Guidance

Awakening the Rinnegan required combining Indra's chakra with Asura's chakra to draw out the Sage of Six Paths' chakra.

Neji did not know whether Indra's and Asura's chakra alone were enough to awaken the Rinnegan, or whether the person awakening it also needed to possess the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan first.

But even if the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan was a requirement, Sasuke would meet it. His path had already been paved for him.

Once he grew strong enough, his dear older brother would naturally deliver the material needed to create the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan—another pair of Mangekyō Sharingan.

Neji himself leaned toward the idea that awakening the Rinnegan required a pair of Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan as its foundation.

Then Neji said, "Sasuke, before you awaken the Rinnegan, you might need to bring about another qualitative change in your Sharingan."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

"Do you know about the Mangekyō Sharingan?" Neji looked at him. "According to our Hyuga Clan's records, Madara Uchiha, the Asura of the Ninja World who founded Konoha alongside the First, Hashirama Senju, possessed the legendary Mangekyō Sharingan."

"The Mangekyō Sharingan..." Sasuke repeated the words, his voice growing cold. "Yeah, I know about it. I even know how to awaken it."

"You do?" Neji was slightly taken aback. He genuinely had not expected Sasuke to know about that already.

Sasuke nodded. "Uchiha Itachi has that legendary bloodline dōjutsu too. He showed me those eyes on the night of the massacre. Their pattern was more intricate than the ordinary three-tomoe pattern."

"That bastard told me that if I awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, there would be three people in the world with those eyes." Sasuke gave Neji a long, searching look, then continued, "He told me the way to awaken them was to kill the person closest to you. A friend or a family member—either would awaken those eyes."

"What?" Seeing that grim look on Sasuke's face, Neji flashed a provocative grin. "What, you're not thinking of killing me to awaken them, are you?"

"Hmph!" Sasuke snorted disdainfully. "I, Sasuke Uchiha, am not an animal like Uchiha Itachi. No matter what, I would never kill a friend. So what if I never awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan?"

"I won't follow the path that bastard Uchiha Itachi laid out for me. One day, I, Sasuke Uchiha, will stand before him and tell him that even without the Mangekyō Sharingan, I can defeat him and avenge my parents and my clan!" Sasuke's expression was full of resolve.

"That's the spirit!" Neji clapped him hard on the shoulder. "Whatever else happens, I'll help you with this."

"Heh!" Sasuke gave a proud smile. "Anything else is negotiable, but I'll defeat and kill Uchiha Itachi myself!"

"All right, back to the point. Awakening the Rinnegan might require you to already possess the Mangekyō Sharingan," Neji said.

"So an ordinary Sharingan can't transform into a Rinnegan through yin and yang power alone?" Sasuke looked thoughtful.

"That might be the case, but it's not certain. The Rinnegan isn't an evolved form of the Sharingan. They exist in parallel, and each dōjutsu has its own strengths," Neji explained.

"Of course! How could my Uchiha Clan's dōjutsu be inferior to the Rinnegan?" Sasuke puffed out his chest.

"Then what about your Tenseigan? Does the Byakugan have an evolution similar to the Mangekyō Sharingan?" Sasuke asked.

Neji shook his head. "The Byakugan doesn't have anything like that. The only differences are the strength of its eye power and whether it's pure enough. If a Byakugan is exceptionally pure, its eye power will be very strong."

Neji paused, then continued, "And my Byakugan is exceptionally pure. Its eye power is strong enough to decipher the contents of the Hyuga Stone Tablet."

"I see!" Sasuke recalled Neji's Byakugan. After awakening his Sharingan, he had indeed been able to sense Neji's extraordinary eye power.

At that thought, Sasuke suddenly felt a little envious of Neji. The Byakugan might not have as many abilities, but at least it was easy to awaken, unlike the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan.

Sasuke changed the subject. "Neji, do you think the Hokage is strong enough to kill every member of our Uchiha Clan in a single night?"

That question had occupied Sasuke's thoughts for a long time lately. Although he already had an answer in his heart, he still wanted to hear what his only friend thought.

"Heh." Neji laughed disdainfully. "That's nonsense. Your Uchiha Clan had so many jonin, and your father was a powerful ninja who earned himself a reputation on the battlefields of the Third Shinobi World War. Even if he wasn't as strong as a Kage, he couldn't have been far off. How could the Hokage possibly have wiped out your Uchiha Clan alone?"

"So that animal Uchiha Itachi really did have an accomplice." Hearing Neji's words, Sasuke understood.

"Of course he did. He definitely had help, and whoever helped him was exceptionally powerful. A thirteen-year-old Uchiha Itachi could never have done something like that alone," Neji said pointedly.

Uchiha Itachi had not just one accomplice, but several. Obito Uchiha was one, and Konoha could well be considered another.

Without Konoha covering it up, how could the villagers have only learned the next day that the Uchiha Clan had been wiped out?

Without Konoha covering it up, how could every sign of the fighting have been concealed?

Of course, Sasuke would not think that far ahead yet. But with Neji's guidance, as he grew stronger, he would eventually realize that.

"You can't rush revenge. What matters most right now is your own strength," Neji reminded him.

Sasuke nodded. He understood that, of course, but understanding it and putting it into practice were two different things. He often found himself unable to stop worrying.

As he saw it, Uchiha Itachi had already been that powerful at thirteen. Who knew how much stronger he had become in the years since?

There was no way he could feel no anxiety at all.

"Besides the Rasengan you taught me before, is there any other way to get stronger?" Sasuke asked. "There's still a year until graduation, and I can't practice the Rasengan openly. Being at school is a waste of time anyway. I might as well go train."

"Taijutsu," Neji replied. "Yours is still a little lacking. As a member of the Uchiha Clan who's already awakened the Sharingan, you still have plenty of room to improve your taijutsu."