— — — — — —

"Not bad!"

Uchiha Renzo nodded in satisfaction, motioning for them to sit. With a casual wave of his hand, he conjured up tea and snacks, gesturing politely for them to help themselves.

"Sniff sniff."

Sasuke, who was usually all cold and proud at the academy, was acting unusually well-behaved today. He leaned forward, sniffing the table of goodies, and his eyes lit up. "So… so good!"

Right after he blurted that out, his face turned red—because Renzo and the others were all looking at him.

"Help yourself to whatever you like." Renzo chuckled warmly.

"Haha, sorry you had to see that," Fugaku said with a smile as he ruffled Sasuke's hair.

Then he turned to Renzo, formally introducing the boy. "You probably already got the info from your shadow clone, but I figured I should still make it official. This is my younger son, Sasuke."

"He's twelve now and about to graduate from the academy. I was hoping I could leave his training to you—if that's okay?"

Fugaku knew exactly how skilled Renzo was as a teacher. Just look at Itachi—whether it was taijutsu, genjutsu, ninjutsu, chakra control, or even swordsmanship, the kid was top-tier.

People now called Itachi and Shisui the Twin Stars of the Uchiha. Some even thought Itachi had already surpassed Shisui.

Fugaku was extremely proud.

Hearing this, Sasuke immediately sat up straight, a little tense but full of anticipation as he looked at Renzo. He heard a lot about this guy from his older brother. In fact, he even saw Renzo a couple of times at home.

What he hadn't known until recently was that all those times, it was just Renzo's shadow clone!

And not just for a few hours—those clones had apparently been around for years. He'd never even heard of anyone being able to maintain a shadow clone for that long.

But just as Sasuke's excitement peaked, Renzo shook his head with a smile.

"I'll have to pass."

"…Huh?" Fugaku and Itachi both tensed, alarmed.

Sasuke's expression dropped instantly. So he really wasn't good enough after all… still not on par with his brother?

"Relax." Renzo quickly raised a hand to calm them and gently patted Sasuke's head. In that brief contact, he found traces of Indra's chakra within the boy—and in the blink of an eye, he analyzed and assimilated it, wiping out Indra's residual will and sealing the chakra into Sasuke's eyes.

Over time, that chakra would slowly awaken inside him, enhancing his abilities and helping him unlock the Sharingan, then the Mangekyō, and beyond.

Of course, Renzo now had complete insight into Indra's chakra. Once he got his hands on Naruto and analyzed Asura's chakra too, he could evolve his Eternal Mangekyō into the Rinnegan.

And maybe even help Tsunade and the others awaken their own Rinnegan someday.

All of that happened in a flash—nobody else noticed a damn thing.

"I'm not turning Sasuke down because he lacks talent," Renzo continued. "In fact, the kid's got plenty of potential."

"I just won't have the time to personally train him going forward."

"Besides… Minato's already made arrangements for him."

Fugaku, Itachi, and even Sasuke were all surprised.

"You mean… the Fourth Hokage?" Itachi asked curiously.

"Exactly," Renzo said, sipping his tea. "Minato wants to place Sasuke, Naruto, and a girl named Sakura Haruno into Team 7, with Kakashi as their squad leader."

"What?! Kakashi? The Thunder God Kakashi?" Sasuke and Itachi both looked stunned.

Twelve years ago, Kakashi had received the Swift Release and a basic Sage Body from Renzo. Since then, his power had skyrocketed.

He was now easily at the peak of Kage-level strength, maybe even half a step into Super-Kage territory. His swordsmanship, lightning-style, and body flicker techniques were godlike.

Supposedly, no one who fought him in recent years had survived a single strike.

His mastery of sword techniques, especially when combined with Swift and Lightning Release, was insane.

Ironically, despite his sword skills, he'd become known as the Thunder God rather than a Sword God—probably because he used lightning techniques more often. His Chidori and related techniques were legendary.

And although he could've used Wind Release to enhance his blades, he just preferred Lightning Release instead.

This Kakashi was very different from the one in the original timeline.

In fact, he was one of the famed Six Gods of Konoha, and Sasuke looked up to him quite a bit.

(The so-called Six Gods were: Asuma, Kakashi, Obito, Rin, Kurenai, and Kushina. Just scam names.)

Renzo couldn't help but smirk to himself. He had a feeling Sasuke's fanboy image of Kakashi might… not last long.

"Yeah," Renzo confirmed. "Kakashi's lightning-style is top-tier, and his Chidori series works best when paired with the Sharingan."

"I just checked—Sasuke's got both Lightning and Fire affinities. Perfect fit to follow Kakashi's path."

"Of course, as a welcome gift, I can give him a bottle of the Standard Sage Body Elixir and one for Swift Release too. That way, he'll be better aligned with Kakashi's abilities and can really learn from him about using Swift Release and developing the Sage Body."

"Also…"

He glanced over at Fugaku and Itachi, not really caring how shocked they looked, and added, "I noticed both of your eyesight has deteriorated a lot—honestly, you're probably not far off from going blind."

"So I'll give each of you a bottle of the Standard Sage Body Elixir too. It'll help cancel out the physical toll of the Mangekyō Sharingan and restore your vision."

"And Itachi," he turned to him seriously, "I want you to assist me in researching how to safely and effectively evolve a regular Mangekyō into the Eternal Mangekyō. Let's work out a method that's universal and doesn't require… extreme measures."

"As a Uchiha, I should leave something unique to the clan."

Thanks to Renzo's personal guidance, Itachi's body hadn't started breaking down yet, but his eyesight had definitely taken a hit. His clone hadn't taken the liberty of handing out any elixirs, but now Renzo was here to handle that himself.

And in doing so, he'd also make sure Fugaku's family had no more excuses or reasons to complain.

Once they got these gifts, it'd be hard for them to question or protest anything—like why Tsunade or Nawaki might also possess Sharingan-related bloodline abilities in the future.

Renzo's plan was airtight.

And getting Itachi involved in his Eternal Mangekyō experiments?

That served another purpose too. He could analyze and absorb the mechanics behind Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu firsthand.

That'd benefit a lot of his people. Like the other Renzos.

"Man, I haven't been to the Mental Space in years… wonder what the situation's like now," Renzo mused.

Everyone probably thought he was dead by now, huh?

"This… this is for real? You're really giving these to us?" Fugaku and Itachi were clearly stunned, overwhelmed with gratitude. They didn't even know what to say.

Of course they'd heard of the Standard Sage Body Elixir and the Swift Release Elixir.

The current "Six Gods of Konoha" had skyrocketed to power twelve years ago thanks to these very elixirs from Renzo. Their rapid growth was no secret.

Sure, Kakashi had always been a genius, but without those boosts, he never would've reached his current level so quickly.

Sasuke, on the other hand, just looked completely lost. He clearly had no idea what these "bloodline elixirs" even were.

Technically, Konoha's Research Division had access to the formulas, courtesy of Renzo. But so far, very few people had managed to actually get their hands on any of them.

The contribution points needed to trade for even one were astronomical.

And without Renzo's unique abilities, mass-producing them wasn't realistic either. Even making a small batch required rare resources and a ton of money.

That was all by design, of course—something Renzo, Orochimaru, and Minato had agreed on.

If these elixirs became too widespread, people with ambition might get… ideas. Instead of strengthening the village, it could lead to chaos.

Back in the day, Minato didn't have much of a personal faction. But now things had changed.

His three disciples, plus Kurenai and Asuma, had all grown strong. Minato now had the influence to keep things in check.

So it was finally time to start slowly releasing more of these "goodies" to the right people.

Don't forget, Minato himself had used the Uzumaki Sage Body Elixir—and later, the Swift Release Elixir too.

Combined with Flying Thunder God, his strength was arguably even greater than Kakashi's now. A Super Kage.

"Yeah, it's real," Renzo confirmed with a smile. "Itachi is my student after all. And Fugaku-nii, you've taken care of me all these years too, haven't you?"

"Pika pi!!"

Suddenly, Uchiha Tom zipped into the pavilion at high speed, curiously staring at Fugaku and Itachi. It could sense that they shared the same Mangekyō chakra as it did.

Fugaku's face twitched with embarrassment. Itachi, meanwhile, looked like he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

They'd almost forgotten—the reason they came today was actually to talk about this little guy or this blue Pikachu cat!

But now Renzo had just casually promised all three of them tailor-made bloodline elixirs—the best possible ones for them.

At this point… could they still bring it up?

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