"Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan?" Namikaze Minato asked, puzzled.
"Exactly, the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan," Seimei confirmed with a nod, then elaborated. "From what I've heard, if someone who's awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan fuses it with the Mangekyō of a sibling, they can eliminate the eye's flaws and gain the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, which never goes blind."
"I see," Minato murmured, then suddenly realized something. "Seimei, don't you lack any siblings?"
"Yeah," Seimei nodded, but quickly added, "The info I got says the Eternal Mangekyō requires a sibling's Mangekyō, but whether it can be done with someone else's or if there's another method, I don't know."
Though Seimei didn't say where he got this information, Minato mostly believed him.
It wasn't that Minato trusted Seimei blindly or was easily swayed. Rather, after learning Seimei might have awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, he'd used his Hokage authority to access the village's classified Uchiha archives.
From those records, he learned that the former Uchiha clan leader, Uchiha Madara, had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. And, as far as Minato knew, Madara had a younger brother, Uchiha Izuna, who also awakened it.
Plus, from Madara's actions, it seemed his eyes never suffered the Mangekyō's notorious blindness curse.
Minato hadn't understood why before, but now, with Seimei's explanation, it clicked. Perhaps Madara fused his brother's Mangekyō to awaken the Eternal Mangekyō, escaping the curse.
That's why he bought into Seimei's story.
And that was exactly what Seimei wanted.
His 'foresight' gave him an overwhelming informational edge. As long as no one suspected a thirteen-year-old kid could know the ninja world's deepest secrets, they'd fall right into the misdirection he crafted.
This applied to Uchiha Obito and Black Zetsu earlier, and now to Namikaze Minato.
Of course, as investigations deepened, these people would likely grow suspicious. But, as long as there was no hard evidence and they weren't ready to flip the table, they couldn't touch him.
All he needed was a relatively stable environment to train.
With that in mind, Seimei chatted with Minato a bit more before taking his leave from the Hokage Building.
---
Back home, Seimei reviewed the day's events.
After confirming he hadn't missed anything major, he considered sending a Kage Bunshin to stay in the village while his real body returned to the island for training.
But just as he raised his hands to form the seals, he stopped.
The reasons were simple.
First, he wasn't sure if Minato or someone else might come looking for him. To avoid misunderstandings or complications, it was better for his real body to stay put.
Second, according to his training plan, he needed to develop 'Doton: Chōkeijūgan no Jutsu' (Ultra-Light Rock Technique) and 'Doton: Chōkajūgan no Jutsu' (Ultra-Heavy Rock Technique) from 'Doton: Keijūgan no Jutsu' (Light Rock Technique) and 'Doton: Kajūgan no Jutsu' (Heavy Rock Technique).
By his estimate, that would take three to five days.
But a week had already passed since this training cycle began. In other words, in three days, he was due for his routine break.
That timing was cutting it close to the minimum needed for success. If he came up just short, it'd disrupt his rhythm.
Seimei didn't want to deal with that frustration.
So, after some thought, he decided to move his break forward, staying in the village for a day or two until things settled, then resuming training with focus.
With these thoughts swirling, Seimei snapped back to reality. Glancing at the house, untouched for ages, he got to work cleaning.
Time ticked by.
Soon, the house was spotless.
After a quick wash, Seimei headed out to grab some food.
After stuffing himself, he returned home.
He'd planned to rest, but not long after, Uchiha Fugaku sent someone to summon him.
Seimei immediately guessed Fugaku's intent. It was likely about the mission to hunt down Iwa's infiltration team—his performance there had raised some eyebrows, so Fugaku wanting details made sense.
And if Fugaku's sources were sharp, he might've heard about the recent massacre of Teams 14 and 17, and could be fishing for info on Uchiha Obito and Black Zetsu.
Either way, Seimei had his story ready, so he wasn't worried.
Following the Uchiha messenger, he visited Fugaku's residence.
About an hour later, he was back home.
As expected, Fugaku asked about the Iwa mission and explained why he couldn't stop the village from pulling Seimei from the front lines, blaming pressure from Sarutobi Hiruzen and the older Konoha brass.
Seimei didn't comment.
He knew Fugaku was a man of weak resolve. His later dithering over the coup and his response to the village's oppression proved it.
Given the Uchiha's current ties with the village—especially with Minato—Fugaku could've pushed to keep Seimei on the front lines. But to show the Uchiha's 'goodwill,' he caved under slight pressure from Sarutobi and the others.
It wasn't that Seimei loved that mission or wanted to pin the ambush on Fugaku. He'd already reasoned that, after capturing Nanabi and Yonbi, Obito and Zetsu coming after him was inevitable—only a matter of time.
He just couldn't stand Fugaku's way of doing things.
A wishy-washy leader like that could never protect the clan's interests.
Shaking his head to clear these thoughts, Seimei chided himself for worrying about things that weren't his problem.
As the saying goes, don't meddle in affairs outside your role.
He wasn't the Uchiha clan head, and his attachment to the clan was lukewarm at best. No need to overthink it.
He'd rather use this time to rest.
Yawning, Seimei headed to his bedroom.
(Chapter End)