Takuno rubbed his temples, feeling a familiar headache wash over him.
The problem at hand remained those legendary eyes: the Rinnegan.
Madara, in his Edo Tensei state, despite possessing the Rinnegan, was unable to directly employ the abilities of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
This forced him to frequently switch between the Rinnegan and the Sharingan during combat, which undoubtedly added many constraints.
However, not all Rinnegan wielders were subject to this limitation.
Sasuke was that unique exception.
This Uchiha descendant, who also awakened the Rinnegan, possessed only a single eye, yet it displayed entirely different characteristics.
All of his Mangekyō Sharingan abilities could actually be manifested directly while maintaining the Rinnegan form, without any need for switching!
What was the reason behind this disparity?
Takuno's mind raced.
The answer seemed to point to a difference in the grade of the Rinnegan itself.
What Madara had awakened was the Rinnegan in its conventional sense.
But Sasuke's peculiar eye, which harbored six Tomoe, was a higher-level Six-Tomoe Rinnegan!
Was it precisely the uniqueness of this Six-Tomoe Rinnegan that granted Sasuke the privilege of freely using Mangekyō abilities within a single form?
Looking back at Madara, although his talent was peerless and he awakened the Rinnegan through his own power, fate seemed to have played a cruel joke on him.
By the time he finally crossed that threshold, his life had already reached its end.
Even though the Rinnegan itself brought a certain extension of life, he immediately had to plot the crucial arrangement of entrusting the eyes to Nagato.
Therefore, the time Madara actually spent mastering and using his own pair of Rinnegan was, in fact, extremely brief.
And after gifting the eyes to Nagato, what he used were merely the ordinary Sharingan of other Uchiha clan members.
"So, Uchiha Madara perhaps only mastered the most basic majesty of the Rinnegan," Takuno continued to deduce further.
"He simply didn't have time—or rather, under the conditions at the time, no opportunity—to explore and master the higher-tier 'Tomoe Rinnegan' form."
This explanation was logically quite sound.
Thinking of this, a sudden thought burst into Takuno's mind.
Since Sasuke's Six-Tomoe Rinnegan had already demonstrated such superiority, was this the end-point of the Rinnegan's evolution?
Take, for example, the progenitor of chakra, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki; what was embedded in her forehead was clearly a Rinne Sharingan possessing nine Tomoe! Nine Tomoe!
Using Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's near-godlike power as a reference, it was undoubtedly reasonable for a higher-level Nine-Tomoe form of the Rinnegan to exist.
Thinking this, Takuno nodded; then, he would strive for the Tomoe Rinnegan as his next goal!
Even if the Rinnegan and Sharingan could be switched back and forth, making the Tomoe Rinnegan seem unnecessary, in top-tier combat, the slightest error could lead to a different outcome.
Therefore, what Takuno pursued was to leave no flaws behind!
After finishing the testing of the Susanoo's power, Takuno returned to the laboratory.
Takuno sat in his familiar chair, his fingertips unconsciously tapping the tabletop as if he were still digesting the shock brought by the world-shaking power test just now.
The Perfect Susanoo he had wielded at the training grounds displayed a power that far exceeded his initial imaginings.
The Mangekyō Sharingan, this Kekkei Genkai symbolizing the top-tier power of the Uchiha clan, brought him an augmentation that could be described as terrifying—far beyond what he could have predicted before his eyes opened.
To be honest, before awakening these eyes, Takuno's expectations for them weren't particularly high.
At that time, he only hoped to obtain two relatively practical ocular techniques to be satisfied.
However, reality gave him a massive surprise; the capabilities of these Mangekyō were far beyond his expectations.
More crucially, at the moment he opened the Mangekyō, he actually mastered the ultimate form—the Perfect Susanoo—directly and without any obstacles!
This was diametrically different from his previous experience of borrowing Shisui's Mangekyō.
Although Shisui's Susanoo was also powerful, it was someone else's eyes after all; that sense of power hadn't truly managed to shock him.
But now, wielding a Susanoo that belonged to himself, that majestic, great power allowed him to truly feel what "Absolute Power" meant.
Takuno clearly realized that, possessing the Perfect Susanoo, his strength had achieved a leap.
Even within that top-tier level of the strong known as Super Kage, he absolutely possessed a place that could not be underestimated, becoming a standout among them.
What was even more exhilarating was that this was far from the end.
As long as he followed the plan to continually cultivate his ocular power and refine the control and depth of his Yin Nature chakra, one day, with just this Perfect Susanoo alone, he would be sufficient to claim the peak of the Super Kage and stand at the absolute summit of the Shinobi World's power!
Of course, this path was destined to be long, requiring a massive amount of time and effort to build up.
Takuno fell into deep thought, carefully organizing the layers of his own power.
After a round of comparison, he realized that the Perfect Susanoo had already replaced other means to become the pinnacle of his single-unit combat power at this stage.
Admittedly, Sage Mode possessed its unique advantages; it occupied an independent "power multiplier," providing a significant boost.
However, the problem lay in the fact that the gap between Takuno's own basic strength and the massive energy level displayed by the Perfect Susanoo was simply too vast.
Even if the Sage Mode augmentation were stacked on top, its comprehensive effect would still struggle to reach the destructive power contained within that sky-propping energy giant.
This even led to an interesting paradox.
If Takuno's basic strength itself received an upgrade, then the Perfect Susanoo, as the manifestation of his power, would inevitably rise with the tide and strengthen simultaneously.
From this perspective, it seemed that in a pure contest of power levels, the Susanoo itself was a high-order form that reigned above Sage Mode?
Thinking about these two types of power from the original work, Takuno soon reached a preliminary conclusion.
If all other auxiliary means were set aside and one compared "Basic Sage Mode" and "Perfect Susanoo" in isolation, the latter undoubtedly possessed an overwhelming advantage.
However, the true value of Sage Mode was far more than that!
Its core uniqueness lay in its unparalleled compatibility; it could perfectly fuse with any other form of power!
For example, Naruto, who mastered Sage of Six Paths Mode, was proof;
More crucially, the power of Sage Mode could even be combined directly with the Susanoo!
In the original work, Sasuke utilized Jugo's Cursed Seal power to manifest a special Susanoo form.
Takuno was certain that if pure Senjutsu chakra were injected into the Susanoo, the majesty produced would surely far exceed the Cursed Seal form!
Therefore, simply debating the strength of these two basic forms was no longer meaningful.
At this moment, what Takuno was truly thinking about was:
Before this, what was the theoretically strongest single-target attack method he could perform?
the answer quickly emerged clearly in his mind.
It was a terrifying burst of extreme stacking!
His own peak-level basic strength, supplemented by the instant release of physical limits from the first two gates of the Eight Inner Gates.
Layered with the comprehensive augmentation of Sage Mode, and subsequently fused with the extreme activity brought by Senjutsu Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
Coordinated with the god-like movement speed granted by Swift Release, plus the secondary strengthening of speed by Wind Release auxiliary secret techniques.
Finally concentrating all power into a single point, pouring it out through Boil Release: Unrivaled Strength!
Originally, Senjutsu Chidori was the choice for the final link, but after mastering the pure physical force of Boil Release, Chidori was no longer a necessity.
This kind of layer-by-layer stacking, like "stacking boxes," resulted in an ultimate combination whose final burst power was unimaginably terrifying.
His already peerless basic strength, under the push of multiple accelerations and augmentations, released a destructive power in an instant that Takuno had a strong premonition about.
Even the Perfect Susanoo controlled by himself would have absolutely no possibility of tanking this strike head-on without collapsing!
However, this earth-shattering strike always existed only in theoretical concepts.
Takuno rarely, or rather, simply didn't dare to try using all these abilities stacked simultaneously.
The reason was extremely simple and fatal: his flesh-and-blood body could not withstand this terrifying reactionary force!
Even with chakra providing full protection, attempting this level of stacking was equivalent to self-mutilation.
What's more, looking at the current Shinobi World, he couldn't find a single opponent worth betting his life to use this move.
Looking back at the slash he had swung with the Perfect Susanoo, Takuno assessed it calmly and believed its power was indeed inferior to that theoretical "box-stacking" ultimate Unrivaled Strength at its peak.
Thinking of this, his expression became somewhat subtle.
Looking at it this way, compared to that near-self-mutilating "Unrivaled Strength," the cost required to wield the Perfect Susanoo was clearly within the acceptable range and was far more safe and reliable.
But even without using those powers, at this moment, Takuno felt the new power surging within him and saw the world in a completely different, clear outline through his vision; a sense of being powerful like never before filled his whole body.
With this pair of awakened Mangekyō Sharingan, his strength in this period had already ascended to the summit of the Shinobi World, reaching a near-invincible realm.
Amidst this powerful self-confidence, a name that once made him quite wary—Minato—and his elusive Flying Thunder God Technique, had their perceived threat quietly dissipate a great deal.
In the past, to deal with this kind of teleportation surprise attack, Takuno's only reliance was his own extraordinary reaction speed.
He was well aware of the core paradox of the Flying Thunder God Technique: as long as your reaction is faster than the caster, that seemingly unsolvable instant-kill technique can instead become a trap where the opponent digs their own grave.
In the Fourth Shinobi World War, even someone as strong as Tobirama—wasn't his Flying Thunder God instantly countered by Madara with crushing reaction speed, leading to his defeat on the spot?
In fact, absolute superiority wasn't even required; as long as the reaction speed could match the caster, dodging or parrying that fatal blow wasn't impossible.
However, this seemingly straightforward response plan was as difficult to execute as climbing a sheer cliff.
The reason was none other than the fact that the individuals who mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique—whether the creator Tobirama or the "Yellow Flash" Minato who brought it to its peak—their neural reaction speeds were themselves a summit of the Shinobi World.
Looking at the entire Shinobi World, how many people would dare assert their reactions could reign above these two?
Perhaps only existences like the legendary Madara and Hashirama could match them.
Even someone as strong as Obito after becoming the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki, after obtaining near-godlike physical strengthening, appeared quite disheveled facing the Flying Thunder God in the beginning, only gradually adapting after a bitter struggle.
Takuno licked his slightly dry lips, a flash of solemnity crossing his eyes.
He had never truly fought Minato; as for whether he could capture and counter Minato's Flying Thunder God slash in a split second, he didn't have absolute certainty in his heart.
But Takuno was by no means a person who would wait for death.
Even if there were variables in the reaction speed hurdle, he had already conceived and arranged another layer of thorough defensive means; he would never allow the opponent to easily brand that fatal Flying Thunder God formula mark upon him!
The Flying Thunder God mark, regardless of how secretive its manifestation was, was essentially an exquisite Sealing Jutsu.
The branding process of the mark was not created out of thin air; it inevitably required a medium, which was the unique chakra energy injected by the caster.
Therefore, the core of Takuno's strategy lay in precisely causing that invading chakra—acting as the medium—to completely fail at the very instant the opponent tried to brand the mark!
This was not a pipe dream.
He had long prepared for a rainy day, cleverly integrating the power of the Dark Release Kekkei Genkai into the defensive sealing jutsus he had inscribed on himself.
This set of composite seals acted like a precise energy filter covering his entire body; once external chakra touched his body, the power of the Dark Release would activate instantly to swallow it.
Unless the opponent first violently destroyed the defensive sealing jutsus across his entire body, any chakra attempting to remain on him would be ruthlessly erased.
Having lost chakra as a medium, the Flying Thunder God formula mark would naturally become a rootless floating weed, with no way to be established.
Of course, Takuno also clearly realized that once a mark was successfully branded, Dark Release would be helpless against an already existing mark after the fact.
Just as Six Paths Obito could not use the Rinnegan's absorption ability to erase the Flying Thunder God mark on his body.
This precisely proved that the energy mechanism maintaining a formed mark likely exceeded the scope of conventional chakra, becoming exceptionally stable.
Because he foresaw this layer, Takuno placed the focus of his defense on the "process" of the opponent's technique, committing to strangling the Flying Thunder God mark in its cradle during the "sowing" stage of its formation.
However, after opening the Mangekyō Sharingan...
Takuno's expression was a bit strange; between his abilities and the Flying Thunder God, it was still unknown who could out-scheme whom~
Takuno stretched; even though he had now ascended to the summit of the Shinobi World, he didn't have any feeling of "the loneliness of being at the top."
As long as there was still a path ahead, he could not stop.
Therefore, Takuno's gaze turned toward another room in the laboratory, where what was stored was...
Hashirama cells!