Chapter 14: The Rinnegan
At the end of Mist Year 27, having completed everything he needed to do in the small town, Kiyoshi prepared to leave.
Putting all the necessary supplies he had gradually purchased in the town into his storage scroll, Kiyoshi embarked on his journey to the Hidden Mist Village.
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Land of Frost, Graveyard of Mountains, deep underground, there was a huge cavern where an old man sat withered.
His hair stood up like hedgehog needles, his once flowing long hair had become dry and white, and his wrinkled face, bloodless cheeks, and cloudy eyes all foreshadowed that the old man's life was coming to an end.
The old man was none other than Madara Uchiha, the Warring States Period's Demon.
In the battle at the Valley of the End, Madara Uchiha was defeated by Hashirama Senju, but he had anticipated Tobirama Senju's deep malice towards the Uchiha clan. As a research fanatic, Tobirama would definitely not destroy the corpse of the strongest Uchiha in order to study the secrets of the Uchiha. So before the battle, he had set up the Uchiha's life-risking forbidden technique, Izanagi, in his right eye through a transcription seal. After the war, sure enough, Tobirama secretly hid Madara Uchiha's body in the back mountains of Konoha, trying to study the secrets of the Sharingan.
Ultimately, at the cost of losing the light in his right Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, Madara rewrote reality and was resurrected. He then disguised a Shadow Clone as his corpse and quietly left Konoha.
After his resurrection, Madara Uchiha began to strive to realize his ideal.
During his previous battle with Hashirama Senju, Madara had bitten off a piece of flesh from Hashirama. After his resurrection, he spat out the flesh and transplanted it to his wound, thus successfully obtaining Hashirama's cells. As the degree of cellular fusion slowly deepened, Hashirama Senju's face appeared on Madara's left chest. Madara Uchiha, who hadn't competed with Mito Uzumaki, was now eternally with his good friend Hashirama Senju in another way.
"Repelling forces, becoming one, giving birth to all things." Hashirama Senju's Wood Release power and Madara Uchiha's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan power could fuse to obtain the power of all things. This was Madara Uchiha's understanding of the records on the stone tablet left by the so-called Sage of Six Paths.
However, after transplanting Hashirama's cells, although Madara could feel his strength slowly increasing, and he even later mastered Wood Release, which no other Senju clan member could master, the power of all things he had expected never materialized.
Time passed, and Madara Uchiha, over 60 years old, gradually felt his strength failing. The various hidden injuries accumulated from frequent battles in his youth gradually affected his body, and his strength began to decline continuously. In desperation, in the last few years of his life, Madara returned to his underground base in the Graveyard of Mountains, quietly waiting for the Pure Land to call him.
In his mind, Madara Uchiha's magnificent life flashed by like a movie. All the details of his love-hate relationship with Hashirama Senju passed through his mind. Madara, who was already 71 years old, knew that his time was up.
Just then, the Hashirama cells implanted in Madara's body finally completed their fusion with his own cells at the genetic level. Today, a thousand years later, Indra and Asura's Chakra perfectly intertwined, leading out a wisp of Chakra with the characteristics of the Six Paths. As soon as this Chakra appeared, its total amount rapidly increased, and it involuntarily circulated quickly within Madara's body, finally rushing towards the meridians in his eyes.
Madara opened his eyes wide. His right eye was completely grayish-white, but the Sharingan in his left eye automatically emerged. The three black tomoe quickly began to rotate, then connected together, automatically transforming into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. The speed of the Sharingan's rotation increased faster and faster. The red color gradually faded, and a trace of purple appeared, then quickly expanded. Ripples appeared on the eyeball. Madara's Rinnegan had awakened!
"Hahahaha!" An old but hearty laugh echoed throughout the cave.
Madara Uchiha, whose lifespan was nearing its end, finally awakened the Rinnegan at the last moment of his life.
"Summoning Technique!" Madara instinctively put his hands together in a seal, then slammed his right hand hard on the ground opposite him, and a huge amount of Chakra burst forth.
"Bang!" A huge cloud of white smoke filled the entire cave. When the smoke cleared, a giant humanoid monster with nine eyes and a body color like withered wood appeared behind Madara, with ten pillar-like protrusions on its back.
"The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path?" The name of the monster behind him naturally appeared in Madara's mind.
"Roar!" The statue, which had just been released from its sealing on the moon, roared loudly, as if venting its dissatisfaction at being sealed, or perhaps venting its anger at being forcibly divided and losing the power of the nine tailed beasts.
Madara formed the "Serpent" hand seal and began to manipulate the statue. Under his control, the statue gradually stopped its agitation and extended several tube-like things, inserting them into Madara's back.
Madara, who received the life force from the statue, survived. And Black Zetsu, who had been lurking nearby for many years and had been in despair, stared at Madara Uchiha's Rinnegan with surprise.
"Mother, I finally see hope. The Rinnegan has finally appeared!" Black Zetsu, who had worked hard for this for a thousand years, was extremely excited and began to secretly plan his subsequent actions.
And Madara, who had awakened the Rinnegan, also rekindled his hope. The Rinnegan contained a resurrection technique called "Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique", which gave him the confidence to continue implementing his plan for what he believed to be peace.
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At the same time as Madara Uchiha awakened the Rinnegan, on the Land of Water side, Kiyoshi, who had just embarked on his journey, looked towards the northwest with doubts.
"A familiar aura," Kiyoshi murmured.
After thinking carefully, Kiyoshi showed a look of realization.
"This aura seems to be the Rinnegan. It's a bit like that Hagoromo Otsutsuki." Isshiki, who had once watched the Otsutsuki brothers seal Kaguya and Indra's battle against Asura up close, was no stranger to the auras of Hagoromo Otsutsuki and his two sons.
"It seems that black, gooey thing called Black Zetsu created it. Then the one who awakened the Rinnegan should be that Madara Uchiha!" Kiyoshi instantly thought of the consciousness entity that Kaguya had separated before being completely sealed in the memory screen, and also thought of the scene he had seen in his previous life of Black Zetsu and Madara Uchiha revealing their true feelings to each other.
"It's getting more and more interesting. The windmill of the ninja world has started turning!" Kiyoshi smiled, then suppressed his thoughts and ignored it, continuing to head towards the Hidden Mist Village. After all, his top priority now was to digest Isshiki's gift and accelerate his own growth.
Three months later, in the spring of Mist Year 28, Kiyoshi, who had been enjoying the scenery along the way, arrived at the Hidden Mist Village.
The 9-year-old Kiyoshi was now 150cm tall. Several months of recuperation had provided his body with sufficient nutrition, and he was no longer as thin as before.
Taking out the identity certificate that he had asked the subordinates of the exchange to issue for him when he passed by the capital of the Land of Water, Kiyoshi strolled towards the gate of the Hidden Mist Village.