How to evolve the Mangekyō Sharingan

After parting ways with Mikoto, Qiu Shan Uchiha did not sit idle. He had already obtained the Uchiha Clan's legacy from Elder Uchiha Ling. Yet a ticking time bomb still lurked within the clan-the very thing that had driven Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju apart all those years ago, paving the way for the world wars that followed in the Shinobi World.

That ticking time bomb was a stone tablet hidden in the Naka Shrine. Legend held that the Sage of Six Paths had left it behind and that the Uchiha Clan had kept it for generations. It concealed the truth of this world, which was why the clan had always treasured it.

The tablet was indeed extraordinary. The higher the level of one's Sharingan, the more of its contents one could read.

Back then, as the disagreements between Madara Uchiha and the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, grew until Madara could no longer bear them, he had found an extreme solution on the stone tablet passed down by the Sage of Six Paths-the Eye of the Moon Plan.

Madara Uchiha had been one of the greatest talents of his generation in the Shinobi World. Had Hashirama Senju not appeared in the same era, Madara could have dominated the entire Shinobi World for a generation. Perhaps Madara was a perfectionist, though. He had seen that his close friend, the First Hokage Hashirama Senju, had achieved nothing with his vision of establishing villages. It would only escalate the wars in this world.

Originally, wars and conflicts had only been fought between clans with different surnames. But after the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan joined hands with other smaller clans to establish Konoha, their strength had soared. This had prompted the other nations to follow suit, joining forces to establish Ninja Villages of their own. Once those villages were established and their strength increased, any war between nations would turn into a world war across the Shinobi World. When that happened, civilians and shinobi alike would be swept up in it.

Moreover, once a war broke out, it would eventually lead to manpower shortages, and children only a few years old who knew little more than the Three Basic Techniques would be sent to the battlefield. Uchiha Itachi was one such example. Madara Uchiha's foresight had been accurate. It was precisely because he had foreseen this outcome that he could not accept it and wanted to make a change.

Hashirama Senju's ideals differed from Madara Uchiha's, which was why Madara had left. The Uchiha Clan, however, had clung to the hard-won peace they finally enjoyed, so they had not left Konoha with their Clan Leader, Madara Uchiha.

What had given Madara the confidence to leave back then was the path to world peace he had read about on the tablet left by the Sage of Six Paths-the Eye of the Moon Plan.

That was also why Madara Uchiha had later fought Hashirama Senju again. He needed to merge Hashirama's flesh and blood into his own body to form the power of all creation. Only by awakening the Rinnegan possessed by the Sage of Six Paths could he summon the husk of the Ten-Tails and set the Eye of the Moon Plan in motion.

Qiu Shan Uchiha, however, knew that the tablet's contents had been altered by Black Zetsu, the third son Kaguya Ōtsutsuki had left behind before she was sealed. Black Zetsu's aim was to activate the Eye of the Moon and resurrect his mother, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. Madara had been thoroughly duped. He had devoted himself to achieving world peace, only to be used by Black Zetsu.

Thus, to spare himself trouble and keep those clan members who awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan later from getting any strange ideas-including Shisui Uchiha and Uchiha Itachi, who had not yet discovered the tablet's contents-Qiu Shan Uchiha decided to cut the problem off at its root. He would simply move the tablet into his space, where no one else could ever touch it again.

The Naka Shrine was where the Uchiha Clan held clan meetings and honored their ancestors. Although it was a solemn, sacred place to the clan, there was nothing particularly valuable inside, so they had not stationed anyone there to guard it.

Qiu Shan Uchiha had actually visited the Naka Shrine before to view the tablet. At the time, however, he had only possessed the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. He had examined it from every angle, staring so hard he had nearly gone cross-eyed, yet he had still been unable to read its contents.

After awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, he had been busy trying to avert the Uchiha Clan's tragic extermination and save Shisui's life. Besides, he already knew exactly what was written on it, so he had not come to look.

Now that the Uchiha Clan was preparing to relocate, the Elder and the others would never leave this ancient tablet behind. Qiu Shan Uchiha decided to act first and move it into his space. When the Elder asked him for it, he would find a fake to give them. As for this source of disaster, it could remain in his space forever.

Qiu Shan Uchiha strolled to the Naka Shrine in the morning sunlight. Few people usually came here, and at this early hour, there was not a soul in sight. He approached the tablet and activated his Mangekyō Sharingan. After reading its contents, he curled his lip. It was more or less what he had expected, with nothing surprising.

It briefly introduced the origins of the Shinobi World, the spread of chakra, the Ōtsutsuki Clan, the God Tree and the God Tree Fruit, and the Sage of Six Paths sealing the rampaging Ten-Tails. It also described the evolution of the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan and the method for evolving the Mangekyō Sharingan into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

In truth, Qiu Shan Uchiha was skeptical of that method. Going back to the beginning, the Sage of Six Paths' eldest son, Indra, had only one younger brother-Asura. Leaving aside whether Asura would have gouged out his eyes for his older brother, the key point was that Asura had inherited the Sage Body from the Sage of Six Paths and had no Sharingan. In other words, there had been no second pair of Mangekyō Sharingan available for Indra to obtain an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

Moreover, Indra's Mangekyō Sharingan had never gone blind. Clearly, transplanting a blood relative's Mangekyō Sharingan was not the only way to evolve it into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

Besides, given the Sage of Six Paths' standing and outlook, he could not possibly have left the Uchiha Clan such a bloody, painful path of evolution.

That made it clear that a person could evolve their Mangekyō Sharingan into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan through their own efforts. The method recorded on the tablet was probably a simple, brutal shortcut with low requirements that Black Zetsu had left for the Uchiha Clan to further his plan.

Qiu Shan Uchiha's system made that clear. It could only lower the threshold and reduce the side effects; it still could not create something from nothing. Thus, the proper way to evolve the Mangekyō Sharingan into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan should have been to possess mental strength and yin release chakra far beyond those of an ordinary person. Only by meeting the conditions for the Mangekyō Sharingan's evolution could one successfully evolve it.

Moreover, evolving the Three-Tomoe Sharingan into the Mangekyō Sharingan granted dōjutsu. In the original story, Sasuke Uchiha had also gained a dōjutsu when one of his eyes evolved into the Rinnegan. In that case, evolving the Mangekyō Sharingan into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan should have granted a dōjutsu as well. They had probably failed to awaken new dōjutsu because their method of evolution was wrong-they had taken a shortcut.