"Mangekyo Sharingan?"
Naruto looked into his eyes and spoke without thinking.
"So you know about it."
"Just the name, and that it has all sorts of strange abilities... Why did only one eye change? How did you awaken it?"
"I don't know. It just happened out of nowhere early this morning... That's not important. Don't think you can pry my trump cards out of me."
"Why so stingy?"
"Stingy? You've never told us about your trump cards. Why should I lay everything out for you?"
"...Then how about a deal? I'll let you in on something. I have a really powerful move, so how about you tell me what that eye can do?"
"In your dreams!" Sasuke replied irritably. In truth, though, he was just as curious about the change in his eye. According to what Itachi had told him back then, awakening the Mangekyō required killing his closest friend to trigger it.
So Sasuke, who had always pursued greater strength, had naturally... never considered the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
For one thing, he would never hurt his closest friend. For another—
If he had enough power to kill that closest friend of his, what would he even need the Mangekyō Sharingan for?
"Fine, don't tell me. Want to go see how things turned out with Neji?"
"...Let's go."
Meanwhile, somewhere far from Konoha, a figure suddenly burst out of the ground—a strange humanoid whose body was half black and half white.
"I got careless. It's been too long since I used a White Zetsu body. I actually let someone detect me... I thought splitting up would help, but instead I lost Shisui Uchiha's body. Damn it! I finally had someone more suitable to control than Madara or Obito, so how did it..."
Black Zetsu—or Zetsu, as he should