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Just how much hatred did one need to say something like "kill my own father"?
Kagaya didn't know. He had never experienced anything similar, so he had no way to measure it. But at the very least, as someone who had been surrounded by fatherly and motherly love during childhood, Kagaya instinctively wanted to say a word in defense of that father he had never met.
"Perhaps... there's some hidden hardship behind this?"
But the moment the words left his mouth, Kagaya immediately regretted them. He opened his mouth to retract them.
"No, forget what I just said. I don't understand your experiences, nor have I gone through anything similar. To deny certain things right now would be far too presumptuous of me."
Yuki remained silent, saying nothing. Perhaps, even for her, this topic was an extremely heavy one.
Kagaya continued.
"I agree to your request. But the first thing we need to do is find the location of the Uchiha clan grounds. You said a day ago that you didn't know where this place was. That wasn't a lie, was it?"
Yuki shifted her gaze to the side, as if observing the surrounding environment.
"Sorry, Kagaya-san. I truly don't know where this place is. After escaping from the clan, I've been like a gust of wind without direction—blowing wherever the wind takes me. I'm... a little afraid to remember the road I took."
Kagaya sighed. "So... we have to start searching aimlessly?"
"If Kagaya-san doesn't mind."
"For me, it doesn't matter where we go. What's important is the matter of resurrecting me in the future. I don't have much time left. Since you don't know the exact route and can't guarantee we'll find your clan grounds before I die, I hope you can start learning the resurrection technique I'm going to teach you along the way."
"Of course! Even though Yuki still doesn't quite believe that something like resurrection truly exists... I will definitely do her utmost to help Kagaya-san!"
"That's good."
And so, the two set the tone for the days ahead—they would once again embark on an aimless journey.
More precisely, they did have a destination. But they didn't know the specific direction of that destination. Therefore, they could only search blindly in the dark.
They set off once more. Along the way, aside from necessary actions, during their free time, Kagaya taught Yuki the Impure World Reincarnation. Of course, Kagaya didn't expect Yuki to learn this technique in just a few days. He could only hope that Yuki would at least memorize the hand seals of this technique during his final days. She could study it slowly in the future. Once she learned it... she could resurrect him.
Yuki also lived up to Kagaya's expectations. Whether or not she could learn it remained to be seen, but at the very least, Yuki studied very diligently.
From sunrise to sunset, Kagaya and Yuki searched for an entire day, yet still couldn't find any familiar place.
The forest they were in was far too distant from where people lived. If Yuki hadn't been a refugee fleeing for her life, she probably wouldn't have stumbled into such a remote forest either.
The sky darkened. Although somewhat unwilling, Kagaya and Yuki could only prepare to rest. No matter how strong they were, they hadn't transcended the bounds of humanity. Sleeping and eating were still necessities. This wasn't some cultivation world where humans could survive without food or sleep.
Night fell, and the two went to sleep one after another.
Death Countdown—Day Six.
The sun had only just peeked its head over the eastern horizon, casting weak rays of light upon the earth, like a frail, powerless maiden.
Kagaya and Yuki had already been running across a vast grassland for quite some time. Although they slept, they slept very little. They woke and set off as soon as they ensured their bodies wouldn't suffer major problems.
Very soon, Kagaya and Yuki finally left the grassland behind and arrived at an earthy yellow plain.
Gazing at this seemingly endless expanse of earthy yellow, Kagaya couldn't help but quip.
"This couldn't be the Hidden Stone Village, could it? Honestly, it does kind of look like it."
"The Hidden Stone Village? What's that?"
However, Kagaya's casual joke drew a question from Yuki.
Kagaya paused briefly and looked at Yuki. A bad premonition began forming in his mind.
"You're asking me what the Hidden Stone Village is? No... that's not right. I keep forgetting to ask you one thing—what time period is it right now?"
Kagaya suddenly realized that he had completely forgotten to ask about the timeline of this parallel world.
Or rather, Kagaya had always defaulted to the assumption that this parallel world's timeline was around the era of Naruto and Sasuke, or at least not far from it.
But now, Yuki didn't even know about the Hidden Stone Village? The Hidden Stone Village was established during the era of Hashirama and Madara, modeled after the Leaf Village. If Yuki hadn't simply forgotten but genuinely didn't know... then the timeline of this parallel world was at least before Hashirama and Madara had made peace!
"What time period? Um... I don't really understand what Kagaya-san means."
Yuki replied with an awkward expression, seemingly embarrassed that she couldn't answer Kagaya's question.
This is troublesome.
That was Kagaya's first thought. And it made sense—how could a local like Yuki know what time period it was?
To her, "now" was simply "now." There was no other way to describe it.
Kagaya could only switch to a different question.
"Do you know the Senju clan?"
"The Senju clan? Never heard of it."
Hearing Yuki's answer, Kagaya's head instantly began to ache. As a member of the Uchiha clan... she had never heard of the Senju clan?
No, that couldn't be. The Uchiha clan and the Senju clan definitely had interactions. But perhaps, because Yuki had never been exposed to such things during her time in the Uchiha clan, she didn't know.
But the fact that Yuki, at her age, didn't know about the Senju clan also proved one thing—the Senju and the Uchiha were definitely not at war!
In other words... the current era was even more ancient than the era of Hashirama and Madara!
Unfortunately, Kagaya's knowledge of the era before Hashirama and Madara was practically zero. This would undoubtedly make the search for people much more difficult.
Kagaya also didn't know how much of the map in his mind was still valid. Over long stretches of time, many terrains changed.
For instance, if one brought Kagaya to the location where the Leaf Village would eventually stand, he might not even recognize it, because right now there was nothing there—just an ordinary forest.
"Then... what about the Sage of Six Paths?" Kagaya asked uneasily.
To be honest, he really didn't want to end up in the era of the Sage of Six Paths. Compared to the Sage of Six Paths, his strength was still far too weak. In that era, he would have to tread carefully in everything he did.
"The Sage of Six Paths? Ah, is Kagaya-san talking about that figure from the legends? I've heard of him, yes. The legend of the Sage of Six Paths."
Yuki's answer made Kagaya breathe a sigh of relief.
Since it was a legend, that meant this was no longer the era of the Sage of Six Paths. It should be a period after the Sage of Six Paths but before Uchiha Madara.
That was good. Although Kagaya's knowledge of this era was nearly zero, there shouldn't be any Six Paths-level figures around. As long as no Six Paths-level figures appeared, Kagaya could still swagger around freely.
"Forget it. It's nothing. Let's keep moving."
Kagaya casually brushed the topic aside and moved on.
"Oh."
Yuki replied with a face full of confusion. She didn't quite understand why Kagaya had asked those questions just now. What connection was there between the so-called Senju clan and the legendary Sage of Six Paths? If there wasn't one... then why had Kagaya-san asked?
Suppressing the doubts in her heart, Yuki continued following Kagaya in search of someplace familiar.
Once they found a place they recognized, they could deduce the correct route based on the map in their minds.
"I can't help but want to confirm once more—Yuki, do you really not know which direction the Uchiha clan is in?"
"I don't know."
He had already asked Yuki this question yesterday during their search. It was a very simple matter of common sense: determine which direction the Uchiha clan grounds were in the world, then use the pattern of the sun rising in the east and setting in the west to determine one's own direction, and then head toward the general direction of the Uchiha.
Unfortunately, Yuki didn't know which cardinal direction the Uchiha clan was in.
Kagaya didn't know either. Kagaya only knew that the Leaf Village was in the southern part of the Land of Fire. But the Leaf Village didn't exist here yet. Before the Uchiha merged with the Senju, they certainly weren't at the location of the Leaf Village.
During the Warring States era, Kagaya had indeed visited the Uchiha clan grounds. But who would have thought to draw a map and determine the exact location back then?
In summary, they could only continue their aimless search.
How cruel.
This was someone's memory.
Slaughter! Slaughter! Slaughter!
The endless slaughter made a certain man feel fear. The endless death brought about by the Mangekyo and Izanagi—would it reach him too?
Yes. He had also awakened the Mangekyo. He also knew Izanagi. So... would he die?
"Uchiha Kenichi."
Vaguely, the man heard someone calling his name.
Who was it? He turned his head, but saw no one.
Slaughter! Slaughter! Slaughter!
A long time passed. Finally, the man named Kenichi also joined the battle, and lost one of his Mangekyo.
Those eyes... had been earned with his elder brother's life. And just like that... just like that...
From that moment on, Kenichi understood—he couldn't accept this! There were still things he had to do!
How could he... how could he leave behind regrets?
The sun slid from the east to the very center of the sky. If the faint rays of the early morning sun were like a frail, powerless maiden, then the sunlight blazing from the sun at the center of the sky was like a muscle-bound macho man, one-punching every little kid in sight.
Kagaya couldn't help but laugh. He wasn't cheering for this "macho man" of a sun—he was happy about the scene before him!
They had found it! They had found a place from Yuki's memories. From here, they could use the memories in Yuki's mind to set out toward the Uchiha clan grounds!
After all, it was the clan grounds where Yuki had lived for over a decade. Even if she didn't know which cardinal direction the Uchiha clan grounds were on the map, as long as she found a place she recognized from memory, she could follow her memories back to her clan grounds.
"Is it far from here to the Uchiha clan grounds?"
That was Kagaya's first question.
Yuki replied. "It's relatively far. But Kagaya-san is very fast, so we should be able to arrive by tomorrow."
Kagaya lowered his head.
"Tomorrow, huh... Let me ask you once more. About your request—you want to kill your father. Are you serious? Are you sure? Let me say something off-topic here: I came to find you with a very strong sense of purpose. I've already told you—I sought you out in order to resurrect myself. Therefore, I'm willing to agree to some of your requests, as long as I can accomplish them. You need to understand—you and I are simply in a transaction. I hope you can see me as a demon, and our transaction as a demon's transaction. You need to be extremely cautious about your request. Because... a demon has no bottom line. Even helping you kill your father... is not something I'm incapable of."
Although he had agreed to Yuki's request earlier, sure enough, no matter how he thought about it, helping someone kill their own father was still far too bizarre. For someone who had experienced deep fatherly love, it was still somewhat difficult to accept.
Kagaya was advising Yuki now not out of a sudden burst of kindness, but purely because his principles couldn't accept what Yuki was planning.
However, Kagaya also hadn't said he would refuse Yuki. Just as Kagaya himself had said, he had come to find Yuki with a very strong sense of purpose. He would agree to Yuki's requests. Even though Kagaya couldn't accept what Yuki wanted to do... if Yuki truly had suffered treatment beyond imagination, if her hatred truly ran that deep, if she insisted on killing her own father... then Kagaya would do it.
"I..."
Yuki's mouth opened wide, unsure what to say. She hesitated. After hearing Kagaya's words, she still hesitated. The words that had flown out of her mouth so readily the day before were somehow much harder to say today.
"At the very least... please help me subdue my father. No matter what... there are some things I must ask him personally."
In the end, she changed her mind. Perhaps, before everything had been exposed, this little girl named Yuki had also felt a father's love.
"Very well."
Kagaya agreed once more.
"Then, let's set off."
Death Countdown—Day Five.
Under Yuki's guidance, Kagaya arrived at the Uchiha clan grounds.
Looking at the scene before him, Kagaya felt momentarily dazed. For some reason, the last time he had visited the Uchiha clan grounds (during the Warring States era), he had also witnessed some rather unpleasant scenes. This time... it was the same.
A faint scent of blood drifted through the air. Looking from a distance, some Uchiha clansmen were carefully collecting corpses.
Every corpse had a pair of eyes that were a lifeless, blank white, as if they had died with their eyes wide open, unable to rest in peace.
To be honest, Kagaya was deeply shaken by the scene before him. A very horrifying fact lay right in front of him: in this era, the number of Mangekyo wielders within the Uchiha clan was terrifyingly high!
The corpses littering the ground proved it. Every single one of them had been killed after exhausting their Izanagi!
"Just how many geniuses does this make?!"
Kagaya couldn't help but exclaim. Awakening the Mangekyo required not only hatred but also the corresponding talent.
One could say that the Uchiha of this era, with such a number of Mangekyo wielders, truly deserved to claim—every member of the clan was a top-tier genius of the world!
It made sense, then, why the number of Mangekyo in later generations had been so scarce. It was probably because, during this bloody period of history, the top-tier geniuses had been slaughtered nearly to extinction. Over time, the Mangekyo became rarer and rarer. In the end, the Mangekyo itself became a legend.