Cursed or Blessed?

"And one of them is that girl Kushina," Saigoji Youmu remarked, referring to the two students Sarutobi Hiruzen had tasked him with taking—Uzumaki Kushina and Uchiha Mikoto. This arrangement was the only acceptable condition; if Hiruzen had simply assigned two random students to him, Youmu would never have agreed.

"You seem to have brought both," Tsunade commented, curiosity evident in her tone. "Besides Kushina, who is the other?"

"With the Uchiha clan, it's Uchiha Mikoto," Youmu answered evenly.

Tsunade faltered for a moment, pausing as she swirled the wine in her glass. As a member of the Senju clan, she harbored a deep-seated distrust of the Uchiha. "The Uchiha clan…" she murmured.

At that, a strange glimmer sparked in Orochimaru's eyes. "Sharingan—now that's an asset," he interjected.

"Cut that out," Tsunade snapped disdainfully. "The Sharingan isn't a blessing—it's a cursed power. My second grandfather always said so."

"Cursed power?" Youmu echoed, a note of mild disagreement in his tone. "I don't see it that way."

Orochimaru's interest was piqued. "Youmu-kun, what do you think of the Sharingan?"

Before Youmu could answer directly, he turned the question toward Tsunade. "Tsunade, you know Second Hokage Senju Tobirama well. Why do you think he insist the Sharingan is a cursed force?"

Tsunade shook her head slowly. "I'm not entirely sure myself, but my grandfather was an expert in ninjutsu. He studied the Sharingan in depth. He said that while evolving from the basic form—the single tomoe—to two and three tomoe is natural if you have enough talent, going beyond that requires more than mere aptitude." She leaned forward as if sharing a dark secret.

"To evolve further, one must witness the death of a loved one or a close friend. They say that, in some cases, you even have to gouge out the eyes of someone dear—your own brother's, for example—to unlock the next level. This is why Tobirama declared the Sharingan a cursed force."

Youmu explained the evolution process in rough terms, his voice soft but resonant—a thunderbolt to their ears. Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya exchanged troubled glances as they scanned the surroundings, ensuring no one close overheard. Once convinced that their conversation was private, they exhaled in collective relief.

"Real or fake?" Jiraiya whispered.

"Of course it's true," Youmu confirmed.

Tsunade's tone turned grave. "If that information reaches the ears of the Uchiha zealots, you'll be in big trouble next time."

Saigoji Youmu chuckled softly. "Big trouble? I'm still a little afraid of Uchiha Madara, to be honest. But honestly, those in the current Uchiha clan can do little against me."

"Indeed," Orochimaru agreed. "The present-day Uchiha are far from the originals."

Jiraiya, considering Youmu's confidence, felt his own worries ease. "Youmu, where did you get all this information?" Tsunade pressed, her heart full of doubts and incomprehension. As a Senju, she'd never

encountered any evolution beyond the Three-Tomoe Sharingan—and yet Youmu not only knew of further evolution, he seemed to understand it better than most of the Uchiha.

"I've heard it somewhere before," Youmu replied vaguely, unwilling to elaborate further.

"All right," Tsunade said, choosing not to press him. "So, Youmu-kun, you just said that the Sharingan isn't a cursed power."

At that, the conversation shifted. Tsunade's curiosity now focused on the underlying implications of Youmu's view—a perspective that challenged the long-held belief of Sharingan as an evil force. Although Tsunade herself might still lean toward seeing it as cursed, Youmu's confident, measured tone hinted at an entirely different truth.