Hot-Swappable Sharingan

"Then Uchiha Madara must be beneath my feet."

Kiyohara thought to himself.

The original story had actually been rather vague about this part.

It was possible that Uchiha Madara had ordered White Zetsu to carry Obito into the underground cave, then tricked Obito into believing he had fallen there himself.

Or perhaps that was truly what had happened—Obito had used part of Kamui's power even at the Sharingan stage.

"Are you okay, Rin... Kakashi?"

With only half his body and his head exposed, Obito looked over with his left eye.

"Obito!"

Kakashi's pupils contracted as he immediately rushed over, trying to shove the boulder away and pull Obito out.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard Kakashi pushed, he could not move it in the slightest.

"Stop pushing, Kakashi. I'm done for. The entire right side of my body is crushed. I can't feel anything anymore."

Hearing that, Kakashi braced himself against the wall in guilt and confessed his mistakes.

It was all his fault that things had turned out this way.

Kiyohara quietly watched the scene from behind.

Was it moving?

The bond between those three truly ran deep.

But...

In Obito's heart, only Kakashi and Nohara Rin counted as people.

No matter how well anyone else treated Obito, he would turn on them without hesitation.

For instance, he had wanted to kill his teacher and his teacher's wife.

Even though Kushina had kindly given him rice balls and looked after him during his training.

That was also why Kiyohara had never chosen to get close to Obito before.

First, there was no need. Second, Uchiha Madara might notice him, and he could end up becoming part of Obito's descent into darkness.

"Namikaze Minato should be on his way here now."

Kiyohara thought to himself.

Once Namikaze Minato arrived, they could blow up Kannabi Bridge together, and the mission would be considered complete.

With this mission, Kiyohara should have enough merit to earn a promotion when he returned. He could participate in the Chunin selection.

He would probably only need to pass an internal evaluation before becoming one directly.

"Taiseki is dead?"

Kiyohara suddenly noticed that among the collapsed rocks, perhaps because of the lime powder he had thrown, Taiseki had failed to escape. His head had been crushed, leaving only his body exposed.

With such a lucky break, Kiyohara immediately chose to loot the corpse.

The moment he searched it, he found something good.

"Damn, he was carrying thirty thousand ryo on him."

Kiyohara found a thick stack of bills in Taiseki's ninja tool pouch. He immediately took it out and justly confiscated it into his own pocket.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, Kiyohara discovered a ninjutsu scroll inside as well.

Opening it, he found a C-rank ninjutsu called "Earth Style: Subterranean Voyage."

It used chakra to turn the solid sand and stone beneath the ground into fluid, allowing the user to move swiftly through underground soil.

"He was probably practicing this ninjutsu recently. Too bad he never mastered it."

Kiyohara shook his head. Now, all of it belonged to him.

If Taiseki had truly learned Earth Style: Subterranean Voyage, he probably would not have been crushed to death.

Thoughts aside, Kiyohara did not stop moving. He stored the Iwagakure ninja vest, Kunai, Shuriken, Explosive Tags, and other items inside the Sealing Scroll.

"Kakashi, I'm giving you my Sharingan as your Jonin gift."

While Kiyohara looted the corpse, Obito was also nearly finished with his final words to Kakashi.

"Rin, use your Medical Ninjutsu to transplant my Sharingan, along with the cornea, into Kakashi's left eye."

"Obito..."

Kakashi was speechless for a moment.

Nohara Rin rubbed her face, suppressing the grief of losing a companion as she said to Kakashi,

"Come over here. The operation will begin right away."

With that, Nohara Rin began taking out the necessary tools from her medical kit.

"Here it comes, the hot-swappable Sharingan."

Kiyohara mocked inwardly.

The most miraculous thing in the Ninja World was the Sharingan.

It was practically a plug-in. Never mind whether one could handle it—anyone could install it.

One had to know that an eye transplant was an extremely difficult operation.

The optic nerve was non-regenerative. To connect an eyeball, those optic nerves had to be linked up.

Yet the optic nerve consisted of more than one million independent nerve fibers. Perfectly connecting the donor eye's optic nerve to the recipient brain's optic nerve was as difficult as taking a severed optical cable containing millions of tiny fibers—

And realigning and welding every single one without error, with no colors or numbered markings to guide the process.

Not to mention the immune rejection and blood supply issues afterward.

For Nohara Rin to complete an eyeball transplant in such a crude environment, even Kiyohara had to marvel at the all-powerful Medical Ninjutsu.

"The nearby Iwagakure ninja are gathering."

Renegade Kiyohara's spirit drifted back from afar.

He had been helping Kiyohara scout the area.

"I know."

Kiyohara nodded slightly.

In the original story, Kakashi and the others had also nearly been wiped out before blowing up the bridge. They had been surrounded by a large group of Iwagakure ninja.

They had only survived thanks to Namikaze Minato arriving to save them.

That made Kiyohara wonder whether this had been the mission's true purpose all along: to let Namikaze Minato wipe out the Iwagakure ninja who had gathered here.

After all, if Namikaze Minato had personally carried out this mission, the enemy would have fled the instant they saw him, dragging things into a prolonged guerrilla battle.

"My chakra has almost recovered too."

Kiyohara thought to himself.

Aside from the merit from this mission, his greatest gain had been accumulating a great deal of experience.

Many of the techniques Renegade Kiyohara had described needed to be personally practiced by Kiyohara before they could truly become his own.

That experience and knowledge counted as software.

Combined with the portion of Renegade Kiyohara's talent he had fused with, as well as the doubled chakra reserves gained after taking forbidden drugs, that counted as hardware.

With both software and hardware advancing together, Kiyohara's strength naturally underwent rapid improvement.

He could now easily defeat his former self, even while giving him one hand.

"What a cockroach. He actually survived."

Kakkō emerged from another exit.

He had already bandaged the wound on his arm. Looking at Kiyohara and the others, he seemed surprised that they had not been crushed to death beneath the rocks.

"And you. You actually used such a despicable trick against Taiseki."

Kakkō looked at Kiyohara.

When he saw Kiyohara still looting Taiseki's equipment, the corner of his mouth twitched.

"Hmph. I'll deal with this white-haired brat first."

Kakkō sensed that Kakashi seemed somehow different. Looking more closely, he realized Kakashi had actually transplanted a Sharingan!

At that sight, a hint of greed flashed through his eyes. If this brat could use one, then couldn't he use one too?

Kakkō raised his blades. White bandages bound them to his wrists, one in each hand.

Kakashi stared at Kakkō, his gaze filled with determination.

"Kiyohara, let me handle this."

Kakashi stepped past Kiyohara and raised his ninja sword.

He wanted to avenge Obito.

The next instant, both figures vanished at once.

When they reappeared, a ringing clash erupted in the middle of the field.

Kakashi's short blade, inherited from Hatake Sakumo and never broken throughout his life... shattered!