*Thud, thud, thud…*
The sky was gloomy and dark. A black-haired man walked slowly down the street under the varied gazes of the people around him, faint sparks of electric blue light occasionally flaring from his body.
The man was bruised and battered, his clothes torn and ragged, his hair sticking up wildly. Blood stained his body, and he was covered in dust. He clutched his dangling left arm with his right hand, walking unsteadily, clearly injured.
"Hiss… Whose kid is this? Tsk, tsk, tsk, so pitiful."
"Don't know, but judging by his appearance, he must have suffered a lot. I really don't know how he's grown this big."
"He looks like he might have been struck by lightning by accident. There are still some burnt parts on him. So tough."
"Yeah, sigh."
Listening to the street aunties chattering from both sides of the road, Sasuke's already grim face turned even darker. He couldn't help but regret why he had bothered Neji. It seemed nothing good ever happened when he ran into him.
"From now on, I must stay far away from that guy," Sasuke thought, gritting his teeth.
He finally managed to escape the pitying glances from the people on the street that made him want to scream, and Sasuke arrived at a secluded, narrow path. Just then, someone attacked him from behind. He was hit on the back of the head with a brick.
"I…" Sasuke instinctively wanted to curse, but as soon as he uttered the first sound, he was hit on the back of the head with another brick, rendering him completely unconscious.
"This guy's resilience is really strong, especially after being so badly injured just now," a young man with a dog on his head exclaimed in surprise. He then threw away the brick in his hand and dragged Sasuke into an alley.
"Done," Inuzuka Kiba pulled down his hat and tossed Sasuke into the middle of the group.
"Uh, you guys kidnapped my student right under my nose. Have you considered my feelings at all?" Kakashi asked with a wry smile, scratching his punk-rock hairstyle.
"No," everyone said in unison.
"Oh." Kakashi felt the impact, but luckily his skin was thicker than a city wall, so he didn't care too much.
Still, an elite jonin participating in a criminal activity called kidnapping with the future pillars of Konoha… it sounded quite exciting.
"By the way, Neji, what are you going to do?" Tenten asked curiously.
Everyone else also looked at Neji.
"I'm going to make Sasuke awaken his Mangekyo Sharingan," Neji said softly, looking around with a mysterious air.
"Awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan!" everyone exclaimed in unison. Their voices were so loud they woke Sasuke up.
Sasuke slowly opened his eyes, groggily asking, "Where is this?"
"Go back to sleep," Neji said without hesitation. Grabbing a brick from who-knew-where, he brought it down on Sasuke with outrageous force, knocking him out again.
Everyone fell silent…
"Keep your voices down," Neji reminded them.
"But, Neji, do you know how to unlock the Mangekyo Sharingan?" Sakura asked in a hushed tone.
Neji nodded and explained, "The conditions for unlocking the Mangekyo Sharingan are not difficult, nor are they easy. The simplest way to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan is to kill the person closest to you."
"What?!" The young heroes instinctively cried out. Such a cruel condition?!
This time, their voices were even louder than before, waking Sasuke up again.
However, Neji was quick. He firmly brought his brick down with a clang. Stars shot from Sasuke's eyes, and he passed out once more.
At this point, one could see a lump already forming on Sasuke's head.
"Let me finish," Neji said in a low voice. "Regarding this, Kakashi should understand the most, because that's how he got his Mangekyo."
Hmm? Everyone's lips twitched slightly, and their gazes toward Kakashi trembled.
"Kakashi-sensei, you…" Sakura asked incredulously. Kakashi-sensei, who always said 'I won't let anyone hurt my comrades,' had actually killed the person closest to him.
"Ah." Kakashi's eyes darkened. He would never forgive himself for what happened to Rin, nor did he want to explain.
"You might have misunderstood something," Neji said. "Kakashi's teammate was forced to become the Three-Tails Jinchuriki and was controlled by enemies to destroy Konoha. To prevent Konoha from being implicated, Kakashi's teammate deliberately ran into Kakashi's Raikiri while Kakashi was fighting the enemy."
"Oh." Everyone suddenly understood, breathed a sigh of relief, and began to comfort Kakashi. However, Kakashi still seemed a bit down.
Seeing this, Neji didn't know how to console him. Should he tell him that Obito was alive? If so, Kakashi would probably explode with anger.
He had mourned for him for most of his life, only to find out the guy was lurking behind him all along.
"So that's how it is. Killing the person closest to you… In that case, Neji, you're not planning to make Sasuke kill Itachi, are you?!" Shikamaru asked, looking at Neji with his dead-fish eyes.
"Aren't you hailed as Konoha's genius strategist? If I really wanted Sasuke to kill Itachi, would I need to hide Itachi?" Neji retorted. "Besides, sacrificing Itachi to get Sasuke is a terrible deal."
Yes, in Neji's eyes, Itachi's talent was far superior to Sasuke's; the only difference was their background.
Shikamaru nodded and continued, "Then how are you going to help Sasuke awaken his Mangekyo?"
"This will require both Itachi and me to work together," Neji said with a slight smile. "The Uchiha Clan understands 'love' the most, but an excessively strong love carries the possibility of going berserk."
"As the saying goes, the deeper the love, the fiercer the hate. This is perfectly embodied by the Uchiha Clan. Once the Uchiha Clan loses what they love, their power will go berserk, and this is the key to awakening their eyes. Eyes are the windows to the soul; the stronger the hatred in one's heart, the higher the pupil power."
"Therefore, I believe that awakening the Mangekyo only requires some kind of stimulation, not necessarily personally killing someone."
Think about Obito. He awakened his Mangekyo simultaneously with Kakashi only after witnessing Nohara Rin's death.
"Oh, I get it," Ino said, clapping her hand as if she had a revelation. "Neji, you're planning to team up with Itachi and trap Sasuke in an illusion."
"That's right. In the illusion, we'll re-enact Sasuke's life, reliving the carefree days of Sasuke and Itachi as children, as well as the night of the massacre," Neji nodded. "In short, we must fully stir his emotions to have a chance of success."
"But if we try to use genjutsu on Sasuke, it'll be discovered quickly."
"That's why we need both Itachi and me," Neji suddenly activated his Byakugan. Instantly, a vortex appeared in mid-air, and a person in ragged robes was released from it.
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