The pattern of the blood moon overhead changed from Uchiha Hikari's Mangekyō Sharingan pattern to that of Shisui Uchiha's eyes.
In reality.
Uchiha Hikari lay quietly on the ground, her eyes closed tight and her brow furrowed.
Naruto stood beside her, looking down at the unconscious girl.
After a moment of silence, he raised both hands and reached into his eye sockets without hesitation.
After a faint, teeth-grating sound, he gently "removed" two moist eyeballs that carried unusual chakra fluctuations.
They were the very same Mangekyō Sharingan with the peculiar pattern that had appeared in the final moments of the genjutsu.
Relying on his sensing, he carefully placed the eyes in a sealed container he had prepared beforehand, filled with a special nutrient solution formulated by Orochimaru.
Then he took his own deep blue eyes from another container and deftly "installed" them back into his sockets.
The gentle green glow of the Mystical Palm Technique lit up at his fingertips, softly brushing over the area around his eyes.
The delicate connections of the chakra pathways, the joining of blood vessels, the reconnection of nerves...
All were swiftly completed through precise medical ninjutsu.
A moment later, the green light faded.
Naruto slowly opened his eyes.
His azure eyes, clear and deep as the sky after rain, once again reflected the Underground River Cavern.
He blinked, adjusting to the view through his "original" eyes.
I knew from the start that I'd be facing a Mangekyō Sharingan. There's no such thing as being too careful.
Swapping eyeballs in the Naruto world was easier than swapping a hot-swappable keyboard, so he had put in Shisui Uchiha's eyes after leaving Konoha. The appearance he had shown throughout the journey had been maintained with the Transformation Technique.
Although both were right eyes, they caused nothing more