Chapter 2: Mutation

At this moment, Kiyoshi's eyes underwent a change.

Both eyes gleamed a blood-red hue.

Each eye had three spinning black tomoe.

The Sharingan!

If anyone had seen this scene, they would have been struck speechless with shock.

Because Kiyoshi wasn't a member of the Uchiha Clan, yet he possessed the Sharingan.

Moreover, it was the rare three-tomoe form, a stage even most pureblood Uchiha's rarely reach.

And unlike Kakashi, who gained his Sharingan through a transplant from his friend Obito, Kiyoshi could control his Sharingan freely, turning it on and off at will, just like an Uchiha.

"Three tomoe… I wonder if it can evolve into a Mangekyo Sharingan," Kiyoshi murmured, lightly brushing his eyes as he mused.

This was the terrifying result of the mutated powers granted by the Wood-Wood Fruit.

Two years ago, at dusk, he had been fishing by the Naka River to practice medical ninjutsu.

There, he accidentally stumbled upon the corpse of Uchiha Shisui. Though his eyes were gone, his body still held a vast amount of chakra.

Sensing that no one was around to monitor him, Kiyoshi promptly absorbed the lingering chakra from Shisui's body.

During the process, however, he inadvertently consumed a small part of Shisui's blood and flesh, which merged into his body like a nourishing force.

That night, he awoke to find his eyes burning hot, and his vision had sharpened immensely, allowing him to see every detail with clarity.

When he looked in the mirror, he saw that he had somehow awakened the Sharingan.

And it wasn't just any stage—it was the three-tomoe form.

It was then that Kiyoshi realized the terrifying ability of his fruit. 

Through consuming the flesh and chakra of those with a Kekkei Genkai, he could absorb their powers and fully integrate them into his own.

Because of Shisui's immense chakra, he had directly gained the three-tomoe Sharingan.

"But the Uchiha clan…" he muttered.

Deactivating his Sharingan, Kiyoshi gazed in the direction of the Uchiha clan's compound with mixed feelings.

As a reincarnator, he knew all too well what fate awaited the Uchiha clan.

Since the Nine-Tails' attack on the village eight years ago, Konoha's higher-ups had grown increasingly suspicious of the Uchiha, pressing down on them with hostility.

Consequently, the Uchihas' resentment toward the village leaders had intensified over time.

Two years ago, the more radical faction within the clan had reached a breaking point, plotting a coup to seize power.

The death of Shisui, however, had taken them by surprise

As a young prodigy known for his mastery of the Body Flicker Jutsu, Shisui had been one of the clan's strongest assets in their planned rebellion. 

His sudden loss forced the Uchiha to delay their uprising by two years.

Today, the tension between the Uchiha and the Konoha leadership had grown irreparably, and it was clear that the clan's destruction was imminent.

"Well, everyone has their own destiny…" Kiyoshi sighed. 

"Luckily, school's about to go on break, so I don't have to attend classes. That gives me time to experiment and see if I can control Sage Chakra!"

Watching the sun rise steadily into the sky, Kiyoshi stretched his limbs, unconcerned.

After all, he wasn't part of the Uchiha clan and had nothing to worry about.

The Uchihas, with their arrogant and stubborn ways, clinging to the glory of their clan, didn't exactly make them popular.

With a light leap, he grabbed a few books he had left on a tree branch and started toward the ninja academy.

Alongside the textbooks provided by the academy, he carried three other books he had borrowed from the library.

They were titled Introduction to Puppet Techniques, Basic Techniques for Puppet Masters, and Puppet Design and Creation.

Puppet techniques, as rumor had it, were founded by Sunagakure.

Throughout the three Great Ninja Wars, Sunagakure's ingenious puppet techniques and their hidden weaponry had inflicted massive casualties on Konoha.

Because of this, Konoha had conducted extensive research into Sunagakure's puppet techniques.

However, due to a lack of comparable skill, Konoha's puppets fell short in precision and flexibility, vastly inferior to those made by Sunagakure, which had pioneered the art.

As a result, using half-baked puppets against Sunagakure puppeteers in battle wasn't effective.

Over time, puppet techniques never truly developed within Konoha.

Kiyoshi, however, had a bit of interest in puppet techniques and planned to study them as a side project.

Of course, it wasn't as if he aimed to become a master puppeteer.

After all, as a Wood-Wood Fruit user, fully dedicating himself to puppet mastery would be missing the point.

Currently, he didn't want to reveal his Wood Release too early, lest he attract the attention or jealousy of certain people.

From his father, he had inherited some scrolls containing various jutsu. Among the advanced techniques were the Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Body Flicker Jutsu.

There were also a few low-level Fire Release Jutsu, but no particularly powerful jutsu.

Out of personal interest, he planned to delve into puppet techniques, mainly as a means to enhance his chakra control skills.