Ultimately, Motomu chose Enlarge and Harden.
After all, while the mechanics of Return from Hell were decent, it required too much technical execution.
Aside from the ability to resurrect, the Pokemon wouldn't receive any buffs.
It would essentially still be a blank slate.
In contrast, Motomu preferred raw stats.
[DING]
[CONGRATULATIONS TRAINER. YOUR POKEMON HAS OBTAINED ITS FIRST PASSIVE MOVE. SYSTEM REWARD: DESIGNATED MOVE REFRESH CARD X1]
[POKEMON: ONE-TOMOE SHARINGAN]
[LEVEL: 11]
[TYPE: PSYCHIC/DARK]
[CURRENT EXP: 8/110]
[SPECIES: HP: 27 | ATK: 11 | DEF: 27 | SP. ATK: 30 | SP. DEF: 20 | SPE: 5]
[INDIVIDUAL VALUES: 24/31]
[EFFORT VALUES: 13/100]
[NATURE/ABILITY: BOLD]
[MOVES: TAKE DOWN, HYPNOSIS, PSYCHOKINESIS, REFLECT]
[PASSIVE MOVE: ENLARGE AND HARDEN]
[DESCRIPTION: PIDGEY SLAYER, YOU MONSTER.]
[NEW MOVES AWAITING SELECTION!]
"Oh right, there's a new move at level 11."
Motomu's sudden self-muttering instantly woke Guy, who had begun nodding off.
"Motomu-san, are you talking to me?"
"I have been practicing new moves lately."
Motomu looked at Guy, who was mumbling in a daze with his eyes spinning in circles, and then turned back.
He retracted his gaze.
[THE RIGHT EYE HAS LEVELED UP. IT SEEMS TO HAVE LEARNED SOMETHING.]
[1. DREAM EATER 2. PSYCHOKINESIS]
[3. TELEPORT 4. LEER]
Motomu clicked on the first option to check it.
[DREAM EATER: USED ON SLEEPING OPPONENTS. UPON SUCCESS, DEALS MINOR DAMAGE AND DRAINS 1% OF THE TARGET'S VITALITY]
'This skill!'
Dream Eater and Hypnosis were a perfect match.
Motomu saw Teleport in the list, but he unhesitatingly chose to replace Take Down with Dream Eater.
Teleport was definitely a permanent pool item!
It would surely appear again.
As his thoughts raced, the system screen flickered.
Black and white particles from the evolution swirled around the Big Eyeball, which seemed to grow something within its silhouette.
Once the special effects vanished...
A Big Eyeball with a wide, fanged mouth and a purple tongue sticking out from its center appeared on the screen.
Motomu stared blankly at it.
His mind was a total void.
'With this look...'
'How can it even pass as a normal eyeball?'
He rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
He even saw...
The Big Eyeball on the screen licking its lips with that purple tongue.
Even if the eye returned now, Motomu wouldn't dare put it back in his socket.
'This guy... is this a joke?'
After a long while, Motomu finally forced himself to accept the reality.
He manipulated the Big Eyeball hidden beneath the bird's nest and turned it toward the three sleeping owlets.
Dream Eater, activate.
Immediately!
A faint, glowing green stream flowed into Motomu's perception through the Big Eyeball.
Motomu knew this was likely that 1% vitality.
Nourished by the life force, the Big Eyeball wriggled comfortably and began to absorb it greedily.
'Wait!'
'It seems I can intercept it!'
With a thought, despite the Big Eyeball's pitiful pleading, he redirected that portion of vitality through the connection between the eye and himself.
'Hiss! That feels good!'
Motomu felt a surge of warmth seep from his eye socket and spread through his entire body.
The warmth lasted a few seconds before fading.
Coming to his senses, Motomu checked his own changes.
He was surprised to find that his chakra had actually grown slightly.
Motomu knew his own situation.
The Uchiha weren't like the Senju; they didn't have overflowing vitality.
If Motomu's mental energy with a single Sharingan was 100, then his vitality was only about 60.
And chakra was the product of combining physical vitality and mental energy in a 1:1 ratio.
Right now, his total chakra capacity was limited by his physical vitality.
'I didn't expect this move to work on me too!'
Under the nourishment of vitality, the Big Eyeball could grow larger and harder, and his chakra could increase!
From now on, Dream Eater was his strategic move.
"Coo-coo, ga-ga!"
The three little owlets cried out from the sudden pain, instantly waking the sleeping Noctowl.
In a frenzy to protect her young, the Noctowl's panic nearly overturned the giant tree nest.
The Big Eyeball suffered as a result.
A violent gust of wind blew it right out of the nest.
Motomu had no time to be sad about being kicked out by his surrogate mother.
He controlled the Big Eyeball, now exposed in the open sky, and made it descend rapidly into the Forest of Death below.
The Forest of Death was no joke; there were creatures much larger than the bird everywhere.
Using gravity's acceleration, the Big Eyeball—with its mouth wide open and tongue flying over its head—managed to hide in the dense canopy in less than three seconds.
Leaves and branches scraped against the surface of the eyeball, but Motomu didn't feel any pain.
He knew this was the benefit of choosing Enlarge and Harden.
Friction that would have scratched the eye before couldn't even touch him now!
Peeking out cautiously to get its bearings, the Big Eyeball used its pitiful five points of speed to head home with all its might.
Night fell.
Motomu returned home after having dinner at his grandma's and opened the door.
Stuck with a few leaves and its purple tongue hanging out listlessly, the Big Eyeball was waiting quietly behind the door.
Motomu grabbed it and gave it a thorough rinse in the sink.
Once it was free of leaves and twigs, he painstakingly jammed it back into his eye socket.
By the moonlight...
Uchiha Motomu lowered his head to look at his reflection in the basin.
His face was handsome and his features well-defined, but the only thing that ruined the look was the mismatched eyes.
The larger one even had a mouth that wriggled with a purple tongue.
"Shut it!"
The Big Eyeball obeyed and dutifully closed its mouth.
The central mouth disappeared.
But the mismatched size issue remained.
"Pop!"
The Big Eyeball flew out of the narrow socket that had made it feel uncomfortable.
Looking quite cheerful, it circled Motomu with its tongue trailing behind.
However, Motomu's expression was far from pleasant.
'I actually forgot about this.'
The Big Eyeball had grown larger and stronger.
But it couldn't fit back in!
'I could pass it off as eye strain for now.'
If he kept using that excuse, people might get suspicious, but at most, they'd just ask if he needed to go to the hospital.
But if Orochimaru returned, it would be over!
With his personality, he would definitely investigate Motomu thoroughly.
It seemed like he had no choice but to play dumb.
It wasn't like he could make the Big Eyeball grow and then shrink on command, right?
Wait!
'Shrinking... where did I see that before?'
'Was it in the description for Extrasensory?'
He recalled the description of Extrasensory he had seen earlier.
[EXTRASENSORY: GENERATES AN IMPACT FORCE EQUAL TO CURRENT SP. ATK X POKEMON WEIGHT. DEALS SPECIAL ATTACK DAMAGE TO MINIMIZED ENEMIES]
Motomu pondered the words 'minimized enemies' over and over.
"In other words, is the move Minimize in the Pokemon's move pool?"
Coincidentally, he still had the Designated Move Refresh Card from the system reward.
Motomu suddenly saw the light.
The solution to the Big Eyeball being too large was already clear.
He just had to get the Big Eyeball to level 13 and then use the Designated Move Refresh Card!
To refresh for the Minimize move.