So... had it all been nothing more than one-sided wishful thinking?
Tobirama's words continued echoing through her mind.
As an Uchiha, Tomie understood one thing all too well.
Strength was what gave a person the greatest right to speak.
But had her current level of strength truly fallen so low that others would look down on her for it?
Tomie had to admit that if a genin tried to court her, she would reject him without the slightest hesitation...
Yet admitting that she herself was weak still tormented her deeply. The pride of the Uchiha clan seemed almost like an illness, preventing Tomie from calmly facing her own mediocrity.
Step by step, Tomie returned to the Uchiha clan compound. Looking utterly lost, she sat down on a set of steps and, under the moonlight, focused intently on the research notes in her hands.
But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't understand them!
After an unknown amount of time, a small figure approached and sat beside her, asking worriedly,
"Tomie-nee, are you all right? You look really pale..."
It was none other than Uchiha Itachi.
Fugaku was going to undergo a kekkei genkai transplant. After he had explained the matter to his family, Itachi and Mikoto had agreed, but they were still too worried to sleep.
That night, Itachi quietly left the house to clear his head within the clan compound, only to come across the deathly pale Tomie.
The moment Itachi saw her, he nearly jumped out of his skin.
A woman with slightly disheveled hair, crimson eyes streaked with tears, and a somewhat deranged expression sat clutching a black-covered book. Itachi nearly mistook her for some kind of monster that had appeared in the clan compound!
"Itachi, why are you here...?" Tomie turned her head. The crimson in her eyes looked like blood too thick to dissolve, and the three tomoe seemed almost to pulse.
That powerful, chilling ocular force seemed to seize Itachi by the throat in an instant, making even breathing difficult.
"Here, take a look. Do you understand what this formula means?" Tomie casually opened the notes to a page and read aloud while pointing at the writing.
Cold sweat covered Itachi's forehead.
What was going on?
Tomie-nee had always been so kind and pleasant toward him before. Why had her emotions suddenly become so unstable?!
Itachi even had the illusion that if he said the wrong thing, something truly terrible might happen.
"Don't lie to me..."
"If you know, then say you know. If you don't, then say you don't."
Tomie gently rubbed Itachi's little head. She wasn't using much force, yet the back of Itachi's neck stiffened all the same.
"I don't really know either..."
Itachi answered nervously, "I don't understand exactly what it means, but I can roughly guess what it's about. It has something to do with the Zero-Tails and the Box of Ultimate Bliss. I go to Seisui-nii's house to study every weekend..."
"Once, Seisui-nii explained what he was researching. This formula looks very similar to what he wrote back then..."
The hand resting on Itachi's head tightened slightly.
Even a child was better than her?
The intense emotions within Tomie finally surged into her eyes, which silently began to change.
"It seems Seisui's assessment of me really was correct..."
Tomie murmured to herself.
"I've remained stagnant for far too long. That's right... I heard that Committee Member Hiruko was also left behind by the Three Sannin and became dispirited for a time, but he still found a way to catch up..."
"Itachi, do you think it's possible for me to acquire the same research abilities as Uzumaki Shio and Seisui?"
Tomie stared intently at Itachi.
In Itachi's eyes, the three tomoe within Tomie's Sharingan seemed to be melting. Her ocular power was so cold and sinister that goosebumps rose across his skin...
Itachi felt frightened and wronged.
They were members of the same clan, so why was she treating him like this?
Couldn't she just talk to him normally...?
Itachi had a terrible feeling that Tomie might do something drastic.
"You can. Tomie-nee is the strongest kunoichi of Konoha's younger generation..."
"With the Sharingan, I'm sure you can do it..." Feeling the hand still resting on his head, Itachi truly had no other choice.
"Me? The strongest kunoichi?"
Tomie smiled soundlessly, but when she closed her eyes, all she could see was Uzumaki Shio standing before her that day like a demon god.
Like scenes flashing before her eyes, Tomie then remembered how Shio had slapped 'Seisui,' yet still fed Tomie her own blood...
"That's right. She even said that she'd read my medical examination report that day..."
"Has Uzumaki Shio been quietly watching over me all this time? What does she mean by that? What is that woman trying to do?"
"The companionship, support, and guidance Seisui spoke of... It seems Shio has been offering me exactly that. I do owe her a great deal. By my count, she's already helped save my life twice..."
"Heh. Seisui wasn't wrong. I have been rather selfish."
"But don't either of you think you can leave me behind! It's only scientific research, isn't it? I can do it too! Even if I don't understand its fundamental principles, I'll find a way to make such a contribution to Konoha that all of you will have no choice but to respect me!"
At that moment, Tomie clenched the research notes tightly in her hands.
After flipping through them for so long, she had remembered only two key terms.
One was 'direction,' and the other was 'data'...
Those two words seemed to engrave themselves into Tomie's mind, intertwining with Tobirama's intermittent closeness and distance over the past several months, Shio's words, her guilt over having neglected the village, and her thirst for strength...
All those fierce emotions blended together, causing the tomoe spinning within Tomie's eyes to break through their limits and merge into an exquisite Mangekyō pattern!
Thin streams of black blood flowed from Tomie's eyes.
Itachi stared in horror.
Strangely, however, after Tomie awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, Itachi could no longer feel the chill that her ocular power had radiated before.
"This is the power of the Uchiha clan..."
"Uzumaki Shio and Seisui only know how to rely on clumsy methods. How could they possibly understand the mysteries of bloodline power?"
"I can already see the futures that will allow the village to soar!"
"Shio, Seisui—I won't let you leave me behind. Until peace has come to the village, I will no longer concern myself with trivial emotional matters..."
The instant Tomie obtained the Mangekyō, her way of thinking changed.
"I'll use my dōjutsu to force everyone to give me back the damned respect I deserve!"
Information inherited through her bloodline began explaining the abilities of her two dōjutsu.
The first was named Kuebiko.
It was an ability derived from the Sharingan's power of insight.
It could convert any target within her field of vision into data and generate a detailed intelligence panel displaying the target's basic attributes, current condition, and hidden weaknesses. It could also analyze techniques released by an enemy.
The limitation of this dōjutsu was that Kuebiko's analytical ability was tied to the user's ocular power and existing understanding. It could not analyze abilities or individuals that far exceeded the user's comprehension.
However, when facing an excessively powerful target, she could choose to overdraw her ocular power to increase its processing capacity.
The second was named Kotoshironushi.
Upon activating this dōjutsu, Tomie would enter a special state of 'divine inspiration,' greatly enhancing her intuition as though she had received a blessing.
It was the manifestation of the concept of 'direction' that Tomie had remembered from the research notes.
Through an almost absurd form of passive perception, she could determine which choices were dead ends, which were wrong, and which would lead to undesirable outcomes. At the same time, her instincts would lock onto the optimal path—the one most aligned with her objective, with the highest chance of success and the lowest risk.
It could be used not only in battle, but also to select the proper direction for scientific research!
However, it also had limitations.
It could only eliminate incorrect options and lock onto the optimal route. It could not grant its user knowledge beyond their existing understanding out of nowhere.
For example, Tomie knew absolutely nothing about cellular biology. Even if she locked onto the correct path for transplanting Wood Release cells, she would still have no way of knowing the specific technical steps involved.
It could only tell her in broad terms that a certain path was correct. It could not allow her to skip the necessary study and practical work and directly turn that path into a functioning technology.
Moreover, the precision of its perception was inversely proportional to the time span and scale of the objective.
When predicting a battle within the next ten seconds, it could accurately judge the merits and flaws of every individual movement.
When predicting a scientific research project spanning several years, it could only lock onto the core overall direction. It could not determine whether every detail of every experiment was right or wrong.
And when it came to predicting the future of a living person, its accuracy became extremely poor. A person's complexity and the time span involved were both uncontrollable, and they were constantly changing.
At most, it could reveal a few images, which might even contradict one another and therefore held little value as a reference.
"Such power..."
"Hehehehe... Hahahahahahahaha!"
Tomie suddenly threw back her head and laughed wildly. All the frustration she had suppressed in the past erupted at once, becoming the celebratory cannon fire heralding the birth of her Mangekyō!
"I don't understand scientific research?"
"So what if I don't? If the village wants to accelerate its research into the First Hokage's cells, they'll need my dōjutsu to find the correct direction. Otherwise, they'll remain stuck for a very long time!"
"I, Uchiha Tomie, have no need to follow the conventional rules! This is the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan..."
"If I say this path is correct, then this path is correct!"
"It's nothing more than ocular power!"
"I don't care about it! At worst, once my ocular power is exhausted, I'll replace these eyes with Father's pair..."
Isshin had set a terrible precedent for the Mangekyō Uchiha.
Then again, it could also be said that Mangekyō Uchiha were rarely stingy with their ocular power to begin with. It was simply part of their personalities.
Itachi stared blankly at Tomie, not daring to move a muscle for fear that this lunatic might notice him.
"Itachi, thank you for staying with me..."
Tomie rubbed Itachi's head. The Mangekyō pattern in her eyes flickered as she tried to glimpse a possible bright future for him.
Her dōjutsu was inaccurate when used to predict a person's future, but it still had some effect.
Perhaps she would see him becoming clan head or earning great military achievements for Konoha. She could treat it as encouragement for the child.
But Tomie's expression suddenly froze.
To conserve ocular power, she had intended to draw only a single frame from Itachi's possible futures—yet she had pulled gold!
She saw it.
Itachi was walking through the bloodstained Uchiha clan compound with a blade in his hand. Fallen clansmen surrounded him, glaring at him with hatred.
Tomie's face instantly turned cold.
She had seen something like this from just one frame?
Had it been anyone else, she might have seen them eating or taking a walk instead...
Was this a warning from fate?
'No...'
'I need to stay calm...'
'People are complex and constantly changing. What I saw could have been a parallel world or merely a false extension of possibility.'
'But it still proves that this brat Itachi has the potential to bring ruin to both the Uchiha and Konoha.'
Tomie pinched Itachi's chin and stared at him with her bewitching Mangekyō eyes.
"Itachi, you must remember this. Never go to extremes. You must always keep both the village and the clan in your heart, and you must never do anything that would harm them. Should you ever stray from the proper path, I'll help you commit seppuku."
"These eyes of mine will always be watching you. Conduct yourself carefully..."
Itachi nodded pitifully. "I understand, Tomie-nee. Please stop staring at me. I'm scared..."
Tomie sighed. No matter how she looked at it, Itachi was still only a child.
It truly would be unfair to become hostile toward him merely because of a fragment of a future that might not even have a one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance of happening.
"I believe in you, Itachi... I was only teasing you just now!"
Tomie pinched Itachi's cheek, wiped the blood from her face and eye sockets, then rose gracefully and walked away.
She intended to find Uzumaki Shio first thing tomorrow morning...
And tell her that Tomie had already become the companion she needed most!
After awakening her Mangekyō dōjutsu, Tomie had attained enlightenment. Seisui, romance—all of it was empty illusion...
A true Konoha shinobi should first learn to strengthen herself and become an indispensable pillar of the village. Then everything she desired would naturally come to her. That was the grand path along which flowers bloomed at every step.
"You're a very useful whetstone, Shio..."
"We'll keep sharpening each other, grow rapidly together, and become the village's brightest rising stars."
"Mito-sama is naturally Konoha's strongest kunoichi at present—but in the future, that title will belong to me!"
"As for Seisui..."
"I don't even want to deal with him right now!"
Tomie could hardly wait to see the astonishment on Shio's face tomorrow.
Didn't know which path was best for a research project?
Ask her!
Tailed Beast chakra was powerful?
Her Susanoo could crush anything in its path! On second thought, she couldn't activate that casually...
"Could there be a way to replenish the ocular power of the Mangekyō?"
An idea stirred in Tomie's mind.
"That's right. I can use my dōjutsu to confirm the proper direction. As long as Shio and Orochimaru-sama provide me with enough hypotheses, I can help them identify a viable solution!"
"If I can truly solve this problem, my name will be remembered by the clan forever!"
At that moment, Tomie finally understood why Seisui had no interest in romance—or rather, why he was so selective.
Some things truly offered a greater sense of accomplishment than romance and were far more intoxicating...
"I can give Seisui one chance to make me overdraw my ocular power. Consider it repayment for what he did for me."
"But if he comes to me with another private project, then he'll have to beg me..." Tomie smiled with a slightly unhinged look.
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