After fully comprehending the truths before him, Mizuki Ryosuke could now affirm without hesitation: across the entirety of the ninja world, fewer than five individuals were capable of wielding the pair of Rinnegan properly.
He formed a single-hand seal, exhaling sharply. A jet-black eye mark, shaped like a pupil, surfaced on his forehead. From it, a network of intricate black lines spread like roots, tracing his skin from the brow to the soles of his feet.
Compared to preserving one's life, any dispute over power, status, or territory seemed trivial.
In terms of lineage and raw potential, Ryosuke was far behind the likes of Uzumaki Nagato, who had inherited the Rinnegan directly from Uchiha Madara—a vessel chosen precisely because of his Uzumaki vitality and Yin-Yang balance. Ryosuke couldn't compete with Nagato's natural affinity for Yin-Yang Release, much less match the "perfect successor" Obito, handpicked by Madara to carry on the Tsuki no Me Keikaku.
Still, a subtle, unreadable smile touched Ryosuke's lips.
Smaller nations, crushed under the heel of the great powers' exploitation, would inevitably rebel. These fractures, Ryosuke realized, were key. Peace that was imposed by bloodshed could never last.
With the incredible reservoir of chakra provided by the Three Tails (Isobu) sealed within him, the strain from wielding Rinnegan was minimal. His stamina and life force remained robust.
Just as the Mangekyō Sharingan extracted a devastating toll on its wielder—blinding them with overuse—the Rinnegan consumed vast amounts of mental and spiritual energy. Its destructive potential was great, but its price was exacting. The reason lay in spiritual overdraw, leading to irreversible damage.
The canon offered a solution: the Fourth Great Ninja War, in which the Five Great Nations temporarily set aside centuries of bloodshed to unite against a common threat. Under the joint leadership of the Five Kage and Naruto Uzumaki, true cooperation was briefly achieved.
Within Madara's faction, no one trusted each other—each was using the others. Black Zetsu used Madara to resurrect Kaguya. Madara used Obito to implement the Eye of the Moon Plan. Obito used Nagato and the Akatsuki to enact Madara's vision. And every one of them thought they were in control.
So Ryosuke thought: why not reverse the equation?
Why not use them to his advantage?
Why not hijack the cycle of manipulation and become the invisible hand guiding the ninja world from the shadows—controlling chaos while appearing uninvolved?
With a simple twist of his seal, the black marks on his body reversed course. The spreading lines receded, drawn back toward the center of his brow, into the stylized Rinnegan mark, until nothing remained.
Possessing a Rinnegan meant wielding immeasurable power—and claiming all the political leverage that came with it.
Seizing the Rinnegan from Nagato had disrupted Madara's grand resurrection plan. And Ryosuke, knowing the full implications of the Rinne Tensei no Jutsu, understood that without both Rinnegan, Madara could never return in full form. By holding just one eye, he'd snatched the keystone of the entire operation.
At present, Ryosuke stood in Madara's half-circle of influence—but not as a pawn.
Among all chakra-consuming attributes, Yang was the least burdened by Rinnegan usage. Ryosuke, fortunate to possess the Yin Spring sealed within his consciousness, could endlessly replenish the spiritual aspect most critical to wielding the Rinnegan.
Spiritual energy was the heart of it all. That was why Ryosuke, even with a lesser bloodline, had surpassed many of the legendary ninja who once bore these eyes.
Nagato—though born into the Uzumaki clan—had collapsed under the Rinnegan's pressure after years of usage. Ryosuke, by contrast, had long surpassed the need to conserve himself. He could wield the eye's powers without collapsing, without bleeding from his nose or spitting blood like Nagato had during the assault on Konoha.
The Nine Palace Seal, obtained from a mysterious shinobi clan at the edge of the elemental nations, allowed Ryosuke to place tight restrictions on his Rinnegan usage. At present, the left Rinnegan remained sealed behind a 70/25/5 distribution: 70% Yin attribute control, 25% chakra drain, and only 5% impact on Yang vitality.
It was like siphoning from an ocean with a ladle.
The Rinnegan's power demand was steep—but to Ryosuke, it was a breeze.
At a glance, no one could tell his left eye had been replaced. The sealing method masked even its ripple-patterned appearance, making Ryosuke indistinguishable from his former self.
"Release."
The seal glowed faintly, then vanished. He blinked. The ripple of lavender light disappeared. No one would suspect the Rinnegan lay dormant within him.
Now, Ryosuke had what Madara once feared losing: secrecy, power, and a perfect bluff.
If he moved now to kill Black Zetsu and derail Madara's resurrection, the Akatsuki would collapse before even reaching their apex. That, however, would be premature. Without the pressure created by Madara's shadow and Zetsu's schemes, the Five Great Nations would never unite—and Ryosuke's grand plan would be unachievable.
He needed fear. He needed chaos.
And when the time was right, he'd arrive as the only figure capable of restoring peace—not as a tyrant like Madara, but as a shadow strategist.
The true puppeteer.
He closed his eye slowly, letting a wave of Yin-rich chakra wash over his mind. With the extremely Yin Spring locked deep within his consciousness, his spiritual reserves remained bottomless.
Who else in this world had chakra so perfectly attuned to spiritual sustenance?
No one. Not even Senju Hashirama.
For now, Madara's long shadow had faded. Ryosuke's ceiling was no longer bound by the limits of the Rinnegan—it was determined by his own patience.
Even a Mangekyō wielder who awakened the Rinnegan would not necessarily outperform Nagato. Ryosuke, however, had a trump card no one else could match: himself.
He wasn't born lucky. He wasn't born into the Senju or Uchiha.
But he had hacked the game.
Hatred, power, resources, bloodline—they all fed the cycle of conflict. Ryosuke had seen it play out over and over again: Hashirama and Madara, the First Shinobi World War, the Second, the Third…
Peace in the ninja world was never real.
Why must I starve in the deserts of the Land of Wind while you feast in the Land of Fire?
Why must I be cannon fodder because I was born in a lesser nation?
It was absurd.
Real peace wouldn't come through kindness. Nor would it come through domination.
It would come through balance of terror.
By holding the Rinnegan, by controlling the only faction capable of threatening all Five Great Nations, Ryosuke could forge a peace that would last.
As long as the nations feared a common enemy, they would unify.
The very unity that Naruto achieved through idealism—Ryosuke would engineer through calculated dread.
He would seize the mechanism of fear and turn it into peace.
And in that world, there would be no more Ryosuke Mizukis starving on the outskirts of great powers.
This was his gamble. His revolution.
And no one—not Madara, not Obito, not Kaguya—would take it from him