His Own Eyes

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After helping one another out of the cavern, the first person Naoki saw was Guy.

Clearly, Guy had faithfully carried out Naoki's instructions. He had guarded the cave entrance the entire time and had not allowed the Hidden Sand or Hidden Stone shinobi to enter the mountain on their own.

Seeing all three people come out safely, Guy flashed his trademark smile and raised his thumb. "Naoki, I knew you would succeed!"

Not far away, Kakashi said nothing. He still had that indifferent, lazy manner, but from the rise and fall of his chest, Naoki could keenly tell that beneath the mask, Kakashi had relaxed with relief.

Pakura of the Hidden Sand did not step forward. Instead, she stood where she was and carefully examined Naoki and Shisui.

Everyone outside the cave had sensed the commotion inside, so anyone could guess how intense the battle had been. Yet the young Naoki and Shisui had walked out alive. That forced her to reassess them.

On the other side, the Hidden Stone shinobi looked at Naoki and Shisui with obvious hostility.

Their captain in particular wore a thoughtful expression, as if weighing something important. He looked almost distracted.

Sensing the hostility from the Hidden Stone side, Naoki immediately understood.

With Moryo, the monster that threatened the world, completely sealed, the temporary cooperation between the shinobi villages had ended. What replaced it was the same hostility and competition as always.

At that moment, the priestess, holding the wooden box, bowed to the shinobi outside the cave and thanked them for their help.

Looking at the broken terracotta warrior puppets scattered across the ground, it was clear that the shinobi guarding the entrance had not had an easy time either. Before Moryo was sealed completely, those terracotta warrior puppets were practically undying.

After exchanging formalities for a while, the gathered shinobi escorted the priestess back to the Land of Demons. Then the Hidden Sand and Hidden Stone shinobi left one after another.

Because Naoki's private deal with the priestess had not yet been completed, Konoha's ANBU Team Eleven temporarily remained in the Land of Demons under the excuse of being commissioned by the priestess to eliminate the remnants of the Yomi Sect.

Of course, Naoki tossed the work of hunting down the Yomi Sect remnants to Kakashi, Guy, and Shisui. He stayed in the priestess's palace to recover and wait for the Violet Mire Resin she was gathering for him.

In his spare time, Naoki reviewed the battle with Moryo.

This had been the first time since obtaining the Tenseigan that he had completely exhausted all the chakra in his body. Because of that, the fight had exposed many of his problems and also brought him some unexpected gains.

The adverse reaction from emptying his chakra was far more severe than he had expected.

For the next several days, his body could barely produce strength, and his mind felt terribly oppressed, as if a dark cloud hung over his head and refused to disperse no matter what he did.

Fortunately, the Tenseigan in his eye sockets belonged to him. It fit perfectly with both his soul and his body, so the burden was much lighter.

If this Tenseigan had been transplanted from someone else, he would likely have suffered a ruthless backlash from it by now. Even if he had survived by luck, his body would not have much vitality left.

In Naoki's blurry memories from his previous life, after Toneri Otsutsuki was defeated by Naruto and his chakra was exhausted, the Tenseigan he had obtained by transplanting Hanabi's Byakugan vanished as well.

That showed that even a being like Toneri, who could fly through the sky, travel through the earth, and slice the Moon, could not maintain a kekkei genkai on the level of the Tenseigan after exhausting his chakra.

The weak did not even have the qualification to possess the Tenseigan.

Because of that, Naoki's earlier guess had been proven again.

His Tenseigan seemed to possess a kind of spirituality. It had been instinctively suppressing itself, maintaining only an initial awakened state to avoid causing irreversible harm to Naoki's still-weak body.

"Your own eyes really are the best."

After understanding that, Naoki sighed.

The same was true of the Rinnegan. In Madara, its original owner, it displayed a very different might than it had in Nagato.

Madara could even use Rinnegan ocular techniques such as Limbo: Border Jail, which Nagato had never used. From the side, that proved Madara, as the original owner, could draw out the Rinnegan's power far better than Nagato.

And the price Madara paid was far smaller as well.

This experience gave Naoki a warning. In the future, he could no longer recklessly exhaust all his chakra. At the same time, it made him crave an artificial Tailed Beast even more.

Time waited for no one. Naoki finally could not hold back and asked the priestess to teach him sealing arts.

However, the result disappointed him deeply.

The priestess told him clearly that without the priestess bloodline, it was impossible to learn the sealing arts of her line. Countless predecessors had already verified that fact.

Simply put, the priestess line's sealing arts were also a kind of kekkei genkai.

That was why, for a thousand years, the priestesses of the Land of Demons had been passed down through a single line, with no outsider able to interfere.

Suppressing the disappointment in his heart, Naoki had no choice but to settle for second best.

Although the priestess could not teach him the powerful sealing arts of her own line, as a master of sealing arts, she had no problem guiding him in other sealing techniques.

After changing his approach, Naoki immediately extracted every formula related to sealing arts from the artificial Tailed Beast data, handed them to the priestess, and asked her to guide him in studying them.

The moment the priestess saw those sealing formulas, she showed enormous interest.

Every sealing formula in the artificial Tailed Beast data came from the Uzumaki line. The Uzumaki clan had developed powerful forbidden techniques such as the Reaper Death Seal, the Four Symbols Seal, and Adamantine Sealing Chains. They were a great clan of sealing arts, so even a priestess with extremely high mastery naturally marveled at Uzumaki formulas.

After several days of study, relying on her own mastery, the priestess quickly became familiar with the characteristics of Uzumaki sealing arts and grasped every sealing formula involved in the artificial Tailed Beast data.

"These sealing formulas are truly exquisite. The Uzumaki clan deserves admiration."

Her praise came from the heart.

The defining feature of Uzumaki sealing arts was using weakness to control strength. With a fragile human body, they could suppress and control monsters as powerful as Tailed Beasts through sealing arts. Because of that, every Nine-Tails jinchuriki since Konoha's founding had come from the Uzumaki clan.

In this area alone, the priestess knew she was inferior.

After learning many Uzumaki sealing formulas, the priestess felt she had gained a great advantage. She therefore held nothing back and devoted herself fully to guiding Naoki.

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