More than two hours had passed since Genjo fused with Madara Uchiha's genes.
For a considerable time after the fusion was complete, Genjo could barely detect any changes in his body.
Only after repeatedly examining himself did he finally discover, deep within his mind, an extremely faint yet exceptionally pure trace of Spiritual Energy.
Had this clone not possessed astonishingly keen perception to begin with, further enhanced by the amplification of various talents, he would almost certainly have overlooked this insignificant change.
Then, about half an hour after the fusion was complete, his eyes changed, and without any warning or external stimulus, they simply transformed into the Sharingan.
Not awakened, but transformed.
For a thousand years, every awakening of the Sharingan within the Uchiha Clan had been inseparable from intense emotional upheaval. Yet Genjo's Sharingan completely bypassed this ironclad rule.
It was as though, at a certain moment, it had simply awakened on its own, naturally becoming the form his eyes had always been meant to possess.
Just as people are born with black, amber, or sea-blue eyes, Genjo simply happened to have red eyes with a black tomoe inside.
After his eyes became the Sharingan, Genjo also discovered something interesting: his Sharingan consumed not the slightest bit of chakra, nor did it require any additional physical or mental energy to maintain.
Just as blinking is instinctive and breathing is instinctive, so too was this pair of Sharingan for Genjo. These crimson eyes were the true, original form of his own eyes.
They were innate, requiring neither activation nor maintenance, just as ordinary people do not need to consciously expend any strength or energy to keep their hearts beating.
That was why Genjo described it as a transformation rather than an awakening.
Of course, if he actively used the Sharingan's various abilities, chakra consumption still existed.
It was like how an ordinary person's eyes would tire more quickly and expend more energy when reading densely packed academic papers, trying to discern a faint glimmer in the darkness, or trying not to squint in glaring sunlight.
This inevitably reminded Genjo of Indra Otsutsuki.
Indra had perfectly inherited his father's immense Spiritual Energy, the Sage of Six Paths, and thus was born with the Sharingan, entering the world already possessing the three tomoe Sharingan.
To him, those crimson eyes containing immense Visual Jutsu were not a Kekkei Genkai that needed to be awakened, but simply a part of his body, just like breathing, heartbeat, or opening his eyes to see the world.
At least, that was how Indra was portrayed in the manga's setting.
Although Genjo did not know what the historical Indra was like in this world, a hybrid setting that combined the anime, manga, and movies, the state of his own Sharingan at this moment was remarkably similar to that of the manga's naturally born Sharingan-wielding Indra.
That was why Genjo called it an innate Sharingan.
The only difference was that Indra had started with the three-tomoe Sharingan, and the Visual Jutsu of his three-tomoe Sharingan was extraordinarily powerful, even surpassing the Mangekyō Sharingan and even the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
Genjo's Sharingan, on the other hand, began as a one-tomoe Sharingan, and aside from not consuming any chakra, he did not sense any other special or extraordinary qualities in this single tomoe.
For someone at his current level, the combat enhancement provided by a one tomoe Sharingan could only be described as better than nothing.
No wonder the description of the Incarnation talent stated that a secondary bloodline only granted minor talents and additional potential. Unlike his primary bloodline, which had bestowed upon him at least five talents within the blue-to-purple talent level the moment the fusion was complete, allowing Genjo to possess outstanding innate strength even without talent enhancements.
His secondary bloodline, by comparison, only granted him a boost roughly equivalent to a green-level talent.
Another crucial point was that Genjo could exit the Sharingan state and maintain the appearance of normal eyes.
Yes, maintain.
Ordinary members of the Uchiha Clan had to consume chakra to maintain their Sharingan in its active state, but Genjo's situation was exactly the opposite. Since the Sharingan was the original form of his eyes, he instead had to consciously maintain their ordinary appearance.
Even so, this maintenance required no chakra. It was more like making a deliberate choice, much as an ordinary person could consciously regulate the rhythm of their breathing or intentionally adjust how often they blinked.
Still, having something that had once been completely natural suddenly become something requiring conscious control inevitably felt a little awkward, though fortunately Genjo found it manageable.
For Genjo, now was not the time to expose his Sharingan, as it would only bring unnecessary trouble.
Besides, what was there to show off about a one tomoe Sharingan?
If he was going to reveal it, it would at least be a three tomoe Sharingan, one even stronger than a Mangekyō Sharingan.
With that thought, Genjo's mind stirred, and the strange crimson gleam in his eyes gently rippled before reverting to the clear, tranquil black pupils they had worn before. He then stood up and walked outside.
How should he continue evolving his Sharingan?
As he walked, Genjo's mind raced.
Although his Sharingan currently possessed only a single tomoe, his body had perfectly fused the bloodline genes of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, the current reincarnations of Asura and Indra.
In terms of bloodline origin and the potential born from the union of Dark and Light, it was extraordinarily powerful.
If he could continue evolving his Sharingan in the future, gathering the power of all creation within himself, he might well have the opportunity to awaken his own Rinnegan.
He might even go a step further and reach the legendary Rinne Sharingan.
According to the conventional Uchiha path of awakening and evolution, every stage of the Sharingan's evolution required intense emotional stimulation, particularly the awakening of the one tomoe Sharingan and the Mangekyō Sharingan.
However, Genjo's Sharingan had been fundamentally different from that of ordinary Uchiha from the very beginning, and he was uncertain whether the conventional path even applied to him.
More importantly, even if it did, Genjo, or rather, Shinichi, could not think of anything capable of genuinely stimulating him emotionally.
Sometimes, in private, even Shinichi himself felt that his emotions had become far too detached, or perhaps he had simply grown accustomed to not caring.
As a result, the conventional path of Sharingan evolution might as well not exist for him.
As he pondered, Genjo's thoughts drifted once more to Indra and even to the Sage of Six Paths himself.
According to the manga's setting, not only was Indra born with the Sharingan, but the Sage of Six Paths himself was born with the Rinnegan.
Neither of them could possibly have experienced intense emotional trauma as newborn infants.
If the manga served as the reference, then the reason they were born with the Sharingan and the Rinnegan came down to only two factors: their bloodlines were sufficiently pure, and they were born with exceptionally powerful Spiritual Energy.
As for bloodline purity, his body, which combined the bloodlines of the current reincarnations of Asura and Indra, could unquestionably be considered pure.
That left only one crucial question: How could he increase his Spiritual Energy?