The Mangekyo Mystery

A few days later, Asami Ri hopped in place a few times, feeling the stretch in his muscles.

"Recovering nicely." Several days of doing nothing but resting had left him in an excellent mood.

After warming up briefly, he headed to the ward next door.

Kakashi was already awake, leaning quietly against his hospital bed and staring blankly at the bustling scene outside the window with his right eye.

The sight of Rin Nohara on the brink of death still haunted him. Its stark contrast with the peaceful Konoha before him left him with a deeply unreal sense of dislocation.

"Kakashi, how are you feeling?"

Asami Ri spoke softly, pulled up a chair, and sat beside the bed.

"Ah, Ri... it's you." Kakashi looked away from the window, his voice hoarse. "Not bad, aside from feeling like I've been hollowed out. Exhausting your Chakra really isn't pleasant."

He made it sound trivial, but Asami Ri knew how miserable that weakness felt.

A brief silence fell between them, broken only by the occasional birdsong outside.

"Rin's situation—Minato-sensei has already told me everything." Kakashi suddenly turned to look straight at Asami Ri.

It was the first time Asami Ri had seen such heavy emotion in Kakashi's eyes.

"Thank you, Ri. Truly... thank you." Kakashi lowered his head. "I swore to Obito that I would protect Rin. Not long ago, I thought I'd come within a hair's breadth of breaking that promise. If Rin had died, I wouldn't even have known how to face Obito's grave..."

He drew a deep breath, relief seeping into his voice. "I don't know how to thank you for saving her life..."

Asami Ri looked at the normally precocious, aloof genius, who now seemed like a boy at a loss, and couldn't help chuckling.

"Don't be so formal. We're teammates, Kakashi. You and Rin have helped me plenty of times, too. If you'd been in my shoes, wouldn't you have done the same?"

Seeing that Kakashi still wanted to say something, Asami Ri waved a hand and cut him off lightly:

"If you really think you owe me a huge favor and want to repay me, how about making me your specialty, pan-fried river fish, once you're discharged?"

Asami Ri raised an eyebrow and added, "I hear you're quite the cook. I've been looking forward to trying it for ages."

Kakashi froze for a moment, then the tension around his eye finally eased, revealing a faint smile.

"That... if you want it, I'll make you as many meals as you like."

The warmth of their small talk gradually faded. As Asami Ri's expression grew serious, the atmosphere in the ward turned heavy.

Asami Ri leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice, looking Kakashi straight in the eye. "Kakashi, at the end of that battle... did you notice the change in your left eye?"

Kakashi instinctively raised a hand, gently rubbing the area around his eye through the bandages, his brow furrowing. "A change? All I remember is that, at that moment, something seemed to explode inside my head. After the intense pain, my vision became clearer, but then the weakness hit. And now... the vision in this eye seems to have gotten much worse. Things look blurry, and I'm seeing double."

"Just as I thought," Asami Ri said gravely. "I saw it clearly at the time. Kakashi, your eye underwent an extraordinary change."

As Kakashi listened, the uncertainty in his eye deepened.

As the eye's owner, he could feel a power lurking deep within it, stirring restlessly.

To confirm it, Kakashi drew a deep breath and slowly lifted the forehead protector covering his left eye.

He closed both eyes to shut out outside distractions, then snapped them open!

Hum!

In that instant, the tomoe slowly rotating against the blood-red iris abruptly elongated, transforming into a three-bladed Pinwheel pattern.

A cold, sinister aura poured from his eye like a tide, plunging the once-warm ward's temperature to freezing.

Yet the state lasted less than three seconds.

"Ugh..." Kakashi let out a muffled groan, and the Pinwheel pattern shuddered violently.

Then, like a flame running out of fuel, the pattern rapidly died out, reverting to the ordinary three-tomoe form.

Kakashi clutched his left eye as though seized by a spasm, gasping for breath. Large beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead, soaking his mask.

"I can't... I can't maintain it at all." Kakashi's voice was weak, filled with pain he couldn't suppress. "Just three seconds, and it felt like more than half my Chakra was gone... what is this thing?"

Asami Ri reached out to steady the swaying Kakashi, thinking, This power really is too much for Kakashi as he is now.

Asami Ri watched Kakashi clutch his eye, his body trembling slightly.

"Kakashi, stay calm and listen. The Uchiha Clan's historical records contain precedents of outsiders receiving transplanted Sharingan, but there's never been any record of one continuing to evolve in someone without Uchiha blood."

He paused and helped Kakashi lower his forehead protector again, covering the blood-red eye.

"When Obito gave you that eye, it had two tomoe, yet it broke past its limits and evolved into a Pinwheel pattern... that overturns everything the Shinobi World knows. And without the Uchiha Clan's constitution to control the Sharingan, this eye has become a burden to you."

Kakashi leaned against the head of the bed, his labored breathing gradually settling. He lowered his head and stared silently at his slightly trembling hands.

Seeing a shadow of suppressed gloom cross Kakashi's brow, Asami Ri patted his arm and offered a reassuring smile.

"But don't worry. I've already asked Minato-sensei for help with the changes in your eye. You and I know better than anyone what he's capable of. He'll find a solution."

He stood, his tone lightening a little. "Until then, your only job is to stay put and let yourself recover."

Kakashi gave a bitter chuckle. Although his left eye still throbbed painfully, Asami Ri's words gave him strength, dispelling much of his fear of the unknown.

"Yeah... I understand."