However, the place Kurogane Ren returned to was no longer his old home, but a brand-new house with a courtyard.
This was a residence he had purchased after becoming the leader of the Sealing Team. With his current status, the price had been practically at the lowest tier.
After taking on this position, his salary was quite substantial, and he also received research funding from above, which forced him to reduce the frequency of taking missions.
After all, why had he taken missions before? To earn money for researching sealing techniques.
Now that he had both funding and a generous salary, constantly running off to do missions would clearly raise suspicion.
Since he was now spending more time in the village, his old excuse of rarely being home no longer held up. Naturally, he needed a proper residence.
He had carefully chosen this house. It was far from the Hokage Building, and there were no particularly strong ninja nearby.
That was intentional. He was worried that using the Summoning Technique to leave might attract attention, which was why he had selected this location.
After returning, Kurogane Ren didn't rest. Instead, he went straight to the Sealing Team headquarters.
"Leader, you're here?"
The guard on duty wasn't surprised at all when he saw Kurogane Ren.
For them, their new leader showing up in the middle of the night to work was completely normal. In the eyes of the Sealing Team, their leader was excessively obsessed with sealing techniques—to a degree that left them speechless.
The initial hostility toward this sudden appointment had gradually faded.
Of course, the most important reason was that his mastery of sealing techniques far surpassed everyone in the team.
"No dozing off this time?" Kurogane Ren glanced at him with a faint smile.
"Hehe, how could I dare?" The guard scratched his head, thinking to himself that since everyone knew their leader might show up at midnight, who would dare slack off at such a time?
"Alright, I'm going in." Kurogane Ren didn't linger. He wasn't like the Third Hokage, who could chat with anyone.
"Yes!"
After he left, the guard revealed a delighted expression.
Everyone knew that once their leader entered to study sealing techniques, he wouldn't come out for a long time. That meant slacking off now would go unnoticed.
Kurogane Ren knew the man would slack off after he left, but he didn't care. He had no intention of enforcing overly strict discipline.
He arrived at the sealing sphere that controlled the village's barrier and began examining its records. At this time, the Summoning Technique was still used rarely, but he managed to find the trace that belonged to him.
"So there are still traces…" Kurogane Ren narrowed his eyes. If he wanted to achieve completely untraceable transfers, he would need to slightly modify the barrier and leave behind a hidden gateway known only to himself.
With that in mind, he erased his own trace, created several shadow clones, and began researching sealing techniques.
One could say he was openly using the Sealing Team's research funds to study what he personally needed. As for reporting results later, it wasn't an issue—he had already produced many derivative sealing techniques before.
He could casually submit a few as成果.
He could even assign some less important sealing techniques to his subordinates for refinement and innovation.
What he was studying now wasn't something entirely new, but rather something he had already been researching.
Previously, his main focus had been on a sealing technique designed to extract tailed beast chakra. Although this current project had been researched before, it hadn't been the main priority, so it was only halfway complete.
The composite sealing technique he now aimed to perfect centered on three core aspects: memory extraction, memory sealing, and creating illusions based on extracted memories.
Memory extraction was entirely possible in the ninja world. The Yamanaka clan's secret techniques could do it, as could certain genjutsu combined with other methods.
There was also the Human Path ability of the Rinnegan.
In any case, memory extraction was achievable. What Kurogane Ren was doing now was implementing it through sealing techniques.
As for memory sealing, that was even more straightforward. Minato Namikaze had used such a technique in the Dragon Veins movie.
As for creating illusions, he had recently studied genjutsu-related books. With clear memories as templates, constructing such illusion-based experiences wasn't particularly difficult.
After thoroughly mastering the barrier sealing techniques Minato had given him, the progress of this composite sealing technique had advanced significantly.
In a way, Minato had unknowingly helped him greatly.
Otherwise, completing this technique would have taken several more years. Now, however…
If he accelerated his research, it should be finished within the year.
At that point, he could simulate the experiences he needed based on memories.
And this entire project existed for one purpose—the Sharingan.
After all, the Sharingan required intense emotions to awaken. It often required experiencing "love," and then, upon losing that "love," the brain would undergo intense stimulation. Chakra would surge into the eyes, causing a mutation that awakened the Sharingan.
In reality, Kurogane Ren couldn't think of anyone he truly cared about. He had long accepted that in this life, there likely wouldn't be anyone he could truly "love."
That was why he chose to research this sealing technique—to force the awakening.
As for theories suggesting that sufficient mental strength alone could awaken it, they were merely speculation. He wouldn't treat speculation as fact.
He could test such ideas, but they wouldn't interfere with his research.
In fact, he believed his mental strength was already sufficient, yet something was still missing.
Based on his analysis of how the Uchiha awakened their Sharingan, what he lacked was sufficient emotional intensity.
This didn't necessarily require loss. For example, Obito Uchiha awakened his two-tomoe Sharingan purely through "love," without losing anything at the time. Of course, when he later experienced loss, he jumped directly from two tomoe to the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Although Kurogane Ren didn't follow Boruto closely, from what he had seen in clips, there was even someone who awakened the Mangekyō purely through love…
Honestly, what would the Uchiha of Naruto's era even think of that?
But regardless of whether it was Naruto or Boruto, none of that applied to Kurogane Ren. He admitted that his emotions were somewhat too faint. There was no one he could love deeply, nor anyone he would come to hate with absolute intensity.
Aside from the brief excitement he felt when obtaining the Demon Bud Technique, his emotions had always remained stable.
So, if he wanted to rely on his own emotions to awaken the Sharingan, he might as well just go to sleep and dream about it.
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