Chapter 182: Account Hijacking Successful
After Uchiha Hikari arrived, Senju Tobirama began explaining the specific steps.
First, Hikari would use Yachihoko to drain all of Nagato's chakra.
Yes, completely drain it.
Like the time Kakashi fought Pain, exhausting chakra until it was totally depleted, near death, or even actual death.
Because only in that state could they meet the conditions and simulate what Shiromo had described: when Madara had all his chakra sucked away by Kaguya, and just before dying, his Rinnegan regressed back into the Sharingan.
Of course, Madara's regression might also have included the Asura chakra and Indra chakra that made up the Rinnegan being taken away together.
That part wasn't a problem.
If they tried to selectively extract Asura and Indra chakra, that would be nearly impossible.
But if they packaged everything up and took it all away at once, there was no need for filtering at all.
There were actually quite a few people capable of absorbing chakra.
Those who could only absorb ninjutsu were considered low-tier.
Those who could absorb chakra directly, like that little pet of the class rep in Boruto, were on a higher level.
On the surface, every time chakra was absorbed, it only seemed to leave people limp and exhausted, not dead.
But in reality, it was just because kind-hearted girls like the class rep and Hikari were naturally merciful, subconsciously leaving people a way out.
Now they needed Hikari to drain someone completely dry, and she was absolutely capable of doing it.
Next, Nagato himself was also crucial.
If it were anyone else besides him or Uchiha Madara, the conditions couldn't be met.
Because Nagato had the Rinnegan implanted since childhood, the Rinnegan's chakra had long since fused and merged with his own.
That was why even after he died and was resurrected with Impure World Reincarnation, he still came with Rinnegan by default.
As for Uchiha Madara, he was a special case.
Even though he was the original owner of the Rinnegan, he still needed Yakushi Kabuto's specially prepared body to evolve from Mangekyō into Rinnegan.
If you thought of the Rinnegan as a child, it was like Madara gave birth to the kid, raised it for less than half a year, then handed it over to Nagato.
Nagato, on the other hand, raised the Rinnegan with shit and piss for over thirty years.
Bloodline-wise, the Rinnegan did belong to Madara, but if you asked who it was closer to, there was no need to say more.
Chakra clearly had this kind of special "emotional attachment" property.
While the chakra was being absorbed, Shiromo would use natural energy to maintain Nagato's vital signs.
They couldn't actually let him get drained dry and croak.
At the same time, this natural energy would act as the key to stimulate and unlock the Rinnegan and Sharingan.
"It has to be done through chakra absorption."
"Using the various Rinnegan ocular techniques also consumes chakra, but according to Nagato, once the consumption reaches a certain point, it starts burning life force to make up for it."
"If that happens, even if he gets drained to death, there'd be no chance to truly squeeze the Rinnegan dry."
"I suspect this was a hidden safeguard left by that innately evil Uchiha Madara to prevent others from mastering the Rinnegan."
Senju Tobirama finished explaining everything.
"These word choices are seriously something…"
Uchiha Hikari muttered quietly.
What 'drained to death', what 'squeezed dry.'
If it weren't for the fact that she also hated the Uchiha, and compared to Tobirama, she hated Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, that pair of tragic lovebirds, even more, she wouldn't have helped Tobirama play this "account hijacking" game at all.
"Then let's prepare to begin."
Shiromo handed a stone to Nagato.
"Hm?"
Tobirama was puzzled. Hadn't he just said earlier that this wasn't needed?
"Stop 'hm'-ing. Second Hokage, think about it. Even if the account hijack works, won't Nagato still need massive consumption to use those powers afterward?"
"You're right. That was my oversight."
Tobirama nodded.
He'd been so excited about hijacking the account that he hadn't thought about actually using the stolen account afterward.
Nagato lay down on the laboratory bed.
No anesthesia, no restraints, just lying there normally.
"We can start."
"Hmph."
At Tobirama's order, Uchiha Hikari snorted.
Her Mangekyō Sharingan appeared, and the Yachihoko marks she had left on Nagato earlier, originally meant to control him into using Rinne Rebirth to revive Shiromo, lit up.
Following Shiromo's advice, Nagato had absorbed chakra from a severed limb of the Eight-Tails, repairing and replenishing his body.
As a member of the Uzumaki clan, and a vessel personally chosen by Madara capable of supporting the Rinnegan, his chakra reserves were naturally enormous.
But no matter how enormous, they still couldn't compare to the Dragon Vein from before.
Absorbing this amount of chakra posed no pressure at all.
As his chakra was drained clean, Nagato felt an unprecedented weakness.
But the natural energy Shiromo injected replaced the energy required to sustain life.
Right now, the energy composition inside Nagato's body temporarily matches Shiromo's, entirely natural energy.
This state, however, was something Nagato couldn't maintain.
As a ninja of this world, extracting chakra from cells was already an instinct.
Even non-ninja had chakra within their bodies.
And the moment chakra appeared, it would break the balance of natural energy.
The balance only held now because Hikari's Yachihoko was crazily absorbing chakra, no matter how little emerged, it was instantly sucked away.
Shiromo's control over natural energy was extraordinarily precise.
Before the moment when natural energy was needed as the key to unlock things, no matter how starved the Rinnegan was for chakra or energy, the natural energy stayed firmly in place without the slightest movement.
And so, as Nagato's chakra was completely drained, the Rinnegan finally simulated Madara's near-death state and began to regress.
Ring after ring faded away, reverting into the Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Good! Great! That's it! Now! It's working!"
Tobirama was visibly thrilled.
Since being resurrected by Impure World Reincarnation, this was the first time anyone had seen him this excited.
Probably because he was seeing these familiar Mangekyō eyes again.
Just thinking about hijacking Madara's eyes in a moment made him feel even better than riding Izuna.
Shiromo opened the floodgates, pouring natural energy into Nagato's eyes.
As the natural energy flowed in, the dried-out eyes were replenished once more.
They had already started degenerating toward the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, but instantly stabilized back into the Mangekyō form.
"Nagato, try it."
Shiromo said to Nagato.
He could feel the eyes urgently craving even more natural energy, but Shiromo's control was exceptional, he directly restrained the output and kept the current state stable.
"..."
Nagato's body was extremely weak at the moment.
This weakness wasn't in terms of strength or life.
With natural energy sustaining him, he wasn't near death.
The weakness came from constantly having power extracted and then forcibly infused again.
Like a helpless little girl being repeatedly… uh.
Bang.
"That's enough."
When a faint layer of blue skeletal structure appeared over Nagato's body and he slammed into the nearby table, Shiromo knew they had succeeded.
Account hijacking complete.
(End of this chapter)