Chapter 128: Otenshu and Tokiya

Chapter 128: Chapter 128: Otenshu and Tokiya

"What!?" Uchiha Shinichi exclaimed in shock. "You want me to join his organization?"

Hyuga Kagami offered no explanation and merely said calmly, "He should have invited you to join his organization already, right? I need information on that organization. That is my first condition."

By now, Obito’s actions had already diverged greatly from those of the original timeline. It could be said that the situation was drifting farther and farther away from the course of the original timeline.

As a result, the memories of Kagami’s previous life were becoming less and less useful. At times, relying on them might even have the opposite effect.

Therefore, he needed to plant an informant within the enemy’s ranks—someone who could keep him updated on the Akatsuki’s movements in real time, as well as the movements of dangerous figures such as Obito and Pain.

And the Uchiha Shinichi standing before him was an excellent candidate.

First, Shinichi’s defection had been engineered by Obito from the very beginning. Fundamentally speaking, he was nothing more than one of Obito’s pawns. Because of that, Obito would naturally be less wary of him.

Second, Shinichi was strong enough to secure a place for himself within the Akatsuki, which would make gathering intelligence much easier.

Third, as a rogue ninja who had already defected from the village, Shinichi had no attachments left to hold him back. As long as Kagami firmly held onto the crucial bargaining chip that was Uchiha Yui, he wouldn’t have to worry about Shinichi slipping out of his control.

Uchiha Shinichi hesitated for a moment before saying, "I... I’m worried I won’t be able to suppress my anger. He might see through me."

With his arms folded across his chest, Hyuga Kagami smiled. "There’s no need to suppress it, nor do you need to deliberately pretend to be anything. You can even try attacking him. He still won’t suspect you."

Shinichi asked in confusion, "Why?"

Kagami had originally wanted to say, Because you two are both lunatics.

But under Shinichi’s questioning gaze, he ultimately changed his answer.

"Because you’re both Uchiha!"

"Hmph. So he really is from the clan. I knew there was something off about his eyes!" Shinichi snorted. Completely failing to grasp Kagami’s true meaning, he continued, "You’re allowing me to attack him? Aren’t you afraid I might actually kill him?"

Kagami shook his head. "What I mean is that even if you attack him, he still won’t suspect that you’re a spy. But I wouldn’t recommend doing it."

He paused.

"Because you can’t kill him."

"Pfft—!"

Shinichi was just about to argue when, before he could get the words out, a mouthful of blood suddenly burst from his lips!

Kagami’s gaze sharpened. "What’s wrong with you?"

Still coughing up blood, Shinichi struggled to wave a hand at Kagami, signaling that he was fine.

But Kagami’s expression only grew more and more grave.

Because within the vision of his Tenseigan, Kagami could see that the chakra activity inside Uchiha Shinichi’s body was growing weaker and weaker. It had already fallen to the level of a genin, and the downward trend still showed no signs of stopping.

And that wasn’t all.

Kagami could even sense that Shinichi’s vitality itself was declining.

It was a difficult sensation to put into words, vague and almost inexplicable, yet he could unmistakably feel it happening.

"Pfft—!"

Suddenly, without the slightest warning, blood burst from Shinichi’s chest!

Immediately afterward, a sword wound roughly two fingers wide slowly appeared across his chest. Around the wound were obvious traces of bluish-purple discoloration from poison.

Kagami recognized it at a glance.

Those were precisely the symptoms caused by the paralytic poison he had synthesized.

"Is this the effect of that sword strike...?"

Watching the scene unfold before him, Kagami fell into thought.

The injury now erupting on Shinichi’s body was clearly the exact same wound Kagami had inflicted earlier in their battle, when he had launched a surprise attack and stabbed Shinichi through the chest.

And this undoubtedly proved one thing:

Once Shinichi’s Mangekyō Sharingan ability was deactivated, every injury he had suffered while it was active would eventually manifest again exactly as it had originally occurred!

Then Kagami remembered something.

He had also struck Shinichi with Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion.

Kagami’s brows immediately furrowed.

"He’s not going to just... die like this, is he?"

Unfortunately, Kagami’s concern soon became reality.

After the sword wound on Uchiha Shinichi’s chest erupted, cracks began appearing across his waist and abdomen as well.

And as those cracks grew larger and larger, his entire body—

split into two right before Hyuga Kagami’s eyes!

"This..."

Kagami hurried over, intending to somehow save Shinichi.

But as he stared at Shinichi’s body, now completely severed into two halves, he found himself at a loss as to where he could even begin.

Just then, a bloody tear trickled from Shinichi’s right eye.

At the same moment that bloody tear appeared, Kagami suddenly felt a wave of disorientation wash over him.

He had already experienced this strange sensation once during their earlier battle, so this time, he quickly recovered. Pouring power into his Tenseigan, he focused his gaze intently on Shinichi’s body lying on the ground.

And at that moment—

Shinichi, whose body had been severed into two pieces, began rapidly restoring itself at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Someone else might not have noticed anything unusual.

But with the Tenseigan, Kagami caught countless minute details.

In an instant, a thought flashed through his mind.

"This isn’t healing... this is literally playing everything in reverse!"

Kagami had keenly noticed that the order in which Shinichi’s wounds were now disappearing was the exact reverse of the order in which those wounds had appeared earlier.

In other words—

This wasn’t healing at all.

It was some form of time reversal!

Before long, Uchiha Shinichi had completely returned to his original state.

If not for the horrifying amount of blood covering the ground, even Hyuga Kagami might have wondered whether what he had just witnessed had actually happened.

After pondering for a moment, Kagami asked, "Your Mangekyō Sharingan abilities are related to time?"

Pale from excessive blood loss, Shinichi nodded and weakly replied, "The ability of my left eye is called Otenshu. It allows me to maintain my peak condition for a certain period of time. Any injuries I suffer and any energy I expend during that period are distorted and pushed forward, only erupting at some point later."

Kagami nodded.

"I already figured that much out. But what you just used should have been the ability of your right eye, correct?"

Clutching his right eye, Shinichi said painfully, "The ability of my right eye is called Tokiya. It can briefly distort the flow of time around my own body."

Kagami thought for a moment before saying, "So just now, you used Tokiya to reverse those few minutes when your injuries were erupting, removing those injuries from yourself on the temporal level. Is that right?"

Shinichi glanced at Kagami and replied feebly, "I didn’t expect you to see through it at a glance."

Pointing toward the blood covering the ground, Kagami asked doubtfully, "Then what about all this blood? If you reversed time, shouldn’t the blood you lost have returned to its original state as well?"

Shinichi shook his head.

"Tokiya can only affect my own body. Once the blood leaves my body and passes beyond the range of my chakra, Tokiya can no longer affect it."

Realization immediately dawned on Kagami.

"So that’s why there were so many blood-soaked bandages inside that tree hollow earlier! Those bandages weren’t being used to wrap your wounds at all. They were there to prevent your blood from leaving your body!"