Naruto: Born Evil?

"..."

Itachi's face was ashen. He had lost his vision, and darkness engulfed his world. Gasping for air, he tried to speak again in protest, but instinct told him—something sharp was aimed at his heart.

The next moment—

The sound of heavy rain vanished. The muddy ground beneath his back turned into cold stone slabs. Everything around him was silent, the air thick with the stench of snake blood.

Valley of Judgment.

Forest and muddy ground.

The fully manifested dark red Susanoo stood still, guarding behind Yu.

However, the hellfire that burned on its surface was quickly fading.

Yu watched as Obito activated Kamui and phased away with Itachi into the Kamui dimension. The sword Dark Moon remained embedded in where Itachi's heart had just been.

He smiled and withdrew the blade.

Rising slowly to his feet, Yu scanned the area. There were no longer any Konoha pursuit shinobi near the Valley of Judgment—no ninja dispatched to hunt them remained.

He looked back toward the valley.

Inside the collapsed cliffside, the valley had been torn apart by the world-shattering slash of his Susanoo, dispersing much of the thick mist.

Now, the mist was returning. After the cliff's collapse, it looked like the fog was going to spill outward.

Yu could faintly see several distortions in space appearing continuously within the valley.

Obito and Itachi had chosen to flee into the valley. That confirmed what Manda had said earlier—that Konoha's northwestern border forces were indeed en route.

And Itachi, who had lost his Uchiha powers, would soon understand what Yu had told him today: Konoha would teach him what it meant to be human.

"Then I'll let you live a little longer—to watch with your own eyes as the village you protected descends step by step into the abyss."

Yu ended the thought.

He released his Susanoo.

The first thing to extinguish was the hellfire burning in the eye sockets of the demonic, fully armored Susanoo. Its armor began to crumble mid-air, and its mountain-sized body slowly disintegrated in the rain, as if returning to hell.

Moments later, a prompt appeared in Yu's mind.

[Main Quest]: The Night of the Clan Massacre

[Objective Completed]: Successfully escaped from Konoha Village.

[Reward]: (Plunder) Seize another's Mangekyō Sharingan. You may absorb their ocular power and inherit their abilities.

Yu felt the changes in his Mangekyō and slowly furrowed his brows.

He could clearly sense the hunger emanating from within the Mangekyō.

It was as if only by "feeding" it more Sharingan eyes would this hunger temporarily subside.

A strange kind of craving.

Though not overwhelming, it made someone like Yu—with his obsessive tendencies—feel like a sharp, thin needle had embedded itself deep in his psyche. There was no way to remove it, and the discomfort was maddening.

"I'll try seizing Itachi's Mangekyō first… then release Orochimaru sealed inside the Totsuka Blade… and finally absorb Kamui… to deal with Obito."

Yu formulated the plan in his heart. But just as he prepared to stand, a sharp jolt pulsed through his chest—followed by searing pain.

"No, there's something more important right now!"

Yu's face turned pale. His expression shifted dramatically. He immediately flipped his right hand. Space trembled as he retrieved his last vial of green elixir. Uncorking it, he raised his head and drank it in one gulp.

Gulp—

He swallowed the green potion.

In an instant—

His eye sockets.

His cells.

Every part of him—

The intense pain brought on by his Mangekyō crashed over him like a tidal wave. In that moment, the sky itself seemed to collapse on Yu.

"Big brother!!!"

A familiar voice rang out. Yu forced open his blurry, dazed eyes. Besides the constant hunger of the Mangekyō, he now also felt his nerves deteriorating and his eyeballs beginning to rot—little by little.

Within a minute—

He would likely permanently lose his eyesight.

The retina, lens, and vitreous body would be half-destroyed—irreversible damage.

That was the price of using a non-eternal Mangekyō to forcibly activate the Complete Susanoo…

Yu lost consciousness and fell backward. Around him, many familiar chakra signatures surged toward him. A hand supported his back, helping him stay upright.

"Captain Yu!!"

The Uchihas had rushed to Yu's side as soon as the Complete Susanoo dissipated.

"Big brother!!!"

Tamao's doll-like face was full of panic as she stared at her pale, deathly white brother, completely drained of chakra. She didn't know what to do and looked around in desperation.

The Uchiha shinobi also leaned in, searching for someone—until a faint green glow lit up.

They turned to see—

Nonoyu, with a grave expression, had long since crouched beside them. But due to her nearsightedness, she had fumbled over Yu's body for a while before finally placing her hands on his chest and beginning to cast medical ninjutsu.

The Uchihas and Kimimaro all looked worried about Nonoyu's vision, but no one dared speak. They held their breath, afraid of disturbing her.

Buzz—

The healing jutsu continued.

Nonoyu's forehead was beaded with sweat. Her face grew more serious by the second. The situation was worse than she had expected.

Severed chakra pathways were the least of their problems.

Within her analytical perception—

Uchiha Yu's cells were rapidly aging and dying. This was a condition that only occurred when a person was on the brink of death.

When Nonoyu's healing chakra entered Yu's body, it was like a stone sinking into the ocean—completely ineffective.

Nonoyu's expression grew grave, but she didn't give up. Gritting her teeth, she continued to treat Yu.

The others all wore different expressions, nerves taut. They were well aware that Yu's condition was dire.

After all, unleashing that kind of godlike power couldn't come without a cost!

"Sir…"

Kimimaro's face was filled with anxiety. He still wanted to ask Yu about Orochimaru. Ever since Orochimaru, in the form of the Yamata no Orochi, had vanished, Kimimaro had grown increasingly restless.

After a while—

Nonoyu suddenly discovered, to her shock, that Yu's body—once at the verge of death—was beginning to recover like a withered tree meeting spring. The deteriorated cells were regenerating and rapidly dividing again.

Yu's pale face began to regain its color, and his eyelids fluttered—signs of waking up.

The Uchiha all noticed the subtle change. One by one, their worried expressions turned to relief, all eyes on Nonoyu.

"…?"

Nonoyu's eyes showed confusion. With her healing jutsu's scan, she passed her hands over Yu's head, chest, and abdomen.

She could clearly sense it—

At this moment, Yu's chakra network and his decaying Mangekyō Sharingan were being rapidly repaired by some force brimming with life energy.

"?" Nonoyu was shaken and alarmed, thinking, "Could it be that my healing jutsu has improved that dramatically...? No, this isn't right!"

Suddenly, a thought struck her.

Just then, Yu's expression returned to normal, though he still looked weak.

The Uchiha all held their breath.

Yu slowly opened his eyes. His vision gradually cleared, like a camera lens freshly wiped clean, and he took in the faces around him.

Absorbing the chakra of more than ten thousand ninja to forcibly break the seal and activate Perfect Susanoo had felt incredible—but if not for the green potion, he would've ended up cremated by the Uchiha's Great Fireball.

Even now, drinking one green potion wasn't enough to completely negate the side effects.

His body had fully recovered.

The Mangekyō faded, and his eyes returned to normal—but his vitality had not yet returned. He was extremely weakened. Right now, he could probably only refine one-third of his peak chakra.

And his base chakra wasn't much to begin with—roughly that of an average jōnin.

"I'm fine…"

Yu said slowly, under the worried yet silent gazes of the Uchiha, and then stood up on his own.

The Uchiha immediately let out a collective sigh of relief.

Izumi's eyes turned red. Her face was wet with rain, and no one could tell whether she had cried.

"Your medical ninjutsu is truly exceptional!"

Uchiha Minami looked at Nonoyu with gratitude and genuine admiration.

"No wonder Captain Yu recruited you. Your medical skills are nearly on par with Tsunade-sama, one of the Legendary Sannin."

"In my opinion, Lady Nonoyu might already surpass Tsunade. Just now, even if Tsunade were here, she probably wouldn't have been able to save Captain Yu!"

The Uchiha chimed in one after another.

"Well… I'm not that amazing."

Nonoyu tried to remain dignified as she heard their praise, but she couldn't hide the delighted smile tugging at her lips.

She had planned to offer a modest explanation.

But these guys were too good with words!

Surpassing Tsunade—that was every medical ninja's dream achievement.

Just as Nonoyu was humbly responding—

From the corner of her eye, she suddenly saw Tamayo pick something up from the ground—a small vial.

"Hm? What's this?"

Tamayo held up the vial. Rainwater had mixed with the leftover green liquid inside. He brought it to his nose, sniffed it, and his eyes lit up. He marveled, "Can't waste this!"

"No—!"

Before she could stop him, Tamayo, despite the horror on Nonoyu's face and her reaching hand, downed the diluted green potion in one gulp.

"What?! Didn't your parents teach you not to drink random stuff off the ground?!"

Nonoyu looked worried sick as she snatched the empty vial from Tamayo. She knew full well that Yu had survived thanks to this very substance.

She had been planning to study it—yet now, not a single drop remained.

"…"

Yu furrowed his brow as he watched all this unfold. Too weak and dazed, he hadn't reacted in time to stop it.

Tamao's face showed satisfaction as he savored the cool sensation in his mouth. He said seriously, "Oh, about that. I've been without parents since I was little. My clan sent me to the psych ward…"

As he finished—

Tamao's lips suddenly twitched. His body froze. His skin quickly turned green, and bark began to grow on his arms—clearly undergoing some kind of transformation into a tree.

Seeing this, the Uchiha and Yu all frowned deeply. Their expressions turned… complicated.

°°°

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