After the contributions of dozens of death-row prisoners over this period, the Emotional Potion developed by Uchiha Ensei had finally produced its first results.
What he needed next was a test subject.
He did not dare use something that had just been made and never tested on himself.
After thinking briefly, Uchiha Ensei took the potion and went to find Fugaku Uchiha.
That night, Fugaku Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha, and Itachi Uchiha arrived together at Uchiha Ensei's laboratory.
When the three arrived, Uchiha Ensei was conducting a Sharingan cloning experiment.
By now, Uchiha Ensei had mastered rapid cell-growth technology and had successfully awakened the cloned Sharingan.
Unfortunately, the cloned Sharingan were only One-Tomoe Sharingan. Uchiha Ensei had yet to figure out how to increase a Sharingan's ocular power.
Perhaps cultivating them with Hashirama Cells could work, but that would take far too long. They were only Three-Tomoe Sharingan; there was no need to go to such lengths.
When the One-Tomoe Sharingan before Uchiha Ensei suddenly withered, a flash of heartache crossed Fugaku Uchiha's face.
But he quickly came to his senses. Where had that One-Tomoe Sharingan come from?
Uchiha Ensei did have a stockpile of Sharingan, but they were basically all Three-Tomoe Sharingan. He did not even have any Two-Tomoe Sharingan, much less One-Tomoe Sharingan.
"Ensei... this eye..."
No longer able to care about anything else, Fugaku Uchiha hurriedly asked.
If Uchiha Ensei truly could clone Sharingan, would that be a good thing or a bad thing for the Uchiha Clan?
"Just a failed product..."
"Alright, since all three of you are here, does that mean Itachi has already decided to become my test subject?"
Uchiha Ensei looked the three of them over and spoke slowly.
"I naturally will not pass up an opportunity to obtain the Mangekyō Sharingan."
"However, Ensei... there is a question I want answered. The genjutsu you showed me not long ago..."
Itachi Uchiha asked Uchiha Ensei the question that had been troubling him all along.
"Oh, that? Didn't I say so? That was your future. It is just that I have already changed that future."
"To be honest, I do not like you very much. You are too stupid. What exactly were you thinking when you chose to join forces with a traitor and slaughter the entire Uchiha Clan?"
"If I had not awakened the power to see the future, I would probably have been among the people you slaughtered."
Uchiha Ensei's words left Fugaku Uchiha, standing nearby, dumbfounded. This was the first time he had heard that the future of the Uchiha Clan would become like this.
No matter what, he was unwilling to believe that his son would make such a decision.
Faced with Uchiha Ensei's accusations, Itachi Uchiha merely remained silent and offered no opinion.
Uchiha Ensei did not care about his attitude. While adjusting the dosage of the Emotional Potion, he continued speaking.
"Forget it. Perhaps I have seen too many futures. Sometimes, I do not care much about things like this anymore. In any case, as long as I am here, if you make that choice again, I will kill you first."
"Do you know why I chose you for this experiment?"
"It is not because you awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan in the future I saw. It is because you possess the aptitude to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan."
"Do not think the aptitude I mean is talent or anything like that. For the Uchiha Clan, aptitude for the Sharingan is not about mastery of ninjutsu. It is... emotion!"
Upon hearing the word emotion, Itachi Uchiha abruptly raised his head and stared straight at Uchiha Ensei, his gaze blazing.
"You truly are... stupid enough! Yet it is precisely fools like you, who value emotions so deeply, who are more likely to awaken the Mangekyo."
Uchiha Ensei shook his head helplessly and reminded him.
"If you are still alive later, go look through the clan's history. Do not focus on the names of those who possessed the Mangekyo; look at what they experienced before awakening it."
"You have always believed the Uchiha Clan was a clan that valued power."
"But in truth, the more someone values power and disregards emotion, the less likely he is to awaken the Mangekyo. Some cannot even awaken the Sharingan."
"And the less someone values the Mangekyō Sharingan, the greater his chance of awakening it."
"People say the Uchiha Clan is easily misunderstood by others, but in truth, even the members of its own clan have misunderstood it."
After saying this, Uchiha Ensei injected a tube of potion into Itachi Uchiha's body. After observing for a moment, he instructed Shisui Uchiha, who stood nearby.
"Next, it is up to you. Your task now is to make Itachi Uchiha sink into his inner memories. Cast a genjutsu on him, and use the power of Kotoamatsukami."
Upon hearing Uchiha Ensei's words, Shisui Uchiha nodded and used Kotoamatsukami on Itachi Uchiha.
"What you need to do is not control Itachi Uchiha, but make him believe that the world from the earlier genjutsu is real."
"Only if he becomes completely immersed in that world of genjutsu will there be a chance for him to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan."
"After awakening it, he will be able to break free from the illusion himself, so there is no need to worry about his safety."
Under Shisui Uchiha's Kotoamatsukami and the effects of the potion, Itachi Uchiha began to sink into the world of genjutsu.
Uchiha Ensei had already tried it. No matter how tragic the experience was, ordinary genjutsu likely could not make someone awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Therefore, even with Shisui Uchiha's Kotoamatsukami, Uchiha Ensei was still not entirely at ease. During their earlier conversation, he had already used a Three-Tomoe Sharingan to activate Izanami.
Izanagi's function was to cast a genjutsu upon the entire world, thereby altering reality according to the caster's will.
Izanami, on the other hand, used several striking points as nodes to trap an enemy in a real illusion that could repeat endlessly.
Within Izanagi's real environment, the target's perception of time and the outside world would be weakened, causing him to sink into that real environment.
As for claims that one could break free from Izanami through great enlightenment and sincere repentance, those were merely conditions imposed by the caster.
After all, Izanami had been created for salvation.
Naturally, that condition could be changed.
In other words, Izanami's ability was to make someone fall into an eternal illusion.
With every preparation complete, this Mangekyō awakening experiment targeting Itachi Uchiha had officially begun.
As for what the outcome would be, no one knew.
But the most important thing now was to record the various changes within Itachi Uchiha's body.
Thus, Uchiha Ensei quietly activated the Byakugan's ability to see through things and closely monitored everything within Itachi Uchiha's body.
At present, the only known side effect of using the Byakugan's ability was fatigue, so Uchiha Ensei used it without concern. There should not be any problems in the short term.
If something unexpected happened, he could always follow Orochimaru's example and switch bodies.
The reason he had prepared so many clones was to guard against all kinds of accidents.
Time passed quickly within the genjutsu, and Uchiha Ensei soon collected data on the changes occurring in Itachi Uchiha's brain.
The change did not come from the brain itself, but from a special chakra produced within it.
It turned out Uchiha Ensei had fallen into a misconception. What was needed to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan was not some kind of hormone, but a special chakra produced by the brain.
This chakra should appear amid extreme emotions.
Once that special chakra appeared, it would act directly upon the optic nerves, causing changes in the eyes and thereby forming the Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Recently, I have been paying too much attention to Kekkei Genkai. I actually forgot the reality I have always understood."
"Chakra is the root of everything."
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