Chapter 88: New Calculations
As the patriarch of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Madara would have mastered every hidden secret the clan possessed. It was not so far-fetched to think he might know a forbidden method to restore his own vitality, to cheat death itself.
'Perhaps the masked man truly is Uchiha Madara,' Hiruzen's thoughts raced, constructing a terrifying narrative. 'During his final battle with the First Hokage, he could have used Izanagi to fake his death, deceiving Lord Hashirama and Lord Tobirama. He has been in hiding, preserving himself all this time… That would also explain why he only used Kamui that night and never manifested a Susano'o. A Susano'o requires both eyes. He lost one to Izanagi, and the other… he gave away long ago.'
The theory fit the known facts with an unsettling neatness.
A darker, more immediate suspicion clawed its way to the surface of his mind. 'Could the Uchiha clan still maintain ties to Uchiha Madara? Is there a thread connecting them, even now?'
Once planted, the idea took root, spreading through his thoughts like invasive weeds.
'No… that seems unlikely,' he argued with himself, grasping for logic. 'If they were truly in collusion, the Nine-Tails would never have been sealed back that night. Fugaku and the others fought it directly…'
But the seed of doubt was sown. It lodged deep in his consciousness, a splinter he could not dislodge. The possibility, however remote, now colored his perception.
'Even if the probability is low, the potential threat is catastrophic. We must take preventative measures.' His decision was swift, born of a leader's paranoia. 'Danzo and Orochimaru are no longer needed on the border. The immediate tension with Iwa has subsided. I will recall them. Their… particular skills may be required here, to watch the shadows within our own walls.'
An order was sent from the Hokage's office to the northern border, summoning the two powerful and morally flexible shinobi back to the village.
Hiruzen leaned back in his chair, the weight of his years and his office pressing down. 'Shisui is a good shinobi, a loyal Konoha ninja. But he is an Uchiha first. The pull of the clan is powerful. Can I ever afford him my complete, unguarded trust?' The answer, he feared, was one he did not wish to fully confront.
Within the sterile, sealed confines of Uchiha Akira's private laboratory at Shentian Biologics, three large, translucent cultivation tanks hummed softly. Each was filled with a faintly glowing green nutrient solution. Suspended within them were three distinct forms, motionless and serene.
The first tank held the clone derived from Uchiha Obito's cells. The second contained the perfect replica grown from Senju Hashirama's genetic material. The third held a clone cultivated from the tissue of Hyuga Yuuta, the original owner of the Byakugan Akira had claimed during the Third War's chaos.
Complex black sealing formulae were etched onto the tanks and pulsed faintly across the clones' skin—Akira's safeguard against the remote chance of autonomous consciousness developing within these vacant vessels.
Time was a steady current. It was now the fifty-second year of Konoha. In four more years, in Konoha Year 56, a celestial event of significance would occur: the next golden ring solar eclipse.
According to the scrolls describing the Demonic Mirror: Jutsu of the Phantom, the ritual to truly master this forbidden art had to be performed under that specific eclipse. It was the appointed, unchangeable celestial timing. His original, long-held plan had been to use that day to perform the ritual, fusing the five selected bloodline limits in a single, transformative leap, catapulting his power to a new stratum.
But the world had turned, and his position in it had transformed dramatically. The unexpected victory over Obito, granting him dual Kamui. The successful, stabilizing transplant of Hashirama's cells. His personal power had surged to a peak he had not anticipated reaching so soon, placing him among the absolute strongest in the shinobi world.
Looking back, his original plan for the eclipse now seemed… almost quaint. A solution for a version of himself that no longer existed. He was no longer a hidden player desperately scrambling for any advantage. He was a power in his own right, with time and options.
With dual Kamui and Hashirama's vitality, the pressing, gnawing anxiety for immediate, raw power had eased. He could afford patience. He could wait not just for the next eclipse in four years, but even for the one after that, decades hence. He had the lifespan to play a longer game.
Furthermore, his current strength was not a dead end. The path of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan lay ahead. If he could first awaken his own Mangekyō, then use the perfected cloning technology to create a genetically identical vessel from which to harvest eyes for the fusion… his power would undergo another qualitative explosion.
Of course, that crucial 'if' relied on the cloning science maturing to the point where a clone's ocular potential perfectly mirrored the original's. With only two pairs of Mangekyō—Obito's transplanted set—in his possession, he lacked the margin for error. He needed a guaranteed success.
"It's time," Akira murmured to himself, his eyes fixed on the silent tanks, "to make awakening my own Mangekyō a priority."
He touched his chin, his mind racing ahead. "But that also means I should re-evaluate the components for the Demonic Mirror Jutsu. My previous selections… they feel insufficient now. The goalposts have moved."
His initial choices had been the best available at the time: Senju vitality (via Hashirama cells), Hyuga Byakugan, Uzumaki life-force, Kaguya's Shikotsumyaku, and Jūgo's Sage Transformation. Together, they represented a staggering potential, a blueprint for a demigod.
But 'staggering' was no longer enough. He now had the capability to aim for the transcendent.
The Demonic Mirror Jutsu was a one-time ritual. The fusion, once made, was permanent. The quality and compatibility of the materials would define his ceiling. There were no second chances.
'If the fused materials are of the highest possible grade, and their synergy is perfect…' Akira's thoughts ventured into uncharted territory, a spark of ambition igniting. 'Could the ritual propel me directly to the realm of the Six Paths? Or even beyond?'
He held immense respect for the forbidden technique, viewing it as one of the very few conceivable paths to that mythic level of power. In the entire known history of the shinobi world, reaching the stratum of the Sage of Six Paths had only been achieved by becoming the Ten-Tails' jinchuriki or by receiving the Sage's direct blessing. The Demonic Mirror Jutsu represented a third, independent road.
He was skeptical that merely awakening the Rinnegan or the Tenseigan would be enough to cross that threshold. They were pinnacle powers, to be sure, but perhaps just shy of that final, world-altering leap. Maybe combined with a perfect Sage Mode or the chakra of every tailed beast… but that was speculation. He was still far from that realm himself.
"The Hashirama clone remains a cornerstone," he reasoned aloud, his voice echoing softly in the lab. "It represents the absolute peak of Yang Release. If I can later awaken my own Eternal Mangekyō—the pinnacle of Yin Release—and fuse them… the union of ultimate Yin and Yang could yield something unprecedented."
His gaze shifted to the tank holding the Hyuga clone. "But the Byakugan alone… it's a foundation, not the pinnacle. Its evolved form, the Tenseigan, is what truly matters." A new, audacious idea formed. "Obtaining the Tenseigan… it may not be out of reach now. Perhaps I should find time to attempt it."
The Tenseigan was a ocular power of the same legendary tier as the Rinnegan. Where the Rinnegan excelled in overwhelming, creative destruction and granted a unique chakra mode, the Tenseigan held its own profound mysteries. The process to awaken it was similarly arduous, requiring the pure Byakugan of the Hyuga and the chakra of an Otsutsuki clansman.
Unlike the Rinnegan, which could take a lifetime of planning and genetic confluence to achieve naturally, the timeline for forging a Tenseigan appeared to be… shorter. The example of Otsutsuki Toneri proved it was possible within a single human lifespan, given the right components.
Akira's plans were being rewritten, not out of desperation, but from a position of newfound strength. The board was the same, but he was now playing with entirely different pieces.
(End of Chapter)
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