Medical Department Ward
Sarada woke up.
The moment she opened her eyes, she saw a strange kunoichi standing beside her bed.
"Who are you?"
"I'm your ancestor," Uchiha Hikari replied with a completely deadpan face.
Hikari's mission was to use Tsukuyomi to cast a Genjutsu on Sarada before she regained consciousness, supplementing her memories to prevent her from waking up with the intellect and awareness of an infant.
Following Makoto's instructions, Hikari used Tsukuyomi to fill Sarada's mind with fabricated memories.
Though Hikari despised both the Senju and Uchiha clans, she harbored no animosity toward this "newborn" Uchiha.
On the contrary, she wanted to help her as much as possible.
Therefore, when constructing Sarada's memories with Tsukuyomi, Hikari deliberately made adjustments.
She portrayed Sasuke and Naruto as having a weak bond and depicted the Shinobi World as a harmonious hetero utopia.
Hikari knew the more idyllic the fake world, the greater Sarada's psychological damage would be when she learned the grim truth.
This pain was required to awaken the Mangekyō.
"Ancestor?" Sarada's lips twitched.
How could someone her age act so old and mysterious?
"Don't believe me?" Hikari scoffed, flashing her crimson Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
"SHARINGAN?! WHO ARE YOU?!" Sarada tensed, memories of Uchiha Shin flashing through her mind.
She knew she and her dad were the last Uchihas.
Before Sarada could panic further, a Genjutsu slammed into her brain.
Within the illusion, she learned she got sent back in time.
Before her, Urashiki, Momoshiki, and Otsusuki Boruto had been defeated.
In this timeline, the future Sasuke helped eliminate the Otsusuki invaders and his sole wish was for his daughter's safety.
"Otsusuki Boruto?" Sarada murmured, breaking free from the illusion and staring at Hikari in confusion.
"That's right. He got possessed by the Ōtsutsuki. He personally murdered the Third Hokage and Sarutobi Asuma," Hikari lied smoothly.
"WHAT?!" Sarada yelled in shock.
'Boruto has that kind of power? Wait, no.'
'Boruto murdered the Hokage and... wait, Mirai-san future father?! What's wrong with this timeline?!'
Hikari coldly observed Sarada, waited a second, then sighed.
As expected, it's still not enough.
She felt Makoto scammed her.
'He told me Sarada Uchiha would awaken the Mangekyō the easiest!'
'Why the hell did she only get a Three-Tomoe Sharingan after finding out Boruto died and her "dad" dissappeared?! Can't she learn from that Masked Man next door?!'
Thud.
Overwhelmed by the sudden neural strain of her Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Sarada passed out on the bed.
Hikari pressed the call button.
Soon, Yakushi Nonou, the resident therapist, walked in with her clipboard to analyze the failure.
"Based on her emotional response, first, she doesn't care about Boruto, so the emotional damage was negligible."
"Secondly, the 'death' of her 'father' should have been a massive shock. However, because you showed her the young Sasuke from this era ahead of schedule, it ruined the illusion. The psychological impact was basically zero."
Nonou adjusted her glasses. "We have no choice but to let her go out there and get traumatized the old-fashioned way."
...
"Where are we going?"
To the Hidden Cloud Village of couse, just like Sasuke did.
The Tsukuyomi can create illusions that feel real.
However, if a target knows beforehand that it's a genjutsu, they can maintain their awareness.
The key to the Infinite Tsukuyomi isn't the jutsu itself, but a continuous, self-correcting force similar to Eida's Omnipotence.
Those trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi aren't hypnotized just once, they're continuously brainwashed.
This is obvious when looking at Tenten, who carries the Six Paths Tools.
Only by relying on those cursed tools can she maintain her normal thought processes and realize she should be on a battlefield, not chilling back in the village.
If it were just a regular Tsukuyomi, almost everyone would notice the illusion.
Knowing something is fake has its limits.
Using a regular Tsukuyomi to stimulate a Sharingan awakening is ineffective and leads to resistance.
What awakened Sasuke's Sharingan should work for Sarada.
Naruto is Sasuke's closest bond and Sarada's idol.
As long as she clings to that idol, it'll become an insurmountable obstacle on her path.
It's time to shatter the idol in her heart.
...
Hidden Cloud Village - Raikage Building
"IMPOSSIBLE! NO WAY!"
The Raikage rejected Deidara, who had just dropped in to issue a "mission."
"This concerns Sasuke's Sharingan awakening. He's Indra's reincarnation, a vital force against the Ōtsutsuki Clan. You wouldn't want the Cloud invaded, right? You wouldn't want your brother Killer Bee captured, would you? Hmm!" Deidara threatened, repeating the script the Advisor handed him.
"DAMN IT!" The Raikage gritted his teeth.
He was being blackmailed.
Yet he was powerless to act.
"I heard from that old geezer Ōnoki that past Raikages only cared about practical benefits, ignoring their empty reputations. That's why they did so many shady things. But now I see the old man was lying. You actually care about your own reputation, hmm." Deidara continued.
The Raikage's face flushed with pure rage.
'Does this blonde brat have mouths all over his body? How can he talk so much shit?!'
'Wait a minute.'
"What's your relationship with Ōnoki?" the Raikage asked, glaring.
"I'm his dad."
The Raikage fell silent.
Prompted by Darui, his right-hand man, he learned Deidara was a former Iwagakure ninja and Ōnoki's supposed successor before defecting to the Akatsuki.
"Here's the deal," the Raikage finally growled. "Transform into Ōnoki and join us in the shot. Then I'll agree."
After a long silence, the Raikage made his choice.
This Akatsuki guy had a point.
He shouldn't care about petty prestige.
Helping Sasuke awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan would benefit the entire Shinobi World.
And afterward, that Uchiha would owe the Cloud a massive debt of gratitude for their... sacrifices.
"Do I really have to transform?" Deidara asked.
He reached into his cloak, chewed up a lump of clay, and tossed it to the floor. The clay expanded into a perfect clone of Ōnoki and floated into the air.
"Don't worry, it won't explode," Deidara assured him, smirking at his creation.
"I'll keep an eye on it, hmm."
He always wanted to use Ōnoki's face for mischief, but he never imagined his first attempt would be for a "good deed."
.. Though calling this a good deed was a massive stretch.
"Come on, let's get this over with!" The Raikage took a deep breath and roared.
Five minutes later, the Raikage, Killer Bee, Deidara's Ōnoki clone, and Naruto arrived at a private film studio of the land of snow.
After kicking the crew out, Naruto used the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique mixed with a Transformation Jutsu.
The Raikage and Killer Bee exchanged grim glances, took a deep breath, and stepped onto the set.
"Thank you, Uncle Bee," Naruto said, wiping a fake tear.
Killer Bee didn't just teach him how to control Tailed Beast chakra, he was sacrificing his own dignity to help Sasuke awaken the Mangekyō.
...
Several days later, the Cloud's Chūnin Exam began.
Everyone from the Hidden Rain showed up to watch the spectacle—to witness the exact moment Sasuke's sanity shattered!
Just as Sasuke arrived at the arena gates, a masked Konoha Anbu dropped down in front of him, holding a classified folder.
Sasuke frowned, since he was already here, why was Konoha's Anbu still handing him intel?
With a sigh, Sasuke opened the folder and pulled out the photographs.
The backdrop of the photographs was a tropical island.
Naruto, sporting a massive, pregnant belly, sat in the sand, cradling a fair-skinned, dark-haired infant.
Beside him stood two towering, shirtless men—the Raikage and Killer Bee—flanking Naruto protectively.
Ōnoki hovered in the background, holding a bottle of prenatal vitamins.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" Sasuke stammered, his brain short-circuiting.
"N-Naruto isn't in the Hidden Cloud anymore," the Anbu stuttered, sweating behind his mask. "He's on a private island. Rumor has it the Cloud stole Orochimaru's genetics research. When Naruto refused to cooperate, they transplanted an artificial womb into him and... well. Of course, Sasuke-kun, don't panic! These are just rumors! Maybe the baby just drank too much soy sauce..."
"..."
Sasuke lowered his head, his bangs casting a dark shadow over his eyes.
If this were the old Sasuke, he would have spotted the photoshop or the genjutsu.
But now... Sasuke had seen too much.
He read the Vigorous paradise novels.
The plots were insane, but it imitates real life event.
If someone could write that degenerate trash, it meant degenerate trash existed in reality.
Furthermore, during his Otogakure training, he overheard the Sound Four gossiping about Kakashi and Might Guy comparing the size of their dick in the locker room.
Flies don't swarm rotten eggs.
Kakashi wrote porn, he was no innocent flower.
And then there was the cursed lore of the founders.
The Second Hokage's Flying Thunder God Slash severed Uchiha Izuna's manhood, all in a twisted attempt to turn Izuna into a girl so Tobirama could date him.
But Izuna bled to death instead.
Hiruzen and Danzo used to bicker like toxic exes.
All evidence pointed to the shinobi world being a depraved cursed hellscape of twisted bonds.
Therefore, it was 100% possible Naruto had been turned into the Raikage's personal breeding stock...
"Ugh... NARUTO! WHERE IS NARUTO?!"
"I-I don't know! The island's coordinates are top secret!"
The Anbu operative took a frantic step back.
He didn't want to be the first casualty when those eyes inevitably evolved!
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