"Summoning Technique!"
Poof!
Tatsuya's hands flashed through the necessary seals, and a plume of white smoke erupted before him in the newly constructed laboratory. As the smoke cleared, the familiar figure of Jizo appeared.
"Where is this place?" Jizo asked immediately, glancing around the unfamiliar, sterile laboratory environment with a puzzled expression. "Why summon me so urgently?"
"This is Demon Sealing Mountain, located within the Land of Swamps," Tatsuya stated calmly.
"Demon Sealing Mountain?" Jizo looked even more confused. "What are we doing here?" (Through the inherent information sharing that occurred upon the dismissal of Tatsuya's shadow clones, Jizo and the other primary clone bodies were already fully aware of the major events that had transpired during the recent battle at this very location.)
"This territory is now effectively our new domain," Tatsuya explained. "I am establishing a permanent laboratory facility here."
"Building a lab here?" Jizo's expression shifted slightly as immediate understanding dawned. "You intend to use the demon Mōryō's residual evil will... to try and catalyze the evolution of the Sharingan?" (Jizo was already aware, through their shared information network, of Tatsuya's crucial discovery regarding the potential 'beneficial application' of Mōryō's psychic energy during the battle.)
The purified remnants of Mōryō's pervasive evil will – the raw psychic component left behind after Tatsuya filtered out the senjutsu-like chakra – bore a remarkable, uncanny similarity to the frenzied, chaotic spiritual energy contained within the unique Mangekyō Sharingan that Tatsuya had previously harvested from the original, mutated one-eyed clone. This intriguing similarity had sparked a bold, potentially dangerous, yet tantalizing idea in Tatsuya's scientifically curious mind.
Could Mōryō's potent evil will, carefully controlled, be harnessed to artificially induce the evolution of the Mangekyō Sharingan in existing Sharingan eyes? Perhaps, just perhaps, he could obtain another pair of powerful, usable Mangekyō Sharingan through this unconventional method!
Establishing the laboratory right here at the foot of Demon Sealing Mountain was specifically intended to allow easy, nearby access for absorbing Mōryō's continuously leaking evil psychic influence. Although the Miko's powerful seal successfully contained the demon's physical body and its core soul, it apparently couldn't completely prevent its potent psychic emanations from subtly seeping out into the surrounding area over time.
"Mmhmm," Tatsuya confirmed Jizo's accurate guess with a decisive nod. "Did you bring the necessary equipment and materials I requested?"
"Everything is here," Jizo affirmed promptly. With that, his hands blurred through another set of summoning seals.
Poof!
Another cloud of white smoke appeared momentarily, leaving a large, sealed storage scroll resting in Jizo's hand. Reaching out, Jizo released the seal on the storage scroll, and instantly, a large pile of sophisticated laboratory equipment and heavy-duty excavation tools materialized neatly on the laboratory floor.
"Excellent. Let's get started," Tatsuya said, a gleam of intense focus and anticipation lighting up his eyes as he surveyed the crucial materials. Following his own command, both Tatsuya and Jizo simultaneously created several shadow clones each. The duplicates immediately picked up the excavation tools and began the laborious work of constructing the extensive subterranean laboratory facility according to Tatsuya's pre-planned designs.
Tatsuya intended for this hidden laboratory in the Land of Swamps, strategically located near the sealed Mōryō, to become his second primary operational base, supplementing his existing facility near Konoha. Henceforth, the powerful Jizo clone body, now equipped for this specific purpose, would remain stationed here permanently, overseeing the laboratory's ongoing operations and Tatsuya's ambitious new line of research.
In the blink of an eye, another half-month flew by rapidly.
During this intensive period, utilizing the tireless, efficient labor provided by their numerous shadow clones working around the clock, Tatsuya and Jizo finally completed the main construction phase of the extensive experimental base hidden beneath Demon Sealing Mountain. To further facilitate the long-term management and security of this important new facility, Tatsuya also summoned two more of his non-permanent, task-specific clone bodies directly from his Konoha reserves to assist Jizo.
Now, within the sterile environment of the newly completed primary laboratory, Tatsuya stood over the central operating table, carefully performing delicate eye transplant surgery on Jizo. The purpose of this procedure was specific: Jizo was receiving the pair of mature, three-tomoe Sharingan that had once belonged to the deceased Uchiha Hada.
The advanced Mangekyō Sharingan originally belonging to Uchiha Teru, which Jizo had previously wielded to great effect, were now essentially ruined – completely depleted of light and power after their overuse in past battles. Tatsuya knew that restoring those specific eyes to a usable state would likely require the successful, high-risk transplantation of Hashirama Senju's unique cells – a procedure fraught with its own significant dangers and requiring resources currently unavailable to him. There were simply no other viable options for recovering Teru's original Mangekyō. Therefore, implanting Hada's eyes was the next best option. While Uchiha Hada's standard three-tomoe Sharingan were vastly inferior in power and capability to a true Mangekyō Sharingan, they were still significantly more potent and perceptive than ordinary human eyes, providing Jizo with crucial enhanced combat abilities.
The delicate eye transplant surgery proceeded smoothly under Tatsuya's skilled hands and was completed without complications shortly thereafter.
However, Tatsuya didn't allow Jizo to leave the operating table just yet. Instead, utilizing the storage capabilities of his bio-chip and the Yin-Yang seal framework, he carefully transferred the entirety of the raw, potent evil will he had previously absorbed and stored from Mōryō during the battle directly into Jizo's recovering body, specifically targeting the newly implanted Sharingan.
As the massive volume of Mōryō's potent, malicious psychic energy flooded his system, clear signs of intense, agonizing pain and involuntary struggle immediately appeared on Jizo's normally stoic face. His eyelids fluttered rapidly beneath the protective bandages covering the fresh surgical sites. This agonizing state, this forced infusion of raw psychic power, persisted for a long, tense period.
Two full hours later, the infusion complete and the immediate reaction seemingly subsided, Jizo finally, slowly reopened his eyes.
"How do you feel?" Tatsuya asked immediately, leaning closer to observe the crimson three-tomoe Sharingan now settled and active within Jizo's eye sockets. "Any change? Any stimulation?"
Jizo focused his vision, then slowly shook his head, his voice tinged with disappointment. "No good. This evil will... it feels too impure, too chaotic and unfocused. I don't sense it stimulating the Sharingan towards evolution in any meaningful way at all."
"Hmm?" Hearing Jizo's negative assessment, Tatsuya's face showed clear confusion and a flicker of deep disappointment. He instinctively reached into his robes and took out the small, sealed culture tube containing the perfectly preserved, unique Mangekyō Sharingan harvested from the original one-eyed clone long ago. He gazed intently at the strangely patterned eye floating within the nutrient solution. "Then how on earth did this eye evolve originally...?" he murmured softly to himself, the mystery deepening.
Jizo considered Tatsuya's question for a moment. "It feels like... perhaps some crucial catalyst, some specific emotional trigger or resonance, is missing from Mōryō's raw will alone. Perhaps," he suggested thoughtfully, "this ambient evil energy could still prove useful in another way? Maybe we could test if it's sufficient to awaken the initial Sharingan in clones that possess Uchiha genetics but haven't manifested the dōjutsu at all yet? Triggering the first stage might be easier than forcing the Mangekyō."
"Missing something...?" Tatsuya echoed Jizo's words, falling back into deep, frustrated thought. What could be the difference between Mōryō's ambient psychic malice and the specific conditions or energies that led to the one-eyed clone's unique evolution?
However, despite considerable internal contemplation and running further comparative analyses between the stored data of Mōryō's will and the unique energy signature recorded from the one-eyed clone's Mangekyō via his bio-chip, Tatsuya yielded no new insights or definitive answers.
Left with no other immediate leads or theoretical avenues to pursue, Tatsuya resigned himself, with a sigh, to the necessity of the slower, more resource-intensive path: mass-producing more Uchiha-gened clone bodies and conducting extensive, repetitive, carefully controlled experiments, attempting to isolate the exact variables required to either awaken the base Sharingan or, ideally, trigger the Mangekyō evolution using Mōryō's ambient influence.
Meanwhile, while Tatsuya was deeply engrossed in setting up his long-term, ethically dubious experiments beneath Demon Sealing Mountain, far away, at a bustling western port back in the Land of Demons, a very different kind of departure was taking place. Yomi, the defeated leader of the Yomi Cult, boarded a departing merchant ship under the cover of night, accompanied by a large contingent of his remaining, mostly low-level, followers. They were leaving the island nations behind.
"Leader," one of the black-robed cultists standing near the ship's bow asked hesitantly, looking back with clear reluctance at the receding island coastline disappearing into the darkness, "are we truly... abandoning our established bases here, just like this?"
Hearing the questioning, perhaps slightly insubordinate, tone, Yomi slowly turned his head and shot the cultist a single, utterly chilling glare. His face, illuminated momentarily by a flickering deck lantern, was contorted in a ferocious, almost bestial scowl that promised violence. Seeing that terrifying look, the questioning cultist immediately felt a shiver of pure fear run down his spine. He hastily clamped his mouth shut, cursing himself inwardly for his stupidity and poor timing. Ever since the Yomi Cult's disastrous, humiliating defeat outside the Miko's Palace weeks ago, their leader Yomi's temperament had become extremely volatile and unpredictable; quite a few unfortunate followers had already suffered dearly for minor perceived infractions during the stressful intervening period.
Yomi turned back, his gaze fixed unseeingly on the distant, receding port, his shadowed expression flickering disturbingly between darkness and brief flashes of intense light reflected from the water. After a long, tense moment of silence, he finally muttered in a low, gravelly, hate-filled voice, "Don't worry. We will return." His words were laced with an undisguised, potent mixture of deep bitterness, frustrated reluctance, and simmering, deep-seated hatred.
The battle outside the Miko's Palace weeks earlier had been nothing short of a devastating, near-fatal catastrophe for the entire Yomi Cult organization. In that single, swift engagement, almost all of the cult's high-level elite members, the core of their operational strength, had been systematically wiped out or captured by Tatsuya's team. Apart from Yomi himself – who had managed a narrow, improbable escape thanks only to some powerful and rather bizarre, likely forbidden, medical ninjutsu he possessed allowing for rapid regeneration or illusion – the rest of the captured elite had been left behind at the Miko's Palace by Tatsuya, entrusted entirely to the Miko's judgment and mercy for their fates.
And although Yomi himself had escaped with his life, his own personal combat strength had been severely diminished in the process; he knew he would require a significant period of time and resources to fully recover his previous power level. Following the subsequent decisive battle at Demon Sealing Mountain, the demon Mōryō was successfully sealed once again by the Miko. Without the animating support of Mōryō's chakra sustaining the terracotta army, Yomi no longer possessed the power base or the leverage necessary to maintain his hard-won control over the political situation in the Land of Swamps. He had been forced to completely abandon his operations there, retreating into the shadows with only the demoralized remnants of his cult membership following him.
For an intensely ambitious megalomaniac like Yomi, who had long harbored grandiose dreams of eventually utilizing Mōryō's power to control the entire world, this series of humiliating setbacks and the near-total destruction of his organization represented an immense, infuriating blow to his ego and his plans.
The followers currently remaining under Yomi's command were, for the most part, weak, unskilled, largely useless subordinates – cannon fodder at best. If he'd had anyone truly capable or loyal left at his disposal after the recent purges and losses, he likely wouldn't have even bothered bringing these burdensome stragglers along on his escape.
Therefore, fueled by failure and humiliation, Yomi burned with an intense, all-consuming desire for revenge. Revenge against Konoha, the village that had interfered. And especially, personal, visceral revenge against Tatsuya – the individual shinobi who had single-handedly shattered his plans and inflicted such a profound sense of crushing pressure and fear upon him.
But he knew, with bitter clarity, that his current strength was far too inadequate to achieve his vengeful goals. With the Yomi Cult's present diminished capabilities, they couldn't possibly hope to directly challenge either the formidable Tatsuya or the collective military might of Konoha Village. Moreover, the chilling fact remained that Tatsuya – the man responsible for his downfall – was still lingering somewhere nearby on this very island, a constant, terrifying threat. This was the primary, unspoken reason why Yomi was so hastily leading his remaining followers away from the familiar territories of the Land of Demons and the Land of Swamps – to preserve this last vestige of his power base before Tatsuya inevitably hunted them down and destroyed them completely. If this final, meager force was also wiped out, then his hopes for eventual revenge would truly be extinguished forever.
Since relying on his own diminished strength and shattered organization for revenge was currently impossible, Yomi concluded that his only logical course of action was to first seek out powerful, useful allies who shared his animosity towards Konoha or possessed power he could leverage.
And deep within Yomi's vengeful, plotting heart, he already had a potentially suitable candidate, a specific target organization known for their power and ruthlessness, firmly in mind.