After returning to his apartment, Uchiha Shinji immediately deactivated his Mangekyo Sharingan and endured the discomfort in his eyes, storing away his mask and red cloud cloak.
Next, he took a shower to wash off all the smells from his body before finally lying down on his bed.
"It's starting again…"
This time, the discomfort in his eyes lasted for a long time.
Though it wasn't as sharp and piercing as before, the increased discomfort was a clear reminder that he had overexerted his dojutsu.
"Sigh!"
He let out a sigh.
Despite how hard he had worked—spending all his time studying or training—his eight-year-old body was limited in terms of base strength.
When facing demons with all sorts of bizarre bloodline abilities, he had no choice but to rely on the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan. There was no other option.
And with each invasion he had to counter, he found himself having to use the Mangekyo Sharingan multiple times.
This time, he had even used both Susanoo Tomoshibi and Amaterasu, which, while incredibly effective and allowing him to cleanly finish the battle, consumed a massive amount of his eye power.
Additionally, he had spent energy sealing the memories of over a hundred survivors.
And just earlier, he had forced Deidara into a dream using his Mangekyo Sharingan.
It wasn't easy to trap Deidara—who wasn't just any ordinary villager—in a dream. The consumption of dojutsu energy was enormous.
After all, Uchiha Shinji was still unfamiliar with dream construction and his use of genjutsu was still rudimentary.
"I must quickly find a way to obtain the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan!"
He made a firm resolution.
Even though he had control over two pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan right now, and his dojutsu could last for a while, if he didn't plan for the long term, his energy would eventually run out.
The next day.
Just like usual, Uchiha Shinji went to the shinobi academy.
Though he had just experienced life and death with Haku and Karin, he noticed that they were extremely cautious. Even though they were in the same classroom, they didn't exchange a single word the entire morning.
However, their subtle eye contact did not escape Uchiha Shinji's attentive observation.
After the morning theory classes ended, Uchiha Shinji asked Iruka for permission to leave and then headed alone to Hidden Leaf's archives.
When the archive manager saw Uchiha Shinji, they thought he wanted to borrow the scroll for Shadow Clone Jutsu, but to their surprise, he inquired about the Uchiha Clan's family records.
After the Uchiha Clan was wiped out, everything within the clan was confiscated by the village, including the family records that documented the clan's thousand-year history.
Having no leads on the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, Uchiha Shinji thought of looking through the family records to see if he could find any clues.
"Family records, huh…"
After checking the entry logs, the manager retrieved a large book from the archive and handed it to Uchiha Shinji.
"Thank you."
Holding the Uchiha Clan's family records, Uchiha Shinji found a seat and sat down.
As he flipped through the pages, his fingers brushed past each name, and finally, they landed on the name Uchiha Shinji.
"I found it!"
After finding his name, Uchiha Shinji traced his lineage upward.
"Mother, Uchiha Emiko. Father, Uchiha Sō."
The records clearly stated that his mother, Uchiha Emiko, never awakened the Sharingan, and his father, Uchiha Sō, had the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, but died during the Third Shinobi World War, with even his body being destroyed.
He sighed softly: "As expected, the blood relative route leads nowhere."
Though he had little hope, he turned another page.
"Grandfather, Uchiha Genichi, Three-Tomoe. Grandmother, Uchiha Naori, never awakened. Maternal grandfather, Uchiha..."
Suddenly, his gaze sharpened, and his eyes darted back to the name Uchiha Naori.
"Uchiha Naori!?"
At first glance, the name didn't seem unusual.
But on closer inspection, he realized that this name matched the name of the female Mangekyo Sharingan user in his memory, the one who had created the forbidden technique Izanami.
"No way?"
He looked carefully at the records and saw that there were very few details about Uchiha Naori, with only a brief note that she had once been part of the Police Force.
However, there was no mention of Uchiha Naori awakening the Sharingan.
Normally, when no details were given about awakening the Sharingan, it was assumed that the individual did not possess the Sharingan.
After all, even within the Uchiha Clan, not everyone could awaken the Sharingan, and only those who did would have it noted.
But to Uchiha Shinji, this lack of detail was suspicious.
If someone hadn't become a shinobi, they wouldn't have been eligible to join the Police Force. And someone who joined the Police Force but had no details on their Sharingan awakening raised questions—especially with the name Uchiha Naori.
With all these clues, Uchiha Shinji began to suspect.
"Could my grandmother be the one who developed Izanami?"
Following this train of thought, Uchiha Shinji recalled the pattern of Uchiha Naori's Mangekyo Sharingan.
Though his memory was a bit fuzzy, he managed to vaguely remember that her Mangekyo had three petal-like shapes arranged in a triangular pattern.
Then, comparing it to his own Mangekyo pattern—three interwoven black rings also arranged in a triangular formation…
"It's unmistakable! There's another Mangekyo Sharingan closely connected to me by blood—one that developed the powerful Izanami!"
Uchiha Shinji stood up so abruptly that he knocked over his chair.
From a distance, the manager looked over and asked, "What's wrong?"
Uchiha Shinji quickly calmed his excitement and shook his head: "I'm sorry, I just got emotional seeing so many fallen names in the family records."
The manager scrutinized Uchiha Shinji for a moment and then said, "Be mindful of your actions. This is an archive."
Uchiha Shinji nodded, picked up the chair, and sat back down.
After feeling the manager's gaze leave him, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Carefully closing the Uchiha Clan's family records, he returned them to the manager and left the archive.
Suppressing his excitement, he ensured no one was following him and then returned to his apartment. There, in the bathroom, he performed a summoning jutsu.
Poof.
With a burst of white smoke, Coalball cautiously emerged.
Before Coalball could speak, Uchiha Shinji asked urgently, "Did you see Uchiha Naori's Sharingan in the secret vault of Root?"
Coalball was taken aback by the sudden question and, after thinking for a moment, shook his head: "I don't think so."
"No!?"
Coalball thought a bit more, growing more certain: "Yeah, I'm sure there wasn't."
There were only about 20 to 30 Sharingan in Danzo's secret vault, and Coalball had checked them all while searching for Uchiha Fugaku's Sharingan. He was confident that there wasn't a jar labeled Uchiha Naori.