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Silence settled over the lab the moment Neji swallowed Sasuko's eyes.
From deep in his core, a peculiar ocular energy began to unfurl residual [Mangekyō Sharingan] chakra that still clung to the pair Sasuko had relinquished.
At the same time, Sasuko herself was nurturing a new set of eyes her own chakra merging with Itachi's legacy, changing into something else.
Neji closed his hands, focusing. His azure irises, those lotus-like [Tenseigan] pupils ringed with pale "petals," started to shift.
Sasuko's ocular force overlaid the [Tenseigan] pattern; the white petals sharpened into tomoe and began to rotate.
A six-pointed array blinked across his gaze then dissolved, drawn in and reprocessed by the [Tenseigan]. The eye drank in traits from the [Mangekyō], refining rather than imitating. And then—
Neji exhaled, lids lowering. When he opened them again, an unfamiliar pattern stared back at him from the mirror he lifted:
Three concentric golden rings, etched like tight, interlocking runes. Eight diamond marks, four large, four small, sat between the rings in perfect symmetry. Around it all, a thin, luminous cobalt array encircled the iris like a magic circle.
He blinked once, studying the reflection.
"…That's the same sigil as the [Judgment Gold-Thunder Tiger] summoning array," he murmured. "Projected into an eye?"
The answer seemed obvious: the chakra layer had imprinted its own language onto the ocular evolution.
With a thought, the pattern recessed and his eyes smoothed back into their calm, azure [Tenseigan]. Internally, though, the metamorphosis hadn't stopped.
What appeared to be a "projected [Mangekyō]" was only a surface mask; under the hood, [Tenseigan] dynamics were pulling the fusion upward nudging it along the path toward [Rinnegan]-class functions.
Not a copy of the [Rinnegan], but a mutation its vector altered by chakra.
He set the mirror aside and turned to Sasuko, who sat patiently, bandages clean and tight over her sockets.
"Head back for now," Neji said. "Let the automaton attendants look after you. Three days. Feed the eyes chakra. When they settle, we talk power."
"…Alright." Curiosity flickered behind the bandages, but she stood without protest.
The doors slid open. Two lifelike maid-puppets stepped in, bowed, and guided Sasuko out.
"Take care of her," Neji instructed.
"Yes, Master," the attendants chimed, and the lab sealed again with a soft hiss.
A figure slipped through the secondary entrance. Neji resumed his seat, facing her.
"Izumi. Report."
Izumi's eyes swept over him, lingering a heartbeat on his aura, then she began, crisp and precise.
"The Five Great Villages have formalized the Allied Shinobi Forces. Uchiha Obito failed to capture the Eight-Tails and has withdrawn to a hidden site to regroup."
Neji nodded. None of it was news, but Izumi's data models and projections made the picture sharper.
"The full moon is a good stage," he said. A violet flicker pulsed between his fingers as he snapped, space swallowing a sealed missive. "Declaration sent. Time and place locked. We proceed to war prep."
No tension touched his voice.
There would be casualties there, always were, but Neji already knew who'd pay the steepest price: the Fourth Raikage. And he was eager to claim what he needed next the fragments of the [Ten-Tails Ocular Beast].
His system space still had a hole where that core should sit. It was time to fill it.
Also: he was a hair short of Level 59.
The past days' swarm of small fry was already culled, many redeployed to harry the Alliance. There wasn't room to pen up that many genin-grade foes anyway.
Izumi watched him, a quiet, restrained anticipation in her gaze. The world was about to change again.
---
Elsewhere, Obito sat upon the hand of the [Gedo Statue], itching to unleash it until Black Zetsu dissuaded him. Without an army of [Reanimation] fodder to grind down the Alliance, a one-man stand against the entire shinobi world would be suicide.
"Use them," Obito said at last, lifting his head.
Black Zetsu's smile thinned. "We can. My recommendation…"
He laid out the plan: weaponize White Zetsu's mimicry to infiltrate every village, assassinate, sabotage, seed suspicion, and pry open a gap in the Eight-Tails' defenses.
Obito's eyes sharpened. Flawless. "Do it. Carve me a path to the plan's completion."
[Eye of the Moon Plan]—I will see it through.
White Zetsu units dispersed, slipping into patrols and supply lines, staging skirmishes, preying on However, rust.
But Konoha had an insider, Neji, and the village quickly exposed the lies.
The other villages stumbled, reeled, then rallied. Once White Zetsu's presence was exposed, the misunderstandings popped like soap bubbles—and the Alliance hardened.
Days bled into drills, skirmishes, and logistics. The full moon crept closer.
In a storage hangar lit with cold seal-lamps, Neji stood before rows of wrapped mummies specimens bound in inked restraints his gaze distant and dark.
Across the continent, Obito received a spatial pulse from Neji: On the night of the full moon, I will deliver the Eight-Tails.
Shock. Doubt. A thread of greed pulling tight. Would Neji truly hand him the jinchūriki?
Uncertainty gnawed at Obito; certainty gathered in the Alliance.
Old grudges met fresh faces in the assembly yards: veteran jōnin who'd bled in prior wars stood shoulder-to-shoulder with rookies who'd only read about them. Enemies became partners.
Names gained voices, and voices, stories. That, too, was part of Neji's design: you cannot build a lasting peace while five villages live as strangers. First, they had to know each other.
---
Deep under Konoha, in a lightless cell, a bandaged elder lifted his lone visible eye cold and hungry.
On the wall beside him, a half-black, half-white visage rippled out of the stone…and slowly sank back in.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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