Naruto: Lost to Hinata on Purpose, and Now Everything's a Mess Chapter 35 35 : Infiltrating The Uchiha Clan

Because Riku was planning to visit the Uchiha compound that night, he soon parted ways with Ino.

Back ho, he retrieved a mask he had crafted himself—an oni-style mask modeled after the ANBU.

Standing in his room, Riku looked in the direction of the Uchiha district in the distance.

"I hope I can scavenge sothing… Ideally, a pair of Sharingan," he muttered under his breath.

He had wanted the Sharingan ever since he first noticed sothing off about the Uchiha clan's territory.

"I don't even know if this body can handle fusing with the Sharingan."

Even though his body was vastly enhanced, Riku still had a deep appreciation for the Sharingan's power.

With that thought, he made up his mind—he would obtain a pair.

No more hesitation.

Using the Body Flicker Technique, Riku vanished from the room.

—

A few minutes later, he slipped into the Uchiha compound through a gap in the rear mountains.

The front of the district was already under surveillance by Root operatives, so entering from behind was his only option.

Once inside, the sight that greeted him was nothing short of shocking—bodies lay strewn across the streets, the pavent soaked in blood.

Riku's eyes widened in horror. "What a massacre… Itachi Uchiha really didn't hold back. Ruthless. But Obito's even worse. Most of these deaths are his doing."

"They were all from the sa clan, yet they killed with even more cruelty than they would show outsiders. The Uchiha really are an extre bunch… The Second Hokage wasn't wrong."

"But that's none of my business. I need to find soone who still has their Sharingan."

Riku avoided the bloodied streets to keep a low profile. Instead, he began sneaking into hos, one after another.

After checking over a dozen houses, he realized sothing frustrating: most of the Uchiha he found either hadn't activated their Sharingan at all—or their eyes had already been gouged out.

With a scowl, he muttered, "Obito's quick, I'll give him that. He's already harvested almost all of them."

Now, only one place remained: Uchiha Itachi's ho.

"Uchiha Fugaku awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan… and Mikoto, maybe she awakened hers too. If Obito didn't touch their eyes, I still have a shot."

Riku knew it was risky. But at this point, he had no other leads.

"It's not like Itachi would desecrate his own parents… and even Obito might hesitate. If there's any pair left intact, it's theirs."

Steeling himself, he moved toward Itachi's residence.

Even with the danger, Riku felt this was worth the gamble. Fugaku's Mangekyō Sharingan would be far more powerful than a standard Sharingan.

Since he already knew the location, Riku quickly arrived.

He crept inside, his guard up as he moved through the dim, ominous halls. "Where's their room…?"

After checking several rooms, he finally found the bodies of Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Mikoto in what appeared to be a study.

"So it's already happened… Damn, Itachi moves fast."

Wasting no ti, Riku knelt beside Fugaku's body and pried open his eyelids.

"Good… They're still here. Itachi does have so boundaries."

But just as he was about to extract them, a thought hit him.

"Wait… What if I get caught while I'm removing them?"

As he hesitated, a sudden surge of red chakra erupted from Fugaku's eyes.

It happened in an instant. Before Riku could react, his own eyes released a burst of deep blue chakra.

The two forces clashed and rged in the air, and imdiately, the red chakra began flooding outward from Fugaku's eyes—into Riku's.

He gasped. He could feel the surge of power, the distinct presence of ocular energy flooding into him.

"What the hell…? Are my eyes absorbing his pupil power?"

That's exactly what was happening.

Riku's unique body, as it turned out, could draw in and integrate the dormant chakra left in Fugaku's Mangekyō Sharingan.

Fugaku had rarely used his Mangekyō, and so his eyes had stored an imnse amount of untouched pupil power.

Now, that power was being drawn out—resonating with Riku's chakra and being absorbed by his eyes.

"I'm… awakening the Sharingan without even transplanting his eyes?"

Riku didn't know the full extent of his body's potential.

But he had always sensed that he was different.

For nearly a full minute, the red chakra continued to pour from Fugaku's eyes into his own.

And then—it stopped.

The mont it did, a distinct new pattern appeared in Riku's eyes.

He didn't need a mirror to know.

He could feel it.

His vision was sharper, clearer… colder.

Power pulsed through him.

"The Mangekyō Sharingan… I actually awakened it."

He stood frozen, stunned. "These abilities… they're terrifying."

"This is the power of the Mangekyō… such monstrous eyes."

But before he could process it further, a sharp whistling pierced the silence.

Three kunai ca flying at him from behind.

Riku's reflexes kicked in instantly. In the blink of an eye, he vanished.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The kunai struck empty air, embedding in the wood floor.

Uchiha Itachi rushed in from the corridor.

But Riku was already gone.

Itachi's gaze snapped to his parents. He quickly knelt beside Fugaku, inspecting his face.

"…Still intact?"

He furrowed his brows. "He didn't take the eyes?"

That didn't make sense.

Itachi's mind raced. "That technique… It wasn't the Body Flicker Technique. It was ti-space ninjutsu."

Only a handful of people knew such jutsu.

Obito was one of them—but the jutsu this intruder had used was different.

Obito's technique phased his body through dinsions.

But this? This was teleportation—more akin to the Flying Thunder God Technique.

"And he didn't even take Father's eyes…" Itachi muttered to himself. "Why? Wasn't that his goal?"

He glanced briefly toward Mikoto, but didn't bother inspecting her. There was no need.

If Fugaku's eyes were untouched, Mikoto's surely were as well.

Still, none of this sat right.

Whoever that masked intruder was… he wasn't ordinary.

And his true purpose remained a mystery.