"Eagle?"
Back at his apartment, Sasuke toyed with the mask the organization had given him. Seeing the eagle pattern on it, a smirk tugged at his lips.
"Not bad. I am the eagle of vengeance!"
With that, he touched his forehead, closing his eyes to sense the newly awakened Mangekyō Sharingan.
Though he had successfully awakened these Mangekyō Sharingan, he didn't rashly set off to confront Itachi for revenge.
Unlike the original timeline, he now understood the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan far better!
Of course.
His understanding of the Mangekyō Sharingan came primarily through 'A' and 'B' from the Akatsuki. Unbeknownst to him, the eyes of Shinji and Karin weren't ordinary Mangekyō Sharingan but Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, imbued with everlasting dojutsu power.
Thus, his perception of the Mangekyō Sharingan was significantly skewed.
Sasuke snapped his eyes open: "Once I've fully mastered the power of the Mangekyō, I'll come for you, Uchiha Itachi!"
His two new Mangekyō dojutsu, along with the coveted 'Susanoo,' had skyrocketed his confidence.
In his view, his talent was no less than Itachi's. Once he grew accustomed to the Mangekyō Sharingan, revenge would be within reach!
"Hm!?"
At that moment, Sasuke suddenly felt something subtly drawing on his chakra.
His instinct was to resist, but recalling the leader's earlier instructions, he hesitated briefly before allowing it to happen.
For his revenge, he still needed the organization's assistance. Besides, he felt he owed the leader a great debt, so parting with a bit of chakra seemed reasonable.
"Shinji…"
Sighing softly, Sasuke silently endured the chakra extraction.
At Shinji's end.
After sending Sasuke and Yakumo away, Shinji dispelled his shadow clone, cleaned up the scene, and hurriedly returned to his apartment.
Though he was certain Sasuke's chakra now contained Ōtsutsuki Indra's pinnacle Yin Release chakra, he wouldn't rest easy until he verified it.
Upon returning, he activated 'Jikibi,' informing Karin that a new chakra would be transmitted to her and to sense it carefully. Then, he invoked 'Wazunagi,' extracting Sasuke's chakra and channeling it steadily into Karin's body.
In Karin's apartment.
Following the leader's instructions, Karin had been waiting anxiously.
In recent days, her dojutsu power had stagnated, and her chakra growth had slowed—changes she, with her greatly enhanced spiritual body, keenly felt.
Though the leader hadn't said it outright, she had long realized he was expecting some transformation in her.
The stagnation of her dojutsu power undoubtedly meant that transformation hadn't occurred.
Self-blame.
Fear.
Unease.
These emotions had been swirling in her heart, refusing to dissipate!
Now, with the leader providing new chakra, it was like a lifeline. She had silently resolved to seize this opportunity, determined to manifest whatever change the leader hoped for, no matter what it was!
Swish!
At that moment, a chakra—familiar yet foreign, cold yet brimming with power—poured into her body as if from the void.
"How…!?"
Karin was stunned.
The moment this Yin Release chakra entered her, the Yang Release chakra in her body, like water nearing its boiling point, finally erupted, surging violently!
Such boiling, such restlessness, was unlike anything she'd experienced before.
Or rather, after transplanting and fusing with the First Hokage's cells, the intensity of her Yang Release chakra had reached an unprecedented level. Even her Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan couldn't achieve complete yin-yang balance with it.
But with the infusion of this Yin Release chakra, the imbalance of overwhelming yang and deficient yin began to shift.
Her Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, previously outmatched in both quality and quantity of chakra, gained momentum with the support of this external Yin Release chakra, faintly poised to turn the tide.
Meanwhile, her pinnacle Yang Release chakra, as if encountering its nemesis, surged forward without her prompting, attempting to overpower the Yin Release chakra once more.
The yin-yang clash, which had subsided since the First Hokage's cell transplantation, reignited!
Monitoring Karin's condition through 'Jikibi,' Shinji was equally shocked, exclaiming, "The reaction is that intense?"
Though he knew of the millennium-long feud between Ōtsutsuki Asura and Ōtsutsuki Indra, Shinji had underestimated the depth of their bond.
Faced with this sudden change, Karin was bewildered, but Shinji understood clearly.
The moment Ōtsutsuki Indra's chakra entered Karin's body, the Ōtsutsuki Asura chakra within her reacted with an intensity beyond anyone's imagination.
In an instant, an unprecedented yin-yang clash erupted within her.
Its ferocity was no less than that of the First Hokage's cell transplantation surgery!
Shinji's brow furrowed slightly.
The intensity of this yin-yang fusion—or rather, the fusion of Ōtsutsuki Asura and Ōtsutsuki Indra's chakra—far exceeded his expectations.
He realized that without a sufficiently resilient physique and ample chakra reserves, one couldn't withstand such a transformative fusion.
Karin could endure it, feeling only slight surprise and discomfort, because she was an Uzumaki with an exceptionally rare healing physique even among her clan.
Shinji was different.
He was neither a reincarnation of Ōtsutsuki Indra nor Asura, nor did he possess the formidable physiques of the Uzumaki or Senju clans. He was just an ordinary Uchiha, inherently disadvantaged in this regard.
In truth.
When it came to fusing powers for a qualitative transformation, Ōtsutsuki Asura's lineage naturally outshone Ōtsutsuki Indra's.
Even in their lifetimes, it was Asura, bolstered by the collective strength of others, who had suppressed the solitary Indra.
Uchiha Madara succeeded because he was Indra's reincarnation, but Shinji was nothing of the sort.
Such an intense yin-yang convergence might be too much for him to endure!
"Sigh, many things that seem easy and natural are only so for others! Only after trying it yourself do you realize the same task can yield completely different results in different hands!"
After a soft sigh, Shinji quickly refocused, continuing to monitor the changes in Karin's body.
Sentimentality and venting could wait.
Besides, he had his own advantages—his Mangekyō dojutsu, 'Susanoo Tomoshibi'!
If Karin succeeded this time, it would mean he could obtain a pair of Rinnegan. Then, wielding the Rinnegan with 'Susanoo Tomoshibi,' wouldn't he be exceptional in his own right?