What? You Have the Mangekyō? (continued)

"Sister Tsunade?"

Rikuto's eyes widened.

For a moment, he was dazed. Then he came to his senses.

Bang!

The next moment,

he went flying and crashed into the wall.

Tsunade's pretty face was flushed red, and she gritted her teeth in mortified anger.

Her outstretched right hand remained poised from flicking him.

"You little pervert..." She glared at Rikuto, who had fallen to the floor and was looking rather disheveled. "You've already forgotten the pain now that the wound's healed. You can't even behave yourself in your sleep!"

"Hm?"

Rikuto was somewhat dazed.

His gaze drifted over instinctively.

The heavy pendants looked incomparably magnificent.

But he soon felt someone's blazing glare.

A chill ran through Rikuto.

Realizing what had happened, he discreetly wiped the glistening moisture from the corner of his mouth.

He scratched his head, pretending nothing had happened. "Sister Tsunade, what happened?"

In his heart, though, he couldn't help savoring the memory.

That had been the real deal, all-natural and additive-free!

"Rikuto, you're finally awake!"

Just then,

Shizune walked in from outside.

A little pink pig followed at her feet.

Tonton rubbed against him, showing her concern. "Ton~~~ ton~~~"

"I'm fine. I just used up too much Chakra yesterday and passed out!"

Rikuto patted Tonton on the head.

He recalled what had happened yesterday and confirmed that he seemed to have fallen unconscious from exhaustion in the end.

"We came back and found you lying there covered in blood. You gave us such a fright..." Shizune patted her chest, still shaken. "Lady Tsunade's fear of blood even flared up!"

"Sister Tsunade's fear of blood?" Rikuto looked at Tsunade.

"It's nothing. I got a fright, but a misfortune turned into a blessing, and it actually went away!"

Tsunade finished straightening her clothes and walked over.

She shot Rikuto an annoyed glare, but didn't blame the little brat for his improper behavior just now.

Her gaze fixed on Rikuto, her eyes grave. "Tell me, what happened yesterday? Who hurt you like this?"

"And why do your injuries show signs of the Superhuman Strength Fist?"

"Well..." Rikuto scratched his head and said awkwardly, "You've got the wrong idea. No one attacked me. I hurt myself!"

He hadn't expected that he had caused Tsunade's fear of blood to flare up, too.

And from the sound of it, had that fear of blood, which even she, a master of medical arts, had been helpless to treat, miraculously been cured?

"You hurt yourself?"

Tsunade and Shizune froze.

Clenching her fists, Tsunade glared fiercely at Rikuto. "Tell me, what exactly happened?"

"To train my Taijutsu, I had my Wood Clones fight me using Taijutsu, so I ended up hurting myself!"

Rikuto spread his hands.

He had no intention of hiding it, either.

After all, both Tsunade and Shizune were people he could trust.

He would still need their help with treatment during his training from now on.

Besides, there might currently be more than one person in the Shinobi World whom he couldn't beat.

But whether anyone who could kill him actually existed was another matter.

Unless it was some Ōtsutsuki hiding in the shadows, too afraid to show himself!

"You little brat..."

Tsunade was furious.

She nearly slapped him.

Yesterday, she had seen him lying there covered in blood.

He had scared her and Shizune half to death.

They had thought someone had attacked him.

Who would have thought Rikuto had done it himself?

"Hey, Rikuto, wasn't that a little too reckless?"

Shizune was utterly speechless.

Having his own clones beat him up that badly...

Surely he was the first person in the entire Shinobi World to do that?

Still, having his own clones spar with him

really was a wildly imaginative idea.

"You brat, you really think you can do whatever you want now, don't you? That was downright reckless..."

She curled a finger and rapped Rikuto hard on the head.

Tsunade asked irritably, "To hurt you that badly, did you have more than one Wood Clone gang up on you?"

"Not many, just two Wood Clones..."

Rikuto spread his hands.

"Just two?"

Tsunade suddenly understood.

As the First Hokage's granddaughter, she naturally knew something about Wood Release. "Wood Clones are physical clones more realistic than Shadow Clones. If they're given enough Chakra, their Taijutsu alone might be no worse than the original's. No wonder you were hurt so badly!"

Beside her, Shizune no longer knew what to say.

She looked at Rikuto resentfully.

And to think they had been so worried about him yesterday.

It turned out he had done it to himself.

"The Superhuman Strength Fist makes such a commotion, but there's no sign of damage here. Did you go outside the city to train?"

"No, I opened a different dimension with my Mangekyō Sharingan's Dōjutsu!"

Rikuto shrugged.

He intended to come clean about the Sharingan to Tsunade, his teacher.

Otherwise, it would be bad if it caused some misunderstanding in the future.

"Mangekyo Sharingan?"

"A different dimension?"

At those words,

Shizune's and Tsunade's pupils both contracted sharply.

They stared at Rikuto in disbelief. "Rikuto, you have the Mangekyo Sharingan?"

"What on earth is going on?"

Taking a deep breath,

Tsunade looked directly at Rikuto, her face solemn.

Though he was young, he had always been steady and wouldn't joke about something like this.

"Well, I discovered that the Wood Release I awakened is a little special. It might be somewhat different from the First's Wood Release..."

"Hm? Special?"

Tsunade frowned.

She watched Rikuto and said gravely, "Yes, I noticed that too. You can even use Wood Release without making Hand Seals... But no matter how special it is, it couldn't possibly give you Uchiha blood, could it? Unless one of your parents or another direct ancestor was a member of the Uchiha clan."

She knew perfectly well

that unless someone had Uchiha blood,

an outsider couldn't deactivate a transplanted Sharingan.

Just like Kakashi. Although the Sharingan had earned him his famous title of "Copy Ninja" Kakashi,

he couldn't freely deactivate his Sharingan like other members of the Uchiha clan. It consumed Chakra constantly, becoming a tremendous burden.

That meant Rikuto probably hadn't received a transplanted Uchiha Sharingan.

As far as she knew,

Rikuto's mother and his grandfather

were both perfectly ordinary civilian ninja. There was no way they were Uchiha.

Could it be that a more distant direct ancestor had Uchiha blood?

"No, that's not it..."

Rikuto held nothing back and said frankly, "But I can use Wood Release to directly absorb and plunder other people's Chakra and even the nutrients in their bodies, turning them into nourishment for myself..."

"And as long as I can get their blood, I can perfectly fuse their latent genes with my own. I can even indirectly copy and plunder other people's Kekkei Genkai!"

As he spoke,

he closed his eyes.

When he opened them again,

they had already transformed into blood-red Sharingan.

Three black Tomoe spun around,

plainly visible.

"What!?"

"Gasp! They really are Sharingan!"

Looking at his intensely scarlet eyes,

Tsunade and Shizune were completely stunned.

They stared at Rikuto in disbelief, unable to keep from drawing a sharp breath.

Even they couldn't help feeling their scalps tingle at that moment.

What a terrifying ability!

He could actually directly copy and plunder even other people's Kekkei Genkai.

"So you awakened your Sharingan yourself after fusing with Uchiha blood?"

Tsunade took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.