Chapter 73: Buffs Stacking Up

"These eyes you have now… came from a corpse. Uchiha En ripped them out of an invader," Yao said flatly, laying the truth bare.

"Strictly speaking, you shouldn't even have been able to awaken the Sharingan with them."

The old man's gaze lingered on Gin's faintly glowing red eyes, his tone calm but edged with curiosity. Even he had been surprised to learn Gin had awakened them.

Eye transplants weren't uncommon in the clan; thanks to certain forbidden jutsu, ordinary Sharingan were treated as expendable consumables.

"Then what's the deal with my eyes?"

Gin lightly touched his eyelids. Thinking back, his entire process of awakening the Sharingan seemed inseparable from the system. Could it really just be a system reward?

"There are a few possibilities."

Yao fell silent for a moment before continuing.

"First: your eyes might've been switched out. What you ended up with could actually have been proper Uchiha eyes all along."

But even as he said it, he didn't sound convinced — back then, both Myō and En had been clear that Gin's body couldn't handle a Sharingan transplant at the time. They would never have risked worsening his condition.

"Second… your body assimilated these eyes."

Gin blinked, confused. Assimilated? That was a new one.

"The human eye is riddled with countless blood vessels and lymphatic tissue. Once they transplanted the eyeballs, your blood permeated and adapted them, altering their fundamental nature."

Yao's voice was low and measured.

"That's the most likely explanation. Even after a lifetime of research, I still don't understand all the mysteries of the human body."

Gin didn't disagree.

"…Actually, I have another hypothesis."

Just when Gin thought that was it, Yao frowned, as though remembering something, and spoke again.

"What is it?"

"I've spent many years studying bloodlines. Our clan has, over the course of the wars, gathered plenty of experimental material. Through that research, I stumbled across something interesting…"

His remaining eye gleamed as though dredging up an old memory. Gin said nothing, just listened carefully.

"I discovered that seemingly unrelated ninja clans… have very similar gene chains in their blood. At first I assumed it was just centuries of intermarriage. But some of these clans have been bitter enemies for generations — there's no way they'd have intermarried."

"The Senju, Uzumaki, Hagoromo, Hyūga, Kaguya…"

Yao named them one by one.

"…and the Uchiha."

Gin's lips twitched. Of course. As someone who knew the story of this world, he already knew all of these were descended from the Ōtsutsuki.

"And your current eyes… come from someone of Kaguya blood, crossed with Hyūga."

Yao finally came clean.

What?!

So his eyes had been ripped from some Kaguya–Hyūga half-breed?!

"Wait, wait, give me a second to process this…"

Gin's mind spun. He was Uchiha, his eyes were Kaguya–Hyūga, and the system had already given him Uzumaki bloodline buffs. All he needed now was Senju and Hagoromo, and he'd have a full set of Ōtsutsuki buffs ready to take on the stars.

"Because of shared gene segments in those bloodlines, these eyes adapted to your body and automatically manifested as a Sharingan. If you'd been a Hyūga, they likely would've awakened as a Byakugan instead."

In other words… plug and play, hot-swappable?

"The fact that they became Sharingan proves how high the compatibility is. With proper conditioning, awakening the Mangekyō is just a matter of time."

Yao saw Gin frown at that and thought he was hung up on the eyes being "tainted." He added reassuringly:

"To awaken the Mangekyō… what you lack is simply the right trigger."

Gin knew very well what kind of "trigger" he was talking about — the kind of deep emotional trauma and bonds needed to evolve the eyes.

But in this world he had no loved ones, no one he shared a deep enough bond with. How the hell was he supposed to awaken them?

"…I do have one method in mind. I just don't know if it'll work."

Seeing the unease in Gin's eyes, Yao finally offered something.

"Please, Jii-san!"

Gin dropped to his knees immediately. For the sake of Tsukuyomi, a little groveling was nothing.

"I hadn't planned to show you this so soon," Yao murmured, shaking his head.

He turned, opened a hidden compartment in the wall, and pulled out a glass jar.

"These… are your father's eyes."

His voice dimmed as he set the jar before Gin.

Suspended in pale green nutrient fluid, a pair of blood-red Sharingan still seemed to seethe with power, even after all these years.

"These eyes… contain everything. The moment your father was betrayed by Uchiha Tajima is imprinted in them. If you look, you will likely awaken the Mangekyō."

Yao's hand lingered on the jar, his tone thick with hatred.

So who was telling the truth? Everyone else claimed his father had died heroically covering his comrades' retreat. But Yao… Yao was saying otherwise.

"Use your Sharingan's chakra. Peer inside. The images sealed in them will reveal themselves."

Following Yao's guidance, Gin's three-tomoe spun, a cold chakra thread weaving into the jar.

From the shadows nearby, the old jailer watched silently, his dull eyes glinting faintly with some unreadable emotion.

As Gin's vision slipped into the memory sealed within, he found himself seeing through a third-person perspective:

A man with curly hair was running desperately, leading a group of wounded comrades. Kunai and shuriken zipped by — they were being pursued.

"Captain! They're too close!"

A young voice called out — a teenage Tajima. Even back then his composure was uncanny for someone his age.

"Don't panic. I'll hold them off. You all get out."

The curly-haired man's voice was calm and warm, instilling confidence even in that desperate situation.

"Don't be a hero, Kin! I'm staying with you!"

A cold beauty at his side glared at him, her teeth clenched.

"I'm staying too!" Tajima echoed.

"Stop it. You'll only slow me down."

Kin shook his head.

"You two go rendezvous with Honō. I'll catch up."

Then he turned to face the enemy alone.

"You bastard…"

The woman cursed under her breath and glared at Tajima.

"You go. I can't leave him behind."

Tajima stood motionless, his eyes unreadable, before finally turning and following.

The three of them fought back-to-back, covered in blood and exhaustion. When the moment finally came to break away and escape… everything went wrong.

"Tajima! What are you doing?!"

Kin stared in disbelief at the blade now jutting through his stomach, his gaze swinging to the boy behind him — face twisted, eyes gleaming madly.

"Sorry, brother-in-law. If you don't die… I can never inherit the clan."

Tajima's voice was cold as he twisted the blade, blood spraying.

"No—!!"

The last thing Gin saw was Tajima's icy back and the woman's anguished scream.

(End of Chapter)

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