Chapter 046: Er Zhuzi’s Kaleidoscope, Activated!

Of course, it wasn’t that Naruto was deliberately hiding anything. It was only in these past two days, as he observed Aqing awakening her Mangekyō Sharingan, that he realized there was more to the process than he’d previously known.

Aqing recounted her experience of awakening the Mangekyō, mentioning that at the moment it happened, she had fallen into a trance—perhaps an illusion, or a deep contemplation. In that dreamlike, surreal state of mind, whatever she encountered from her own perspective had already faded from memory. But when she emerged from that state, her eyes had already transformed into the Mangekyō Sharingan.

She had tried many times to recall those sensations, but it was futile. If she attempted to force the memory through hypnosis or psychotherapy, she would be seized by a splitting headache, shrieking uncontrollably.

Naruto surmised that the illusion Aqing experienced likely forced her to confront her deepest fears and agony, probing the very core of her spirit, questioning her innermost desire. Only by facing such torment would the Mangekyō grant her the ocular power she most desperately craved.

The inability to recall the experience, Naruto suspected, was a kind of self-preservation mechanism. Anyone who awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan by cultivating spiritual energy through the spirit apparatus would have to endure such a trial—that was the price required for power.

Today, Sasuke too had pushed both his spiritual energy and ocular power to the threshold needed to awaken the Mangekyō.

This moment signified that he must now confront his deepest fears and pain.

“I have no choice, Naruto. I simply have no choice,” Sasuke said. “I need more power—only then can I accomplish what I must! For power, I can bear any cost! My time is running out…”

With a loud smack, Naruto slapped the back of Sasuke’s head.

“Stop acting like you’re carrying the weight of the world! You make it sound like you’ve only got a few days left to live!”

“Tomorrow, after the graduation exam, your life as a ninja is just beginning! What’s the rush?”

Rubbing the back of his head, Sasuke protested, “But Naruto, you’re already the leader of a Hidden Village! I’m not even a proper ninja yet! How can I not be anxious?”

“Leader of a Hidden Village? I only visited Uzushio Village last spring break, to see my mother’s hometown.”

“Just answer me—do you have the land deed to Uzushio Village?”

“Well, yes, but all I did was have a friendly chat with the daimyo of the Land of Whirlpools, and he handed it over.”

“Are there still people living in Uzushio Village?”

“There are, but only a few—just a dozen or so families, hardly more than a bunch of cats.”

“Is Uzushio Village considered a Hidden Village?”

“…It is.”

“Well, there you have it! You’re the leader of a Hidden Village. Don’t act like it means nothing!”

“What kind of nonsense is this?” Naruto was speechless.

Where did Sasuke pick up such twisted logic? Whoever had taught this bright, endearing boy to talk like an old wisecracker deserved a solid beating!

Aqing silently watched over the two from nearby. In her eyes, three tomoe swirled gently, converging at the center of her pupils into a tangle of threads. Within a radius of several hundred meters, nothing escaped her notice—this was one of the abilities her Mangekyō Sharingan had bestowed: an extraordinary sense of perception.

After their playful bickering, Sasuke began to focus. His fingers lightly touched his eyelids, beneath which lay the Uchiha clan’s pride—the Sharingan, inherited through countless generations.

As Sasuke’s breathing steadied, he concentrated, feeling the chakra coursing through his body. Time passed—he could not say how long—until only a single thought remained: awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan, for vengeance, for power, for the protection of all he held dear.

Suddenly, a surge of powerful chakra flooded his mind, rushing toward his eyes like an overwhelming tide. Every optic nerve, every vessel around his eyes, endured a searing, violent onslaught.

His heartbeat raced, blood roared like boiling water in his veins, and every muscle in his body trembled.

“Ah—!”

Sasuke fell to his knees, clutching his eyes and screaming in agony. Yet his cry was not only one of pain, but of profound terror. His shrill screams echoed through the night sky, so chilling they seemed to pierce the darkness itself.

Tears of blood welled up, streaming down his cheeks and smearing his face.

At last, after an eternity, Sasuke’s eyes shot open.

Gone was the familiar Sharingan; in its place shone a gaze of unfathomable depth and mystery.

The Mangekyō Sharingan was born.

Within those eyes, three black tomoe spun in perfect symmetry, the pupils swallowing all light like the void of space. The tomoe were drawn into his pupils, and then, as black matter was cast out, three swirling curves appeared within the eyes—each ending in an arrowhead, each of different thickness.

Even the air around Sasuke seemed to twist with the force of his newfound power.

Bathed in moonlight, Sasuke appeared otherworldly—both ethereal and imposing.

His senses sharpened to an unprecedented degree; his field of vision broadened, able to perceive the slightest movement, the faintest emotion. He could even see the flow of chakra, hear distant sounds. The Mangekyō’s power made him feel as though he grasped the secrets of the universe.

“Hmph, that brat’s luck really is something,” grumbled the Nine-Tails within Naruto, lazing on a beanbag and fiddling with a Rubik’s Cube as he watched Sasuke’s complete awakening. “To awaken the Mangekyō at such a young age, and it seems his ability is quite formidable. Feels even stronger than Obito’s, if you ask me.”

“You saw what kind of price he paid,” Naruto replied. “That kind of spiritual torment is more than most could bear.”

Naruto then asked aloud, “What power did you gain, Sasuke?”

Staring at his own hands, Sasuke murmured, “Time. The power of time. That’s what I’ve gained.”

“Time?”

Sasuke nodded. “Yes. My right eye can manipulate the flow of time, my left can stop it completely. With both, I can see into the future…”

The power to control time—a rare and terrifying ability.

Naruto had once faced an enemy who could wield time itself, and that foe had been the most difficult he’d ever encountered. It was also the battle that had cost Naruto the most.

However, after defeating that adversary, Naruto had earned something invaluable—a path to deciphering the technology behind time manipulation, and even an immature idea for a new approach.

But he could not yet produce such temporal technology; he would have to wait until he could construct an advanced industrial line before attempting to recreate it.