Chapter 73

"The eyes you have now were gouged out by that fellow Uchiha Yan from the corpses of invaders."

Uchiha Yao revealed the source of Uchiha Gin's current pair of eyes,

"Logically speaking, you shouldn't be able to awaken the Sharingan."

The old man stared at Uchiha Gin's slightly reddened eyes; he had also been quite surprised when he learned that Uchiha Gin had awakened his eyes.

Eye transplantation was not uncommon within the clan; because of certain forbidden techniques, ordinary Sharingan could be used as consumables.

"Then what is the situation with these eyes of mine?"

Touching his own eye sockets, Uchiha Gin recalled the process of his Sharingan awakening; it seemed inseparable from the system. Could it be because of a system reward?

"There are a few possibilities."

Uchiha Yao thought for a moment, then turned to explain,

"First, these eyes might have been swapped, and the eyes you transplanted are indeed from a clansman."

This possibility was not high; back then, Uchiha Miao and Uchiha Yan knew Uchiha Gin's physical condition very well. Rashly transplanting a Sharingan could potentially increase his physical burden and cause secondary damage.

"Second, your body assimilated these eyes."

Assimilation? Encountering this blind spot in his knowledge for the first time, Uchiha Gin looked at Uchiha Yao with a face full of question marks, hoping he would explain it to him.

"There are countless blood vessels and lymphatic vessels in human eyeballs that maintain their normal operation. After transplanting the eyeballs, your blood occupied them, and by relying on the blood, the fundamental nature of these eyeballs was changed."

Uchiha Yao whispered his speculation to Uchiha Gin,

"This is the most likely possibility; after all, even though I have studied the mysteries of the human body for a lifetime, I haven't been able to solve them all."

Uchiha Gin was noncommittal.

"Actually, I have another guess."

He had thought Uchiha Yao's speculation stopped there, but to his surprise, after a long while, the old man spoke up as if he had remembered something.

"What?"

Uchiha Gin interrupted his own mental musings and couldn't help but ask.

"Over these years, I have dedicated myself to the study of bloodlines. Our clan has harvested many experimental materials during the war, and after studying many of them, I accidentally discovered some interesting things."

Uchiha Yao's one good eye turned slightly, as if recalling something.

Uchiha Gin did not interrupt, but instead listened with a serious expression.

"I discovered that several unrelated ninja clans all have similar gene chains in their bloodlines. I originally thought it was the result of intermingling over the millennia, but some ninja clans have been bitter enemies for years, with absolutely no possibility of intermarriage."

"Senju, Uzumaki, Hagoromo, Hyuga, Kaguya..."

Uchiha Yao recounted the names of several ninja clans,

"And Uchiha."

Aren't these all descendants of the Otsutsuki clan? Knowing the plot, Uchiha Gin naturally knew that the aforementioned ninja clans were all descendants of the Otsutsuki clan that had descended in the past.

"And these eyes of yours come from the Kaguya clan, and specifically, a mixed-blood of Kaguya and Hyuga."

Only then did Uchiha Yao show his hand to Uchiha Gin.

???

His own eyes were taken from a mixed-blood of the Kaguya and Hyuga clans?

"Wait, let me sort this out; the relationships are a bit messy."

Hearing the old man's words, Uchiha Gin was completely dumbfounded; the original owner's eyes actually had such complex components.

He was Uchiha, his eyes were Kaguya layered with Hyuga, the system had given him the Uzumaki bloodline, and now he just needed Senju and Hagoromo to stack enough Otsutsuki clan buffs to head into space.

"Because of the identical gene segments in the bloodline, these eyes adapted to your body and automatically transformed into Sharingan. If you were a member of the Hyuga clan, you would most likely have awakened the Byakugan after transplanting these eyes."

So it's adaptive hot-swapping?

"Since you can awaken the Sharingan, it shows that the compatibility between these eyes and your body is very high. With more nourishment, awakening the Mangekyo is just around the corner."

Uchiha Yao looked at the frowning Uchiha Gin, mistakenly thinking that the other party was repulsed by outsiders, and spoke to comfort him.

"It's actually not difficult for you to awaken the Mangekyo; the main thing is that you lack a suitable catalyst."

Uchiha Gin had once awakened the Mangekyo, which showed that he was gifted; awakening it again was not a difficult task.

"Alright."

Uchiha Gin naturally knew the secrets behind the so-called catalyst the other party mentioned,

But he had no beloved people in this world, nor did he have deep bonds with anyone; how was he supposed to awaken this Mangekyo?

"I do have a method here, but I don't know if it will work."

Uchiha Yao sensed Uchiha Gin's anxious mood, thought for a moment, and spoke up.

"Grandfather, help me!"

There was such a good thing? Uchiha Gin immediately bowed down; for the sake of Tsukuyomi, what was a little grievance like this?

"Actually, I didn't want you to know about this so soon."

The old man shook his head, turned around, opened a secret compartment in the wall, and reached in to take out a glass jar.

"This pair is your father's Sharingan."

With a dim expression, Uchiha Yao placed the glass jar containing the eyeballs in front of Uchiha Gin.

A pair of scarlet Sharingan were soaking in the blue-green nutrient solution; even though they had lost their owner for many years, Uchiha Gin could still feel the surging ocular power from them.

"These eyes recorded the entire process of your father being murdered by Uchiha Tajima. If you watch them, you will most likely awaken the Mangekyo."

Uchiha Yao stroked the glass jar, his tone filled with deep hatred.

Who was telling the truth? Bringing up this topic again, Uchiha Gin's head hurt a little; except for his grandfather Uchiha Yao, everyone else said his father had sacrificed himself to cover for his teammates.

This time it was good; he would let him witness the event with his own eyes.

"Use your Sharingan's ocular power to penetrate inside, and the images sealed within will naturally appear."

Following Uchiha Yao's guidance, the tomoe in Uchiha Gin's eyes turned slightly, and a cold, dark chakra merged into the Sharingan in the glass jar.

Standing to the side, the gray eyes of the Wood Human flashed with an unreadable look as it quietly watched the interaction between the grandfather and grandson.

As the ocular power made contact, Uchiha Gin felt his body lighten and entered a third-person perspective.

A curly-haired man was rushing along in a hurry, followed by several clansmen in the same attire; at this moment, they were all injured, and kunai and shuriken whizzed past them from time to time, reminding them that they were being hunted.

"Captain, they are following too closely!"

From the appearance of the youth who spoke, Uchiha Gin could vaguely recognize him as his cousin Uchiha Tajima; at this time, he was about twenty years old, but his temperament was as steady as an old man's.

"Don't panic, I'll hold them off in a moment, you just focus on retreating."

The curly-haired man's voice was as gentle as jade, making one feel favorable toward him upon hearing it; his tone was full of confidence, making people feel at ease.

"Gin, don't try to be a hero; I'm going with you."

A cold and beautiful woman beside him glared at him and said through gritted teeth.

"I'm staying too!"

The young Uchiha Tajima also spoke up.

"Stop making a fuss, I can go alone; if you stay, you'll only be a burden to me."

Uchiha Gin shook his head,

"You go meet up with Uchiha Fenghuo first, I'll catch up soon."

Saying this, Uchiha Gin turned to face the enemy.

"Damn guy!"

Seeing Uchiha Gin alone covering the rear, the cold and beautiful woman was furious; she turned to the young Tajima and said,

"Tajima, you retreat first, I'm worried about your brother-in-law."

After saying that, she also chased after the man's back.

Uchiha Tajima, who had stopped in his tracks, had an uncertain expression in his eyes, but finally, as if he had made up his mind, he also turned and followed.

"Why did you come after all? I told you to leave first."

Uchiha Gin, who had fallen into the encirclement, saw the two who had arrived and shouted anxiously,

"How could I abandon my family?"

The cold and beautiful woman drew her weapon with a cold expression, while the young Tajima beside her just nodded and then activated his Sharingan to prepare for battle.

After a bloody battle, the three fought while retreating; seeing that the delay was enough and just as they were preparing to speed up their escape, a sudden change occurred.

"Tajima, what are you doing!"

The exhausted Uchiha Gin looked in disbelief at the Wu Shidao piercing through his stomach and turned his head with difficulty to look at the Uchiha Tajima with a crazed expression.

"Brother-in-law, I'm sorry, if you don't die, I won't be able to inherit the position of clan leader."

As he twisted his hand with force, a massive amount of fresh blood gushed from Uchiha Gin's wound, and his whole body fell backward tremblingly.

"No!!!"

The final scene was Uchiha Tajima's cold and lonely back, and the cold and beautiful woman's desperate cry.

(End of chapter)