For the Sharingan to evolve into the Rinnegan, the conditions were nothing short of brutal.
First, the Sharingan had to awaken into the Mangekyō Sharingan.
That requirement alone eliminated 99.99999% of the clan.
Even if one did awaken the Mangekyō, they would still need the flesh or cells of the reincarnations of Indra and Asura in order to open the Rinnegan—and even then, the awakening process was extremely slow.
Therefore, if Wen Lan wanted to awaken the Rinnegan, his path was clear:
Step one: Awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Step two: Obtain cells from Senju Hashirama or from Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke.
Why not Madara Uchiha?
Because no one knew where Madara had died—where would he even get his cells?
Fugaku sat there in shock for a long time before finally lowering himself back into his seat. He didn't ask about the method of awakening the Rinnegan.
He knew himself well enough.
Awakening the Mangekyō alone was already an almost impossible feat.
The Rinnegan was simply beyond his reach.
At that moment, an Uchiha ninja hurried in and dropped to one knee.
"Clan Head, Third Elder, Young Clan Head—Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina are at the entrance to the clan grounds. They sent me to report."
Fugaku frowned slightly.
"Didn't I say Minato doesn't need to report in?"
The Uchiha ninja replied awkwardly,
"I said the same thing, but Namikaze Minato said he didn't want to put you in a difficult position, so he insisted I come inform you."
Fugaku immediately understood—Minato was worried about people finding fault with him.
"Invite them in. Have them come straight here," Wen Lan said directly.
The ninja glanced at Fugaku. After Fugaku nodded, he lowered his head.
"Yes!"
After the ninja left, Wen Lan smiled at Fugaku.
"They're probably here to see Nagato."
"Does Minato want the Rinnegan too?" Fugaku frowned, but quickly shook his head.
"No… if he wanted it, he would've acted on the way back."
Wen Lan nodded.
"Actually, Nagato is from the Uzumaki clan. This time, it's probably Kushina who wants to meet a member of her own people."
Indeed, after the Uzumaki clan was wiped out, the official story was that everyone except Kushina had died.
Even Kushina herself believed that.
But in truth, there were survivors—Nagato, for example, and…
Wen Lan suddenly froze.
He remembered two other tragic Uzumaki clan members from the original story—
Karin, and Honoka (also known as Honoha).
Karin was well known, but Honoka was a TV-original character.
She was another Uzumaki survivor scattered after the clan's destruction, later taken in by the Land of the Sea.
The Land of the Sea specialized in researching summoned beasts. Many ninja villages sent shinobi there if they lacked suitable summoning contracts.
Honoka often used sealing techniques to suppress rampaging summons—but in the end, she died at the hands of a summoned beast.
Karin definitely needs to be saved, Wen Lan thought.
In the original story, Karin is the same age as Sasuke—she should be about to be born. That means her mother can be saved too.
He pondered for a moment, then slowly nodded.
Soon after, Minato and Kushina were led inside by an Uchiha ninja.
The moment Kushina entered, her eyes swept the area anxiously—but she didn't see the red hair she was expecting. She immediately turned to Wen Lan and Fugaku, clearly agitated.
"Clan Head Fugaku, Wen Lan—Minato said there's someone from my clan here. Is that true?"
Wen Lan looked helplessly at the hot-tempered Kushina and said to Itachi beside him,
"Itachi, go help call them over."
Naturally, Wen Lan wasn't going himself—he didn't even know where Nagato and the others were staying.
Itachi nodded and quickly ran off.
Minato smiled apologetically and scratched his head.
"Sorry about this. After I told Kushina last night, she couldn't stop thinking about it.
If I hadn't used 'it's too late, we should rest' as an excuse, she would've rushed over immediately."
"It's fine," Wen Lan waved it off.
"Aunt Kushina's just worried—it's rare to meet someone from the same clan."
Then he added,
"But Aunt Kushina, lower your voice a bit. Pakura stood guard all night and just fell asleep."
Kushina immediately covered her mouth like a startled cat.
"Sorry, I didn't know!"
After Minato and Kushina sat down, Minato's expression turned serious as he looked at Fugaku.
"I heard fighting here last night. I wanted to help, but the ANBU stopped me.
How were the Uchiha casualties?"
Wen Lan rolled his eyes hard.
"Minato-senpai, you really underestimate the Uchiha, don't you?
This is Uchiha clan territory. Casualties?"
Fugaku nodded calmly.
"Last night there were basically zero casualties."
Wen Lan froze, then stared at Fugaku.
"What do you mean basically? Someone got hurt?"
Fugaku sighed and shook his head.
"One chūnin fell off a rooftop during the fight and sprained his ankle."
The three of them fell silent.
That's zero casualties, damn it!
Who the hell counts a sprained ankle as a casualty?!
Wen Lan's mouth twitched. After a long pause, he said,
"Clan Head Fugaku… that 'basically' was used very precisely."
Minato couldn't help laughing and quickly covered his mouth. Kushina blinked, trying desperately not to laugh as well.
Wen Lan tried to hold it in, failed, stood up, and snapped,
"Sprained ankle counts as an injury?! Clan Head, that kind of statement is like farting out of your belly button—how did you even come up with it?!"
At that last line, Kushina finally lost it and burst out laughing—then immediately covered her mouth again when she remembered Pakura was sleeping. Her shoulders shook uncontrollably.
Fugaku glanced at Wen Lan helplessly and coughed twice, trying to maintain his dignity, but the twitch at the corner of his eye betrayed him.
Minato lowered his head, shoulders trembling as he struggled to suppress his laughter.
After a moment, Wen Lan spoke again.
"Looks like that old bastard Sarutobi still has a problem with the Uchiha."
Everyone understood what he meant—Minato's earlier line:
'I wanted to come help, but the ANBU stopped me.'
As Minato and Fugaku frowned, unsure how to respond, Wen Lan slapped his thigh.
"Why care what that old bastard thinks? He won't be Hokage for much longer anyway."
Fugaku froze for a second—then suddenly realized something.
Right!
If you're about to stop being Hokage, why the hell should we care about your opinion?
Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside.
Itachi returned, bringing Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko with him.
The moment Kushina saw Nagato's deep red hair, her body trembled violently as she stood up.
Nagato froze as well.
That unmistakable, blazing red hair—
The same as his…
The same as his mother's.
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