Miwa Masayo felt that her caretaker's explanation made sense and curiously asked, "If Senju Hashirama's body is called the Three-Marrow Jade Body, then what should yours and Uchiha Madara's be called, meow?"
Uchiha Yoru had long since thought of an answer and replied directly, "The abilities of the Mangekyō Sharingan vary endlessly, but when you trace them back to their root, they use yin-natured soul power to borrow strength from gods that can be reached."
"The power of a god combines with the power born from one's deepest desire, and that is what forms the countless different dōjutsu."
"The essence of the Uchiha body lies in its command over yin-natured soul power and its innate affinity with the divine. This is especially obvious in the Susanoo."
He smiled at Miwa Masayo.
"Based on those characteristics, I named the Uchiha Immortal Body—the Great Yin Spirit Body."
Miwa Masayo repeated the words "Great Yin Spirit Body" under her breath.
Without realizing it, the two of them had already reached the deepest part of the shrine.
By this point, the person guiding them had been replaced by a genuine priest.
The previous official had been a secular bureaucrat and was not permitted to enter the sacred living quarters of the priestess.
The shrine maidens and priests who were allowed to move freely within the inner area were all extraordinary individuals who possessed yin-yang power or sealing power.
They weren't ordinary people without any abilities.
Of course, in the eyes of Miwa Masayo and Uchiha Yoru, these shrine maidens and priests were merely ninja who weren't particularly agile.
What they used were ninjutsu and sealing techniques, not the legendary arts of onmyōdō.
Thus, before Uchiha Yoru, they behaved no differently from ordinary people.
Without even realizing it, all of them fell under his genjutsu and became puppets obedient to his will.
When the priest reached a noticeably taller building, an immense force suddenly swept outward.
It shattered Uchiha Yoru's invisible genjutsu domain into pieces.
As the genjutsu domain collapsed, the priests and shrine maidens abruptly regained consciousness.
They were horrified to discover that a man and a cat had somehow appeared inside the courtyard.
They immediately drew their katana and naginata, preparing to protect the priestess.
At that moment, a graceful voice rang out.
"That's enough. There's no need to be so nervous. This gentleman should be the Konoha ninja I invited."
"It's just that a Konoha ninja would actually ignore the Land of Demons' rules and control a priest to come directly before me."
"That is terribly impolite."
Her voice echoed throughout the courtyard.
Everyone could hear it clearly, yet no one found it harsh on the ears.
Uchiha Yoru smiled faintly.
"Your Highness, I consider my time extremely valuable, and I don't want to waste it on meaningless formalities."
"That's why I came in on my own."
"Still, I did knock on the door, didn't I?"
"Knock on the door? You used people's minds as stepping stones and threw your genjutsu inside. You actually call that knocking?"
"Forget it. Come in."
A few minutes later, Uchiha Yoru finally met the current priestess of the Land of Demons—Miroku.
To his great surprise, Miroku was holding a sleeping infant in her arms.
So that was it.
No wonder she had been angry.
The genjutsu Uchiha Yoru had cast wasn't particularly strong.
For an ordinary person, it truly could be considered no more than the force of a knock on the door.
But for such a young infant, the situation was difficult to judge.
He immediately apologized sincerely.
"My apologies. I didn't know there was a child beside you. My actions were indeed too reckless."
Miroku gently patted the infant and smiled.
"I accept your apology."
"Fortunately, you didn't disturb Shion. Otherwise, I wouldn't be nearly so easy to talk to."
Then she looked toward Miwa Masayo and said with delight, "The Hokage of Konoha is quite generous this time."
"Not only did he send an Uchiha jōnin, he even sent Sage Miwa Masayo."
"That increases our chances of sealing Mōryō and Yomi considerably."
Uchiha Yoru found the situation even stranger.
After arriving in the Land of Demons, he discovered that the circumstances here didn't match the plot he knew at all.
The next priestess was actually six years older than Uzumaki Naruto.
Yomi should have been middle-aged twenty years later.
At present, he should be in his twenties at most, yet Miroku already considered him important enough to mention specifically.
But none of those were major issues.
The true inconsistency was that the priestess was supposed to die during a failed sealing attempt.
If that were the case, how could she have accompanied and cared for Shion during the girl's childhood?
Uchiha Yoru shook his head and stopped thinking about those messy details.
As long as he dealt with Mōryō this time, none of the future plot would ever occur.
There was no need to care about it.
He asked directly, "Your Highness, where are the monster Mōryō and this Yomi you mentioned?"
Miroku smiled.
"Are all Uchiha ninja this impatient?"
"There's no need to rush. You cannot deal with this monster alone."
"It would be better to wait until all the reinforcements arrive before acting together."
"Moreover, your mission is only to protect me and ensure that I can seal Mōryō."
"You don't need to eliminate it."
Uchiha Yoru said, "I don't want to wait. Just tell me directly."
"As long as Mōryō is killed, every problem will be resolved."
"There's no need to make things so complicated."
Miroku's expression became serious.
She asked, "Uchiha, don't tell me you don't know that Mōryō is a monster—an immortal monster?"
Uchiha Yoru smiled.
"An immortal monster?"
"Ridiculous."
"Even the world itself has a lifespan."
"A mere monster will die as long as it can be killed."
Miroku was rendered speechless by his response.
But she quickly shook her head and laughed.
The way she looked at Uchiha Yoru changed.
Disappointment, confusion, amusement—many different emotions appeared at once.
"You are correct. A monster will die if it is killed."
"Mōryō is not truly immortal."
"But you ninja cannot even defeat it, so how can you talk about killing it?"
Uchiha Yoru replied coldly, "Your Highness, you underestimate ninja too much."
Miroku said, "I have never underestimated ninja."
"I acknowledge that ninja are the dominant force of this era, and the overall strength of ninja has continued to increase over the past several centuries."
"But the peak strength of ninja has been declining."
"If it were those two Konoha ninja from forty years ago, I would believe they could defeat Mōryō."
"Once it was defeated, they could naturally take their time finding a way to kill the monster."
"But you..."
Uchiha Yoru listened with growing astonishment and finally interrupted her.
"Your Highness, you actually know about Uchiha Madara?"
"How do you know?"
Miroku's expression turned solemn.
She did not directly explain the reason.
Instead, she said, "The priestess lineage has existed for a thousand years. Naturally, we have our own methods."
"In any case, only power on Uchiha Madara's level can defeat Mōryō."
"Only afterward can we discuss how to destroy it."
"Even if you aren't quite as powerful as Uchiha Madara, as long as you—"
Miroku stopped speaking.
Because Uchiha Yoru had opened his eyes.
They were three-tomoe Sharingan.
What shocked Miroku into silence, however, was that the three tomoe began spinning rapidly.
Soon, the three tomoe connected into rings, and patterns extended outward from the central pupil.
Miroku covered her mouth in shock.
Under her gaze, the Sharingan pattern became extraordinarily intricate.
Three rings intersected at the center, revealing a mysterious power of rules.
Uchiha Yoru had revealed his Mangekyō Sharingan.
Unfortunately, these eyes had been born at the wrong time.
From the very moment they appeared, they were no longer his strongest trump card.
As the saying went:
If it isn't powerful enough, display it openly.
From the moment he began openly confronting the Third Hokage, Uchiha Yoru had decided to reveal his trump cards actively and appropriately, creating sufficient deterrence both inside and outside the village.
Because from now on, he was no longer an outsider who needed to remain hidden.
He intended to fully control the Uchiha clan and become a ruler who wielded tremendous power within Konoha.
Until he completed his transformation of Konoha and handed power to his successor, an openly displayed deterrent would be more useful than hidden strength.
Miroku stared at the three interlocking rings of the Mangekyō Sharingan and blurted out, "Th-This is actually the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan?"
That one sentence revealed far too much information.
Even within the Uchiha clan, information about the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan was an unknown secret.
Only someone who had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan and read the stone tablet altered by Black Zetsu would know that something called the Eternal Mangekyō existed beyond the ordinary Mangekyō.
For example, Uchiha Fugaku most likely knew about it.
But even if he possessed the information, there was no way he could immediately recognize an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan upon seeing one.
After all, he had never personally seen one.
The fact that Miroku could identify it instantly proved that she didn't merely know about the existence of the Mangekyō and Eternal Mangekyō.
She had personally seen an Eternal Mangekyō, as well as more than one ordinary Mangekyō.
Only after seeing enough Sharingan could she know that a complex, multilayered pattern represented the Eternal Mangekyō.
But that was impossible.
Unless...
Unless she had seen them through prophecy.
Uchiha Yoru's gaze deepened.
Miroku's sealing techniques were powerful, but they were extremely specialized.
He didn't care much about them.
Her power of prophecy, however, was something he absolutely couldn't ignore.
It seemed that Mōryō wasn't the only important thing in the Land of Demons.
The priestess herself was also enormously valuable.
Even if he couldn't obtain her, he couldn't allow her to fall into someone else's hands.
But killing her was impossible.
Uchiha Yoru knew that the priestess and the monster Mōryō were two sides of the same existence.
As long as Mōryō remained alive, the priestess lineage would never be severed.
If Miroku died, Shion would immediately become the new priestess.
Even if Shion were killed as well, the corresponding power wouldn't simply disappear.
Most likely, it would attach itself to some other girl in the Land of Demons and create a new priestess.
After all, the first priestess had appeared out of nowhere in precisely that manner.
Miroku also realized that the words she had blurted out in shock caused Uchiha Yoru's gaze to change strangely.
It made chills run through her body.
As a prophet, she knew that this was not a good sign.
At that exact moment, splashes rose from the river of time.
One new scene after another appeared before Miroku's eyes.
What shocked her was that the information revealed within these visions proved that the future had undergone completely different changes.
It could even be said that everything had changed.
And what delighted Miroku most was that she herself appeared in those future scenes.
Her future no longer ended in death.
And all those changes had undoubtedly originated from the Uchiha ninja before her.
In other words, he was the person who would save her life.
Of course.
A pair of Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan truly possessed the power to change fate.
Her earlier doubts had been ridiculous.
Miroku said, "This is truly astonishing."
"I never imagined that the peak power of ninja had already recovered to such a level."
"To think that I doubted your strength earlier and spoke disrespectfully to you."
"I was terribly rude."
Miroku gently placed the infant beside her.
Then she stood, straightened her clothing, and gracefully bowed all the way down.
She actually performed a full prostration before Uchiha Yoru.
Uchiha Yoru had been thinking about how he should deal with Miroku.
Then the woman suddenly performed such a grand bow before him.
He was so surprised that he forgot to dodge and accepted the bow completely.
His brows furrowed.
His wariness toward prophets deepened further.
Miroku remained prostrated.
The proper duration for the ritual quickly passed, yet she still didn't rise.
She continued maintaining the posture of full prostration.
Uchiha Yoru understood.
Whatever this priestess had seen through prophecy, she had now become determined to obtain his forgiveness.
If he didn't speak, she might remain bowed like this indefinitely.
His thoughts raced.
Uchiha Yoru quickly made a decision.
"All right. I can forgive you."
"But you must answer one question for me."
"Thank you for your forgiveness."
Miroku smilingly raised herself upright and immediately said, "You want to know how I knew about the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, don't you?"
Uchiha Yoru fell silent.
"...Prophets really are... irritating."
Miroku completely ignored his words and answered with a smile.
"Perhaps you already guessed it."
"I saw the Mangekyō Sharingan through prophecy."
"That included Uchiha Madara's pair of Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, which filled me with fear and unease."
"The patterns in those eyes were actually divided into two layers."
"Even without using any ocular power, their mere rotation could make a person's soul tremble."
"Hm?"
Miroku suddenly made a confused sound.
She stared at Uchiha Yoru's eyes and murmured, "They aren't double-layered patterns."
"Th-These aren't Eternal Mangekyō?"
Miwa Masayo abruptly thrust her head in front of Uchiha Yoru's face, cutting off Miroku's line of sight.
The Cat Sage angrily hissed at her, snapping Miroku out of her daze.
Only then did she lazily say, "They really aren't Eternal Mangekyō, meow."
"One glance is enough, meow. There's no need to stare so intensely."
"Be careful you don't get hurt by the backlash, meow."
Uchiha Yoru allowed Miwa Masayo to hug his head and silently nodded, confirming his partner's words.
His eyes were naturally not the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
He didn't have a biological brother capable of awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Uchiha Yoru's Mangekyō Sharingan had emerged naturally after his Golden Core was formed.
When the Golden Core condensed, his essence, energy, and spirit reflected back upon the physical body, perfecting his bodily foundation from its deepest level.
His Mangekyō Sharingan had naturally evolved as a result.
From the very first time his Sharingan awakened, it had never been tied to emotional upheaval.
It had never been contaminated by massive quantities of negative emotion, nor had its bloodline foundation and potential been damaged.
Thus, the instant his Mangekyō Sharingan was born, it naturally activated the potential for extreme yin to reverse into yang.
It wasn't that kind of extreme, unstable Mangekyō built upon a damaged foundation.
Therefore, his eyes were closer to the original pair possessed by the Sage of Six Paths.
There was no need for them to advance further into the Eternal Mangekyō.
If they advanced again, they would become the Rinnegan.
Miroku had been hissed at by Miwa Masayo.
In that instant, she clearly saw the tabby cat's eyes.
What astonishingly beautiful and dazzling blue eyes they were.
Because of the fluctuation in her emotions, the brilliance inside Miwa Masayo's eyes could no longer be restrained.
Their dazzling radiance made Miroku feel almost intoxicated.
Those brilliant eyes also reminded her of the future scenes she had just witnessed.
Within those dim yellow visions, very few things possessed rich colors.
Apart from the magnificent power released by Uchiha Yoru, there had been the intense scenes of battle after battle...
And this pair of dazzling blue eyes.
So they were cat eyes.
But the owner of these eyes was supposed to be...
Miroku looked at Miwa Masayo, then at Uchiha Yoru gently lifting her away.
Suddenly, she leaned backward in tactical astonishment.
She understood.
She understood everything.
[So she is her.]
[That really is unexpected.]
When Miroku looked at Miwa Masayo again, her feelings were completely different.
She even felt as though her heart was going to melt.
It was unbearably sweet.
She coughed lightly twice, picked her daughter back up, and gently stroked the infant's soft hair to comfort her envious heart.
"It doesn't matter that they aren't Eternal Mangekyō."
"After being continuously sealed by generations of priestesses for a thousand years, Mōryō's strength has already weakened considerably."
"As long as you have reached the same level of power, you will be capable of defeating it."
Miroku quickly regained the bearing of a national ruler.
She said to Uchiha Yoru, "In that case, the mission I submitted earlier is no longer appropriate."
"Lord Yoru, I request that you accept a new commission from me."
"Instead of protecting me while I seal Mōryō, eliminate it completely."
"As long as you can end the nightmare that has plagued the Land of Demons for a thousand years, no matter what you take a liking to within this country, I am willing to offer it to you."
Uchiha Yoru shook his head.
"Eliminate Mōryō?"
"Priestess, if I truly accomplish that, you will die, won't you?"
Having her greatest secret exposed, Miroku stared dumbfounded.
"Y-You actually know?"
Uchiha Yoru replied, "I don't know the exact details."
"But one side is a priestess capable of sealing Mōryō, while the other is Mōryō, which can only be sealed by a priestess."
"Anyone with a brain can guess that your relationship cannot simply be one of ordinary hostility."
"Haha, you must be joking."
"For at least the past thousand years, no one has guessed that secret."
Uchiha Yoru said, "That's because the Land of Demons is too remote."
"It has neither important resources nor significant interests, while Mōryō looks troublesome no matter how anyone examines it."
"The existence of a priestess capable of dealing with Mōryō is necessary, and you pose no threat whatsoever."
"So the shinobi world has ignored you."
"No one has exhausted their minds researching you, which is why you managed to preserve this secret."
"So that's how it is."
Miroku visibly relaxed.
She said to Uchiha Yoru, "You even guessed that the priestess and Mōryō are almost one entity."
"I imagine you also know the secret passed down through every generation of priestesses."
"Mm. I know a little."
"You truly are extraordinary."
Miroku's movements became increasingly gentle as she stroked her daughter.
She stared at the infant, her voice soft yet resolute.
"Please do whatever you need to do."
"Even if I die because of Mōryō, it doesn't matter."
"As for your mission reward, I will arrange everything beforehand."
"Please rest assured."
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