The nature of the Sharingan?
The question was a little strange. The Sharingan was the Sharingan! What did he mean by its "nature"? It was like grabbing a passerby on the street and asking what the nature of humanity was.
The only likely result would be a string of insults, calling you a weirdo or a lunatic.
Of course,
judging people by their status was a failing most people couldn't avoid.
When Sōken asked a question like that, no one present thought he was crazy. Instead, they were sure there had to be some deeper meaning behind it. They all pondered hard, trying to unravel the mystery and discover what made Sōken so powerful.
"Spiritual energy?"
The title of genius hadn't been bestowed on Shisui for nothing.
He was the first to understand what Sōken meant.
"Exactly. Spiritual energy—but I prefer to call it Yin Release." As they traveled, Sōken didn't mind sharing some of his research. What anyone might learn from it depended on their own talent. "Fire, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Water, Yin, and Yang—these seven nature transformations encompass practically everything shinobi do."
"Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu, secret techniques, Kekkei Genkai, Kekkei Tōta... all of them stem from these seven natures. Even our clan's Sharingan is a manifestation of Yin Power. At the most fundamental level, it's the same as the Yamanaka Clan's Mind Secret Technique and the Nara Clan's shadow techniques. They're all Yin Release."
"So you're saying that training spiritual energy... um, Yin Release, can strengthen one's ocular powers?"
Shisui asked doubtfully.
"Of course it's not that simple, but you're on the right track. I once came across a line in a handwritten note in the clan library: 'The pinnacle of the Sharingan is the pinnacle of Yin Release.' The reverse is also true. The stronger one's Yin Release, the stronger the Sharingan naturally becomes."
Sōken hadn't made it up.
It was the truth.
As the saying went, even a ruined ship still had three thousand nails left. And the Uchiha Clan was an ancient clan with a thousand-year legacy. Its library held plenty of outdated junk, but there were also many valuable works, especially records concerning the Sharingan.
"The pinnacle of the Sharingan is the pinnacle of Yin Release." Sōken had found this line in a handwritten note left by a clan head more than three hundred years ago. It wasn't a systematic treatise, just scattered insights from the man's daily training. That was why it hadn't been placed in the secret archive, and instead remained in the public library, open to all clan members.
Sōken suspected that the clan head of that era might also have been a reincarnation of Indra, just like Madara Uchiha.
"Yin Release... But how do you actually do it? Is studying Genjutsu enough?"
"That can't be all there is to it, can it? As if any of us don't know Genjutsu. Once an Uchiha awakens the Sharingan, who doesn't know Genjutsu?"
Fugaku Uchiha's trusted aides argued among themselves.
Shisui thought for a moment, then shook his head. Sōken's words made sense, but they were far too vague. It was like telling someone that all they had to do to make an Explosive Tag was prepare the paper and infuse it with Chakra, without explaining how to draw the seal or what techniques to use when channeling the Chakra.
In short,
he'd told them what to do, but not how to do it.
"Don't assume I'm keeping secrets. I didn't reach this point through some obscure trick. I had Samehada's help." At the mention of its name, the sword strapped to Sōken's back wriggled gently, responding to his voice.
"Samehada?"
It wasn't just Shisui. Everyone looked confused.
But Sōken stopped there, unwilling to say more. If he'd found a technique, he wouldn't have hesitated to share it with his companions. But his progress in Yin Release and Yang Release really had depended on Samehada's help. It wasn't something he could broadly share with others.
Taking down Suikazan Fuguki on the battlefield was absolutely one of the best decisions I've ever made!
Sōken thought this from the bottom of his heart.
Without Samehada,
he might have already resorted to crooked paths like conspiring with Orochimaru to pursue cell-transplantation techniques or sneaking into Kumogakure to steal the Sage of Six Paths Tools. Thankfully, Samehada had let him touch the essence of Yin Release and Yang Release. He didn't need to take any crooked path—there was a proper road leading straight to the heavens!
Indra, the Uchiha Clan ancestor who had vanished into history, was the best example.
He had inherited the Sage of Six Paths' powerful Yin Power—spiritual energy—and had awakened the Three Tomoe Sharingan from birth. Later, when he awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, he faced no risk of blindness. He'd gone straight to the Eternal Eye... or, rather, the true Mangekyō Sharingan.
In Sōken's view, the so-called Mangekyō Sharingan of today was merely an incomplete version, awakened as the Uchiha Clan's inherited Yin Power gradually weakened. At its core, replacing eyes was still a matter of merging Yin Power. Combining two sources of Yin Power could create a true Mangekyō.
When all was said and done,
Yin Power—spiritual energy that governed imagination—and Yin Release, which gave form to nothingness, were the true source of the Sharingan's power.
Susanoo, that divine power, was the best proof of creation from nothingness.
"Don't underestimate Samehada! It's the only living weapon in the Shinobi World."
Noticing that the others were still confused and eyeing Samehada suspiciously, Sōken couldn't help defending his beloved weapon. "Don't forget, even our clan's mighty Gunbai is nothing more than an inanimate object. Samehada is a magnificent creation that embodies the essence of both Yin Release and Yang Release."
"Yin Release? Yang Release?"
Fugaku Uchiha furrowed his brows slightly.
But the former clan head had always been good at controlling his expressions, making it difficult to read anything from his face.
"Magnificent... Isn't that a bit over the top?"
Even Shisui's curiosity had been piqued by Sōken's extravagant praise.
"Giving a cold, lifeless weapon life and the ability to think and remember—is that not magnificent? Don't take its existence for granted and forget how incredible it is to bring a weapon to life. That's a field even the God of Shinobi never touched."
Sōken's words left Shisui deep in thought.
Creating life?
Was it difficult?
Not at all. Humans and animals alike continually reproduced, so the land was always full of living creatures. But... bringing a weapon that had never been alive to life—was that really something humans could do?
"Samehada... Where did it come from?"
Shisui murmured to himself.
Sōken didn't answer.
Samehada's origins?
Simple!
Across the thousand-year history of the Shinobi World, only one person could have forged such a singular, inimitable weapon: the Sage of Six Paths, who still watched over the world even after his death. Sōken hadn't come to that conclusion out of nowhere; he'd uncovered it in Samehada's thousand-year-old memories.
Samehada could think like a human, so naturally, it could remember like one too.
Its thinking was roughly on the level of an ordinary human child with no shinobi training. It hadn't matured over the thousand years and acted entirely on its own preferences. But its memory was excellent, and it had never forgotten the presence and voice it sensed at the moment of its creation.
That was the man people called the Sage of Six Paths, whose true name was Hagoromo Otsutsuki.
That man had used Yin Release to create Samehada's form from nothing, then used Yang Release to give it life—
That
was why Samehada was called a magnificent creation embodying the essence of both Yin Release and Yang Release.
As it happened, the cheat granted by Knight of Owner gave Sōken powerful control over Noble Phantasms, allowing him to completely master everything about Samehada: its power, its will, its memories... all of it fell under Sōken's control.
And it was all of this—
that had made Sōken powerful enough to crush his fellow clan members today.
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