Uchiha Hiro stood quietly in the center of the courtyard, his dark shadow stretched incredibly long across the ground by the pale moonlight overhead. Those vibrant, crimson Mangekyo Sharingan eyes appeared increasingly eerie and dangerous in the still of the night.
Even right now, after having experienced the transformation firsthand, he still felt a profound, lingering sense of unreality.
Did he truly just acquire the legendary Mangekyo Sharingan just like that, so easily?
He slowly withdrew his sharp gaze from the vast night sky and looked down at his own trembling palms. The phantom throbbing in his skull from when he first forcefully activated the Mangekyo had not yet completely subsided, and his racing heart was overflowing with intense curiosity and a burning desire to thoroughly explore the hidden, profound abilities of these newly evolved eyes.
The specific abilities granted by every single pair of Mangekyo Sharingan are entirely unique to the individual user, and he absolutely had to figure out his own eyes' specific combat capabilities as soon as humanly possible.
The left eye's newly awakened ocular jutsu was the Ten Shadows Technique, and the right eye's was the Six Eyes.
Why did those specific, iconic names sound so incredibly familiar to his soul?
Weren't these the exact, signature cursed techniques of Gojo Satoru and Fushiguro Megumi from the fictional stories of his past life?
Uchiha Hiro carefully and methodically observed the fundamental nature of his two newly awakened ocular jutsu.
They were functionally and fundamentally quite different from the traditional visual jutsu of other Uchiha clan members recorded throughout ninja history.
Instead, they behaved remarkably like the versatile cursed techniques from his past life's scattered memories, seamlessly adapted to utilize his chakra.
Other famous Uchiha possessed incredibly powerful, yet distinctly singular visual abilities, such as Sasuke's unextinguishable black flames of Amaterasu, Itachi's mind-breaking illusionary realm of Tsukuyomi, or Shisui's ultimate mind-control, Kotoamatsukami.
They were bound to just a single, specific, highly focused ability per eye.
But Uchiha Hiro's visual jutsu were entirely different beasts altogether.
Whether it was the versatile Ten Shadows Technique or the omniscient Six Eyes, both were actually highly comprehensive sets of combined ocular abilities.
The Ten Shadows Technique granted him the profound power to summon ten distinct, powerful types of shadow familiars to fight by his side. The Six Eyes seamlessly provided absolute, three-hundred-and-sixty-degree long-distance perception, as well as the flawless, instantaneous analysis of chakra flow and jutsu mechanics, extreme, atomic-level control over his internal energy, absolute support for high-level spatial applications like the attractive force of Blue and the repulsive force of Red, and perhaps eventually, even the absolute domain of the Limitless Void.
Most importantly of all, these two incredible visual abilities did not passively consume too much of Uchiha Hiro's precious ocular vitality. It was not a tragic, doomed situation like Itachi and Sasuke had experienced, where they were practically going completely blind with every single, desperate use of their eyes.
Only manifesting the colossal, ultimate chakra avatar, the Susanoo, would realistically cause a truly significant and dangerous drop in his visual power.
However, both the Six Eyes and the Ten Shadows Technique inherently required sufficient time and immense, grueling dedication to fully master. Currently, Uchiha Hiro was absolutely not yet proficient in wielding them in a real battle.
The Six Eyes required incredibly slow, methodical adaptation and mental training to properly handle the massive sensory overload, while the Ten Shadows Technique demanded that Uchiha Hiro personally defeat and tame the powerful shadow summons one by one through a sacred subjugation ritual.
As for the very first basic summon of the Ten Shadows Technique... was it the twin Divine Dogs?
Based on his latent, transplanted knowledge, the black and white pair of supernatural hounds possessed an incredibly keen sense of smell, perfectly suited for relentlessly tracking targets and devouring negative energy. Furthermore, if the white hound were to be tragically destroyed in combat, the black hound could completely inherit its fallen twin's power and permanently evolve into a much stronger, totality form.
This was a perfectly fine starting point for his new powers. Since the first trial was merely the Divine Dogs, Uchiha Hiro did not necessarily need to go through the trouble of finding a location that was too remote; he naturally wouldn't make too much of a chaotic, loud commotion dealing with them right here in his own home.
Then... let us simply give it a serious try.
As his eyelids gracefully closed slightly in concentration, the unique chakra driving the Ten Shadows Technique quietly and fluidly seeped directly into the dark ground beneath his resting feet.
Without any need whatsoever for complex, traditional hand signs, pale black, inky shadowy markings rapidly spread out about five feet across the dew-covered grass, and two distinct silhouettes composed entirely of shifting light and dark shadow violently burst upward from the earth.
One pristine white hound on his left and one pitch-black hound on his right—they were the fearsome Divine Dog summons.
The white hound's muscular body was entirely covered in short, immaculate, frost-like fur, while the black hound's dark coat was as brilliantly shiny as if it had just been freshly dipped in deep, wet ink. As soon as they fully materialized in the physical world, they aggressively arched their strong backs and bared their razor-sharp teeth, their crimson fangs glinting coldly in the moonlight as turbulent waves of hostile chakra churned restlessly around their physical forms.
"You two aren't exactly harmless little house pets, so why are you aggressively hissing at your master?"
But this fierce display of animalistic intimidation was entirely meaningless before a seasoned shinobi like Hiro. He stood casually with his hands resting comfortably behind his back, his potent chakra actively spreading outward like an entirely invisible, heavy physical barrier, instantly suppressing the Divine Dogs' wild restlessness under immense pressure.
The black hound lunged forward first, its razor-sharp claws aiming directly and lethally straight for his exposed throat, carrying the sharp, whistling sound of breaking air. However, Uchiha Hiro effortlessly and casually dodged the lethal strike when it was only a few mere inches away from his skin.
As an elite ninja who had meticulously trained his physical combat skills, ninjutsu, and illusions to the absolute peak of a Jonin level, Hiro needed absolutely no flashy, unnecessary tricks to win this brief fight. Relying solely and entirely on his flawless, precise control of his internal energy, he brought the lower-tier shadow creature's sudden, vicious attack to a complete, grinding halt mid-air.
He tapped his index finger incredibly lightly forward, and a sharply focused wisp of highly condensed chakra was forcefully injected directly into the black hound's brow, acting exactly like an invisible, paralyzing needle. He didn't rely on any special elemental jutsu to achieve this, but rather used pure, unadulterated chakra suppression to forcibly and permanently rewrite the creature's core consciousness and command structure.
The fierce black hound let out a pitiful, sharp whimper and immediately collapsed heavily to the grassy ground. The restless, churning energy surrounding its body was forcibly and completely smoothed out, and the wild ferocity shining in its dark eyes gradually faded away entirely during its brief struggle, quickly replaced by absolute, submissive docility to its new master.
Seeing its twin fall so easily, the white hound instinctively tried to quickly retreat backward into the safety of the shadows. Hiro gracefully tapped the solid ground with the tip of his toe, and a massive surge of chakra seeped deeply into the soil precisely with his calculated step. Instead of utilizing the Uchiha clan's famous signature fire techniques, he opted to use a highly basic earth style jutsu to rapidly condense a compact, ten-foot-square earthen prison. The light brown, solid earthen walls instantly shot up and closed in tightly from all four sides, firmly and inescapably trapping the fleeing white hound inside the sturdy structure.
"Earth Style: Mud Wall!"
This specific earth technique certainly did not possess world-shaking, catastrophic destructive power, but it heavily excelled in its requirement for rapid execution and incredibly precise, tactical placement on a chaotic battlefield.
The trapped white hound made a desperate, symbolic physical charge against the solid earth prison a couple of times, but upon truly feeling the overwhelming, suffocating pressure of Hiro's sheer magical strength pressing down upon it, the creature slowly lowered its proud head and crouched submissively on the dirt ground, completely giving up on any further struggling or resistance.
"So... that is truly all it takes to complete the initial subjugation ritual?"
Looking down thoughtfully at the two large, supernatural puppies now happily and affectionately running over to lick his open hands, Uchiha Hiro was feeling somewhat deeply curious about the underlying mechanics of his new power.
However, he also objectively realized that the baseline combat strength of these two specific Divine Dogs was indeed not exceptionally great, roughly hovering at the power level of a standard, average Chunin ninja. They honestly wouldn't be of much significant, game-changing help to the current, highly powered version of Uchiha Hiro.
But he also knew for a fact that the other remaining shadows waiting to be tamed were not nearly as weak or simple as these starting hounds. Summons like the restorative Round Deer, the relentlessly charging Piercing Ox, the Mourning Tiger, and most importantly, the absolute strongest, unstoppable trump card, the divine general Mahoraga, would undoubtedly provide a truly massive, unparalleled boost to Uchiha Hiro's overall combat repertoire.
But right now was definitely not the appropriate time for conducting any further taming rituals. Uchiha Hiro absolutely needed to carefully find a completely isolated, reinforced place where absolutely no one else was around; otherwise, the resulting physical commotion and environmental destruction would be far too immense and would inevitably attract the highly unwanted, dangerous attention of others in the village.
Especially at this incredibly critical, politically tense moment in time, Uchiha Hiro absolutely did not want to be actively targeted or investigated by those two notoriously paranoid, scheming old men, Danzo Shimura and the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
He now possessed a very solid, rough understanding of the Ten Shadows Technique's basic rules. Next on his agenda, he would carefully try out the visual prowess of the Six Eyes.
Uchiha Hiro slowly closed his eyes, took a deep, centering breath, and then deliberately opened them once more to the world.
It was no longer the signature, blood-red crimson color of the Uchiha's Sharingan. What was now clearly reflected in the ambient light was a stunningly beautiful pair of vertical pupils endlessly swirling with a brilliant, silver-blue ethereal glow. The normally pure whites of his eyes were now intricately covered with fine, pale gold, glowing geometric patterns, looking remarkably like delicate, luminous vines spreading out underneath a frozen layer of crystal clear ice and snow. It simultaneously possessed both a profoundly non-human, divine eeriness and an incredibly heart-palpitating, majestic aura that commanded immediate respect.
It was an incredibly striking, overwhelmingly handsome physical manifestation of pure, unadulterated power.
The entire physical world had completely and fundamentally changed its core appearance to his newly enhanced brain. At first, the sheer volume of raw sensory data was an absolutely unbearable, agonizing mental overload.
The precise, microscopic branching angles of individual leaf veins growing on a tree a full hundred meters away were just as vividly clear as if they were resting right before his nose. The chaotic, swirling movement trajectories of microscopic dust particles floating in the night wind flawlessly drew fine, calculable mathematical arcs in his vision, and he could even perfectly hear the exact vibration frequency of the running water when a tiny koi fish simply flicked its tail in a small stream located an entire three kilometers away from his current position.
What overwhelmed his processing power even more than the physical environment was the brilliant, glowing flow of chakra. The complex chakra networks and pathways buried deep within every single living being currently residing in the village around him were visibly glowing exactly like brightly illuminated, rushing rivers flowing steadily beneath their opaque skin. A normal civilian's ambient chakra glowed with a warm, gentle, and peaceful light, while the untamed chakra of the wild beasts roaming in the distant, dark mountains felt visibly aggressive and deeply restless to his enhanced sight.
And as he looked inward at his own internal energy, his own chakra, when viewed through the absolute, god-like vision of the Six Eyes, actually resembled a brilliantly glowing, infinite sea of swirling stars. Every single, minute wisp of flowing energy was clearly and perfectly discernible to his mind, yet it was also so incredibly dense and turbulent that it constantly threatened to forcefully break right through the physical, biological constraints of his energy pathways.
He deliberately and slowly sank his entire consciousness directly into the boundless, infinite vision of the Six Eyes.
He wisely no longer tried to stubbornly block out the incredibly overloaded sensory information slamming into his brain. Instead, treating the massive data stream exactly like patiently untangling a massive, complicated mess of knotted yarn, he meticulously differentiated, bit by tiny bit, exactly which environmental perceptions were entirely necessary for his immediate survival and which ones were merely useless background noise that could be safely and automatically ignored by his mind.
He quietly watched the night wind continuously blow through the distant bamboo forest, and the Six Eyes automatically and flawlessly calculated the exact physical trajectory and force of the moving airflow. He carefully tried to let his physical body move completely in tandem with the calculated direction of the wind, and to his utter amazement, his footsteps actually became completely silent and as impossibly light as a falling feather gliding on the breeze.
He intently observed the gracefully falling bamboo leaves, and the Six Eyes instantly calculated their exact terminal falling speed, physical mass, and precise angle of descent. He casually reached his hand out into the empty air and flawlessly, accurately caught that specific, single green leaf, which surprisingly still carried a tiny, fragile drop of fresh morning dew perfectly balanced on its surface.
The absolute hardest part of this entire adaptation process was flawlessly controlling the internal, raging flow of his own massive chakra reserves. The Six Eyes effortlessly allowed him to directly see the precise, glowing path of absolutely every single minute chakra pathway located within his body, but this absolute, terrifying clarity also made him painfully realize that his past, previous use of chakra as an elite ninja was merely clumsy, wildly inefficient, and entirely superficial.
When he first attempted to actively utilize his chakra under this new, absolute vision, the violently surging energy nearly burst painfully right through his palm and almost completely shattered the solid stone table sitting quietly in front of him into fine dust.
He firmly grit his teeth in intense, unbroken concentration and, relying heavily on the absolute, microscopic insight provided by the Six Eyes, carefully guided the glowing energy bit by tiny bit to flow incredibly slowly and smoothly along his internal pathways, treating the dangerous exercise exactly like a seasoned master slowly taming a wild, unbroken horse.
He intensely focused his mind on the exact physical path of every single, solitary wisp of chakra, physically feeling them rapidly condense, smoothly flow, and completely dissipate precisely at his fingertips. Gradually, over time, those previously out-of-control, violent bursts of chakra finally began to strictly follow his exact mental commands, becoming entirely docile and perfectly, mathematically efficient under the absolute, dictatorial gaze of the Six Eyes.
In the future, the physical and energy consumption required for using any form of ninjutsu would be practically and infinitely reduced to nearly zero.
His overall physical and energetic combat endurance was thereby greatly, massively enhanced entirely beyond the limits of normal human capability.
Uchiha Hiro eventually discovered through his brief, careful testing that both the shadowy Ten Shadows Technique and the omniscient Six Eyes felt significantly much more inherently powerful than the related conceptual techniques he remembered from his past life's fictional memories.
Was it perhaps strictly because of the fundamental, dimensional change in realities that the related physical techniques had also received a massive, compensatory upgrade by the laws of the universe?
After all, he logically reasoned, if they were merely strictly locked at the exact, relative power level of the original fictional world, there would absolutely be no practical, realistic way to successfully compete against the truly monstrous, god-like opponents constantly threatening the ninja world.
There was an undeniable, massive fundamental gap between the inherent power ceilings of the two vastly different realities.
But for tonight, absolutely everything that strictly needed to be figured out and tested had been successfully figured out.
"Well then, the hour grows late, and it is finally time to head back inside."