In the light drizzle, everyone returned to the canyon.
Because Uchiha Shinji had led Shion and successfully broken through the enemy's encirclement, diverting their attention, many of the Land of Demons' guards in the canyon actually survived the battle.
The group worked together to clear the rocks blocking the canyon and continued their journey.
This time, the convoy safely arrived at the Land of Demons.
Once they reached the shrine of the miko (priestess), nearly everyone in the convoy, including Kakashi's team that had joined later, breathed a collective sigh of relief. Some even cried with joy.
Shion's prophecy of death had hung over everyone's heads like a shadow throughout the journey. Only now, after reaching their destination safely, did they believe that Shion's infallible death prophecy had truly been broken.
As the guards from the Land of Demons embraced each other, weeping, Sasuke, with his hands in his pockets, curled his lips. "I don't understand why these people were so worried. They actually believed that unreliable prophecy of Shion's."
Neji's eyes gleamed with newfound insight.
He had always believed in fate, thinking that destiny was unchangeable, just like the Caged Bird Seal on his forehead, or how his father could not defy the orders of the village and the Hyuga clan.
But after this journey, he had found hope.
"If you're strong enough, even fate… can be shattered!"
At that moment, the image of the figure standing under the golden Susanoo, gazing down on the monster like a god, flashed through Neji's mind.
As Shion stepped down from the carriage, she overheard Sasuke's words and huffed. "Even if my prophecy was broken, it wasn't you who broke it, so what are you so proud of?"
Sasuke shot a glance at Shion, smirking. "But that was the power of the Uchiha!"
"That was the power of..." Shion caught herself mid-sentence and quickly glanced at Shinji before continuing, "That's someone else's power, not yours. You're shameless!"
Sasuke wasn't bothered by her words and instead walked over to Shinji. "Shinji, now do you understand why I was against you wasting time on medical ninjutsu?"
As he spoke, Sasuke activated the three-tomoe Sharingan in his eyes. "Look at me, I've already awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan!"
Neji and Kimimaro both turned their attention to Sasuke's Sharingan.
Not far away, Kakashi, Asuma, and the others also looked over, taking note of the young Uchiha's progress.
Anko remarked, "That kid's only seven, right?"
Asuma couldn't help but exclaim, "So fast? I remember Itachi's file saying he awakened his at eight, right?"
"Yes, Sasuke has surpassed Uchiha Itachi," Kakashi nodded.
As someone who had once been on the same Anbu team as Itachi, Kakashi had some understanding of him. He knew that even the prodigious Uchiha Itachi hadn't awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan at Sasuke's age.
In fact, Sasuke's progress was record-breaking. In recorded history, especially in times of peace, there were almost no cases of someone awakening the three-tomoe Sharingan at such a young age.
Kurenai commented, "No wonder the village holds him in such high regard."
Anko agreed, "Yeah!"
The real reason their team had secretly followed the convoy from the Land of Demons was to provide protection for Uchiha Sasuke, under orders from the village.
As everyone focused on Sasuke's three-tomoe Sharingan, Shinji felt a little awkward, thinking, "Uh, should I be showing admiration right now?"
Sasuke, full of excitement, continued, "Shinji, don't feel discouraged! Even if you're not as talented as me, I believe you can still awaken your Sharingan! Stop wasting time on irrelevant things!"
"I…," Shinji opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.
"Pfft!" Shion, who was standing nearby, couldn't hold back her laughter and had to cover her mouth, her face turning red.
Sasuke, even more fired up, said, "Once we awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan, we'll have power like that other Uchiha! That's the power of our Uchiha clan!"
Shinji quietly observed Sasuke.
To be honest, Shinji never felt particularly close to Sasuke before. Their relationship was more like that of clanmates and rivals.
So when Sasuke awakened his three-tomoe Sharingan after witnessing Shinji in danger, Shinji still found it unbelievable.
After all, during the massacre of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke had only unlocked the one-tomoe Sharingan in his rage.
"Has he already started considering me his closest friend?" Shinji thought, his expression becoming odd.
He remembered how Itachi had later told Sasuke that to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan, one had to kill their best friend.
"Am I going to become his sacrifice someday?" Shinji mocked himself inwardly.
Being friends with an Uchiha might not be such a good thing after all.
Soon, the group began tending to their injuries.
Most of the people who had survived the journey were wounded in some way. Fearing another ambush, many had only done simple bandaging before setting off again in haste.
So now that they had reached the miko's shrine, everyone took the opportunity to properly treat their injuries and rest.
...
That evening.
Having found an opportunity to release his shadow clone and return to the group, Shinji quietly slipped into Shion's room.
Upon seeing her, Shinji tossed the bell charm back to her. "Thanks."
Catching the bell, Shion pouted, "It's all your fault! If you hadn't used genjutsu to seal my memories, I wouldn't have been worrying for nothing!"
Shinji shook his head slowly. "It wasn't that simple. Your worry wasn't unnecessary."
Shion widened her eyes and looked at Shinji with a knowing expression. "Why?"
"You should know better than I do," Shinji replied after a pause. "You know the true nature of that monster Moryo, don't you?"
Shion gasped, "You even know that!?"
Shinji said, "So even if no one interfered this time, I wouldn't have been able to defeat Moryo. Only you can."
"But I haven't fully learned sealing techniques yet," Shion said, lowering her head and fiddling with her fingers.
Shinji replied calmly, "Sealing is just a temporary solution. Even if you seal it, one day, just like this time, someone blinded by ambition will release it again."
Shion hurriedly asked, "Then what should I do?"
"Everyone has a dark side," Shinji said, softening his tone. "I think only by facing your dark side can you become a complete version of yourself."
Shion seemed lost in thought, repeating, "Complete version of myself…"
"Well, I've got some things to take care of now."
Shion panicked and quickly hid behind a pillar. "No!"
Shinji coaxed her, "Be good."
Shion shook her head vigorously, "No, no, Shinji, please, don't seal my memories again! I promise I won't say anything. I swear!"
Unmoved, Shinji replied, "I'm doing this for your own good, so you don't have to hold it in."
Shion wrung her hands, pleading, "Shinji, you're the only one who can break my death prophecy. We're destined for each other. Please don't seal my memories!"
Shinji said, "You still don't understand, do you? It wasn't me who broke your death prophecy. It's because your powers were sealed that the future you saw wasn't accurate."
"What!?"
Shion was taken aback.
Shinji glanced at the bell charm in her hand but didn't explain further.
In truth, Shion's situation was similar to Shinji's.
Both of them possessed immense power, but due to their age, they couldn't yet fully unleash it.
At only eight years old, Shinji couldn't utilize the full potential of his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. It wasn't a matter of experience or skill but simply that his body hadn't fully matured. His physical strength, chakra, and dojutsu capabilities hadn't reached their peak.
At seven, Shion faced the same issue.
In fact, her situation was even more unique since her priestess powers were sealed by the bell charm. Because of this, her death prophecies weren't as precise as they could be.
Predicting the fate of ordinary people wasn't an issue.
But when it came to someone like Shinji, who possessed the power to disrupt fate, the accuracy of the death prophecy naturally decreased.
While Shion was lost in thought, Shinji seized the opportunity to cast a genjutsu on her.
With his enhanced dojutsu and Shion's miko powers still sealed by the bell charm, it was easy for Shinji to seal her memories again.
After finishing the memory seal, Shinji quietly left her room.
With that issue resolved, Shinji returned to his own room, feeling relieved.
He then set aside all other concerns and focused entirely on exploring the power of his newly acquired Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
The most noticeable change after obtaining the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan was the increase in his dojutsu capabilities—more chakra, stronger jutsus.
The side effects he had experienced before, like eye pain, bleeding tears, and vision loss, had all disappeared.
Now, even if he used five or six different dojutsu consecutively, the worst he would feel was fatigue, like after his battle with Moryo.
However, perhaps due to the sheer strength of his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, the boost he gained from Uchiha Fugaku's Mangekyo was now minimal.
The only real benefit was the additional dojutsus—Amaterasu and Izanagi-no-Mikoto—contained in Fugaku's eyes.
"Five dojutsu slots…"
Propping his chin on his hand, Shinji began to contemplate.
When his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan had completed its fusion, the three dojutsu from the two pairs of Mangekyo—Susanoo Tomoshibi, Jikibi, and Wazunagi—had all received significant upgrades.
Among them, Susanoo Tomoshibi not only evolved an additional third pair of eye sockets but also perfectly integrated the powers of Jikibi and Wazunagi, allowing his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan to hold three different Mangekyo dojutsus at once.
But there was a limit to how many dojutsus an eye could hold.
Even Susanoo Tomoshibi couldn't contain an infinite number of dojutsu.
Currently, aside from the standard Mangekyo jutsu Susanoo, Susanoo Tomoshibi could only hold up to five dojutsu.
In other words, aside from the three fixed Mangekyo techniques—Susanoo Tomoshibi, Jikibi, and Wazunagi—Shinji could only temporarily hold two more Mangekyo techniques.
At the moment, he had temporarily added Amaterasu and Izanagi-no-Mikoto, filling all five dojutsu slots. Even if he used the third pair of eye sockets to control another pair of Mangekyo, he wouldn't be able to gain any additional techniques from them.
This meant that before every battle, Shinji would need to carefully choose which Mangekyo techniques to temporarily wield.
Five dojutsu slots, plus the non-slot-consuming Susanoo, were already quite a lot. But Shinji still wasn't satisfied. He stroked his chin, thinking, "If I want more slots, I'd need my eyes to evolve again, and Susanoo Tomoshibi would need to be further enhanced."
But the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan was already the pinnacle of the Sharingan's evolution.
The only further evolution would be to the Rinnegan!
Shinji recalled that Uchiha Madara, as the reincarnation of Otsutsuki Indra, had only awakened the Rinnegan in his twilight years, which made Shinji doubt his own chances of achieving it.
However, he quickly reconsidered.
Uchiha Madara had once used Izanagi, sacrificing one of his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan in the process.
Unlike Madara, Shinji's pair of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan was intact, meaning that in some ways, they each had their advantages and disadvantages.
Madara's advantage lay in his high-quality yin chakra as Indra's reincarnation, but his disadvantage was that he was down one Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
Shinji's advantage was that he had both Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan intact, but he lacked the high-quality yin chakra of Indra.
In the end, evolution relied more on quality than quantity.
If the quality wasn't there, merely accumulating more power wouldn't lead to success.
Upon reflection, Shinji felt that his disadvantage was greater than Madara's.
However, it was still too early to dwell on such matters.
After all, Shinji was only eight years old and hadn't even reached his prime yet. There was no need to rush toward evolving the Rinnegan.
But collecting eyes, gathering dojutsu—that was a different story.
The power boost from controlling Mangekyo Sharingan had diminished because, relative to his current strength, a single Mangekyo was no longer as significant.
But what if he controlled another pair of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan?
Or even a pair of Tenseigan?
Moreover, the ninja world contained many strange eye-based Bloodline Limits, like the Kogan (Ranmaru's Bloodline Limit) and Ketsuryūgan. Just like the Sharingan and Byakugan, these eye-based Bloodline Limits could likely trace their origins back to Otsutsuki Kaguya, with mutations arising from millennia of reproduction.
Under normal circumstances, these dojutsu had limited potential and couldn't compare to the Sharingan.
But if Shinji used Susanoo Tomoshibi to fuse these eyes, awakening their dormant power, who knew what kind of new eyes he might create? The shinobi world had never seen such a thing before.