Then the loop reset, leaving me looking at the world with my own eyes again.
It felt like I remembered everything I’d copied while posing as an Uchiha, but when I retreated to my favorite training ground to test myself it quickly became obvious that something wasn’t right. I could still perform the individual taijutsu moves flawlessly, but they didn’t flow together properly. I could still do the fire techniques he’d shown me, but my control with them was terrible. After a few minutes my eyes started to hurt from the strain of trying to see chakra, and I stopped in disgust.
“That was pathetic,” I muttered. “Alright, so what happened? Do I need to have the eyes again to be able to use things I copied with them properly, or does having the Sharingan cause some kind of delusion where you don’t see the flaws in your own techniques? Neither option makes much sense, but I don’t see another one.”
Heck, that’s an easy one to test, my other self said. Give me a clone to run, and use that regeneration technique to give yourself the eyes again. I’ll still be normal, so if you think your technique is perfect again but it really isn’t I can tell you.
“Hmm. Good idea, although I’m not sure if I can actually pull that off. I don’t have the genes for the Sharingan, but I’ve certainly scanned them plenty of times. I’ll give it a try.”
The clone trick was practically second nature by now. My double took a seat on a tree stump and watched as I called up my chakra and reviewed the stored memory of the medical scans I’d done on Sasuke’s eyes. I had no idea how their weirdly twisted chakra vessels produced all of his bloodline’s strange powers, but I was pretty sure I could copy it all. Adjusting them to fit my own body was harder, but the way my transformation worked made it necessary. If I tried to just change myself to have Sasuke’s eyes I’d just end up with a mangled mass of tissue, and probably kill myself in the process. So instead I had to reconcile the pattern with my own genetics, adjusting size and shape and blood type and all sort of murkier biochemical quirks that I barely understood. It was nearly an hour before I was satisfied that I had a viable template, but after that it was a simple matter to fire up my transformation technique and make the change.
I screamed.
My eyes dissolved into burning pools of acid that hissed and squirmed in their sockets as they burned smoking pits into my face. Caustic tears traced tracks of fire down my cheeks, and I realized distantly that someone was holding my arms, keeping my clawed hands away from my face so I couldn’t rip the monstrous things out. I could feel them digging deeper, sending sharp tendrils burrowing into my flesh in search of my brain…
I tried to turn off my pain receptors, but the agony didn’t stop. Then something dark and malevolent touched the walls I’d built around my soul, and I realized with horror that whatever was happening wasn’t just a physical attack.
Another transformation struck me, and for an instant the pain eased and I could see again. My clone was standing over me with a horrified look.
“What the hell?” She asked. “Did that fix it? What happened?”
There was another flash of agony as my mental barriers cracked, and everything went dark.
I dreamt of that strange mental exchange I’d had with the jutsu-born Sakura, only this time I was the one being examined. Someone was touching me, probing my heart and mind and memories just as I’d done with her. The touch was so familiar it had to be some version of me, and I instinctively reached out to her in turn. I had no clue what was happening, but as long as I always help myself I can get through anything.
The mind I found was full of icy malevolence, motivated equally by petty vindictiveness and an insatiable thirst for power. I recoiled in shock. How could that be me?
“Silly girl. What did you think would happen, when you asked to be a demon?”
What? What are you talking about? I asked in bewilderment. That’s the last thing I’d ever want.
“You summoned the Eyes of Misery, and the boss approved the transaction. Congratulations, you’re a demon now. In a few more minutes we’ll merge completely, and that little spark of light you have will be drowned in my darkness forever.”
A cold stab of fear struck my heart as I suddenly remembered how I’d ended up unconscious. If my own bloodline was due to a kami ancestor, the idea that the Sharingan was literally demonic was suddenly all too plausible. I sat up with a start, and forced my eyes open.
Thankfully, they worked.
I was in my mindscape, beneath a particularly large oak tree. Leaning casually against the trunk was a girl who looked exactly like my Uchiha disguise, right down to the two-tomoe Sharingan eyes. But her face was marked by a bright red slash on each cheek, and somehow I knew that they weren’t just paint or tattoos.
“Who the hell are you?” I growled.
“I’m Sakura,” she replied with a nasty smirk. “Demon third class, provisional license. You should be honored, you know. The boss arranged this personally, just to make sure you got full service. I guess it’s not every day a girl with the divine spark calls up the Daimakaicho and asks to be corrupted.”
I frowned as I rose to my feet, mind racing furiously. I knew from my training with Ino that foreign minds were a grating, alien presence in this place. Despite her mindwalking skills and our bonds of friendship it…itched, sort of…to have her here, and she always complained that my forest was just a wavering fever dream to her senses. But this intruder was as comfortably at home as I was, her presence her almost as natural as my own, and when I’d touched her mind earlier she’d felt so familiar…
“I’m getting really sick of people trying to stick new aspects in my head,” I complained. “Especially crazy ones. How the hell is transforming my eyes supposed to have invoked the queen of the demon gods, anyway?”
She chuckled. “That weird pattern of chakra vessels you were wondering about? Part of it’s a summoning matrix. When you powered it up that completed the invitation, and here I am. So, does this mean you aren’t going to fight me? I was looking forward to a little violence before I take over your pathetic life and start having fun with it, but I guess I can go easy on you if you cooperate.”
“You’re pretty transparent for a demon,” I observed. “If I was that easy to manipulate I wouldn’t be much of a ninja. But let’s say I believe you. Does this mean all the Uchiha have demons in their heads?”
“Nah, they’re not worth the trouble. They grow up with the eyes, so they’re already corrupted from the moment they’re born. Why would Hell bother assigning real demons to a sure thing like that? But the boss is interested in you for some reason, so you—” she suddenly glided into my personal space with a sultry smile, and cupped my face in her hands. “You get special service.”
She was beautiful in her own dark way, and the pull of the connection between our souls was stronger at close range. If I were really as inexperienced as I look I would have been confused, embarrassed, and thrown completely off guard. But I haven’t been a kid for a long time, and it was an odd misstep for a supernatural opponent to make against someone with my skills. I still wasn’t sure what she really was or how she’d come to be here, and I needed to find out fast.