"That's the reason."
Uchiha Yashiro's voice caught in his throat.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but nothing came out.
That was true. The Uchiha already had one candidate.
Kiyohara.
Also an Uchiha. Also fully qualified.
It was just that Kiyohara had grown up outside the clan, so his ties to the Uchiha were relatively weak.
He had attended the secret gatherings beneath Naka Shrine, but there was still a layer of distance between him and the clan.
So what else could Yashiro say?
Unwilling to accept it, he turned to look at Uchiha Fugaku.
Fugaku sat there, his expression unchanged.
A moment later, he slowly spoke.
"That's enough."
Fugaku's words made Yashiro stiffen.
"Lord Fugaku…"
"Stand down."
Fugaku cut him off.
Yashiro clenched his teeth, then finally lowered his head and sat back down.
The meeting room fell quiet for a moment.
Kiyohara could feel the eyes on him. Most of them were complicated.
An Uchiha standing only one step away from becoming Hokage.
To many people, that was both a hope and a threat.
After all, the theory that the Uchiha were a danger to the village had always been widespread.
And honestly, people could hardly be blamed for that. Uchiha Madara, a former clan head, had tried to destroy Konoha twice, and Uchiha Setsuna had once incited a smaller-scale rebellion.
Among all Konoha's clans, that kind of record was unique to the Uchiha.
But Kiyohara didn't care what other people thought.
Their opinions meant nothing to him.
Power was everything.
The meeting continued.
"That concludes the full list of candidates."
With Homura Mitokado's final declaration, the three Hokage candidates were officially set.
Koharu Utatane then began reading out the details of the election process, voting rules, and schedule.
Kiyohara sat there, but his thoughts had already drifted elsewhere.
Deep within his eyes, that warm sensation still remained.
He could feel that the thing inside them was gradually taking shape.
The Mangekyō Sharingan.
It was close.
…
By the time the meeting ended, it was nearly noon.
Kiyohara and Tsunade walked out of the Hokage Building side by side.
The sunlight fell warmly over them.
"Not bad at all."
Tsunade turned to look at him, a smile in her golden-brown eyes.
"So, now you're drinking with me, right?"
"Sure."
Kiyohara nodded.
He had been in the ninja world for over ten years, and he really hadn't had alcohol once.
At first it was because he was too young.
But thinking about it carefully, ninja killed people every day, so who was seriously going to draw the line at drinking?
Tsunade raised a brow.
"That easy?"
"Yeah."
Kiyohara smiled.
"If you want a drink, sensei, I'll keep you company."
Tsunade gave a small huff and turned her face away.
But the slight upward curl of her lips refused to go down.
…
Izakaya.
Inside a private room, the low table was covered with bottles and bar snacks.
Tsunade sat across from Kiyohara, lifted her cup, and drained it in one go.
"Now that hits the spot!"
She slammed the cup down and poured herself another.
Kiyohara sat across from her, picked up his own cup, and took a light sip.
The liquor went down his throat with a burning, spicy heat.
But he didn't even frown.
Tsunade looked at him, surprise flashing in her eyes.
"Not bad. You can hold your liquor."
"I do okay."
Kiyohara took another sip.
Tsunade smiled and kept drinking.
One cup after another.
One bottle after another.
Kiyohara sat there and watched her.
At first, Tsunade was still speaking clearly.
But gradually, her words started to slur.
Her cheeks grew redder and redder, the flush spreading from her face to her ears, from her ears down to her neck.
A hazy shimmer began to appear in her golden-brown eyes.
"Kiyohara…"
She suddenly spoke.
"Yeah?"
"Tell me… do you think you can really become Hokage?"
Kiyohara looked at her.
She was leaning against the back of her chair, her long blonde hair a little messy, a few strands stuck to her cheek.
Her collar had loosened slightly, revealing a pale line of skin below her collarbone.
"I don't know."
Kiyohara shook his head.
"But I'll do my best."
Tsunade smiled.
The smile carried a hint of drunkenness, a hint of laziness.
"Doing your best… good…"
She picked up her cup and poured back another mouthful.
A little liquor slipped from the corner of her lips, ran down her chin, and stained her collar.
She wiped at it casually and kept drinking.
Kiyohara watched her, expression unchanged.
'Strange. I'm not even using chakra to sober myself up, and my tolerance is still this high?'
Kiyohara thought to himself.
He guessed it was because his body had become stronger. His metabolism and detoxification had fundamentally improved, so the alcohol was being broken down almost as soon as it entered his system.
After who knew how long, Tsunade finally stopped moving.
She leaned back in her chair, eyes half-closed, her chest rising and falling softly.
Her beautiful face was completely flushed from the alcohol.
Kiyohara stood up and walked over to her side.
"Sensei, it's time to head back."
Tsunade lifted her eyes to look at him.
His figure was reflected in those golden-brown irises.
"Mm…"
She gave a vague response, but didn't move.
Kiyohara reached out and lightly tapped her thigh.
"Sensei?"
The moment his hand landed there, he felt the warmth and softness through the thin layer of fabric.
Her thigh was full and firm, but still carried that distinct feminine softness.
Tsunade's body trembled slightly.
She looked up at him and glared.
There was a trace of drunken annoyance in that look, and a trace of reproach, but no real anger.
"You brat…"
she mumbled.
"That's the second time today you've taken advantage of me."
Kiyohara looked at her.
"What are you talking about? I'm just reminding you that it's time to go."
He kept patting her leg as he spoke in the most righteous tone possible.
"You've had too much to drink, sensei. I'm taking you home."
Tsunade gave a soft huff, but didn't refuse.
Kiyohara reached out and supported her arm.
Using him for balance, Tsunade got to her feet, though her steps were unsteady.
She leaned against him, almost hanging off his body.
Her body was warm and soft, carrying the scent of alcohol and her own natural fragrance.
Kiyohara could feel her pressing against his arm, the warmth unmistakable.
Lowering his head slightly, he could catch a glimpse of pale skin beneath her collar.
Then the scenery around them began to distort.
In the next instant, the two of them were standing in Tsunade's living room.
Tsunade stood there in place and rubbed her eyes.
"...We're home?"
Her words came out slurred.
"Yeah."
Kiyohara let go of her.
"Get some rest, sensei."
Tsunade looked at him without speaking.
His reflection stayed in her golden-brown eyes.
A moment later, she suddenly raised a hand.
Her finger poked him lightly in the chest.
"You…"
she mumbled.
"You're getting more and more out of line…"
Kiyohara caught her finger in his hand.
It was slender and soft, still carrying a faint warmth.
"You don't like it?"
Tsunade froze for a second.
"You little brat…"
She pulled her hand back, turned, and started toward the stairs.
After a few steps, she suddenly stopped.
"Kiyohara."
"Yeah?"
"Good night."
She didn't turn around as she kept walking.
Kiyohara stood there, watching her disappear around the bend in the staircase.
"Good night, sensei."
he said softly.
…
That night.
Kiyohara sat in his room with his eyes closed, sensing the changes inside his body.
On the back of his hand, a pale violet mark was slowly taking shape.
It was the outline of the Yin Seal.
But unlike the Yin Seal on the forehead, this one was much smaller and much simpler.
Kiyohara tried refining sage chakra, mixed with natural energy, and channeling it into that mark.
The chakra moved across the back of his hand and slowly seeped into the pattern.
Beside it was another seal pattern.
When chakra flowed into it, it appeared; otherwise, it stayed hidden beneath the skin.
What Kiyohara was considering was whether the two could be combined, so he could further expand the amount of sage chakra he could store.
Once someone entered Sage Mode, they couldn't keep drawing in natural energy and converting more sage chakra at will. Every bit they used was one bit less.
Unless they stopped and remixed a new supply of sage chakra.
Ordinary chakra, by contrast, could be extracted from the body's cells even in the middle of combat, letting a shinobi maintain a constant supply.
After studying it for a while, Kiyohara decided to leave it for later.
His current combat strength was already enough, and there were other directions he could focus on as well.
Improving the endurance of Sage Mode was mainly preparation for dealing with the Ōtsutsuki later.
For example, he was also researching the chakra armor from the Land of Snow.
What Kiyohara currently wanted to examine was its ability to defend against genjutsu, especially since the armor's defense was automatic.
What he was wondering was this: if he could reproduce that effect somehow, could it defend against Shisui's genjutsu?
If so, his resistance to genjutsu in the future would rise to another level entirely.
…
The next morning.
Kiyohara woke from sleep.
The moment he opened his eyes, he felt something was different.
A scorching heat rose from deep within them.
It was like two flames were burning furiously in the depths of his eye sockets.
Instinctively, he raised a hand and touched his eyes.
The moment his fingertips brushed his eyelids, he could clearly feel the pulse of his eyeballs.
It was here.
Kiyohara sat up and took a deep breath.
Chakra flowed through his body, rushing toward his eyes.
Deep within his sockets, those two flames began to merge.
He could feel the three tomoe undergoing some mysterious transformation.
They began to spin, to intertwine, to fuse.
Each tomoe moved closer to the others, weaving together until they finally formed an entirely new pattern.
That pattern took shape deep inside his eyes, becoming clearer and clearer, more and more complete.
And then, in that pitch-black world, light came flooding in!
Kiyohara opened his eyes.
In that instant, he saw a different world.
Colors became more vivid. Outlines became sharper.
He could see dust floating in the air, the veins in the leaves outside the window, even an ant crawling on a distant rooftop.
Nothing could hide from those eyes anymore.
Kiyohara got up and walked to the mirror.
His face was reflected there.
And on that handsome face, the most striking thing was his eyes.
Against the crimson backdrop, an entirely new pattern had appeared.
It looked like two overlapping black moons, ringed by a small circle of black tomoe.
The Mangekyō Sharingan!
Kiyohara looked at his reflection in the mirror, the corner of his lips lifting slightly.
He closed his eyes again and sensed the power inside them.
He could clearly feel his ocular power had surged by a huge margin.
That ocular power was also feeding back into his body nonstop.
Two distinct eye techniques appeared clearly in his mind.
And Kiyohara immediately understood what they could do.
When an Uchiha awakened a Mangekyō technique, the user would instinctively name it.
Kiyohara didn't know the principle behind it, but the names all represented gods from mythology.
Just like Itachi's Amaterasu, named after the sun goddess, or Sasuke's Kagutsuchi, named after the god of fire.
The technique in Kiyohara's left eye was called Amenominakanushi.
It represented the primordial heavenly deity of creation in mythology, the sovereign god seated at the center of heaven.
It allowed him to manipulate attraction and repulsion, drawing in or pushing away all things.
Whether it was an enemy's attack or his own body, he could alter its trajectory instantly.
The technique in his right eye was called Ashihara no Kakuriyo.
That name represented the great deity who ruled the land and the hidden world, also known as the God of Eight Thousand Spears.
It allowed him to concentrate gravity at a single point, creating a miniature gravitational singularity anywhere within his line of sight, forcibly dragging everything within a five-meter radius toward it while continuously applying several times normal gravity.
Enemies caught by it would have their movements slowed, and even thrown kunai would be forcefully dragged off course.
Kiyohara opened his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror.
His Mangekyō reflected his own face back at him.
"Not bad."
He felt these two eye techniques were pretty solid.
And both of them dealt with attraction, repulsion, and gravity.
But at their core, his eye techniques were really all about gravitational force.
Repulsion was simply the opposite side of attraction.
And gravity was just a fixed-point, high-pressure form of attraction.
"I wonder what kind of ability my Rinnegan technique will have."
Kiyohara stroked his chin.
After a moment of thought, he decided to start familiarizing himself with the Mangekyō's powers.
He suspected that his own Mangekyō Sharingan would not blind him as easily as it did other Uchiha, because he possessed extremely strong Yang Release chakra.
Asura had inherited the Sage of Six Paths' Yang Release, while Indra had inherited his Yin Release.
The clans descended from them inherited that distinction as well, which was what eventually gave rise to the Uchiha, the Senju, and the Uzumaki.
After Obito transplanted Hashirama's cells, he gained abundant life force and the Yang Release tied to them, which helped balance the Mangekyō's power and allowed him to use its techniques freely.
"That's probably the reason. Danzo's arm full of Sharingan was balanced the same way."
Kiyohara thought to himself.
But that balance was delicate.
After the Uchiha massacre, Danzo's stockpile was definitely more than just ten Sharingan. That was only five Uchiha worth.
If he had packed his stomach full of Sharingan too, he would've had dozens, maybe hundreds of lives.
But the reason he didn't was simple: the Hashirama cells would have gone out of balance.
Danzo could only control one arm containing Hashirama cells, and under those conditions, it obviously couldn't suppress too many Sharingan.
So he had to maintain that exact number. Not too many, not too few.
Too many, and the Hashirama cells would run wild.
Too few, and the Sharingan would run wild.
Obito was the same, except he had transplanted far more Hashirama cells than Danzo had, giving him better control. On top of that, his Sharingan were his own originals.
Kiyohara's situation was pretty similar to Obito's.
The only difference was that his body didn't possess the same overwhelming Yang Release vitality as Hashirama Senju's. But in exchange, his Sharingan and his bloodline were highly compatible.
"Ashihara no Kakuriyo…"
Kiyohara activated the eye technique.
A highly concentrated mass of Yin Release chakra gathered at the focal point of his vision, rapidly collapsing inward until it became a small black sphere.
The sphere began pulling in the objects around it, even dragging his blanket toward it.
Just before the blanket could touch it, Kiyohara stopped the technique.
Thump.
The blanket fell to the floor.
"As expected. It puts some strain on me, but not much."
Kiyohara thought.
His Mangekyō Sharingan was probably dozens of times more durable than an ordinary Mangekyō.
Of course, if he overused it, he would still go blind.
But if he controlled how often he used it, that blindness could be delayed for a very long time.
And that time would be more than enough for him to find a way to create an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
After that, Kiyohara tried out Amenominakanushi as well.
He created a shadow clone and had it throw a kunai at him.
But when the kunai got close, it was as though it had hit an invisible wall and was diverted to the side.
Seeing that, Kiyohara fell into thought.
If he kept developing Amenominakanushi, maybe he could use some of the Rinnegan's powers ahead of time.
Namely Universal Pull and Almighty Push.
Those two basic Rinnegan abilities were, in essence, nothing more than attraction and repulsion.
After familiarizing himself with the powers for a while, Kiyohara left the village and headed into an empty forest.
There, he used Susanoo.
Golden ribs formed around his body, and then a single giant skeletal arm appeared above them.
Kiyohara thrust it forward with a swing.
Boom!
A massive crater was blasted into the ground.
"I still need a lot more practice if I want to develop Susanoo further."
Kiyohara thought.
Using it like this consumed Mangekyō power, of course, but if he never used it at all, then in a real battle he'd have to spend time adapting on the spot.
And even the smallest mistake could affect the outcome of a fight.
Only after all of that did Kiyohara return to Konoha.
His body was still slowly changing.
Partly because he had inherited part of the Uzumaki's legacy, and partly because the Mangekyō Sharingan's explosive increase in ocular power was feeding back into him.
......…
"Is Kiyohara-senpai home?"
Kiyohara was at home working on improvements to the Yin Seal when someone called out from outside.
Shizune quickly went to answer the door.
She found a girl around the same age as Uchiha Itachi.
"Izumi?"
Shizune had heard Kiyohara mention her before.
"Yes, I'm Uchiha Izumi."
Izumi nodded politely.
"I came to see Kiyohara-senpai."
Before coming, Izumi had asked her mother, Uchiha Hazuki, for permission.
Seeing her daughter receive the protection of someone this powerful was naturally something Hazuki could only hope for.
And now, Uchiha Izumi had become Kiyohara's second disciple, as well as Uchiha Itachi's junior fellow student.
"So it's Izumi."
Kiyohara looked at the girl Shizune had brought up to him and smiled faintly.
Teaching Uchiha Izumi felt easier to him than teaching Uchiha Itachi.
Because Itachi thought too much. He was always brooding over all kinds of things by himself.
Izumi, by contrast, gave Kiyohara a lot more emotional reward.
No matter what Kiyohara did, Izumi always looked at him with that little expression that said he was amazing.