What the Mangekyō Represented...

The Northern Territory, Nameless Canyon.

Perpetual snow blanketed the jagged boulders, and bitterly cold winds howled like knives, whipping up blinding flurries and reducing visibility to almost nothing. Deep within this forbidden land, hidden almost seamlessly among the rocks, lay a forgotten entrance—the abandoned hideout of the Akatsuki, now a lair for Root.

Two figures approached in silence, like ghosts racing across the snowy plain. Kakashi Sakuya radiated killing intent so palpable it seemed almost tangible, his icy gaze colder than the frozen wilderness around him. Nadeshiko Haku followed close behind, her ice-blue eyes filled with gravity and wariness. She gripped a senbon tightly, ready for anything.

The guards at the entrance didn't even have time to sound the alarm. Shuoyue moved so fast that only afterimages remained. His Sharingan accurately predicted their patrol routes and blind spots. His kunai sliced through the frigid air with barely a whisper, and two Root members clutched their throats and crumpled. Their blood quickly stained the snow red, only to be covered by fresh snowfall.

"Let's go." Shuoyue's voice was low and hoarse, utterly devoid of emotion. He led the way into the dark, winding passage.

Haku followed close behind. The cave's damp, chilly air smelled of decay and rust, making her instinctively hold her breath. The passage was a maze, riddled with hidden traps and alarm barriers.

But before Shuoyue's Three-Tomoe Sharingan, it was all as good as useless. Like a consummate bomb-disposal expert, he always spotted a trap's trigger a tenth of a second in advance—or smashed it apart with inexplicable speed and precision. Haku handled any pursuers from behind and erased their tracks. The two worked together flawlessly, cutting deeper into the lair with the precision and efficiency of a scalpel.

Battle broke out inevitably.

Root members sprang from the shadows like startled hornets, frenzied and fearless of death. They had inherited Danzo's will: cold, efficient, and willing to do anything to achieve their aims.

But today, Shuoyue was even colder and more efficient than they were!

His figure became a whirlwind of death in the narrow passage. His Sharingan spun wildly, predicting every attack and seeing through every illusion. Kunai, shuriken, even fragments of stone he picked up along the way—all became deadly weapons in his hands. He used no large-scale ninjutsu. Every kill was confined to the smallest possible area and completed as quickly as possible: throats slit, hearts pierced, nerve centers destroyed.

Haku supported him at his side, her senbon dancing as if alive, finding their marks in the enemies' joints and pressure points and robbing them of movement. Her Nadeshiko Style taijutsu proved invaluable in close combat. Before her opponents could react, she had already used their momentum against them to snap an arm or shatter a knee.

Blood stained the walls and floor. Muffled cries of pain and the thuds of falling bodies filled the passage. They advanced step by step, leaving behind a path paved with corpses and despair.

Haku's face had paled, not from fear but from the ever-thickening darkness around Shuoyue, which seemed poised to devour everything. His killing was becoming more efficient, and he was becoming more and more... immersed in it.

At last, they fought their way through the layers of defenses and reached the deepest part of the lair—a vast meeting hall that seemed to have been carved from a natural cavern. In the center, a figure with its back to them, wearing a one-eyed Tanuki Mask, slowly turned around. It seemed to be the last leader here.

At the figure's feet lay several Root members who had sworn to protect it to the death. Now, they were all corpses.

"So you've finally come... Uchiha remnant." The Tanuki Mask's voice was hoarse and calm. It seemed to have anticipated this moment, and even carried a strange hint of relief. "Looks like that useless Tanuki couldn't keep the secret after all."

Shuoyue advanced step by step, crossing the sticky pool of blood. His bloodied kunai pointed diagonally at the ground, and drops fell from its tip with a clear tap, tap in the silent hall. Haku stayed just behind his flank, alert for any remaining ambushes.

"Tell me," Shuoyue said, his voice as cold as ice that had lain for ten thousand years, seething with hatred. "Five years ago, outside the Uchiha Clan Compound, who ordered the hunt besides you scum?"

The Tanuki Mask let out a low laugh, twisted and mad. "A hunt? An order? Uchiha brat, do you still think it was just a simple 'kill order'?"

Its words slithered into Shuoyue's ears like a poisonous snake. "Why do you think Root was so determined to track down you few stragglers back then? Was it only because of Lord Danzo's dying wishes? Was it only because they feared you'd take revenge?"

Shuoyue's pupils contracted. A deeply ominous feeling rose in his heart.

The Tanuki Mask slowly removed its mask, revealing an old face covered in scars and twisted by a kind of fervent madness. It stared at Shuoyue's spinning Sharingan, its eyes full of mockery and a sick excitement.

"Let me tell you the truth, poor little brat. When the Uchiha orphans were 'purged,' did Konoha's leaders—the sanctimonious elders, even the Hokage Advisors of the time—really know nothing about it? No! They turned a blind eye! They were even glad to see it happen! A Konoha without the Uchiha, with every 'unstable element' wiped out, was the 'peaceful' Konoha they wanted! We in Root were nothing but the knives they used to do their dirty work! If things went well, they enjoyed the peace. If they went wrong, all the blame fell on Root! Just like now! You think Root is your only enemy? You're wrong! Completely wrong! Your true enemies have always sat high above you, in the light of Konoha, enjoying the 'peace' bought with the blood of you and your clan!"

Every word was a poisoned dagger plunging into Shuoyue's heart! Every sentence upended everything he had believed!

Konoha's leaders... had turned a blind eye? They had been glad to see it happen? Root had been their scapegoat? His real enemies were living in the light?

"No... That's impossible! You're lying!" For the first time, Shuoyue's voice shook violently. His killing intent turned chaotic and feral. Had the goal he'd pursued all this time, the reason he'd kept living, really been nothing more than a pawn in someone else's game? Were his true enemies far more powerful—and far more sanctimonious—than he'd imagined?

"Lying?" The Tanuki Mask laughed madly. "Then why do you think we always found your hideouts so easily? Why did Konoha's Anbu always arrive 'too late'? Why couldn't Kakashi and Naruto wipe us out completely, even though they suspected us? Clear water leaves no fish, brat! Konoha's shadows are far deeper—and dirtier—than you think!"

Watching Shuoyue falter and teeter on the brink of collapse, the figure seemed immensely satisfied. "Angry? Resentful? Good! That's right! That's the power the Sharingan was meant to have! Hate! Hate all of this! Hate this hypocritical village! Then... use that power..."

BOOM—!!!

Shuoyue's mind went blank. All reason, all resolve, was crushed in an instant by the cruel truth!

He had thought he was taking revenge on the darkness, only to discover he had always lived within an even greater, darker deception! The Konoha he had protected, the village Kakashi and Naruto had tried to help him accept, had turned a blind eye to the destruction of his clan—or even benefited from it?!

Overwhelming fury! Boundless hatred! The pain of betrayal! And... utter despair at his own fate!

These extreme negative emotions erupted within him like a volcano, tearing through every boundary!

"AAAAAAAH—!!!"

He let out a heart-rending roar, inhuman in its fury! Pain tore through his eyes, and blood ran from their corners like tears!

Deep in his violently trembling eyes, the three Tomoe spun frantically, twisting and changing shape! At last... they merged into an unprecedented, impossibly intricate pattern, brimming with power and madness—the Mangekyō Sharingan!

At the same time, an indescribably vast ocular power awakened in his eyes, as if it had come from the dawn of the universe! Knowledge of everything about his new eyes flooded into his mind like instinct—

Dōjutsu: Eighty Gods Mirror!

This was no ordinary dōjutsu! It was the ultimate technique, a power approaching that of a god, capable of copying all kinds of common ninjutsu and dōjutsu—and even techniques that might exist only in legend—and making them his own! What kind of despair could have given birth to such a dōjutsu...

"This... what is this?!" The madness in the Tanuki Mask's grin instantly froze, replaced by utter terror and disbelief! It could feel the terrifying power gathering, a force capable of destroying everything!

Behind Shuoyue, Haku was also stunned by the sudden change and the terrifying chakra erupting from him, as if it could destroy everything. "Shuoyue! Calm down!" She tried to approach him.

But it was already too late!

Completely consumed by rage and hatred, Shuoyue couldn't hear a thing! All he saw was his laughing enemy—and this filthy, hypocritical world!

In a vision—or perhaps right before his eyes—a man wearing a white Spiral Mask nodded at him. The Mangekyō in Shuoyue's eyes flared. Eighty Gods Mirror: activate!

"Kamui!!!!"

He made a declaration from the depths of hell!

WHUM—!!!

Without warning, a massive spatial vortex appeared where the Tanuki Mask stood—around its head. The vortex spun, and the masked figure's head vanished into thin air!! Blood sprayed out at once, like a scarlet bouquet bursting open, splattering a one-of-a-kind blood sigil across the floor!

CRACK—SHING!!!

But it wasn't over! Shuoyue would never let him get away with so little. Eighty Gods Mirror: activate again!

"Amaterasu!!!!"

Amaterasu's flames. Black flames from hell. A tormenting fire that would never go out until its target had been completely consumed!

A vast expanse of black flames engulfed the entire underground cavern! The screams of the Root remnants filled the air, so deafening they nearly burst the eardrums. The area where they stood, along with nearly everything around them—the ground beneath their feet and the rock walls behind them—was consumed in an instant, reduced to the most primal white smoke! It was as if it had been erased from the world itself!

The immense power even shook the entire hideout. The ceiling began to shudder violently, and boulders rained down!

The shockwave left Haku's blood and chakra churning. She stumbled backward, staring in disbelief at the scene of destruction, at the figure standing at the center of the storm, blood tears streaming from his eyes like a demon god.

"Shuoyue..." Her voice held both fear and anguish.

But Shuoyue slowly turned around. His bloodstained eyes, filled with the intricate pattern of the Mangekyō, fixed coldly on Haku. His gaze was strange and terrifying, full of a madness that sought to destroy everything.

He saw the Forehead Protector on Haku's brow, marked with the flower of Nadeshiko Village.

Konoha... had turned a blind eye... enemies...

Extreme revulsion and hatred overwhelmed him in an instant!

He suddenly raised a hand and tore off the Forehead Protector on his own forehead, the one that symbolized Konoha—as if ripping away a filthy past! He flung it to the ground and even stamped on it!

"Shuoyue! You..." Haku stared at him in horror.

"Leave." Shuoyue's voice was hoarse and cold, full of unshakable resolve. "Get away from me. Go back to Konoha. Now."

"No! I'm not leaving! Calm down!" Haku fought down her fear and tried to approach him. "Things might not be the way he said! We can go back and ask Lord Hokage!"

"Ask him?" Shuoyue gave a twisted laugh. His Mangekyō Sharingan glinted dangerously. "And then what? Get deceived again? Get used again? Become shadows beneath their light?"

He looked at Haku. The last trace of warmth in his eyes froze over completely. "Our paths are different from now on."

Before the words had even left his mouth, his figure appeared in front of Haku like a phantom.

Haku didn't even have time to react!

Shuoyue's hand, empowered by immense ocular power and unwavering resolve, struck precisely at the back of her neck!

"Ugh..." Haku's vision went black. Her consciousness vanished in an instant, and her body crumpled. In the final second before she lost consciousness, she saw Shuoyue's bloodstained Mangekyō Sharingan, its gaze cold to the bone and utterly unfamiliar.

Shuoyue reached out and caught her limp body, preventing her from falling onto the cold, filthy floor. He looked at her furrowed brow as she lay unconscious, and his movements paused for the briefest, almost imperceptible moment.

But the next instant, his eyes were once again filled with mad hatred and darkness.

He gently laid Haku in a relatively clean corner, where falling rocks were unlikely to hit her for now. He looked at her one last time. His expression was impossibly complicated: resolve, a barely perceptible trace of pain, but above all, a blaze of revenge kindled by the truth, powerful enough to consume everything.

Then he turned away without hesitation.

He didn't look back at the unconscious woman, or at the sinful lair that was about to collapse.

He walked step by step through the ruins and blood toward the cave entrance. The Mangekyō Sharingan glimmered with an eerie light in the dark passage, like a signpost pointing the way to the abyss.

Konoha's Forehead Protector lay abandoned in a pool of blood. The bonds of the past had been severed by force.

Kakashi Sakuya—or rather, the Kakashi Sakuya he had once been—was dead.

The one who emerged from the Northern Territory's snowy plains was a man burdened by a blood feud, wielding the power to destroy the world, and at war with all of Konoha—indeed, with the entire world—

A demon of vengeance.

His future held nothing but darkness, too deep for even the Yang Power to pierce. In the fog of that darkness stood a blank, blood-red tombstone. No one knew what it had been erected for...