102. Parting Gift

"Gin, what do you want?"

Uchiha Igaku, crucified on the cross, twitched his face. His lower body felt cold, and with a rare plea in his single eye, he said,

"You and I are family, grandfather and grandson, there's no need for us to be so estranged."

"Naturally! You should know, I, Uchiha Gin, have always been an upright person."

Uchiha Gin squinted his dead fish eyes, speaking with righteous conviction, as if he were a model citizen. But the long blade that had appeared in his hand, at some point, exuded a menacing coldness.

"I always believe in reasoning with people."

"Ask away. I'll answer whatever I know."

Feeling a tight knot in his stomach, Uchiha Igaku raised his head immediately, practically wearing "honesty" on his face.

"That transformation of yours, can it be learned?"

Having coveted Igaku's transformation for a long time, Uchiha Gin was the first to ask.

"No way, that's the ability of my Mangekyō Sharingan."

The old man shook his head slowly, indicating that the ability was bound to him and others couldn't use it.

"Sigh, fine. I just had to ask."

Even though he knew the transformation was a Mangekyō ability, Gin couldn't help but ask, holding on to a bit of hope.

"What about the dark side you mentioned? Is there any way to completely eliminate it?"

Thinking of the two victims of Igaku's Mangekyou, Uchiha Gin wanted to know if it could be eradicated.

"Sorry, as I said earlier, my Mangekyou is already blind. There's no way to remove it from the source."

Igaku shook his head again with a trace of regret. He, too, was a victim of his own Mangekyou, knowing how troublesome that ocular technique was. Unless the person was no longer alive, it would always remain.

"And it takes a great deal of mental strength to suppress it. Otherwise, the brain would experience occasional bouts of pain, eventually draining the person and allowing the dark side to take over the body."

"Ugh, what a hassle."

Gin clicked his tongue in frustration. If it couldn't be eradicated, it was like having a ticking time bomb inside both his uncle and Hikari, ready to explode at any moment.

"Sigh..."

While Gin was pondering how to handle the situation, he suddenly heard a long sigh from Igaku and curiously looked up at the elderly man before him.

"Gin, do you think I was wrong?"

After being betrayed by Black Zetsu, Igaku had reflected for a long time. Looking back at all the things he'd done from behind the scenes over the years, he realized something had gone wrong with his character.

At some point, he had become obsessed and extreme. It was as if an invisible hand had pushed him, step by step, toward an abyss.

"You're just realizing that now?"

Hearing the remorse in Igaku's question, Gin raised an eyebrow and, with a bit of exasperation, said,

"That Black Zetsu liquid was obviously up to no good, yet you treated him better than your own grandson."

Before Igaku could respond, Gin continued speaking, recounting what he had uncovered about his parents' deaths in great detail.

"Do you get it now? The images you saw in those eyes of yours were tampered with. Father and Mother's deaths had nothing to do with Uchiha Tajima directly. Of course, if Dad had been ruthless enough to abandon Uncle back then, none of this would have happened."

"But..."

Gin paused, remembering the fragments of his early childhood after Uchiha Tajima restored his memories. The warm, sunny father and the cold, yet caring mother were his cherished ideals.

"But Shinzo wouldn't have done that. He wouldn't have left anyone behind."

Tears streamed down Igaku's face. At that moment, he understood everything.

He knew his son well. Uchiha Shinzo was a man who valued bonds deeply. He would go to any lengths for those he cared about.

But after awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, Igaku had grown arrogant. Simply viewing the images in his son's eyes had made him stop investigating the truth of his sacrifice.

Now it was too late. He had been manipulated by Black Zetsu and committed countless atrocities. Decades ago, hundreds of innocent lives were lost in the clan because of his mistakes.

Not only did he fail to raise his only grandson, he had sought to use him for his own revenge.

The pain! The unbearable pain!

"I failed Shinzo. I failed you. And I failed the clan."

Overcome with guilt, Igaku trembled as he confessed, tears streaming down his face to a silent Gin.

"Hu~"

Gin let out a long breath, suppressing his emotions as he looked at the old man, who was now on the verge of collapse.

His only obsession in his twilight years had crumbled. Years of painstaking schemes had turned him into nothing more than a pawn in someone else's game.

"You asked me how to completely rid yourself of the Mangekyo's influence?"

After a long silence, Igaku lifted his head, his gaze empty as he spoke to Gin.

Could it be that he had thought of another way?

Gin looked at the old man with anticipation, hoping for a satisfying answer.

"As long as the host dies, the dark personality within them will die too."

What's the point of dying?!

"Gin."

Just as Gin was about to angrily scold the unreliable old man, Yao called his name.

"What is it? Have you come up with another bad idea?"

Gin raised his head impatiently, annoyed.

"Do you really like Spectre's transformation?"

Who wouldn't like it? I'm practically drooling over it!

Seeing Gin's eyes gleam with excitement, like a child spotting a new toy, a complex emotion flashed in Igaku's eyes. He closed his eyes, recalling the time when his grandson had just been born. He had never given this grandson any real care or affection as a grandfather should.

It wasn't that he didn't care, but the love of the Uchiha clan was too restrained.

"Gin, ever since you were born, I've never given you a single gift."

Indeed, in the memories Gin had regained, Igaku and Shinzo had fallen out over something, and after Gin was born, he rarely saw his grandfather. As a child, when he reached out for a hug, Igaku would turn away.

Gin suddenly sensed that something was wrong. This old man seemed ready to die.

"Before I go, let me give Spectre to you."

Igaku's face softened into a smile that Gin had never seen. His single eye, bearing the triangular Mangekyō Sharingan pattern, began to spin, and a cold, dark energy flowed into Gin's eye, imprinting the same pattern there before quickly fading away.

"Heh, when you awaken the Mangekyō again, my Mangekyō will fuse with yours. Then you can use my Spectre transformation."

Feeling the pressure in his eye, Gin felt as though someone had crammed two eyeballs into his socket—a bizarrely painful sensation.

"You old man..."

Clutching his eye that had just received the Mangekyō, Gin looked up to tell Igaku off but saw that the elder had already closed his eye. He could see clearly that underneath the eyelid was now a hollow socket, with a single tear of blood flowing down.

"Now that I've lost the Mangekyō, I can no longer suppress the dark side."

The old man's voice carried a trace of regret as he turned to "look" at Gin, a faint smile on his lips.

"Too bad, I won't be able to watch you grow. My journey ends here."

With a heavy heart, Gin felt a surge of bitterness. Igaku had made mistakes, but they had been under the manipulation of Black Zetsu. His earlier misfortunes had all stemmed from that dark, scheming figure.

He made up his mind. From now on, his daily routine would be eating, drinking, and beating that brat!

"I wonder what kind of offspring will be born from the union of Uchiha and Senju..."

As Igaku died in the real world, his mental form in the Tsukuyomi world began to crumble. With a relieved smile, Igaku muttered one last thing before vanishing into nothingness. But Gilver, preoccupied with his thoughts of defeating Black Zetsu, didn't catch his last words.

"Huh? My cousin's going to have a baby with that idiot?"

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