If Sasuke's newly awakened Mangekyō ability had been the 'lethal' black flames of Amaterasu, he would have unleashed it relentlessly.
Even a stray dog crossing his path would have been hit with a blast of unquenchable fire!
Now, however, Sasuke's unique abilities were Heavenly Fox and Void Sight—pure clairvoyance and psychography.
Given his volatile personality, he naturally activated them the exact moment he was consumed by thoughts of bloody revenge.
And this catastrophic vision was the result!
Sasuke didn't have an eccentric preference for grandmas, he certainly did not believe that politicians were like fine wine, growing more refined with age.
The cursed sight nearly gave him a heart attack!
This was especially agonizing since his current Mangekyo specialized in impossibly enhanced, crystal-clear vision.
Only when looking at Makoto, or those directly connected to his supernatural interference, would a thick, censored fog obscure Sasuke's sight.
This unique trait paradoxically allowed Sasuke's Mangekyo to resist the inevitable side effect of blindness, even without harvesting Hashirama cells or undergoing a surgical transplant.
Overusing these tracking eyes would cause his normal vision to deteriorate, but activating the visual jutsu again would temporarily force his sight back to perfect, terrifying clarity.
It was akin to drinking poison to quench a raging thirst.
But none of the physical mechanics mattered right now.
What mattered was that Sasuke could see far too clearly.
Even the thick steam from the bathwater vanished completely before his penetrating gaze.
This Sharingan operated like a rule-based, overpowered Byakugan.
As long as Sasuke designated a target, and that target possessed no specific anti-espionage countermeasures, they would be displayed in their absolute, unvarnished entirety.
And simply closing his physical eyelids was useless.
The image bypassed his retinas!
He had to forcibly deactivate the chakra fueling the jutsu itself!
"AAAAHHH!"
Sasuke screamed and covered his eyes, but the cursed image remained seared into his bleeding brain.
If he hadn't clung to his last shred of sanity, he might have physically gouged his own eyeballs out with his bare hands.
Even more horrifying, the elderly Koharu Utatane was holding a small, vibrating toy.
Sasuke recognized the brand logo on it—he had seen the exact same device in Naruto's possession not too long ago!
"So this is your Mangekyō's ability?" Itachi asked, calmly holding up the freshly materialized photograph.
This was the first time he had seen his brother demonstrate his new power.
Though seemingly non-offensive, the tracking ability made Itachi incredibly proud.
An intelligence-gathering jutsu like this was absolutely perfect for the Konoha Military Police Force.
There would be no case Sasuke couldn't solve, no hidden criminal he couldn't catch from across the globe.
He could inherit the Uchiha Clan's glory and bring it to a new heights within the constabulary!
As for the explicit contents of the photograph? Itachi's eyes was already nearly blind.
Unless an object was held right up to his nose, the world was just a vague, impressionistic blur of colors.
In his failing eyes, he could only vaguely make out a flesh-toned silhouette in the photo.
But his genius intellect had already deduced the context, and he had absolutely no intention of squinting closer to subject himself to that psychological trauma.
"Haaa... haaa..."
Sasuke finally recovered his breath, panting heavily on the floor.
He felt that if he endured any more of this visual horror, his heart might actually give out.
When he first woke from his anesthetized state, he had been frantic.
His last conscious memory before passing out in the dirt was of a golden-cloaked Naruto approaching him with a feral, predatory grin.
Most importantly, upon waking up in the medical facility, he did feel a distinct, lingering soreness in a very particular area.
But before Sasuke could dwell on the terrifying implications of that soreness, he opened his eyes to see Itachi, who immediately dragged him into the Tsukuyomi to reveal the grim truth of the clan massacre.
Right after processing that betrayal, he activated his new eyes and saw Koharu Utatane bathing.
This seamless, rapid-fire barrage of psychological blows gave Sasuke zero chance to breathe.
"The Hokage wants to use us to assassinate those two elders?" Sasuke's gaze finally fell back to the mission scroll his brother had handed him.
The middle section of the parchment was covered by the cursed photograph, rendering the text illegible.
But this was a highly classified mission that couldn't be officially recorded anyway, so ruining the scroll didn't matter.
"That is correct," Uchiha Itachi confirmed in a low, solemn voice. "Konoha's high-ranking elders have become stubborn obstacles to the new era. For the village to develop steadily and move toward a prosperous future, this is a necessary sacrifice."
Mitokado Homura and Koharu Utatane were notoriously shrewd opportunists.
They would yield respectfully to a strong Hokage and aggressively seize political power from a weak one.
After sensing Tsunade's overwhelming strength and learning of Danzo's timely demise, the two fossils had remained completely docile.
But it didn't matter since Tsunade had an unfair advantage in intelligence.
She had learned from Makoto's future that these two were incredibly long-lived.
They would survive all the way to the era of the Eighth Hokage, still capable of stirring up bureaucratic trouble alongside the Land of Fire's daimyo!
After learning this future spoiler, Tsunade firmly decided to eliminate the two old parasites.
Did being shrewd make them untouchable? Not a chance.
If a corrupt politician can perfectly avoid leaving any evidence of their crimes, it simply means they have mastered the dark arts of corruption to their absolute peak.
By the same logic, the fact that these two elders perfectly evaded every legal pretext for their removal meant they had rehearsed their political survival strategies countless times.
Tsunade could ensure she never gave them a political opening, and her handpicked successor, Kakashi, wouldn't be swayed by them either.
If Kakashi took charge, his eventual successor could likely do the same.
But who could guarantee these immortal parasites would be suppressed forever?
A treacherous minister only survived executions because he was ultimately useful to the state.
These two old fossils were utterly useless.
They had made zero tangible contributions to the village in decades.
You couldn't just let them sit on the council draining resources simply because there was no convenient legal excuse to execute them.
It was as irritating as having shards of glass in your boots.
Tsunade, operating fully in the darkness as Hokage, assigned this mission to Itachi precisely to remove this tumor.
It also served two brilliant secondary purposes.
If Sasuke abandoned his path of revenge, Itachi would carry out the assassination himself.
A wanted S-rank rogue ninja returning to Konoha to murder two of its high-ranking elders? It was a perfectly airtight narrative.
This crime would also permanently prevent Itachi from officially returning to Konoha or even entertaining the naive thought of it.
From Tsunade's pragmatic perspective, with Konoha and the Hidden Rain now acting as allies, Itachi's affiliation with the Akatsuki was a perfect arrangement.
If he returned to the light, the political friction would be a nightmare.
Besides, having a loyal, invisible blade like him operating in the underworld was vastly more useful.
He might be needed for similar work in the future.
If Sasuke remained fixated on revenge, then he could slaughter the two elders to vent his simmering rage and find closure—though the bloody deed would still be publicly credited to Itachi's infamous ledger.
"Have you decided?" Itachi asked quietly.
"YES." Sasuke clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white.
He still chose the path of revenge!
"Then, let us transplant my eyes into you first."
"WHAT?!" Sasuke stared at his brother in utter disbelief.
"Do you remember what Makoto explained about the Sharingan's evolution? Only by absorbing the visual power of a blood relative's Mangekyo can you awaken the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. Only then will your ocular power advance, allowing you to wield your visual jutsu and the Susanoo without the looming threat of blindness." Itachi gently jogged Sasuke's memory.
"Don't worry," Itachi added smoothly, perfectly anticipating his little brother's concern. "I have a spare pair of eyes for myself."
"Are they Shisui's eyes? But... they are not your own..." Sasuke still couldn't bring himself to agree to the mutilation.
Using harvested eyes that aren't your original ones must feel incredibly awkward.
Besides, won't you still go blind eventually if you use them too much?
"..."
Fortunately, Itachi wasn't blindly obsessed with hoarding power.
Anyone else in his exact position would probably be screaming internally: 'Damn it, just agree to the surgery already so I can go play with the god-tier Rinnegan!'
In truth, Itachi hadn't even planned on transplanting the Rinnegan the time-traveling adult Sasuke had gifted him.
He only intended to unseal that overwhelming power if the Ōtsutsuki invaded and he truly needed it to protect the world.
Because of his selfless restraint, Itachi had almost forgotten he currently possessed both of Uchiha Shisui's original eyes until Sasuke brought it up.
The Second Hokage had surgically snatched them back from Danzo with the Flying Thunder God Technique right before the old tyrant breathed his last!
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