Orochimaru acted independently and ultimately failed to retain Sasuke, which wasn't Uchiha Kiyo's responsibility.
Still, it was of little consequence. In Uchiha Kiyo's mind, even if Orochimaru had managed to capture Sasuke, the result would not have changed. Sasuke had already awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. Although he hadn't manifested a genjutsu-specific ocular ability, the Mangekyō was inherently a natural counter to Orochimaru. Moreover, Sasuke still carried Indra's chakra within him, which provided him with unparalleled compatibility and overwhelming potential.
Setting aside Orochimaru's failure, Uchiha Kiyo departed the area via Shunshin.
His left eye was under severe strain, and he needed solitude to analyze the changes it had undergone.
Land of Fire.
Deep within a dense forest, hidden in a secluded cave, Uchiha Kiyo sat cross-legged on the ground, cultivating Yang Yuan Gong.
After about two hours of intense practice, he ceased channeling energy and opened his eyes. A glance revealed a clear difference in brightness—his right eye gleamed with vibrant clarity, while the left looked visibly dimmer.
"Sigh… the left eye's chakra consumption is way too high this time. I nearly pushed it beyond its limits."
Despite his breakthrough in discovering the origin of vitality and developing a basic technique to absorb natural energy as a method of alleviating Mangekyō's side effects, there were still limitations. Once the ocular damage reached a certain threshold, even this technique couldn't reverse it.
Thankfully, after killing Itachi, Uchiha Kiyo's eyes had undergone a form of evolution, and the damage to his left eye had been partially restored. Had this not occurred, complete regeneration might have been impossible.
Still, although his eyes could recover with time, it was a lengthy process. Last time, it took him five days of recovery after using just ten minutes of doubled time perception. Who knew how long it would take now?
"Tch… this vitality-absorption method needs an upgrade."
If he truly wanted to accelerate his recovery, he had to refine and enhance the method of absorbing vitality.
In his previous research, Kiyo had defined vitality as the cellular potential for division—what he poetically referred to as the desire of cells, the internal compulsion driving division and regeneration.
This desire, he found, could be supplemented by the violent currents embedded in natural energy. That formed the foundation for his vitality absorption technique.
But now, Uchiha Kiyo's understanding had deepened.
Not long ago, after delving into the secrets of soul cultivation, he discovered an unexpected benefit: the violent aspect of natural energy not only replenished cellular vitality, but also affected the soul.
His comprehension of natural energy underwent an evolution. Like chakra, natural energy possessed dual aspects—physical and spiritual. One represented pure, stable energy tied to the material world, while the other embodied volatile, unbalanced energy aligned with the ethereal.
The pure energy enhanced physical strength; the irritable, volatile component had nourishing effects on the soul.
Herein lay the overlap.
The violent energy was absorbed by cells to restore vitality but also fed the soul simultaneously. To resolve this duality, Uchiha Kiyo fused both processes into one unified theory.
Why couldn't vitality be understood as the fusion point of the body and the soul?
When the cells absorbed the violent natural energy, it wasn't just physical—it transmitted energy into the soul, enhancing the connection between body and spirit.
"If that's the case," Kiyo muttered, "then the limitations on vitality absorption aren't just physical. There's a soul-based bottleneck as well. And judging by my current physique, I doubt my body is the issue. So if the absorption rate of life force has plateaued, it must be the soul's fault."
It wasn't that his soul lacked strength—it was that there was no proper technique to guide the soul's absorption of energy. The absence of structure made the process inefficient and painfully slow.
"It looks like the development of the Soul Cultivation Technique is now top priority."
With that, Uchiha Kiyo summoned his shadow clones, relayed this realization to them, and ordered a full commitment to developing the technique. Other projects could wait—after all, there were still three years until the Third Great Ninja War and about a year before the Fourth. Time was of the essence.
During a negotiation with Orochimaru regarding their coordinated operations and mutual interest in battle logistics, Uchiha Kiyo had obtained an unexpected piece of intel—Pain was preparing to attack Konoha.
Orochimaru had overheard the information via his ring.
Such classified data shouldn't have leaked, but given Orochimaru's peculiar methods and disdain for Konoha, he neither blocked nor reported the conversation he had eavesdropped on. Thus, the intel ended up in Uchiha Kiyo's hands.
"Pain attacked Konoha… and eventually died, right? Used Rinne Tensei to revive everyone?" Uchiha Kiyo frowned, recalling the future.
So this was where the struggle over the Rinnegan truly began—and the event that triggered the Fourth Great Ninja War.
The timing was razor-thin.
Between the 67th and 68th years of the Konoha calendar, only a day or two might pass.
Konoha Year 67 was ending. Konoha 68 loomed.
Uchiha Kiyo clenched his fist. "Damn it! Already? I'm not ready yet! If I had known, I would've reversed the crows using my left eye's time-reversal and shut down the Kotoamatsukami activation instead of waiting!"
For the first time, he felt the full malice of the world.
During his battle with Itachi, he'd been careless—primarily because he wasn't sure if his time-reversal ability could cancel another Sharingan technique. So he gambled... and the price was heavy.
"Damn it. With the left eye in this condition… how can I fight in the war?"
Frustrated, he summoned the shadow clone again and reiterated the order: the Soul Cultivation Technique must be completed within a month, no excuses. Even the clone's own shadow clones were assigned to the task.
He was putting all other training on hold. This took priority.
Konoha.
News of Uchiha Kiyo's defeat of Uchiha Itachi had quickly reached the village—and Naruto Uzumaki.
"This Uchiha Kiyo is moving way too fast," Tsunade muttered with a frown.
She still wasn't clear on the full story of Uchiha Itachi, but she knew the truth: Itachi had been acting as Konoha's double agent within Akatsuki. And now he was dead—killed by Uchiha Kiyo, the same rogue ninja who had disrupted the village not long ago.
It gave Tsunade reason to believe that Uchiha Kiyo was actively targeting Konoha.
Still, technically, his actions were driven by vengeance. It was understandable. Even so…
The troubling part was how effortlessly Uchiha Kiyo had defeated Itachi. Kakashi had described Itachi's Tsukuyomi as nightmarishly powerful, yet Uchiha Kiyo emerged unscathed.
Not only that—Kiyo had finished the battle with a mysterious ocular ability that Kakashi couldn't identify.
From what Kakashi gathered and past encounters, he deduced that Uchiha Kiyo possessed two Mangekyō abilities: one for controlling puppets or constructs, and another for collecting and analyzing information. The latter also supported learning and research, explaining Kiyo's astonishing growth.
"The puppet control technique… Did Uchiha Kiyo use that to manipulate Itachi in their final exchange?"
Tsunade speculated aloud, but something didn't sit right.
"And then, there's the matter of Sasuke being captured by the masked man…"
That was problematic.
Though Konoha had gathered some intel on the masked figure—who claimed to be Uchiha Madara—they still lacked definitive proof of his identity.
Frankly, no one believed he was the real Madara. The idea was absurd.
Madara Uchiha, alive and sneaking around in a mask? Ridiculous.
Sasuke's capture wasn't a huge concern to her—but it was to Naruto. The boy had been shouting Sasuke's name all day.
Amegakure.
Inside Akatsuki's hidden base in the Land of Rain, Nagato sat in his mechanical throne, thin and gaunt as ever, thinking deeply.
"Itachi… is dead."
Konan stood before him, her face unreadable. She gave a slow nod.
Nagato didn't seem surprised and continued mulling over the implications.
"Uchiha Kiyo's strength is far beyond expectations. Even Itachi, a master of Tsukuyomi, couldn't stop him. And apparently, Kiyo came out of it unharmed."
That meant only one thing: the so-called ultimate genjutsu had been nullified.
Uchiha Kiyo had shown no signs of being affected by Tsukuyomi—neither mental fatigue nor chakra instability.
"His threat level is significantly higher than we anticipated," Konan said.
Nagato remained silent.
The information made one thing clear—Uchiha Kiyo's intelligence-gathering and counter-ability arsenal were terrifying. His foresight and preparation made him nearly untouchable.
Nagato still held onto his self-perception as a god and did not verbally challenge Konan's assessment, but she could tell—he wasn't taking her warnings seriously.
That arrogance, born of wielding the Rinnegan, was dangerous.
Konan couldn't shake the thought: Uchiha Kiyo knew too much. And not only that—his skillset countered almost every known opponent.
Even her own secret technique—her final trump card—felt exposed.
"I'm heading to capture the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki tomorrow," she muttered. "Please… don't let me run into him."
Not just Konoha or Akatsuki, but even the other Great Shinobi Nations had begun receiving fragments of information.
On the surface, it seemed simple—Uchiha Kiyo had killed Uchiha Itachi. But those who understood the world's deeper currents knew… this was only the beginning.