The Land of Fire – Konohagakure no Sato.
Seven years have passed since the fateful night the Nine-Tails attacked the village. Though Konoha has long been rebuilt from the destruction caused by Kurama's rampage and the fallout of the Third Great Ninja War, the surface peace hides the deep fractures left behind. The physical scars have vanished—but the invisible ones remain etched into the very foundation of the village.
To Uchiha Yue, walking silently through the streets, these invisible scars are not subtle at all. They glare at him from every side—resentment, suspicion, fear. Emotions thick in the air, a legacy of both war and politics.
"Heh… they say time heals all wounds, that compromise and patience will eventually win hearts. But seven years of bowed heads and empty smiles haven't won us a thing. The Uchiha are more isolated than ever. So much for reconciliation… No wonder the elders in the clan are growing desperate."
Yue's expression remains unreadable, but inwardly, he simmers. He can feel the tension all around him—masked behind the laughter of children, behind the careful nods of passing shinobi. The Uchiha clan's compound has become more of a gilded cage, placed at the edge of the village under the pretext of preserving peace. In truth, it's nothing more than surveillance.
More than that—Yue knows the truth. He knows that the Uchiha are running out of time.
"The Massacre… it's coming."
Konoha's leadership has already marked the Uchiha for purging. Yue, with his early Sharingan awakening and reputation as a rising prodigy, is surely on their list—an unpredictable variable that must be neutralized. There is no safety. Not with Danzo Shimura watching from the shadows, and not with the clan so divided between pride and resignation.
"If only Shisui hadn't trusted them."
Uchiha Yue's thoughts drift bitterly to Uchiha Shisui—the one hailed as "Shisui of the Body Flicker." A true genius and a loyal Konoha shinobi. Too loyal. Yue sneers inwardly. Shisui, with his unique Mangekyō Sharingan and the terrifying Kotoamatsukami—the most subtle of genjutsu, capable of rewriting a person's will without detection—had placed his trust in Sarutobi Hiruzen and the elders. That trust was a fatal mistake.
"If he'd kept the technique a secret, if he hadn't tried to change things with words alone… things wouldn't be this bad."
Instead, the revelation of Kotoamatsukami only deepened the elders' paranoia. In their eyes, a dojutsu that could control minds was unacceptable—even more so in the hands of an already mistrusted clan. Danzo, fearing its power, stole Shisui's eye and pushed him to the brink, eventually leading to Shisui's suicide. And from that, Uchiha Itachi—a child prodigy, manipulated by both loyalty and guilt—became the perfect weapon against his own clan.
"Naive. Both of them."
In Yue's eyes, Shisui's idealism and Itachi's misplaced loyalty handed the Uchiha to their executioners on a silver platter. Fugaku's lack of decisive leadership only sealed the deal. They had the cards to force a negotiation—or at least a real resistance. Instead, they gambled everything on peace that never came.
"Damn it… if I had remembered earlier. If only I'd awakened before this nightmare unfolded…"
Yue clenches his fist. He remembers now—his previous life as an ordinary man in a different world. No ninja, no chakra, just mundanity. His memories returned piecemeal through childhood, but fully awakened three months ago. Too late. The pieces of the puzzle locked into place only after the trap had nearly sprung.
The despair nearly broke him.
His emotions surged violently in those days, and in that storm of fear, anger, and helplessness, his Sharingan evolved directly from a single tomoe to the fully matured Three Tomoe state. A rare, jarring leap achieved only through sheer emotional upheaval. But it stopped there. He had hoped—briefly—that the trauma would push him to Mangekyō. It didn't.
"Sangō Sharingan… still not enough."
Yue laments it, though he's well aware: unlocking the Mangekyō requires a deeper agony—something even more painful than the knowledge of one's own impending death. Something irreversible.
Still, the leap in power was undeniable. His chakra control sharpened, his genjutsu and perception refined to a degree that placed him far above the level of any Genin. Even among Chūnin, he could now hold his own. Perhaps even Special Jōnin. The clarity of vision, the precision of movement—everything felt different.
"But it's not enough. Not for what's coming. Not to survive the massacre."
Three months of rigorous training had brought stability to his power. But Yue knows that with time running out, conventional training won't bridge the gap. If he's to stand a chance against what's coming—against Itachi, against the ANBU, against Root—then Mangekyō is his only path forward.
"I can't rely on anyone else. No family. No allies. Just this power… this cursed bloodline."
He had once dreamed of strength. Now he clings to it as his only salvation.
And the Sharingan—the eye of insight, the eye of illusion—holds the key. With each tomoe, Yue had climbed higher. But now, only Mangekyō could unlock the kind of leap he needed—awakening the true might of the Uchiha legacy.
That was the threshold.
The difference between prey and predator.
The difference between death in the darkness… or survival in the chaos to come.