Hmph!"
As the last trace of White Zetsu vanished into the illusionary domain, Uchiha Yue let out a muffled grunt, his hand instinctively rising to clutch his face. Pain flared behind his eyes, and through the cracks between his fingers, his Sharingan flickered with a spreading scarlet hue, the tomoe trembling as if on the verge of collapse.
Clearly, the massive illusion he had deployed earlier—the one that dragged White Zetsu into his personalized realm—was not only time-consuming to initiate, but its chakra drain was immense. The backlash on his optic nerves alone was enough to make most shinobi faint. Yet, despite the intense discomfort, a smirk curled at the corner of Yue's lips. The gleam in his eye revealed satisfaction rather than concern—such a price was trivial for what he had gained.
In truth, the illusionary space he had invoked was a manifestation of his Mangekyō Sharingan's unique ability: the Half-Real, Half-Illusory World, a power born from the fusion of Ye Chen's past life will and the innate might of the Uchiha bloodline. Much like Itachi's Tsukuyomi or Obito's Kamui, Yue's domain allowed him to create a self-contained battlefield, resembling the inherent enchantments from mythologies—a reality where his will shaped the rules. While not quite the same as Tsukuyomi's time manipulation or Kamui's dimensional phasing, it shared a conceptual lineage: a space governed entirely by its creator.
He hadn't drawn White Zetsu into the realm to fight, however. No—his true purpose was far more ambitious.
Once the worst of the ocular pain had dulled, Yue didn't linger. With a flash of movement, he retreated from the forest. Only minutes later, a squad of masked ANBU—some bearing the insignia of Root—arrived at the scene, their presence a stark reminder of Konoha's deepening surveillance of the Uchiha.
But Yue was already long gone, having relocated to another safe zone, chosen using his Mangekyō's restored spatial awareness. Once there, he sat in silent meditation, channeling his consciousness inward—into the metaphysical realm bound to his eyes.
Instantly, his perspective shifted.
Now, he stood within the Illusory World itself—a stunning, ethereal domain painted with verdant hills, flowing rivers, and endless blue skies. Even the sun shone above, though there was no real heat. The only thing missing was life—no birds sang, no insects buzzed, and no wind stirred the trees. Yet the illusion was so perfect that Yue himself might have mistaken it for reality, were it not for the subconscious awareness that he controlled it all.
Here, he was a god.
Even as he marveled again at the vivid detail of his Mangekyō's realm, he did not let himself be distracted. His gaze settled on the subdued White Zetsu not far off—still fully under genjutsu control, unconscious and unresponsive.
"Now then," Yue murmured, his tone edged with curiosity and focus, "let's see what secrets your body is hiding."
With a mere thought, White Zetsu's body shifted under Yue's scrutiny. The illusion warped to mimic microscopic vision, rendering the organic structure transparent—down to muscle fibers, bone marrow, and individual cells. Nothing was hidden. Yue's ocular power revealed everything.
"Interesting… so this is White Zetsu?" Yue muttered, his eyes narrowing. "No internal organs… completely hollow inside, and yet alive. It's like a puppet crafted from biomass."
He studied the cellular composition carefully. "The cells… they're plant-like. They even contain chloroplast-like structures. Is this the influence of Hashirama's cells? Or rather… the lingering essence of the God Tree's husk? An artificial lifeform shaped from vegetative matter—alive, but not human."
Thanks to the absolute dominion Yue wielded within his Mangekyō's realm, White Zetsu—now fully integrated into this pocket dimension—could no longer keep any secrets. Every strand of DNA, every anomaly in cellular behavior, lay exposed under Yue's gaze.
"Well," Yue continued, stroking his chin thoughtfully, "there's still that theory from the ancient texts… that White Zetsu was once human—those trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi cast by Kaguya Ōtsutsuki during the era of the God Tree."
"Back then, those unfortunate souls had their chakra drained, their bodies transformed into Zetsu-like husks. So White Zetsu isn't just some clone made by Madara with Hashirama's cells—he's the product of that forbidden transformation. A relic of a time before shinobi even existed."
Yue's thoughts churned with possibilities. While Madara had used Hashirama's cells to mass-produce White Zetsu units during his resurrection phase, the original blueprint was far older—intertwined with divine origins, corrupted chakra, and Kaguya's twisted will. This Zetsu, the one Yue now possessed, carried that legacy in its tissues.
And if he could fuse it with his own cells…
With a subtle motion of his finger, Uchiha Yue extracted a portion of living tissue from the immobilized White Zetsu. The amorphous white mass quivered in his palm. Without hesitation, Yue then used a short blade to excise a sliver of his own flesh, rich with the chakra signature of an awakened Mangekyō Sharingan. He pressed both samples together between his hands, initiating a bold and perilous fusion experiment.
The entire process was crude and spontaneous—lacking surgical precision, advanced instruments, or sterile conditions. But in the Illusory World where he was supreme ruler, those conventional constraints were irrelevant. Here, Yue's will dictated the laws of biology and physics. Under the absolute dominion of the Mangekyō World of Illusion and Reality, what was impossible outside became inevitable inside.
Even with such randomness, the moment the two biological masses came into contact, dramatic changes erupted.
From Yue's transcendent perspective, the cellular structures began to glow with chakra. Genetic material uncoiled and interacted at a hyper-accelerated pace. The Hashirama-cell-rich tissue of White Zetsu—cultivated from the God Tree's remnants—clashed with the genetically potent blood of the Uchiha, specifically enhanced by the Mangekyō's mutation. The war of cellular supremacy began instantly.
Billions of cells perished in the first wave, unable to withstand the ferocity of opposing forces. However, for each group that was annihilated, a new generation of hybrid cells emerged—each iteration more stable, more resilient than the last. The Zetsu cells, inherently adaptable due to their origin in plant-based biomatter, rapidly adjusted to Yue's genetic information, responding to his chakra signature and incorporating it.
The battle raged, unseen to the normal eye, but perfectly clear to Yue, who stood at the center of this cellular maelstrom like a puppeteer commanding threads. He used chakra manipulation—refined to near perfection through his training and Mangekyō affinity—to guide the evolution in real time. With each pulse of willpower, Yue encouraged certain mutations and suppressed others, subtly shaping the direction of the fusion.
At last, after what felt like an eternity, Yue's own cells emerged victorious. The final strain of tissue that formed in his hand was a synthesis of both lines—retaining the full Sharingan compatibility of the Uchiha, yet now enhanced with the regenerative and life-sustaining traits of White Zetsu, known to be resilient enough to survive dismemberment and reform entirely.
Holding the new hybrid cell between his fingers, Yue observed the brilliant vitality it radiated. Even the chakra it emitted had changed—more fluid, more abundant.
"As I expected," he muttered, his lips curling into a rare smile, "within this world, where I am the creator and the ruler, the laws of genetic integration bend to my will."
Satisfied, he directed the cell into his body, where it swiftly integrated with his biological systems. Next, Yue extended his arm toward the original body of White Zetsu—still suspended in the illusory plane—and with a silent command, disassembled it entirely. The mass dissolved into motes of chakra and was absorbed into the environment, leaving behind nothing.
Then, Yue closed his eyes.
The world went quiet.
Seconds turned to minutes as his body worked to assimilate the new cells and redistribute the changes. When he finally opened his eyes again, a subtle shift had taken place. On the surface, he looked unchanged—his form was still that of a young Uchiha with jet-black hair and crimson Sharingan—but internally, he had been reborn.
His chakra flowed more vigorously, circulating through his tenketsu like a river fed by endless springwater. His stamina had grown exponentially. Even without entering Sage Mode or opening chakra gates, he now possessed vitality that rivaled—or perhaps even surpassed—that of Senju Hashirama in his prime.
"If I can use this boundless life force to form an external chakra shell or secondary skin," Yue mused aloud, "then even if the Mangekyō Sharingan's side effects cannot be entirely negated… they will certainly be delayed—if not outright nullified."
He paused, gazing down at his arm as a faint green pulse traveled across the skin.
"Cellular degeneration… slowed. Chakra exhaustion… minimized. Ocular strain… suppressed. Incredible."
As he flexed his fingers, his crimson Sharingan glinted more vibrantly than ever, the tomoe swirling with raw potential. Behind that gaze, Yue's heart surged—not with arrogance, but with ambition. The path to achieving true freedom from the shackles of ocular decay was now within reach.