Escaping the Mist Ninja starts with backstabbing your teacher.

Chapter 174 Eye Technique Transplantation: The Real Treasure

A few days later, Wuming's health improved day by day. His cheeks regained color, and his figure was no longer as thin as a paper sheet when he was first unearthed.

Her long hair had been washed several times and then steamed in the hot spring, restoring its black and lustrous color.

The hair draped over his shoulders, and paired with his face, which was no longer sunken, he finally looked like a living person.

As Yekura combed her hair, Wuming asked curiously, "Do you take such good care of everyone?"

Yekura replied, "No, it's just that you look like someone who has never been taken care of."

Wuming didn't say anything more, clearly not yet used to being taken care of like this.

Izumi leaned against a pillar on the outer corridor, holding a cup of sake, his gaze fixed on the nameless man.

I wasn't looking at her face, but at the eyes that were not yet fully revealed in her eye sockets.

While Wuming's strength was important, what he cared about even more was the technique of transplanting the Uchiha's eye techniques from the Warring States period.

The eye technique itself is separated from the Sharingan, preserved as a chakra mark, and then engraved into another Sharingan.

Nameless herself is an example; her innate kaleidoscope is the Eight Thousand Spears, which allows her to mark others and remotely control their minds.

The other eye's Tsukuyomi can pull the enemy's mind into an illusionary space.

The Amaterasu in her left eye was later implanted by the Uchiha clan using that secret technique; it was a Mangekyou Sharingan from another clan member.

The fact that two different eye techniques coexist in one person, each independent and without interfering with the other, indicates that the technology is quite mature.

What Izumikawa wanted was this secret technique. He currently only had Obito's left eye, so he could only use half of the Mangekyou Sharingan's power.

With the Kamui dimension divided, the stability of its abilities is far less than in its complete state.

If we could take the pupil technique from the other eye as a mark and imprint it into the existing left eye.

He would be able to obtain the complete Kamui without transplanting a second eye.

Furthermore, if the opportunity arises in the future to acquire other kaleidoscope eye techniques, the same method can be used to replicate them.

He didn't know the limits of this secret technique, but he didn't mind giving it a try.

What he needs is a method, not a person.

"Are you looking at my Sharingan?" The nameless voice interrupted his thoughts.

She turned her head at some point, and her dark eyes met his gaze calmly.

"Yes." Izumikawa did not deny it.

"What do you want to see?"

"The secret technique of eye technique transplantation used by the Uchiha clan during the Warring States period." Izumikawa put down his wine cup and sat up straight. "You should know about the eye technique that is extracted from the Sharingan and then engraved into another pair of Sharingan."

The nameless man's eyelashes twitched slightly, but he didn't deny it: "I know."

"I need the complete method for that secret technique."

Wuming was silent for a moment, then placed the teacup on the low table, the bottom of the cup making a soft sound against the wooden surface: "My left eye, Amaterasu, was transplanted using that method."

"It was peeled from another tribesman's kaleidoscope, made into an imprint, and then engraved into my eyes."

"What about the traces? Will they be detectable after the transplant?"

"Yes, the Sharingan can sense the remnants of chakra imprints." Mumei turned to look at him. "Your left eye was transplanted, right? That's why you can only use half its power right now."

"If there's a pupil imprint from another eye, can it be directly engraved into my existing left eye?" Izumi asked directly.

Wuming frowned slightly, as if he was calculating something.

"Theoretically, yes. The Mangekyou Sharingan is essentially a crystallization of chakra, and ocular techniques are also specific structures of chakra."

"As long as your eyes can withstand the intensity of that power, you don't need a second eye to imprint the mark."

She paused, her gaze falling on Izumi's left eye: "You already have a kaleidoscope. Using that as a base, and then inscribing another eye technique mark, your left eye will possess two abilities simultaneously."

Izumi tapped his fingers lightly on his knee twice, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"How much of that secret technique do you still remember?" he asked.

"I remember the principles and most of the steps." Wuming picked up his teacup and took a sip of the now-cold tea. "I don't know the complete secret technique."

"What a pity," Izumi said regretfully.

"However—don't rush." ​​Wuming put down his teacup and looked at him calmly. "Even if I had the complete formula written down for you right now, you wouldn't be able to use it."

"The creation of the eye technique mark requires a large amount of chakra and extremely precise control."

"If your current left eye transplant is not perfect and already has hidden risks, forcibly imprinting a new mark may cause it to collapse."

Izumi leaned against a pillar, a slight smile playing on his lips. An imperfect transplant? Let his "optimization" handle that.

Now, both the Mangekyou Sharingan and the Byakugan are basically no different from his original eyes.

However, since Wuming doesn't know the complete secret technique, he will deduce the method himself when the time comes.

The other party was right next to him, and the Uchiha clan had not been wiped out.

When that silly kid Zhengshui was being chased by Danzo, he could have tried to find some of the Uchiha clan's ancient texts.

"Okay," he said. "You should rest and recover first. Once you've recovered enough, we can work out the technique again."

Wuming responded with an "Mm" and said nothing more.

She picked up her teacup and cast the light towards the setting sun gradually sinking into the distant valley.

The orange-red light cast long shadows of the bamboo forest onto the wooden corridor, like painted stripes.

She didn't remember the complete technique, but she remembered every detail of the chakra seeping into her eyes.

That was a feeling she could never forget for hundreds of years. If one day Izumi Kawa really wanted to extract the Kamui Mark, she could probably use her own senses to help him see the direction.

Life at the hot spring inn was as peaceful as the steam rising from the surface of the hot spring water, neither hurried nor slow.

Yekura prepares medicinal meals for Wuming every day, while Izumi sits on the outer veranda flipping through various scrolls taken from Kamui Space.

Sometimes Wuming would emerge from the pool, wrapped in a bathrobe, walking barefoot along the wooden corridor, water still dripping from his hair.

She would sit in the wicker chair opposite Quanchuan, pick up the cup of tea that had been warmed, and sip it slowly without saying a word.

This way of getting along was strange to her; no one ordered her around, no one assigned her tasks, and no one was watching her every move.

She just sat there, drinking tea, looking at the stars, and waiting for her hair to dry.

She didn't know how long this would last, nor when Izumi would ask her to fulfill her promise of "you helping me with my work".

But she wasn't in a hurry to know; there was no point in being anxious.

That evening, Yecang applied camellia oil to Wuming's hair one last time, wrapped it with a hot towel, and made her sit and wait for fifteen minutes.

Wuming leaned back in the rattan chair, his hands resting on the armrests, his eyes half-closed.

Yekura got up to get a new yukata, leaving only Izumi and Mumei in the corridor.

Izumikawa flipped through the curling iron without looking up. "My hair's almost dry; I don't need to wrap it up tomorrow."

"Um.

""

"Are you still able to eat the medicinal cuisine?"

"It's alright, better than in the stone coffin."

Izumi's pen paused for a moment: "There was nothing in the stone coffin."

"That's why I said it's alright." Wuming's lips curved slightly.

Izumi continued flipping through the scroll. The nameless man remained leaning back with his eyes closed.

The lantern light cast a warm orange glow on the two of them, and the bamboo leaves rustled in the evening breeze. No one spoke, but the silence wasn't awkward.

After a while, Wuming opened his eyes. "You were serious when you said you'd figure out the secret technique?"

"When have I ever not been serious?" Izumi looked up at her.

"You don't seem to be taking many of your words seriously."

"—That's what you think." Izumi lowered his head and continued flipping through the scroll. "I meant every word I said."

Wuming stared at him for a few moments without refuting him. She closed her eyes again and leaned her head back in her chair.

The rustling of bamboo leaves filled the space between the two people, and the steam from the hot spring in the distance drifted in on the wind, carrying a faint smell of sulfur.

The night in the Land of Hot Springs is very quiet, so quiet that you don't want to leave.

Meanwhile, on the other side, in Konoha.

As a member of the Dark Side, Shisui was well aware that he was now under close surveillance.

The other person's words came true; the village he trusted never trusted him.

Even if he was still deluding himself, and even if his predictions kept coming true, he couldn't help but waver.

By the time he emerged from the Hokage Building, it was already dark.

The streetlights on both sides of the street shone with a dim yellow light, casting his shadow long.

Instead of going straight home, he took a detour, crossed the shopping street, passed Ichiraku Ramen, and stood for a while at the intersection outside the Uchiha clan compound.

The person monitoring them has changed.

It's not the same chakra fluctuation, not the same position, but it exists.

He could feel the subtle, oppressive feeling of being watched from the shadows.

Zhi Shui zipped up his coat and continued walking, soon arriving home.

He pushed open the door to his home. The entryway was dark, so he didn't turn on the light. He changed his shoes by memory, went inside, and sat in the darkness for a long time.

The clock on the wall ticked away, and he knew the time without even looking at it.

Moonlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, casting a thin, silvery-white band on the floor.

He leaned against the wall, one leg bent, his arm resting on his knee, his head hanging down, his hair covering half his face.

Izumi's words kept replaying in his mind.

"—Do you know how many surveillance points the Konoha higher-ups have set up outside the Uchiha clan's territory?"

"After the Nine-Tailed Fox's Night, how much of the trust and hope the Third Hokage expressed to you was truly sincere?"

"And how much of that was just empty talk to appease your Mangekyou Sharingan?"

When Shisui heard these words, he didn't believe them, or at least he didn't want to believe them.

He told himself that it was provocation, division, and the enemy's most common tactic.

He wrote the scroll, reported it to the Third Hokage, and did everything a "loyal Konoha ninja" should do.

Then the surveillance started.

It didn't start today; the people from the root were already there, probably the day after he reported it.

Shisui was a member of the Dark Division, and he knew their modus operandi all too well.

The subtle tracking route, the deliberately maintained distance, and the swift withdrawal after he entered public spaces.

It's not the dark area; the dark area wouldn't do that. Only the root area would.

He reported it, he did the "right" thing, and then he was targeted.

Shisui's lips twitched slightly, but it wasn't exactly a smile; it was more like a self-deprecating remark.

He recalled the expression on Izumi's face when he said those words—not mockery, not smugness, but simply a calm statement.

That person already knew this would happen when they said those words.

Even when Danzo said to the Third Hokage that "the owner of the Sharingan is not trustworthy," he wasn't referring to Uchiha Shisui himself, but to all people with the surname Uchiha.

No matter what he did or what he reported, as long as the magatama in his eyes was still turning, he was "untrustworthy" in those people's eyes.

It's not because he's Shisui, it's because he has the Sharingan.