Rinnegan Infant

What was going on? He could clearly feel his eyes growing, yet in reality, they had regressed from the Rinnegan back to a single-tomoe Sharingan.

Uchiha Cheng closed his eyes and attempted to manifest the Rinnegan. Opening them again to look in the mirror, the familiar purple ripple pattern remained.

The Rinnegan had not disappeared.

Uchiha Cheng was filled with confusion, but with no one to answer his questions, he had to grope for the truth on his own.

He squeezed his eyes shut once more, carefully probing this newly awakened power.

With chakra, it was as if one possessed an extra sense; he could perceive the subtle changes within his body with greater clarity and intuition.

Gradually, he understood the situation.

In truth, his eyes had indeed grown—he could feel that clearly. Yet, the power of the Sharingan had not vanished; it was also undeniably real.

Through his chakra perception, he realized his single-tomoe Sharingan was subordinate to the Rinnegan. Rather than an independent bloodline limit, it was more like the Rinnegan had gained a skin.

This situation was somewhat similar to Uchiha Madara. He could control his eyes to switch between the Sharingan and the Rinnegan, just as Uchiha Madara did.

The difference was that Uchiha Madara's Rinnegan had evolved step-by-step from the Sharingan, thus retaining the Sharingan's abilities. In his case, he already possessed the Rinnegan, but because it had not yet matured, its power could only manifest at the level of a single-tomoe.

The single-tomoe Sharingan was merely a stage in the growth of his Rinnegan.

Uchiha Cheng's eyes were not transplanted from someone else's mature Rinnegan; he had awakened them himself. Compared to the mature Rinnegan of Nagato, his eyes were still just a seedling.

This was also the reason he could not utilize the abilities of the Six Paths of Pain like Nagato.

Just as all adults grow from children, the Rinnegan also needs to undergo a process of growth. He needed to grow, and his Rinnegan needed to grow as well.

The single-tomoe Sharingan was the mark of the Rinnegan growing from a newborn into an infant. Just as a butterfly must pass through the cocoon stage to grow, so too must his eyes.

Fortunately, his eyes were ultimately the Rinnegan, possessing a high essence—a fact confirmed by the Sage of Six Paths. Just as he had successfully awakened the single-tomoe Sharingan this time without any external stimulus, he would not need to rely on the mental trauma that ordinary Uchiha clansmen required to awaken further Sharingan abilities or even the Mangekyo Sharingan in the future. He would only need to provide a massive amount of chakra, just as he had done now, to complete the awakening.

Therefore, things like killing one's brother or slaughtering one's kin would never happen to him.

As he continued to grow in the future, the power of the Rinnegan would gradually strengthen until, at last, he would truly possess the formidable abilities inherent to the Rinnegan.

Having understood his current situation, Uchiha Cheng felt somewhat dejected. In this way, his wish to crush Shimura Danzō, Uchiha Itachi, and Uchiha Obito during the night of the clan's annihilation had fallen through. If he could not leave, he would have to think of new ways to escape the night of the massacre.