[Uchiha Hospital]
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
With a blank look in her eyes, Kaori slowly opened her eyes.
'I… didn't die?'
'Who saved me?'
'Never mind… not important.'
'Ryuri is dead, what meaning is there for me to live.'
"Kaori-nee, are you awake?", A childish but familiar voice came from beside her.
Like a thunderbolt, it struck Kaori's heart.
She turned her head in disbelief and saw Ryuri lying on the bed next to her.
Ryuri's right hand was wrapped in bandages, her lower body covered with a blanket.
Her eyes were intact, sitting in their sockets.
Kaori ripped off the monitor from her body and ran to Ryuri's side.
She grabbed Ryuri and wailed, "Ryuri! Wuwuwu! Ryuri!"
Ryuri stroked Kaori's hair with her left hand, "There, there, it's okay now."
"Kaori-nee, get up first. You were sitting on my leg and it hurts a bit."
Kaori jumped up in a panic, 'Her leg?'
'Where did Ryuri get legs?'
She flipped back the blanket and found the legs that had originally been amputated were now reattached.
Though the skin was a little pale, they were truly a pair of legs.
"What on earth is going on?", Kaori's head spun; she felt like she had just woken from a nightmare.
Ryuri giggled, "Brother staged a play so you would unlock the Mangekyo Sharingan."
"It was all fake."
Kaori wiped the tears from her face in disbelief, "Fake?"
Ryuri nodded, "Of course it was all fake. Orochimaru-sama made a clone of me to treat my body."
"That one before was my clone."
"Damn You! Rengoku!"
"Then whom did I kill in the end?"
A voice came from behind her, "Of course that was my clone; otherwise could you have harmed me?"
Kaori whipped her head around and saw Rengoku standing there perfectly fine behind him.
"RENGOKU, YOU BASTARD!"
Kaori's fist slammed into Rengoku's face.
Rengoku staggered back two steps, his nose stinging painfully.
"Kaori-nee, don't hit Onii-chan," Ryuri pulled at Kaori's clothes from behind.
Rengoku rubbed his nose, 'Lucky, almost a nosebleed.'
Kaori looked at Rengoku with a hatred that made her teeth itch.
She patted Ryuri's hand to show she wouldn't hit anymore, then said, "You even set up a double scene for me, afraid I wouldn't believe it, huh."
Rengoku held up a finger, "Of course. The first time you'd doubt if it was real; the second time you'd believe."
"Congratulations, you're already a top Mangekyo Sharingan user now."
Kaori rolled her eyes. Even though it was all fake, the pain she suffered when she became a Mangekyo wasn't any less.
"So everything you said was fake, right?", Kaori stared at Rengoku and asked.
Rengoku shrugged, "If you say Mangekyo evolution indeed requires the eyes of a blood relative."
"But the premise is that that blood relative must also be a Mangekyo."
Kaori let out a breath of relief at once.
Rengoku snapped his fingers and flicked Kaori on the forehead.
"That hurts!", Kaori clutched her head, her brain buzzing.
"Do you think that's why I set up a biological research lab with Orochimaru?"
"For Mangekyo evolution I'll find other methods."
Rengoku's tone turned serious, and he put on the dignity of the clan leader.
"All right, all right, you're good now, okay?", Hearing Rengoku serious, Kaori said irritably.
"If you don't have Mangekyo, how will you protect Ryuri in the future?", Rengoku's tone softened.
"With Ryuri's body fixed, you can spend more time walking with her."
Kaori slowly exhaled, letting the matter drop, "All right, my pupil technique is protecting Ryuri."
Seeing Kaori's worried heart settle, Rengoku took the opportunity to ask, "What is your pupil technique?"
Kaori pointed to her eyes, "Null Horizon and Phase Anchor…"
After her explanation, Rengoku understood that Null Horizon meant entering a subspace that doesn't belong to this world.
Although the person is there, others can't see or touch her.
But she also can't attack others unless she comes out of that space.
Phase Anchor is the ability to bring people into that space, provided she touches them.
'Hiss… pretty strong, this pupil technique is basically "disappear."'
'Or rather, it's somewhat similar to Uchiha Madara's Limbo.'
Whether it connects to Madara's space or not he didn't know, after all, subspace is layered.
"When you opened the Mangekyo, what were you thinking about?", Rengoku asked curiously.
Kaori glanced at Ryuri and said angrily, "I wanted to go with Ryuri to a place where no one could find us."
Rengoku nodded thoughtfully.
After a moment of thought, he prepared to go discuss things with Orochimaru.
"Your bones have already been reattached. Recently, as long as you don't do anything too drastic, there's no problem."
"Although Ryuri's limbs were reattached, the clone body was induced, the limbs are slightly fragile."
"Ryuri's nerves have been connected, but the nerve recruitment rate is still relatively low. You need to take her to do some rehabilitation exercises; Kabuto will teach you then."
"You should stay in the hospital and accompany Ryuri."
After giving instructions, Rengoku left the ward.
"Rengoku, wait," Kaori chased after him.
"What is it, Kaori?", Seeing her follow, Rengoku immediately understood, Kaori wanted to say something away from Ryuri.
"Um… I…", Kaori stammered, unable to get the words out.
Rengoku put out one hand in a forbidding gesture and looked seriously into Kaori's eyes.
"No need to say it. I only did it to make you open the Sharingan."
"You like Ryuri, and Ryuri likes you, that's enough."
"We will always be family."
Kaori breathed out in relief, "Mm, then I'll go back and take care of Ryuri."
———
[Orochimaru's Laboratory]
When Rengoku arrived, he saw Orochimaru comparing numbers on a screen.
"How is it?", Rengoku asked.
Orochimaru turned his head, "No problem. The body cloned after so long is a one-hundred-percent match to Ryuri."
"No possibility of deformity."
"However, the eyes cloned have low activity. I plan to use them for a bloodline fusion experiment."
"With Mio's cellular erosion ability, we'll erode these eyes and see if we can completely force out Ryuri's cells."
Orochimaru used to explain in technical terms, but after finding Rengoku didn't understand at all, he now used plain, easy words.
Rengoku couldn't help with these experiments, "Do it yourself, deal with mine first."
"Lie down," Orochimaru knew why Rengoku had come and pointed to the bed beside him.
Rengoku obeyed and lay down. Orochimaru took two culture dishes.
Using a very fine needle, Orochimaru drew tissue from the dish.
Then he made a micro incision at the side of Rengoku's eyeball and injected it in.
He did the same to both eyes.
How small was the micro incision? About the size of a needle poke.
Rengoku only felt his eyes hurt briefly, and without treatment they almost recovered quickly.
After a while, Orochimaru connected the machines and began checks.
"Ryuri's eye genes have already begun to fuse with your eyes, but to let your eyes metamorphose into Eternal eyes."
"You still need to water them with the all-encompassing spiritual power."
Rengoku heard this, "Karin's supply of that all-encompassing spiritual power is a bit low; we'll have to find a way."
Orochimaru smiled, "Don't worry, the bloodline fusion experiment is already on the schedule."
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through Patreon.