Chapter 397: Entrustment and Sale

Chapter 397: Chapter 397: Entrustment and Sale

Seeing the apprehension on Shisui’s face, Hyuga Kagami smiled. "What, worried the surgery might fail?"

Shisui silently nodded.

When one’s life was at stake, feeling uneasy was only natural. Shisui had always been prepared to sacrifice himself for the village, but when he thought about the possibility of dying on an operating table rather than on the battlefield, a faint sense of unease inevitably stirred within him.

Kagami reassured him, "I’ve calculated it. Your chances of surviving the surgery are quite high."

"A forty to fifty percent chance really isn’t that low." After a brief pause, Shisui asked, "If the surgery succeeds, how much of my ocular power will I recover?"

"Back to your peak. It might even become slightly stronger!"

Kagami wasn’t making that up.

Having awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, Shisui naturally possessed extremely potent Yin Release chakra. If his body successfully fused with the First Hokage’s cells and acquired the Yang Release chakra contained within them, then the fusion of Yin and Yang would inevitably trigger a qualitative transformation, enhancing both his ocular power and physical strength to varying degrees.

Obito was a perfect example.

On the night of the Nine-Tails’ attack, despite possessing only a single Mangekyō Sharingan and not even specializing in genjutsu, Obito had effortlessly used genjutsu to control the Nine-Tails.

And one had to remember that the Nine-Tails that had just been released from Kushina’s body was the complete Nine-Tails—not the weakened version that later had half of its chakra sealed away by the Fourth Hokage.

Obito had easily controlled the complete Nine-Tails with just a single Mangekyō Sharingan, without even using a Mangekyō-level genjutsu. From this alone, one could see just how powerful his ocular power had become after fusing with the First Hokage’s cells!

As for the enhancement to his body, that went without saying.

Who knew how many Rasengans Obito had taken over the years? He had even taken a Rasengan from Naruto in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode straight to the face, yet afterward, he had been perfectly fine, still running around as if nothing had happened. His physical resilience was practically comparable to Naruto’s Sage Body.

That was also why, when Kagami had fought Obito before, he hadn’t bothered using ordinary ninjutsu or ninja tools and had gone straight for the Susanoo. Against Obito, conventional methods weren’t merely unlikely to hit him—even if they did land, they wouldn’t inflict any substantial damage.

Shisui didn’t show much joy after hearing this. He merely said quietly, "I’m not asking for much. As long as my ocular power can be restored, that’s enough."

Kagami replied, "Don’t worry. As long as the surgery succeeds, your ocular power will definitely recover."

After hesitating for a moment, Shisui continued, "Senpai, if the surgery fails, I want you to entrust my eyes to Itachi. You already possess a pair of Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, so these eyes of mine that are already close to blindness wouldn’t be of much use to you. But they might still be useful to Itachi."

Kagami nodded.

He understood perfectly well that by entrusting his Mangekyō Sharingan to Itachi, Shisui was, in truth, entrusting Itachi with his ideals as well—the ideals of protecting the clan and protecting Konoha.

After leaving Shisui’s home, Kagami immediately got busy.

Over the next two days, he needed to sell some of the high-quality swords and blades he had obtained from Kirigakure’s collection vault and turn them into cash. Part of the money would serve as the apprenticeship gift for Rei becoming Tsunade’s student, while the rest would be used to purchase some of the equipment required for the transplant surgery.

Normally, something this trivial could have been handled with a single trip to the black market.

However, because the major ninja villages had repeatedly cracked down on the black market due to the affairs involving Kamigami and Akatsuki, more than half of the black market’s underground network had been crippled, bringing many private transactions to a standstill.

As a result, Kagami had to visit several different places before he barely managed to scrape together the seventy-five million in cash he needed for the immediate future.

Of that seventy-five million, thirty-five million had been provided by Hiashi. The remaining forty million had all come from Kagami selling the swords and blades.

Hiramekarei, one of the Seven Ninja Swords of the Mist, had alone sold for nearly thirty million. As for the other weapons, although their sharpness was no worse than Hiramekarei’s, they lacked its reputation, so altogether they had only fetched ten million.

Of course, that was also because Kagami was in a hurry to sell them. If he had taken his time and waited for the right buyers, his profits could have been at least ten percent higher.

As for Samehada, another of the Seven Ninja Swords of the Mist, Kagami was in no hurry to sell it. Not only could the ninja sword provide its wielder with enormous amounts of chakra, it could also absorb chakra from enemies during battle, making it an extremely versatile weapon.

......

In Peacehaven City, in the northern region of the Land of Fire.

A bald, wealthy merchant stroked Hiramekarei resting on its display rack and grinned. "Tsk, tsk. What a magnificent weapon!"

The butler standing beside him asked, "Master, are you really going to put this ninja sword on display?"

Rubbing his shiny bald head, the wealthy merchant replied, "Of course! I paid a fortune for this thing. How could I not show it off properly? Have all the invitations been sent? I want the entire Peacehaven City to know about this. Let them see the wealth of our Takeda family!"

The butler hurriedly replied, "Rest assured, Master. All the invitations have already been sent."

The bald merchant nodded in satisfaction, his gaze once again settling on Hiramekarei resting upon the rack.

BOOM!

Just then, a thunderous explosion erupted from outside the courtyard.

Immediately afterward, a wave of commotion swept in from beyond the courtyard walls.

The bald merchant frowned and demanded fiercely, "What’s going on?"

The butler peered out through the window and replied uncertainly, "It seems... someone is causing trouble!"

"Hmph! Someone actually dares cause trouble at my Takeda estate!" With a cold snort, the bald merchant barked, "Send the samurai over and teach that bastard a lesson. Break both his legs!"

Before the bald merchant had even finished speaking, the commotion had already reached the building.

Bang!

A moment later, the door was kicked open, and a tall ninja with a vicious, shark-like face strode inside.

The ninja glanced at Hiramekarei sitting on the display rack, then broke into a grin. "I thought it was just a rumor. Never expected Hiramekarei to actually be here!"

With that, the ninja stepped forward and took Hiramekarei from the rack.

By now, the bald merchant had caught sight of the samurai sprawled all over the ground outside, their fates unknown, and his heart immediately leapt into his throat.

Every one of those samurai had been hired at great expense. Several were supposedly elite samurai who had even trained in the Land of Iron, yet none of them had been able to put up the slightest resistance against this shark-faced ninja.

Just as the bald merchant thought the intruder was about to start killing people, the shark-faced ninja glanced at him and asked, "Where did you get this sword?"

The bald merchant stammered, "A-A merchant sold it to me..."

With Hiramekarei slung over his shoulder, the shark-faced ninja said nothing more.

Whoosh!

He vanished from the spot.

Only then did the butler crawl over from the side and look miserably at the bald merchant. "Master, this..."

The bald merchant roared, "Quick! Send someone to Konoha! I’m putting up a ten-million bounty to get my sword back!"