When Aoba appeared in front of Orochimaru, the latter wasn't surprised at all. After all, just a single squad of Konoha's ANBU had been enough to force him to abandon his body and flee. It was only natural that Aoba Kamikawa could easily track him down.
"So, you've finally taken time out of your busy schedule to come kill me?"
"Why would you say that? I thought our previous collaborations went pretty smoothly."
"Heh, true enough. But that doesn't mean you don't want to kill me. As hard as it is to believe, Aoba… you're different. Your thoughts and emotions are unlike other powerful shinobi.
I've always found it odd, you're a once-in-centuries genius, a prodigy without equal. Yet your mind and heart constantly empathize with ordinary people.
And it's because of that… you won't let me live. I've hurt far too many innocent people in my experiments. I used to think you and I were the same, that at the very least, you'd understand me. But now I realize, we are not the same kind of person. You won't let someone like me live."
Aoba had to admit, he had underestimated Orochimaru. This was, by far, the most accurate evaluation of him anyone in the shinobi world had ever given.
It was true, Aoba found it difficult to empathize with the so-called "powerhouses" of the ninja world. By the moral standards he brought with him, most of them were essentially war criminals.
And for someone like Orochimaru, who performed human experiments? Aoba utterly loathed him. Originally, he had planned to eliminate Orochimaru completely once he outlived his usefulness.
But to his surprise, Orochimaru had seen it coming. Even though their dealings had always been smooth, one day Orochimaru had simply vanished.
Looking back now, Orochimaru must have sensed his intent back then.
What could Aoba say? Orochimaru wasn't just skilled at surviving through jutsu, his mind was also leagues ahead of most shinobi.
"You're right. I was planning to kill you sooner. But things have changed. It seems you've finally patched the weaknesses of Living Corpse Reincarnation. Hand over the technique, and I'll let you live."
Without hesitation, Orochimaru tossed over a scroll. Gone was the pride of one of the legendary Sannin. Ever since he was forced to escape via soul transfer after being beaten by just an ANBU squad, he had known he had no leverage in terms of raw power.
Orochimaru was always someone who understood the times. If you can't win, then the best option is not to fight at all.
Aoba hadn't expected him to be so cooperative. Originally, if Orochimaru had shown even a hint of hesitation or resistance, he would've taken him out on the spot.
But with Orochimaru being so obedient, it left Aoba in a bit of an awkward position. After some thought, and considering Orochimaru might still be useful in the future, he ultimately decided to let him live.
Back in Konoha, Aoba had the labs begin analyzing Orochimaru's Spectral Reincarnation technique. Meanwhile, he went to check on Sasuke.
After receiving all of Aoba's chakra, Sasuke had been focused on learning how to control his new power. At the same time, he was working on fusing the different chakra natures, striving to reach true Sage of Six Paths level.
There was a slight bottleneck in this process: Sasuke didn't have the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
This slowed down the awakening of the Rinnegan more than expected.
But as it turned out, Aoba's initial theory was correct. As long as the quantity and quality of chakra reached a certain threshold, having the Eternal Mangekyō didn't really matter.
After all, Indra, the first known Rinnegan user, never swapped eyes with his brother. Yet he still awakened the Rinnegan.
Later Ōtsutsuki clan members practically came with Rinnegan as standard, and there was no mention of Eternal Mangekyō in their case either. The so-called "Eternal Mangekyō" was just a unique bottleneck in the shinobi world caused by impure bloodlines.
With Sasuke's chakra now fully fused, he had achieved a "Sage Body." In essence, the power of his chakra forced his physical body to evolve, overcoming the shortcomings of his bloodline, and allowing him to awaken a pair of six-tomoe Rinnegan.
They weren't the nine-tomoe version, though, which showed he still had some distance to go before reaching the Sage of Six Paths' level. In the original story, the Sage casually gifted him a nine-tomoe Rinnegan.
Still, as far as Aoba was concerned, this was already more than enough.
In the final battle, if you weren't at Sage level, you basically didn't stand a chance. Before, Aoba was the only one, but now, with Sasuke, he had an extra trump card.
As for Naruto… things were a bit more complicated.
To be fair, Naruto hadn't yet shown signs of being completely influenced like Hashirama was in the past. More importantly, he had strong social connections in Konoha. Most of the younger generation were his friends—and he also had Minato as his father.
Aoba couldn't just kill or imprison Naruto. That wasn't his way of doing things.
But doing nothing was also not an option. Naruto, both in the original story and now, always gave off this strange internal contradiction.
He could feel anger, sadness, joy…
When Konoha was destroyed, he fought Pain with everything he had, but still lost.
Then Hinata got hurt, and he instantly went berserk. His power skyrocketed, and the entire vibe of the battle changed.
But when Neji died? Barely a reaction. When he learned how his parents died? No breakdown. When he met the man who killed his father? No explosion of emotion.
It was bizarre. Was he deeply emotional? Or cold-hearted? His personality was so twisted, it bordered on absurd.
Just look at Menma Namikaze in the Infinite Tsukuyomi dream world, that's how a normal person would be after experiencing everything Naruto went through.
Aoba always believed this was the author's way of giving a very direct hint: Naruto's mind wasn't normal. He was influenced by something.
Because the author knew what a normal Naruto should be like, he just deliberately didn't write him that way.
That left only two possibilities: either the author was an idiot, or Naruto was. Of course, it was also possible that both were.
In such a case, Aoba's approach to dealing with Naruto became a bit more complicated.
Fortunately, Minato himself was a top-tier shinobi and could understand Aoba's plan. He personally monitored Naruto in real time, because even he had begun to sense that something was a little off with his son's mindset.
"A little off" was how a parent with rose-tinted glasses might see it. But in Aoba's view, that "little" problem could become fatal at a critical moment.
So he strengthened Sasuke, but did nothing to Naruto. He even stopped Minato when he wanted to combine the Yin and Yang halves of Kurama.
After leaving the lab, an ANBU was already waiting for him at the door.
"Aoba-sama, the Hokage has requested your presence."
"The Hokage?"
Tsunade had recently defeated Onoki and now stood as a powerful name across the entire shinobi world. She should currently be busy absorbing Iwagakure's resources. Aoba hadn't participated in that war, so why would she be calling for him?
Puzzled, Aoba made his way to Tsunade's office, only to find not just her, but also someone unexpected: Madara Uchiha.
The squad that had confronted Madara was one Aoba had personally assigned. So he naturally knew that without his Rinnegan, Madara couldn't defeat them. What he didn't expect was that Madara had come to Konoha so soon.
"I'll leave it to you," Tsunade said, she couldn't negotiate with Madara. The main issue was that he was from her grandfather's generation. She had a psychological disadvantage from the start.
Aoba, on the other hand, had no such mental baggage. As a transmigrator, he had no emotional filters about seniority or status in the shinobi world.
"Kid, I've come to Konoha as you wished. Now tell me, how far along is your plan? How much chance do we really have?"
"...It's still too early to speak of chances."
Aoba motioned for Madara to sit and poured him a cup of hot tea.
"I prepared a gift for this day in advance. Lord Madara, take a look first."
As he spoke, Aoba took out two containers and placed them in front of Madara.
Madara instantly recognized what they were. Because what Aoba had laid out… were two pairs of Sharingan, Mangekyō Sharingan, to be precise.
They were the ones Aoba had originally possessed. One pair was Shisui Uchiha's Kotoamatsukami, and the other was the unique set Aoba had fused himself, Parting and Elysium.
"Losing both your Rinnegan and even the Mangekyō Sharingan must have been a great blow, Lord Madara. Interested?"
Madara looked at the two sets of eyes in front of him. He could clearly sense the immense chakra within both pairs, they had barely been used. And based on Aoba's description, they were both incredibly powerful.
"Such rare treasures… and you're just offering them to me?"
"Rare? Perhaps. I'd say 'uncommon' fits better. Realistically, there are very few in the shinobi world who can fully harness the power of Mangekyō Sharingan. But I believe you are one of the exceptions."
"Hmph. If they're not from a blood relative, even I would experience some degree of rejection upon transplanting them. I could suppress it, yes, but bringing out their full potential would still be impossible."
"What if I could solve that problem? Permanently solve it."
Madara's eyes narrowed slightly. He knew Aoba didn't joke. As impossible as it sounded, coming from Aoba, it actually seemed plausible.
And most importantly, Aoba had emphasized that it would be a permanent solution.
Madara almost immediately understood what Aoba meant.
Within the Uchiha clan, Sharingan could be freely transplanted between members, and even to outsiders. But only the senior clan leaders knew the deeper truth:
Unless the Sharingan were exchanged between close blood relatives, their potential would always be limited. In other words, if you transplanted someone else's eyes. It would be much harder for them to evolve further. Not impossible, but definitely more difficult.
Now Aoba was saying he could solve that problem. Madara didn't think he just meant suppressing rejection, this went deeper.
"You've found a way to make Mangekyō Sharingan evolve even without a blood bond between the eyes?"
"Yes..."
If you would like to read more...
The novel has be completed (Chp. 362) on the patreon -> SaintXI