"Mangekyo Sharingan?"
Hearing such a regretful sigh from the Elder Sifang, Ruri furrowed her brows.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
She couldn't understand the necessary connection between assassinating Hakushi and the Mangekyo Sharingan.
The Elder Sifang's face remained calm and silent. He just hunched his body and walked off to the side.
He performed a Seal before a stone slab, and the slab floated up, revealing a dark passage leading underground.
"Come with me. I'll tell you the ultimate secret of our Uchiha Clan."
The Elder Sifang led the way down. Ruri hesitated for a moment but still followed him into the underground passage.
The basement connected by this passage wasn't very deep, but Ruri could sense that the slabs of stone surrounding the space were made from special materials, each with powerful resistance to pressure.
On both ends of the front wall in this basement was printed the Uchiha Clan's fan emblem, and in the center stood a half-human-tall ancient stone tablet.
Strange, aged markings were carved into the tablet, completely unlike any kind of text that could be read normally.
"Do you know this place?"
The Elder Sifang asked.
"I've heard of it, but this is my first time coming to such a place. Is there something special here?"
Ruri scrutinized her surroundings with the Sharingan, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.
Besides that stone tablet, everything else here was entirely normal.
"On this stone tablet is inscribed the secret handed down through generations from our Uchiha ancestors. With the Sharingan and Mangekyo Sharingan, you can decipher the tablet's text layer by layer, obtaining forbidden power."
The Elder Sifang observed the tablet with his own Sharingan and spoke to Ruri.
"Forbidden power? The Mangekyo Sharingan?"
"That's right. The Sharingan can only see part of what's written, and the remaining contents can only be read with the higher-level Mangekyo Sharingan… And as for how to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan, that is… by killing your own closest loved ones!"
In that instant, the Elder Sifang's friendly demeanor vanished, replaced with a fiendish ferocity, and a deep, crooked evil gleamed in his eyes.
The answer to awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan made Ruri's eyes widen in shock. She stared at the Elder Sifang in disbelief, her expression frozen. Her body felt as if it had turned to stone, frozen stiff.
"Killing… your closest?"
As if to confirm what sounded utterly preposterous, Ruri paused for a few seconds before asking again.
"Exactly, Ruri. This is the method to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan. Though, killing your closest doesn't have to be literal; even a friend as dear as family would suffice. Back then, Lord Madara and Lord Izuna opened their eyes the same way."
As if reminiscing about something from the past, Elder Sifang spoke in a gloomy, wistful tone.
Hearing this, Ruri clenched her fists and stood unmoving, her brows furrowed. In her eyes, only anger and disgust simmered.
"You're saying they awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan like that… Does that mean…?"
The name Uchiha Madara spoke for itself. His younger brother, Uchiha Izuna, was also one of the most formidable ninja within the Uchiha Clan—second only to Madara when he was alive.
And it was under the name Mangekyo Sharingan that he dominated ninja of the Warring States Era.
The Elder Sifang locked eyes with Ruri, a sinister smile twisting his lips, and spoke each word with chilling clarity: "That's right. In their pursuit of greater power to lead the Uchiha Clan, Lord Madara and Lord Izuna killed their closest friends in the clan—awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan."
Ruri glared coldly at the Elder Sifang. For reasons she didn't fully understand, a growing sense of disappointment toward her clan filled her heart.
Even the legendary power of the Mangekyo Sharingan left her with utter disappointment as well.
"But, you know, not everyone can open their eyes this way. When Senju Tobirama died and Hiruzen Sarutobi rose to power, I thought the chance for the Uchiha Clan had come. I tried to have the Mangekyo Sharingan awaken once again in the clan, so we could control Konoha… but I failed."
As the Elder Sifang recounted this past, profound regret colored his words.
Ruri's fists tightened even further—the first time she truly saw through this elderly man who always wore a kindly face.
Ruri understood well what he meant by "failure."
As one of the clan, all Ruri felt was revulsion—a shiver of cold sweat ran down her back.
This old bastard must have used threats in the past, forcibly pushing clan members to awaken their eyes, forcing them to kill their friends, their kin.
Yet, under his command, none of those coerced clan members awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.
For some reason, it ended in failure.
"Their talent just wasn't enough. Though they experienced the emotional trauma of losing something irreplaceable, their own capability was simply lacking. After all, before Lord Madara and Lord Izuna awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, they were already renowned ninja. Just when I was losing all hope, you appeared, Ruri."
At this point, the Elder Sifang stared at Ruri—or, more precisely, at those vivid scarlet, gleaming Sharingan of hers—with a fanatical gaze.
It was as if he believed those eyes would inevitably evolve into the Mangekyo Sharingan someday.
"I know, with your personality, it's difficult for you to make such a decision. So I thought, having someone else kill that man right before your eyes would be no different than you doing it yourself. But Rika failed in her mission, and that, I did not expect."