Chapter 429: The Wall of Sharingan

Chapter 429: Chapter 429: The Wall of Sharingan

Thanks to his extensive experience participating in Orochimaru’s human experiments—though, of course, most of that experience came from being the test subject—Kimimaro quickly calmed down and recognized each of the instruments on the tray in Hyuga Kagami’s hands.

"What exactly are you planning to do?"

Kimimaro frowned. The two cinnabar-red markings between his brows nearly squeezed together.

Hyuga Kagami smiled. "As my prisoner of war, shouldn’t you pay a little ransom? Relax, I’m not going to kill you. I just want to collect some of your cellular tissue. When it comes to the Shikotsumyaku, I’m no less curious than Orochimaru!"

Kimimaro knew that Hyuga Kagami had once served as Orochimaru’s experimental assistant and was himself a researcher, so he didn’t find this particularly suspicious. He merely said coldly, "I only lost to you this time because I was careless. Next time, you won’t have it so easy."

Hyuga Kagami continued collecting Kimimaro’s cell samples without paying him any attention.

Kimimaro was equally unyielding. He said nothing more and silently endured the procedure as the defeated party.

Considering that opportunities like this were rare, Hyuga Kagami collected twice the amount he would normally need. He also extracted a small quantity of Kimimaro’s blood and took several hair samples.

After properly storing all the samples, Hyuga Kagami suddenly remembered Kimimaro’s cause of death in the original timeline and casually asked, "By the way, have you noticed anything unusual about your body lately?"

Kimimaro’s gaze sharpened.

"How do you know?"

He hadn’t even had the chance to tell Orochimaru about what Renge had told him, so he was genuinely surprised that Hyuga Kagami somehow knew.

Hyuga Kagami continued, "It’s a Kekkei Genkai disease, isn’t it? What treatment plan has Orochimaru come up with?"

The suspicion on Kimimaro’s face deepened, but he still answered, "I haven’t told Lord Orochimaru yet."

Hyuga Kagami paused for a moment before saying, "If you don’t want to die, you’d better tell Orochimaru about this immediately. If he intervenes early enough, you might still survive."

Kimimaro replied coldly, "My affairs are none of your concern!"

Hyuga Kagami merely smiled, unconcerned, before releasing the Four Symbols Seal on Kimimaro.

Of course, he hadn’t said all that purely out of kindness or because he wanted to save Kimimaro. His main objective was to learn how far Orochimaru’s research into the Shikotsumyaku had progressed by observing the treatment plan Orochimaru devised for Kimimaro’s Kekkei Genkai disease.

If the Kaguya Clan’s bloodline truly could be traced all the way back to the progenitor of chakra, Kaguya ōtsutsuki, then the upper limit of the Shikotsumyaku’s power was extraordinarily high.

After all, Kaguya’s All-Killing Ash Bones was an absolute killing technique that meant death upon contact. Whether it was Yin–Yang Release or senjutsu, neither could easily withstand it. In terms of sheer destructive power alone, it even surpassed the Truth-Seeking Balls!

"All right, you can leave now!" After a brief pause, Hyuga Kagami warned him, "This is Konoha. There are more people here capable of killing you than you can count on two hands. If you dare act recklessly again, even Orochimaru won’t be able to save you."

Kimimaro gave a faint snort. Then, with a flicker, his figure vanished from the room.

After Kimimaro left, Hyuga Kagami murmured, "I need to accelerate the progress of the Kekkei Mōra Plan. Nagato and Obito probably won’t give me much more time."

With that thought, Hyuga Kagami summoned a ninja crow...

...

Inside one of Akatsuki’s secret underground bases.

A distorted vortex suddenly appeared.

Immediately afterward, Obito, having reclaimed his left eye, stepped out of the vortex. He casually removed the one-eyed mask from his face and tossed it aside.

Zetsu walked over, examined Obito’s left eye, and asked, "How does that left eye feel? How long will you need before you can awaken the Mangekyō?"

Obito replied, "It’s already a Mangekyō."

Zetsu was slightly surprised and praised him, "As expected of the man Lord Madara chose!"

"No. It was already a Mangekyō Sharingan before I took it back." As he spoke, Obito briefly sank into his memories and sighed. "That guy Kakashi’s talent really is..."

Zetsu was astonished. "He awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan?"

A ninja who possessed neither Uchiha nor Senju blood, someone who had little connection whatsoever to the descendants of the Sage of Six Paths, had actually managed to evolve a Sharingan all the way to the Mangekyō Sharingan through his own talent.

Such talent was truly astonishing.

Seemingly unwilling to talk about Kakashi any further, Obito changed the subject. "Forget it. Let’s talk business. How is Nagato’s condition?"

Zetsu chuckled. "Hehe, unexpectedly good. The Uzumaki and Senju Clans really are close relatives. Their bloodlines are integrating far more easily than we expected."

Obito said quietly, "I hope what we’re doing is the right choice."

Obito knew very well that if Nagato became too powerful, it would make him much harder to control. But during the previous battle in Amegakure, they had nearly lost the Rinnegan—the very core of the Eye of the Moon Plan.

Because of that, he had been forced to compromise and share the First Hokage’s cell transplantation technology with Nagato.

But it was easy to foresee that a stronger Nagato would become even more difficult to control.

That was also one of the reasons Obito had finally made up his mind to reclaim his left eye.

Zetsu then reported, "As for our investigation into Kamigami, we still haven’t found anything. It’s as though they don’t even exist. Whether we investigate through the Yuki Clan’s Ice Release or Sunagakure’s Magnet Release, we haven’t uncovered a single useful clue.

"They seem to have appeared out of thin air. They have none of the interpersonal connections that normal people should have."

"Keep investigating," Obito ordered. "We have to find them!"

As he spoke, Obito walked over to a towering wall.

Upon closer inspection, the entire wall was filled with hidden compartments used to store Sharingan. Inside each compartment rested a three-tomoe Sharingan, stacked layer upon layer until they covered an entire wall.

These were all part of Uchiha Madara’s collection.

As the former head of the Uchiha Clan, before defecting from Konoha, Madara had taken with him all the Sharingan the Uchiha Clan had collected over the years.

Standing before this wall of Sharingan, Obito removed his robe and said to Zetsu beside him, "I need another one or two Sharingan transplanted into my body as sacrifices for Izanagi!"

Zetsu asked, "Where do you want them transplanted?"

"On my back." After a brief pause, Obito added, "I don’t want to see those eyes."

After thinking for a moment, Zetsu said, "If they aren’t transplanted into the eye sockets and connected to the optic nerves, there’ll probably be a certain degree of rejection. The success rate of the transplant won’t be very high."

Obito replied indifferently, "It doesn’t matter. There are more than enough Sharingan here. A few failures won’t make any difference."

He knew very well that if the Sharingan weren’t implanted into his eye sockets, not only would the transplantation success rate be lower, but the effectiveness of Izanagi would also be greatly reduced.

But that hardly mattered to him.

With both Kamui at his disposal, he could seamlessly chain Izanagi together with Kamui.

"I’ll arrange the surgery for you as soon as possible!" As though suddenly remembering something, Zetsu added, "Oh, right. Nagato seems to be planning something recently!"

Obito furrowed his brows.

"What is he planning to do?"

Zetsu spread his hands.

"Something about... making Konoha experience pain..."