All Conditions for Opening Eyes

Dressed in a hunting robe, Uchiha Kei looked less like a ninja and more like an onmyoji.

Once certain things become reality, you have no choice but to believe them—like the resurgence of spiritual energy, or the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.

Having confirmed his own thoughts and theories, Kei felt not a shred of interest in the Third Hokage's maneuvers.

The Third Hokage confidently believed his actions were covert and that Uchiha Kei could never find out; even if he did, it wouldn't matter, as his ultimate trump card remained his own formidable strength.

Yet, in Kei's eyes, it was all meaningless—a man fighting wits and courage against thin air.

There is nothing new under the sun; every year, the new rain drips from the same old eaves.

The Third Hokage's methods were neither rare nor particularly clever.

With Hotaru in his possession, Uchiha Kei knew the Third Hokage's arrangements like the back of his hand. Before Konoha realized Hotaru's abilities, the entire village was effectively defenseless against Kei.

Who would ever suspect that a butterfly fluttering around them could be a spy?

And the integration capabilities the Third Hokage prided himself on were merely his own delusions. Could the relationships between Konoha's top-tier combatants really be smoothed over so easily?

Tsunade's lover and younger brother had both died under Orochimaru's command; Orochimaru was dissatisfied with Minato; Might Guy had remained a genin his entire life because the Third Hokage didn't want his true strength exposed, yet the Third Hokage could never stop the mockery that followed.

Jiraiya spent his days running off—could Tsunade's rejection not be a factor in that? And here the Third Hokage was, still trying to use Tsunade as a bargaining chip to win Jiraiya over. What was he thinking? Did he really take Jiraiya for a fool?

Furthermore, why did the Third Hokage assume that just because he wanted to play a game of chess, I, Uchiha Kei, had to play along? Why couldn't I just flip the board and play a round of Fight the Landlord instead?

If you dare lead a crowd to attack me, I will detonate the one hundred thousand explosive tags I've planted throughout Konoha Village. We'll see then if you're busy with disaster relief or continuing your civil war.

Besides, of the three factors—heavenly timing, geographical advantage, and human unity—the most important, heavenly timing, was not on the Third Hokage's side. In a few days, the Sunagakure and Kirigakure ninjas would be at the doorstep. If you pull your high-end combat power back to the village now and fail to support the front lines, are you prepared to shoulder the responsibility for the battlefield defeat?

This old man, once he becomes stubborn, loses sight of everything else. He had poured all his energy into targeting Uchiha Kei, long forgetting to observe the surrounding situation.

Perhaps it was the years of Konoha's dominance that made the old man feel no one dared to stroke the tiger's whiskers.

I find such self-righteous old men the most annoying.

Therefore, Kei paid no mind to the Third Hokage, for something far more important had occurred.

Kei's previous hypothesis regarding the Uchiha Mangekyo Sharingan and the gods had been realized, though not entirely.

Kei had confirmed that the awakening of the Uchiha clan's Mangekyo was indeed related to the gods, but it required the catalyst of a despair so profound it felt like the heart had died, coupled with a sincere prayer for divine intervention.

It was the moment of being at the end of one's rope, where one could sincerely beg the heavens for protection.

Thus, cultivating faith was merely a method to easily place an Uchiha in the state required for awakening, but the prerequisite remained a state of extreme negative emotion.

This was likely the fundamental reason why the Uchiha clan's records on Mangekyo awakening were incomplete.

After all, no powerhouse would be willing to admit, "I was truly at my wit's end, so I had no choice but to pray to the gods. And hey! To my surprise, the heavens actually helped me."

Just as successful people never mention that they, too, just got lucky and stumbled upon an opportunity.

And so, understanding that opportunity was paramount, Kei found it easy to have his subordinates establish faith in the gods, but placing them in that specific state of heart-deadening despair was incredibly difficult.

It required someone with a rich emotional life to enter that state, and it necessitated the loss of something they valued more than their own life to trigger it.

This truly depended on one's life experience; it was very difficult for someone without faith, or someone who was extremely selfish, to achieve.

Take Kei, for example!

Thus, aside from Oboro, the test subject who confirmed that this was indeed the correct way to awaken, everyone else failed.

Although some had things they valued—and even if they didn't, the system arranged for them to view Kei as the most important thing in their lives—Kei couldn't exactly use himself as a guinea pig.

Of course, people aren't that easy to fool, either.

Only the emotionally rich Oboro, who firmly believed in the Future Buddha, was easily tricked by Kei into awakening her eyes.

After all, Oboro was a "waste" who occupied two purple card slots, yet she possessed powerful ocular strength; her potential was likely the greatest among them all.

With a face full of sorrow, Kei announced to Oboro—who prayed piously to the Buddha every day—that Gennosuke had unfortunately died in battle in the Land of Rivers. In her inexplicable grief, Oboro awakened her eyes with ease.

Her blue, three-tomoe Sharingan transformed into six tomoe, and she awakened two ocular techniques simultaneously.

The first was Satsuma Jambudvipa, a powerful ability capable of altering reality. Anything the user refused to acknowledge would simply not happen, though the cost was the loss of one eye.

While powerful, it was useless—it remained a nuclear weapon.

By the time one had to use this, Kei would already be in such a miserable state that he might as well give up struggling.

The second ocular technique was Compassionate Samadhi, a potent healing ninjutsu.

If the chakra was sufficient, she could heal as many people as she wanted, for as long as she wanted. Alas, Oboro was merely an F-rank deadbeat; she could barely manage to heal a group of a hundred or so people at once.

Such a powerful technique, yet because it couldn't produce battlefield-level effects due to her limitations, it was a total waste.

A powerful support unit who could silence and heal, rendered a mere ornament because of insufficient mana—could Uchiha Kei tolerate this?

Consequently, Oboro, who hadn't gone blind after using her eye ability in her excitement, learned that Lord Kei had been lying to her and that Gennosuke was fine and living quite well. The girl immediately became happy again and ran off to play, completely carefree.

And because her mana pool was insufficient, Kei, who had to find a way to fix it, had to seek a solution himself—which left Hotaru in an awkward position.

Lord Kei had given Hotaru a bizarre, head-scratching mission: to visit Orochimaru and demand his summoning contract.

Upon receiving this order, Hotaru did not set off immediately as she usually did, but instead waited for Kei's next instruction.

Kei was somewhat surprised; why hadn't his order been executed immediately today?

"Hotaru, is there a problem?"

Hotaru found it inconceivable. Her lord had been somewhat absent-minded lately; could he be so overworked that he had forgotten such an important matter?

"My lord, you haven't given me the terms of exchange to request items from Mr. Orochimaru yet."

Qi tapped his own head with his Hundred-Fold Fan. Too much had happened recently, and he had indeed failed to explain things clearly.

"Hotaru, just go and ask. Rest assured, as long as it is your request, Orochimaru will not refuse."

Having said that, he began to ponder his next dilemma, lost in his own thoughts.

Hotaru set off, half-doubting. This was the first time she had felt even a sliver of suspicion toward her lord's actions. She had never met Mr. Orochimaru, let alone shared any friendship with him; why would he not refuse her?

The thought that she could not disobey Lord Qi was deeply ingrained in her mind, so Hotaru strictly executed his orders.

However, this visit made Hotaru feel even more awkward.

It was exactly as Lord Qi had said, but this Mr. Orochimaru was being far too kind.

From the moment Hotaru saw Orochimaru, she found him devoid of most human emotion, expressionlessly conducting human experiments on his former beloved student, Anko.

Hotaru felt that such a person could never be polite to her; one wrong move, and she might be the next target on the operating table.

But since this was Lord Qi's order, Hotaru steeled herself and spoke up.

"Mr. Orochimaru, Lord Qi has asked me to request the summoning scroll of Ryuchi Cave from you."

Hotaru was prepared for Orochimaru to turn hostile, but to her surprise, the inhumane Orochimaru looked up, and the moment he saw her, he seemed to regain his humanity.

A smile actually appeared on that dead-looking face. The refusal she had been certain of never came; Orochimaru handed over the ninjutsu without a moment's hesitation.

That wasn't all; he even asked her to stay, prepared tea and snacks for her, and even showed concern for her life and well-being.

In the end, he even insisted on returning to Naka Shrine with her.

Could this old man, who had been single for so long, have designs on her? She was already a married woman.

Images that had no place in her mind began to surface for the young matron Hotaru.

Orochimaru leered at her and said, "Madam, you wouldn't want to fail Lord Qi's order, would you?"

Hotaru shook her head, casting the inappropriate thoughts to the back of her mind. Sigh, if this continues, Mr. Kogoro will misunderstand.

What kind of love potion had she given Orochimaru?

No!

What kind of love potion had Lord Qi given Orochimaru?