In This World, How Are the Six Eyes Mass-Produced?

Meitou and Yetou had their hands tied behind their backs and had been dumped by the roadside, leaning against a cedar tree that had been snapped in half. Tatsu had already taken away the chains.

Kakashi stood in front of them, tilting his head as he glanced at the Mist Village Headbands on their foreheads.

"Missing-nin from the Mist Village." Kakashi's tone was as lazy as ever. "Who are you working for?"

Meitou spat out a mouthful of blood and turned his head away.

"You think we'd tell you?"

Yetou let out a cold laugh.

"We've been professionally trained. No matter what you do, you won't get a single word out of us."

Kakashi sighed and scratched the back of his head. Interrogation really wasn't his forte.

"Sakura." Kakashi turned his head.

"Do you know any interrogation techniques? You studied Medical Ninjutsu with Lady Tsunade, right? Maybe something you learned could come in handy."

"Do you mean the technique that attacks the enemy's meridians to make them suffer?" Sakura shook her head.

"Lady Tsunade asked if I wanted to learn it, but I didn't feel I'd mastered what she'd already taught me, so I put it off."

"Now I kind of regret that," Sakura added honestly.

"Then there's nothing we can do." Kakashi turned to the two Root members standing nearby.

"Tatsu, Mi, Root should have training in interrogation, right? Do either of you know how?"

Tatsu, who wore a Fox Mask, turned his head and exchanged a glance with Mi, who wore a Badger Mask.

Then Tatsu turned back. His voice came from behind the mask. "Kakashi-senpai, we're in the reconnaissance unit."

Mi picked up where he left off. "Interrogation is the Intelligence Division's job. We can track targets, counter surveillance, map terrain, and mark targets, but questioning prisoners isn't our specialty."

"Reconnaissance, huh... Did Danzo really send you here to help Sasuke and the others?"

Tatsu and Mi didn't answer.

Kakashi rubbed his forehead.

He glanced at Sakura, then at the two Anbu, and finally at Naruto, who was crouched by the roadside playing with pebbles.

Naruto jolted when Kakashi looked at him and sprang to his feet. "Kakashi-sensei, you're not going to make me interrogate them, are you?"

"Sure! I'll beat them until they're begging to tell us everything!"

"Forget it."

Sasuke stepped out from the back of the group.

He stood in front of the two missing-nin and looked down at them.

"I'll give it a try."

Kakashi turned, raising an eyebrow. Sasuke was just as eager and proactive as the Third Hokage had said.

"What are you planning to—"

He stopped halfway through his sentence when he met Sasuke's eyes.

Three black tomoe slowly revolved in the red irises.

Kakashi's left eye, hidden beneath his Forehead Protector, began to burn faintly. The familiar ocular power made him feel momentarily dazed.

His right eye watched Sasuke's Sharingan for a moment, then curved into a smile.

"Ah, you've reached the Three-Tomoe Sharingan."

Kakashi's tone was much the same as when they'd discussed interrogation, but now it held a note of approval.

He didn't ask Sasuke how he'd awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

"Are you willing to let me handle this now?" Sasuke's voice was flat. It was a statement, not a question.

"I knew you had the Sharingan. I just didn't expect you to have advanced this far already."

It was expected, but faster than he'd anticipated.

Kakashi pulled his hand from his pocket and casually waved it toward Meitou and Yetou.

"Then I'll leave it to you."

After speaking, he turned and patted Sakura and Naruto on the shoulders.

Sakura understood and stepped back. Naruto, however, craned his neck, hoping to watch.

"Come on, come on. Quit trying to get a look."

Kakashi herded Naruto and Sakura dozens of meters down the road, stopping behind a fallen, dead tree.

Tatsu and Mi silently led Tazuna after him. Both of them turned their backs to Sasuke and kept watch toward the forest.

Sakura sat on the dead tree, unconsciously pinching the clasp on her ninja tool pouch.

Naruto sat beside her with her hand gripping the back of his collar, still muttering about why he couldn't watch.

Under the cedar by the roadside, only Sasuke and the two bound missing-nin remained.

Meitou leaned against the trunk and looked up at the three tomoe slowly turning in Sasuke's eyes.

His Adam's apple bobbed, but he was still trying to act tough.

"The Three-Tomoe Sharingan? Who are you trying to scare? I told you, we've had special training. No matter what genjutsu you use, you won't—"

Yetou cut in, his voice louder than before, as if he were trying to bolster his own courage.

"Exactly! No genjutsu can affect us! We've practiced resisting hypnosis thousands of times."

Sasuke looked at them without saying a word.

The Sharingan. When he'd combed through the Uchiha Clan's notes at the Konoha Library, he'd found scattered references to the conditions for awakening it.

Extreme emotional upheaval—grief, anger, hatred. When negative emotions like these struck the brain, they stimulated the Sharingan's awakening and evolution.

Jujutsu Sorcerers were never short on negative emotions.

He condensed Cursed Energy every day, so naturally, negative emotions were everywhere in him.

He also couldn't forget that his sister had died at Sukuna's hands, or that Gojo-sensei had been cut in half.

It was only natural that the Three-Tomoe Sharingan had awakened after all those things were churned together and crammed into his mind.

But he still had no idea how to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan.

The Uchiha's notes contained only a few scattered lines about how awakening the Mangekyō required an even more extreme mental shock.

What kind of shock, specifically, was unknown.

Still, there was no rush. The Sharingan was already useful enough.

Its ability to observe the flow of chakra through techniques and predict an enemy's muscle movements in battle was so similar to the Six Eyes.

The Sharingan lacked the Six Eyes' 360-degree, wide-range vision, and it couldn't drastically reduce Cursed Energy consumption.

But the Uchiha Clan had large chakra reserves, which made up for the difference in efficiency.

Only one person in the entire world could possess the Six Eyes at a time. In this generation, it was Gojo-sensei.

But in this world, something like the Six Eyes had become a Kekkei Genkai possessed by an entire clan. They were practically mass-producing the Six Eyes.

If there were a clan in the Jujutsu Society where everyone had the Six Eyes, could the Gojo Clan stand for that? Wouldn't the Zenin Clan go mad?

They'd probably fight until they were at each other's throats.

So the reason for the Uchiha Clan Massacre was obvious.

Meitou and Yetou sensed something strange in Sasuke's silence, but neither of them took it seriously.

What could a Konoha brat of around ten years old possibly do?

Meitou grinned, baring bloodstained teeth. "What does a brat like you know about interrogation? You think you can make us talk with a little genjutsu?"

"We told you, we've been professionally trained!"

Sasuke's gaze shifted from Meitou to the thick shadow pooled at his own feet.

"Then let's begin. Sharingan!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he raised his head and fixed his Three-Tomoe Sharingan on the two men.

Meitou and Yetou's bodies stiffened at the same time. Their pupils lost focus, three tomoe slowly revolved deep within them, and the blood vessels in their eyes spread outward in layer after layer.

When they opened their eyes again, they found themselves standing in a pitch-black realm.

There was no ground beneath their feet, no sky above them. Pure blackness surrounded them on every side.

Yetou's breathing quickened. "W-what is this place?"

"This is his genjutsu?" Meitou sneered, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb.

"It looks scary, but it's nothing special. A brat's still a brat. He can't even use genjutsu—"

Before he could finish, light appeared ahead.

A man slowly emerged from the darkness.

His upper body was bare, and extensive black markings covered his skin.

A white hakama was tied around his waist. His bare feet stepped across empty space, and with every step, the shadows beneath him sank inward, sending out faint ripples.

His short pink hair was slicked back, revealing his entire face.

He had four eyes: two in the usual places and two more slanted open at the sides of his eyes.

He grinned, baring a full set of teeth. His canines were longer than an ordinary man's.

Then he raised his right hand, pressed two fingers together, and aimed their tips at Meitou.

"Dismantle."