Chapter 207: Extreme Emotions

Chapter 207: Chapter 207: Extreme Emotions

The Uchiha elites who had split up to search for traces soon regrouped.

Having found absolutely nothing, they exchanged bewildered looks, momentarily at a loss for what to do.

There was no doubt about it. No matter how meticulously they searched, they couldn’t find even the slightest trace.

The trail that had led them all the way here had abruptly come to an end.

Of everyone present, the most anxious was none other than Uchiha Hideki’s younger brother, Uchiha Ryota!

Normally, Ryota was fairly calm and collected, but right now, he was like a headless fly, wandering aimlessly around the area in a desperate attempt to find clues that simply didn’t exist.

With a gloomy expression, Fugaku ordered, "We’re pulling back. Return to the village!"

Disregarding Fugaku’s authority as clan head, Uchiha Ryota stepped forward and demanded, "Clan Head, are you saying you’re just going to abandon Hideki?!"

Fugaku shook his head.

Rather than getting angry, he patiently explained, "Without any clues, blindly pursuing them is meaningless. You should understand that."

In truth, Fugaku had another concern that he hadn’t voiced aloud.

The fact that Kamigami had repeatedly made moves inside the village meant that even if none of its official members were secretly lurking within Konoha, they almost certainly had informants there.

Right now, nearly all of the Uchiha clan’s elites had left the village to join the pursuit.

If Kamigami suddenly doubled back and launched another attack on the Uchiha clan while they were away...

The consequences would be unimaginable.

Uchiha Ryota clearly hadn’t realized what Fugaku was worried about. He pleaded, "Clan Head, if we expand the search area, we’ll definitely be able to find some clues!"

Fugaku’s expression hardened as he said sternly, "There’s something far too strange about this incident. We need to be even more cautious. Everyone returns to the village. That’s an order!"

Ryota still wanted to argue, but Fugaku shot Shisui a meaningful glance.

Shisui nodded.

Taking advantage of Ryota’s momentary distraction, he stepped forward and immediately placed him under a genjutsu.

After handing the unconscious Ryota over to another clansman, Fugaku swept his gaze across everyone and ordered, "Return to the village!"

Only then did Shisui, who had accompanied them throughout the pursuit, secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

Although he knew Hyuga Kagami definitely wouldn’t have left behind any clues, the entire pursuit had still kept him on edge.

However, his worries were clearly unnecessary.

In Tenseigan Chakra Mode, Hyuga Kagami’s flight speed was astonishingly fast. While the Uchiha elites were still assembling back in the village, Kagami had already safely arrived at the secret prison with Uchiha Hideki.

......

Inside the secret prison.

After injecting Uchiha Hideki with a large dose of anesthetic, Hyuga Kagami made his way to the study.

From the bookshelf, he took down a notebook with the words Uchiha Hideki written across its cover and spread it open on the desk.

Recalling what had happened earlier, he pondered for a moment before slowly beginning to write in the notebook.

"Uchiha Hideki possesses a relatively strong resistance to drugs. The cause is currently unknown, though I preliminarily suspect it may be related to his Sharingan..."

After pondering for a moment, Hyuga Kagami continued writing.

"His Sharingan appears to possess a special ability to resist drugs and sealing techniques. The specifics will require further research and investigation..."

Turning to another page, Kagami began writing beneath the section labeled Mangekyo Sharingan Project.

"During the anger test, Uchiha Hideki’s chakra reacted intensely, and the ocular power of his Sharingan also increased. However, he remains a considerable distance away from awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan..."

"Hypothesis One: ’Anger’ is not the optimal emotional stimulus for Uchiha Hideki to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan..."

"Hypothesis Two: The degree of ’anger’ induced during the test was insufficient to trigger the awakening of his Mangekyo Sharingan..."

At this point in his notes, Kagami paused his pen.

For a member of the Uchiha clan to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan, they had to undergo the stimulation of extreme emotions.

And there were actually many different kinds of these so-called extreme emotions.

Despair, grief, rage...

All of them fell into this category.

Based on all the successful cases of Mangekyo Sharingan awakening that Kagami currently knew of, the extreme emotion of despair appeared to have the highest probability of triggering an awakening.

Examples included Uchiha Obito, who had fallen into despair toward the entire world; Uchiha Shinichi, who had similarly succumbed to despair; and Uchiha Itachi, who witnessed Shisui’s suicide and fell into despair over his own clan.

All of them had successfully awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan after being subjected to the extreme emotion of despair.

Obito’s case was even more extraordinary.

He had skipped the crucial stage of the Three-Tomoe Sharingan altogether, unprecedentedly evolving directly from the Two-Tomoe Sharingan into the Mangekyo Sharingan.

This alone showed just how potent the extreme emotion of despair was in stimulating members of the Uchiha clan.

However, upon closer thought, creating circumstances capable of driving someone into such extreme despair was actually far from easy.

Obito himself was a special case and wasn’t worth discussing.

Shinichi’s despair had clearly been created through the accidental convergence of three separate forces—Obito, the Uchiha clan, and Konoha’s higher-ups.

If even one of those three had been absent, Shinichi would never have fallen into such profound despair, and consequently would never have awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.

As for Itachi’s despair, it had been triggered by Shisui—someone who was both his mentor and his friend—at the cost of Shisui’s own life.

Aside from despair, grief was another powerful means of stimulating an Uchiha into awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Both Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Fugaku had awakened their Mangekyo Sharingan after close friends died in war, unknowingly awakening their eyes amid overwhelming grief.

As for anger, however, there currently didn’t seem to be a single Uchiha who had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan purely through the stimulation of that extreme emotion alone.

As far as Hyuga Kagami knew, the only case even related to anger was Uchiha Sasuke.

However, when Sasuke awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan, there had been more than just anger. There was also the immense grief he felt after learning of the tragic life his elder brother, Uchiha Itachi, had endured.

Therefore, strictly speaking, the extreme emotional stimulus that caused Uchiha Sasuke to awaken his Mangekyo Sharingan should have been the combination of both grief and anger.

After pondering for a long while, Hyuga Kagami turned to another page in the notebook.

At the very top, he wrote a large word:

Grief.

For Hyuga Kagami, creating the extreme emotion of grief was relatively easy.

After all, Uchiha Hideki had many relatives within the Uchiha clan and numerous bonds that Kagami could exploit.

And among them, Hideki’s younger brother, Uchiha Ryota—a core member of the Uchiha radical faction—was undoubtedly the best choice.

Furthermore, if Kagami mixed some anger into that overwhelming grief, perhaps it would be enough to deliver the final push.

After all, there was already Sasuke’s case as precedent.

Therefore, the next step in Hyuga Kagami’s plan was to use the extreme emotion of grief to stimulate Uchiha Hideki...