Chapter 581: The Giant Sharingan
To the shock of Konoha, Iwagakure did not annex the territory in the Land of Wind.
However, they didn't know about the secret agreement between Ishiro and Suna. Iwa's support wasn't charity; Suna had to pay.
The price was a portion of the One-Tail's chakra.
This request had sparked intense debate within Suna.
The Seven-Tails rampage in Konoha was still fresh in their minds. Suna's high command worried about Ishiro's intentions.
They feared that with the One-Tail's chakra, Ishiro could force their Jinchūriki to rampage as well.
But Suna had no choice. Even knowing it was poison, they swallowed it for the sake of growth.
More importantly, even without controlling the One-Tail, Ishiro could easily wipe out Suna.
After receiving Iwa's formal recognition, Baki announced to the world that he was the Acting Kazekage.
He made it clear he was not the official Kazekage.
Baki knew Suna needed to keep a low profile. Declaring himself merely an interim leader would lower others' guard.
Before the exams, Suna had been desperate not to be forgotten, fearing they wouldn't receive missions.
But after reclaiming a large swath of territory, Suna was back in the spotlight. Now, they needed quiet to recover their strength.
One month after the "Konoha Crush Plan."
Ishiro received Little Shukaku's acknowledgment.
Of course, this cost him another 40% of his Hashirama cells.
He didn't have enough cells left to create another mini-Bijuu.
After getting Little Shukaku, Ishiro brazenly went to Han and asked Kokuō for a Little Kokuō.
The Little Five-Tails was straightforward. As soon as it separated, it handed its chakra over to Ishiro without a word.
Ishiro was very happy. Not just because of the new additions (Two, Four, Six, Seven, Eight... five mini-Bijuu total, plus the Six-Tails corpse), but because Uchiha Izumi had finally begun the Sharingan fusion.
The Moon Ōtsutsuki's method for fusing the Tenseigan wasn't complex.
Izumi had delayed because she was sorting through Mion's memories and data.
Also, the Sharingan was very different from the Byakugan.
The Sharingan contained intense emotions from its original owner. Fusing them would be much harder than fusing Byakugan.
So, Izumi adopted a method: First, transplant a three-tomoe Sharingan into Sōkai.
Izumi would use her special dōjutsu to absorb the pupil power from that eye.
Then, transplant the drained eye into her own socket.
Finally, she would refill the empty eye with her own pupil power.
In other words, she acted as a purifier, "cleaning" the Sharingan one by one.
The key was her Mangekyō ability to absorb and transfer pupil power.
Izumi and Sōkai had spent the last month constantly swapping eyes.
In a newly built secret lab outside Iwagakure.
When Ishiro saw the jars of Sharingan again, he was surprised. The feeling they gave off had changed.
The gloomy, ominous aura had faded. Instead, they radiated a sense of hope.
A single eye didn't feel like much, but together, the feeling was palpable.
Perhaps it was because Izumi had infused them with her own hope while refilling them.
Sensing this, Ishiro felt more confident about the fusion.
He looked at Izumi and Sōkai. Both were exhausted, their dōjutsu heavily drained.
Sōkai, having been a tool countless times, was dizzy and looked like he had been overindulging.
Izumi wasn't much better. Using her Mangekyō so many times had taken a toll.
"Your condition isn't good," Ishiro said. "Go to the Land of Snow and recover first. The fusion isn't urgent."
But they both shook their heads.
"Lord Tsuchikage," Izumi said, "the Uchiha clan's revival depends on this. We can't calm down enough to recover."
"Besides... I have a feeling. The success rate is highest right now."
Ishiro paused. He remembered the feeling of hope from the eyes.
Perhaps she was right. He nodded.
With his approval, they began immediately.
Izumi poured a prepared solution into a large basin in the center of the room. The basin was surrounded by dense fuinjutsu seals.
They carefully placed the Sharingan into the basin, one by one.
When all the eyes were in, Izumi and Sōkai sat by the basin and began forming seals.
The runes around the basin lit up. The liquid began to glow with an eerie red light.
Although their eyes were closed, Ishiro's Mind's Eye told him they had both activated their Mangekyō.
A moment later, a miracle occurred.
The Sharingan actually began to fuse!
Softened by the solution, they stuck together.
Honestly, a mass of fusing eyeballs should have been disgusting. But beyond the creepiness, Ishiro felt a powerful, positive emotion.
He sat beside them, closed his eyes, and used his Mind's Eye to sense the emotions emanating from the pool.
Suddenly, he understood. The Moon Ōtsutsuki branch family had succeeded because of their shared desire.
Every member desperately wanted to be free of the main family's control.
Their hope had gathered in their Byakugan. That shared wish had guided the fusion.
Now, because Izumi had imbued these Sharingan with the same emotion—hope—they met the conditions for fusion.
The process was slow. Once all the eyes had stuck together, a quantitative change seemed about to become qualitative.
Massive amounts of pupil power tangled together, on the verge of merging into one.
But Ishiro waited, and the qualitative change didn't come.
His Mind's Eye sensed the changes, and he quickly guessed the reason.
He stood up and went to where the jars had been.
Most were empty, but over a dozen pairs remained.
These were the Mangekyō Sharingan, confirmed by Sōkai and cleaned by Izumi.
They hadn't put them in the pool because Izumi felt it was a waste. Every pair was a treasure.
Ishiro looked at the labels describing their abilities.
He picked a pair with a less useful ability, took the eyes out, and carefully placed them in the pool.
They quickly merged into the mass.
And, as if they knew the way, they slid rapidly to the very center.
Ishiro waited. The pupil power fluctuation intensified, but it still wasn't enough.
He added a second pair. A third. Until only two pairs remained in his hands.
Finally, the massive sphere in the pool changed.
Originally, he could see the three tomoe in each individual eye.
But as the pupil power crossed a threshold, the tomoe blurred and dispersed.
The black tomoe dissolved like ink, flowing across the boundaries of the individual eyes.
They began to converge and restructure.
A moment later, the mass of red eyes formed a perfect, smooth red sphere.
And the ink from all the tomoe formed a giant Mangekyō pattern.
Ishiro tried to recall which pattern it was, but it changed again.
Slowly dispersing, slowly reforming into a new pattern.
It held for a moment, then changed again.
The patterns cycled, over and over.
Ishiro recognized some from the pairs he had added—Itachi's, Izumi's, Sōkai's, Shisui's, Fugaku's—but many were new.
Throughout the process, Izumi and Sōkai kept their eyes closed. Ishiro witnessed it alone.
Finally, after countless changes, the giant eye shuddered.
A blinding red light shot out.
Ishiro squeezed his eyes shut.
The light lasted for a long time before fading.
When Ishiro opened his eyes, he saw the pattern on the giant eye had become a Rinne-Sharingan with tomoe.
He counted: Nine-Tomoe Rinne-Sharingan!
A blood-red, giant eye, about half a meter in diameter, floating in the air.
At this moment, Izumi and Sōkai woke up.
Exhausted, they looked immediately at the pool.
The solution was gone. The runes had faded.
But they didn't care. Their eyes were filled with the magnificent, giant Nine-Tomoe Rinne-Sharingan floating before them.
Looking at it, Izumi and Sōkai embraced, weeping with joy.
They babbled incoherently, probably not even understanding each other.
Ishiro stood by, silently eating dog food (watching the PDA).
A long time later, they calmed down.
Ishiro didn't discuss the eye immediately. He ordered them to rest for a few days. They were too drained, emotionally and physically.
What Ishiro didn't know was that the moment the eye shone, the Sage of Six Paths, somewhere in the shinobi world, opened his eyes.
His gaze pierced through all obstacles, seeing the eye that looked exactly like the one on his mother's forehead.
After a long time, he closed his eyes and sighed heavily.
He didn't know if Ishiro's creation was a blessing or a curse for the world.
A few days later, Ishiro brought the Iwa high command to the lab. Even the injured Kawakita came.
They had all seen the giant Tenseigan on the Moon.
Seeing Izumi had successfully replicated it with Sharingan, they were thrilled.
"Its name should be the Nine-Tomoe Rinne-Sharingan," Ishiro said, "but let's just call it the Giant Sharingan for now."
"Its abilities will need to be explored."
"Izumi, Sōkai, go to the Land of Snow and restore your pupil power. Then come back and study this eye."
"Remember, the primary goal is to awaken your own Rinne-Sharingan, like Neji did with the Tenseigan."
He handed them a scroll. "This is the method Hamura taught Neji. Try it. You have Mangekyō, and you created this eye. There is hope."
"Yes," they replied.
"This eye seems much weaker than the one on the Moon," Ishiro added. "Likely because it has fewer eyes fused into it."
"Also, it lacks chakra."
"Your second task is to figure out how it absorbs chakra. The Tenseigan and Rinnegan can both do it; this one should be no exception."
"Once you figure it out, I'll arrange for ninja to supply it."
"Awakening your own Rinne-Sharingan will require massive amounts of chakra. Neji's quickenings consume a huge amount from the giant Tenseigan."
"Since there are two of you, the consumption will be even greater."
"Yes!" Izumi and Sōkai replied, excited.
Ishiro was excited too. If they succeeded... he could hitch a lot of rides.
"Ishiro," Ōnoki said, "should we move it? Leaving such a treasure outside the village feels unsafe. Maybe the ANBU HQ?"
"ANBU HQ isn't necessary," Ishiro said, "but moving it inside the village is. Build a secret lab in the village and move it there. Izumi and Sōkai will live there from now on."
After arranging everything, Izumi and Sōkai left for the Land of Snow.
Ishiro left the Giant Sharingan's protection to Ōnoki and took Neji back to the Moon.
Neji sensed his third quickening approaching.
On the Moon, Ishiro once again used Spirit Infiltration to enter Neji's body.
He experienced the changes alongside Neji, his own soul observing the rapid alterations in Neji's body.
This time, Ishiro noticed the changes were concentrated in Neji's eyes.
Massive amounts of Tenseigan chakra were being absorbed by Neji's eyes like a bottomless pit.
In Ishiro's spiritual sense, Neji's eyes seemed to be waking from a slumber.
The previously "empty shells" began to burn with heat, emitting a faint pressure.
Ishiro clearly felt the eyes gaining a level beyond ordinary limits. It was the pressure of a superior being looking down on a subordinate.
But the pressure was light. Neji's Tenseigan was not yet complete.
A while later, Ishiro returned to his body.
He had a strange feeling, some miraculous thoughts.
Recently, his experiences had been unusual. Fusing the Giant Sharingan, Neji awakening the Tenseigan.
Both were critical transformations from mortal to Sage.
Ishiro had been a close observer of both, using his Super S-rank Mind's Eye to experience them directly.
He felt his understanding of "Sage" and "Mortal" had deepened.
When Neji woke up, Ishiro didn't spar with him. He hurriedly took him back to Iwa.
Back in the village, Ishiro took Neji to Katsumata's lab.
Katsumata and Natsuki were leading a large group in practicing Edo Tensei.
They were surprised to see Ishiro.
But Ishiro wasn't there for them. He wanted their equipment and barriers.
He waved them off and took Neji into a room, activating the barrier.
To Neji's confusion, Ishiro took out a Reaper Death Mask.
"Neji, there is a soul inside this mask. I call it the Reaper."
"These Reapers had a pact with the Uzumaki clan."
"The Fourth and Third Hokage used masks like this to cast the Reaper Death Seal."
Ishiro explained the mask in detail.
"I want to absorb the Reaper's Yin Release energy. Can your Tenseigan do it?"
Neji looked at the mask with his newly awakened eyes. He couldn't see through it.
He connected to the giant Tenseigan. With its aid, he finally saw the Reaper's soul inside.
As instructed, Neji reached out and used the Imperial Wheel to pull the Reaper out.
He examined the confused Reaper with Tenseigan chakra, then shook his head. "Ishiro-sensei, I can't decompose it."
"Maybe when my Tenseigan is fully awakened, but not now."
"Is that so?" Ishiro was disappointed.
He had started the sixth layer of his five-nature fusion a few days ago.
The fifth layer had been barely manageable; the sixth was clearly beyond his current ability.
Relying on practice to improve his control would take decades, maybe a century.
Even hitching rides on Neji wouldn't be enough.
He felt there were two factors limiting him.
One was Soul Level. His was high, near the peak of the third stage. But the gap between the third (Mortal) and fourth (Sage) stages was immense. Forcing a fourth-stage fusion with a third-stage soul was too much.
But he wasn't worried about that; he had more rides to hitch.
The bigger constraint was his Soul Quantity.
This was determined by talent.
Ishiro was talented; his soul quantity was higher than his peers. (Exceptions like Shiden and Yakumo notwithstanding).
But he felt it still wasn't enough for the fusion.
Considering Shion and Yakumo's situations, Ishiro felt the easiest way to increase his soul quantity was to devour other souls.
And he just happened to have a lot of powerful souls on hand: the Reapers.
(End of Chapter)
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