— — — — — —
"You…"
Right now, Fugaku's mind was an absolute storm.
The two things Renzo had just revealed completely rocked him.
"Let me process this for a second!"
Fugaku paced back and forth across the tent, visibly frustrated, muttering to himself. After a long pause, he finally turned back to Renzo and asked, "Okay—let's take this one step at a time."
"First, you said your Mangekyō Sharingan isn't the same as the usual one? And there's no risk of going blind? You can even transfer ocular power to me?! That's just… that's just…"
"Sounds just like the legendary Sharingan of Uchiha Madara, right?" Renzo finished for him, calm as ever.
Fugaku's eyes lit up. He nodded seriously. "Exactly! I may not know everything, but I have heard my father talk about that before."
"He said that Madara's eyes weren't just a regular pair of Mangekyō. He and his brother swapped eyes. After fusing two Mangekyō together, he awakened something even more powerful—the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan."
"Wait… are you saying yours is an Eternal Mangekyō?"
"But how's that possible? You're an orphan. There were no other Mangekyō users in the clan at the time. So how…?"
Fugaku looked completely confused now.
His father had told him clearly: only siblings could swap eyes to awaken the Eternal version.
Did his father lie to him? Or maybe even he didn't know the truth?
"Heh," Renzo chuckled and shook his head. "My case is different from Madara's. I didn't fuse with anyone's eyes. When my Sharingan awakened, it was already an Eternal Mangekyō."
"That has to do with my unique body constitution and a ridiculously strong spiritual force. It's not something that can be copied."
In truth, it wasn't just that.
His dojutsu (eye technique) was so rare and overpowered that the energy it consumed was hundreds of times more than normal. Luckily, Renzo's own ocular power was more than ten times what Fugaku had—completely on another level.
"…Seriously? It can't be replicated at all?" Fugaku asked, a little dejected and more than a little jealous.
If he could get his hands on Eternal Mangekyō—no blindness, more power, stronger vision—he'd give up almost anything.
Heck, he'd kill for a built-in Eternal like that.
Renzo nodded. "Yeah, my situation's one-of-a-kind."
But then, seeing how crushed Fugaku looked, he added, "That said… there might be another way I can help you achieve an Eternal Mangekyō."
"Huh?" Fugaku's whole expression changed in an instant. His emotions were all over the place today.
He leaned in, eyes filled with hope. "You've got another way? What's the method? What are the conditions?"
"Just say the word! As long as it's doable, I'll make it happen. Heck, if you want the position of Clan Head, we can talk about that too!"
"Actually, I've always thought you'd make a great leader for the Uchiha!"
…Fugaku, this guy has been actively trying to hand over his job to Renzo for months now.
Renzo couldn't help but laugh.
"No thanks on the Clan Head thing," Renzo said, waving it off. "Too much stress, too little reward. I'll pass."
"But," he continued, "I've got access to some advanced cloning tech. It might help you get your own Eternal Mangekyō."
"But that's a long-term project—gonna take a lot of time and testing. Not something I can fix overnight."
"What you need to do right now is team up with Orochimaru and win a damn good battle. We need a clean, solid victory to set the stage for my next move."
"And that plan looks like this…"
Renzo laid out everything, start to finish.
When he was done, Fugaku sat there, stunned.
"…So you've already roped in that many key players in Konoha?"
"Minato, Orochimaru, and even Kushina… Tsunade too?"
"And you've got that much dirt on Danzo?"
"If you play this right, yeah—it could actually work!"
"Honestly, the Third's popularity in the village is at an all-time low. This is definitely a window of opportunity."
Fugaku wasn't clueless, after all. Sure, he'd been on the frontlines for a while, but he hadn't been totally out of the loop about what was going on in Konoha.
And Renzo's strategy? It sounded solid. High chance of success—if Renzo was as powerful as he claimed.
"Oh man! Tsunade's not quite locked in yet," Renzo thought to himself. "I was just bluffing a little. Gotta go back and figure that out…"
Fugaku's expression suddenly turned serious again. He looked Renzo straight in the eye.
"Tell me honestly—how strong are you really right now?"
"If the plan fails, do you have the power to end it all—to crush the opposition and protect the Uchiha?"
No matter what, Fugaku wanted some kind of fallback plan. Even if things went south, he couldn't allow the Uchiha to fall into complete ruin.
That was just the kind of guy he was—careful, thorough, always planning for a backup. He didn't believe in going all-in with no retreat.
Ironically, it was exactly thatkind of thinking that got the Uchiha clan to where they ended up in the original timeline.
"Hmm... how should I put this…" Renzo chuckled, tapping his fingers on the armrest of his chair. "A few months ago, I fought Uchiha Madara."
Fugaku froze.
"At that time, he didn't have his full Eternal Mangekyō, and he was way past his prime—but I beat him."
"Now?" Renzo gave a confident smile. "I'm way beyond what Madara and even Hashirama were at their peaks."
"Does that give you a clear enough idea?"
And that was without fusing Sage Chakra into his source power. If he added that in? Game over.
Fugaku: "???"
"Wait, what? Uchiha Madara? Did I mishear you just now? You said that was a few months ago? You seriously think I'll buy that? Madara's been dead for decades!"
He stared at Renzo like he'd just grown a second head.
What is this kid even saying? Has he completely lost it? Gotten too cocky and gone nuts?
Can I even trust anything else he's said?
Seeing Fugaku giving him the full 'you've lost your damn mind' expression, Renzo couldn't help but snap, "Why is it nobody believes me when I'm telling the truth these days?!"
"I did fight Madara. He never died back then."
"You remember the crazy disturbance in the northwest sector a few months ago?"
"All the village leaders, including the Third, sent people to investigate that whole incident, right?"
"Well, that chaos? That was from my fight with Madara."
"That old man faked his death during the battle with the First Hokage using Izanagi. After that, he used some method to hide and extend his life. He's been lurking in the shadows ever since."
"Though honestly, I think he's finally kicked the bucket now. After our fight, whatever jutsu he was using to extend his life probably broke."
"Then again…" Renzo trailed off. "You never really know if that was also Madara's plan."
There were some things he wasn't ready to tell Fugaku yet. No point pushing him too hard—guy already looked like he was questioning reality.
"…Izanagi?"
Fugaku's skepticism suddenly shifted. His eyes widened in recognition.
"If that's true… it actually makes sense!"
"So Madara really could've faked his death?"
"No wonder the Second Hokage kept suppressing the Uchiha even after both Madara and the First were supposedly dead… This must've been why!"
"He must've found something out!"
I mean, if Madara was really killed by Hashirama back then, there should've been a body, right?
And knowing how cautious Tobirama was about Madara and the Uchiha, there's no wayhe wouldn't have confirmed the death personally.
Maybe Madara did fool him at first—but eventually, Tobirama probably caught on.
Fugaku remembered something his father once said: there was a period when Tobirama's stance toward the Uchiha clan suddenly shifted.
This could be it. This could be the real reason…
"Oh?" Renzo raised an eyebrow, a little amused. "So there's more to this than I thought, huh? Sounds reasonable. I mean, it is Tobirama we're talking about."
"Guy was a genius and a total control freak."
Renzo even started to suspect that maybe the whole anti-Uchiha vibe from the Third and Danzo later on… might've been planted by Tobirama himself. Not that they were also born anti-uchiha.
"…Nah," he finally shook his head. "Probably not."
He had read the original story.
Tobirama definitely had a deep mistrust of the Uchiha, but he was also practical. He knew the village needed their strength. He wouldn't have taken things thatfar.
No, this was Danzo's fault—his paranoia, his manipulation. He was the real culprit behind the clan's downfall.
Just look at how Uchiha Kagami mysteriously died… or how Sakumo Hatake was driven to suicide. The signs were all there.
Fugaku's brain was also spinning.
This Renzo guy… what the hell, man?
He just casually dropped all this world-shattering intel like it was nothing!
"So… Madara really didn't die back then?" Fugaku finally took a deep breath, trying to re-center himself. He looked Renzo dead in the eye. "That's what you're saying?"
"I already said that, didn't I?" Renzo replied, shrugging. "He was alive before the fight. He should be dead now."
"If he wasn't, Black Zetsu wouldn't be the one making moves to collect Uchiha pawns over on the Kiri front."
Fugaku: "???"
What the hell did you just say now?
Collecting Uchiha pawns?
BLACK ZETSU?!
Fugaku stared at Renzo like he was two seconds away from punching him in the face.
Don't leave me hanging like that, you bastard.
.
.
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