Chapter 146: Tobirama the Reasoning Maniac
"It was my oversight."
Tobirama admitted his mistake quite frankly, then revealed a faint smile.
"This Kakashi is not bad. He has the Will of Fire…"
"The Sharingan is exactly the kind of thing that should be used to hold shit."
"..."
Kushina and Tsunade were left speechless.
It felt like the first sentence wasn't important at all, the second one was what the Second Hokage really wanted to say.
"Oh right, earlier Second Hokage-sama mentioned that the Uchiha clan was wiped out, leaving only Mikoto's two sons. That reminded me of something just now, there is actually still one Uchiha alive."
"On the day the Nine-Tails went berserk, it was actually Uchiha Madara who appeared. He released the Nine-Tails sealed inside me and controlled it to attack the village."
"Minato even fought him. He said the opponent also used space–time ninjutsu, but not as well as he did, so he successfully broke the contract between him and the Nine-Tails…"
"Hold it right there!"
Tobirama raised a hand and interrupted Kushina.
"You're saying that bastard Madara knew space–time ninjutsu?"
"Yes."
Kushina nodded innocently.
"Then describe what this 'Madara' looked like."
Tobirama didn't immediately deny or refute it.
Not long ago, they had just learned that Madara had indeed survived after the battle at the Valley of the End and had even awakened the Rinnegan.
What if space–time ninjutsu was one of the Rinnegan's abilities?
But still, was the Fourth Hokage really that strong? Just by learning his Flying Thunder God, he could fight Madara?
"Madara was wearing a spiral-patterned mask. The mask only exposed a single Sharingan…"
"No need to go on. That definitely wasn't Madara."
Tobirama said with absolute certainty.
"Huh? Why?"
Kushina was confused.
How could he be so sure just from a description of clothing?
The other party was wearing a mask, after all.
"Because if that bastard Madara came back to Konoha for revenge and destruction, there's no way he'd wear a mask. He'd want to strip off his clothes and pants too…"
"Ahem, Tobirama, that's going a bit too far."
Hashirama coughed twice and cut off Tobirama's nonsense.
This was a conversation with female ninjas and juniors. He needed to mind his image and not let his discrimination against the Uchiha show too much.
"In any case, Madara would never be that sneaky. And you said it yourself, only one Sharingan was exposed. That suggests the Rinnegan had already been given to Nagato at that time."
"But based on my brother's and my understanding of the Uchiha clan, there has never been a Mangekyō Sharingan whose ability was space–time ninjutsu…"
At this point, Tobirama suddenly froze and sucked in a sharp breath.
"Second Grandfather, what's wrong?"
Tsunade looked confused.
"There really is one."
Tobirama frowned deeply and looked toward Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"Sensei, you mean…"
Hiruzen was momentarily stunned when his sensei looked over, but he immediately understood who Tobirama was referring to.
If there was anyone whose Sharingan ability involved space–time ninjutsu, wouldn't it be Kakashi that Hiruzen had just mentioned, the one who used space–time ninjutsu to absorb an exploding septic tank?
"That Kakashi only has one Sharingan. And the masked man who attacked Konoha also had only one Sharingan. That's far too much of a coincidence."
Tobirama snorted coldly.
"Monkey, was the body of the Uchiha who gave Kakashi that eye ever recovered?"
"No. According to Kakashi, by the time they left, that area had already collapsed."
Hiruzen shook his head.
"Could someone have taken the Sharingan from Obito's body afterward?"
Kushina ventured a guess.
"Taken it? Are you saying that Uchiha Obito had already awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan at that time?"
Tobirama shot back.
"Uh… probably not."
"If not, then not."
Tobirama snorted again.
"If that's the case, then even if someone did take the eye, it would only be an ordinary tomoe Sharingan."
"That possibility can't be ruled out."
"But then how did Mangekyō awaken?"
"To awaken the Mangekyō, an Uchiha must lose love. Chakra born from intense stimulation of the brain passes through both eyes."
"After transplanting a Sharingan, that eye may carry some of the Uchiha's chakra with it, influencing the recipient's chakra…"
"It's possible that the transplanted person could also awaken the Mangekyō due to intense stimulation."
"But there's a problem here. A pair of Sharingan is required to exert true power, this is something the Uchiha themselves often say."
"And that statement has an extension. Based on my research, the Sharingan has a strongly bound linked progression when it comes to eye evolution."
"Take the tomoe as an example. When a single tomoe evolves into two tomoe, even if only one eye evolves at first, the other eye will soon follow."
"If this is true even for tomoe Sharingan, then for the Mangekyō, which I haven't experimented on but can theorize about, it should apply even more so."
As an expert on the Uchiha, Senju Tobirama analyzed the situation with icy calm and finally reached a conclusion, "That is to say, if someone took the Sharingan from the corpse, then they would have had to experience intense stimulation at the same time as that Kakashi, in order to have a chance of awakening the Mangekyō."
"At the same time?"
Kushina thought back over Kakashi's experiences.
"Kakashi's father, the White Fang, died when Kakashi was still a child, eliminated."
"Obito's death was the very reason Kakashi obtained the Sharingan, eliminated."
"Rin's death? When Kakashi returned, he still only had two tomoe. How could he skip three tomoe and directly awaken the Mangekyō? Eliminated."
"Minato's death? Minato was killed by that masked man. At that time, the masked man already had a Sharingan with space–time ninjutsu, so that's eliminated too."
"And besides, what kind of identity would that masked man have, to empathize with the deaths of these people and experience emotional fluctuations together with Kakashi…"
"Heh. Haven't you already found the answer? Why deceive yourself?"
Tobirama sneered.
"Found the answer?"
"The timing of the eye being taken and the eye appearing is already fixed. Then the event sandwiched between those two points must be the cause."
"As for why there would be empathy?"
"That's because from beginning to end, you deliberately excluded one thing."
"Excluded?"
"That's right. You excluded the principle that the Uchiha are naturally evil!"
"You subconsciously assumed that the eye was picked up by someone else, rather than that Uchiha Obito was still alive and chose to take revenge on Konoha!"
Tobirama coldly delivered his final judgment.
"Obito taking revenge? How is that possible? We had no grudges at all! And that child used to help old ladies cross the street every day, and even aimed to become Hokage…"
"Madara also helped children before. He also once wanted to become Hokage."
"..."
"Forget it. There's no point in us guessing here forever. Shiromo definitely knows the answer to something like this. We'll just ask him and we'll know."
As Kushina fell into confusion and silence, Tobirama waved his hand and broke the awkward atmosphere.
"Let's go, Tsunade. Head to your Hokage building. Shiromo and the others should already be waiting for you there."
Tobirama stood up and pushed open the house's sliding door, which had been kicked to pieces earlier and was now nothing but a doorframe.
(End of this chapter)