Kubisaki Marsh.
Sasuke sat cross-legged on the ground, both eyes swathed in layers of bandages, quietly attuned to the changes stirring within them.
The swollen, pressurized feeling in his eye sockets was still there, but the searing pain had largely faded.
Along with the fading pain came something else Sasuke had been tracking clearly over these past days: a steady, perceptible rise in the power within his eyes.
"So the Mangekyou between father and son can fuse after all."
He wasn't particularly surprised by this.
In the original story, the two known cases of Eternal Mangekyou both involved the fusion of power between brothers.
There was no explicit evidence one way or the other on whether other close-blood combinations, sisters, a brother and sister, father and son, mother and daughter, could achieve the same result.
But at its core, this was a completion of bloodline, a fusion of ocular power.
If it worked between brothers, there was no reason it shouldn't work between any other immediate blood relative.
In the original timeline, whether it was Madara and Izuna, or Sasuke and Itachi, they were blood brothers, but not identical twins.
Only identical twins share the exact same genomic sequence, the same DNA across every chromosome.
Between two regular siblings, the DNA sequences could be extremely close, or they could differ enormously.
But between parent and child, it was different. No matter how a sibling pair's genes might vary or combine, every child's DNA is composed of exactly one half from each parent. That much is undeniable.
"Ngh."
Lost in quiet thought, Sasuke suddenly let out a low, pained grunt. Wave after wave of burning, searing agony erupted from his eye sockets, and the bandages wrapped around his eyes began to seep with dark, near-black blood.
Stirring.
That was the name Sasuke had given to this state, borrowed from the movie "The Last," in reference to the moment Otsutsuki Toneri's Tenseigan began its transformation.
Each time one of these episodes passed, Sasuke could feel a clear, unmistakable surge in the power of his eyes.
"The seventh."
Sasuke counted silently. Ten days had passed since he fused the Mangekyou Sharingan. Over those ten days, his eyes had gone through seven of these episodes.
The intervals between them were growing longer. But by his estimate, three more episodes at most and the transformation would be complete. He would awaken the Eternal Mangekyou.
"That puts it at around eight or nine days. Ten at the outside. Faster than I expected."
He murmured to himself, and the burning in his mind began to gradually subside.
He had originally planned for a full month. If he awakened ahead of schedule, that would leave him time to adjust to the new eyes.
... A grand finale of this scale. How could I possibly be left out?
The corner of Sasuke's mouth lifted. Against the blood-soaked bandages, the expression looked utterly unsettling.
---
A few days later. Konoha. The Haruno residence.
"I'm heading out, Mom, Dad!"
After wolfing down breakfast at full speed, Sakura dashed out the door.
"That girl." Haruno Mebuki let out a huff, her expression pinched with displeasure. "I've told her so many times, act like a young lady. She charges around like a wild creature every single day."
"Come on, dear." Haruno Kizashi laughed and offered a few words in his daughter's defense. "The Chunin Exam finals are just around the corner. Sakura is working hard at her training."
Mebuki shot her husband a look. "Training is training and manners are manners. The two have nothing to do with each other. This is your fault for spoiling her rotten all these years. She grew up like this because of you."
"If she keeps going like this, who's going to marry her?"
Kizashi raised an eyebrow with total confidence. "My daughter? Not marriageable? She's that strong and that cute. When she's grown, the line of people chasing after her will stretch from Konoha's gates all the way to the capital of the Land of Fire."
"That's exactly what worries me."
Mebuki sighed, her expression genuinely troubled. "Look at Lady Tsunade. Beautiful as anyone, and she still hasn't found a husband at fifty."
That's because no one dares to try.
Kizashi smiled awkwardly. Seeing his wife's worried face, he turned something over in his head. "Dear, don't stress so much. You seem to be in a bad mood. Want me to tell you a joke?"
"Get out of my sight."
---
After leaving the house, Sakura moved at a brisk pace toward Training Ground Three.
Today was the day she would meet her new teacher, and she was not going to be late.
The moment she arrived, she spotted a young man standing there. Cropped brown hair, and a face guard styled as his forehead protector.
"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep you waiting, Senior."
Sakura quickly dipped into a bow.
"You're not late. We still have time before the agreed hour. I just got here myself." Yamato smiled slightly, his tone easy and warm. "You're Sakura, right? I actually owe your team a word of thanks for saving my life last time."
"That was all Sasuke. I didn't really do much." Sakura shook her head, then asked, "What should I call you, Senior?"
"Yamato is fine."
"Understood, Senior Yamato. Thank you for everything you're going to do for me." Sakura gave another bow.
"No need for such formality, Sakura." Yamato stepped forward and gently stopped her from bowing further, then said with a steady tone, "Senior Kakashi filled me in on some things about you beforehand, but some things I need to see for myself. Show me what you can do, Sakura. Start with Water Release, whatever you're most comfortable with."
"Right!" Sakura nodded, thought for a moment, then began forming seals quickly.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
So it's just as Senior Kakashi said. She really is an exceptional Water Release ninja.
Yamato gave a quiet nod of acknowledgment. "Those two Water Release techniques you just used, they're from the Second Hokage, aren't they?"
"You know them, Senior Yamato?" Sakura looked at him with mild surprise.
"I do." Yamato smiled. "Because I've studied the Second Hokage's Water Release techniques myself."
The reason was that Yamato was the first person to successfully receive a transplant of the First Hokage's cells and survive. Wood Release is a fusion of Earth and Water.
In order to strengthen his control over Wood Release, both Danzo and later the Third Hokage, who had taken over his training, had taught him a wide range of Water Release and Earth Release techniques from the sealed archives.
"I see."
Sakura's expression cleared. Yamato continued, "In fact, it's not just the Second Hokage's Water Release. The Earth Release techniques the First Hokage used in his earlier years, I've studied those as well."
The First Hokage was not born with Wood Release. He first achieved mastery-level Earth Release and Water Release, and it was only then that the power of Wood Release awakened within him.
Once it did, he rarely used the other two natures, but that didn't mean he had forgotten them.
"Huh!?" Sakura blinked, and then a bright, barely-contained look of delight spread across her face.
... Senior Yamato's Earth Release traces back to the First Hokage.
If I learn Earth Release from him, then I'll be carrying the legacy of every generation of Hokage within me...
At that thought, excitement flashed through Sakura's eyes. Without quite meaning to, her fist clenched tightly at her side.
... The true heir.
___
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