The Ketsuryūgan

The pupil was shaped like the numeral one, much like in Sage Mode, and its iris was a pale purple. Just looking at it made it seem as though you could smell the thick stench of blood.

"Don't stare into his eyes," an older Uchiha quietly warned.

The Ketsuryūgan was a famous Genjutsu eye, and its power was formidable. The Uchiha needed to reach the Three Tomoe stage to match it.

Unfortunately, its awakening rate was even more absurdly low than the Sharingan's. Otherwise, there would be no need to fear the Daimyo's threats.

Clearly, the man standing in everyone's way was a strong opponent—or at least he had once been. Now, the special environment of the Valley of Hell had tortured him until he was barely recognizable.

Only those eyes still shone with an ominous light.

As the people in charge, the Uchiha didn't interact much with him in their daily lives. All they had to do was make sure the Chinoike Clan didn't escape the valley.

But for some reason, the Valley of Hell seemed to have been stirring lately.

Sosuke's first mission was to investigate the trouble brewing within the Chinoike Clan.

To test his target's strength, he deliberately ignored his senior's advice and insisted on meeting the man's gaze with a provocative stare.

"Hmph. You don't know your place." The hot-tempered man instantly lost control, turning his Ketsuryūgan on the brat who dared look him in the eye.

The moment their gazes met, Sosuke sensed an abnormal Dojutsu Power invading his body.

In an instant, everything around him collapsed. He fell with the rubble into a sea of blood, its pungent stench making it impossible to tell whether it was real.

After finally struggling back to the surface, Sosuke looked around. It seemed as though the entire world had been stained red.

A pair of Ketsuryūgan hung in the sky like lofty gods, gazing indifferently at the ants floundering in the sea of blood.

"What a realistic Genjutsu." Sosuke tried to absorb as much as he could, hoping he might one day create a Genjutsu world just as impressive.

As an unknown force dragged him toward the seabed, the boy shut his eyes. His mental strength began battering the entire world like a heavy hammer.

"Hmm?" The eyes hanging in the sky were no longer so cold and indifferent.

The pale-purple irises trembled, betraying undisguised shock. It seemed the man couldn't understand how a brat could possess such terrifying mental strength.

Just as he prepared to strike back, Sosuke abruptly opened his eyes in the depths of the blood sea. Another pair of eyes appeared in the dark-red sky.

Crack!

The Genjutsu world froze completely, then exploded like fragile glass.

In the outside world, Sosuke and the man both groaned. Exhaustion showed on both their faces.

"Mr. Qi." The man's companion stared in disbelief. The strongest person he knew, his idol, had actually lost a Genjutsu contest to a brat.

As the one who'd attacked first, he hadn't managed to defeat his opponent quickly. Instead, he'd been dragged along until the Genjutsu world shattered. Otherwise, he wouldn't have suffered such severe mental damage.

No matter how you looked at it, their side had lost.

"Let's go." The man glared viciously at the boy, then turned and left the entrance to the gorge.

Seeing this, Sosuke paid no heed to his two clansmen's praise. He simply stared after the departing men, lost in thought.

Anyone watching might have thought he was struggling to accept defeat. Little did they know the boy was already thinking about how to turn the two men into Points.

"That guy was pretty strong. If I kill him, I'll get at least a thousand Points."

Investigate the cause of the Chinoike unrest?

He was already here. There was no way the Chinoike Clan wouldn't rebel.

Still, Sosuke had a mission from the Clan Head. Everything had to be done properly and with a legitimate reason.

At the very least, he had to wait for them to make the first move. Then he could claim he'd been forced to defend himself. Accidentally killing a dozen people along the way would be perfectly reasonable.

"Ah, what can I say? I'm just someone who follows the rules."

The news spread quickly. Everyone in the small garrison learned that an exceptionally capable boy had arrived.

At first, people tried to guess who he was. Once Sosuke introduced himself, many gradually realized he was the young genius who had created Chidori.

It wasn't that they were bad at remembering people. News from the outside was simply too hard to come by. Even the main Uchiha Clan often forgot that there was a group of people here.

In the end, the declining Chinoike Clan wasn't all that important. The Uchiha could suppress them and keep them from showing their faces with just a few people.

Naturally, a group like that didn't earn the Clan Head's attention. As time passed, even the Uchiha stationed here became marginalized.

When they suddenly saw a rising star of the future, many people curiously crowded around him.

"Your name's Sosuke? It's a lovely name. Whoever named you must be a scholar."

"You're amazing! You're so young, and you've already created a jutsu."

"I heard it even has a lot of different forms."

"How many Tomoe has your Sharingan evolved to?"

"Sosuke, do you have a girl you like?"

"Sosuke."

"Sosuke."

"Sosuke."

The boy was overwhelmed. It took him a great deal of effort to finally escape the crowd of his clansmen.

It seemed everyone really had been cooped up too long. A new face had finally arrived, and they looked ready to strip off his underwear just to see what color it was.

Sosuke couldn't help but laugh, but he understood how they felt.

If it were him, he wouldn't stay here on guard year after year, even if it meant being cast out of the clan.

Fortunately, he was here now. At the latest, within three days—and at the earliest, tonight—he would make sure the Chinoike Clan became a thing of the past.

At night, in the deepest part of the Valley of Hell, stood an altar built from dark-red blood.

Around the altar, many people were preparing the objects required for the ritual. Most were implements associated with blood and internal organs.

Beyond the corpses and flesh scattered across the ground, a woman hung unconscious from iron chains in the very center of the altar.

Every now and then, the clansmen glanced at one another, their faces filled with remorse. But when they thought of all the suffering they'd endured over the years, that remorse gave way to twisted hatred.

"As long as we complete the ritual, the Chinoike Clan will gain the power to defeat anyone."

"That's right. This ritual has been passed down since ancient times. It can't be wrong."

"Once the Blood Sacrifice is complete, every clansman here will be able to force their eyes open. Then no one in the world will be able to stand against us."

"First, destroy the Uchiha; then, conquer the Land of Lightning!"

"First, destroy the Uchiha; then, conquer the Land of Lightning!"

"First, destroy the Uchiha; then, conquer the Land of Lightning!"

Amid the increasingly deranged shouts, only one person seemed completely out of place.

"Let me go!" the man roared, struggling with all his might, but he couldn't break free of his restraints.

His eyes were wrapped in a strip of cloth with a large "Seal" character written on it. It was a safeguard meant to seal the man away; otherwise, he would have done everything in his power to stop the ritual.

After all, the woman they planned to use as a living sacrifice was his wife, who had just given birth to their daughter.