Preparations for Awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan

A figure stepped out from the sky-full of pink dust. It no longer looked like the Ten-Tails, but another Sasuke. In appearance, demeanor, and bearing, he was no different from Sasuke himself—equally calm and composed.

Only Sasuke's eyes were black now, while this Sasuke's were scarlet.

His gaze was filled with devouring hunger, savagery, and ferocity. One look was enough to send chills down anyone's spine!

"You separated me from yourself. Don't regret it someday."

Contrary to the tense confrontation one might have expected, Ido Sasuke merely walked forward, gave Sasuke a calm look, and spoke indifferently.

"My mind is made up. What is there to regret?"

Sasuke replied just as calmly, his tone like that of old friends chatting.

"I only hope that what I do will bring results and achieve what I seek. As for everything else, I don't care."

"Hmph! Good." Ido Sasuke snorted. The two had originally been one, and their thoughts were the same. It was only that Ido Sasuke's thinking was too extreme; he did whatever he pleased, acting without regard for morality, ethics, or worldly restraints.

"Yakumo, I'll have to trouble you again. Seal him." Sasuke spoke softly to Kurama Yakumo, who was trembling slightly behind him.

"I'll assist you from the side."

"Huh?... Okay, Sasuke..." Kurama Yakumo froze for a moment, then stepped forward trembling, not daring to look at Ido Sasuke's savage, hungry eyes.

"What seal should I use?"

"The Five Senses Seal." Sasuke answered, then looked at the negative Sasuke and said calmly, "I'll have to trouble you."

"Heh... You should worry about yourself instead." Ido Sasuke sneered, his tone dark and mocking. "These emotions will return to you eventually. I just hope you don't collapse by then and get replaced by me."

"Mm, I understand." Sasuke nodded and answered casually.

"Begin, Yakumo!"

Contrary to Kurama Yakumo's expectations, the sealing went very smoothly. Ido Sasuke showed no sign of resistance and even seemed somewhat cooperative.

That made Kurama Yakumo breathe a sigh of relief, and a thought surfaced in her mind.

It seemed Sasuke's dark personality was not quite so terrifying after all?

He looked rather intelligent and rational.

His eyes were just a little frightening.

"Thank you for your hard work this time, Yakumo." Sasuke glanced at Ido Sasuke, who stood motionless with his eyes closed and seemed to have lost all perception, then turned back to thank Kurama Yakumo.

"You're too polite, Sasuke." Kurama Yakumo replied softly, then hesitated before continuing, "But, Sasuke, is this really all right? Although he has been sealed, perhaps one day he might break through it, or even..."

Kurama Yakumo still could not understand why Sasuke had asked her to give physical form to the negative personality in his heart, only to seal him away afterward. It seemed like an unnecessary extra step.

"Nothing will happen, Yakumo." Sasuke softly reassured her as he looked at Kurama Yakumo's pale face, drained from repeatedly using genjutsu.

"Go rest for a while. Leave the rest to me."

Kurama Yakumo fell silent for a moment, then nodded.

"Mm."

As soon as she spoke, Kurama Yakumo's figure gradually faded and vanished from Sasuke's inner world.

"I hope what I've done will allow me to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan."

After Kurama Yakumo left, Sasuke looked at the motionless figure before him with its eyes shut and spoke softly.

After it had become virtually impossible to awaken the Mangekyō through the condition of "gaining love and losing love," Sasuke had made two preparations for awakening the Mangekyō.

The first was naturally to increase his spiritual energy.

The second was the dark personality before him, formed from the Ten-Tails' primal instincts of desire buried deep within the Uchiha clan's bloodline and the negative emotions born from Sasuke's inner stray thoughts.

If Sasuke could awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan within the time he had set by increasing his spiritual energy, that would naturally be best.

Then, like Kurama Yakumo had killed Ido in the original timeline, Sasuke would destroy his own dark personality and not allow it to affect him in the slightest.

But if Sasuke showed no sign of awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan within the time he had set, then he would release the dark personality in his heart and choose to merge with him.

He would use the immense negative emotions and spiritual energy to force open the Mangekyō Sharingan.

What would he become after merging?

Would his personality change completely?

Would he fall into darkness?

Would the dark personality even turn the tables and take over his body?

Would he become a beast driven by desire and instinct?

Sasuke did not know. He did not even know whether this method could truly awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Especially...

"Human emotions and memories begin to blur after fifteen days. After three months, half are forgotten. Within ten years, ninety-five percent will be forgotten. Once the five senses are completely cut off, one falls into absolute silence. Over a long period of time, all will, emotions, and memories will be worn away by the agony of being unable to move or perceive anything, along with boundless fear and loneliness. Under such circumstances, the human mind often collapses in a very short time, reducing a person to a vegetable with no mental response whatsoever. That is far more painful than any solitary confinement cell. Heh..."

A dark cell was a psychological term referring to being locked in a completely sealed space without sound or light. Under such conditions, even a tough man with an iron will would quickly suffer a mental breakdown.

Yet Sasuke's dark personality faced something even more painful than a dark cell. His bodily sight, hearing, and sense of smell had been completely severed. And because he was merely a personification of negative emotions, he did not even possess a sense of touch.

Under normal circumstances, after losing all perception so completely, even the most negative personality would collapse in a short time. But because Sasuke would continuously provide negative emotions to stimulate him, this dark personality would not collapse.

In other words, when Sasuke chose to merge with this dark personality in the future, he would not only have to merge with the desires embedded in his bloodline and the negative emotions in his heart. He would also have to instantly endure the boundless loneliness and fear accumulated over more than two years of absolute silence, unable to perceive anything at all.

If he could not bear that long isolation and terror of having all five senses completely cut off, then forget about a drastic personality change or having the negative personality take over. He might even directly become a vegetable with no mental response whatsoever.

For Sasuke, this was an extremely risky and dangerous matter.

His personality meant he disliked taking risks, but sometimes there were risks he had no choice but to take. The crazy ideas in his heart had never been few; he simply rarely acted on them.

"Two years from now, will I overcome all this through my own will? Or will I be devoured by you and become a beast of desire and instinct? Or perhaps I'll simply become a vegetable with no response at all?"

"If I can't even take this step, then it only proves my capacity is no greater than this."

Sasuke muttered to himself, the curve of his lips widening. His eyes unconsciously turned into scarlet, vicious Sharingan, flashing with madness and hysteria.

"Let me wait and see, then. Let's see exactly how great my capacity is. Hehehe..."

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Sasuke's laughter grew louder and crazier, sounding especially twisted and insane within the empty inner world, enough to shake the soul!

As though he sensed the change in Sasuke's emotions, Ido Sasuke, whose five senses had been sealed and who existed in absolute silence, also curled his lips into a cruel, chilling smile.