On the dais, the Great Elder delivered a rousing pre-battle speech.
Down below, Chiya did not take in a word.
"Opposites interweave, and from that comes all creation."
Ever since completing his Sage Body and awakening Wood Release, he had been chewing on the meaning behind Madara's line.
"The Sharingan and the Sage Body are clearly the keys to awakening the Rinnegan. Once this meeting ends, I can try fusing the two."
While Chiya mapped his next steps, the meeting wrapped up. Reinforcements had to move fast, so the Great Elder kept it short.
He opened the clan roster and began calling names.
"Uchiha Ueno, Earth Country border, squad captain."
"Uchiha Kazekaze, Lightning Country border, squad member."
Name after name, he matched strength and specialties, assembling ad hoc war teams. When he reached the final line and saw the guard tower's Uchiha Senya, he paused.
That one was tricky to place. Yes, the boy had awakened his eyes, but he kept to himself and had almost no friends. Every squad already had a full complement. In the Great Elder's view, Chiya's combat ability was likely mediocre at best. He might even drag others down.
After a brief hesitation, he spoke. "Uchiha Senya, assigned to the wartime patrol unit."
Snickers broke out at once.
"Did I hear that right? Patrol unit?"
"Isn't that for academy kids who have not even graduated?"
"Stuck with patrols, babysitting children."
"Too cruel. I heard he awakened too, but the Great Elder still did him dirty."
"Come on, he is at least a chunin."
"For a freeloader like him, patrol duty fits like a glove."
The ones who did not know Chiya's true ability let the barbs fly. The Great Elder only frowned and said nothing. Given how Chiya acted, the judgment seemed fair enough.
Chiya, for his part, ignored the noise. He nodded to the Great Elder as if he had heard none of it.
When the gap in strength is large enough, none of this matters. To take offense and lash out would be an insult to himself. If he struck back now, they would only stare at him like dogs in shock, then drop to their knees and beg. Where was the fun in that?
The strong do not rage at an ant's provocation. That was the pride of strength.
Like when Madara dismissed Onoki's taunts with silence. What adult quarrels with a child?
By the time Chiya stood at the summit, these men would likely already be dust. Of course, if they refused to learn and dared act, he would erase them without a trace. Sharing a surname would not buy mercy.
Task slip in hand, Chiya left the shrine.
Night fell.
He did not return to Shikkotsu Forest. With the Sage Body perfected, there was little point. He sat cross-legged in the guard tower's quiet room and tried fusing sage chakra with the Sharingan.
"As I thought, still not working."
"Awakening the Rinnegan is not so simple."
After many failures, he opened his eyes and let out a slow breath. Every time he thought he was close, resonance between the two forces would shear apart without warning.
"Maybe it really is because I am not a reincarnation of Indra or Asura."
Kaguya created chakra. She was the source. To evolve the Rinnegan, one's blood needed to draw closer to hers. The Uchiha were her distant legacy, but centuries had thinned that bond.
"Looks like I need chakra from Indra and Asura themselves."
There was another path: receive the Sage of Six Paths' power. Indra and Asura's chakra came from him, after all. But that was not realistic. The Sage would not hand such power to an outsider, especially when Sasuke was Indra's reincarnation.
"Even with the Rinnegan, I would not truly reach six paths level. At best, pseudo six paths."
In Chiya's view, only grasping Yin-Yang Release or fusing the chakra of all nine tailed beasts to enter Six Paths Sage Mode counted as the real thing. Nagato had the Rinnegan, yet he was a peak super kage at most, and not the very peak.
Whether Chiya could defeat Nagato now would take a real fight to tell. And beyond the set techniques like Universal Pull and Almighty Push, each Rinnegan awakened a unique power. Madara had Limbo. Sasuke had Amenotejikara.
"What will mine be?"
He exhaled, closed his eyes, and sank back into the search for a way to make the two forces sing as one.