The sky cleared, the rain stopped, and Sasuke felt he could do it again.
One sentence sums up Shippuden-era Uchiha Sasuke best.
He trained under Orochimaru for a few years, then easily cut down the gravely ill Orochimaru and decided he was ready to kill Uchiha Itachi to avenge the clan, so he immediately formed Team Taka and scoured the world for Itachi's trail.
Along the way he was thrashed by Deidara and almost died, but because he ultimately won, Sasuke believed even more that he "had it."
And only because Uchiha Itachi held back; if he had truly been after those Sharingan eyes, Sasuke would've been done for.
After awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, Sasuke cranked that "clear-sky buff" to the max.
At the Five Kage Summit he was beaten badly. He mouthed off to Uchiha Madara, and after the biggest crisis ended he started stirring trouble again… only to get slapped down each time.
So in Link's original world, the eternal runner-up that is Sasuke became the butt of the "clear-weather Sasuke" jokes.
But if you look closely at the character, Uchiha Sasuke is one of the most tragic "number twos," or co-protagonists, in anime.
He's actually worse off than Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto's misery was his childhood; from age twelve things steadily changed until, around sixteen or seventeen, he became the winner at life.
Sasuke, by contrast, lived happily until about eight, and after that never lived for himself again—reduced to a puppet of revenge.
When he learned the truth and finally had the power to change everything, he was beaten and talked down by Uzumaki Naruto, and in the end could only guard and atone from the shadows.
From eight years old on, Uchiha Sasuke was always being forced along by life.
Now, this tragic figure who rarely avoids a face-slap yet still manages the occasional successful flex has become Link's second template.
Link couldn't help feeling great about it.
Compared to Uchiha Madara, who seized Senju Hashirama's cells and evolved the Rinnegan, Uchiha Sasuke only opened a single six-tomoe Rinnegan thanks to the Sage of Six Paths handing him a buff—so he's not quite on Madara's level.
But for Link's purposes, whether the second template is Uchiha Sasuke or Uchiha Madara doesn't matter.
What matters most to Link is Indra's reincarnate "Sage Eyes" and the Extreme Yin power.
When Link awakened the Sharingan—no, more precisely, when he obtained the second template—the Rinnegan had already begun to gestate.
Like Uchiha Madara using Extreme Yin plus a touch of Yang to give birth to the Rinnegan,
Link, who possesses Extreme Yang, likewise needs only a small amount of Yin to open the Rinnegan.
Unlike Madara, if Link relied on only a sliver of Yin, he would need years of waiting.
With more Yin, the evolution speeds up.
Therefore, as Link raises Uchiha Sasuke's unlock progress, he gains more Yin power and accelerates the Rinnegan's gestation.
The instant the Rinnegan is born, it means Link has shattered the world's ceiling and stepped into the "god among men" realm of the Six Paths.
Once he reaches that tier, Link will have no more scruples.
Even if the original story hasn't finished, even if he doesn't know what comes next, even if the true power of the three Ancient Weapons is unknown, even if Imu's gender is unknown and the Four Emperors-class fighters seem like extradimensional terrors on the level of Six Paths… none of it matters!
Even if Imu holds "god among men" power, it still won't change a thing.
If Imu doesn't, then the moment Link becomes a Six Paths-class being, the world changes hands.
No matter how many top-tiers there are, whether Four Emperors, Marine Admirals, or the Five Elders together, before Link they're all just chickens and dogs.
The One Piece world will become Link's playground.
"Hm?"
While Link was full of longing for the Six Paths level, his pupils suddenly tightened as if he'd seen something unbelievable.
Such a look rarely appeared on Link, the man who planned three steps ahead.
From the moment he unlocked the Senju Hashirama template to 1% and shed his frail, sub-healthy body, Link had leveraged his transmigrator's meta-knowledge to suffer no losses.
For something to make his expression change like this, it had to be no small matter.
And it was!
On the virtual panel floating before him—the one he hadn't yet dismissed—there was a tiny change.
The unlock progress that had read 0% now showed—0.01%.
Link was absolutely sure he hadn't tapped the plus sign next to the progress.
The XP reservoir still showed 0.7%; that 0.01% hadn't come from the stored XP.
In other words… the Second Template was leveling up on its own!
Shock and disbelief flashed across Link's face, then melted into dawning delight.
"The perks of being 'associated,' huh?"
Uchiha Sasuke and Senju Hashirama are connected.
Their forebear is the Sage of Six Paths.
The chakra within their reincarnations once belonged to brothers.
Extreme Yang and Extreme Yin fuse to birth the Rinnegan that governs Yin and Yang.
That's a kind of upgrade!
From the instant Link obtained the Uchiha Sasuke template, an evolution began.
Yang and Yin feed back into each other, influencing the Sasuke template so that it unlocks step by step on its own, without consuming XP.
Or perhaps Link's Extreme Yang itself is XP!
For Link, this was an enormous boon.
Because who knew—after loading a Second Template, would XP acquisition reset from scratch and throw him straight into a "hell-mode" eleventh stage?
Now, with the Second Template auto-leveling, the difficulty of reaching Six Paths plummeted from hard to easy.
He might not even need to do anything—just wait, like Madara did for his Rinnegan—and as the Uchiha Sasuke template climbs toward 100%, his power will surpass Hashirama and Sasuke at their peaks.
At that point, Link will exceed both templates' prime.
Hashirama possessed only Extreme Yang; Sasuke, even with a single six-tomoe Rinnegan, held only Extreme Yin.
Link will hold both Extreme Yang and Extreme Yin—the Sage of Six Paths without needing the Ten-Tails.
His Six Paths road will carry him farther than Uchiha Madara's.
<><><><><><>
Read Advanced Chapters on : patreon.com/Kaizo247
~ Every 150 PS = Bonus Chapter!
~ Push the Story forward with your [Power Stones]