After some time, Shimura Danzō finally emerged from the fear and worry he had felt earlier and regained his composure. Thinking that the Rinnegan brat had made no move all these years, either Hanzo of the Salamander had kept him tied down, or he too was wary of Konoha's strength as the greatest ninja village.
"Looks like I should leave Konoha less often until those two are eliminated."
"That vortex the Masked Man vanished through just now... was that Space-Time Ninjutsu? Is that guy really Uchiha Madara?"
"He used the Mangekyō Sharingan without restraint, wore a mask, and possessed Space-Time Ninjutsu... Could he be the one who caused the Nine-Tails Incident seven years ago, resulting in Namikaze Minato and his wife both sacrificing themselves?"
"The intelligence sent back after the war showed that the Nine-Tails had suddenly appeared in the village. Someone capable of summoning the Nine-Tails and connected to the Rinnegan... even if he isn't Uchiha Madara, he must have an unusual relationship with Uchiha Madara. Perhaps Uchiha Madara hated the Uchiha Clan for betraying him back then and sent this Masked Man to Konoha to wipe out the clan."
Countless questions surfaced in Shimura Danzō's mind, deepening his wariness toward the Masked Man. Looking at the ruined laboratory before him, he realized that the massive cluster of Hashirama Cells he had cultivated had vanished. This filled Shimura Danzō with rage and intensified his killing intent toward the Masked Man.
Leaving aside Shimura Danzō's impotent fury over losing his high-end laboratory and Hashirama Cells, Minagawa Uchiha had not directly left the Root Base through Space-Time Ninjutsu, as Danzo believed.
Although Minagawa Uchiha also possessed Intangibility, it was fundamentally different from Obito Uchiha's Kamui. His Intangibility merely turned material into void, then chose whether to project an image into reality to simulate the same outward appearance as Kamui. It did not possess spatial-temporal properties.
Looking at the Hashirama Cells within the Dream Space, Minagawa Uchiha felt an intense desire to fuse with them. Even maintaining the Dream Space for long periods was becoming too much for his Dojutsu Power and chakra. Without further delay, he left the Root Base and hurried home. As he passed the contemplative Shimura Danzō, he did not forget to plant a spore parasite on him.
The Dream Space derived from the union of Izanagi and Izanami was a truly wondrous place. Based on Minagawa Uchiha's experiments, either the power of his Sharingan surpassed the dimension of reality, or the dimension where this space existed was lower than the power of his Sharingan.
That was why the chakra and Dojutsu Power consumed while creating and maintaining the Dream Space were not so severe. However, he had merely connected to this dream dimension and could create a Dream Space belonging solely to himself within it. All of that still required chakra and Dojutsu Power.
Once that supply was cut off, the Dream Space would disappear, and the things inside it would be lost within this dream dimension as well.
In an instant, Minagawa Uchiha returned home. He hurriedly shut the doors and windows before turning himself intangible and entering the Dream Space.
Looking at the Hashirama Cells before him, Minagawa Uchiha could not help imagining the terrifying leap in strength that would come after fusing with them. Once he fully developed them and advanced his Mangekyō Sharingan into the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, he would become a fusion of Uchiha Madara and Hashirama Senju.
According to the information he knew, the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan came from the same lineage, both passed down from the Sage of Six Paths.
Then, genetically speaking, the Uchiha Clan should also possess the power of the Sage Body. Yet from Indra to the Uchiha Clan of a thousand years later, the power of the Sage Body had never appeared.
Therefore, when he had fused with White Zetsu last time, Minagawa Uchiha had formed a hypothesis. Either the inheritance of the Divine Tree's power was extremely unstable and this power had been lost through generations of transmission, or the genetic information for the Sage Body remained within the Uchiha Clan but existed as an unexpressed recessive gene.
However, whether it had been lost or remained an unexpressed recessive gene, the Uchiha and Senju both originated from the Divine Tree's divided power. If that power had been lost, then the two could complement each other. If it was a recessive gene, fusing in the Senju power could activate his own Sage Body as well.
For Minagawa Uchiha, who was about to fuse with the Hashirama Cells, either outcome was ideal. He could not lose either way. Of course, if he had to choose between the two, activating his own Sage Body would be better. That would suit him most perfectly, and its potential for growth would be greater.
Hashirama Senju's Sage Body had reached its limit by the time he died, but Hashirama Senju had not been born that strong. His Sage Body had grown bit by bit. Whether Hashirama Senju had fully developed his Sage Body at that point in time was impossible to say.
In that case, the Sage Body gained through fusion and supplementation could never surpass Hashirama Senju at its peak. Therefore, activating his own Sage Body would be far superior to the former, whether in terms of perfect compatibility and effortless control or growth potential that could surpass Hashirama Senju.
Minagawa Uchiha cast aside distracting thoughts and adjusted himself to his best condition. He hesitated no longer and began the full fusion. With the experience from last time, he was not worried about any other accidents occurring.
Just as he had previously guessed, perhaps because fusing with White Zetsu's cells had greatly strengthened his own cells, the moment the fusion began and they came into contact with the Hashirama Cells, Nanga's cells erupted with a formidable life essence that was not inferior to the Hashirama Cells in the slightest. They were only somewhat lacking in quantity.
Seeing this, Minagawa Uchiha was overjoyed. It proved that after being stimulated by the Hashirama Cells, his current cells had finally activated the essence of his own Sage Body.
Not daring to be careless, Minagawa Uchiha changed his strategy. He no longer allowed the two sides to adapt and fuse with each other. Instead, relying on his absolute control over the Dream Space, he suppressed every function of the Hashirama Cells, treating them as nourishment for his own cells and directly devouring them.
Under the guidance of Minagawa Uchiha, who was like a god within this space, the cells throughout his body quickly completed their activation and began devouring and plundering everything from the Hashirama Cells. Before long, nothing remained of that massive cluster of Hashirama Cells. This represented Minagawa Uchiha's successful activation of his own Sage Body.
Feeling the surging power within his body, Minagawa Uchiha knew that, due to devouring the Hashirama Cells, his Sage Body had already awakened to a considerable degree. He immediately prepared to turn void into reality so he could properly experience the changes to his new body in the real world.
"Tch. This time consumed even more chakra than last time, as expected. But with this powerful strength welling up from within me, that amount of consumption is nothing."
Before you continue