Team Eleven in Recovery

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Now that he could freely open and close the Tenseigan, Naoki no longer needed to wear the dark goggles.

After all, they had a considerable effect on his vision. At night in particular, the dark lenses interfered heavily with his sight and reduced his perception.

After putting the goggles into the ninja-tool pouch at his waist, Naoki stood and returned to the small cave where Team Eleven was hiding.

As soon as Guy, who was stretching outside the cave, saw Naoki, he laughed. "Heh, seeing you without the goggles feels kind of strange."

Naoki looked Guy up and down. "Is your body all right now?"

Guy immediately gave Naoki a thumbs-up, showing a full row of bright teeth as he laughed. "Don't worry. I am Konoha's Noble Green Beast! A little injury like this isn't worth worrying about!"

Guy's recovery ability truly was unusual.

If an ordinary person trained at his intensity, their body might not endure it for long. Guy, however, trained every day as if nothing was wrong.

His injuries this time had not been light either. Yet after only a few days of rest, he was already up and moving again.

After entering the cave, Naoki found Shisui and Kakashi talking quietly.

Naoki asked casually, "What were you talking about?"

Shisui glanced at Kakashi. Seeing Kakashi nod, he said to Naoki in an odd tone, "Senior Kakashi awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan."

Naoki looked at Kakashi. "Was it after the battle in the valley?"

Still somewhat weak, Kakashi shook his head. "I'm not too sure."

Naoki was not too surprised that Kakashi had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan. In his memory, this seemed like something that would happen naturally.

He could no longer clearly remember when Obito's Mangekyo Sharingan had awakened. But he knew that as long as Obito awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, then considering the resonance between the two Sharingan, Kakashi could awaken his at any time as long as he received enough stimulation.

And Kakashi had received more than enough stimulation.

Leaving aside the desperate battle in the valley, Rin's death and the Fourth Hokage's death alone had inflicted mental blows that were difficult to describe.

So Kakashi's Mangekyo Sharingan may very well have awakened earlier. The battle in the valley might merely have allowed him to grasp how to activate it by accident.

Seeing Kakashi still looking half-dead, Naoki did not ask further.

He did not want to appear too interested in the Mangekyo Sharingan, nor did he want to seem too familiar with it. That would invite unnecessary trouble and suspicion.

After all, inside the village, Danzo was interested in the Mangekyo Sharingan. Outside the village, Orochimaru was interested in it as well.

And Obito, hidden behind the scenes, was constantly thinking about wiping out the Uchiha Clan and destroying Konoha. None of these people were easy to deal with. If they fixed their eyes on Naoki, he would not be afraid, but it would still be troublesome.

Shisui did not say anything else.

In truth, Shisui was still somewhat dazed. He had never imagined that a non-Uchiha who had received a transplanted Sharingan could awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan, the ultimate ocular power of the Uchiha Clan as he understood it.

To him, that was the greatest and most forceful mockery of the proud Uchiha Clan.

Countless Uchiha praised as geniuses had failed to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan. Even now, in Shisui's understanding, he was the only person in the entire Uchiha Clan who had awakened it.

He had even become anxious after awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan, afraid that this power, too strong for its own good, would bring misfortune to his clan and the village.

He had guarded this power, which represented Uchiha pride, with such caution.

Yet a non-Uchiha had somehow obtained the same thing.

That feeling of mockery struck Shisui especially hard.

Fortunately, Shisui's pride had recently been torn to pieces by Naoki. In his heart, the proud Uchiha had already suffered a complete defeat at the hands of the Hyuga.

No matter how one measured it, the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan could not compare to Tenseigan Chakra Mode, which had erased an entire valley with a single raised hand.

So in Shisui's heart, the Uchiha had lost.

Thoroughly.

Having lost once, losing a second time seemed a little easier to accept. At least Kakashi was the son of Konoha's White Fang, the man whose name had once terrified other villages.

Neither Naoki nor Kakashi noticed Shisui's complicated thoughts.

Kakashi was still immersed in his own mental world. His heart was far less cold than he appeared on the outside. Much of the indifference he showed in daily life was only a way to hide his wounded heart.

Naoki, meanwhile, was considering everything that had happened over the past few days.

The battle in the valley had been a narrow brush with death. It taught him one lesson: even with trump cards in hand, he had to remain cautious, then more cautious still. Otherwise, he might lose his life before he even had the chance to use them.

This time had been exactly like that. He had the Third Kazekage human puppet as a trump card and could have broken out through the air with Magnet Release at any time. But because of one moment of carelessness, he had almost been captured alive by Kumogakure before he could even use the puppet.

He had to remember where he was.

This was the shinobi world, a world where even Ten-Tails jinchuriki Madara could be assassinated in a single betrayal.

Of course, Naoki had gained quite a lot from this battle as well.

The greatest gain was undoubtedly obtaining from the giant Tenseigan on the Moon the hand seals required to enter Tenseigan Chakra Mode, as well as the methods for manipulating the Truth-Seeking Balls into Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion and Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion.

The moment he entered Tenseigan Chakra Mode, he had even felt as if he had become a god, as if every enemy could be crushed easily with a mere lift of his hand.

That feeling was intoxicating.

Unfortunately, the Otsutsuki descendants on the Moon reacted too quickly. They gave him no further chance to use the giant Tenseigan's free chakra to familiarize himself with Tenseigan Chakra Mode.

After several days of recovery, Naoki's chakra had already returned to seventy or eighty percent.

Judging by the chakra consumption of Tenseigan Chakra Mode during the battle in the valley, the chakra in his body right now should be enough for him to enter the mode.

However, considering that the Otsutsuki descendants on the Moon were still using the giant Tenseigan from time to time to scan the surface, he felt it was safer to lie low for the moment.

Best to wait until they returned to the Land of Fire, then find a remote, empty place and properly familiarize himself with Tenseigan Chakra Mode.

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