Did I Die Young?

More than his reputation, the loss of the eyes was what Obito found even harder to accept.

"My Eternal Mangekyo in my right eye is gone?"

"Fuck me..."

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

You were way too pathetic!

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

"Is his corpse still around?"

Obito asked Sasuke with a glimmer of hope.

Sasuke shook his head.

"His body was left on the battlefield and vanished long ago. Even the Uchiha clan and Hidden Leaf Village graveyards only have cenotaphs for him."

"Fuck..."

Sasuke hesitated, but his desire for power still drove him to cautiously speak. "Senior, that's all the information I know. As for the reward you mentioned..."

Before he could finish, Naruto interrupted him. "Hey! Sasuke! Do you really believe these two random guys? They just knocked Kakashi-sensei unconscious!"

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

Damn it, if the man in front of him misunderstood and thought he was blaming them, he'd be finished!

The Hidden Leaf Village had nothing to do with him!

"What does that have to do with me? I only seek supreme power. Whoever can give me that power, I, Sasuke, would not hesitate to betray everything for them!"

"What?"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock, while Sakura stared at Sasuke in disbelief.

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

Sasuke found Naruto even more detestable after hearing that. The tiny bit of goodwill he had begun to feel vanished completely.

"Naruto! You don't understand other people's lives, so don't use your arrogant thoughts to judge them! Not everyone can be as shameless as you, desperately trying to please people and make them accept you even though everyone hates you!"

"Why should I, Sasuke, explain my actions to anyone?"

For the first time, Naruto felt that Sasuke had become so unfamiliar.

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

He did not understand that compared to having nothing from the start,

having something and then losing it was what truly carved itself into one's bones.

Obito looked at Sasuke with approval.

As expected of an Uchiha! If the Hidden Leaf Village stood in your way, then rebel against it! With power, everywhere under heaven could be home!

But what did it mean that Minato-sensei's child was hated by everyone?

Seeing Naruto on the verge of losing control, with Nine-Tails Chakra leaking out and even beginning to break through the Chakra seal Obito had just placed on him, Obito chopped Naruto unconscious again.

This world was too complicated. He would learn about it slowly.

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

"Yeah..."

"As expected, exactly the same as Sasuke in the Empire..."

Obito murmured under his breath.

"Senior, what did you say?"

"Oh, nothing."

"I saw you switch easily between One-Tomoe and Two-Tomoe Sharingan just now. You should have already awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan too, right?"

Sasuke was instantly at a loss for words, his face flushing red.

Obito immediately understood when he saw that.

"Oh, you haven't awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan yet. No rush. Twelve isn't that late."

"Show me your Three-Tomoe Sharingan. Let me see how far you've progressed."

Obito stared at Sasuke with bright eyes.

Sasuke lowered his head even further.

Obito was puzzled.

"Why are you being shy? Let this senior take a look. Don't worry, I don't have any weird fetishes."

Sasuke finally could not take it anymore. He was in a Red Hot State. "I... I've only awakened the Two-Tomoe Sharingan!"

Obito was stunned.

Damn! Seeing him switch so easily between One-Tomoe and Two-Tomoe Sharingan, Obito had thought his control over the Sharingan was extraordinary.

So you had only just awakened the Two-Tomoe Sharingan!

I awakened mine directly at Two-Tomoe, and you only did it at twelve?

Seeing the aggressive, even contemptuous look in Obito's eyes, Sasuke immediately felt that Obito was looking down on him.

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

He added the explanation with a trace of pride.

Awakening the Sharingan at seven meant his talent was already outstanding, didn't it?

You had to know that many members of the Uchiha clan could not awaken even a One-Tomoe Sharingan in their entire lives.

Obito was even more speechless.

Seriously, brother?

Did you know that in another world, you were not only about to awaken the Eternal Mangekyo, you were even close to awakening the Rinnegan?

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

He felt fortunate for Sasuke in the Empire.

Thankfully, he had Itachi as a brother. Otherwise, relying on the Sasuke from this parallel world, he probably would never awaken the Eternal Mangekyo in his lifetime.

Only, Obito did not yet know that Sasuke had awakened his One-Tomoe Sharingan after his entire clan had been sacrificed. Otherwise, he would have made Wu Zetian a widow—by taking Li Zhi's life.

"Alright, follow me for now. I'll help you awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan as soon as possible."

"You awakened One-Tomoe at seven and you're still 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 rubbed his forehead. Hopeless. Completely hopeless!

He could not help doubting Kakashi's earlier speculation.

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

Obito transmitted his voice to Kakashi.

"Enough of that. We can discuss your talent later. Right now, I want to know exactly what you meant by the Uchiha Clan Massacre."

A chill finally appeared on Obito's normally carefree face.

"Cough, cough. Well... Nagato, things like this happen every moment in the Shinobi World. It's not just in the Land of Fire. Relatively speaking, the Land of Fire is already doing extremely well..."

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

Why did they have to run into this now?

"This is the peaceful and prosperous Land of Fire you told me about?"

Nagato ground out every word through clenched teeth.

The scene before him could not be described by the word chaos alone.

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

The flames spreading through the village had already reduced most of its houses to ruins.

The civilians were panicking and fleeing in every direction, yet there was nowhere to escape.

Screams and sobs rose one after another.

These rogue ninja had mercilessly slaughtered the village simply because one civilian had defied them.

They spared neither the elderly nor children.

One civilian after another fell into pools of blood, their eyes filled with terror and helplessness. They tried to resist, but ultimately lacked the power to turn things around.

There was no mercy in their eyes, only indifference toward life and the thrill of slaughter.

Faced with these cold-blooded ninja, many civilians could only watch in fury as their families and friends fell one after another, brutally murdered one after another.

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

Nagato was furious. His eyes were filled with pity for these innocent civilians and rage toward the rogue ninja.

A group led by merely three Genin dared to massacre a village of a hundred people. If they had a Jonin, would they dare to wipe out a small country?

But that was not even the most important part. The most important thing was Jiraiya's attitude!

In his eyes, this kind of thing seemed utterly commonplace!

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

Such incidents had not occurred in the Empire for decades. Forget hundreds of deaths—even a case involving more than ten deaths would shake the entire Empire!

But in this world...

If you can't find it by searching the book title, try searching for the author instead. It may simply have been renamed!