With the Uchiha clan completely eradicated, things cooled down within Konoha. Diarmuid, however, walked away with a massive haul: a literal mountain of Sharingan.
This left him in an exceptionally pleasant mood.
He was confident that this extensive collection of Sharingan would provide Orochimaru and Sasori with more than enough raw material to conquer the genetic bottlenecks they needed to solve.
Once those issues were resolved, Diarmuid would finally be able to systematically harness the power of the Sharingan for himself.
With that achieved, his primary strategic objectives within the shinobi world would be fundamentally complete.
In truth, Diarmuid had never harbored much of a genuine sense of belonging to this world; he was purely operating as a rogue opportunistic looter, squeezing it for every ounce of personal benefit he could get.
At this point, his soul had been radically augmented, and his physical constitution had been upgraded to a level equivalent to a true Sage Body. In the past, he possessed nothing more than functional immortality, relying entirely on the unique properties of the Dark-Dark Fruit to forcefully accelerate the healing of his injuries.
But now? He had successfully developed a baseline constitution capable of auto-regeneration without needing to weave hand signs.
As long as he wasn't subjected to a clean decapitation or a complete bisection at the waist, conventional injuries were fundamentally incapable of threatening his life. Of course, the next logical milestone on his developmental trajectory was to achieve true ultra-fast regeneration and complete limb regrowth, a realm that could be loosely categorized as an absolute "immortal body."
The solution to achieving that state wasn't non-existent. It resided directly within the hands of that legendary high-rolling gambler, Tsunade: specifically, the Yin Seal and her ultimate medical breakthrough, the Creation Rebirth technique.
This particular jutsu was an S-rank technique Tsunade had engineered herself, representing the absolute apex of all medical ninjutsu in existence.
Even when she was later bisected at the waist by Madara, she was capable of utilizing this exact technique to forcefully preserve her life force. As long as someone physically realigned her upper and lower halves, she could stitch herself back together and return to full operational capacity.
One could easily deduce just how terrifyingly potent the healing mechanics of that jutsu truly were.
However, the technique possessed glaring systemic limitations. For starters, the Creation Rebirth technique consumed an absolutely astronomical amount of chakra. It wasn't a standard drain; it was a consumption rate so severe that no ordinary shinobi could ever hope to sustain it. It was a power exclusive to those who possessed massive, cheat-tier reserves.
Tsunade managed this by engineering her own workaround: the Yin Seal. By utilizing this specialized seal, she could systematically divert and accumulate her excess chakra over years of daily life, building up a monolithic reservoir within the seal on her forehead.
Then, the moment she required the absolute restorative power of Creation Rebirth, she would release the Yin Seal, instantly granting her access to a gargantuan ocean of chakra to fuel the technique.
One had to remember that Tsunade was a direct bloodline descendant of the Senju clan, possessing incredibly pure lineage and a naturally massive baseline chakra capacity. Even with those genetic advantages, she still explicitly required the support of the Yin Seal to run the technique, which spoke volumes about the sheer cost of the jutsu.
Yet, for an anomaly like Diarmuid, that massive limitation was entirely irrelevant.
If he could successfully acquire the underlying mechanics of the Creation Rebirth technique, he wouldn't require the preliminary setup of the Yin Seal whatsoever.
To him, the Yin Seal was a highly redundant and awkward sealing technique anyway. Besides, he was already absurdly durable!
His knowledge of the seal hadn't been swindled out of Tsunade; rather, it was sourced directly from the Scroll of Seals that he had plundered from Konoha archives, explicitly categorized within the historical chapters belonging to the Uzumaki clan.
This research had also illuminated a fascinating piece of lore for Diarmuid: the Yin Seal was never originally a Senju clan technique. It was a heritage jutsu belonging entirely to the Uzumaki clan.
Furthermore, it wasn't engineered by Tsunade at all.
The historical texts explicitly noted that the previous master of the Yin Seal was none other than Uzumaki Mito, the wife of Senju Hashirama. When Diarmuid cross-referenced that with his own memory, it clicked; Mito indeed bore the exact same diamond-shaped Yin Seal marking on her forehead that Tsunade wore.
Evidently, Tsunade had simply inherited the knowledge of the Yin Seal directly from her maternal grandmother.
Diarmuid had thoroughly analyzed the matrix of the Yin Seal in the past, ultimately concluding that it was entirely useless to his specific biology.
The Yin Seal possessed absolutely zero offensive or defensive utility; its sole functional purpose was to serve as an external storage battery for massive quantities of personal chakra. If an individual's normal system was viewed as a fluid container, the seal's existence simply acted as a massive expansion pack to the maximum storage capacity.
Furthermore, an individual could utilize those concentrated reserves to fine-tune their biological state, using the abundant chakra to maintain a perpetually youthful and flawless aesthetic...
But Diarmuid already possessed the intrinsic power of functional immortality; he was physically incapable of aging. He had absolutely zero use for a cosmetic preservation tool.
As for his personal chakra reserves? Up to this current point in time, he hadn't even found the absolute boundary of his own limits.
This phenomenon was driven by two distinct cosmic variables. The first was his explosive, god-tier physical constitution. Operating as a baseline "vessel for chakra," his system essentially possessed no ceiling on its maximum volume.
The second variable was the Dark-Dark Fruit.
Back in the world of pirates, the Dark-Dark Fruit didn't explicitly manifest any anomalous secondary energy traits beyond its standard gravity and nullification mechanics.
However, within this shinobi world, following years of gradual systemic adaptation to the local world laws, the Dark-Dark Fruit, operating as a supreme Logia type, had begun converting its practically infinite reservoirs of dark matter energy directly into standard chakra within Diarmuid's pathway system.
Consequently, Diarmuid was completely immune to the concept of chakra depletion. Even if he were to continuously release raw chakra molded to the exact yield and scale of a Tailed Beast Bomb, he could easily fire off hundreds of consecutive blasts without ever breaking a sweat.
In short, while the Yin Seal was a highly coveted S-rank sealing jutsu to the rest of the world, to him, it was completely useless.
Because of this, he deduced that if he could somehow acquire the core mechanics of the Creation Rebirth technique, he could entirely bypass the need for the Yin Seal infrastructure.
Furthermore, the catastrophic long-term side effects of the Creation Rebirth technique were essentially non-existent when applied to his biology.
The technique's primary drawbacks fundamentally manifested in two distinct areas. First, the chakra consumption rate completely bypassed the user's conscious control. The moment the technique was activated, even the most trivial, superficial abrasions, such as a minor skin scrape, would automatically trigger the autonomous consumption of massive chakra reserves to execute an instant cellular repair.
Consequently, during high-intensity combat, a shinobi would suffer a massive, uncontrollable drain on their passive energy reserves.
The second drawback was far more lethal: the jutsu operated by forcefully accelerating the rate of somatic cell division to execute instant regeneration.
Yet, according to biological data, human cellular division is structurally finite; a normal body possesses a hard ceiling on the total number of times its cells can divide throughout a lifetime.
The Creation Rebirth technique was fundamentally engineered upon this exact biological framework. Consequently, the more frequently an individual utilized its power, the more they actively shaved off their natural biological lifespan.
Because of this systemic tax, Tsunade would absolutely never activate the technique unless she was backed into a definitive life-or-death scenario.
But to Diarmuid, these constraints meant absolutely nothing.
Chakra? He didn't care in the slightest; it could drain endlessly for all he cared.
As for the finite threshold of human cellular division? Give me a break. That applied strictly to baseline mortals. He had already achieved functional immortality. His cells could divide infinitely without ever encountering a biological ceiling.
Therefore, in Diarmuid's estimation, Tsunade's signature jutsu was an absolute custom fit for his specific needs. He would simply have to locate that legendary high-rolling sheep at some point in the future and swindle the secrets out of her.
In terms of physical development, aside from eventually tracking down Tsunade to master Creation Rebirth, he had essentially exhausted all valuable metrics worth pursuing in this world.
His soul had found a viable methodology for continuous amplification, and as for his eyes, he was confident he would successfully integrate the Sharingan very soon...
Looking at the grand scheme of things, he had fundamentally extracted every single top-tier benefit available within the shinobi world.
At the very least, within the parameters of Konoha, he had no remaining immediate demands.
Consequently, Diarmuid's departure was exceptionally clean and decisive. After paying a brief, casual visit to Hiashi to give him a heads-up, he vanished from Konoha, utilizing the Flying Raijin Technique to instantly teleport back to Amegakure.
Inside Orochimaru's high-tech laboratory within Amegakure.
At this moment, Orochimaru was intensely immersed in a delicate piece of bio-research. Holding a sterile test tube with absolute precision, he carefully introduced a minute droplet of specialized chemical fluid onto an unidentified biological tissue sample resting inside a Petri dish below.
Following that, he leaned over a high-powered microscope, meticulously analyzing the microscopic alterations occurring within the cellular structure.
Right at that critical juncture, the reinforced laboratory door was violently thrown open with a loud SLAM.
Orochimaru, who had been completely hyper-focused on his readings, jumped slightly in alarm. But before his rising fury could erupt, a boisterous voice that he absolutely could not afford to antagonize echoed through the space.
"Orochimaru! Orochimaru! I've brought you back some local delicacies from Konoha! Hahahahaha! I guarantee you're going to be absolutely thrilled with this haul!" Diarmuid laughed loudly, casually twirling a massive storage scroll around his fingers.
Not far away, Sasori, who was lounging on a leather sofa reading a technical text, lifted his eyes to glance at Diarmuid, then shifted his gaze toward Orochimaru's deeply twisted, complex facial expression. He let out a low, dry chuckle. "Whether he's thrilled or not remains to be seen, but I can confidently state that he harbors a massive desire to murder you right now."
Diarmuid paused mid-stride, blinking in confusion. "How is that even logically possible? I took the time and effort to deliver a massive gift directly to Orochimaru's doorstep, and instead of showing basic appreciation, he wants to swing on me? Is he even human?"
Saying this, Diarmuid turned his gaze directly onto Orochimaru, asking with complete seriousness, "Am I right, or am I right?"
Orochimaru gnashed his teeth tightly, forcing a highly strained, terrifyingly "cordial" grin onto his face. "Yes... you are entirely correct."
"Hahaha, I knew it!" Diarmuid roared with laughter once more.
Across the room, Sasori simply shook his head, a faint smirk playing across his wooden features.
Only then did Orochimaru find the composure to ask, "Given how loudly you're making an entrance, what exactly did you bring back? Ah... that's right. Your excursion to Konoha was specifically timed around the liquidation of the Uchiha. So... are those the Sharingan?"
"Bullseye," Diarmuid nodded confidently, stepping forward to roll the massive storage scroll completely flat across the primary laboratory workbench.
This instantly piqued Sasori's engineering curiosity as well. Closing his book, the puppet master rose to his feet and paced over toward the table.
Diarmuid brought his hands together, forming a specific release sign before slamming his palm firmly onto the center of the canvas matrix. In the following microsecond, a massive cloud of sealing smoke erupted from the scroll. As the white vapor rapidly dissipated, a dense, glittering ocean of detached Sharingan materialized across the entire surface of the workbench.
Stacked atop one another, there were easily several hundred pairs of eyes.
"This many?!" Sasori remarked, a rare flash of genuine shock and awe breaking through his composed demeanor.
Back when Orochimaru had defected from Konoha, he had only managed to smuggle out roughly a dozen or so pairs of Sharingan. Yet here was Diarmuid, casually dumping hundreds of pairs onto the desk like loose marbles.
In contrast to Sasori's shock, Orochimaru's expression turned somewhat melancholic as he stared at the massive pile. "So... the Uchiha lineage has truly been completely wiped from the historical record..."
"Could a reality of that scale ever be faked? The shinobi casualties alone number in the hundreds, and if you factor in the civilian Uchiha demographics, the death toll easily clears one to two thousand. An elite, millennium-old clan ranking at the absolute peak of the shinobi world... gone just like that," Diarmuid remarked, clicking his tongue.
He had effectively commandeered roughly two-thirds of the total Sharingan harvest from the Uchiha compound. Obito had managed to secure a sizable portion for his own reserves as well.
As for Danzo? That old snake hadn't walked away with a single raw eyeball. However, Diarmuid had already solidified an agreement to eventually provide him with specific "research outputs" derived from this harvest, such as that grotesque, Sharingan-embedded prosthetic arm. He was perfectly content to let Danzo continue sprinting down the path of absolute biological degeneracy.
In the original timeline, without Diarmuid's structural intervention, the Sharingan harvest would have been strictly partitioned between Obito and Danzo.
Danzo had squandered and burned through an untold number of eyes during his crude experimentation, yet he still possessed a complete arm's worth of Sharingan to casually burn through via Izanagi.
Obito's reserves were even more absurd; his clandestine laboratory housed an entire massive wall filled with rows upon rows of preserved Sharingan...
It was precisely because Diarmuid had factored these canon trajectories into his calculations that he chose to leave them with practically nothing this time around.
What was the point of leaving such pristine resources in their hands? It was a complete biological waste. A single prosthetic arm was more than enough to satisfy Danzo's immediate needs.
And Obito simply hoarded the Sharingan like glorified "collector's items," utilizing them in the most primitive, brute-force manner possible by treating them as disposable fuel cells for Izanagi, fundamentally no different from Danzo's methodology.
Since that was the case, it was vastly more logical to hand the entire lot over to Orochimaru to serve as premium raw research material.
This wasn't driven by petty, short-sighted greed; it was explicitly done to advance the frontier of medical science within the shinobi world, contributing to the glorious future of mankind by revolutionizing advanced ophthalmological engineering. Truly.
Operating as an interdimensional outsider, Diarmuid naturally didn't harbor any deep, emotional sentiment regarding the extinction of the Uchiha clan. To him, it felt like an event he had long since grown "accustomed" to; or rather, he had always operated under the absolute certainty that the Uchiha's destruction was an inevitability.
However, to native-born shinobi like Orochimaru and Sasori...
Staring at this monolithic mountain of Sharingan elicited an incredibly deep, heavy wave of emotion within their minds.
It felt as though they were physically standing at the precipice of a monumental historical epoch.
A legendary, thousand-year-old clan had vanished into ash in a single night. And now, the most coveted bloodline limit of that lineage rested entirely within their hands.
This dynamic gave them an immense, intoxicating sense of participation. The sheer satisfaction of actively shaping a major historical event was undeniable.
Observing Orochimaru and Sasori standing there entirely lost in their philosophical reflections, Diarmuid rolled his eyes playfully. "Alright, cut the melodrama. Now that you have this massive volume of Sharingan at your disposal, is it sufficient to completely dismantle the genetic restrictions of the eye?"
Orochimaru snapped his head up instantly, his amber eyes flashing with absolute, unshakeable confidence as he declared boldly, "No one understands the Sharingan better than I do!"
As he delivered the line, he couldn't resist making a series of wildly theatrical, flamboyant hand gestures to emphasize his absolute authority.