Impossible! How could the Rinnegan evolve from the Sharingan!

Itachi's eyes flickered, then he said to Kisame, "Kisame, take my advice. If you see Uchiha Yi again, give him a wide berth. Don't provoke him!"

"Itachi, what do you mean?"

"He's dangerous!"

Itachi spoke calmly, but his tone grew heavier, carrying a note of caution.

Kisame's heart sank.

He knew Itachi's temperament all too well. He had remained utterly composed while infiltrating Konoha and hadn't panicked even when facing Jiraiya. Yet now, when talking about Yi, he sounded so cautious and even called him dangerous. Didn't that mean the brat was more fearsome than Jiraiya?

Back in Konoha, Yi had returned.

As soon as he reached the village entrance, Anbu surrounded him. Kakashi had already told the Third Hokage how cautiously Yi had acted by sending a Shadow Clone back, so the Third Hokage had stationed Anbu at the entrance to wait for him.

The Hokage's office.

Yi paused as he entered the office. The old man looked even older than the last time he had seen him. He was only sixty-nine, yet he looked a hundred. Although Yi had previously changed the plot and kept the Third Hokage from dying to the Reaper Death Seal, it seemed he didn't have many years left anyway.

"Heh, you're back, my boy. I've heard all the news from the Land of Snow. You completed the mission well, even exceeding my expectations."

Of course. With the Land of Snow's daimyo involved, a mission from that small country couldn't be taken lightly.

"Yes. Since this concerned the Land of Snow's daimyo, the mission has been upgraded to S-rank."

"Given the difficulty of an S-rank mission, you've not only passed your assessment, but I've also granted you special permission to become a Special Jōnin directly."

A Special Jōnin? Yi was somewhat surprised, but none of that mattered.

"Thank you, Lord Third Hokage!"

"Mm!"

The Third Hokage nodded, then his expression turned solemn.

"Now, what exactly is this extremely important matter you mentioned? Why must you report it to me alone?"

"Well..." Yi hesitated. "Lord Third Hokage, I need to report this in genuine privacy."

Although there were no outsiders in the office, Yi's words carried a pointed implication. There were always eyes watching the Hokage's office, after all.

"Mm, all right, that..."

That was no problem! Just as the Third Hokage was about to say so, loud laughter came from the window. "Haha! What could be so secret? Let me, Lord Jiraiya, the Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku, hear it too!"

Yi had already sensed Jiraiya's presence. He wasn't surprised by his appearance and merely turned to look at the Third Hokage.

"Lord Third Hokage, you should treat this as an important matter concerning the entire Shinobi World. If you have no objections, neither do I."

The entire Shinobi World? The Third Hokage lost his composure, and Jiraiya's smile vanished too.

Without speaking, the Third Hokage simply nodded to Jiraiya.

"Ninja Art: Solitary Yang Formation!"

A faint barrier instantly enveloped the entire Hokage's office.

Only after the barrier settled did Yi speak. The Third Hokage had already silenced the Anbu's earlier stirrings, but with Jiraiya here as well, no one would dare barge in.

Jiraiya smoothed his hair and thumped his chest boastfully. "This barrier is a secret technique I created myself! It completely separates the inside from the outside. No one outside can see or hear a thing!"

Yi ignored Jiraiya's boasting and turned to the Third Hokage. "Before we get to the matter at hand, I'd like to show you something, Lord Third Hokage."

"Something?" Both the Third Hokage and Jiraiya were puzzled, but their expressions changed abruptly the next second. Yi's eyes lit up, and his Three-Tomoe Sharingan transformed into a distinctive pattern in an instant.

"The Mangekyō Sharingan?"

"You actually awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan?"

Both men immediately went on alert.

The Third Hokage's heart lurched, and he immediately asked, "What are your Mangekyō ocular techniques?" His first thought was Kotoamatsukami, a forbidden Uchiha technique. If Yi possessed that ability, they would be in serious trouble.

"Amaterasu, and a Space-Time Ninjutsu similar to Flying Thunder God," Yi said calmly.

Amaterasu? Space-Time Ninjutsu? Both men frowned, but before they could react, Yi had already moved.

With a whoosh, black flames sprang up instantly. Jiraiya's eyes widened. "These flames?"

The Third Hokage turned to him. "Jiraiya, have you seen them before?"

"I have!" Jiraiya nodded firmly. "I saw Itachi use them before. Once they start burning, they can't be extinguished, only sealed. That's Amaterasu!"

Yi raised his hand, and the flames vanished instantly. "This is Amaterasu, but mine is different from everyone else's. I can control both its ignition and extinguishing."

"This is Divine Flash." The next instant, Yi flickered around the office, moving so fast that neither the Third Hokage nor Jiraiya could see him clearly.

Flying Thunder God? That was their first thought, but they immediately dismissed it. Yi hadn't left a single Flying Thunder God technique marking.

After Yi stopped, the Third Hokage smiled. "So that's Divine Flash? You really are something, boy!" He understood the Mangekyō Sharingan, and seeing these two ocular techniques put him completely at ease. Neither was Kotoamatsukami, which was a relief. He was also pleased that Yi hadn't hidden them. He was a good boy.

Secretly delighted, Yi called out in his mind, Great Bamboozling Technique, activate!

The Third Hokage stared at Uchiha Yi, then suddenly asked, "Could the matter you mentioned have something to do with awakening your Mangekyō Sharingan?"

Yi didn't beat around the bush and nodded directly.

"Yes! I encountered something bizarre in the Land of Snow. At first, I didn't believe it at all, but eventually, I had no choice."

Once the Third Hokage and Jiraiya were giving him their full attention, Yi posed a question.

"Lord Third Hokage, where do you think chakra came from?"

Jiraiya answered casually, "Do you even need to ask? Chakra is what you get when you combine spiritual and physical energy!"

But Yi shook his head and looked at Jiraiya again.

"That's right, but also wrong. Lord Jiraiya, have you ever considered whether humans had chakra from the moment they first existed, or whether it appeared later?"

Jiraiya froze, unable to come up with an answer for a long while.

Yi paid no attention to what he was thinking and simply announced that he would tell them a story.

"Let me put it this way. I'll tell you an old tale."

"Ever since humans existed, they never stopped fighting. Back then, wars raged everywhere, and the land was soaked in blood. There was a God Tree that no one interfered with, and the locals worshipped it as a god. Later, the God Tree bore fruit, but no one dared touch what their ancestral teachings had forbidden. Then a woman descended from the sky, and people regarded her as a goddess."

"And then?" Jiraiya leaned closer.

"The goddess ate the God Tree's fruit and became the first person to possess chakra. Her name was Kaguya Ōtsutsuki."

"What? You're saying that's where chakra came from?" Jiraiya was astonished, and the Third Hokage frowned too. There was no record of this in history.

Yi ignored their doubts and continued.

"After gaining chakra, Kaguya ended the wars and had two sons. The elder was Hamura's older brother, Hagoromo Otsutsuki, and the younger was Hamura Otsutsuki. But later, the goddess grew arrogant and wanted to take everyone's chakra back. By then, everyone knew how to use chakra. To fight back, the God Tree was planted again, and a powerful genjutsu was created to absorb everyone's chakra."

The Third Hokage frowned and asked, "My boy, what exactly are you saying...?"

"Don't rush me, Lord Third Hokage. Let me finish," Yi interrupted. "Fortunately, her two sons disagreed and joined forces to resist her. After an enormous struggle, they finally sealed their mother away. Her eldest son, Hagoromo, later became known as the Sage of Six Paths."

The Sage of Six Paths? The Third Hokage and Jiraiya exchanged a glance. The Sage of Six Paths was a real historical figure. Previously, they had only considered him a powerful shinobi. Jiraiya was even more certain of his existence, since his student Nagato possessed the Rinnegan.

But Jiraiya still scratched his head. "Even if all of this is true, what does it have to do with your situation?"

Yi glanced at him and smiled. "Don't rush, Lord Jiraiya. Here's the key."

"The Sage of Six Paths had two sons, Asura and Indra. They loved each other but also fought each other. Eventually, Asura's descendants became the Senju Clan, while Indra's descendants became our Uchiha Clan."

"What? You're saying the Senju and Uchiha are descendants of the Sage of Six Paths?" The Third Hokage couldn't sit still. "Are you certain?"

"I am." Yi nodded, finally getting to the point.

He took out a scroll and unsealed it, causing a large stone tablet to appear out of thin air in the Hokage's office. When he fed some chakra into it, densely packed writing immediately appeared on its surface.

The tablet recorded everything Yi had just said, along with the origin of the Rinnegan: the result of evolving the Sharingan to its ultimate form.

The Third Hokage and Jiraiya leaned closer to read it, and both their expressions changed.

"The Rinnegan evolves from the Sharingan?" The Third Hokage was shaken.

Jiraiya was the first to erupt. "Impossible! How could the Rinnegan evolve from the Sharingan!"

Yi smiled. "Why are you so sure? Isn't it because of your student Nagato? But by following the method on this tablet, I didn't just awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan. I awakened an eternal one."

What? Yi possessed the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan? The Third Hokage and Jiraiya were startled.

Yi watched them, the corners of his mouth curling upward.

Although the tablet clearly detailed the Sharingan's evolution from the Three-Tomoe Sharingan to the Mangekyō Sharingan, then to the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, and even noted the Mangekyō Sharingan's risk of blindness, Jiraiya insisted that the tablet was fake.

This tablet was a special, enormous stone Yi had dug out of Kazahana Dōtō's private storeroom. Writing would appear on it whenever chakra was fed into it. He had worked out his plan long ago, carved the tablet, and reinforced it afterward. No one else could add any writing to it.

The Third Hokage scraped his hand across the tablet twice without leaving a trace, further confirming its unusual nature. But Jiraiya still frowned and shook his head. "The information on this is wrong. I've seen the Rinnegan."

The Third Hokage abruptly sat upright, his brows knotting together. "Jiraiya, you've seen the Rinnegan?"

Jiraiya paused, then said with certainty, "I once took three students in the Land of Rain. One of them had the legendary sage eye, otherwise known as the Rinnegan."

Yi raised his chin and spoke confidently. "The Rinnegan isn't something that can just appear at random. Whether it belonged to the Sage of Six Paths or that child you mentioned, it would still need the Uchiha Clan's Kekkei Genkai as its foundation."

"The Rinnegan requires the Uchiha's Kekkei Genkai?" Jiraiya turned sharply toward Yi, his voice doubtful.

Yi pointed out the window and said casually, "Look at Kakashi. How many years has Obito's Sharingan held him back since it was transplanted into him? No matter how talented he is, he can't realize his potential. That's the price of possessing another clan's Kekkei Genkai."

The Third Hokage nodded, wholeheartedly agreeing. He still remembered Kakashi's struggles back then. That Sharingan had indeed held him back.