Coalball looked quite miserable at the moment.
A large patch of fur on his head had been burned, his ears were drooping, and his once fluffy tail was now completely bald, leaving it looking pitifully bare.
Shinji opened his mouth, surprised: "What happened to you?"
"Work injury!" Coalball responded with a serious expression.
Shinji was puzzled. "I mean, you've been back for a while now. Why haven't you taken care of it?"
Coalball justified himself: "If I had, you wouldn't get to see it!"
Shinji was speechless. "Alright, fine, I'll count it as a work injury! Now, tell me how everything went today!"
Coalball squatted down, pulling out a sealing scroll as he began recounting the operation.
Just as Shinji had predicted, Danzo had set traps inside the secret vault—three layers of traps, in fact.
The first two traps were dismantled by Shinji's shadow clone. However, the third was a very hidden sealing trap. When the clone tried to break it, the trap activated, and the sealing technique instantly shattered half of the clone's body, sealing it away.
Because of this, the information the shadow clone sent back was fragmented, leaving Shinji with only bits and pieces, knowing that the clone had sacrificed itself to destroy the trap.
The activation of all three traps also triggered the alarm in the vault. Coalball, unable to avoid the flames spewing from the vault's mechanisms, rushed to grab all the Sharingan before the Root ninja could arrive.
Laying the sealing scroll flat on the ground, Coalball formed a hand seal while muttering: "If I had been one second late, you wouldn't be seeing me right now. You have no idea how dangerous it was!"
With that, Coalball placed his little paw on the sealing scroll.
Poof!
Another cloud of white smoke filled the bathroom.
When the smoke cleared, Shinji saw a dozen jars of various sizes, each containing a pair of floating eyes.
Some jars were new, while others were old.
The new ones were the same as those Shinji had seen in the morgue, most likely collected from the bodies of Uchiha clan members during the night of the massacre.
The old jars, however, were varied in design, showing that they had been kept over a long period.
Just as Coalball had mentioned before, some of the eyes were visibly starting to decay.
"One… two… three… seventeen… nineteen."
Shinji counted a total of nineteen jars, which meant nineteen pairs of Sharingan.
He then asked Coalball: "Is this everything?"
Coalball shook his head quickly. "Last time I went, there were at least thirty jars. I don't know why, but about a dozen are missing."
"Did Danzo take them for experiments? Or did he already implant them in his arm?" Shinji wondered before asking Coalball: "Were the missing ones new or old jars?"
Coalball thought for a moment. "They were mostly new ones."
"Hoo..."
Shinji let out a sigh of relief.
The new jars contained the Sharingan collected during the night of the Uchiha massacre. Aside from Uchiha Fugaku's pair, the rest were likely just regular three-tomoe Sharingan.
So, the true treasures among these eyes were actually in the old jars, despite their deteriorated appearance.
Danzo really doesn't know the value of these!
Shinji laughed.
If he hadn't known the inside story, he too would have dismissed the old jars as being of little worth based solely on their appearance.
Shinji carefully picked up and inspected each jar.
Of the nineteen jars, ten were old. So not every old jar contained a Mangekyō Sharingan; some likely held regular three-tomoe eyes as well.
Seeing how closely Shinji was examining the jars, Coalball curiously asked, "Did you figure anything out?"
Shinji shook his head.
Even with his Mangekyō Sharingan, he couldn't discern whether these eyes were Mangekyō or just regular three-tomoe Sharingan based on appearance alone.
"It seems I'll have to use Susanoo Tomoshibi to identify them…"
Thinking of this, Shinji found himself in a dilemma.
To activate Susanoo Tomoshibi, he needed to first activate Susanoo, and in his apartment, he couldn't exactly go around using Susanoo Tomoshibi to scan each and every Sharingan.
After pondering for a moment, Shinji smiled at Coalball and said, "Looks like I'll need you to do one more favor."
Coalball became wary. "What now?"
Shinji asked, "You know how to reverse summon, right?"
"Yeah, I do, but reverse summoning is tricky. You need a contract scroll or…" Coalball trailed off, staring at Shinji suspiciously. "What are you planning?"
Shinji pricked his finger, collecting some of his blood in a small bottle while explaining, "I know reverse summoning requires either the summoner's contract scroll or blood. Take this blood and sneak into the Forest of Death. Find a secluded place and reverse summon me there!"
"The Forest of Death? At night? Why would you want me to summon you there? And why me?"
Coalball fired off a series of questions.
Shinji replied, "Just do as I say. I'll double your pay for today!"
Without hesitation, Coalball agreed. "I'll head out right now!"
"Go on, then!"
Coalball was excellent at sneaking around at night. Without Byakugan, it would be nearly impossible for anyone to spot him. By sending him to the Forest of Death first and having him reverse summon Shinji there, no one would suspect a thing.
Of course, Shinji still needed to make some preparations before leaving.
He quickly formed a hand seal, creating a shadow clone to stay in his apartment to cover for him.
Not long after, Shinji felt the summoning sensation. Without resisting, he disappeared in a puff of smoke from the apartment.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in the quiet, dense forest.
Coalball, standing nearby, asked, "Is this spot okay?"
Shinji jumped up to the tree canopy, surveying the surroundings. Confirming he was deep in the Forest of Death, he landed and paid Coalball. "You can go now, all done!"
Counting his money happily, Coalball de-summoned himself and returned to Cat Fortress.
After sending Coalball off, Shinji found a cave.
Carefully inspecting it inch by inch to ensure no surveillance devices were hidden inside, he activated Susanoo.
In an instant, a yellow half-body giant appeared inside the cave.
Shinji, inside Susanoo, began placing the jars containing the Sharingan before him.
"Which one should I start with?"
His gaze roamed over the ten old jars.
These jars were likely collected by the Uchiha clan themselves. As for why there were only ten, Shinji figured it was natural. When Uchiha Madara left, he took most of the clan's stockpile with him. These jars were probably gathered by the clan afterward.
Additionally, since the use of Izanagi had been banned within the clan, the desire to collect Sharingan had diminished. After all, in the absence of strict orders, not every Uchiha would be willing to donate their eyes after death.