"What?!" ×3
Their pupils abruptly contracted. Although what Sasuke said and what he did were completely different, all three of them now realized exactly what he was trying to do.
"Sasuke! Kotoamatsukami can alter your will. Whatever you do, don't give yourself any outrageous commands!" Shisui warned him immediately after catching on.
He was starting to regret impulsively gouging out his eye earlier. Even without looking back, he could feel Fugaku's gaze burning with displeasure.
There wasn't much he could say about that. He only felt a faint sense of helplessness.
His usual antics were one thing, but why had he started using a will-altering dojutsu like Kotoamatsukami on himself?!
Fugaku could barely stop himself from staring at Shisui, but he forcibly suppressed his displeasure and turned his worried gaze toward Sasuke.
Yet Sasuke's next words left him frozen in place.
Quietly gazing at himself in the mirror and sensing Kotoamatsukami activating, Sasuke's smile grew wider.
The commands he had silently issued just now, such as awakening the Mangekyo directly, hadn't worked at all, but those had only been wishful thinking. The command he truly wanted to give was...
"You will not be affected by Kotoamatsukami."
"???" ×3
Bro, seriously, what was that supposed to mean?
The instant Kotoamatsukami's Eye Power flowed back into Sasuke's eye, it practically short-circuited.
What was that supposed to mean?
Was it supposed to take effect or not? If Kotoamatsukami took effect, Sasuke would be unaffected by Kotoamatsukami, so it wouldn't take effect.
If it didn't take effect, Sasuke would be affected by Kotoamatsukami, which meant the command would take effect.
The paradoxical command threw the Mangekyo into confusion. Its Eye Power split in two: one portion formed a shield over Sasuke's consciousness, while the other also became a shield, covering the first layer and attempting to destroy it.
Yet that wasn't enough. The attacking portion was also Kotoamatsukami, so according to the command, it ultimately had to destroy itself as well.
But now it had become a case of an unstoppable spear striking an impenetrable shield. The attacking and defending portions had exactly equal Eye Power. They had learned from the same master, so neither could break the other's moves. All they could do was continuously draw more Eye Power from the Mangekyo.
The resulting feedback let Sasuke distinctly feel the vitality and Eye Power being drawn out of his body in an endless stream, then pouring into his mind.
In truth, as the target, Sasuke could barely sense Kotoamatsukami taking effect at all. But he was also the caster, and with both roles overlapping, he could perfectly perceive everything happening inside his body.
Kotoamatsukami's internal battle didn't affect him. Instead, the Eye Power that scattered during the fighting was absorbed by his Purple Demon Eye, fueling his Sharingan's growth.
After a little experimentation, he discovered that he could actively cut off the draw on the Mangekyo's Eye Power and suppress the intensity of the two sides' clashes. Sasuke promptly cut off the supply.
He could just let those two portions of Eye Power fight inside his mind. If he didn't cut them off, Shisui's eye would be ruined, and that wasn't what he wanted.
After this move, Kotoamatsukami could no longer affect him. No matter who cast it on him later, it would first have to fight the Kotoamatsukami already inside. The Eye Power he had drawn earlier was almost enough to drain a perfectly healthy Sharingan blind. No normal person could release that much Eye Power in a single dojutsu, making this essentially impossible to counter.
At any rate, Sasuke couldn't think of any ability that would let someone keep using Kotoamatsukami to affect him under these circumstances.
And with that, he had perfectly accomplished every goal for today.
Once again converting a large amount of vitality, Sasuke restored the Mangekyo to its original condition and replenished its Eye Power. Then he plucked out the Mangekyo that wasn't his without the slightest reluctance.
"Here, Shisui, your eye. I charged the battery for you... ahem, you get what I mean. Basically, I restored it to the state it was in when you first awakened it, then filled up its Eye Power."
After putting his own eye back in, Sasuke spoke casually while adjusting to vision that was clearly several levels worse than the Mangekyo's.
"Oh, right, Dad, big brother, I'll pour some vitality into you two in a bit too. It'll just go to waste if we don't use it. If you're good at Sealing Jutsu, I think we could try sealing some of my vitality away. After all, this stuff is really just Yang Release chakra. Then if anyone gets hurt, we can pull out a scroll and use it. Tsk, tsk. I'm a genius."
The more Sasuke spoke, the brighter his eyes grew. It seemed this sudden inspiration had actually given him a way to keep part of the trial card's power.
Originally, using Tang San's two Soul Skills had consumed a great deal of mental energy, but Shisui's Mangekyo had neatly made up for that. Under the influence of an unknown power within him, vitality and mental energy could convert into one another. Still, he could vaguely sense that this trial card was almost out of time. Unlike retaining vitality inside his body as he had before, using Sealing Jutsu this time really seemed like outright robbery...
A little while later.
Sasuke looked at the six scrolls beside him and nodded in satisfaction. If the vitality inside them were measured in Yang Release chakra, each contained several dozen Kakashis' worth.
Unfortunately, without suitable containers, these could only be used once each. Still, they qualified as miracle medicine that could save anyone as long as they had a breath left. With these on hand, they wouldn't have to be quite so sparing with their dojutsu either. They weren't as efficient as plucking out their eyes and putting them into Sasuke's sockets to recharge, but they were enough.
And with their current strength, whatever they needed to do next would no longer be a problem. The hardware was essentially sorted out; all that remained was the software.
"Big brother, Dad, Shisui, you know the situation with our clansmen better than I do. Simply put, our rights and obligations don't match. What we get back doesn't measure up to what we put in. Our clan is also emotionally sensitive and prone to taking things to extremes..."
At this point, Sasuke paused and glanced at the three of them, his gaze finally settling on Uchiha Itachi.
"Ahem." The corner of Uchiha Itachi's mouth twitched, and a faint flush rose on his face. Why did his little brother love exposing his shortcomings so much?
"The worse the village treats us, the worse our clansmen's attitudes become. In turn, the villagers and the village think even less of us. They decide there really is something wrong with us and target us even more. Keep that up, and it turns into a vicious cycle.
"Not to mention Danzo meddling in the middle, provoking both sides and making the conflict between us and the village increasingly bitter."
All three of them nodded at those words. They had each tried to change things, but the problems had already become deeply entrenched. Fugaku wasn't willing to let things continue like this, yet he didn't dare do anything either. He had the desire but not the nerve, a thoroughly self-contradictory half-dove, half-Hawk whose two halves were fighting each other.
As for Itachi and Shisui... those two half-literate fools had already trapped themselves in a mental rut.
"Solving this problem is simple in some ways and difficult in others. First, we pull out the thorn lodged between us and the village. Everything after that will be easy."
Showing his gleaming white teeth, Sasuke flashed a carefree smile.
Before you continue