— — — — — —
"That's the blue Pikachu with the Sharingan! So cool!"
Sasuke's eyes lit up the moment he saw Uchiha Tom.
Of course, he recognized that Pikachu.
Alongside Senju Jerry, they were practically legends in Konoha—and honestly, all across the shinobi world.
Back in the day, more than a few villages had secretly tried to kidnap them for research.
After all, it was mind-blowing—Pokemon that could inherit the Sharingan or even Wood Release?
Just imagine what kind of breakthroughs you could make by studying them!
Unfortunately for those villages, they all seriously underestimated how terrifying these two little guys really were.
There was one time when Kumo (Cloud) even teamed up with Iwa (Stone), Kiri (Mist), and Suna (Sand) to launch a secret assault on them.
The result?
Total annihilation.
Every single attacker—over thirty elite jonin—was wiped out by Senju Jerry's monstrous Wood Release and Uchiha Tom's Mangekyō Sharingan.
After that, their names echoed throughout the shinobi world.
That was also when the Uchiha clan and even Tsunade finally realized how powerful these two actually were.
Sasuke found the whole thing super cool.
Fugaku? Not so much.
Still, thinking about the benefits Renzo had promised earlier, he wasn't sure whether to yell at him or keep quiet and play along.
"That kid definitely did this on purpose… He must've guessed my real reason for coming, didn't he?"
Fugaku's eye twitched as he glanced between Uchiha Tom and Renzo.
In the end, he just let out a heavy sigh and muttered to Renzo, "Renzo, look… I won't stop you from researching the Sharingan, but could you please stop handing out our bloodline to just anyone—"
He paused mid-sentence and pointed at Tom.
The message was obvious.
But before Renzo could even respond, Tom, who had clearly understood what Fugaku meant, puffed up with indignation.
He waved his little arms and shouted with righteous fury, "Pika pi... pi pi!!" (You got a problem with this cat?! We can settle this one-on-one—or with your whole squad! You choose!)
"Buii?" (Oho? This should be good!)
Senju Jerry hopped over just then, leaping onto Renzo's shoulder, ready to enjoy the show.
Fugaku: "..."
Itachi: "..."
Pokémon had been part of Konoha life for years now. They both completely understood what Tom had just said.
Hence the dark expressions on their faces.
No way in hell were they going to fight it.
Not because they were scared they'd lose—well, maybe that too. That guy...uh cat was just another Madara.
"Alright, Tom! He is still our clan head, you know. Try not to be too disrespectful."
Renzo chuckled and scooped Tom into his arms, gently patting the little guy on the head.
"Pika pi!" (Okay, boss! If you say so! I'll forgive their rudeness—this time.)
Uchiha Tom gave a serious little nod like he was letting them off easy.
Fugaku shot Renzo a deeply resentful look.
"'Our' clan head? You're really thinking of putting this thing on the family registry, huh? Over my dead body."
Still, he didn't say it.
In the end, the whole matter was quietly dropped.
Right after, Renzo administered the promised serum to Fugaku and his two sons, right on the spot.
Of course, the three of them nearly passed out from the pain—but once they made it through that rough patch, the results were obvious.
Fugaku could feel his body becoming noticeably stronger, and the life force flowing through him had even started to slowly restore his fading visual power.
The progress was slow, but he was more than satisfied.
Itachi felt the same.
As for Sasuke, the fusion of the base-level Sage Body serum gave him a huge boost—and his Sharingan finally awakened, manifesting as a single tomoe in each eye.
Renzo estimated that once the fusion was complete and some of Indra's chakra was fully released, Sasuke would reach two-tomoe or even three-tomoe in no time.
Afterward, Renzo set up a time with Itachi to do further research on the Mangekyō, and then politely saw them out.
That night… he wanted to visit the other Renzos in the Mental Space.
But the plan changed—because Kurenai ambushed him.
The next day? Tsunade ambushed him.
Yeah. No mental space visit then either.
These days, luckily, one of his newly separated shadow clones made solid progress researching Itachi's Mangekyō.
They'd already figured out how to wield both Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu.
— — —
Inside the Mental Space
As soon as Uchiha Renzo reappeared inside, he was hit by a wave of unfamiliar information coming directly from the space itself.
"Huh? A new change?"
After quickly digesting the data, Renzo raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Apparently, a year after he went into seclusion, the mental space had quietly met some kind of hidden condition—and unlocked a brand new function.
Now, members could adjust the flow of time between the mental world and their own universes within a certain range.
And it had activated completely passively— Uchiha Renzo hadn't even meant to do it.
The trigger? At least one Renzo hadn't entered the mental space for over a year.
So now, by default, if a Renzo hadn't accessed the mental space in over a year, then time in their home world would be calculated at a ratio of 10:1 compared to other worlds.
"In other words… while twelve years passed in my world, it's only been about a year—or maybe two here?"
"No wait… factoring in when this feature got triggered, it might be even less than that?"
"So… while it's been 12 years in my world, it might've only been a little over a year in everyone else's?"
Uchiha Renzo muttered, a little surprised.
If that's the case, then it hasn't been that long after all. He had been worried that the group of 36 Renzos would've already reached full capacity by now!
But now… maybe not.
It's even possible that there aren't many new members at all.
With that thought, Uchiha Renzo stepped out of the dimensional barrier.
"Eh?"
As soon as he appeared, he was spotted by Eevee, Hermione, Aizen, Dragorr (Dragon Ball Renzo), and OPM Renzo (One Punch Man Renzo).
Eevee practically jumped out of its seat.
"Holy crap—Uchiha? You finally showed up! It's been over two years! If you hadn't passively triggered this new space function, we might've all become gods by now while you were still missing!"
Out of everyone, Eevee had been the one mentioning him the most—After all, they'd known each other the longest. And Uchiha had helped it a lot in the early days.
Aizen smirked. "Heh. Welcome back."
Hermione chimed in, "Welcome back—plus one!"
Dragorr grinned. "Man, it really has been ages!"
OPM Renzo added, "Nice to meet you! I don't think we've crossed paths yet—I'm from the One Punch Man world!"
Feeling everyone's warmth and concern, Uchiha Renzo smiled and stepped forward, extending his hand. "Thanks, everyone. Let's sync up—I'd love to catch up on what everyone's been doing!"
"Sounds good!"
"We're all pretty curious what kept you offline for so long, too!"
One by one, everyone placed a hand (or paw) on his.
The sync completed quickly.
Memories surged into Renzo's mind—along with a massive wave of power.
It took him a moment to digest it all. When he finally opened his eyes again, he looked stunned.
"Just as I thought—everyone's experienced a different amount of time passing!"
OPM Renzo shrugged. "Well, big time gaps make it tough to balance power levels across the group, right?"
"Take my world, for example—I can't even imagine what kind of monsters would appear after ten-plus years!"
"With Saitama around, it feels like the world just keeps generating stronger and weirder enemies. So I chose to slow down time on my end as much as I could."
Eevee nodded. "Same here! It's only been six or seven years for me."
"Oh, and I've been getting ready to take down Team Rocket and finally free my good buddy Mewtwo!"
Over the years, it had regularly kept in touch with Mewtwo through psychic communication.
But since Team Rocket's genetic tech had been unstable early on, and Mewtwo's DNA was still a mess, Eevee hadn't rushed to rescue him.
Instead, it used Team Rocket as guinea pigs.
Now though, the time was right.
Ash had already started his Pokémon journey.
Cynthia had been the Sinnoh Champion for a few years now.
And Eevee? He had used his human identity to join the Sinnoh Elite Four. That made it easier to handle certain matters—and support Cynthia when needed.
Most of his time went to adventuring with Cynthia and developing the Renzo Group's tech and research projects.
Of course, he also trained a few Pokémon of his own.
"Oh?" Uchiha Renzo raised an eyebrow. "You're finally rescuing Mewtwo? That's huge. When you do, make sure to grab as much research data from Team Rocket as you can—it might help you crack the code on legendary Pokémon genetics."
"Especially since Mewtwo's a Psychic-type—that stuff's gold."
Eevee grinned. "I was already planning on it! I've even gotten my paws on some of that data early."
"But honestly…" it paused, ears twitching. "I didn't expect your situation to be that wild. So it was the Six Paths and the Pure Land Authority stuff that kept you so long, huh?"
"Still, with the benefits you brought back? Totally worth it. The resurrection ability alone got way fewer restrictions now!"
Aizen nodded. "It'll help me evolve further, too. In fact, it may even help me consolidate authority over Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the whole Bleach world eventually."
To be honest, Renzo's gains from this trip will help Aizen the most.
Because, well… he was a Shinigami, after all.
Uchiha Renzo chuckled. "As long as it helped you all out, then it wasn't a waste of time."
.
.
.
Note: Tom & Jerry was used with the HahiramaXMadara cartoon version meme in mind. So it's not actually Pikachu and Eevee — they were genetically modified with genes from other Pokémon to get that result.
T/N: Just so you know, I started focusing on this novel a while ago, adding bits to each chapter, but lately I've been writing most of the chapter myself, so the pace has slowed down. It'll go back to the previous speed once I finish the part I'm working on now. (That's for chapter 360)