Mito hadn't forgotten the purpose of this trip: to test the potential of the Uzumaki Clan's Kekkei Genkai within Naruto Uzumaki.
It wouldn't take long. Compared to watching the Nine-Tails' memories from its arrival in Konoha all the way to sixty years later, this would only take a few minutes at most.
After withdrawing from Naruto's chakra, several Uzumaki clan ninja let out heavy breaths.
Hot-blooded and quick-tempered was practically the Uzumaki clan's trademark.
What they received from the Nine-Tails wasn't limited to information about Konoha and Naruto. It also included news of the Uzumaki clan's eventual extermination.
The sudden surge of chakra flooded the tatami room, alarming the entire village. Konoha's ninja rushed toward the source, convinced something critically important had happened. Even Jiraiya and Kisame, who was effectively being held under disguised confinement, could sense that raging chakra.
The Warring States Era. The age of a hundred clans.
Among the most powerful families, the Senju, Uchiha, and Uzumaki were always counted.
If the Uchiha inherited the Sage's eyes, and the Senju inherited the Sage's body, then the Uzumaki had likely inherited the Sage's natural chakra reserves.
Now that chakra had gone berserk, throwing Konoha's ninja into panic.
"Stop, Mito," Hashirama Senju said quickly, trying to calm both her and the Uzumaki ninja.
The Uzumaki clan members who had originally hoped to arrange a union between Mito Uzumaki and Hashirama Senju now hesitated. Unable to decide, they planned to return to the Land of Whirlpools and consult their clan head before making any commitment.
After reining in her anger and shock, Mito didn't immediately bring up matters concerning the Land of Whirlpools. Instead, she looked at the Uzumaki descendant before her, a child who had already become a Jinchūriki on the day he was born.
"He's only inherited the Uzumaki clan's immense chakra," she said calmly. "Fūinjutsu can be learned, but the chance of awakening the Adamantine Sealing Chains is almost nonexistent."
Naruto thought of Karin.
"Then what about healing others by letting them bite you?" he asked. "Is that also an Uzumaki ability?"
A young man standing beside Mito replied, "That power belongs to a rare subspecies within the Uzumaki clan. It's extremely uncommon, but there have been a few recorded cases."
"That's right," another person added. "Once someone awakens that ability, they're usually kept under strict protection. They're rarely allowed to leave the Land of Whirlpools, let alone another clan's core territory."
Thinking about what Karin had been through, Naruto felt his spirits sink.
With their chakra fully restrained again, the Uzumaki clan members found themselves filled with uncertainty about their future. Emotions tangled together, and the room gradually fell silent. Neither side knew how to continue the discussion.
Madara Uchiha, who had been sitting there the entire time, was clearly losing patience. He had never liked tedious formalities. Cutting straight to the point, he said, "There's an intelligence scroll here, sealed with Fūinjutsu. See if you can undo it."
Straightforward by nature, the Uzumaki accepted the scroll and opened it immediately. Inside, they found that the seals on two entries had already been released: [The Secret of the Uchiha Stone Monument] and [The Method to Revive Izuna].
Mito raised an eyebrow. Just being allowed to see those two titles showed how much trust the Uchiha clan head was placing in them.
As for the third entry, its title was even more striking.
[The True Method to Prevent Mangekyō Sharingan Blindness?!]
"The curse markings carved into this seal are extremely complex," Mito Uzumaki said after a brief look. "Give me one day to study it."
Madara Uchiha found himself unexpectedly impressed by this decisive, capable red-haired woman and nodded in agreement.
Mito took the scroll and left. Madara departed as well, bringing along two younger members of the Uchiha clan, Obito and Sasuke. In the tatami room, only a dozen or so Uzumaki ninja, the Senju brothers, and the Minato family remained.
Having learned through the Nine-Tails' memories that Mito would one day become Konoha's first Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, the Uzumaki weren't exactly friendly toward the Senju brothers anymore. Their gaze toward Minato Namikaze was even more unsettling.
Minato Namikaze: "..."
Kneeling perfectly upright, cold sweat slowly seeped down his back.
...
The next day arrived quickly. As promised, Mito had figured out how to remove the seal. Without any theatrics, she released it in front of everyone.
After the seal was broken, a new piece of information appeared on the scroll.
[Hashirama's cells.]
"!!!"
"Is this some kind of mistake?!"
That was Madara Uchiha's first reaction.
Hashirama Senju himself, along with his younger brother Tobirama, looked no calmer than Madara.
"My… my big brother's cells?!"
"Why are Hashirama's cells the method for treating Mangekyō Sharingan blindness?!" Madara Uchiha was completely stunned.
Itachi Uchiha suddenly recalled two other pieces of intelligence he had already deduced.
"The masked man and Danzō Shimura! They both possess Hashirama-sama's cells!"
"What?!" The others exclaimed in shock.
Minato asked, "Why do you say that?"
Itachi said, "The masked man calls himself Madara Uchiha. From the time I first encountered him, more than a decade had already passed…"
The first time they met, the masked man was wearing a tiger-striped mask. He slaughtered everyone in Itachi's squad, along with the mission's protected target. That incident forced Itachi to awaken his Sharingan amid unbearable pain.
"He already possessed the Mangekyō back then. After more than ten years of continuously relying on Mangekyō Sharingan techniques in battle, theoretically his eyesight should have deteriorated long ago, to the point where he would have needed to transplant Izuna's eyes!"
Itachi continued his analysis. "But after seeing Madara-sama's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, I can confirm one thing. The masked man only has an ordinary Mangekyō Sharingan."
"!!!"
Madara was only twenty-eight this year. He had awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan less than ten years ago, yet his vision had already degraded to the point where he could barely see clearly and needed Izuna's eyes.
Meanwhile, the masked man had been using the Mangekyō at high frequency for over a decade without showing any signs of blindness.
So what was he relying on?
Hashirama's cells!
The realization instantly swept through everyone's minds.
Minato from the Kannabi Bridge Timeline suddenly remembered something. On the night of the Nine-Tails' rampage, after fighting the masked man, one Rasengan had blown off the masked man's right arm. What spilled out was a milky white substance mixed with human blood, something no normal arm should ever contain.
"The masked man used White Zetsu cells to neutralize Hashirama-sama's cells and transplanted them into his own body!!"
But even Madara Uchiha himself hadn't known that Hashirama's cells could repair the damage the Mangekyō Sharingan inflicted on the optic nerves. So how did that masked man know?
"And what about Danzō Shimura?" Tobirama Senju asked, recalling this future member of the Shimura Clan, someone who would likely become his student. "Why would he use my elder brother's cells?"
Itachi replied, "Shisui once witnessed Danzō Shimura using the Izanagi technique."
Sasuke immediately blurted out, "The Izanagi technique?! What is that?!"
"It's a dōjutsu that requires sacrificing a Sharingan to activate," Madara explained. "It uses a previously recorded state of the caster to revert them back after injury. Within its effective duration, it can even result in resurrection after death."
Itachi nodded and continued, "Danzō Shimura used Izanagi merely to escape Shisui's genjutsu. Such reckless behavior can only be explained in two ways."
"Two?"
Wasn't there only one possibility, that he used Hashirama's cells just like the masked man?
Itachi's expression darkened. "The second possibility is that he possesses more than one Sharingan…"
Or to put it more bluntly, Danzō Shimura possesses many Sharingan eyes.
The young Kakashi was shaken, but he still voiced the first possibility. Although he had nearly joined Danzō's Root and was aware of the darkness within Konoha, the peace of this village had been upheld with the lives of Obito, Rin, and Minato-sensei's family. Instinctively, he still tried to defend the village's leadership.
"After a member of the Uchiha Clan dies in battle, their Sharingan must be retrieved. Danzō—"
"Kakashi," Minato Namikaze interrupted him, "I'll look into this matter once we return. After the Uchiha clan was wiped out, where did all those clan members' eyes end up?"
He didn't directly say it, but the thought of outsiders possessing Sharingan eyes made Sasuke, Naruto, Obito, and the others feel sick to their stomachs.
A long silence fell. Madara Uchiha suppressed his anger, but this was an event from another parallel world. It was also connected to a version of himself from that world. Though anger burned inside him, he couldn't quite figure out who he was angry at or who had provoked him.
Tobirama Senju: "Regardless, the events from your world are tied to my counterpart in another dimension. Thank you for the information. My brother and I… and Madara will find a way to prevent the future you speak of from happening in our world."
Danzō Shimura!!
He committed that name to memory.
...
He had already found some clues regarding the Flying Thunder God Seal coordinates that could traverse parallel worlds. After completing the Edo Tensei, he could delve deeper into the research.
As the seals on the three pieces of information were lifted, the glitch that had been holding them back was also resolved.
Naruto noticed that their bodies were becoming transparent again in the white light.
He urgently grabbed the red-haired lady beside him, his eyes filled with conflict. To the members of the Uzumaki clan watching, that conflict looked more like hurt, making him seem utterly pitiful.
"Sis, I heard the Uzumaki clan will be attacked by other ninja clans. You must be careful."
Mito already knew about this. She and her clan would certainly do everything they could to prevent that kind of outcome.
"Hey, Uzumaki kid."
Madara Uchiha, who had barely spoken to Naruto before, suddenly addressed him...
"I still owe you a mission reward."