Chapter 248: Do You Believe in Light?

After Kabuto left, Orochimaru remained alone with the pain.

Flickering light crossed the cold sweat on his face. His eyes turned toward the future instead of the ruined hands.

"Sasuke Uchiha. Whether I reach my goal depends upon your talent. The Eye That Reflects the Heart offers infinite unknowns."

Why did Orochimaru obsess over Sasuke's body and Sharingan rather than Pain's Rinnegan or the Hyūga Byakugan?

Pain's strength made approaching the Rinnegan almost suicidal. More importantly, Orochimaru's research suggested that the Sharingan possessed greater plasticity. Records called the Rinnegan the eye of the Sage of Six Paths and attributed immense fixed abilities to it. The Sharingan changed from bearer to bearer.

The Byakugan offered reliable perception of chakra pathways and almost complete vision around its bearer. Orochimaru respected that precision, but the eye showed less evidence of radical evolution. The Sharingan began with prediction and copying, then awakened abilities shaped by individual loss. Its uncertainty was the attraction.

Orochimaru had obtained true Sharingan tissue and studied it in depth. Internal structures and chakra patterns could evolve differently in bodies with different talent. Strong mental stimulation awakened further stages, and the genetic potential suggested an eye might one day surpass even the Rinnegan.

No Uchiha record described such an ultimate eye. That absence did not erase what Orochimaru believed the cells implied.

Every successive stage altered more than visible markings. Chakra quality, internal response, and the relationship between the eye and the brain changed together. Sasuke's lineage and emotional intensity made him the best available body in which to push that process farther.

The Sharingan reflected the heart. The greater the heart's transformation, the greater the power the eye might reveal.

Jiraiya had spent years searching for the Child of Prophecy because the Great Toad Sage foresaw a battle concerning the shinobi world's survival. Orochimaru considered that dependence absurd.

"Why place humanity's hope in a mysterious destiny? We can create our own Child of Prophecy. Let us see whether my creation or Jiraiya's chosen child becomes stronger. I will not entrust my future to someone else."

Orochimaru sought immortality. Waiting for another person's salvation contradicted everything he wanted.

He nevertheless believed that the prophecy might be real. The White Snake Sage had not refuted Mount Myōboku's vision when Orochimaru asked. The great sage regions disagreed often, but all three stood among the oldest powers preserving the shinobi world's natural order. They had little reason to invent the same warning.

The prophecy therefore represented a real variable, not an authority Orochimaru intended to obey. If some unknown child could decide the world's survival, Orochimaru preferred to manufacture a competing answer and control it himself.

Sasuke would become Orochimaru's piece for controlling that destiny. Tonbo could keep whatever hidden objective drove him as long as it did not interfere.

At Konoha Hospital, Tonbo handed Tsunade the physical data he had extracted from Lee.

She compared it with her examination and looked at him differently.

"Your ability belongs in medical ninjutsu. This is more detailed than what many professional medics could obtain."

Their methods and knowledge followed different paths. Combined, the two sets of information allowed Tsunade to plan more precisely.

Tonbo's nerves mapped details inside damaged tissue without opening Lee's body. Tsunade understood how those details would behave beneath a scalpel, which structures could survive manipulation, and how quickly chakra might restore them. One supplied information; the other supplied medical judgment.

"The situation remains poor," she said. "Even with these measurements, I can raise the operation's estimated success only to sixty percent."

Guy leaned forward. "What happens if it fails?"

"Lee dies."

The single sentence silenced teacher and student.

Tonbo saw their despair and offered the solution already waiting in his mind.

"The Scroll of Seals contains Impure World Reincarnation, the technique Orochimaru used against the Third. If the surgery fails, we can capture Orochimaru and force him to summon Lee's soul from the Pure Land. That is another form of medical treatment."

"Absolutely not," Tsunade said. "Summoning the dead violates the order of the shinobi world. It is forbidden for a reason."

Guy and Lee recoiled from the idea as well. Their traditional beliefs made an existence after death preferable to being dragged back into a false body.

They had watched the First and Second Hokage fight without choice at the arena. Whatever speech or movement Edo Tensei restored, neither considered that condition a continuation of Lee's dream. A shinobi who died pursuing his path should not become someone else's summoned tool.

"You do not have to be so rigid," Tonbo began.

"No. Do not suggest it again. The elders were right not to make you Hokage."

Tsunade finally understood why a capable young shinobi had received only a temporary appointment. His thinking lacked the traditional boundary that stopped most people before they reached Orochimaru's methods.

Tonbo accepted the rebuke with secret satisfaction. Every reason to deny him permanent office strengthened his escape.

"Then Lee needs a better living body. Short of replacing it, we could develop a technique that creates protein cells during the operation. Combined with your medical abilities, that should increase the survival rate."

Tsunade remembered Kabuto standing after Naruto's Rasengan.

*Yin Healing Wound Destruction. It uses chakra to prepare protein cells and heal the body. That ability drew Lord Orochimaru's attention to me.*

The method related directly to Tsunade's Creation Rebirth. Her technique forced rapid cell division to heal damage, spending part of the body's lifespan in exchange. Kabuto's version anticipated injury and concentrated new cells where the attack would land.

Lee's surgery would create predictable injuries along a planned route. If Tsunade could prepare those areas to produce repair cells at the instant of damage, she might prevent bleeding and collapse that current medicine could not reverse quickly enough.

Applied to Lee, a refined version could support damaged tissue while Tsunade operated.

"That suggestion is much better," she said. "But I warn you: do not learn Edo Tensei. If you use it, I will arrest you myself."

"I have not finished my own research. Why would I spend time on that technique?"

Tonbo made a reassuring gesture. Inwardly, he apologized. Tobirama's version was simple enough that he had learned it already. It lacked Orochimaru's and Kabuto's improvements and offered little practical value, which was the only reason he had not used it.

Guy and Lee focused on the new possibility.

"Will it truly improve his chance?" Guy asked.

"Possibly," Tsunade said. "It will not make the operation certain. Lee must decide whether to risk death. I can also restore him enough to live an ordinary life without returning as a shinobi."

Lee lowered his head. Death weighed heavily on someone still so young.

Guy forced his own brightness back into the room.

"Tonbo once said that those who believe in miracles are greater than the miracle itself. Lee, do you believe in miracles?"

"I..."

"If the operation fails, I will accompany you to the Pure Land. Your teacher will not let you walk there alone."

Guy raised his thumb.

Light returned to Lee's eyes. "Guy-sensei..."

They began crying together.

Tsunade turned a furious look on Tonbo. He looked away. The promise and tears belonged to the familiar course of events; his interference had merely brought them earlier.