[DING]
[SAND BADGE DETECTED]
[UNLOCKING PERMISSIONS]
[RANDOMLY SELECTING POKÉMON, PLEASE WAIT]
[DING]
[KIDNEY IS HAPPY TO BECOME YOUR PARTNER]
[POKÉMON: KIDNEY] 1
[LEVEL: 1]
[TYPE: WATER/FIGHTING]
[CURRENT EXPERIENCE: 0/10]
[BASE STATS: HP: 2 | ATTACK: 1 | DEFENSE: 1 | SP. ATK: 0 | SP. DEF: 0 | SPEED: 5]
[IV: 2/31]
[EV: 10/100]
[NATURE: QUIET]
[MOVE: TACKLE]
[PASSIVE MOVE: NONE]
[DESCRIPTION: ....]
Just like the heart before it, this was a fresh start from level zero.
Another organ had been selected.
Motomu was gradually becoming accustomed to this.
This time, it was the kidney located in his lower abdomen.
Perhaps because it was too large to come out, or because it was positioned too deep, Motomu didn't spit it out.
If it had been spat out...
An organ like this wasn't like the Big Eyeball that could fly freely.
A kidney that could only flop around would just end up covered in sand and dust.
In the desert, Motomu wouldn't be able to find a clean water source to wash it.
"It didn't come out... is it because the kidney lacks vitality? Is it too weak?"
He quickly shook that strange thought out of his head.
Motomu began planning the upgrade path for the kidney.
Upgrading the kidney, like the heart, meant it absolutely couldn't be left outside alone.
In the early stages, it would still need the Big Eyeball to supply it.
Aside from that, there was no other way.
But for the Big Eyeball, which urgently needed to sprint to level 41, experience was in short supply.
Motomu finally decided to level it to ten first to unlock the first passive move and see how things went.
No matter what, the kidney couldn't be too weak.
He pulled his thoughts back from the upgrades.
Motomu reached into his tool pouch and pulled out a sheet of white paper.
He wanted to verify a certain hypothesis from earlier.
He channeled chakra into the induction paper.
A raging fire burned, but the scene Motomu had imagined didn't occur.
Without jumping to conclusions, Motomu took out another stack.
Exactly twenty sheets.
It was still the same result.
'Was I wrong?'
'Do chakra natures really degenerate?'
'Or is the theory of the inner Five Elements incorrect?'
Motomu stopped his hand from reaching into the tool pouch again, temporarily setting this doubt aside.
At least for now, there was no movement in his chakra, whether in terms of volume or attribute.
Since the kidney had appeared, other organs representing the Five Elements should also arrive eventually.
At worst, he could check again later.
Perhaps it was the conflict between water and fire that caused it.
Motomu's thoughts returned to the Big Eyeball, which had just reaped a massive wave of experience.
Already at level 38 and nearly capped, the infusion of 6,000 experience points instantly pushed it to level 40.
Besides a new passive, the system notification just now...
He had also obtained an Evolution Stone.
As long as he raised the Big Eyeball's main body to level 41, he would surely gain another Mangekyo Sharingan.
To deal with the White Snake Sage's sneak attack earlier, he had forced an evolution into the Mangekyo.
The ability sounded like garbage.
That was because he had been misled by its performance in the original series.
Tool Manipulation.
The judgment of what constituted a ninja tool was somewhat subjective.
In Motomu's mind, any inanimate object used by a ninja to kill an enemy could be called a ninja tool.
This subjective ability didn't care what the inanimate object was. 1
As long as he paid the price in Mangekyo visual power, even the air could be designated as a tool.
Though, aside from blowing a bit of wind, he couldn't do much with his current level of manipulation.
However, the Psychokinesis he had been using all along was a genuine killing weapon.
Originally, it required concentrated attention to maintain its existence and activate.
Now, by pairing it with Tool Manipulation...
Even if it vanished from his field of vision...
Motomu could rely on the perception of Tool Manipulation to maintain the Psychokinesis and perform simple controls.
With this experience...
Regarding the next Mangekyo ability...
Motomu wouldn't judge a book by its cover again.
Even if it looked like trash, it might turn out to be another god-tier skill.
Just as he was about to click on the Big Eyeball to select a new passive...
The Psychokinesis he had used to search for the heart suddenly sensed something.
He closed his eyes and switched perspectives.
The underground perspective of the heart appeared in Motomu's mind.
Underground lava churned, and bubbles of thick red magma burst, releasing toxic sulfur smoke.
The heart, which had now turned into fire, was being gently picked up by two small Psychokinesis hands.
'Where is this?'
Motomu looked at the underground lava that was glowing red-white; he was a bit bewildered.
'Beneath the drained Dragon Vein, is there actually a magma layer?'
His mouth twitched.
Motomu finally understood why the Dragon Vein could provide fire energy.
In three days' time...
The heart had followed the Dragon Vein down to this place.
The perspective he saw earlier was likely what the heart saw while floating on the magma.
Motomu scanned the area and, in the pitch-black ceiling above, vaguely found the sealed fissure of the Dragon Vein.
The exit was right there.
Yet, he suddenly didn't want to leave.
[DING]
[YOUR POKÉMON HAS GAINED EXPERIENCE]
[EXPERIENCE +3]
The Dragon Vein was dry, but the experience was still coming in!
Instead of taking the heart out, it was better to leave it here.
When using the Lidiao move earlier, Motomu had realized something.
The heart's moves could be used no matter how far away it was.
If Bigan came to ask him if a man could live without a heart...
Motomu could give a definitive answer.
"He can, brother, he absolutely can."
Since he chose to stay, Motomu played it safe.
He controlled the heart to deactivate Minimize, wedging it firmly into a rock crevice beside the magma.
Even if he wanted to retrieve it later, he could find it here.
Deactivating Tool Manipulation, the Psychokinesis connection snapped.
His perspective returned.
Through the single-eyed hole of the mask, Motomu felt the vision in his right eye blur.
After blinking several times, tears mixed with streaks of blood flowed from his right eye.
Motomu wiped the tears and looked into the distance.
The feeling of having 200-degree myopia in his past life—where he couldn't even see a shop sign across the street without glasses—manifested before him.
Compared to the speed at which Sasuke wrecked his Mangekyo, Motomu wasn't falling behind.
In just three days, it had reached this level.
It seemed that leveling up the Big Eyeball wouldn't restore visual power.
Motomu took off the mask and used both eyes to see; only then did things improve slightly.
'This is a bit tricky, the Eternal Mangekyo.'
In the original story, one needed the Mangekyo eyes of a biological brother.
He didn't have any biological brothers; he wondered if Obito would work.
Besides evolving into the Eternal Mangekyo...
There were other ways to alleviate the exhaustion of visual power.
They existed, but they were more complex and dangerous.
As long as he transplanted Hashirama cells, he could use his Mangekyo abilities as recklessly as Obito did in the original story.
Of course, that was gambling with his life—hoping he wouldn't turn into a tree-man.
As for other methods, Motomu really had no ideas.
However, Motomu knew one truth.
Strength gained through transplants or cultivation was ultimately flimsy; only the strength gained step-by-step through system point allocation was the true path.
At worst, he would just evolve it again.
[POKÉMON: MANGEKYO SHARINGAN]
[LEVEL: 40]
[TYPE: PSYCHIC/DARK]
[CURRENT EXPERIENCE: 1200/4000]
[BASE STATS: HP: 910 | ATTACK: 67 | DEFENSE: 910 | SP. ATK: 199 | SP. DEF: 180 | SPEED: 5]
[IV: 24/31]
[EV: 100/100]
[NATURE: BOLD]
[MOVES: DREAM EATER, HYPNOSIS, PSYCHOKINESIS, MINIMIZE]
[PASSIVE MOVES: ENLARGE AND HARDEN, BOND GROWTH, DOUBLE HAPPINESS]
[DESCRIPTION: YOU'RE GOING BLIND.]
[NOTICE: POKÉMON HAS A NEW PASSIVE MOVE WAITING TO BE SELECTED]
Opening the system panel, at level 40, the stats had taken another qualitative leap. The defense capability that the Big Eyeball excelled at had more than doubled compared to before.