The Rinnegan!
Shisui moved into Yasuka’s home just like that.
Thanks to the divine power of the Snake Talisman, Yugao did not notice an extra person in the house upon her return.
As was her routine, Yugao spent each day hidden in the shadows, quietly watching Yasuka and occasionally jotting notes down in her booklet.
A week later, Konoha began recalling the scattered Legendary Sannin.
This development left Shisui somewhat anxious, fearing that the hard-won equilibrium currently maintaining the peace might be shattered.
Yasuka, however, reasoned that aside from Jiraiya, the other two had absolutely no intention of returning.
“Why is that?” Shisui asked curiously, her eyes still adjusting to their new state.
In response, Yasuka began recounting some events from the past.
Back when he was six or seven years old, in order to alter the timeline as quickly as possible, he had traveled to Konoha.
At that time, the newly reinstated leader was the Third Hokage.
Leveraging a connection with the Daimyo, Yasuka managed to get along quite well with Tsunade and Nawaki; in fact, the very foundations of Yasuka’s medical skills had been learned directly from Tsunade.
Later on, however, Tsunade noticed that her medical expertise was on the verge of being eclipsed by Yasuka.
Driven by a quiet competitive streak, she buried herself in her work, leaving her with absolutely no time to ever cross paths with Dan Kato.
Not only that, but by utilizing the reality-defying power of the Horse Talisman, Yasuka successfully rewrote history by averting Nawaki’s fatal battlefield tragedy.
Following that incident, to protect Nawaki and ensure the continuation of the Senju bloodline, Tsunade promptly shipped her younger brother off to the Fire Country Daimyo to become a matrilocal son-in-law.
She explicitly ordered him to sire children, warning him that if he dared return to Konoha without fathering at least ten children, she would absolutely snap his legs—reasoning that she possessed the medical prowess to patch him right back up anyway.
Later down the line, Tsunade discovered distinct traces of an inside informant linked to the mission where Nawaki had nearly died.
After a series of fierce, fruitless arguments with the Third Hokage, she walked out on the village in a fit of rage, never to return.
Meanwhile, a young Orochimaru had been steered onto a proper path early on by a child-aged Yasuka, preventing him from drifting further down a twisted, depraved trajectory.
The two had maintained a steady correspondence via letters ever since.
By all accounts, an Orochimaru like this should never have defected; however, the Third Hokage stubbornly refused to approve any of Orochimaru’s research funding.
In a bout of profound frustration, Orochimaru simply packed his bags and left the village behind.
Seeing both of his teammates abandon ship, Jiraiya fabricated a convenient excuse and promptly left Konoha to follow suit.
Upon leaving Konoha, Orochimaru acted upon Yasuka’s philosophy that “technology is the primary force of production.” Backed by Yasuka’s financial investments, he founded a massive enterprise named the Ouroboros Corporation.
Dedicated to transcending the jurisdiction of the Five Great Shinobi Nations through technological monopolies and resource control, Orochimaru’s wealth now rivaled that of entire empires; he couldn’t care less about returning to Konoha.
As for Tsunade, since her departure, she had engaged in a cycle of sustainable, unchecked gambling across the land, to the point where she currently owed Yasuka an astronomical debt of thirty million Ryo.
Eventually, unable to watch his old classmate self-destruct any longer, Orochimaru recruited her into his enterprise to serve as the Chief Pharmaceutical Director.
The package included full room and board, comprehensive corporate benefits, and a five-day work week with two days off.
While she received no base salary, any money she won at the tables belonged to her, and Orochimaru fully covered any losses she incurred.
Therefore, aside from Jiraiya, the remaining two would almost certainly never set foot in Konoha again unless the village faced absolute annihilation.
“So that’s how it is…” Shisui murmured, a wave of realization washing over her.
She couldn’t resist asking, “What exactly is your relationship with Tsunade and Orochimaru then?”
“Creditor and debtor, and a mutual friendship.
Why do you ask?” Yasuka inquired, looking puzzled.
“Ah…
No…
It’s nothing…” Shisui shook her head hurriedly, secretly letting out a massive sigh of relief.
“What do you plan to do next?” Yasuka asked, a bit helpless at the sight of Shisui’s thoroughly relaxed posture.
Not long ago, this girl had been willing to charge through fire and water for the sake of the village, ready to lay down her very life for the preservation of her clan.
Now, she seemed entirely content to just lie flat.
“Me?
I don’t intend to show my face ever again,” Shisui explained, crossing her legs.
“My primary utility right now is serving as a grand bluff for the clan.
As long as Konoha remains entirely unable to verify whether I am dead or alive, they won’t dare make a decisive move against the Uchiha.
And as for me…
I am thoroughly sick and tired of being caught in the crossfire between them.
I’ll just continue playing dead.”
Shisui’s tone carried a weary resignation.
She genuinely felt that her current lifestyle was wonderful; at the very least, she no longer had to endure the crushing burden of being squeezed from both sides.
“What about Itachi?
How do you intend to explain things to her?”
“Just tell Itachi that I’ve already left Konoha.
Tell her that I lost my eyes and no longer wish to live the life of a shinobi.”
Beholding Shisui’s utterly deflated, coasting attitude, Yasuka knit his brows, feeling a flicker of dissatisfaction at her sudden urge to opt out of reality.
“I’m sorry…
I just really want to rest for a while.
That includes Itachi—I don’t want to see anyone right now.”
“I understand.”
Another half-month rolled by before Jiraiya finally made his return to the village.
Upon being briefed on the full scope of the recent crisis, he couldn’t help but voice his complaints: Why couldn’t the leadership have simply made a genuine effort to integrate the Uchiha?
In the end, their severe mishandling had forced a generational prodigy possessing the Mangekyō into defection, leaving a literal Sword of Damocles permanently suspended over Konoha’s head.
As of right now, absolutely no one knew whether Shisui was dead or alive.
So long as definitive proof of her demise remained unavailable, who would dare lift a hostile finger against the Uchiha?
“Jiraiya, now that you’ve returned, don’t leave again.
I want you to step up and assume the mantle of the Fifth Hokage…”
“Stop joking around!
I have absolutely no desire to become Hokage.
There are countless young maidens and fine ladies across the Shinobi world waiting for this Sage to rescue them.
I refuse to lock myself away in Konoha!” Jiraiya cut the Third Hokage off cleanly.
Unless Minato were to suddenly rise from the grave, he wouldn’t accept the position under any circumstances.
Shortly after, Jiraiya prepared to go check on Minato’s child.
Over the past several years, due to his ceaseless travels tracking the Child of Prophecy, he had never once returned.
Compounded by the toxic rumors painting the kid as a demon fox, that child had likely been enduring a horrific existence.
Jiraiya was acutely aware of this reality, yet his primary focus had consistently remained anchored to his grand destiny.
“Alright, your eyes have recovered sufficiently.”
Yasuka carefully unraveled the bandages from Shisui’s face.
After two weeks of gradual recovery, Shisui was finally able to comfortably acclimate to normal ambient lighting.
“The sensation of regaining my sight…
it’s truly wonderful.” Shisui rubbed her eyes gently.
As her vision locked onto Yasuka’s increasingly sharp features, she found herself momentarily dazed.
“What are you staring at?!
Hurry up and activate your Sharingan so I can verify if it’s functioning correctly.” Yasuka rapped Shisui lightly on the head, snapping her out of her stupor.
Blushing slightly, she focused her chakra and snapped her eyes open.
“Is this the Eternal Mangekyō?” Yasuka observed the intricate patterns curiously.
Suddenly, Shisui frowned slightly.
“Wait…
it feels like they can evolve even further.”
“Huh?”
As Shisui pushed her chakra deeper, the patterns of the Eternal Mangekyō began to shift rapidly, morphing into a series of concentric, ripples of deep purple—upon which three distinct Tomoe symbols sat perfectly aligned.
“…”
Yasuka’s expression completely froze.
He suddenly realized that his anatomical repair work had apparently…
gone a bit too far.
“Such overwhelming visual prowess…
No…
I can’t…”
Shisui was rapidly overwhelmed by the sheer, crushing magnitude of the Six Paths Chakra, causing her eyes to forcibly revert back to their standard Mangekyō state.
Wiping away a thin trail of fresh blood leaking down her face, she couldn’t help but marvel at that brief glimpse of supreme authority.
[LanLi: Divine Energy was used here but since Rinnegan is powered by SPC, I replaced.]
“The Rinnegan…” Yasuka muttered, a trace of shock flickering through his mind.
However, he efficiently processed the reality of the situation.
Grabbing Shisui’s wrist, he guided her over to Naruko’s side, signaling for her to utilize her visual genjutsu to pull both himself and Naruko straight into the depths of the Nine-Tails’ sealed chamber.
“Understood.”
Shisui naturally wouldn’t refuse any request made by Yasuka.
With a massive surge of her ocular chakra, Yasuka felt his vision dip into instantaneous blackness.
When his eyes snapped open once more, they were standing inside a cold, dark, sewer-like expanse.
“A human?” A colossal, crimson fox resting deep within a massive gated cage grunted, thoroughly perplexed as to how an outsider had managed to infiltrate this space.
Yasuka didn’t spare the Nine-Tails a single glance.
He simply turned to Naruko and gestured toward the paper talisman holding the cage shut.
“Naruko, go ahead and tear that seal off.”
Naruko possessed absolute, implicit trust in Yasuka.
Without a single moment of hesitation, she reached out her small hand to rip the seal away.
However, the exact millisecond her fingers were about to make contact, a firm hand materialized from the gloom, gently catching her wrist.
“Naruko, you must not release the Nine-Tails.”
A strikingly familiar mane of spiky golden hair materialized right before Yasuka’s eyes.
Upon registering Yasuka’s presence, the newcomer’s face filled with profound shock, rapidly overlaid by a surge of pure delight.
“Yasuka, you—”
*CRACK!!!*
A sharp, resounding slap echoed through the entirety of the sealed chamber.
Minato clutched his burning cheek, completely bewildered as he stared blankly at Yasuka, utterly unable to comprehend why he had just been struck.