have been able to wipe out a small country?

But that wasn't even the main issue. The main issue was Jiraiya's attitude!

In Nagato's eyes, Jiraiya seemed to regard this sort of situation as completely commonplace!

Nagato wished he could immediately use the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique to revive those unfortunate people.

In the Empire, nothing like this had happened for decades. Forget several hundred people—even a death toll exceeding ten would cause an uproar throughout the Empire!

Yet in this world...

If you can't find it by searching for the book's title, try searching for the author. Maybe it was simply renamed!