At first glance, Uchiha Yansheng seemed to have grown weaker, his eyes reverting from what looked like Mangekyō Sharingan to the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
But in reality, Uchiha Yansheng's combat strength had increased. He also had better control over the ocular power of the hundred thousand Byakugan sealed inside him.
The most obvious sign was that Uchiha Yansheng now had an ability similar to the Byakugan's: he could see through things.
And it wasn't in black and white, but in color.
No, "in color" wasn't quite right. Perhaps it was more accurate to say he could perceive the true colors of things?
Seeing through people wasn't all that intuitive... He had to distinguish for himself how many layers of clothing he wanted to see through. Unless someone wore only one layer, he probably wouldn't be able to see them naked.
The Hyuga Clan... No wonder they had such strict clan rules. It probably wasn't just because Byakugan could be stolen by gouging out the eyes, but also to keep members of their own clan from provoking hostility from outsiders.
Neji in the Infinite Tsukuyomi hadn't been beaten to death only because Konoha was so peaceful!
"Yansheng? What's wrong?"
Seeing Uchiha Yansheng staring at her in a daze again, Kushina Uzumaki couldn't help feeling puzzled.
"Uh... nothing. I just didn't expect changing the seal to have such a huge effect on my body."
Uchiha Yansheng gave her a brief, evasive answer, then continued asking Kushina Uzumaki about the Flying Thunder God.
Fortunately, activating this ability didn't cause the veins around his eyes to bulge.
Even the Otsutsuki Clan developed bulging veins around their eyes when using the Byakugan to see through things, and couldn't keep it up for long.
Yet somehow, he didn't have that tell, and maintaining the ability didn't seem to put him under much strain.
Could all that strain be transferred to the hundred thousand Byakugan sealed inside him?
Uchiha Yansheng felt a little excited. Though his instincts told him it was only a guess, this unprecedented state made it hard to stop his mind from racing.
After all, what if he was right?
It would be an achievement that surpassed even the Otsutsuki Clan!
Kushina Uzumaki, who had been talking beside him, noticed Uchiha Yansheng had drifted off again. She realized that today really wasn't the right time to continue the lesson.
"Yansheng, don't rush when learning Sealing Jutsu. In particular, don't try to touch any unfamiliar seals. It's easy to cause a serious mess."
"Let's stop here for today. Get used to the Eight Trigrams Seal inside you first. If you have any other questions, you can come to me anytime."
Hearing Kushina Uzumaki's words, Uchiha Yansheng knew she was right. Besides, he had plenty of experiments he wanted to try, so he promptly took his leave.
On his way out, Uchiha Yansheng happened to run into Naruto Uzumaki, who had just come home from school. After exchanging a quick greeting, he started to leave.
But after he'd walked a short distance, Naruto Uzumaki's voice reached him as he told Kushina about the little things that had happened at the Ninja Academy.
For some reason, Uchiha Yansheng's mood suddenly lifted. The pressure that had weighed on him for so long quietly faded away.
"Peace, huh? I guess it's not so bad."
While Uchiha Yansheng was rewriting the seal inside himself, someone was frantically practicing something in an abandoned laboratory in Konoha's Root.
In front of him lay a Kirigakure shinobi who was already unconscious, as well as a small piece of meat that had begun to rot.
"Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu..."
At last, after an unknown number of attempts, this die-hard Danzo loyalist successfully performed the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu.
Countless grains of dust rose from the ground and enveloped the unconscious Kirigakure shinobi.
The shinobi was deeply unconscious, yet at that moment, he still let out a piercing scream.
Unfortunately, this was the lowest level of the Root Base, and the base had long since been abandoned. There was no way anyone would notice what was happening there.
Before long, Shimura Danzō's body had taken the place of the Kirigakure shinobi.
He opened his eyes, and in an instant, Shimura Danzō understood the situation.
"Impure World Reincarnation? Well done, Shingaraki."
After sensing his current strength, Shimura Danzō suddenly reached out without warning and squeezed Shingaraki by the throat.
"I'm grateful for what you've done. Konoha will remember you."
Shimura Danzō tightened his grip, and Shingaraki, the only die-hard still loyal to him, died easily in his hands.
Looking down at Shingaraki's corpse, Shimura Danzō's reanimated eyes held an indescribable complexity.
"I'm sorry. The caster is the one flaw in Impure World Reincarnation. I had no choice but to do this for Konoha."
"Monkey is too soft. Without me, Konoha would surely..."
Shimura Danzō's remorseful voice echoed through the dark, abandoned base.
Before long, Shimura Danzō had explored the abandoned base alone and taken stock of his strength. It had fallen badly, to just a third of what it had been when he was alive, perhaps even less.
He was disappointed, but soon adjusted. Then Shimura Danzō hid in the shadows and quietly observed Konoha.
When he saw that the village was just as it had always been, an indescribable sense of grievance welled up inside him.
But only for a moment. Shimura Danzō's gaze soon hardened again.
Next, Shimura Danzō began gathering some of his former Root subordinates.
But Hiruzen Sarutobi had disbanded Root and scattered its members throughout Konoha, so Shimura Danzō managed to find only a small number of loyalists.
After learning what had happened from the men he had gathered, the anger in Shimura Danzō's eyes was impossible to conceal.
But for some reason, he didn't act right away. Instead, he quietly went to Hiruzen Sarutobi's home and found him.
"Danzo... Aren't you dead?"
When he saw Shimura Danzō, Hiruzen Sarutobi was stunned for a moment. Then he realized that those were the distinctive eyes of someone brought back with Impure World Reincarnation.
"Impure World Reincarnation? How could you...?"
He remembered those eyes because, during Konoha's darkest days, he had also studied Impure World Reincarnation.
In the end, however, Hiruzen Sarutobi had abandoned it.
He hadn't expected the forbidden jutsu he'd given up to be used on Danzo like this.
Though only Konoha had records of Impure World Reincarnation, Hiruzen Sarutobi still prepared himself to fight at any moment.
As someone who had worked alongside Hiruzen Sarutobi for decades, Shimura Danzō knew exactly what he was thinking.
"Don't worry, Monkey. No one's controlling me. The person who brought me back with Impure World Reincarnation is already dead."
Shimura Danzō's explanation only made Hiruzen Sarutobi even more tense.
"What have you done? Explain yourself!"
Worried about waking Biwako Sarutobi, who was asleep, Hiruzen Sarutobi kept his voice low, but it was thick with anger.
Seeing that Hiruzen Sarutobi was truly angry, Shimura Danzō matter-of-factly told him everything he had done.
Under normal circumstances, Hiruzen Sarutobi would have stopped listening halfway through and told Shimura Danzō to handle things himself.
But now... there was no choice. Danzo was already dead; Hiruzen couldn't let him act however he pleased.
Who knew whether death might change someone?
Before you continue