Ideas

"The Uchiha Clan's Stone Tablet has a little more on it than the Hyuga Clan's. I can't decipher all of it," Neji said.

Sasuke looked somewhat surprised. "More on it?"

Neji nodded. "That's right. And the Uchiha Clan's Stone Tablet only has information on awakening the Rinnegan. There's nothing about the Tenseigan."

"You might have to wait until your eye power approaches the Rinnegan's level, or even until you awaken it, before you can decipher that part," Neji guessed.

Sasuke nodded at first, then asked curiously, "Your eye power hasn't even reached the level of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan?"

Neji was speechless. "Do you have any idea what that level of eye power means?"

"Do you?" Sasuke shot back defiantly.

"Based on what I deciphered from the Stone Tablet, along with a few things I learned myself, Madara Uchiha, one of Konoha's founders, very likely possessed the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan," Neji said scornfully.

"Uh..." Sasuke was at a loss for words. After Neji had mercilessly mocked his ignorance before, he had crammed some relevant knowledge and learned the broad outlines of Madara Uchiha's exploits.

Legend had it that the area around the Valley of the End had been formed by the battle between Madara Uchiha and the First, Hashirama Senju.

Sasuke had visited the place during a vacation. He simply couldn't imagine what level of power could cause such destruction in a battle, permanently changing the terrain across such a vast area.

The two statues in the Valley of the End had only been carved afterward to commemorate the two men. They certainly didn't mean that the battlefield had been limited to the area around those statues.

"Looks like you have a rough idea of how powerful Madara Uchiha was," Neji said with a shrug.

"Hmph. Don't underestimate the Uchiha." Sasuke snorted, then countered, "But judging by what you've shown, your eye power shouldn't be that far below Madara Uchiha's. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to decipher so much."

"If you're only one step away, how can the difference be so huge?" Sasuke asked, puzzled.

"In my experience, sometimes what looks like a single step is actually a world of difference. Crossing that threshold could open up a whole new realm," Neji said.

Often, a single step meant a qualitative change.

Sasuke nodded, accepting Neji's conjecture. As his eye power increased, he felt more and more strongly that the Uchiha Clan was a clan that relied on its eyes. Eighty percent of its abilities depended on the Sharingan.

He surmised that the Sharingan would undergo a qualitative change when it evolved into the Mangekyō Sharingan. Awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan would bring a tremendous leap in both the eyes' power and his own chakra.

That suggested the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan was likely another qualitative transformation beyond the Mangekyō Sharingan. No wonder Madara Uchiha had been so terrifyingly powerful, like an asura walking the earth.

Sasuke guessed that Neji's Byakugan was stuck at a stage similar to the transformation from the Mangekyō Sharingan to the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

"Does your Byakugan also need to undergo a transformation before it can become the Tenseigan? Like the Mangekyō Sharingan transforming into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan?" Sasuke voiced his thoughts.

After hearing Sasuke's words and considering them seriously for a while, Neji genuinely felt that the possibility couldn't be ruled out.

Neji nodded slightly. "It's possible. My Byakugan may well need to undergo a transformation before it can advance any further."

"What are you planning to do?" Sasuke asked.

Sasuke already had an idea in mind. In Neji's place, he would go after the Main Family and use the Secret Technique for absorbing eye power they had just obtained to steal the power of their Byakugan.

The Main Family didn't treat the Branch Family as human anyway, so he would feel no guilt whatsoever about doing it.

"You think I'm going to go after them and steal their Byakugan's eye power, don't you?" Neji looked at him with an odd smile.

Sasuke said without a care, "If I were you, that's what I'd do."

A strange smile appeared on Neji's face. "Much as I'd like to attack them, I have the Caged Bird Seal on me. My hands are tied!"

"Huh? I don't believe you'd give up just like that. With your personality, even that so-called Caged Bird Seal would have a hard time stopping you." This time, Sasuke was the puzzled one.

With Neji's personality, he was absolutely capable of attacking his own clansmen. Over the time they had known each other, Sasuke had gradually come to understand what kind of person Neji was.

In Sasuke's eyes, Neji had no affection whatsoever for the clan he came from. He even harbored a desire to destroy it.

"My fault for not explaining clearly. This method can actually only be used by members of the Uchiha Clan." Neji pressed his palm against the space between his brows. "The so-called Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan is actually a fusion of the eye power of two pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan. It's a Secret Technique that fuses your own eyes with another pair of Mangekyō Sharingan. Only by doing that is it possible to awaken the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan."

"Do you think that method would work for me?" Neji asked in amusement.

Now that hope was in sight, Neji didn't want to go after those people just yet. Once he awakened the Tenseigan, they would all be at his mercy anyway.

Sasuke shook his head. "Your Byakugan won't go blind, and the other members of the Hyuga Clan definitely don't have eye power as strong as yours. This Secret Technique for awakening the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan isn't suited to you."

Then Sasuke looked curiously at Neji. "So what are you planning to do? You've hit a bottleneck now."

Neji thought for a moment. "I have another idea about my eyes. There's no rush for now."

Yes, Neji believed the most important thing right now was resolving the chakra problem. His current condition was manageable, but who knew what it would be like in a month?

The amount of chakra these eyes absorbed grew greater by the day.

Neji still believed chakra was the issue. He thought that as long as he supplied enough of it, there shouldn't be a problem.

Sasuke nodded. "Good. If you need help, just ask."

"All right. I won't hesitate when I need your help." Neji nodded, then changed the subject. "By the way, how's your Rasenshuriken coming along?"

Sasuke let out a breath and kept his emotions in check. "The Rasenshuriken is still only half-finished. I can't throw it like a real shuriken the way you described, but I feel like I'm only one step away."

Sasuke looked somewhat frustrated.

Over the past six months or so, Sasuke had devoted a considerable portion of his energy to this ninjutsu. First, he had studied wind-nature chakra transformation and shape transformation, then secretly researched Wind Release: Rasenshuriken in the basement at night.

Even after all that, he had only produced a half-finished technique. Most frustrating of all, he clearly felt he was only one step away, yet he simply couldn't take it.

"Don't rush. I originally proposed this technique to make up for the Gentle Fist's lack of killing power, but now I've refined some of my Gentle Fist techniques myself, and they're sufficient. We can just let this technique take its course," Neji said.

"Let it take its course?" Sasuke frowned. "I'd rather keep trying to perfect it. I've pretty much reached my limit in taijutsu lately, too. Even with Lightning Release chakra stimulating my body, my taijutsu has hit the ceiling of what my body can handle. Besides, I still need a finishing move, and this ninjutsu is only a tiny bit away from completion."