I Want a Living Uchiha

Just as Orochimaru was tinkering with the scroll...

[Congratulations, host! The lottery system has finished upgrading!]

[Intermediate draws unlocked! 1,000 commission points per draw, with a minimum of ten draws!]

Sixia was dumbfounded.

How much?

1,000 per draw?

He had expected the price to rise after the upgrade, but he had never imagined it would jump straight to ten times the original cost.

Sixia checked his balance.

[Commission points: 15,231]

Should I give it a try?

[10,000 commission points deducted! Remaining commission points: 5,231.]

[Drawing...]

[Congratulations, host! You have received...]

[Sharingan × 1 pair]

[Kekkei genkai: Shikotsumyaku]

[Chakra quantity × 10 card]

[Physical strength × 8 Guy]

[Level 80 Scary Apple × 10]

[Physical strength × 6 Guy]

[Thunder Stone × 1]

[Ichiraku Ramen × 100]

He had actually drawn another chakra reward?

In fact, ever since his chakra and physical strength had reached SSSS-rank, he had gone a long time without drawing any related rewards.

So I needed to upgrade before I could draw them again?

And the drop rate was clearly much higher this time.

He had actually drawn two kekkei genkai?

And two strange items.

[Thunder Stone: A mysterious stone with the power of evolution. Carrying it enhances the power of Electric-type moves.]

[Level 80 Scary Apple: Its level increases with the degree of fright. The more frightened it is, the better it tastes.]

Sixia vaguely remembered both of these things.

One came from Toriko.

The other came from Pokémon.

He had never expected the upgrade to let him draw things from other worlds.

Before Sixia could think it over further, Orochimaru finished his preparations.

Dense black markings covered the ground, spreading in every direction.

They reminded Sixia of the human transmutation at the beginning of Fullmetal Alchemist.

Compared with the research formula Sixia had seen the first time, this one was undoubtedly far larger and more complex.

After completing everything, Orochimaru said to Sixia,

"Under the terms of our previous long-term commission agreement, you are obligated to cooperate with my research into your chakra."

"Now, sorry for the trouble, but please honor that agreement. Sit in the center of the formula and begin molding chakra."

"I need to observe and study your chakra."

Sixia did not refuse. This was a trivial matter.

He quickly entered the array, sat cross-legged, and began molding chakra.

Orochimaru watched the readings on the instruments beside him.

His expression remained calm, but inwardly, he was shaken to his core.

What was going on?

How little time had passed? How had this guy's chakra reserves increased so much?

Orochimaru was utterly stunned.

The total chakra within Sixia had already reached the limit of what this formula could measure.

If Kisame Hoshigaki knew how much chakra Sixia possessed, he would definitely hand over his title of "tailless tailed beast" without a fight.

Orochimaru did not care what Kisame Hoshigaki might think. He only wanted to know how Sixia had increased his chakra reserves to such an extent!

Most importantly, Sixia's total chakra had not merely become even more terrifying than before.

The quality of his chakra had also improved enormously.

For equal quantities of chakra, the difference between the Ten-Tails' chakra and a genin's chakra was undoubtedly like the difference between heaven and earth.

And now, Orochimaru was looking at the highest-quality chakra he had ever seen.

Not only that, Sixia also possessed an unbelievable talent for Lightning Release.

Orochimaru could hardly imagine how powerful Sixia would be if he went all out now.

Forget Orochimaru-even Sixia himself did not know the answer to that question.

At that moment, Orochimaru could not help marveling inwardly.

There really was no comparing one ninja to another.

After carefully recording the information he had just observed on a scroll, Orochimaru opened his mouth and spat out a snake, which swallowed the scroll whole.

Sixia's eyes flickered at the sight!

There it was!

Orochimaru's iconic ninjutsu moment.

Orochimaru spat out a snake, and the snake spat out Orochimaru; Orochimaru spat out a snake, the snake spat out a scroll, and Orochimaru crawled out of the scroll.

Naturally, Orochimaru had no idea that Sixia was making fun of him inwardly.

After putting away the scroll, Orochimaru looked at Sixia and said, "There's another reason I asked you to come this time."

"What is it?" Sixia stood and looked at Orochimaru.

Orochimaru glanced at Karin, then licked his lips and said, "I need a pair of Sharingan."

He was intensely envious of Karin's Sharingan.

Though what he wanted most was still the Rinnegan.

But what had happened back then had completely extinguished his desire to covet the Rinnegan.

Since he could not obtain the Rinnegan, getting a pair of Sharingan would still be excellent.

For anyone else, obtaining the Sharingan was undoubtedly quite difficult.

For example, Kumogakure had gone to great lengths to obtain the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan, another of Konoha's kekkei genkai.

First, they had sent a spy to infiltrate Konoha and attempt to kidnap the young lady of the Hyuga Clan's Main Family to obtain the Byakugan.

Of course, this certainly would not be a problem for Sixia.

After all, he had already transplanted a pair of Sharingan into his little follower, Karin Uzumaki.

Once he understood Orochimaru's intentions, Sixia was inwardly delighted.

"That's easy. Ten million, and I'll get them for you soon."

They were just Sharingan. He had happened to draw a pair.

Once Orochimaru posted the commission mission, he could even casually pull out a bottle containing the Sharingan and hand it to him.

Of course, that was only a thought. He would not actually do it.

He had to go wander around for a few days at least. Otherwise, how would he make his contribution look impressive?

To Sixia's surprise, however, Orochimaru shook his head and said,

"I may not have explained my requirements clearly just now. Let me add something."

"I don't just need the Sharingan. I also need a living member of the Uchiha Clan who has already awakened them."

"Without an Uchiha's constitution, an ordinary person cannot withstand the drain from directly transplanted Sharingan."

"Not everyone has the vast reserves of your Uzumaki Clan."

"I have no intention of becoming as weak as Kakashi after transplanting the Sharingan."

After hearing Orochimaru out, Sixia froze. "???"

"Orochimaru, you're making this difficult for me!"

"Do you know how many living Uchiha Clan members are left in the entire shinobi world?"

"Only three in total."

As Sixia spoke, he counted them off on his fingers for Orochimaru.

"Obito Uchiha, Uchiha Itachi, and Sasuke Uchiha. That's it."

"That unlucky bastard Obito only has one eye. Surely you wouldn't want him?"

"Itachi is definitely out. He's part of the organization, and I don't want a conflict with them affecting my future missions there."

Seriously, there was still plenty to milk out of the Akatsuki. There were eight tailed beasts left!

"Sasuke is about the same age as Karin right now. What are you going to do with a tiny brat like him?"

After saying that, Sixia could not help grumbling a little inwardly.

Orochimaru should just issue his mission. Why take a jab at Kakashi?

Sure, Kakashi was often short on chakra, but when he used Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall, he still had enough chakra to carve four dog heads into the wall!

He just wondered whether those four dog heads were Kakashi's last act of defiance.

Weak? Overdrawn? Absolutely not!

After hearing all this intelligence from Sixia, Orochimaru was left wide-eyed and speechless.

His intelligence network was vast, but he only knew a little about these matters.

Yet Sixia knew this entire string of secret information inside out, rattling it off as though listing his own treasures.

He could no longer remember how many times Sixia's impossibly powerful, mysterious intelligence network had shocked him.

Secret information others struggled to obtain was often something Sixia could casually produce without a second thought!

Intelligence-gathering ability was also one measure of a ninja's strength.

Without question, this guy had no weakness apart from the way his mind worked.

Orochimaru calmed himself, then asked, "How do you know all this?"

As always, Sixia merely grinned cryptically. "Trade secret."

He would never tell Orochimaru where his information came from.

As for his mysterious intelligence network, Nagato or Orochimaru could investigate it however they liked.

Because their investigations would always lead to the same conclusion: that intelligence network did not exist.

Although Orochimaru was extremely interested in Sixia's intelligence network, there was nothing he could do if Sixia refused to talk.

He could only gain indirect access to that incredibly mysterious yet powerful network by working with Sixia.

After thinking it over, Orochimaru casually said, "Tell me about that one-eyed man."

He felt rather helpless. Only three Uchiha were left in the entire shinobi world-what else could he do?

Itachi was a member of the Akatsuki, and Sixia refused to touch him.

Sasuke was too young, his Sharingan was insufficiently developed, and Orochimaru had not yet tested his potential for growth.

That left the one-eyed Obito Uchiha as his only option. He had no choice at all!

Sixia said, "???"

He was greatly surprised by Orochimaru's choice!

Once his surprise passed, he hurried to educate Orochimaru about the Sharingan.

"No way, no way. You actually want that one-eyed Obito?"

"Give it up, Orochimaru!"

"A single Sharingan is basically useless. You can't use many of its abilities."

He was not trying to fool Orochimaru. That was more or less the truth.

Take Shimura Danzō, one of the men with the most Sharingan in the shinobi world.

When he actually got into a fight, all he could do was stab Sasuke's Susanoo with a kunai and use his Sharingan as consumables.

Hearing this, Orochimaru thought briefly before saying,

"If that doesn't work, couldn't we just find another Sharingan and give him two?"

"Don't you know where to find Sharingan?"

After all, the Sharingan was a kekkei genkai unique to the Uchiha Clan, and Orochimaru's understanding of it was relatively limited.

Orochimaru's imaginative suggestion left Sixia momentarily stunned.

After a brief daze, he could not help saying, "You really are one hell of a genius."

"But it won't work. Eyes that aren't a matching pair aren't much use. You still won't be able to unleash some of the Sharingan's powerful abilities."

Obito and Danzo had both collected several pairs of Sharingan, yet they still could not activate Susanoo. That showed it required an original matching pair.

Of course, there was another possibility, however unlikely.

Obito had spare Sharingan, but simply left them unused for the fun of it.

After hearing Sixia's explanation, Orochimaru's expression darkened.

Sixia refused to act against Itachi, and if Orochimaru did not want to make an enemy of the organization, he could not touch Itachi either.

Whether or not he betrayed the organization was not actually much of a concern to Orochimaru.

It was hardly his first time.

The problem was Sixia.

If Sixia weren't in the Akatsuki, he wouldn't hesitate for a second to go after Itachi.

But now that Sixia was a member of the Akatsuki, making his own escape would be the easy part.

What if Nagato gave Sixia a mission to hunt down Orochimaru, the rogue ninja?

Knowing this fellow's temperament...

He would probably be delighted to turn Orochimaru himself into his payment.

As for Itachi's younger brother, since he was around Karin's age, he probably wouldn't be much use either.

His development of the Sharingan was likely still in its earliest stages.

That left Obito Uchiha as his only choice.

Unfortunately, Obito was a one-eyed man, with only one Sharingan.

If Sixia's information was accurate, then even if he used Obito as his vessel, there would still be many powerful Sharingan abilities he couldn't use.

Seeing Orochimaru's expression turn exceedingly grim, Sixia rubbed his chin.

"I do happen to know where Obito's other eye is."

Having said that, he began considering whether he should help Orochimaru get his hands on Obito's other Sharingan.

Hearing Sixia's words, Orochimaru immediately felt a surge of excitement.

Just when he thought he had reached a dead end, a new path had opened up.

Orochimaru had been thinking he might not be able to find a suitable member of the Uchiha Clan to serve as his vessel.

He had never imagined things would take such a turn.

As long as Obito recovered his other Sharingan, he would make an absolutely perfect vessel.

As one of Sixia's longtime customers, Orochimaru naturally understood his rules.

When Sixia fell silent after that remark, he asked bluntly, "How much do you want?"

Sixia chuckled slyly. "The abilities of these eyes are anything but ordinary!"

"Their powers are absolutely beyond anything you can imagine!"

"Besides, the target who possesses Obito's Sharingan is one of Konoha's top jonin, the elite of the elite. He's even being secretly groomed to become Hokage."

"If we want to take his Sharingan, we'll inevitably have to face a behemoth like Konoha."

"Konoha is your old home. You know how powerful it is without me going into detail."

"So this won't be easy!"

"Not only that, but Obito Uchiha himself is no pushover."

"He's working with our leader, Nagato. If we make a move against him, explaining it to our leader won't be easy either."

"In short, I'm afraid this commission mission will cost at least a hundred million ryo!"

Orochimaru blurted, "??? What the hell!"

This information from Sixia shocked Orochimaru all over again!

He knew who Obito Uchiha was-the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze's student. From what he'd heard, the grass on his grave was already three meters tall.

He had never paid much attention to such an untalented junior. He'd merely assumed Obito had survived and was clinging to life somewhere.

"What exactly is going on?"

Orochimaru's mind raced as he rapidly mulled it over.

"Is the information Sixia gave me this time true or false?"

"From what I know of him, he shouldn't make things up when it comes to intelligence."

"So this information is highly credible."

"But why would Obito Uchiha, a student of the Fourth Hokage, be working with our leader, Nagato?"

"What happened without my knowledge that let that dead last rise to Nagato's level?"

"How is that even possible?"

Orochimaru was utterly bewildered.

After learning so much from Sixia, he began rapidly thinking it through and assessing his options.

The first question Orochimaru considered was whether he should still seek a member of the Uchiha Clan as a perfect vessel.

The answer was a definite yes!

After witnessing Uchiha Itachi's exceptional talent, he had developed an intense interest in the Uchiha Clan.

A kekkei genkai like the Sharingan could vastly increase his strength.

The stronger he became, the more research he could conduct, and the fewer ninja there would be who could stand in his way.

Then came the second question.

If Sixia's information was accurate, there were now only three living, active members of the Uchiha Clan left in the entire shinobi world.

Of course, if he was considering candidates for a perfect vessel...

Karin, a descendant of the Uzumaki Clan, could naturally also qualify as a perfect vessel after receiving a Mangekyo Sharingan transplant.

As a descendant of the Uzumaki Clan, Karin was bound to possess enormous chakra reserves.

If he couldn't obtain a member of the Uchiha Clan, Karin would actually be an excellent choice too.

But to use Karin as his vessel, he would first have to get past Sixia.

Then again...

If he could get past Sixia, why not use Sixia himself as his vessel?

(↑ A thank-you from Karin, the White-Socked Ponytail worker tirelessly grinding missions.)