Upon hearing Shinji's words, Karin grew visibly emotional.
She took a deep breath—
Then slowly opened her eyes.
In an instant—
A flood of light poured into her vision.
Karin blinked uncomfortably.
After over a month and a half of fusion, her eyes had remained bandaged the entire time. Naturally, they weren't accustomed to the light just yet.
Gradually, the glare softened.
No—
It wasn't the light changing.
It was her eyes adjusting, adapting to all kinds of illumination.
The blurred surroundings steadily sharpened in her view.
And then—
Her gaze locked onto the figure before her.
Because of the mask, she couldn't see Shinji's face, but analyzing the minute changes in the mask's contours, she could perceive the joy radiating from his eyes.
"Even Leader... is happy?"
At that moment, she felt an overwhelming sense of fulfillment.
Not because she had regained her sight—
But because she felt needed — she had proven herself useful.
Fixing her gaze firmly on him, Karin called out:
"Leader!"
Shinji, closely observing her eyes, smiled:
"Well? Can you see me clearly?"
Karin nodded vigorously:
"Clearer than ever before!"
Shinji didn't relax immediately.
Instead, he focused intently on Karin's newly fused black pupils and asked:
"Then... can you activate your Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan on your own?"
Karin didn't respond with words.
Instead, she closed her eyes.
When she reopened them—
The once-black pupils had turned blood-red, intricate patterns blooming across her irises—A complex design Shinji had never seen before.
"Whew..."
Seeing this, Shinji finally exhaled deeply.
He had never doubted the fusion itself—
Using Jikibi and Wazunagi, he could confirm success from both the spiritual and chakra dimensions.
What concerned him was something far more critical:
Would these newly fused Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan truly belong to Karin?
This distinction was crucial.
Only an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan born of its user's own spirit had the potential to evolve further — an indispensable requirement for the future Rinnegan Project.
Now—
Even without words, Karin had proved it with her actions:
These were not transplanted eyes.
They were hers.
"I think I've just achieved something incredible..."
Along with his joy, Shinji felt a deep surge of pride.
Not only had he created the Koryugan, a dojutsu Bloodline Limit previously unseen in the shinobi world—
He had now also guided an Uzumaki clanswoman to awaken her very own Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan!
He had crafted a miracle—
And this miracle... would continue forward.
After a long moment of calming his emotions, Shinji asked:
"What are the abilities of your eyes?"
Karin immediately answered:
"According to your instructions, during the fusion process, I meditated constantly on 'Amaterasu' and 'Susanoo.' As a result, the dojutsu granted are exactly those two. My left eye controls 'Amaterasu,' and my right eye enhances the strength of 'Susanoo.'"
The Sharingan had always been the manifestation of one's soul.Although Shinji's method — meditating on abilities during fusion — seemed somewhat idealistic, it had clearly worked.
"Excellent."
Shinji nodded approvingly.
'Amaterasu' and an enhanced 'Susanoo' were among the most practical and powerful abilities from the two original Mangekyō Sharingan.
Karin asked softly:
"Leader, what do you require of me next?"
Shinji smiled:
"Don't rush. There's still much you'll need to do."
Then, shifting his tone slightly:
"But first—before anything else, I need to test the strength of your Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan."
Karin tilted her head in confusion:
"Test... its strength?"
Shinji explained:
"The testing will happen in two stages. The first stage, I'll handle myself — you won't need to worry about it. The second stage, however, will require your active participation to assess how well you can control these new eyes."
Without hesitation, Karin said:
"I'll obey all your commands!"
"Good."
Shinji continued:
"First, I'll be removing your eyes temporarily to complete the first stage of testing. After that, I'll re-implant them for the second stage."
While calmly explaining, he picked up a surgical blade and deftly extracted the pair of newly born Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
Karin offered no resistance.
In her heart, whether it was the previous Mangekyō Sharingan or this newly fused Eternal version—They all belonged to her Leader.
After securing the extracted eyes in a small nutrient tank, Shinji wasted no time.
He slipped silently from Karin's apartment and made his way to the Forest of Death.
Finding a hidden cave deep within, he summoned forth his Susanoo.
From his pouch, he retrieved the nutrient tank and, almost reverently, observed the gleaming pair of Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
Then, activating Susanoo Tomoshibi, he detached the Mangekyō Sharingan of Uchiha Fugaku he had been wielding—
And installed Karin's newly fused Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
At that moment—
He immediately felt an immense surge of power.
"Hiss..."
Shinji inhaled sharply, surprise flashing across his face.
By his own understanding, driving his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan to wield any other Sharingan typically yielded only modest gains.
Yet this time—
Upon driving this new pair of Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan—
The boost was far greater than expected.
"Less than Koryugan, but far beyond the Byakugan..."
After careful evaluation, he arrived at a conclusion.
The chakra gain from driving Karin's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan was lower than that of the Koryugan—
But significantly higher than the Byakugan.
This fact meant two things:
First, this Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan inherently possessed extraordinarily high chakra and dojutsu potency.
Second, and more critically—
It meant there was a phenomenon of complementarity between Shinji's own Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan and Karin's newly born pair.
In other words—
Both sets of Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan still had room for further growth.
Because a perfect Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan wouldn't produce any complementary gains—Thus, the stronger the complementary reaction, the farther Shinji's own Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan remained from true perfection.