Not Bad. I Thought My Original Sharingan Had Been Destroyed.

"Is that so? If you trust me, I can use my Sharingan's power to meet the Nine-Tails inside your seal."

Although Ensei Uchiha still called his eyes the Sharingan, they were no longer much like Sharingan at all.

The power of many Byakugan concentrated together should have created something called the Tenseigan.

But Ensei Uchiha's eyes weren't Byakugan, and they were far from pure.

As a result, they had become something entirely unknown. Their abilities seemed to surpass the Sharingan's, but that was only because they were backed by an immense amount of ocular power.

If he judged only by the evolution of the eyes, his had probably taken a wrong turn.

Well... now that he thought about it, the Sharingan and the like were probably a wrong path of evolution, too.

"Of course. I trust you."

Kushina Uzumaki's unhesitating reply snapped Ensei Uchiha out of his thoughts.

Seeing that, Ensei Uchiha didn't hesitate either. Following that faint trace of ocular power, he entered Kushina Uzumaki's sealed space.

Unlike the dark, damp prison in the original story, with water pooled across the floor, Kushina's sealed space was bright and sunny. It was somewhat desolate, with rocks everywhere, but the bright light said it all.

It seemed that even with Minato asleep, Kushina's mental space hadn't grown gloomy.

"Hey, Kurama. You've got a pretty distinctive look tied up like that. Almost artistic."

After Ensei Uchiha entered, the most eye-catching sight was naturally the Nine-Tails, bound to a huge ball of earth.

"Brat... who are you? How do you know that name?"

The Nine-Tails seemed enraged by Ensei Uchiha's words. An endless wave of hateful malice surged toward him, as if it would engulf him.

But the Nine-Tails' malice seemed much weaker than the malice inside Minato Namikaze.

"Me? I'm just someone who can see parts of the past and future."

"Come to think of it, you were cute when you were little. How did you get uglier as you grew up...?"

As he spoke, Ensei Uchiha used a little Chakra to shape the Nine-Tails' childhood form nearby.

Seeing what he had looked like as a child, the Nine-Tails fell silent for a moment, as if he had returned to the days just after his birth.

But Kushina's laughter soon snapped him out of it.

"Oh, so this is what Kurama looked like as a child! He was definitely cuter than he is now. Was it because he didn't eat well?"

The Nine-Tails was angered by Kushina's laughter and struggled, making the chains binding his limbs rattle.

"Damn woman, Tailed Beasts don't need to eat."

The Nine-Tails' words didn't seem threatening at all now.

Perhaps because Ensei Uchiha had told her about the Nine-Tails before, and she now understood his past, Kushina Uzumaki's fear of Kurama had gradually begun to fade...

"Brat, your eyes... they hold too much power. You're close to losing control!"

For some reason, Kurama suddenly spoke to Ensei Uchiha.

"Yeah, I know."

Ensei Uchiha had already realized that and showed no sign of concern.

Kushina Uzumaki, on the other hand, looked at Ensei Uchiha with worry.

"All right, what did you want to tell me? If you're asking about the Sage of Six Paths, I can only tell you he's in the Pure Land. As for whether that counts as being dead, I can't say."

"Most likely, Hagoromo Otsutsuki is alive now as a being made of Chakra."

Ensei Uchiha had never been very patient, so he told the Nine-Tails what he wanted to know most.

After a brief silence, Kurama suddenly said, "The one who ambushed Minato earlier was on the old man's level. I've sensed his presence before..."

After leaving the sealed space, Ensei Uchiha sorted through what he had learned, then began studying Sealing Jutsu with Kushina Uzumaki.

What the Nine-Tails had said wasn't important for now.

Ensei Uchiha had thought that, given his aptitude, he could master all those Sealing Jutsu by himself, so learning from Kushina should be quick, too.

But when he actually started studying, he realized how vast the gap was between ordinary Sealing Jutsu and the techniques known to the Uzumaki Clan.

Although this might slow down his research, Ensei Uchiha still decided to study Sealing Jutsu properly. He was also glad he had changed the Nine-Tails' Rampage and saved Kushina Uzumaki. Otherwise, to learn the complete art of sealing, he would have had to master Impure World Reincarnation first.

More likely, if he hadn't met Kushina, he might never have realized just how large the gap was between the Sealing Jutsu used elsewhere and those of the Uzumaki Clan.

And so, Ensei Uchiha's routine changed. Aside from occasional experiments, he spent his time visiting Kushina Uzumaki to study Sealing Jutsu.

On his first day there, Ensei Uchiha didn't see Naruto Uzumaki.

It wasn't until the next day that Ensei Uchiha learned Naruto had already started attending the Ninja Academy.

The original story had Naruto starting school early, so Ensei Uchiha didn't think much of it.

Perhaps Konoha had no kindergartens, so when Kushina Uzumaki was busy, Naruto went to the Ninja Academy?

In any case, Anbu were always protecting Naruto, so he was safe.

As time went by, he and Naruto grew familiar with each other.

If Naruto in the original story was the kind of character who seemed like an idiot but was actually a hidden genius,

then the Naruto of now was a genius through and through. At such a young age, he had mastered quite a few Sealing Jutsu, and his grades at the Ninja Academy were among the best.

At the same time, as if by fate, Naruto and Sasuke became rivals after meeting. They often worked hard to outdo each other in one skill or another.

Come to think of it, since Kushina hadn't died, Naruto and Sasuke had grown up bickering together. In a way, they were brothers of another sort.

Naruto was undoubtedly extremely proud at this age.

But after he and Ensei Uchiha began learning from Kushina Uzumaki together, all of Naruto's pride quickly faded.

Although Ensei Uchiha was older, he could reproduce nearly all of a Sealing Jutsu after only a couple of glances.

Naruto, on the other hand, couldn't even get started. He couldn't understand some of the techniques and could only practice the most basic Sealing Jutsu.

Ensei Uchiha thought he was slow at learning Sealing Jutsu, but Naruto and Kushina Uzumaki had already been humbled by his speed.

After some time, Ensei Uchiha successfully mastered powerful Sealing Jutsu such as the Four Symbols Seal.

After learning those techniques, Ensei Uchiha reworked the hundred thousand Byakugan inside him and applied the Eight Trigrams Seal.

He had developed this sealing technique by modifying the one on Naruto Uzumaki. It not only completely restrained the immense power of the Byakugan within him, but also slowly let some of it seep out of the seal to change his body.

This seal would weaken his Chakra control somewhat, but with his control, such a slight decline didn't matter.

More importantly, once he had done all this, the strange patterns in Ensei Uchiha's eyes finally faded away, revealing his original Three Tomoe Sharingan.

Even so, a faint, rich blue still glimmered deep in the pupils of the Three Tomoe Sharingan.

"Not bad. I thought my original Sharingan had already been destroyed."