Seven Generation God

Although Qiancao wanted nothing more than to cuddle up with Wuming right then, he remembered the two giant eyesores behind them and could only force down his restless thoughts.

He took Wuming's hand and kissed it gently, then murmured, "Don't worry. I'll always be by your side."

But Wuming had only been brave for a moment. As soon as she finished speaking, she grew shy again, nearly burying her head in her flat chest.

Qiancao's kiss on her hand made her so happy she almost fainted. She couldn't get a word out.

Once he'd calmed down a little, Qiancao wasn't sure what to say either. Had he just gotten himself a girlfriend? He was too embarrassed to ask her outright, so he changed the subject.

"By the way, your Mangekyō Sharingan is incredibly versatile. It can even heal wounds."

Wuming was puzzled too. Everything had happened so suddenly. She had just used Tsukuyomi, and shouldn't have had any strength left to heal her wounds.

After thinking carefully about what had happened, Wuming turned to Qiancao and gently touched his eyes. "Maybe that wasn't my ability. It was all thanks to your eyes."

Then Wuming said with a pained expression, "You must have suffered terribly when you awakened the Mangekyō. It's all my fault."

"As long as you're all right, that's all that matters. I'm happy as long as you're alive," Qiancao reassured her.

At last, Shiri, who had been eavesdropping behind them, couldn't hold back any longer. She asked anxiously, "Qiancao, you awakened the Mangekyō too?"

"Yeah. When I saw Wuming badly injured in that sneak attack, I panicked, and it felt like my eyes evolved." Qiancao sounded casual, but Shiri was alarmed.

"You absolutely mustn't tell anyone that you awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. If the clan finds out, they'll stop at nothing to get your Sharingan back. Who knows how many people they'll send after you?"

"And don't use the Mangekyō unless you have no other choice. If you use it too much, you'll go blind."

Qiancao thought, I know its side effects better than anyone. Still, he was grateful for Shiri's concern, so he said sincerely, "Thank you, Shiri."

Back in the Uchiha dungeon, Shiri had performed all the jutsu-implantation surgeries on Wuming, so Wuming had always felt deep hostility toward her.

But now, Wuming felt that Shiri had brought her and Qiancao together, and had genuinely looked out for him along the way. Her hostility toward Shiri had faded considerably.

Senju Arashi, who had been pretending to meditate, found the conversation interesting and couldn't help but join in. "Are Mangekyō Sharingan still especially precious among the Uchiha Clan?"

Shiri didn't dare offend Senju Arashi, so she answered honestly. "With the fighting growing fiercer in recent years, more and more members of the clan have awakened the Mangekyō."

"But the Mangekyō Sharingan puts too much strain on the body. Many shinobi have gone blind from overusing their eyes."

"Only a few young geniuses still have their Mangekyō."

Senju Arashi found that interesting and continued, "So that little girl over there is one of the clan's special trainees, too?"

Shiri smiled wryly. "That's right. Some of the clan's training methods are rather ruthless, and I've been thinking about how to change them. Until then, I'll have to trouble you to look after them, Lady Arashi."

Senju Arashi declared boldly, "Leave it to me! I'll take good care of these two little brats!"

"And don't worry. Once I've beaten your entire Uchiha Clan, I'll fix all your rotten habits for good!"

Shiri chuckled along, but didn't reply. She clearly didn't believe a word of Senju Arashi's boasting.

Qiancao, meanwhile, kept recalling what it had felt like to awaken the Mangekyō. The most powerful Mangekyō ability he knew of was, of course, Obito Uchiha's Kamui.

He didn't have Hashirama Cells, so he probably couldn't spam Kamui like Obito, using it as a passive ability without a care. But just imagining a space-time ability made it seem ridiculously powerful.

"Just as long as it's not Amaterasu or Kagutsuchi," Qiancao thought optimistically. "I've never seen Amaterasu burn anyone to death."

Keisuke—Black Zetsu—had once told him that the moment someone awakened the Sharingan, all its uses would flood into their mind.

So Qiancao tried to recapture the feeling from the previous day. At last, somewhere deep in his mind, a voice told him that his Mangekyō ability was called [Seven Generation God].

Qiancao didn't understand what [Seven Generation God] meant, but its basic function surfaced naturally in his mind:

Like [Kotoamatsukami], [Seven Generation God] could forcibly interfere with what other people thought.

But unlike [Kotoamatsukami], which forcibly rewrote someone's thoughts, [Seven Generation God] could only amplify the deepest desires in a person's heart.

The previous day, Qiancao had craved power, so [Seven Generation God] had given him the ability to fight. Wuming had wanted to survive, so [Seven Generation God] had given her extraordinary healing abilities.

Earlier, in the Uchiha prison, Qiancao's Sharingan had already used [Seven Generation God] once, amplifying Uchiha Keisuke's destructive urges to the extreme.

That was why he had attacked the Senju shinobi and Wuming against his will, only to be killed in the end.

Although [Seven Generation God] couldn't influence someone's entire life subtly, the upside was that it had no cooldown and could be used like an ordinary genjutsu.

And because it only brought out desires that were already present, it was even more subtle and harder to detect.

After running through the possible uses for his Mangekyō, Qiancao came back to himself and saw Senju Arashi and Shiri chatting animatedly in front of him.

They'd moved from clothes and customs in different places to local specialties and snacks. With Shiri making a point of meeting her halfway, the two women seemed like old friends who'd found each other far too late.

Seeing Qiancao's astonished expression, Senju Arashi raised her eyebrows and asked, "What's wrong, little brother? You look surprised."

Qiancao replied, "Nothing. I just thought the Senju and the Uchiha would be more..." He couldn't find the right word to finish.

"More bitter enemies?" Senju Arashi said with a laugh. "That's what the big shots think. We grunts are sick of it! Every battle is just a job to put food on the table."

"People like that Uchiha Keisuke from yesterday, who act like they want to kill each other the moment they meet, are the exception."

Qiancao said, "So does that mean the Senju and the Uchiha could make peace once your generation is in charge?"

Shiri said regretfully, "I'm afraid that'll be difficult. By the time we reach the positions those big shots hold, who knows how much of each other's blood we'll have on our hands?"

"And who knows how many of our friends and family will have died at the other side's hands? It's not that easy to let it go."

Senju Arashi picked up the thread with a smile. "So all we can do is hope that one day, some powerhouse who's far stronger than everyone else suddenly shows up and beats everyone into submission without any bloodshed."

As she spoke, she glanced at Qiancao's eyes and added with a grin, "I'm counting on you, little brother!"