CHAPTER 54

Turning Windmill

Fugaku Uchiha has many suspicions, with the foremost being his son, Uchiha Itachi. Itachi had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan and was expected to take over as the next patriarch of the Uchiha clan. However, he wavered between loyalty to his family and his village. Itachi was also reluctant to share any information regarding Anbu operations with Fugaku.

Itachi had the ability to steal Sharingan from the clan's vault, yet Fugaku believed that Itachi wouldn't do so. Itachi likely didn't know about the existence of Izanagi and Izanami, two powerful techniques that allowed manipulation of reality, making the theft unnecessary.

Could it be someone from the Uchiha clan allied with the Hokage family? Fugaku puzzled over the matter but decided against discussing the stolen Sharingan with anyone. The theft was a significant instability for the clan's military force. Worse, the breach of the Nanhe Shrine—a place that should be sacred and secure—could have a profound impact. If the clan were to learn that an outsider had infiltrated such a crucial location, it could undermine their resolve to overthrow the village leadership.

For a moment, Fugaku even considered reporting the theft to the Hokage. But tensions between the Uchiha clan and the village had reached their breaking point. The only options left were for the coup to succeed and seize the Hokage Building or for the coup to fail and result in the clan's destruction. There was no middle ground. Continuing without action would only deplete their strength until they could no longer even protect their garrison.

…

On the way back through the Dead Forest, Shisui Uchiha clutched the scroll containing the stolen Sharingan and glanced at Naruto intermittently.

To Shisui, the act of stealing Sharingan was a gamble. Not only did he risk discovery by his own clan during the theft, but he also had to prevent the Sharingan from being taken by others. Though Naruto possessed the more powerful Mangekyō Sharingan, and it was highly valuable in the black market—second only to the Rinnegan—Shisui's instincts told him something was off. Throughout the journey, Naruto never attacked Shisui's shadow clone nor pressed for information about the Sharingan. It was as if Naruto had no real interest in it. But if that were the case, why did he take the other god technique from Shisui's possession?

Upon arriving at their base in the Dead Forest, Shisui's shadow clone released a sigh of relief at seeing the real Shisui's figure. He then handed the psychic scroll containing the Sharingan to Naruto.

As a captive, Shisui no longer had the right to choose his fate.

Naruto glanced at Shisui, who handed over the Sharingan, and remarked with a slight scoff, "I thought you might have tried to resist or at least left a signal for your clan. But you didn't put up a fight at all. It's so boring."

Shisui looked somewhat embarrassed and responded, "The success of my eye transplant depends on you."

Naruto paused, realizing the truth of Shisui's words. Even if Shisui managed to escape, he wouldn't be able to undergo eye transplant surgery with anyone else, especially considering the risk of falling into Danzo's hands.

Without further conversation, Naruto began performing the eye transplant. This Sharingan was colder than the last one. Long-term storage had drastically reduced the cell activity, making the operation even more difficult than expected.

The transplant took hours, using a great deal of chakra. When it was complete, Shisui's body would need a few days to adapt to the Sharingan.

However, the rejection reaction was stronger than Naruto anticipated. Shisui, despite being a Jonin and having Uchiha blood, showed an incredible level of resistance to the transplant. It was no wonder no one had attempted Sharingan transplants except for Kakashi and Danzo.

In contrast, Naruto had found transplanting the Kotoamatsukami—Shisui's technique of the "Other God"—to be an easier process. However, as a descendant of the Uzumaki clan, with the Nine-Tails' chakra and Asura's chakra inside him, Naruto didn't face much difficulty from the rejection.

Naruto's thoughts briefly drifted before he focused again on Shisui, who had passed out. He then examined the remaining Sharingan. He felt little regard for the regular single-gou or double-gou Sharingan; even the three-tomoe Sharingan was only of limited use. The Izanami and Izanagi techniques held more intrigue, though they were both extremely difficult to use.

Izanami was a rare genjutsu technique used against the Uchiha clan, with extremely harsh activation conditions. Izanagi, on the other hand, allowed the user to alter reality itself, but only within a limited scope. For example, the Izanagi technique could not alter the reality of the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki's existence, nor could it modify the existence of the Ten-Tails itself.

But for now, Naruto decided to take the three-gou Sharingan as well, following his principle of never leaving gaps in his plans. Using his Body Flicker Technique, he quickly took out Shisui's shadow clone before it vanished, and then removed himself from the underground base.

It had been nearly six months since Shisui had entrusted Naruto with the Kotoamatsukami Sharingan. Now, it was time to part ways.

Before leaving, however, Naruto made sure to leave behind a scroll full of important information, something Shisui could use in the future.

Shisui awoke earlier than expected the following morning, groggy and aching from the operation. He found the scroll Naruto had left behind, along with Naruto's disappearance.

Opening the scroll, Shisui saw only a few brief farewell words. The small characters at the bottom were sealed with a sealing technique; trying to break them would destroy the entire scroll.

Suppressing his curiosity, Shisui looked over at the Sharingan and psychic scroll, carefully counting them. Two pairs were missing—one transplanted into him, and another presumably taken by the mysterious ninja. This wasn't beyond Shisui's tolerance, but the theft did leave him unsettled.

In his view, even if all the Sharingan had been stolen, it wasn't the end of the world. In fact, the theft might prompt the Uchiha clan to be more cautious, making them realize that there were traitors within the family and enemies outside. This could buy him some time and allow him to carefully plan an escape.

As for the mysterious ninja who took the other gods and made cryptic suggestions, Shisui didn't have time to focus on that for now. His priority was ensuring the safety of his clan.

After recovering from the eye pain, Shisui took one last look at the underground base and formed hand seals. A fire dragon materialized, and it surged down into the passage, triggering a series of explosive tags. The base erupted in a massive explosion.

With that, Shisui disappeared into the Dead Forest.

Time was running short—he'd begun waking up later each day, and the situation was becoming more urgent. It would take at least ten days to put his plan into action.

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