Eagle's death had quietly deepened the rift between the Uchiha Clan and Konoha.
Uchiha Sora had also noticed that almost all the ANBU missions assigned to him were trivial. This meant the Third Hokage had grown deeply suspicious of him.
Looks like I need to make plans early! I've repeatedly taken care not to get involved in certain matters, but the plot may no longer be unfolding the way I imagined.
That day, after thinking things over, Uchiha Sora went straight to Uchiha Izumi's home.
The next day, Uchiha Izumi and her daughter disappeared from the Uchiha Clan.
Although their disappearance prompted some inquiries, the two had never attracted much attention, so the matter soon faded away.
Meanwhile, Fugaku's exclusionary attitude within the Uchiha Clan grew increasingly pronounced.
On the surface, however, he continued to maintain cordial relations with the Konoha High Command. Uchiha Itachi was even serving in Danzo's Root and performing exceptionally well.
The situation as a whole had become extremely delicate.
Everyone appeared to be fulfilling their duties and getting along, but beneath the surface, turmoil brewed and schemes unfolded.
Ding! Your Sharingan has finally developed a new talent! 100% Damage Amplification awakened!
That day, Uchiha Sora finally received the talent his Sharingan had been developing.
"It's been over half a year. My Sharingan, you've finally developed a new talent!" Uchiha Sora couldn't help remarking.
As its name suggested, 100% Damage Amplification doubled the power of any technique he used while his Sharingan was active!
Applied to ordinary nature transformation techniques, this talent might not offer much beyond making his ninjutsu more powerful than other people's.
But applied to genjutsu or certain trump-card dōjutsu, its power would be lethal.
Take his previous encounter with Orochimaru, for example. Orochimaru had still been able to speak while under Uchiha Sora's genjutsu, which showed that its power hadn't quite been sufficient.
But if he used the Binding Technique on Orochimaru now, the man wouldn't even be able to blink!
And that was only with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. Once he awakened his Mangekyō, his Mangekyō dōjutsu would undoubtedly be more powerful than ordinary ones!
Even setting that aside, with Damage Amplification, a Rasengan formed using the same amount of chakra would be twice as powerful as before!
With this talent, I'll be even stronger in the current situation! Uchiha Sora thought.
Ding! Through tireless effort, your Flying Thunder God Technique has finally completed its second stage of training!
"Excellent! Good things really do come in pairs!" Uchiha Sora was delighted.
Completing the Flying Thunder God Technique: Second Stage meant his Flying Thunder God Technique had finally entered its mature phase.
Moreover, the range at which he could sense his technique markings had suddenly expanded to two thousand kilometers.
Two thousand kilometers was enough to cross the entire Land of Fire and reach the Land of Wind.
"Now I just need Impure World Reincarnation to finish its automatic training. Its progress has been slow, though. Maybe I could go talk to Orochimaru." Uchiha Sora's thoughts returned to the forbidden technique.
For now, however, he still needed to focus on the Uchiha Clan's affairs.
He had already warned Shisui. Given Shisui's strength, Danzo should have been unable to hurt him as long as he remained on guard.
Yet Uchiha Sora couldn't shake the unease in his heart.
That feeling grew particularly strong when he heard that Shisui had been sent alone on an S-rank mission.
So he sought out Kakashi to ask for information. "Captain Kakashi, do you know where Captain Shisui went for his latest mission?"
Kakashi shook his head. "I heard it was an S-rank mission. A mission like that would surely be classified, right? Apart from Lord Hokage, even I wouldn't know the details."
"All right." Uchiha Sora nodded.
Having failed to learn anything about Shisui, Uchiha Sora had no other options for the moment.
Hopefully, I'm just worrying over nothing!
Uchiha Sora walked down the street, suppressing his unease.
Suddenly, a flock of crows flew toward him from the distant sky.
One of them plunged straight toward Uchiha Sora.
Uchiha Sora's gaze sharpened. In a flash, he leaped up and caught the crow.
Upon taking a closer look, Uchiha Sora's heart sank.
"This is Shisui's Summoning Black Crow!"
"And this one is special!"
He immediately noticed something unusual. Just then, the crow turned its head, revealing the eye on its other side!
"This is Shisui's Mangekyō Sharingan!" Uchiha Sora nearly cried out.
Whoosh!
The next second, he activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and vanished from the street.
When he reappeared, he was already back home.
"Tell me, what happened to Shisui?" Uchiha Sora asked, staring at the black crow.
The Summoning Black Crow clearly understood human speech. Although it couldn't speak, a surge of ocular power suddenly emanated from Shisui's Four-Pointed Windmill Mangekyō.
The moment Uchiha Sora met its gaze, he was pulled into an illusion.
Within the illusion, Shisui stood before him with his eyes shut. Both eye sockets were sunken, making it clear that his eyes had been gouged out.
"Is that you, Sora?" the Shisui in the illusion asked.
"It's me!" Uchiha Sora answered.
He knew the Shisui before him was merely an illusion sequence Shisui had prepared in advance.
"Ah, Sora, I'm sorry. I was careless!" Shisui shook his head and sighed. "I still underestimated Danzo's resolve. Although I guarded against his Izanagi, I never expected him to have another accomplice! Danzo took one of my eyes."
"Sora, you must be careful. The man who helped Danzo gravely injure me also has the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan, and he can use Wood Release!"
"His Mangekyō possesses a strange spatial ability. It's terrifying!"
"Although our fight was brief, I figured out his ability. If you encounter him, be sure to watch out! His Mangekyō lets him shift his body freely between the real world and another dimension. While he's in that dimension, you can see him but can't hit him. However, the instant he attacks, he becomes completely solid!"
"So if you run into him, you'll need a Body Flicker Technique even faster than mine to defeat him!"
"That's the information I have on him. Aside from that, among those involved in this ambush, there was more than just Danzo and that man. I also sensed the Third Hokage in the distance. He didn't act, but since he was nearby, whether he acted no longer matters."
Shisui gave a bitter smile. "I never imagined that I, Shisui Uchiha, would one day be betrayed by my own superior."
After a pause, he continued:
"Sora, you must promise me what I'm about to ask!"
"I'm afraid I won't be coming back alive this time. Fortunately, I managed to save my other Mangekyō. As Danzo and that man said, the ability of these eyes shouldn't exist in this world. But now, I'm entrusting this eye to you!"
"I don't want you to avenge me, nor do I want you to rebel against Konoha because of me. All I hope is that you'll use this eye to protect the peace in your heart!"
"Also, I prepared a suicide note. Memorize it, then copy its contents and handwriting and deliver it to the clan leader." The Shisui within the illusion conjured the note, displaying its contents before Sora.
Uchiha Sora committed every detail to memory.
The note was simple. It stated that Shisui had grown weary of the scheming and of being trapped between the clan and the village leadership. To him, suicide was a release.
At the end of the note, Shisui also bid Uchiha Itachi a final farewell.
"All right, Sora. This illusion is nearly out of time, and we must say goodbye forever! Now I'll tell you how to seal the Summoning Black Crow."
Finally, Shisui bid Sora farewell and explained the sealing method to Uchiha Sora.
After leaving the illusion, Uchiha Sora drew a deep breath.
Facing the combined forces of Obito Uchiha and Danzo, with the Third Hokage secretly standing by, Shisui Uchiha had still managed to send out his remaining eye and analyze Obito's ability. Such strength truly lived up to his title as the strongest Uchiha.
Unfortunately, Shisui had no Space-Time Ninjutsu. Escape would have been nearly impossible.
Uchiha Sora was almost certain that Shisui was already dead!
After a moment of silence, he formed several hand signs and pressed his hand against the Summoning Black Crow before him.
The Summoning Black Crow transformed into a stream of chakra and flowed onto Sora's left wrist, forming a black mark shaped like a crow's head.
Within the crow's eye was a four-pointed windmill mark.
Once the seal was released, the Summoning Black Crow would reappear, carrying Shisui's Mangekyō.
When it was done, Uchiha Sora's expression was frighteningly calm, while a terrifying surge of ocular power seemed to lurk within his Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
Suddenly!
Ding! A dear friend has met with tragedy, and the host is feeling terrible! To offer its condolences, your Sharingan has evolved into the Mangekyō Sharingan!!
The system's voice rang out.
The three black tomoe in Uchiha Sora's Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun rapidly, gradually merging into a distinctive pattern.
The pattern was sharply angular-a hexagram!
"Heh. I didn't expect my Mangekyō Sharingan to appear so soon!" Uchiha Sora murmured.
He couldn't tell whether hearing what had happened to Shisui had shocked him into awakening it or whether the system had helped him do so.
At that moment, awakening the Mangekyō did nothing to improve his mood.
"Obito Uchiha, Danzo, Hiruzen Sarutobi!" Uchiha Sora recited their names one by one.
He wouldn't spare a single one of them!
Before you continue