Chapter 41.6- One Thousand Hands

“Because you’re siblings?”

“Most likely. We don’t know what abilities Madara and Izuna had, but they were probably similar.” She said. I nodded, gesturing for her to continue.

“Our ability is- was- Yūgō (fusion). I could take a persons skills and abilities as my own by fusing with them, while Izuku could take a person’s memories and essence. It’s supposed to be a temporary upgrade on the Sharingan’s existing copying ability but somehow with both of us using it at the same time and on each other, with Izuku dying and me not being far off, it just took everything that was his and put it in me. His memories, his skills, his talents. I have all of it” She said.

I turned to her eyes, meeting them and observing the patter of her mangekyou. From closer up, I could see that it was more like a triangle than anything else.

“And you know the cost of those eyes?” I asked her while staring at them. The mangekyou sharingan was not new to me. I knew a lot about it from the anime and manga, and even more from the journals of bothy Grandfather and Granduncle. Except where Hashirama had spoken of the power granted by the mangekyou, Tobirama spoke of the insanity.

‘An Uchiha with a Mangekyou Sharingan is best put down sooner rather than later’ the old man had written of them like animals, rabid dogs to be disposed of at will. I knew what he would tell me to do if he was here.

“I know. I can’t feel the blindness yet, but there’s this pain in them that just won’t go away.” She said. I noted the emotional change easily. Uzume was more willing to cooperate and comply than she had ever been.

“I assume you kept Izuku’s body” I said. She just scoffed at me. Of course she did.

“Good. Let’s go. I need to find somewhere secure enough for us to do this” Was this a terrible idea? Yes. Granduncle Tobirama would rip me a new one if he was here right now, but he wasn’t. With the Eternal Mangekyou, Uzume would go from just about S-rank as she currently was, to beyond Kage level. I remembered what that upgrade had looked like for Sasuke, enough power to contend with a Perfect Kyuubi Jinchuriki. She’d be stronger than me for sure. Presently, it was a toss up. If I did this, the best I’d be able to do would be give her a good fight. But what was the alternative? She had Izuku’s body either way. If she went blind and returned to her clan, they’d know exactly what to do.

I could fight her now and put her down to end the threat, but that kind of fight would damage much of this forest, ruin the war effort in the land of rivers because there was no way the rest of the squad would take that lying down, and even worse rob the Village of a promising asset while alienating the Uchiha even further.

The other option was what my Grandfather would do. And this was not a compliment. The man had handed over Weapons of Mass Destruction to the other villages, after all. He would help her now and place his trust in her that she would do what was right if the time ever came. He would trust in their friendship. If it was just Uzume, I might not have been able to do it. But there was Izuku in there. My best friend was in there. He would never betray me.

We landed in a different clearing and I forced a stone tablet to raise itself with a stomp against the ground. Another stomp raised another one.

“What are you doing?” Uzume asked.

“You know about the blindness caused by the mangekyou, but you don’t know to overcome it. My Granduncle ordered all information on that classified to the highest level. I do, however.”

“So how?”

“You need another mangekyou. One of someone closely related to you. You need to implant those eyes in place of yours because your eyes as they presently exist are incomplete. It was what Madara did to Izuna. They say my Granduncle killed him but that is only half true. My Granduncle landed a mortal blow, but it was Madara himself who made the final choice to kill his brother and take his eyes” She gasped and took a step back at that.

“You’re not putting his eyes in my skull” She said.

“I must. Or you will go blind” I said. The word blind made her shiver, and I could relate. There was nothing scarier than blindness to a doujutsu user.

“The body” I asked, and she handed the scroll over. I took a deep breath before I unsealed it. He looked like he was sleeping. Not dead. Not more or less gone forever.

“You lie down over there” I directed, and then I activated the chakra scalpel jutsu and began to cut.