Chapter 227: The Mastermind

Chapter 227: Chapter 227: The Mastermind

"Ptoo..."

After spitting out a mouthful of blood, Uchiha Ryota forced himself back to his feet.

The Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame he had unleashed earlier had struck him squarely as well. As a result, not only had he lost an arm, but large portions of his body were also covered in severe burns.

Even with the physique of an elite jōnin, injuries of this magnitude had nearly pushed Uchiha Ryota to the absolute limit of what he could endure.

At that moment, Ryota crouched beside the corpse of the man in the demon-face mask and reached out to remove the mask.

The face beneath it was quickly revealed.

Ryota’s gaze immediately darkened.

"Hmph. So you were one of Shisui’s ANBU teammates... I think your name was Hyuga Kagami."

His expression turned cold.

"The Hyuga Clan... I’ll remember this grudge..."

Afterward, Ryota’s eyes fell upon the exceptionally sharp short sword still tightly gripped in Hyuga Kagami’s hand.

"This is a fine sword!"

After giving it a word of praise, Ryota casually took the blade and tucked it at his waist.

Having personally slain his enemy and confirmed his identity, only a single thought remained in Uchiha Ryota’s mind—

Find the Sharingan that had been gouged from his brother, Uchiha Hideki, as quickly as possible, then get out of this place.

And so, he rose to his feet and dragged his utterly exhausted body out of the cave where he had been imprisoned, staggering with every step.

From beginning to end, he never once spared a glance at the charred severed arm lying on the ground.

Following the dim passageway, he eventually arrived at a brightly candlelit room.

The room was fully furnished with tables, chairs, and benches, while books, paper, brushes, and ink were neatly arranged on the desk. From the furnishings alone, Uchiha Ryota could tell that this was most likely Hyuga Kagami’s office.

Walking over to the desk, Ryota’s gaze immediately fell upon a notebook lying on top of it.

Written across its cover were the words:

Uchiha Ryota.

With an indescribably complicated feeling, Ryota opened the notebook.

Recorded within were each and every one of the stimulation experiments Hyuga Kagami had conducted on him. There were even notes containing Kagami’s own evaluations and conjectures.

As Ryota read line after line of those incomparably cold and clinical words, he—the one who had been tested, manipulated, and toyed with—was instantly consumed by boundless rage.

Swish! Swish!

Amid a series of sharp sounds cutting through the air, cold flashes flickered as sword strikes tore through the room!

Consumed by fury, Uchiha Ryota swung the razor-sharp short sword he had taken from Hyuga Kagami, slicing both the notebook and the desk beneath it to pieces.

Breathing heavily, he thought,

"So they were actually trying to stimulate me into awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan this way! No wonder they never killed me. So what they’ve been after all along... is our Uchiha Clan’s Mangekyō Sharingan!"

After reading the notebook, Uchiha Ryota finally understood everything.

Although he had vaguely suspected something before, even he, an Uchiha clansman, knew only fragments about the Mangekyō Sharingan. Thus, he had never been able to determine exactly what his captors’ true motive was.

It was only after seeing the notebook’s entries on the stimulation experiments that he finally understood—their objective had never been limited to the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his and his brother’s eye sockets.

What they truly wanted...

was a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan!

"Brother, I swear to you! I’ll uncover every last mastermind behind this, and then I’ll kill them all with my own hands!"

After making this vow in his heart, Uchiha Ryota left the room.

He knew perfectly well that, given his current physical condition, he needed to retreat immediately. But without finding the Sharingan that had been gouged from his brother Uchiha Hideki’s eyes, there was no way he could convince himself to leave.

And so, he continued onward through the dim passageway.

His footsteps were heavy, yet incomparably resolute.

At the end of the passage stood a large door engraved with the Uchiha Clan’s gunbai crest. Bright candlelight streamed through the cracks around the door, heralding the light that awaited beyond.

"Why is our clan crest engraved on this door?"

Uchiha Ryota was somewhat puzzled, but another thought quickly occurred to him.

"Could this be the secret vault where they store the Sharingan they’ve taken from our Uchiha Clan?"

At that thought, he quickened his pace and approached the door.

But just as he was about to push it open, he abruptly took a step back and once again drew the short sword from his waist.

Although Uchiha Ryota was severely wounded and utterly exhausted, he was still an elite Uchiha jōnin who had come only a single step away from awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan.

There could be no questioning the sharpness of his senses.

The instant he was about to push open the door, his keen senses picked up the sound of breathing and a heartbeat from the other side.

There was undoubtedly someone inside.

And for some reason, that person gave him an overwhelmingly familiar feeling. Yet mixed within that familiarity was a trace of strangeness, creating an indescribably peculiar sensation.

After hesitating briefly, Uchiha Ryota steeled his heart, kicked the door open, and dashed into the room.

The room was brilliantly illuminated, forming a stark contrast with the dim caves he had passed through earlier.

Even with his Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Ryota couldn’t immediately adjust to the sudden brightness. He blinked several times and instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes from some of the light.

At that moment, a calm, cold voice echoed through the room.

"Ryota, you managed to make it all the way here. As expected, you didn’t disappoint me!"

Hearing that familiar voice, Uchiha Ryota’s entire body jolted in shock.

"B-Brother!?"

His eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the intense light, so he could only vaguely make out an ornate high-backed chair facing away from him.

And the voice just now seemed to have come from that chair.

As Ryota struggled to adjust his vision to the bright light, the high-backed chair slowly turned around.

The instant he saw the person sitting in it, Uchiha Ryota’s pupils abruptly contracted.

The only arm he had left, which had been holding the short sword at the ready, slowly lowered.

The person sitting in the high-backed chair was none other than his elder brother—

Uchiha Hideki.

Hideki was wearing the Kamigami’s distinctive black cloak with golden trim. There was no mask covering his face, and he lounged lazily in the high-backed chair, his expression filled with ease and contentment.

Uchiha Ryota stared at him.

"Why?!"

His voice was barely audible, as though he wasn’t questioning Uchiha Hideki before him, but rather questioning his own heart.

Sitting in the high-backed chair, Uchiha Hideki said indifferently,

"My foolish little brother... Don’t you understand yet?"

Uchiha Ryota stared fixedly at Hideki.

"I asked you why!"

This time, his voice was louder, but his tone was still filled with bewilderment and helplessness.

Uchiha Hideki smiled faintly and explained,

"The secret to awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan lies in extreme love and hatred. I know you love me, so you’ll offer me your Mangekyō Sharingan... won’t you?"

Uchiha Ryota backed away, shaking his head over and over.

"No... You’re not Hideki! He would never do this to me!"

At that moment, Uchiha Hideki, seated in the high-backed chair, slowly closed his eyes.

Then, he suddenly opened them.

In an instant, the unmistakable Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan appeared within his eye sockets...