Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-28294008-20160424155402/@comment-734582-20160429091923

GreatestSin wrote: a middle between the two, and my best guess is that this version was caused by so6p chakra, the rinnegan in its usual pattern would have appeared after sasuke got hashi cells, but it evolved more because of so6p ^_^ Considering how god-like the Rinne Sharingan is, i don't think it's "half way" a rinne sharingan. Power grows almost exponentially from a mere Sharingan (with minor reality powers like Genjutsu) to a mangekyou (which can screw over reality in a few interesting ways) to Rinne Sharingan (which can overwrite reality at will).

With the above, to me there seems to be a natural Sharingan niche of Type II strength (so six tomoe) with the three Mangekyou abilities we've seen so far: Unnatural elements (Amaterasu), Spacetime abilities (Kamui) and Genjutsu abilities (Tsukuyome). Mangekyou do not have six Tomoe because they have only one of these powers tied to an individual (with the design reflecting the personalized powers). Sasuke's eye has demonstrated this hypothetical Mangekyou's powers (Spacetime technique, Genjutsu and Element). A small addendum is that he hasn't shown a true Mangekyou Genjutsu (something on the level of Tsukuyome) but he has shown Genjutsu: Rinnegan which Madara could not perform (again, reverting to Genjutsu: Sharingan).

Considering that the Sage was involved, it's not a big stretch that he ensured Sasuke would have an eye that could use both lines of powers at once. After all, he could not predict that he could manifest in the real world to bring the team back, and he would be aware that Obito's life and chakra were limited. So, it stands to reason that the Sage ensured Sasuke had the ability to traverse dimensions to escape Kaguya's dimensions.

Lastly, the three branches of Mangekyou powers (element, spacetime, genjutsu) are all manifestations of the very same power (altering reality). A Mangekyou user of one (e.g Element) can still manifest another (genjutsu). But a Mangekyou assigned to a type (e.g. element) can not reach the level of another type (Sasuke could use strong Genjutsu but as Danzo mentioned, he wasn't like Itachi with his Tsukuyome). A Mangekyou is already known not to be the ability it once was (Obito clearly proves that a Mangekyou is not supposed to lose it's light), and the specialization of it's power is reflected by the personalizing of it's design.