Chapter Thirty-Nine: Studying All Kinds of Eyes

... Orochimaru devoted himself to researching the relationship between the Sharingan, Byakugan, Blood Dragon Eye, and Rinnegan within the Serpent’s Lair. At first, Kabuto Yakushi participated as his assistant, but soon realized he simply couldn’t keep up with Orochimaru’s ideas or technical prowess.

Orochimaru was too formidable—his thinking leapt ahead, his ideas were many, and his skills profound. Kabuto felt superfluous, less useful than even one of Orochimaru’s shadow clones. Staying any longer would only slow Orochimaru down.

“Orochimaru-sama, I’ll take my leave...” Kabuto withdrew of his own accord.

Orochimaru didn’t even look up. “Fine.”

Kabuto stood silent, inwardly confirming what he’d suspected—Orochimaru had long regarded him as a burden.

He sighed. Orochimaru had advanced too far; Kabuto could no longer even serve as his assistant.

Fortunately, there were still places where he could prove his worth.

“It’s time to begin building the army!”

The Fourth Great Ninja War had already begun, and as one of the participants, the Sound Village needed a force to rival the other powers. The military modifications had thus commenced.

After consulting with Orochimaru, Kabuto began his work.

The first army assembled was the Eight Gates Squad—this was the easiest to produce; all that was required was for people to master the Eight Gates technique. Mastering the technique itself wasn’t difficult—the challenge was opening the gates without dying. But with Orochimaru’s immortality serum and golden body potion, anyone could open all eight gates and survive.

However, lacking strong bodies, these soldiers couldn’t avoid all the side effects. This unit could, at best, open up to the third gate; any higher and the drawbacks grew serious. Particularly when all eight gates were opened, their power surged, but only for an instant, after which exhaustion set in. Recovery from such fatigue would require two months bedridden, earning them the derisive nickname “the limp squad.”

Beyond the Eight Gates Squad, Kabuto began assembling Byakugan, Sharingan, and Blood Dragon Eye armies. These were more complicated, requiring one surgery after another—the final number of troops depended entirely on time and available resources.

In addition, Kabuto started work on the Sharingan-Blood Dragon-Byakugan hybrids. Perhaps it could not be called an army; this was an eye that combined the powers of the Sharingan, Blood Dragon Eye, and Byakugan. Due to the extreme technical difficulty, only a few could possess such eyes.

“There’s also the Jinchuriki army...”

Kabuto experienced firsthand the thrill of carving up a Tailed Beast. Shukaku, the One-Tail, had become a veritable Tailed Beast meat factory, having lost several chunks of its flesh.

Shukaku screamed in rage, “Kabuto Yakushi! Orochimaru! I, Shukaku, will eat you both one day!”

Whenever this happened, Kabuto would call Naruto over to have him chat with Gaara.

Each time, Shukaku would clutch the notion, “So what if it’s the Nine-Tails? I’ll take you down with me!” ready to throw caution to the wind.

But when he actually saw Naruto, Shukaku shrank within Gaara’s body, not daring to move a muscle...

Watching these armies come together bit by bit, Kabuto felt a deep sense of satisfaction and awe—everything was thanks to Orochimaru! His respect and admiration for Orochimaru grew ever deeper.

...

Orochimaru continued his research in the Serpent’s Lair, intent on uncovering the true path of ocular evolution—from Sharingan to Byakugan, Blood Dragon Eye, and Rinnegan. Once he understood this, he would fully grasp the strength system of the Otsutsuki Clan.

The victor of the Fourth Great Ninja War would undoubtedly be the side with the most advanced power.

“Otsutsuki Clan...”

A profound light flashed in Orochimaru’s eyes. Besides victory in the war, he harbored another goal.

If memory served, the Otsutsuki came from beyond the heavens. But where, exactly, was this “beyond the heavens”? What lay beyond the sky?

Orochimaru was certain that someday he would go there himself, to see the Otsutsuki with his own eyes.

Understanding their system was therefore crucial.

Orochimaru was already intimately familiar with the Sharingan and Byakugan; he possessed both himself, so he could skip further study of those. The focus was on the Blood Dragon Eye.

He had studied it before, but without success. Now, with time on his hands, he could compare the Sharingan, Byakugan, Blood Dragon Eye, and Rinnegan simultaneously.

Progress was swift.

And so, too, did the bottleneck emerge swiftly.

Orochimaru mixed the Byakugan, Sharingan, Blood Dragon Eye, Senju cells, Uzumaki cells, and Kaguya cells—seven materials in all—and used his own body for the experiments.

There were many failures, and many deaths.

But he was immortal. When his vitality returned, he simply continued.

In the end, he succeeded—but achieved only a six-tomoe Sharingan-Blood Dragon-Byakugan.

Not even the Mangekyo level.

Orochimaru was certain he had combined every material he could think of, yet there was no substantive breakthrough.

What was missing?

“Could it be Ashura and Indra’s power?” Orochimaru frowned.

A thorough search of memory revealed only three people had awakened the Rinnegan: the Sage of Six Paths, Madara Uchiha, and Sasuke Uchiha.

The Sage of Six Paths went without saying; both Madara and Sasuke had inherited Indra’s power, and later obtained Ashura’s.

Was it because of Ashura and Indra’s powers?

Crucially, Orochimaru had already transplanted cells from both Naruto and Sasuke—he should, in theory, possess both powers.

“Perhaps there is also the power of emotion.”

The lack of Mangekyo might well be due to emotional power; the Sage of Six Paths’ awakening was closely tied to emotion.

He could only wait until an emotion-stimulating agent was developed, then try again.

...

A week passed in a blur. Obito, traveling at full speed, finally arrived at the Sound Village.

That day, Obito strode openly to the Sound Village gates.

“Who goes there? Another one in red clouds and black robes—attack!”

Those in red clouds and black robes had come twice before—once Deidara and Sasori, once Pain.

Now, it was Obito.

The Sound Village guards were not gentle souls, especially in the tense prelude to the Fourth Great Ninja War, when everyone was preparing for battle and conflict could erupt at any moment.

Another man in red clouds and black robes could only mean trouble; without hesitation, they hurled ranged weapons to kill him.

Countless giant shuriken and other weapons flew at Obito, but he didn’t even dodge, letting the weapons pass through him.

“What?! They went right through him!”

They had expected the weapons to kill, but all simply passed through Obito’s body and stuck in the ground. It was as if he had no physical form.

What kind of power was this?

Obito walked up to the gate, passed through the doors as if they were nothing, and entered the village.

The guards used ninjutsu to attack, but Obito used Wood Release: Cutting Technique, easily killing the defenders.

Other guards, realizing Obito was unstoppable, fled while sounding the alarm.

“Enemy attack!”

Obito watched them flee and raise the alarm with indifference. He made no move to stop them.

Nor did he need to. Even if the entire Sound Village came at him, could any of them truly defeat him?

When individual power reached a certain height, numbers became meaningless.

Obito’s only worry was that Orochimaru might not appear. If Orochimaru chose to run and hide, that would be troublesome indeed.