Replacement Plan

Back at his apartment, Shinji ate the dinner he'd bought on the way home and considered what he should do next.

His top priority was still to get stronger.

Though his combat strength was already considerable thanks to his Mangekyō Sharingan, he still hadn't solved the problem of its Dojutsu draining away.

Until he fixed that, his strength would always be temporary.

Even with two pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan now, and far greater Dojutsu than before, he couldn't withstand repeated battles.

His current fighting strength relied almost entirely on the Mangekyō Sharingan. Once the Dojutsu in both pairs of eyes ran dry, his strength would plummet.

"One A-rank evaluation only earns a random A-rank jutsu from the Shinobi World."

Thinking about it, he felt the odds of relying on the Shinobi World's rewards—and getting lucky enough to receive a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan he could fuse with—were simply too low.

After all, the value of an A-rank jutsu was nowhere near that of a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan.

He could hardly imagine what kind of evaluation he'd need to earn a reward on the level of Mangekyō Sharingan.

"But there are only so many pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan. If I can't rely on rewards, where am I supposed to find a pair I can fuse with?"

Shinji realized he was stuck in a dead end.

For a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan to be compatible with his, they would have to belong either to a Blood Relation of his who had awakened them, or to someone with weaker Dojutsu than his, allowing the Susanoo Lamp to forcefully fuse them.

The original owner of his body had been an orphan. His parents had died young, and he had no siblings.

He could rule out Blood Relations.

That left only the option of finding a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan with weaker Dojutsu than his.

But there were only a handful of people in the Shinobi World who possessed Mangekyō Sharingan, and every one of them was a tough opponent. Besides, Shinji couldn't tell whose Dojutsu was weaker than his own.

"Should I try that other method?"

Shinji hesitated.

He had thought of an alternative, but it would take a lot of time and effort, and might not even work.

The idea was to find a large number of Three-Tomoe Sharingan, then use the Susanoo Lamp to forcibly fuse them and increase the Dojutsu of his own Mangekyō Sharingan.

As long as his Mangekyō Sharingan's Dojutsu surpassed Fugaku's, he could use the Susanoo Lamp to forcibly fuse Fugaku's pair with his own and obtain an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

But there was a problem.

The gap in Dojutsu between a Three-Tomoe Sharingan and a Mangekyō Sharingan was so vast that calling it worlds apart would hardly be an exaggeration.

So how many Three-Tomoe Sharingan would he have to sacrifice to change the balance of power between the two pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan?

The Uchiha Clan had been wiped out.

The only ones with a large stockpile of Sharingan were Obito Uchiha, who had inherited Madara Uchiha's legacy, and Danzo, who had helped bring about the Uchiha Clan Massacre.

There was no point thinking about Obito. Shinji wasn't capable of going after him yet.

As for Danzo...

Shinji had only succeeded last time through sheer luck, largely thanks to Danzo's carelessness and the Nine-Tails rampage.

Danzo hadn't expected anyone to dare attack the Root Base while the Uchiha were being wiped out, and his defenses had been lax.

But after that, Danzo would certainly tighten security.

At the same time, Shinji stealing Fugaku's Sharingan would have made Danzo realize how special they were, prompting him to pay more attention to all Sharingan.

Under those circumstances, stealing even one more pair would be difficult, let alone raiding Danzo's entire stockpile.

Shinji even suspected Danzo had already set a trap at the Root Base, waiting for him to come back.

"I'll wait for another opportunity!"

Shinji shook his head.

His Dojutsu could still hold out for now. There was no need to charge straight into Danzo's trap.

Besides improving his Dojutsu, Shinji also needed to strengthen his basic abilities as soon as possible and make up for his various shortcomings.

"My abilities aren't well-rounded enough. I can't use sealing, sensory, or medical techniques, and I haven't mastered Shadow Clone either. I always have to fight in person, which makes me easy to catch off guard."

These problems couldn't be solved overnight. Some weren't even problems one person could solve alone.

But he had to start thinking about them.

He now understood that he needed a team.

The invading force he was up against was led by the mysterious Lantern Bearer. On his own, he had no way to handle it.

He already had a rough idea of whom to recruit.

The next day.

Iruka led Shinji to the archives.

He had already asked the Third for permission the day before.

When the Third learned that Shinji had mastered the C-rank Great Fireball Technique and wanted to learn the B-rank Shadow Clone Technique and Great Fire Annihilation, he weighed the matter and agreed.

The Uchiha Clan had collected a great many jutsu scrolls, including several Forbidden Jutsu.

After the clan was wiped out, the village confiscated all of them. Now that Uchiha members were applying to learn jutsu through the proper channels, the village couldn't very well refuse openly.

Besides, the Third considered letting Shinji learn a few B-rank jutsu to be within acceptable limits.

After all, Sasuke was the one the village truly needed to keep an eye on.

After explaining their purpose to the archivist, Iruka reminded Shinji, "You can borrow the scrolls for Shadow Clone Technique and Great Fire Annihilation here, but you can't take them away or make copies. Understand?"

"I understand."

Shinji nodded.

He hadn't expected Iruka to take such an interest in helping him. He had only submitted the request yesterday, and it had already been approved today.

First, he borrowed the scroll for Great Fire Annihilation and pretended to study it for a while. Then he asked the archivist to let him borrow the scroll for Shadow Clone Technique.

Shadow Clone Technique was a B-rank jutsu that generally only Jonin could learn.

Following the instructions in the scroll, Shinji memorized the Hand Seals and the method for controlling his Chakra. He quietly tried it out and found that, while controlling his Chakra still felt awkward, nothing was stopping him. It seemed that with enough practice, learning Shadow Clone Technique wouldn't be a problem.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the archivist watching him discreetly.

"I can't learn it too quickly. With the Third's experience, he could easily judge how strong my Chakra is. That would draw unwanted attention."

Shinji immediately grew alert.

If he mastered a B-rank jutsu that was usually only within a Jonin's reach with ease, it would cause quite a stir.

The Third had probably agreed to his request so readily because he wanted to test Shinji's potential.

So Shinji pretended to look troubled, staring at the jutsu scroll as if deep in thought.

First update of the day. Please vote for the story! Help me out, everyone!