Outside the small house, Obito and Zetsu stood concealed within a patch of shadow.
"Still no awakening? As expected, his aptitude really is too poor," Obito murmured, sensing no surge of Ocular Power from within the house. He glanced subtly towards the edge of the courtyard, and a figure began walking stiffly towards the entrance.
It was a young clansman dressed in the standard Uchiha attire. He entered the courtyard and walked robotically towards Hiroaki's house. As he stepped over the threshold, the young Uchiha suddenly froze, his eyes snapping back into focus and clarity.
This clansman was Uchiha Mokumei, Hiroaki's cousin. The first thing his now-clear eyes registered was the horrific scene within the room.
"Hiroaki! What... what is this?!" Mokumei stammered, utterly shocked as he stared at Hiroaki cradling Uchiha Yukie's corpse, his face a mask of terrifying madness.
Hearing Mokumei's voice, Hiroaki slowly lifted his head. His eyes, wild and deranged, fixed on his cousin. "It's all your fault!" he rasped, his voice thick with despair and murderous intent. "You all deserve to die!"
Before Mokumei could react, Hiroaki vanished in a blur. He reappeared instantly in front of his cousin. Caught completely by surprise, Mokumei had no time to evade.
Shunk!
The tanto plunged deep into Mokumei's chest. Blood sprayed violently along the blade. Before he could even utter a single word, Uchiha Mokumei collapsed, killed instantly.
"Haha! You all deserve to die! All of you!" Hiroaki shrieked with maniacal laughter, staring down at Mokumei's lifeless body.
Just then, another figure entered the house. Seeing the carnage inside, this newcomer's mouth dropped open, about to cry out. But before a single syllable could escape his lips, Hiroaki struck again with blinding speed, cutting him down as well. This man was Uchiha Taiga, Mokumei's brother.
Having killed two more clansmen in quick succession, Uchiha Hiroaki, laughing like a madman, stumbled out of the house and into the courtyard.
Outside, the commotion had already alerted other Uchiha within the compound. Figures could be seen rushing towards Hiroaki's home.
Soon, Uchiha Inabi and Uchiha Tekka of the Konoha Military Police Force arrived. Both were a couple of years younger than Hiroaki and had once been core members of the radical faction. However, with Uchiha Misuke's influence rising within the Police Force, both had recently been leaning towards aligning with her.
"Hiroaki! What are you doing?!" Inabi and Tekka demanded, expressions wary as they faced the deranged Hiroaki, who still clutched his bloody tanto. They could clearly sense something was terribly wrong with him.
"It's your fault!" Hiroaki snarled, his eyes burning with even more intense hatred and madness as he recognized Inabi and Tekka. "You traitors! You betrayed Elder Yashiro!"
With a roar, he lunged, slashing wildly at the two officers.
Prepared for trouble, Inabi and Tekka immediately drew their own tantos and met his attack.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The courtyard became a whirlwind of flashing steel as the three figures blurred, the sharp clang of metal on metal ringing through the night.
Facing the coordinated assault of Inabi and Tekka, Hiroaki was quickly put on the defensive, rapidly losing ground.
"I'll kill you! Kill all you traitors!" Hiroaki screamed, swinging his tanto desperately while muttering threats under his breath.
Gradually, under the relentless pressure and fueled by his consuming hatred, the pair of three-tomoe Sharingan in Hiroaki's eyes began to tremble violently. Then, swiftly, they underwent a dramatic transformation. The three tomoe spun rapidly, blurring together before merging into a pair of complex, pinwheel-like patterns.
Under the relentless barrage of trauma and hatred, Uchiha Hiroaki had finally, brutally, awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.
The instant the Mangekyō Sharingan awakened, an intense wave of Ocular Power erupted from Hiroaki's eyes.
Elsewhere, in his home, Shisui Uchiha was eating slowly when he suddenly snapped his head up, his gaze fixed in the direction of Hiroaki's house. "This power...?" In the next instant, his figure vanished.
"Such powerful Ocular Power! Who has awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan?" Fugaku Uchiha also looked up sharply towards the same direction, a fleeting mix of excitement and confusion crossing his stern features. Before the echo of his words faded, Fugaku too disappeared from his room.
In the room next door, at the exact moment Fugaku vanished, Itachi Uchiha had already departed from his home as well.
Simultaneously, numerous elite Jonin throughout the Uchiha compound were startled by the potent surge of ocular power. One after another, they began racing towards the source – Uchiha Hiroaki's residence.
Back in the courtyard, Uchiha Inabi and Uchiha Tekka lay collapsed on the ground. Their bodies twitched slightly, faces etched with utter shock. With just a single glance, Hiroaki, having just awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan, had successfully trapped them both in a powerful genjutsu. The quantum leap in his strength was terrifyingly apparent.
Hiroaki stood swaying in the center of the courtyard, clutching his right eye. Using the genjutsu had clearly taken a significant toll on his newly awakened eyes and strained body.
Shimmer~
A familiar spatial vortex appeared, and Obito materialized beside Hiroaki.
"Let's go. Your clansmen have arrived," Obito stated calmly. Placing a hand on Hiroaki's shoulder, he pulled him directly into the Kamui dimension.
This intervention went completely unseen by Inabi and Tekka, who were lying face down on the ground, trapped in the genjutsu's aftermath.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Moments later, figures began appearing rapidly in the courtyard. Shisui and Fugaku were the first to arrive. They stared grimly at the downed forms of Inabi and Tekka, their expressions a mixture of shock and suspicion. They recognized instantly that the two had fallen victim to a Sharingan genjutsu.
Shisui moved forward, activated his own Mangekyō Sharingan, and swiftly dispelled the genjutsu binding the two officers.
"What happened here?" Fugaku demanded gravely as Inabi and Tekka stirred.
"It was Hiroaki..." Inabi gasped, still weak from the genjutsu. "He's awakened... the Mangekyō Sharingan!"
"Uchiha Hiroaki?" Fugaku's face darkened considerably. "Why would he suddenly awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan?"
Just then, two Uchiha clansmen who had arrived shortly after Shisui and Fugaku emerged from the house, having checked inside. One reported grimly, "Captain, Hiroaki murdered his wife, Yukie... and also killed Mokumei and Taiga."
"Seal this area immediately! No one else enters this courtyard!" Fugaku's face turned thunderous. He barked the order decisively to an elite Jonin beside him. The implications were dire – Uchiha Hiroaki had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan by slaughtering his own wife and clansmen. If word of this method spread among the Uchiha, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Turning to Shisui, Fugaku commanded, "Send word to the village administration. Report that Uchiha Hiroaki has defected from the clan. Request that he be officially designated a missing-nin."
"Yes, sir," Shisui acknowledged, understanding the grim necessity.
The following day, Konoha officially issued a public notice: Uchiha Hiroaki was now listed as a missing-nin of the Hidden Leaf Village.