The great power receded.
Takuno deactivated the sky-propping Perfect Susanoo, and the sense of oppression from the void abruptly vanished, leaving behind only the lingering resonance of energy in the air that had not yet settled.
It was not that he did not crave this power that reigned supreme over all living things—the ability to move mountains and fill seas with a simple gesture was enough to make any strong individual lose themselves.
However, rationality instantly yanked his mind back; this ultimate power was by no means something that could be squandered willfully.
Every time the skeleton solidified, the flesh covered it, and the armor donned it, leading up to transforming into the sky-propping Perfect Form, it frantically burned the ocular power of his pair of Mangekyō Sharingan.
Even if he possessed a vast amount of ocular power, it was impossible for him to just activate and play around with it for no reason.
The moment his toes touched the solid ground, a sudden blurring of his vision violently struck him.
Takuno's body swayed imperceptibly, and the world before his eyes seemed to be veiled under a layer of thin gauze.
This was the inevitable price that must be paid for wielding the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Even with his majestic ocular power and Yin Release reserves, he could not be exempted from this backlash that eroded his eyesight.
This was not a deficiency in power, but looked more like the backlash of a rule.
Takuno did not feel the slightest bit of surprise regarding this momentary visual blurring.
His thoughts involuntarily drifted to that legendary name, Uchiha Madara.
When the Ghost of the Uchiha awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan, was his ocular power not enough to look down upon the world?
Was his spiritual will not as unyielding as steel?
Yet even with such absolute strength, if Madara had not ultimately transplanted Izuna's Mangekyō Sharingan, he too would have been unable to escape the fate of sinking into eternal darkness.
The warnings of the past were vivid before his eyes, and Takuno had a clear understanding of this.
However, he was by no means someone who would sit still and wait for death.
The blurred vision did not bring panic; instead, it further solidified the plan in his heart.
It was time to use that "key" that had been sealed away deep inside the laboratory for a long time: the cells of the First Hokage, Hashirama.
That cluster of cell samples containing endless vitality had already been acquired by him and properly preserved under seal.
Every time he gazed at it under the cold lights of the laboratory, it made his heart itch with anticipation, making him almost unable to suppress the urge to immediately fuse it into his own body.
Yet, every single time, rationality successfully suppressed that fanaticism.
Rashly transplanting them, the violent Yang Release power within the Hashirama cells was enough to burst and swallow any unprepared body.
But at this moment, after personally wielding the Perfect Susanoo and profoundly experiencing his own abyss-like Yin Release power rushing and roaring within his body, Takuno no longer had any hesitation in his heart.
An unprecedentedly powerful confidence spontaneously arose.
He believed that relying on his majestic Yin Release, which was sufficient to distort reality, it would be enough to perfectly neutralize the domineering Yang Release vitality of the Hashirama cells!
The mutual assistance of Yin and Yang was the path to completion.
Once he successfully fused the Hashirama cells into his own body, the most fatal defect of that pair of Mangekyō Sharingan—which symbolized power and curses—the problem of irreversible eyesight degradation, would be temporarily alleviated.
Yes, merely "temporarily."
The miraculous nature of Hashirama cells could indeed repair the damage caused by the Mangekyō, allowing blind eyes to see the light again, but this recovery process was not achieved overnight; it required time.
From the intelligence he knew regarding "Obito," this recovery ability could be called heaven-defying, and its effect was almost equivalent to a permanent solution.
However, Takuno was accustomed to preparing for a rainy day, taking all possible variables into account.
What if, at some extreme moment of danger in the future, he had to drive the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan multiple times in succession under a high load within a very short period of time?
Imagine, during a fierce life-and-death struggle, his ocular power burning frantically, and if the recovery speed of the Hashirama cells could not keep up with the speed of his eyesight collapsing...
That descending darkness would be a fatal flaw!
The impact it brought would likely be a bottomless abyss from which he could never return.
Therefore, transplanting Hashirama cells was nothing more than an expedient measure to buy precious time for these eyes.
If he wanted to truly fix it once and for all and fundamentally resolve this curse that came along with the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan, he knew there were only two paths to take...
The first was the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
But Takuno knew that pursuing the path of the "Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan" could basically be ruled out.
The reason lay in its extremely harsh activation conditions: one must transplant the Mangekyō Sharingan awakened by a close blood relative, typically a brother.
As for the Uchiha bloodline fused within himself, its source had likely long since severed any close family ties.
Even if blood relatives existed, it was virtually impossible for these potential relatives to possess the aptitude to open the Mangekyō.
Takuno's own experience was the most powerful proof: what a difficult task it was to open the Mangekyō Sharingan!
Even though the Uchiha clan was generally abundant in emotion, this pair of eyes symbolizing ultimate pain and power was by no means easily obtained.
Even Itachi, who was hailed as a genius, after losing the crucial stimulus of witnessing the tragic death of his best friend Shisui, his Sharingan had still stagnated at the three-tomoe level to this day.
Takuno even predicted that Itachi would likely remain stagnant at the three-tomoe stage for a considerably long period of years.
When even someone as stunningly brilliant as Itachi found it difficult to cross this chasm, the hope for other Uchiha clan members was even more distinctively bleak.
Therefore, looking across the hundreds and thousands of years of the Uchiha clan's history, those who ultimately succeeded in opening the Eternal Mangekyō were only the legendary Madara and Sasuke; this was by no means a coincidence.
Thus, Takuno directly viewed this option as unfeasible.
In that case, the second path, and also the direction with greater possibility, was the ultimate ocular technique that reigned above the Mangekyō: the Rinnegan!
Takuno's thinking focused on the case of Madara.
As everyone knew, Madara was once killed in the decisive battle against Hashirama, and subsequently clearly used the forbidden jutsu "Izanagi" to achieve resurrection.
However, the unavoidable heavy price of Izanagi—the permanent blindness of the Sharingan after use—was something that even someone as powerful as Madara could not be exempted from.
At the same time, it was absolutely impossible for Madara to emulate Danzō by transplanting a large number of spare Sharingan onto other parts of his body in advance to bear the cost.
Therefore, his only feasible approach was to use his own Sharingan as a sacrifice to activate Izanagi.
Perhaps some might hypothesize: could Madara have anticipated failure before the decisive battle and pre-emptively swapped in someone else's Sharingan to use Izanagi? This seemed like a solution.
But Takuno scoffed at this: this hypothesis itself ran counter to the essence of Madara!
How could that Madara, who looked down upon the world, pre-determine that he would be defeated when facing his arch-rival Hashirama, and secretly swap someone else's eyes as a backup plan for it?
This cowardly and suspicious style of doing things was completely incompatible with Madara's aloof and peerless pride as a strong individual; it was simply an absurd joke.
Eliminating all the impossible, the only remaining reasonable explanation was this:
After Madara used Izanagi, causing one of his own Sharingan to go blind, he successfully broke through the boundary and awakened the higher-level Rinnegan!
It was precisely this newly born pair of Rinnegan that dispelled the haze of blindness, allowing him to see the light again and even obtain power far exceeding what he had before!
Awakening the Rinnegan was also the path Takuno chose, and he held the key resources.
He had the cells of Naruto and Sasuke in his hands.
This meant that, theoretically, he could transplant the cells of these two individuals at the same time he transplanted the cells of the First Hokage, Hashirama.
The core principle of this approach lay in utilizing the fateful collision of chakra.
By introducing the chakra of this generation's Indra (Sasuke) and Asura (Naruto) into the exact same body, it would produce a special reaction and fusion within his body, thereby drawing out the Power of the Six Paths, stimulating and awakening the Rinnegan!
However, Takuno currently explicitly denied any intention of executing this plan immediately.
His decision-making was based on the control of power.
The time since he opened the Mangekyō Sharingan was incredibly brief.
At present, he had only preliminarily understood the capabilities of the Mangekyō and attempted to use Susanoo.
It could be said that he was still far from exploring and thoroughly mastering the unique powers, techniques, and subtleties contained within the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Hastily opening the higher-level Rinnegan under such circumstances would cause his power to expand drastically within an extremely short period, exceeding his current capability to control it.
Its serious consequence would be that certain powerful abilities unique to the Mangekyō Sharingan stage might be overwritten or permanently lost during the evolutionary process.
It was just like a Trainer using an Evolution Stone to evolve a Pokémon.
If one forced an evolution when the Pokémon's level was too low and it had not yet learned crucial moves, then those unique skills that should have been mastered in the pre-evolution form would lose the opportunity to be learned forever.
Premature evolution meant sacrificing potential and diversity.
Therefore, Takuno formulated a more stable implementation plan.
The first stage was the fusion of Hashirama cells.
He decided to first focus on transplanting and adapting to the cells of Hashirama, utilizing their powerful vitality and Yang Nature chakra to strengthen his own physique and foundation, laying the groundwork for subsequent steps.
The second stage was to completely master the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
After successfully fusing the Hashirama cells, he would invest a large amount of time and effort to thoroughly research, develop, and proficiently master the entirety of his own Mangekyō Sharingan's capabilities, ensuring its power was brought to the absolute limit.
The third stage was the awakening of the Rinnegan.
Only when he was certain that he had completely mastered the power of the Mangekyō and had made flawless preparations would he use the cells of Naruto and Sasuke.
Guiding the Indra and Asura chakra to collide within his body, he would ultimately draw out the Six Paths power to open the Rinnegan, stepping toward the peak of strength.
Of course, there was another reason, which was that the Rinnegan did not seem to be capable of being turned on and off freely like the Sharingan.
This issue appeared rather complex in the settings of Naruto, and this point was particularly prominent in the different performances of Sasuke and Madara.
After receiving the gift from the Sage of the Six Paths, Sasuke opened a unique Six-Tomoe Rinnegan.
However, unlike the Sharingan, this Rinnegan did not seem to possess a deactivation function.
In the later stages, Sasuke had to cover this eye with long hair for extended periods, which clearly indicated that he could not control the manifestation state of the Rinnegan as freely as he controlled the Sharingan.
In sharp contrast to this was Madara's performance in his Edo Tensei state.
In his Edo Tensei state during the battles of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Madara clearly demonstrated that he was capable of switching between the Rinnegan and the Sharingan.
Although there was a viewpoint suggesting that this switching capability was a convenience granted by the Reanimation mechanism, this explanation itself contained obvious irrationality.
Reanimation typically restored the state and abilities of the deceased during their lifetime; it should not additionally bestow operational characteristics they did not possess while alive.
More convincing evidence came from Madara's experience after his true resurrection.
When he finally reclaimed his own Rinnegan, although the plot did not explicitly show him switching his eyes again.
At the crucial moment when he was backstabbed by Black Zetsu and forced out of the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki mode, his eyes clearly exited the Rinnegan state.
This detail illustrated that for a holder of the Rinnegan, under the premise of completely mastering its power, freely closing the Rinnegan to return to the Sharingan state was entirely possible.
So, why was Sasuke unable to achieve this, while Madara seemingly could?
Thinking about the differences between the two in the original work, Takuno had an uncertain deduction.
That was, the "ownership" and "method of awakening" of the eyes were the key factors.
Sasuke's Six-Tomoe Rinnegan was not naturally evolved through his own efforts or the bloodline of the Uchiha clan, but was power directly bestowed by the Sage of the Six Paths.
This was similar to Kakashi's transplanted Mangekyō Sharingan from Obito, as well as Nagato's use of Madara's Rinnegan.
With these "non-native" eyes, users were often unable to completely master their most basic on-and-off functions.
Sasuke was very likely caught in the exact same dilemma of "non-autonomous ownership," resulting in his inability to close this bestowed Rinnegan.
Madara's Rinnegan, on the other hand, was opened by himself through fusing the cells of Hashirama combined with his own power as an Indra reincarnate over a long period of years; it was truly a part of his being.
Therefore, his control over the Rinnegan should logically be stronger, possessing the latent ability to deactivate it.
As for why he did not frequently switch after taking his eyes back, on one hand, it might be that there was no need to switch in combat scenarios, as the Rinnegan abilities were already powerful enough.
On the other hand, there might also be an objective limitation: his original Mangekyō Sharingan power had already been sacrificed through the "Izanagi" forbidden jutsu during the Battle of the Valley of the End.
Even if he switched back to the Sharingan state, he had lost the powerful unique ocular techniques of the Mangekyō, making the significance of switching greatly reduced, or even unnecessary.
Of course, this was merely a guess, but one thing was certain.
That was, Madara's Rinnegan could not directly use the exclusive ocular techniques of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
This point was particularly obvious during the Reanimation period.
If his Rinnegan could directly activate Mangekyō abilities, he would have absolutely no need to deliberately switch the Rinnegan back to the Sharingan state during battle to use them.
Takuno hoped that the Rinnegan could be closed, otherwise...
He couldn't exactly go around meeting the people in the village with a Rinnegan constantly on display in the future, right? Wouldn't that be explicitly telling everyone that something was wrong with him?