Chapter 290: Tensei-Mirror Eye, Black Hole!
Kinoshita Genichi's initial goal had been to develop his own dōjutsu, one that could rival the Rinnegan, combine it with his Mirror Eye, and then eventually rival the Rinne Sharingan of Ōtsutsuki Kaguya or the Ten-Tails.
The core of this new dōjutsu was the strong nuclear force, one of the four fundamental forces of the universe.
His hundred years of effort in the future had not been wasted.
He had succeeded.
His eyes shifted, revealing a completely new pattern. It wasn't the Rinnegan's ripples, nor the Mirror Eye's familiar design. Yet, it bore a resemblance to the Mirror Eye—the original eight-petaled ice flower pattern now had nine petals, and the ice-blue color cycled through the three primary colors. At the very center was a pupil as black as the deep void.
Genichi conjured an ice mirror and studied his reflection. The pattern looked somewhat similar to Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's unique eye.
Dōjutsu: Tensei-Mirror Eye
Attribute: Kekkei Mōra
Base Dōjutsu: Tenseigan, Mirror Eye
Clearly, this was a dōjutsu designed to match the Rinne Sharingan. The Tenseigan component was Genichi's own independently developed Kekkei Genkai, based on Yin and Yang Release, with the strong nuclear force as one of its fundamental powers.
So, how powerful was the Tensei-Mirror Eye?
Genichi pointed a finger at a large tree nearby. The next instant, the tree seemed to age rapidly, its leaves withering, its wood decaying. In the blink of an eye, it crumbled into dust.
This wasn't time acceleration. Genichi had simply used the Tenseigan component to manipulate the speed of particle decay, causing the tree to rapidly deteriorate.
Next, he focused on another tree. Under the Tensei-Mirror Eye's power, the tree instantly disintegrated into particles invisible to the naked eye.
This wasn't Dust Release. This was a fundamental ability of the Tenseigan component—direct control over the strong nuclear force, allowing him to collapse matter at the subatomic level, from the nucleus itself.
Previously, with Electromagnet Release, Genichi could deconstruct and reconstruct matter at the atomic and molecular level. Combined with Sage Transformation, this allowed him to convert plant and animal cells into his own, and to seamlessly integrate others' Tenseigan, Rinnegan, and Sharingan into his body, even mastering their dōjutsu.
Now, he had taken it a step further, delving into the atomic nucleus, manipulating fundamental particles via the strong nuclear force—a quantum leap in power. Dust Release couldn't even compare.
With a thought, iron sand floated up from the ground, coalescing into a cube. Under the Tensei-Mirror Eye's control, the iron sand cube began to transmute, shifting from iron to gold, then carbon, then other elements... This was something he couldn't achieve with Electromagnet Release alone.
Watching the constantly changing cube, Genichi smiled. He held out his right hand, and the cube, now iron again, landed in his palm. The next moment, it melted, flowing into his flesh, becoming pure sustenance.
This was another fundamental ability of the Tenseigan component: the power to convert almost any matter or energy into nourishment for himself.
Before, Genichi primarily absorbed magnetic fields and electromagnetic energy. He could also convert plant and animal cells. But now, water, rocks, plants, metals—virtually any substance, along with countless forms of natural energy—could be directly absorbed. This meant any injury could be healed almost instantly.
"Killing me, even weakening me, will be incredibly difficult now," he realized. "Even sealing me would be almost impossible." He was now certain that the Sage of Six Paths' Planetary Devastation could never seal him.
"To seal me, one would have to isolate me from all matter and energy."
This ability was, in itself, a form of immortality. And replenishing his chakra became trivially easy.
"This path was definitely the right one!" Genichi rejoiced. Even the basic abilities of the Tenseigan component were incredibly potent.
He continued testing. He summoned his Ice Puppet Clone from the experimental facility.
"You succeeded!" the clone exclaimed, seeing his main body's new eyes.
Genichi nodded. "Help me run some tests."
"With pleasure." The clone was eager, immediately forming an Ice Release: Rasenshuriken.
Genichi didn't flinch. Just as the Rasenshuriken was about to hit him, he activated the power of his Tensei-Mirror Eye. The Rasenshuriken instantly disintegrated, its chakra absorbed by Genichi, converted into his own power.
"Preta Path?" the clone asked.
"You could call it that," Genichi replied, "but it's different from the Rinnegan's ability. Controlling the strong nuclear force gives me extreme control over energy, allowing me to easily absorb other energies to replenish myself."
The clone understood. "So, it was actually two steps: control and disintegration of the Rasenshuriken, then absorption of my chakra."
"Correct."
"It seems there's an upper limit then," the clone deduced, "determined by your energy control capacity. Within that limit, any ninjutsu… except perhaps space-time techniques… is useless against you."
Genichi smiled and nodded. Indeed, this ability was stronger than the Preta Path. For example, Madara couldn't absorb Gaara's sand because it was real, physical matter, not chakra. But for Genichi, Gaara's sand could also be broken down and absorbed as energy.
As for space-time ninjutsu… Genichi pondered, an idea forming. But it seemed the Tenseigan or Tensei-Mirror Eye alone wouldn't be enough.
Pushing the thought aside, he continued testing. Particle decay manipulation, matter disintegration, matter reconstruction, matter/energy absorption, ninjutsu/energy absorption, arbitrary shape-shifting, gravity/repulsion manipulation, flight—these were all basic abilities, easily mastered upon awakening the Tenseigan component.
"What about its unique dōjutsu?" the clone asked. "Does the Tenseigan component have its own, or only the combined Tensei-Mirror Eye?"
"I first mastered the Tenseigan component," Genichi explained, "and then, when I ate the God Tree fruit, the two Kekkei Genkai fused into this Kekkei Mōra."
"Doesn't that mean it should have four dōjutsu?" the clone asked. "No wait, plus the Mirror Eye's two… maybe six?"
Genichi laughed. "Six? You're thinking too much. The Tenseigan component only has one unique dōjutsu. Its name… is Black Hole!"
The clone was dumbfounded. "Black… Black Hole? As in, the Black Hole?"
Genichi nodded.
Hiss! The clone sucked in a breath of cold air. A Black Hole! He remembered that once something crossed a black hole's event horizon, not even light could escape.
"Quick, show me!" the clone urged impatiently. Controlling a black hole was terrifyingly powerful. But thinking about the strong nuclear force, deriving such a dōjutsu didn't seem entirely illogical. One way black holes formed was through stellar collapse—when a star exhausted its fuel, it collapsed inward, forming an object of immense mass that absorbed all matter and energy. The Rinnegan's Planetary Devastation also used a high-mass core to generate strong gravity. The Tenseigan component was even stronger in this regard.
Genichi wanted to test it, but not in the Forest of Death; the effect would be too catastrophic. He took his clone to a deserted island far out at sea.
Standing on the island, under the clone's tense gaze, Genichi activated the Tenseigan dōjutsu. He held out his right palm, and a black sphere, looking like a Truth-Seeking Orb or the core of Planetary Devastation, flew into the air.
The next moment, the clone watched as the black sphere rapidly collapsed inward, vanishing from sight. In the instant it disappeared, light and space warped around the point, forming a reddish sphere that grew darker towards the center.
Immediately, the clone felt himself being pulled uncontrollably towards the black hole. Not just him, but the entire island—plants, rocks, everything—was being drawn towards the point in the sky. The effect seemed similar to Planetary Devastation.
The clone immediately used the Super Added-Weight Rock Technique to fight the gravity, then raised both hands, forming an Ice Release: Rasenshuriken in each.
WHIIINE!
With a piercing shriek, the two Rasenshurikens shot forward, accelerating rapidly. However, as they neared the event horizon, they vanished from the clone's sight. There was no explosion, the black hole didn't dissipate, and he felt its event horizon actually expand.
"A black hole devours all matter and energy. Were the Rasenshurikens consumed?"
"Does its consumption have a limit?"
The clone immediately created a Super Ice Release: Rasenshuriken, infused with Absolute Zero temperature. Yet, even this was swallowed by the black hole.
During this process, the entire island disintegrated, rapidly consumed. Just as the clone itself was about to be devoured by the seemingly small anomaly, Genichi deactivated the technique.
The black hole instantly destabilized, spewing out matter and energy in a terrifying shockwave. Caught off guard, the clone was sent flying backward. The island itself disintegrated under the catastrophic force.
BOOM!
The island shattered, sending waves hundreds of meters high surging outwards. The clone crashed through the churning water and deep into the seabed.
Only Genichi remained untouched, standing calmly in the epicenter.
After a while, the chaos subsided. The clone flew out of the sea, looking at the remnants of the island—now just a scattering of reefs mostly submerged beneath the waves. This island had been quite large, easily a hundred kilometers across.
"Impressive," the clone stated objectively. "It has fewer weaknesses than Planetary Devastation, at least." He couldn't yet think of a way to counter it. "And like Planetary Devastation, it must have other applications, right?"
"However," the clone analyzed, "a black hole constantly consumes light and matter, causing it to expand. Is there a critical limit? Planetary Devastation stops expanding after a certain point. Is this black hole dōjutsu controllable?"
"It's similar to Planetary Devastation in that regard," Genichi explained. "The gravitational pull weakens with distance. Outside a certain range, you won't be drawn in. If there's no more matter within its range to consume, it naturally stops expanding."
The clone frowned. "In that case, if used for sealing, wouldn't the outward radiation and ejection of matter cause the black hole to weaken and eventually collapse?" (Referring to Hawking Radiation)
Genichi nodded, unconcerned. "No jutsu is perfect." Besides, as the clone suspected, the Black Hole dōjutsu had other uses. Sealing an opponent? If you could kill them, why seal them? And any seal could potentially be broken, Planetary Devastation included.
"What about the Tensei-Mirror Eye's unique dōjutsu?" the clone asked.
"Why don't you see for yourself," Genichi replied.
The words had barely left his mouth when the clone vanished. His vision blurred, and he found himself back in Konoha.
"Teleportation?" The clone looked towards the Hokage Rock, then froze. The number of faces was correct, but their order was wrong: Senju Hashirama, Senju Tobirama, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Minato Namikaze, Tsunade.
"An illusion?" The clone frowned, then dismissed the thought. The original Mirror Eye already possessed the genjutsu Ōyabiko-kai, capable of creating a perfect illusory replica of reality. And as a clone, he shouldn't be susceptible to genjutsu without realizing it.
He extended his senses and located Tsunade in the Hokage office. But this Tsunade was clearly different. He continued sensing. Soon, he realized this Konoha was identical to the one from his memories—the Konoha of the original timeline.
"Could it be… a parallel world?" the clone speculated, frowning.
He considered this, then flew high into the sky, quickly reaching outer space.
"Hm? What's this…?" The clone stopped abruptly, his hand hitting an invisible boundary.
"A spatial border?" He turned and looked down at the Earth below, then at the distant moon. He looked further, at the twinkling stars—illusions.
"I see." The clone understood. This was similar to Kaguya's Amenominaka, a space-time dōjutsu. But his main body's version was clearly a mirrored dimension, complete with mirrored inhabitants.
"But it's mirroring the original timeline from his memories. And the spatial scope is limited."
Just then, Genichi appeared beside him. "How do you plan to use a mirrored dimension like this?" the clone asked. "If I'm not mistaken, the mirrored shinobi are all extensions of your consciousness, right? Like clones?"
Genichi didn't answer verbally. The next moment, in the clone's perception, the Earth dissolved, the moon dissolved, and the entire dimension collapsed into nothingness, leaving only the two of them in the void.