Chapter 110 – Theories

Breathing hard, I subconsciously tightened my grip on Hiramekarei and forced myself upright beside Sayuri, Arai, and Shinrai. I pushed myself to blink and realize the sword was heavier than it looked, even without that chakra bullshit surrounding it. Or... it was like that because my arms felt like someone had replaced my bones with wet noodles, and I wanted to drop everything... Ugh... Not good...

"Renji!" Sayuri was the first to move, heading over to me and making me flinch because I saw everything play out in the back of my mind once again... What the hell even happened? Was that real? Had to be... no? "Are you okay?" she asked in a hurry.

"Y-yeah," I stared at her while answering, because I should have been asking that question.

"Renji?"

"Yeah. Fine." I nodded again, putting more force into my voice.

"You don't look fine," Arai added, checking me out too, but seeing no real injuries, because I don't really have any.

"I guess..." I moaned, and that was when the pain behind my eyes made me drop the sword and start holding my head, while they had to support me before I would faceplant into the mud.

"You aren't right!" Sayuri countered, while Shinrai was constantly looking around, remembering we were in an active combat zone.

"Better than I should be!" I argued, pushing myself back straight. "Arai, can you hold it?" I nodded towards the sword, and he just picked it up, giving it a few swishes. "My arms are fucked, so use it if you can."

"Sure..." He nodded, gulping, trying to hide his excitement.

"What?" I asked as the pain behind my eyes began to fade, noticing Shinrai's furrowed brows as he looked at me.

"Your chakra..."

"What about it?" Sayuri asked, worried.

"It changed... I can't tell where or how, but something is not okay with it."

"Is it a backlash?" Arai narrowed his eyes too. "That thing you just did..."

"Hiraishin." I waved a hand before they could start guessing something weirder. "I can't really explain, but it's a version where I can switch places with a mark. I just don't have an Uzumaki's chakra for it, so... It's risky as hell."

"Tsk, those guys are freaks..." Arai scoffed, taking my explanation at face value, without questioning it.

Luckily, they believed me, and because they didn't know exactly how complicated the technique was, it was easy to sell it as such. Hell, most Jōnin didn't know it either. Still, Sayuri looked uncertain, not because she was suspicious, but simply because she was concerned about me.

"That must have taken a lot of chakra."

"Exactly." I smiled, because I probably looked more like a dying raccoon than a human. "That's why I look like shit."

"You always look like shit," Arai muttered, making me actually smirk. Now that was more like him.

"Everyone still functional?" I sobered the moment I realized we were chitchatting in the rain. "What's our situation?

"I'm fine." Arai nodded, followed by Sayuri.

"All good," Shinrai said, too, but his breathing was heavy, and there were cuts across his face and arms, his shoulder being the most injured, while trying not to show it. Tsk... I could tell that his left arm barely moved anymore. He wouldn't do much in a fight like that.

"Your head?" I asked, looking at Sayuri, but she just shook it.

"I'm okay."

"You screamed when you entered his mind," Arai argued, but she shot him a stern gaze.

"I said I'm okay."

"Sayuri," I grunted, and her expression softened back to normal.

"Just a headache, but it is manageable. I can function without it affecting my reaction."

"The mist..." Shinrai said suddenly, and as we looked around, true enough... It was thinning. "The chakra maintaining it is disappearing."

"So..." Arai exhaled, a grin spreading across his face, "Either they left, or Chief scored another kill."

Nobody said anything because the fighting was still going... or was it? It was awfully quiet. Where are the explosions? That annoying laughter? As I was asking myself that, the mist thinned further and further, revealing the shapes within the rain. We managed to notice the houses, or what remained of them, and the hissing, still-burning wood while the rain slowly put out the remaining fires.

"Well..." Arai said as he looked around, "We ruined their village."

"We?" Sayuri asked, her eyes scanning the dark scenery. "I don't think we did most of it, but that other swordsman."

"Fair." He shrugged, resting the sword across his shoulder, clearly in a good mood. It was then that movement appeared through the thinning mist, but before I could tense, I realized it was white paper, which could only mean one person.

"It's okay," I said, surprised when the others surrounded me, but it did feel good.

Konan landed first before us, and her cloak was badly torn at one shoulder, while blood ran down her right leg. Yahiko arrived next, also alive, which was a relief, even if he looked like he climbed out of a meat grinder. Damn... Is that all your blood... Or? I wasn't going to ask, though, because Nagato had arrived too, looking like the weakest of the three, but at least he wasn't impaled on spikes and stuck in an eldritch-made chakra machine. I almost laughed, because the two were shielding him like the others did to me now. I could guess why, because Nagato's hair was sticking to his face, and he kept it lowered. Overused the Rinnegan, eh? Hm...

Anyway, I wasn't going to mention it. Whatever he had done to Gōma... It clearly cost him, and I wasn't going to tell.

"He dead?" I asked, and Yahiko looked at my kill before finally smiling a little.

"Yeah. So that makes two."

"Yup." I grinned. "I think Kiri is going to have a reeeeeally bad time in the coming years."

"You killed one of the Seven?" Nagato asked, and I just shook my head.

"We killed one of the Seven. Your group isn't the only capable one. Anyway... Are you alright?"

"He exhausted himself," Konan said first, supporting Nagato by now. "We need to relocate before more arrive..."

"Same." I agreed. "We have to head back and meet up later. Try to choose a place where we won't be ambushed, hm? Whenever I come over for tea, there is someone who wants to kill me. It's bad for my back."

"Maybe it will be best if we meet in Konoha next." Yahiko agreed, laughing without restraint, clearly in a good mood.

"Um, what about that?" Arai asked, and when I looked around, he was crouched beside Shibuki, not far from us, its previous, unfortunate owner's right hand still gripping it. But the rest of the body was nowhere to be found. Ouch... brutal.

"Don't touch it." We all told him, "That's not our trophy." I added, while Yahiko walked toward the weapon, picking it up, shaking the torn-off hand from its handle before examining it.

"Kirigakure didn't waste any time; that's for sure. And they probably will come to reclaim something like this... so..." He turned towards me and threw it before my feet. "Take it."

I was surprised to hear him say that, even though Arai was clearly fired up and wanted to hold it in his free hand. Greedy! To prevent him from embarrassing us, I almost bent down to pick it up, but then Shinrai suddenly turned north.

"Someone's coming!"

Everyone followed his gaze as we got into an impromptu formation, my noodly-feeling arms picking up the damned blow-everything-up sword... Heavy bastard. Luckily, it was someone familiar.

"Chief!" Arai and I exclaimed as Fugaku stepped into view.

Actually, he looked like shit. I wouldn't say he was heavily injured, but he was considerably worse than when we separated. I think it wasn't even because of any injuries, despite his clothing being sliced open in several places. I couldn't really detect too much blood on him; instead, it was... the lack of chakra. Hm... Samehada's work? Most likely.

"Does that mean... Three?" Arai asked, gulping with excitement, because Fugaku also carried a sword, a very familiar giant cleaver: Kubikiribōchō.

"Nice sword, Chief." I joked as he looked at the one in my hand and the one Arai kept holding proudly.

"Likewise."

What? Chief and jokes? Did the sun rise from the West? What's going on?

"And the other?" Yahiko asked suddenly, stopping me from looking stupid, while Fugaku's expression shifted, showing a hint of frustration.

"He escaped."

"Damn..." I hissed, "That still makes them into four swordsmen from now on, so I'll take it as a win."

"True enough," Fugaku nodded while he lowered Kubikiribōchō from his shoulder and rested its tip against the mud. "That Samehada is troublesome, and I'll have to update the intel we had about that sword. However, I wounded him badly, even if the sword fed chakra back into him. He may not survive the journey back home, so we will have to keep a lookout."

"We will," Yahiko answered, because it could also mean he would be hiding in their country until he healed enough to make the journey home.

What the others didn't notice was that, while he spoke, his eyes paused on me, and I resisted the instinct to look away. I was actually telling him, to the best of my abilities, what happened, and I think he got it. His gaze flicked over the other three, confusion flashing in his eyes for a brief moment, then snapped back to me as I gave him the tiniest nod. We had to talk... as soon as possible.

In the end, we didn't stay, and neither Yahiko nor the rest tried to argue otherwise. We all separated, and we began heading back home, with three swords in our bags. I mean, on our backs, since they were too fucking big to fit in anything.

...

....

.....

The journey back took longer because we were so exhausted. Still, we only rested after we passed the border, regrouping with our side... When I woke from my sudden coma, which lasted twelve hours... Yeah. Sayuri told me after I woke up, and added that Konoha shinobi were here to reinforce us, so I shouldn't be alarmed. She wasn't joking... about twenty of them were present when I walked out of the tent I'd been sleeping in. Naturally, word of what we did was already spreading, and, to Arai's disappointment, the three swords were also taken away.

I didn't mind; they were too weird to handle, and I disliked them all. Before I could ask Sayuri what I missed, right after I got myself knocked out, they were also led away, so my questioning had to wait. On the other hand, Fugaku took me on a different route back to the village. Surprise, surprise, we ended up all alone soon enough, far away from everything or anyone else.

"What happened?" He asked when we stopped in the middle of nowhere, hidden inside a forest.

"That's what I'd like to know..." I moaned, rubbing my face. "I am pretty sure I awoke my Mangekyō; I just don't get what I did with it. I genuinely don't."

"Tell me everything..." He said in an almost silent whisper as I recounted everything, leaving no details out, his brows furrowing more and more.

"Sounds like Izanagi but... You aren't blind." He muttered, looking me in the eyes. "Can you activate it?"

"..." I don't know... That's what I wanted to say, but the moment I thought about it, my eyes changed. It was different from activating the normal Sharingan, because the pressure it built inside my eye socket made my temple throb. Squinting a little, the feeling died down considerably, but the intensity with which I could see the leaves swaying in the wind, their contours and, well, everything else, only grew stronger. When I tried to focus on them, I felt time slow to almost a crawl... huh... Incredible. But then I turned it off.

"That's... weird."

"What?!" I flinched, looking at him, seeing him hold his chin, deep in thought.

"Only one of your eyes turned. That can't be right... That can't be possible. Something's off."

"Did my Mangekyō go blind?" I asked, making him fall silent as he considered it. "Chief, it wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime type of bullshit, was it? Use it once and be done? Well, if it was, at least I saved Sayuri, but... That's so unfair!"

"No, it can't be like that, because if so, your entire eye would be blinded. You said you shifted places with her? Can you try and use that skill on me?"

"I guess," I muttered, unsure how, but to my surprise, the feeling of it came easily. The moment I willed it, my eye swirled, my ability activated, and the next moment, Fugaku vanished. I mean, he didn't; we switched places. We had to turn around to look at each other again because we kept facing the same direction we did originally. "Weird. Ow..." I added, holding my right eye because it felt like a damned bug had flown into it.

"Incredible... I didn't feel anything." Fugaku muttered, looking at me, his eyes active, and when I refocused... they weren't a normal Sharingan.

"I fucking knew it!" I pointed at him. "You have it too!"

"That's not important now." He said, waving it away without any sign or will to explain what his can do, being more interested in mine.

"Unfair. I am sharing my secrets with you, and you tell me nothing?" I pouted, and the next words that left his mouth left me shocked.

"I call my left eye Omoikane." He said, looking into my eyes with his Mangekyō, "I can see through the truth in everything... or everybody."

"And what do you see now?" I asked, suddenly feeling my blood run cold.

"That it's the first time I can't see through someone. Probably because your eyes are now on par with mine. Before this, I could tell that you were a loud, annoying wild boy... but with a heart that would help the clan when it mattered the most. Whenever I examined you with my eye, I could see that you would help us avoid certain death. Now... I don't know anymore."

"..." I just kept looking at him, amazed, my jaw actually dropping. That was more than I had ever imagined... then he smiled and continued.

"Ōmagatsuhi is what I call my right eye. What happens in the genjutsu I trap my enemies in... becomes their reality. Don't ask me to demonstrate it."

"I won't..." I chuckled, feeling very happy in that moment. "That's wicked... Also, doesn't that mean one of your eyes is constantly active? I mean, when you turn on your Mangekyō? Once again, I mean, your... Um... Omoikane."

"Yes, that is why I don't use that much." He added, turning them off, and I also did the same. "These eyes and their abilities depend on those who awaken them, reflecting their hearts. There are no manuals to train them or categorize them."

"Can't your Truesight tell you what mine can do?"

"As I said, it didn't work now. I couldn't read you." He repeated, crossing his arms, "But we can be sure that your right eye can swap places with whatever you look at. We will slowly and secretly test its limits... Once a week, to not exhaust you and limit the damage it does to your vision."

"Oh... yeah... Damn, they can sting..."

"As for your left eye?" He shrugged, shaking his head. "I have ideas, but... I'm unwilling to test them."

"I can't just walk around with an unknown jutsu in my eye socket!" I moaned, rubbing them, feeling annoyed. "Fuuuuck...!"

"You called Omoikane..." He said suddenly, and I looked at him with one eye. "Truesight?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "Like, you see the truth of things. Truesight. Or, a kind of... Futuresight? If you can tell what one man would mean for your future. You know, things... like... this..." I muttered, slowly stopping myself, furrowing my brows, "Do I have Futuresight?"

"You may." He whispered, also following the same thought process. "You said you saw her die, and that was what triggered the change."

"Which would mean I time traveled." I grimaced, but considering I also reincarnated, that wouldn't be that far-fetched... would it? Haaah...

"..."

"What? You can't be serious..." I moaned, but he kept thinking, not answering me for a minute.

"I don't think you time traveled. Maybe your thoughts did, but you didn't. Futuresight... You may have indeed seen the future, and because of it, awakened it and gained the ability to change what you see. Activating these eyes takes only an instant; everything after... is just a matter of perception. Our regular Sharingan perceives our enemies' movements; that's why we can copy their taijutsu or ninjutsu. It is already a type of glimpse into the future, reading their intent by just following the way their muscles move. Our eyes already predict perfectly what is coming, so we can copy and match; it isn't far-fetched that your eyes could read further along, realizing what is coming and... awakening. You alone, Renji, have already shown moments when your predictions were right and on point, haven't you?" He asked, smiling at me, making me twitch my mouth.

"From a certain point of view..."

"Exactly. Whatever the case is, while I can see someone's true self, you can see their end. And just as I have the ability to punish those who are wicked, you can save those whose death you witnessed. The two eyes tend to complete a set, after all."

"Oh boy..." I moaned, taking a deep breath, burying my face in my arms. "This is so fucked..."

"You will have to learn self-control." He said seriously, putting a hand on my shoulder and squeezing it. "We can't afford for you to go blind."

"I know, I know!" I kept moaning, finally looking up at him. "Can I ask one more question?"

"Go ahead."

"Why haven't you got rid of Tetsuma yet?"

"Because whenever I look at him, I see that he will be a benefit to the clan. I don't know how, or why... or when. I just see that he will be."

"Great..." I whispered, pursing my lips, "Then I need to endure his awful personality..."

"You don't have to worry about him." He said as we finally began walking again, "Instead, think about how to name your eyes. They help gain familiarity with them. Trust me on that."

"Sure," I shrugged. "Give me a few days, and I will come up with something cool."

"Something respectful," He added, slapping the back of my head. "Don't go overboard. Respect your eyes, or their light will leave you faster than you think."