Chapter 213: So Back Then, the Eye Was Hidden in a Baby
"Calm down, she's injured. I'm taking her to the hospital for treatment, not the Police Force."
"Really? That's good then."
Obito's vision swam. He had just survived a brutal, life-or-death struggle against Kobayashi Isamu, forcing his newly awakened Sharingan to activate twice in rapid succession. His chakra reserves were utterly drained, leaving his limbs feeling like lead.
Hearing the Uchiha patrolman's reassurance, the last thread of adrenaline snapped. Obito slumped against A-Mu. Their combined weight shifted, and both children collapsed backward onto the dirt, slipping into the dark embrace of unconsciousness.
Uchiha Youta sighed, shaking his head. He scooped up the two battered children, tucking one securely under each arm, and vanished into the shadows, sprinting straight toward the Konoha Hospital.
Meanwhile, Uchiha Kiyokazu tore through the village streets at top speed. He didn't even bother with protocol upon reaching the Hokage Building. Panting heavily, he threw the heavy oak doors open and slammed them shut behind him.
Behind the desk, Hiruzen Sarutobi moved with the lightning reflexes of a veteran Kage. He shoved a glossy magazine—featuring a centerfold of kunoichi in summer swimwear—into his bottom drawer and snapped his posture perfectly straight, coughing into his fist.
"Oh, it's Kiyokazu," Hiruzen said, projecting an aura of dignified calm. "What happened to make you rush in so frantically?"
Kiyokazu didn't stop at the standard reporting line. His face was pale, chest heaving as he marched right up to the edge of the Hokage's desk. He leaned in close, his voice a tight whisper.
"Hokage-sama. Please dismiss the Anbu."
Hiruzen's eyes narrowed. He gave a subtle hand signal, and the faint rustle of fabric in the rafters ceased as the hidden guards withdrew.
Only then did Kiyokazu speak. "I have discovered a right eye. A Rinnegan."
"You say... the right Rinnegan?" Hiruzen gripped the edges of his desk, his knuckles turning white. "The missing eye?"
Even the seasoned God of Shinobi struggled to keep his composure. For years, the Rift Abyss on the western outskirts of Konoha Village had sat like an open wound. Over time, nature had reclaimed it, filling the massive crater with weeds and twisted trees until it became an impromptu training ground. Yet, every time a villager looked at that massive scar in the earth, they were reminded of the apocalyptic power of the Rinnegan.
Hiruzen hadn't been present during that catastrophic invasion, but witnessing the sheer geographical devastation caused by a single jutsu was enough to brand the Rinnegan's terrifying value into his mind.
"Where is the eye?" Hiruzen demanded, his voice dropping an octave.
"It resides in the right socket of a young girl," Kiyokazu reported. "She sustained injuries and fell into a coma after instinctively triggering the Rinnegan's abilities just moments ago. Youta has already taken her to the hospital. I gave strict orders to bypass the standard medics and find Senju Tetsuya directly. Please, Hokage-sama, deploy your personal Anbu to lock down the scene and prevent any rumors from spreading."
Hiruzen tapped his pipe heavily against the ashtray twice. A masked Anbu operative flickered into existence beside the desk.
After issuing a rapid string of containment orders, Hiruzen didn't bother waiting for an escort. He grabbed his robes and headed straight for the hospital alone.
His heart pounded against his ribs. This single eye represented far too much history. It tied into the Second Hokage's legacy, the Fourth Hokage's complex final layouts, and the tragic, heroic sacrifice of Uchiha Kou. All these tangled threads pulled painfully at his nerves.
Konoha had enjoyed an era of steady, peaceful development without any major foreign invasions, but the shadow of that Rinnegan master from the Great War had never stopped haunting Hiruzen's nightmares. If Konoha could harness the power of this remaining eye, they would finally possess an absolute trump card against the enemies lurking in the dark.
At the hospital, the sterile scent of alcohol and iodine filled the private examination room. Senju Tetsuya stood over the unconscious little girl. Given the highly classified nature of Kiyokazu's request, the skilled doctor had locked the doors, refusing assistance from the nursing staff.
He carefully cleaned and bandaged the nasty kunai wound on her shoulder. Once the bleeding stopped, he reached for the ragged scarf wrapped tightly around the lower half of her face, pulling it down to check for airway obstructions or hidden trauma.
Tetsuya's breath hitched. Hideous, mottled burn marks crawled across her jaw and neck.
A month ago, a group of severely burned children had been admitted to the District Two Orphanage. The burns were concentrated on their faces and necks, requiring specialized medical ninjutsu to prevent permanent, debilitating scars. An old academy classmate who managed District Two had personally begged him to treat those orphans.
Judging by the natural healing progression of the tissue, this girl clearly belonged to that exact same incident., she wore the standard-issue, dark gray tunic of the Konoha Orphanage. How had she slipped through the cracks during his initial treatment rounds?
Frowning deeply, Tetsuya ran a complete diagnostic jutsu over her frail body. As the medical chakra fed data back to his mind, his expression darkened into a scowl of pure professional fury.
Her bone age indicated she was nine years old, yet she barely possessed the height and weight of a six-year-old. Her system was ravaged by extreme, prolonged malnutrition. Beneath her clothes, a tragic map of faded bruises and poorly healed fractures painted a grim picture.
'Just what kind of hell has this child survived?' Tetsuya thought, his hands clenching into fists.
The heavy door to the examination room slid open. Hiruzen Sarutobi stood in the hallway, his pipe unlit. "How is the child?"
"Severe blood loss compounded by chronic, severe malnutrition," Tetsuya reported, stepping into the hall. "She's in a deep comatose state., her chakra pathways are completely scorched. She clearly used some massive, high-drain ninjutsu right before passing out that nearly drained her life force dry. It's a miracle you had me handle this directly, Hokage-sama. Any standard medic would have lost her on the operating table."
Unaware of the girl's true significance, Tetsuya laid out every tragic medical detail without hesitation.
Hiruzen listened, his tightly knit brows slowly relaxing as the pieces clicked together in his mind.
Nine years old. The timeline was absolutely flawless.
According to the preliminary academy reports he had skimmed, the girl had claimed to be eight. At the time, Hiruzen had felt a nagging inconsistency. But for a displaced orphan living a life of constant starvation and trauma, losing track of a single year was entirely expected.
Nine years ago, Uchiha Kou had stolen that Rinnegan. She had hidden it perfectly.
'Kou... you brilliant, tragic fool,'Hiruzen thought, a heavy wave of sorrow and awe washing over him.'You exploited the ultimate mental blind spot. You hid the most dangerous dojutsu in the world inside a helpless newborn baby.'
He couldn't fathom what forbidden techniques Kou had used to allow an infant's fragile body to withstand the crushing chakra drain of a Rinnegan, but she had succeeded. No one—not Konoha's hunter-nin, and certainly not Black Zetsu's insidious faction—would have ever thought to look for a god-tier artifact inside a starving street urchin.
Hiruzen exhaled a long breath and signaled an Anbu hidden in the shadows. "Go and summon the Head of the Intelligence Department."
Simply reading the girl's surface memories wouldn't suffice. An eye of this magnitude had to be protected by a complex seal, and that required specialized dismantling.
He turned back to Tetsuya. "Where is Tsunade? I require her expertise for this matter."
"Lady Tsunade departed for the Shikkotsu Forest," Tetsuya replied, his curiosity peaking. To require both the Yamanaka Clan Head and the legendary Slug Princess... just who was this girl? "She was researching a complex chakra-storing ninjutsu recently and hit a severe bottleneck. She mentioned needing to consult the slugs for further study, tossed a handover scroll at my head, and left the village. I haven't had the opportunity to file the official report yet."
Hiruzen clicked his tongue. "Then summon Orochimaru. He has developed a deep obsession with Sealing Techniques over the past two years. With his unmatched intellect, this shouldn't pose a problem."
The wheels of Konoha's highest authority turned rapidly. Under Hiruzen's strict oversight, the unconscious girl was subjected to a gentle but thorough mind-walk by the Yamanaka Clan Head to verify her background, before being securely transported to Orochimaru's underground laboratory.
A long night passed. As the first rays of dawn broke over the Hokage Monument, Orochimaru finally stepped back from his examination table, having thoroughly dissected the complex seal binding the right eye.
A rare, almost nostalgic smirk curled the Sannin's pale lips.
"A truly flawless Sealing Technique," Orochimaru hissed softly, his golden eyes gleaming with dark fascination. "This familiar structural matrix... the elegant flow of the formula... it is undeniably the handiwork of the Fourth Hokage."
The seal was a masterpiece. It perfectly fused the Rinnegan to the girl's optic nerve while suppressing its catastrophic chakra demands. However, it wasn't a static, dead lock. It was designed to grow. As the girl matured into a true shinobi and her personal chakra reserves expanded, the seal would automatically unravel layer by layer, gradually granting her full mastery over the Rinnegan.
The sudden, violent manifestation of the eye's power earlier had merely been a forced, instinctual activation triggered by extreme emotional provocation.
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