"What's this about?" Neji asked.
The two passed through streets and alleys and entered the forest behind the Uchiha Clan's grounds.
"We're going to our clan's Shrine. I recently thought of something. The Byakugan is different from the Sharingan, but according to you, they actually originated from the same person. So I want you to take a look at our clan's Stone Tablet and see whether your Byakugan's eye power can decipher what's on it," Sasuke explained.
"That's quite an idea." Neji's curiosity was piqued, too. Now he wanted to know whether the Byakugan could decipher its contents.
"How much can you decipher with your current eye power?" Neji asked.
Half a year had passed, and he had no idea how far Sasuke's eye power had progressed.
His own situation was different from Sasuke's. Unlike the Sharingan, the strength of the Byakugan's eye power depended primarily on its purity. Training after birth merely drew out the eye power already present.
The Byakugan's eye power was essentially fixed at birth. That was why the original Neji had been such a staunch fatalist, always talking about destiny. For members of the Hyuga Clan, their fate was effectively decided when they were born.
The Uchiha Clan was different, however. The Sharingan's eye power could evolve, progressing step by step from one-tomoe to two-tomoe, then three-tomoe, and finally the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Within the Uchiha Clan, fate was not set from the start. Whether someone ultimately awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan depended not only on their talent, but also on their experiences. The dōjutsu they gained afterward varied from person to person as well.
In this clan, destiny was not already decided at birth.
"I've basically deciphered our clan's history," Sasuke said.
"Your eyes are still at the two-tomoe stage?" Neji asked.
Sasuke nodded. "My eye power has improved enormously, but they're still at the two-tomoe stage."
"Is your eye power still increasing?" Neji asked.
"It is, but I feel like my eyes will evolve into their three-tomoe form before long." Sasuke's lips curved upward, delight appearing on his face. "Judging by the timing, it'll probably happen shortly before graduation."
"Congratulations, then!" Neji said.
"What about you? How's your Tenseigan coming along? Sometimes I really envy you, being able to awaken those legendary eyes directly," Sasuke said.
Neji shook his head. "I've pretty much hit a bottleneck. I still don't know when I'll break through it."
A faint smile appeared on Sasuke's face as he listened. "You'd better not stop moving forward. At this rate, I'll surpass you sooner or later."
"Heh." Neji laughed. "You should think about how you're going to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan first. In your current situation, you have nothing left to lose. You simply don't have the conditions needed to awaken it."
Sasuke fell silent for a moment. He knew what Neji meant. "I'm not going to follow the path that bastard Itachi laid out for me. He told me to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan and come find him, so I'll do the exact opposite. I'd really like to see the look on his face when I beat him."
Neji said nothing. He merely patted Sasuke on the shoulder.
They arrived at the Shrine where the Uchiha Clan held its gatherings. Sasuke lifted a stone slab in a corner, revealing a passage leading to the Basement.
"Let's go." With that, Sasuke entered the Basement first.
Neji followed him down. Below was an underground chamber large enough to hold several hundred people.
Looking up, he saw a massive Uchiha Clan crest emblazoned on the wall.
Beneath it stood a Stone Tablet the size of a gravestone, covered in a bewildering array of patterns.
They looked like random scribbles carved by a child.
The two approached the Stone Tablet. Sasuke looked at it and said, "This is it. I can only decipher a small portion of what's written here."
Neji nodded, then activated his Byakugan. "Byakugan!"
With his Byakugan active, Neji focused on the Stone Tablet.
Something strange happened. Without the Byakugan, the writing on the Stone Tablet had looked like a child's random doodles. But once he activated it, the markings twisted for a moment before transforming into words Neji could understand.
The Byakugan's eye power can actually decipher this Stone Tablet, too... Neji marveled as he read its contents.
The Uchiha Clan and the Hyuga Clan truly did share the same ancestor. Even the Byakugan's eye power could decipher the writing.
The opening was no different from what Sasuke had seen. It described the origins of the Uchiha Clan.
Unlike Sasuke, however, Neji's eye power allowed him to decipher more of its contents.
"Can your eye power decipher what's on the Stone Tablet?" Sasuke asked.
Neji nodded. "Yes. And I can decipher more than your Sharingan can."
"What does the rest say?" Sasuke asked curiously.
Uchiha Itachi had specifically mentioned this Stone Tablet on the night of the massacre. What it recorded had to be extraordinary.
"The next section records one of your Uchiha Clan's secret techniques, Izanagi," Neji said.
Sasuke activated his Sharingan as well and asked excitedly, "Izanagi? A Sharingan secret technique?"
Neji nodded. "It's an ultimate dōjutsu you cast on yourself. It can directly distort reality, making anything unfavorable to you become something that never happened, while anything favorable to you becomes reality. And this ninjutsu lasts for a certain period of time. It doesn't just distort reality once."
Hearing Neji's grave explanation, Sasuke couldn't help swallowing. This so-called ultimate dōjutsu, Izanami, was truly terrifying.
"An ultimate dōjutsu like that can't come without a price, can it?" Sasuke asked.
Neji gave Sasuke a long look. "Of course. The price of using this dōjutsu is your Sharingan—one eye per use. As for how long it lasts, that depends on your eye power."
"Whew..." Sasuke drew a deep breath. The price was steep, but not unacceptable.
Neji continued, "The hand seals are Rabbit, Boar, and Ram, in that order. Just those three seals are enough to activate Izanagi."
Sasuke nodded. "I'll remember that. This will be a huge help to me!"
"Is the rest like what's on your Hyuga Clan's Stone Tablet?" Sasuke asked.
As he saw it, since Neji could fully decipher the Hyuga Clan's Stone Tablet, he could probably do the same with the Uchiha Clan's.
Neji nodded. "Yes. The next section is about the Mangekyō Sharingan."
"Oh?" Sasuke asked curiously. "Is it about the Mangekyō Sharingan's dōjutsu?"
"No." Neji shook his head. "The Stone Tablet says that once the Mangekyō Sharingan is awakened, it begins heading toward darkness. In other words, using the Mangekyō Sharingan gradually makes you go blind."
"Blind?!" Sasuke was stunned.
Neji continued, "That's right. That's what the Stone Tablet says. The Mangekyō Sharingan cannot retain its sight forever. The only way to gain everlasting sight is to absorb the eye power of another pair of Mangekyō Sharingan. That will grant you the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan!"
"So it's that cruel... That bastard Uchiha Itachi did it for the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan..." Sasuke murmured dazedly.
Neji ignored Sasuke's dazed reaction and continued, "It also records a ninjutsu for absorbing eye power. It's rather complicated, so I'll copy it down for you later. Only by using this secret technique to seize the eye power of another pair of Mangekyō Sharingan can you have a chance of obtaining the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan."
"Whew..." Sasuke let out a deep breath. "Thank you, Neji."
"You're welcome."
Before you continue