Ninety-Seven: As Easy to Take Apart as the Byakugan

Inside an estate in the Uchiha clan compound, Orochimaru once again explained, in Fugaku’s presence, the difference between the Sharingan and the Blood Wheel Eye. He also expanded on the process by which the Uchiha clan’s ocular bloodline awakens.

Of course, compared with his earlier candor in the Hokage’s office, Orochimaru was more guarded with Fugaku. He chose his words carefully, replacing terms with ones a patient could more easily accept, so as not to further agitate a mind already on edge.

Even so, Uchiha Fugaku remained silent for a long time. Neither outwardly nor inwardly could he accept it.

His dazed expression was painfully similar to that of a man just told he had cancer, staring blankly at the notice in his hands.

The only difference was that the words written across his face had changed from “Why me?” to “Why us?”

After a long while, and after Orochimaru had nearly finished an entire pot of tea, Fugaku finally came to himself. He spoke, his voice carrying a faint rasp.

“Orochimaru-sama... what you said earlier, was it all true?”

“Have you not already found your answer in your own heart?”

Orochimaru set down the teacup in his hand and smiled.

“There is no need to be so startled. You can think of it as a rather unusual bloodline disease. The Kaguya clan of the Hidden Mist developed the Dead Bone Pulse; the stronger the bloodline power, the more severe the condition. The Sharingan and the Mangekyo Sharingan are much the same, only the manifestation is not in the body, but in the spirit.”

“But, but...”

Uchiha Fugaku stared, his eyes reddening. He was forcing down a low growl with almost all his strength, veins standing out across his forehead.

“The Uchiha have inherited their line for a thousand years. Their thousand years of glory... and yet you say their minds are diseased...”

Even the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, had never spoken of the Uchiha in such terms. If the man before him had been anyone else, even Danzō of the Root, Fugaku would have tried to kill him at any cost...

But the man before him was Orochimaru. Cruel, venomous, and utterly self-serving, yes—but in the study of ninjutsu and bloodline limits, there was indeed no one who could compare to him.

What Orochimaru said, the evidence he produced—more than likely, it was all true.

“Tsk, tsk... If the clan head cannot accept it, then I also have another explanation.”

Orochimaru smiled. To others it might have seemed mocking, but Fugaku knew that this was simply Orochimaru’s habitual expression. The voice that reached him was calm and unhurried.

“The Sharingan is unstable in every respect. Compared with the Byakugan, it exists in two different states: one when in use, and one in ordinary moments. That alone is abnormal.”

“The reason is simple enough. Physical power cannot bear the weight of spiritual power, which is why the Sharingan can only be used for limited periods.”

Fugaku could not refute it. He himself possessed the Sharingan, and he knew far more than Orochimaru did about the state of his own body when ocular power was exhausted and he dropped out of the awakened state.

“And this instability in a bloodline limit becomes even more obvious when extended to the Mangekyo Sharingan.”

Orochimaru paused, then said slowly, “The Mangekyo Sharingan can actually go blind.”

Fugaku opened his mouth, wanting to object, but in the end he gave up. A bitter smile surfaced on his face, his expression turning desolate and forlorn.

Yes. The Uchiha’s forbidden eye, their incomparably powerful bloodline ability, was actually just a consumable item. Every strand of ocular power was precious beyond measure.

What, then, could such an ability truly be used for? A brief ascent to the summit, only to tumble straight back into the abyss?

Thinking of it that way, Jinsuke’s Blood Wheel Eye seemed to have far more potential...

Rousing himself from the tangle of pride and humiliation, Fugaku’s mind was suddenly flooded with immense delight.

The Blood Wheel Eye—he had seen it before, and had even tested it personally. Though it lacked the unique ocular techniques of the Mangekyo Sharingan, its ocular power was no less impressive.

More importantly, the Blood Wheel Eye was stable. In fact, it was even more stable than the Sharingan. Even when its ocular power was overused, there was no sign of declining eyesight.

The hope for the clan’s rise was not some Mangekyo—it was the Blood Wheel Eye.

Fugaku stood, his emotions once more returning to the anxiety and anticipation he had felt before meeting Orochimaru. He bowed deeply and said with grave sincerity, “Orochimaru-sama, I hope you can help us remove this hidden danger. In the future, the Uchiha clan will be at your service.”

At that, Orochimaru’s lips curled to either side.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk... You are quite decisive, aren’t you?”

The words sounded like an empty promise, yet given the Uchiha’s stubborn temperament, there was almost no chance they would go back on it.

In other words, if he wished, and if he were willing to expend a bit of effort, he could secure the greatest ocular-technique clan in the ninja world as his subordinates.

Even Orochimaru could not easily ignore such power.

“But...” Orochimaru smiled. “Clan head Fugaku, I must refuse.”

“This... why?”

Still bowed, Fugaku raised his head, his face full of astonishment and incomprehension.

As if suddenly thinking of something, he hurriedly explained, “Orochimaru-sama, I am not merely speaking empty words. The Uchiha—”

Orochimaru waved a hand and smiled.

“Do not rush. Sit down first. I do not mean that I distrust you.”

Only then could Fugaku sit back down upon the cushion again, though the expression on his face had grown somewhat deflated.

“Clan head Fugaku is too delighted and has overlooked an obvious flaw in the Blood Wheel Eye...”

Orochimaru tapped the center of his brow. With his index and middle fingers bent, he made a gesture like gouging out an eye.

“It is too stable. Unlike the Sharingan before it, it is closer to the Byakugan in that other shinobi can use it as well.”

Fugaku first froze, then was struck by sudden alarm.

“Orochimaru-sama, how is that possible... are you certain?”

“Eighty or ninety percent certain.”

Orochimaru smiled.

“The Yang Release power in the enhancement surgery made up for the shortcomings of your Uchiha constitution. Maintaining the Sharingan no longer requires the same rigid demand for spiritual power. Instead, it has formed a stable system on its own.”

“This is a good thing for the Uchiha. But it is also a good thing for those who covet the Blood Wheel Eye’s power.”

Fugaku’s expression changed abruptly, turning dark and heavy.

For as long as anyone could remember, there had been countless shinobi in the ninja world who coveted the power of the Sharingan. Yet the reality of the past thousand years had time and again reminded the ambitious of one thing: only the Uchiha could truly wield the Sharingan’s power.

Even Kakashi, a younger shinobi with Kage-level potential, was reduced to the state of someone physically run down by a single Sharingan; even the Uchiha had found that astonishing.

The disease Orochimaru spoke of, in another sense, also protected the clan from further predation.

But if the Sharingan were replaced by the Blood Wheel Eye...

“Now you understand,” Orochimaru said with a smile. “It is not that I will not help you. It is that doing so would be harming you. Or perhaps...” His tone paused. “Would the Uchiha also like to be like the Hyuga and carve a ‘caged bird’ seal into their foreheads?”

“Of course not.”

Fugaku’s volume rose sharply.

“The Uchiha are not guard dogs!”

His tone was sincere, full of disdain for the Hyuga’s condescension.

But there was one more thing Fugaku did not say aloud.

If they truly carved words onto their foreheads and turned themselves into some so-called system of main house and branch house, he was not certain whether one dark night, a branch-family Uchiha awakened to the Mangekyo Sharingan might not slaughter the entire clan to the last person...