Uchiha Ye's eyes snapped open on the narrow, single-person bed. Cold sweat had already soaked through his thin pajamas, dripping in heavy beads from his forehead onto the yellowed sheets.
There were no stars outside. Thick, dark clouds blotted out the moon, and all of Konoha lay shrouded in a stifling, deathly silence.
What finally made sense of his situation was the flood of memories that surged into his mind seconds later, piecing themselves together at last.
He had transmigrated.
And not only had he landed in the world of Naruto, he had also become Uchiha Ye, a thoroughly unremarkable Chunin in the Konoha Military Police Force.
It was a name destined to meet a grisly end.
From the scraps of information in his mind, the clan's strongest fighter, known as Body Flicker Shisui, had been declared dead yesterday. The entire Uchiha Clan was now gripped by a feverish, irrational fervor.
The hardliners were plotting a rebellion in the dead of night, ready to break with the Konoha High Command for good. The one still naively praying for an impossible peace was the clan head, Uchiha Fugaku.
Most damning of all was Uchiha Itachi, who claimed to uphold the Will of Fire. By now, he had likely already reached that brutal agreement with the Konoha High Command to wipe out the clan.
It was a dead end.
No matter how carefully Uchiha Ye considered it, there was only one fate waiting for him.
If he stayed, no one would survive the Uchiha Clan Massacre Night. Itachi and Obito would kill every living person with Uchiha blood, while reporting the clan's rebellion to the Konoha High Command would be suicide.
Shimura Danzō would never leave a single Uchiha alive. They would gouge out his eyes and dump him in a sewer—that was the only outcome.
Running away was impossible, too. The perimeter of the Uchiha Compound was already dotted with Anbu and Root surveillance posts. Anyone who crossed the boundary would be killed on sight.
Ye rubbed his aching temples, his expression turning cold.
The Will of Fire, sacrificing oneself for the greater good—it was all an excuse the Konoha High Command used to hide their greed and fear. In their eyes, the Uchiha Clan's blood was nothing but a bargaining chip for more power.
As he rapidly considered the slim chances of escaping this predicament, a mechanical voice rang out without warning from deep within his consciousness.
"Ding! The host is facing a life-or-death crisis. The God-Level Choice System has been activated."
"Option One: Inform the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, and betray the clan by revealing its rebellion plans. Reward: the Konoha-exclusive title, Inheritor of the Will of Fire. Predicted outcome: killed by Shimura Danzō, who will gouge out your eyes."
"Option Two: Kneel and beg Uchiha Itachi for mercy, willingly serving as an informant. Reward: Sharingan upgraded directly to Three-Tomoe. Predicted outcome: killed by Obito Uchiha's spatial attack, leaving no remains."
"Option Three: Reject the brainwashing and abandon the Will of Fire. Defect from the village at once and carve a path out by force. Reward: Hashirama's Perfect Sage Body and awakening of the Mangekyō Sharingan."
Uchiha Ye looked at the three options that had appeared before his eyes. He didn't hesitate for a moment.
"Option Three. What the hell is there to think about?"
Join their side, only to be eliminated by the people above? Only the brainless idiots from the original story would do something like that. If Konoha wouldn't let him live, he'd use these eyes to tear the village down.
"Ding! Choice confirmed."
"Reward distribution in progress."
The moment the voice ended, an immense surge of life energy erupted without warning from deep within Ye's heart.
This wasn't ordinary chakra. It was pure life energy.
His bones began to crack.
The sound of bones shifting rang through Ye's body as the vast energy coursed through his veins. The muscles that had suffered minor injuries from years of patrols were forcibly torn apart, then rapidly healed, new tissue growing in their place.
His breathing grew heavy. With every breath, Natural Energy from the surrounding air was forcibly drawn through the pores of his body, while the impurities on his skin were quickly burned away by his hot blood.
His entire body was undergoing an intense transformation. Growing rapidly within his body was the Perfect Sage Body that had allowed Hashirama Senju to dominate an era.
Just as his physical strength reached its peak, the vast Yang Release Chakra surged into his brain and poured through his optic nerves into his eyes.
Ye let out a muffled groan and clapped both hands over his eyes.
They were burning hot.
His eyeballs radiated an intense heat. The sharp pain made him grit his teeth, but he forced himself to stay silent. Through the unbearable agony, his One-Tomoe Sharingan began to undergo an unmistakable structural change.
A Tomoe appeared in his pupils.
Then a second.
Three Tomoe spun faster and faster, glowing red in the darkness. At last, they joined end to end as they whirled, forming a complex, three-bladed pinwheel.
The Mangekyō Sharingan had awakened.
Ye slowly lowered his hands and opened his eyes.
He could see the dark room with perfect clarity: tiny particles in the air, minute insects between the grain of the wooden boards, even the faint traces of chakra moving far beyond the walls.
More importantly, he felt none of the pain from optic nerve damage that ordinary members of the Uchiha Clan suffered when they awakened the Mangekyō. The immense vitality of the Sage Body was continuously nourishing his eyes, completely eliminating the side effect of blindness.
As his eyes evolved, two vast and intricate streams of information appeared directly in his mind.
They were the unique powers granted by his Mangekyō.
His left eye was called Kuninotokotachi.
It was an extraordinarily powerful mental technique. By making eye contact, he could ignore any Sealing Jutsu and forcibly read the deepest memories in someone's mind. He could even alter those memories at will and strip away their five senses, leaving an enemy utterly unable to fight back.
His right eye was called Yomotsu Hirasaka.
This ability let him control the flow of time within an illusionary space. Once he pulled an enemy into that space, he could decide the ratio of time inside it. A single second might pass in the outside world.
Yet the enemy would endure a long period of mental torment within the illusionary space. This distortion of time would eventually cause their mind to collapse completely.
Ye rolled his neck, making his joints crack. He could tell that a single blow from him would be enough to destroy this entire old wooden dormitory.
The chakra reserves inside him were enormous.
Just as he slowly drew his chakra back into his body—
Knock, knock, knock.
Three emotionless, mechanical knocks sounded abruptly in the silent corridor.
They weren't very loud, but they stood out clearly in the quiet room.
Ye's gaze turned icy. The three-bladed pinwheel of his Mangekyō disappeared, and his eyes returned to their ordinary black.
"Open up! Anyone in there? Anbu inspection. There's some commotion outside the village, and Lord Hokage ordered us to check the roster and see where everyone who's off duty is."
A hoarse voice came from outside.
With his keen senses, Ye could tell that the people beyond the paper door weren't Anbu at all.
The chakra inside the two men was dark and cold, the hallmark of the emotionless Root killers under Shimura Danzō. More tellingly, two sharp Ninja Blades were already pressed silently against the edge of the paper door, ready to strike.
The moment he opened it, the blades would pierce his vital organs.
Ordinary Anbu didn't conduct inspections like this.
The Konoha High Command couldn't wait for the night of the massacre. They were using underhanded methods to eliminate isolated, peripheral members of the Uchiha Clan like him in advance, weakening the clan's overall strength.
The room was still unusually warm from the burst of chakra, while the killing intent from outside seeped steadily through the cracks in the door.
Ye stood beside the bed, took a moment to steady himself, then pulled on a black shirt. He headed straight for the thin paper door with nothing but his bare hands. His expression was calm, and his voice gave nothing away in the darkness.
"It's unlocked. Open the damn door yourselves."
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