Chapter 186: Resolve

Chapter 186: Chapter 186: Resolve

Holding the flame-patterned mask in his hands, Shisui asked in confusion, "This is the way to save the Uchiha?"

Hyuga Kagami slowly explained, "Now that things have developed to this point, it’s almost impossible to resolve the conflict between the Uchiha and the village. Since we can’t resolve it, we need to approach the problem from a different angle—maintain the current balance as much as possible and delay the conflict from erupting until the situation within the village changes in the future."

As Shisui put on the cloak Kagami had handed him, he asked, "But how do we delay it?"

Kagami pointed at his own mask.

"Give them a common enemy."

Shisui glanced at the mask in his hands and asked uncertainly, "You mean Kamigami?"

Kagami replied, "This mask of mine represents Kawa, a member of Kamigami. If I take Gloya’s corpse to the black market and collect the bounty on him as a bounty ninja, how do you think the village higher-ups will react?"

Without hesitation, Shisui answered, "If you really exchange Gloya’s corpse for the bounty, Konoha will be utterly humiliated. Lord Hokage will probably send ANBU after you."

"Exactly. The village might even place a massive bounty on my head through the black market!" Kagami paused, then smiled. "And just like that, Kamigami will have completely offended the village higher-ups."

Shisui asked, "And then?"

Kagami stared directly at Shisui. "Just offending the village higher-ups isn’t enough. Next, we’ll have to make a move against the Uchiha and eliminate the radicals within the clan!"

"What!?" Shisui was stunned. He stared at Kagami in disbelief. "You want me to kill my own clansmen?"

Kagami said coldly, "How much longer are you going to keep running away from this?"

"I..."

Shisui opened his mouth, but in the end, no words came out. He could only lower his head.

Using force to stop his clan’s rebellion was a taboo buried deep within Shisui’s heart. If that day truly came, he would act without hesitation. But until that day arrived, forget making plans for it—he wasn’t even willing to think about the possibility.

Kagami’s words had struck directly at that forbidden thought, forcing Shisui to confront it.

Watching Shisui avert his gaze, Kagami said, "It’s time to make up your mind. Otherwise, what awaits the Uchiha is total annihilation—not a single member of the clan, young or old, will be spared!"

Shisui shouted, "Lord Hokage would never do that!"

"The Third certainly wouldn’t resort to force lightly." Kagami paused before continuing, "But once he decides to act, he won’t show mercy either."

No ninja village would show mercy toward an entire clan that rose in rebellion.

During the recent turmoil in Kirigakure, Kekkei Genkai clans such as the Yuki Clan and the Kaguya Clan had participated in the rebellion, only to be completely exterminated by Kirigakure afterward. Their bloodlines had been all but wiped out.

Shisui knew perfectly well that the Uchiha rebellion could never succeed. Even with three pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan, the Uchiha Clan would still be no match for Kagami alone.

Clearly, the sight of Kagami drawing upon the chakra of the Giant Tenseigan on the moon, entering Tenseigan Chakra Mode, and sweeping aside everything in his path had left far too deep an impression on Shisui.

In fact, Shisui was currently the only person who had ever witnessed Kagami at his absolute strongest!

Compared to seeing every man, woman, and child of the clan exterminated, killing only a number of radicals was far easier for Shisui to accept.

After hesitating for a moment, Shisui stammered, "Th-Then... how many clansmen do I have to kill?"

Kagami replied, "Until the entire Uchiha Clan turns its hatred toward Kamigami!"

Kagami’s plan was simple.

He would give both the village higher-ups and the Uchiha Clan a vicious slap across the face, provoke them as much as possible, and draw all of their hatred toward Kamigami.

After all, the so-called Kamigami was nothing more than an empty organization Kagami had made up on the spot. There was nothing more suitable for serving as a lightning rod for everyone’s hatred.

Shisui clutched his head in anguish. "But I can’t do it! How can I kill members of my own clan?!"

"The one doing the killing won’t be Uchiha Shisui. It’ll be Homura of Kamigami!" Kagami’s tone suddenly shifted as he smiled. "And if you can’t bring yourself to kill them, just hand them over to me. I’ll take care of them."

Every Uchiha who had awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan was an exceptionally valuable experimental subject.

And among the Uchiha Clan, the most extreme and radical members were almost all wielders of the three-tomoe Sharingan.

After all, without considerable strength of their own, they wouldn’t have had the confidence to become radicals in the first place.

These radicals were harmful to both the village and the Uchiha Clan itself, so Kagami felt absolutely no guilt about using them as human test subjects.

After thinking it over for a long while, Shisui asked, "Can this method really delay the Uchiha rebellion?"

Kagami nodded. "Yeah."

This method had already been proven to work.

In the original timeline, Akatsuki had single-handedly forced the Five Great Shinobi Villages—despite the deep blood feuds between them—to come together and form the unprecedented Allied Shinobi Forces.

After receiving Kagami’s firm answer, the uncertainty vanished from Shisui’s face.

He raised the Homura mask and placed it over his face.

Seeing Shisui put on the Homura mask of his own accord, Kagami smiled faintly. "Let’s go. First stop, the black market bounty station!"

Shisui nodded.

As the two sped along, Kagami suddenly seemed to remember something and said, "When we start targeting the radicals in your clan, let’s prioritize families where both brothers are radicals!"

Shisui asked, "Why?"

Kagami thought for a moment but decided not to explain. Instead, he casually replied, "Taking out a pair of brothers at the same time should make a bigger impact, right?"

Kagami’s true objective, of course, was to experiment on a pair of brothers who both possessed the three-tomoe Sharingan.

He wanted to see whether he could induce both of them to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan—and then use those two pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan to create a pair of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

However, the chances of succeeding were simply too low, so he couldn’t be bothered to explain it all to Shisui.

But now that the idea had occurred to him, Kagami felt that the experiment was definitely worth attempting.

Looking back across the Uchiha Clan’s thousand-year history, it seemed that only two people had ever possessed the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan: Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Sasuke.

Statistically speaking, among the countless Uchiha who had lived over the course of a thousand years, only two had managed to evolve the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

That probability was terrifyingly low.

However, there was one important detail worth noting.

After Itachi learned the method for evolving the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, he had deliberately guided events step by step, ultimately allowing his younger brother, Uchiha Sasuke, to evolve his own Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

In a sense, Uchiha Sasuke’s Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan had been artificially created by Uchiha Itachi.

In other words, once the correct method was known, artificially creating the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan might not be nearly as difficult as it seemed...