Chapter 405: An Attempt to Evolve the Rinnegan

Chapter 405: Chapter 405: An Attempt to Evolve the Rinnegan

Early the next morning, Hyuga Kagami quietly arrived at the former site of his secret laboratory in the Forest of Death.

Ever since he had moved his secret laboratory to the air fortress, this place had been left vacant. However, it remained well-hidden and had never been discovered by anyone.

Before long, Shisui and Itachi arrived.

With his arms crossed, Hyuga Kagami was leaning against a large tree. Seeing the two of them arrive, he stepped forward and greeted them, "Morning!"

Shisui asked, "Senpai, why did you call us here?"

"We can’t exactly perform the transplant surgery at your house, can we?" Hyuga Kagami smiled, then continued, "This is the operating room I specifically prepared for you."

"Here!?"

Shisui looked around, his face filled with confusion.

Itachi, however, raised his brows slightly, seemingly lost in thought.

He still remembered that when he was at the Ninja Academy, his team had once received a mission to hunt down a ferocious wild boar near this area. At the time, they had happened to run into Hyuga Kagami.

Back then, he hadn’t thought much of it. After all, there was nothing particularly strange about a Konoha shinobi appearing in the Forest of Death. Many Konoha shinobi came here to train.

But now, after hearing what Hyuga Kagami had said, the intelligent and perceptive Itachi immediately realized that Hyuga Kagami’s appearance in the Forest of Death back then probably hadn’t been a coincidence.

There was likely a secret base hidden here that no one knew about.

Hyuga Kagami didn’t bother explaining further. Instead, he directly instructed Itachi, "This surgery might take the entire day. During that time, stand guard nearby. Don’t let anyone interfere with the operation."

Itachi immediately replied, "Understood!"

Hyuga Kagami turned to Shisui. "Follow me."

With that, Hyuga Kagami led Shisui into the hollow of the tree and activated the hidden mechanism inside. From there, they made their way down to the former site of the underground secret laboratory.

Following behind Hyuga Kagami, Shisui observed his surroundings and couldn’t help but marvel, "I never imagined you had an operating room hidden here too, Senpai."

Although Shisui’s eyesight had deteriorated severely, he still possessed a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan, so his powers of observation remained exceptional. Yet despite that, he hadn’t noticed anything at all while they were above ground.

Had Hyuga Kagami not personally led him inside, even if Shisui had stood right outside the hollow tree, he still wouldn’t have discovered the hidden mechanism concealed within.

A short while later, Hyuga Kagami led Shisui into the operating room.

Hyuga Kagami had already rearranged and outfitted the room with all sorts of equipment. In the past two days alone, he had spent more than five million ryō on this operating room.

Looking at the bewildering array of instruments filling the room, Shisui was dumbfounded. "Senpai, isn’t this just a transplant surgery? Why do we need so much equipment?"

Hyuga Kagami explained, "Everything you see here is actually used to monitor your vital signs. The equipment on the left monitors your heartbeat and blood pressure. The equipment on the right monitors your cellular activity. Some of the other instruments monitor your body temperature, breathing, and various other readings. In short, they’re all here to assist with the surgery."

Shisui nodded, though there was a hint of nervousness on his face.

Hyuga Kagami knew very well that anyone in Shisui’s current position would inevitably feel somewhat nervous and uneasy, so he smiled. "How about this? I’ll explain the surgical procedure to you first."

Shisui nodded lightly, but his gaze remained fixed on the instruments surrounding him, and he seemed somewhat distracted.

Hyuga Kagami began, "First, I’ll remove the Mangekyō Sharingan from your eye sockets and replace them with the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan..."

Shisui, who had been somewhat distracted, initially nodded along almost subconsciously. But he quickly realized something was wrong and exclaimed, "What!? You’re going to replace my eyes with the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan?"

Hyuga Kagami explained, "The ocular power of your Mangekyō Sharingan has been depleted too severely, and you recently used Kotoamatsukami. I’m worried that with your current ocular power, you won’t be able to suppress the First Hokage’s cells. To be safe, I’ve decided to replace your eyes with the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan first. That should increase your chances of surviving the surgery by another fifteen percent or so."

Shisui asked, "But... will En agree to this? After all, the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan is already in her—"

Thud...

Before Shisui could finish speaking, Hyuga Kagami had already placed a small storage container holding the pair of Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan onto the instrument table beside the operating table.

Staring at the pair of eyeballs inside the small container, Shisui opened his mouth, but for a moment, he had no idea what to say.

Hyuga Kagami patted Shisui on the shoulder. "Don’t worry. As members of the same organization, En doesn’t mind you using her eyes. She took them out voluntarily."

Shisui said sincerely, "If I don’t survive, please thank her for me, Senpai!"

"You can thank her yourself." After a brief pause, Hyuga Kagami continued explaining the surgical procedure. "Once the first step—replacing your eyes with the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan—is complete, the second step will be injecting a fusion solution into your body. The solution is made from several special medicines. You may experience a certain amount of discomfort, but you’ll have to endure it, because it will help your body absorb the First Hokage’s cellular tissue."

Shisui silently nodded.

He knew that if Hyuga Kagami had specifically warned him, a shinobi, about the discomfort caused by the fusion solution, then that ’discomfort’ was bound to be extraordinarily painful.

Painful enough that even a shinobi like him needed to mentally prepare himself beforehand.

Hyuga Kagami continued, "The third step is transplanting the First Hokage’s cells. Since you’ll need to mobilize your ocular power to resist the First Hokage’s cells from devouring your body, I won’t administer any anesthetic. It could interfere with your control over your ocular power. But that also means... you’re going to have to endure quite a bit of pain!"

"Mm."

Shisui was quite confident in his ability to endure pain.

Wanting to make sure Shisui took this stage of the procedure seriously, Hyuga Kagami said solemnly, "The First Hokage’s cells are far more domineering than most people could ever imagine. Through certain special channels, I managed to obtain a small portion of the village’s experimental records from its previous First Hokage cell transplantation trials. Among them, many volunteers who had experienced war and possessed exceptionally strong wills lost control of their bodies in an instant. They became like mindless fools, drooling uncontrollably and losing control of their bowels and bladder. Then, the First Hokage’s cells completely devoured them, turning them into half-human, half-tree monsters..."

Shisui stared blankly at Hyuga Kagami upon hearing this. "Uh... is that why you told me not to eat breakfast?"

Hyuga Kagami said, "Don’t underestimate this. This is a battle of life and death!"

Understanding Hyuga Kagami’s intentions, Shisui immediately cast aside all the fear and unease in his heart. As though he were heading onto a battlefield, his expression returned to its usual calm and serenity.

Looking at Shisui lying quietly on the operating table, Hyuga Kagami took a deep breath.

This time, his decision to transplant the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan into Shisui wasn’t merely to increase the success rate of Shisui’s transplantation surgery.

He also wanted to conduct an experiment.

He wanted to see what kind of reaction would occur when the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan fused with the First Hokage’s cells...

And whether the eyes would evolve into the Rinnegan.