Chapter 2: Uchiha Douhuan
"Is it really so surprising that I have awakened these eyes, when even someone with your limited vision could do the same?" Uchiha Douhuan remarked.
"Douhuan, your ideology is too dangerous. For the sake of the village… I'm sorry!"
Upon seeing the Mangekyō Sharingan in Douhuan's eyes, Shisui dared not hesitate. He immediately activated the ultimate ability of his left eye—Kotoamatsukami, a genjutsu meant to permanently alter the will of its target. It was originally prepared for Uchiha Fugaku, but now, he had no choice but to use it on Douhuan.
However, in the next instant, searing pain shot through his eyes, and Shisui was plunged into eternal darkness.
"If I was already aware of your technique, did you really think I wouldn't take precautions against it?" Douhuan's voice rang out in the darkness that now engulfed Shisui.
"How… did you do this?" Shisui asked hoarsely, pressing a hand over his now-empty eye sockets.
"My dojutsu is called Yasogami Totsuka." As Shisui struggled to adjust to the darkness, Douhuan swiftly disarmed him, sealed his chakra, and explained, "It allows me to perceive countless possibilities within a single instant and choose the most optimal outcome. You attempted to use your dojutsu on me, but I foresaw it and countered in the best way possible. This was merely one of the many possibilities I saw."
"How did you know about my dojutsu?" Though he no longer had the strength to fight, Shisui still sought to extract as much information as possible.
"I've already told you—my eyes can see a future beyond your comprehension," Douhuan said as he casually examined the pair of Mangekyō Sharingan he had taken.
"A precognitive dojutsu…?" Shisui gave a bitter smile. "So everything I did was within your grasp from the very start, wasn't it?"
Douhuan did not answer. Instead, he continued, "The clan records say that the Mangekyō Sharingan is the 'Eye that Reflects the Heart,' but I prefer to call it the 'Eye of Answers.' Every Uchiha who has awakened these eyes has faced a trial of the soul, and the ability they manifest is their answer to that trial."
"You speak so much about 'vision,' so let me ask you this—why is it that, when confronted with the conflict between your clan and the village, the answer you chose was to manipulate the will of others? Do you also believe that the divide between the Uchiha and Konoha is irreconcilable?"
Shisui fell silent at the accusation. Douhuan was right—he had been completely unable to see a future where the village and the Uchiha coexisted peacefully. That despair, combined with the buried cruelty of a shinobi, had led him to awaken such a forceful and almost tyrannical ability.
"What an arrogant answer," Douhuan commented lightly. "The blood of the Uchiha granted you power, yet you chose to use it against your own kin."
"What do you intend to do with my eyes?" Shisui gritted his teeth. "Do you plan to control the Third Hokage? Your schemes will never succeed. Even if you manage to manipulate Hiruzen Sarutobi, the rest of the village won't stand idly by. The Uchiha alone cannot oppose the entire village. You'll only be leading the clan to its destruction!"
"You're still so arrogant, Shisui," Douhuan chuckled, releasing the restraints on him. "Even now, you refuse to admit that my vision surpasses yours. Directly controlling Hiruzen? That would be the most basic and crude use of these eyes."
With that, Douhuan took out a small vial and tossed it to Shisui.
Though he could no longer see, his sharpened shinobi senses allowed him to catch it with ease. "What is this?"
"A pair of three-tomoe Sharingan I retrieved from the clan shrine," Douhuan said. "Take them. Now leave."
"You're letting me go?" Shisui was stunned.
"Kill you?" Douhuan let out a light laugh. "Why would I kill you?"
He patted Shisui's shoulder. "Go. Tell Hiruzen Sarutobi about your eyes and their abilities. Then use the new pair I gave you to witness the future I am about to forge."
With those words, Douhuan turned and walked away from the Forest of Death without looking back.
After returning to his residence on the outskirts of the Uchiha district, he summoned his ninja hawk and implanted the two Mangekyō Sharingan into it before releasing the summon.
"Now that I have Kotoamatsukami, my plans can truly begin."
Standing by the window, Douhuan gazed at the night sky. The Hidden Leaf Village glowed with the lights of a peaceful evening, while the Uchiha district remained eerily silent, a stark contrast.
Fourteen years ago, he had been transported into this world, and from that moment, he had felt out of place. Even the most exploitative capitalist system of his previous life was leagues ahead of this broken shinobi world.
In his past life, Douhuan had been nothing more than an ordinary office worker. His only hobby had been studying political science in his spare time. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that he would be reborn into this world with such a supposedly 'loyal' name.
But this damned world had forced him to learn how to kill from childhood, and at just nine years old, he had been sent to the battlefield under the guise of the "Will of Fire." Fortunately, the blood in his veins had gifted him the talent to survive. In the face of life-or-death battles, he had awakened the Uchiha clan's ultimate power—the Mangekyō Sharingan—and managed to make it through the war.
But Douhuan knew that surviving the battlefield was not the end. The Uchiha Massacre, just a few years down the line, was something he had to prepare for.
Yet the so-called 'clan meetings' of the Uchiha were nothing but endless arguments, with no real strategy or direction. It was clear to Douhuan—if he wanted to change the future, he could rely on no one but himself.
Obtaining Kotoamatsukami was only the first step of his plan.
Though he had ulterior motives, Douhuan's evaluation of Shisui today had been entirely honest—arrogant, naive, and foolish.
Possessing a dojutsu as powerful as Kotoamatsukami, yet meeting such an unceremonious end in the original timeline—Shisui's fate had been entirely avoidable. If he had simply demonstrated his ability openly, he could have become the sword of Damocles hanging over both the Uchiha and the Konoha higher-ups, forcing them into negotiation. But instead, he had chosen the most foolish path.
Well, now that power belongs to me.
Douhuan smiled indifferently as he turned his gaze toward the Hokage Monument.
In the darkness, the four stone faces loomed over the village, their expressions unreadable. But Douhuan's gaze remained fixed on the third face—Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Now then, the so-called "strongest Hokage"… how will you respond?