Seeing Nagato's bewildered look, Mirai Uchiha replied coolly, "It means exactly what it says."
"Long ago, those Rinnegan eyes never truly belonged to you."
"You were only a vessel chosen to nurture the power of the Rinnegan."
Shock flickered across Nagato's face. "What?! What exactly are you saying? How much do you really know?!"
For years, the thing that had kept Nagato going was his possession of the Rinnegan.
Once, he believed himself to be just a nobody, but because of the Rinnegan, others saw him as their hope.
Because of that, he felt an immense sense of responsibility.
Yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't prevent the tragedies around him.
One by one, his comrades died, and he could do nothing to stop it.
Until Yahiko's death.
That was when he chose to cooperate with Madara Uchiha and finally mastered the power of the Rinnegan.
Later, after transplanting Hashirama's cells into himself, his strength grew even greater.
Even so, he still couldn't achieve what he truly desired in his heart.
Now, hearing Mirai's words, Nagato felt an unprecedented sense of panic.
The Rinnegan in his eyes...
Didn't belong to him?!
If the Rinnegan didn't truly belong to him, then why had he been powerless to change events around him? Why, despite possessing the eyes of a sage, did he constantly make wrong decisions? Why wasn't he the savior of the ninja world...
Everything suddenly made sense!
But...
How could this be possible?
Mirai Uchiha raised a hand and said calmly, "I know you're anxious, but calm down first."
Seeing Mirai's composed demeanor, Nagato forced himself to suppress his emotions and stopped pressing for answers.
After Nagato quieted down, Mirai continued, "This all goes back to the great battle between Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha many years ago."
The very first sentence made Nagato's eyes narrow in sharp focus.
Madara Uchiha?
Could it be that his possession of the Rinnegan was connected to Madara?
That made sense!
After all, Mirai was also a member of the Uchiha clan who had awakened the Rinnegan.
Was the Rinnegan the final evolution of the Sharingan?
No wonder Madara had approached him!
No wonder Madara understood all the abilities of the Rinnegan!
So... these eyes originally belonged to him!
With this theory forming in his mind, Nagato was eager to hear more from Mirai.
He was eager to find out if the truth confirmed his suspicions.
Seeing Nagato's urgency, Mirai Uchiha didn't delay and continued calmly, "Back then, Madara Uchiha discovered an ancient secret recorded on a stone tablet inside the Uchiha clan compound."
"The stone tablet said that uniting the powers of the Senju and the Uchiha Clan would grant the power of [Shinra Banshō]!"
"To gain even greater strength, Madara Uchiha left Konoha and fought a great battle against Hashirama Senju at the Valley of the End, bringing along the Nine-Tails."
"The battle lasted for three full days and nights."
"In the end, Hashirama Senju won, and Madara Uchiha fell in battle."
Nagato interrupted instantly, "No, that's not true. Madara Uchiha didn't really die."
"The power I wield comes directly from Madara Uchiha himself."
Mirai raised a hand slightly, motioning for Nagato to calm down. "The 'Madara' you're referring to isn't truly Madara Uchiha—it was actually someone impersonating him."
"At the time, Madara Uchiha really did survive."
"Before fighting Hashirama Senju, he made preparations, secretly sealing Izanagi into his eyes."
After saying this, Mirai continued, "Izanagi is a forbidden technique of the Sharingan capable of rewriting unfavorable realities."
"Using this jutsu, Madara rewrote the reality of his own death."
Nagato couldn't help but feel shocked at this revelation.
The story of the fierce battle between Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha at the Valley of the End had spread widely across the ninja world.
Everyone believed Hashirama Senju had defeated Madara Uchiha and brought peace to the ninja world.
No one would have guessed the truth behind the events.
Hashirama had been outsmarted, making Madara the true victor…
"During the battle, Madara Uchiha obtained a piece of flesh and blood from Hashirama Senju. After transplanting it into his body, he finally attained the power of [Shinra Banshō] in his old age, evolving his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan into the Rinnegan."
"But by then, Madara was already aging rapidly and nearing death."
"Faced with this situation, Madara devised a plan."
Nagato immediately asked, "What kind of plan?"
He could sense that what was about to be revealed was directly related to himself.
Seeing Nagato's urgency, Mirai continued slowly, "To resurrect himself after death, Madara needed to leave his Rinnegan in the world, which required finding a suitable host."
"But the Rinnegan's power was far too overwhelming; ordinary humans couldn't withstand it. Forcefully implanting the eye would only drain the recipient into a desiccated corpse."
"After searching for some time, Madara finally found you."
"He used his ocular power to secretly control Konoha shinobi and make them kill your parents."
"And implanted the Rinnegan into your body, altering the memories associated with it."
"This is the origin of your Rinnegan!"
After listening to Mirai Uchiha's words, Nagato fell silent for a moment.
Because of his parents' death and what happened in Amegakure, he had always held no goodwill toward ninja from Konoha.
Later, Yahiko died due to Danzo Shimura of Konoha, shattering Nagato's trust in shinobi from those great nations entirely.
He believed that only by making shinobi from those powerful nations endure the same suffering as those from smaller villages would they come to truly understand pain—and value the hard-won peace.
Yet he never expected that his parents had actually been killed by Madara Uchiha.
And those Rinnegan...
It indeed didn't belong to him at all—it belonged to Madara Uchiha!
Mirai Uchiha didn't interrupt Nagato but quietly waited for him to digest this shocking truth.
After a long while, Nagato finally spoke again: "Mirai, thank you for telling me everything. If not for you, I might have lived my entire life deceived by these lies."
"But you just mentioned the Madara I knew wasn't the real Madara—what exactly did you mean by that?"
"And what other backup plans did Madara prepare for himself?"
"The Rinnegan can indeed perform [Outer Path: Samsara Life Reincarnation Technique] to bring someone back to life, but this requires the caster to sacrifice his own life."
"Even without knowing the truth, I likely wouldn't have used the Rinnegan to bring Madara back to life."
"Didn't he consider this point already?"
Hearing Nagato's question, Mirai Uchiha calmly replied: "Madara considered all of this already."
"In Madara's plan, you were merely a tool meant to be discarded after use."
"According to the plan, once you collected all the Tailed Beasts, you'd die from overusing the Rinnegan's power. That's when the next phase of the plan would come into play."
"The one truly responsible for reviving Madara was another pawn in Madara's grand design!"
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