Yang Release—infusing life into form.
As his experiments regarding the morphological transformation of Yang Release progressed to this stage, Hyuga Yu's understanding of the nature of Yang Release underwent another transformation. This microscopic substance produced within shinobi cells—this "embryonic form of Yang Release"—should be considered something more primordial. It was a new phenomenon of "vitality" that did not yet exist within the framework of the shinobi world or even modern medicine.
The secret techniques of the Akimichi clan, the Blood Release of the Third Mizukage, and even Tsunade's Mitotic Regeneration—at their core, all were changes produced by using chakra to influence this specific substance.
In other words, Yang Release was the power to manipulate vitality itself.
However, an unexpected trigger occurred when Hyuga Yu bestowed this power upon the cells of the Kaguya clan (which shared a common origin with the Hyuga) cultivated with Hashirama cells, and then drove the reaction using "Cyan Chakra"—a lower-tier power of Tenseigan Chakra. It activated a mechanism embedded at the very foundation of the Hyuga bloodline.
By gathering the powers of the Hyuga and Kaguya, neutralizing them with Hashirama cells, and driving the mixture with Cyan Chakra, an anomaly occurred. A true Tenseigan Chakra, belonging to the Otsutsuki clan, was born!
Inside the laboratory, Hyuga Yu suppressed the shock and surging emotions in his heart. Scarcely able to care that Yajima was still by his side, he immediately snapped open his Byakugan. The veins around his eyes bulged as he stared fixedly at the mass of Tenseigan Chakra floating in mid-air.
It glowed with a brilliant, fluorescent green light, like a miracle descending to the world. Its overall shape was an irregular sphere of chakra radiating an aura of utter destruction.
Rather than calling it a physical manifestation of chakra, it was more like a "living" biological tissue. Within the vision of the Byakugan—magnified dozens of times and comparable to a microscope—it possessed a "complete vitality architecture." This structure resembled Yang Release chakra, but he could observe that what allowed it to manifest in the physical world was a single cluster of cellular tissue. At its core lay a "hodgepodge" of cell samples—a compound mixture of Hyuga, Kaguya, and Hashirama cells. Within this, the mitochondrial membrane potential of the cellular tissue was hyperpolarizing, and ATP production was undergoing an exponential, explosive increase.
The result was that it began absorbing and devouring all surrounding matter capable of providing energy in an almost limitless fashion. To maintain the survival of that newly born "Otsutsuki cell" at the center, it proliferated and mutated frantically. Yet, it ultimately lacked a complete circulatory control system. This excessive proliferation brought about a terrifying consequence—
It began to throb violently!
Thump! Thump!
Thump! Thump!
Thump! Thump!
It sounded as if a heart were beating madly, or perhaps like a ticking time bomb. Hyuga Yu's pupils suddenly constricted. In that instant, a flash of hesitation, greed, wavering, longing, and jealousy crossed his eyes. The complexity of these emotions made him feel an extreme reluctance to let go; he wanted to seize this thing and make it his own. But in the end, an expression of absolute coldness surfaced in his eyes.
Without a word, he turned and ran!
In passing, he grabbed Yajima, who stood there in total confusion but with a face full of shock as he watched the data on the instruments spike wildly.
The two fled the lab in a blur. Hyuga Yu slammed the switch to seal the heavy doors, then swung his right arm, punching through the steel wall to find and rip out the power cables providing energy to the laboratory.
Slam!
The laboratory doors fell heavily into place.
With his Byakugan still active, Hyuga Yu calmly observed and recorded everything happening inside the lab through the steel doors. That frantically expanding sphere of Yang Release chakra rapidly absorbed the iterated Hashirama cells Yu had hidden inside, drawing a massive amount of vitality from them.
Then—Voom!
An invisible ripple instantly centered on the lab and spread through everything inside the room!
The objects touched by the ripple were instantly dismantled into an atomic state by an extreme gravitational pull, decomposing into countless microscopic particles that flew toward the center of the laboratory!
"—Whoosh!!!"
Rumble!
A violent storm born from nothing caused the entire Hidden Mist Hospital building to tremble.
Soon, high-ranking members of the Kirigakure Medical Department heard the commotion and attempted to approach. Hyuga Yu raised his hands, forming the "Ram" seal, and a storm of chakra instantly erupted around him!
Countless Wind Style: Chakra Scalpels shot out under his control, forming two invisible walls of resistance within the corridor. He blocked everyone else from approaching, preventing them from providing more "kinetic energy" for the expansion of the Tenseigan Chakra inside the lab.
Several Kirigakure medical ninja suddenly realized they couldn't take even a single step toward the laboratory.
This continued for a full three minutes.
Finally, the storm inside the laboratory subsided.
Through the walls and the door, Hyuga Yu could see that everything inside the lab had been decomposed into dross. Countless inorganic materials had piled up at the center, forming a massive, meteorite-like sphere of inorganic matter.
Clearly, this was an accident outside the experimental plan.
The moment this Tenseigan Chakra—the first to ever be born in the shinobi world—was created, Hyuga Yu had immediately lost control over it. It had manifested in the form of "Tenseigan Chakra: Yang Release State" and destroyed everything around it with an absolute Yang Release technique.
This was not a power Hyuga Yu could touch at his current level.
However, the wealth of information provided by this accident allowed Yu to understand many things. The path to transforming Cyan Chakra into true Tenseigan Chakra in the future had become clear.
But for now, there was no luxury to ponder these questions deeply. Hyuga Yu had to handle the immediate fallout. He turned his head to look at Director Yajima, who stood behind him—dazed, confused, yet seemingly realizing something, his face showing a look of dread that contradicted his robust physique.
Hyuga Yu looked at him calmly and said indifferently, "Director Yajima, you might know a little too much."
"Wait!"
Hearing Yu's words, Yajima's face turned pale, as if the blood had been drained from it. His wide eyes were filled with terror, and his gorilla-like body trembled violently. He took several steps back, forced a smile that looked worse than crying, and stammered, "I... I don't know anything! Please, Lord of the Root, don't kill me!"
Yajima was no fool. He had heard intelligence about this youth from the Root; this was a Konoha elite who could trade blows with the Third Mizukage and survive. Meanwhile, he was just a weak, helpless medical ninja who wasn't skilled in combat. If a conflict arose between them, there would only be one result—he would die.
Hyuga Yu looked at Yajima calmly. "No, Director Yajima, you should know."
"You are a smart man. Moreover, you've seen what I am doing. In the entire Hidden Mist, you are the only one who can understand exactly what I am researching."
"We've cooperated quite well until now, haven't we?"
Yajima nodded immediately like a chick pecking at grain, laughing dryly. "Yes... yes, that's right."
Then, realizing he might have said the wrong thing, he shook his head violently with a mournful face. "No, no! I don't know anything! Truly, truly!"
Hyuga Yu looked deeply at Yajima and suddenly asked, "Director Yajima, you're very lonely, aren't you?"
Yajima froze, snapping his head up. "What... what did you say?"
Hyuga Yu gazed at him with dark eyes that seemed to pierce through Yajima's body, seeing his restless, unwilling heart. "Truth be told, Director Yajima, I owe a lot to you for these past few days of experimentation. Your cooperation was far too perfect—so perfect that it made me suspicious."
"So, I've been observing you these past few days... Director Yajima, even before the experiments began, you must have already known what I wanted to research, right?"
At those words, Yajima's pupils trembled, but he still managed a forced, dry laugh. "What are you talking about... I really don't know anything. I only did it for the village, for Elder Genji, I..."
"Is that so?" Hyuga Yu pressed. "Judging by the level of biochemical medicine and lab equipment operation you displayed, by the second day of the experiment, you knew that I was researching true Yang Release, not some irrelevant serum!"
"In experimentation, we value seeking truth from facts. Data is the one thing that cannot lie."
Hyuga Yu stared at him with a devilish smile. "If you couldn't understand that data, you wouldn't have been able to participate in the subsequent experiments at all, and I would have kicked you out of the lab without hesitation, just like those idiots who only know how to serve tea."
"But, Director Yajima, not only did you do it, you cooperated with extraordinary perfection. In some aspects, you even did better than I did!"
"You... you knew..." Hearing this, Yajima's expression shifted slightly. Then, he asked in confusion, "But why...?"
"Why did I let you stay despite knowing? Why didn't I harm you, and instead pretended not to know so you could continue participating in an experiment that could change the future of the shinobi world? Is that it?"
Hyuga Yu looked at him seriously. "Director Yajima, the future of the shinobi world is definitely not something that can be driven by a single person."
"You are a genius."
"You don't understand social graces, yet you became the Director of the Hidden Mist Hospital by suppressing everyone with your medical expertise. That alone says a lot."
"So, you are lonely, aren't you?"
"In the Hidden Mist, there is no place for you to truly show your worth. Those high-end technologies, those theories that are actually simple but labeled 'profound' by others, the repetitive and boring daily work, the conversations that feel like talking to a wall... In this village, no one can keep up with your pace."
"In this village, no one can understand your wisdom."
"In this village, no one can give you the support to act freely!"
"They don't even understand what you're saying!"
Hyuga Yu's low tone was like a devil's whisper lingering in Yajima's ear. "But I understand... I understand all of it!"
"And I can give all of that to you!"
Having said this, Yu paused. He looked at Yajima's wide, trembling eyes, his slightly clenched fists, and his swaying frame. Yu's tone shifted as he smiled. "Yajima, how much longer can you live? How much longer can you conduct research?"
"Ten years? Twenty? Or perhaps, in this turbulent, high-pressure village, will you die tomorrow because of one wrong word?"
At these words, Yajima could no longer remain indifferent. He clenched his fists tightly, looked up, and grit his teeth at Hyuga Yu. "You... stop talking!"
"I won't betray you. You know that anyway—even if I spoke, they wouldn't understand. Our time spent experimenting... all these years... and only you, who are two generations younger than me, could actually converse with me. I... honestly, I was very happy."
Yajima grit his teeth and said with difficulty, "But if you want me to betray my village, to betray my home... I must refuse!"
Hyuga Yu frowned, making one last attempt. "Yajima, you've already given the first half of your life to this village. There's no need to—"
"Tennin!" Yajima suddenly looked up, addressing Hyuga Yu by his current alias. He closed his eyes with a sense of resolve and spoke heavily: "I'm sorry."
"Please, kill me!"
Hyuga Yu fell silent.
Outside the corridor, many medical ninja had already gathered, drawn by the noise. Further away, Kirigakure Hunter-nin had also noticed the anomaly and were rushing over.
The sounds of dense footsteps were isolated outside the walls of resistance constructed by the Wind Style: Chakra Scalpels. Outside the lab, it was so quiet a pin drop could be heard; only the sound of Yajima's trembling yet resolute breathing remained.
Hyuga Yu let out a slow breath and shook his head. The eeriness on his face vanished, replaced by total calm. "Mitochondrial cascade failure."
"Huh?" Yajima opened his eyes slightly, confused.
"Driven by the Yang Release serum, the mitochondria within the cells entered a state of extreme overload. The ATP production rate reached hundreds or even thousands of times the normal level. This frantic energy metabolism produced a massive amount of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)."
"Ultimately, in an environment of ultra-high ROS and ATP concentration, a chain reaction of ruptures was triggered in neighboring mitochondria. This caused the hundreds of thousands of 'Blood Release' cells in the entire culture dish to explode, releasing massive amounts of chemical energy, thermal energy, and shockwaves."
"The Root ninja was caught in the explosion. You, Yajima, survived because you were outside the lab."
Hyuga Yu looked at Yajima and said calmly, "Report it like that."
Yajima was stunned, but he quickly realized that such a reason could indeed barely explain the commotion in the lab. But... "Tennin, you... you aren't going to kill me?"
"In this world, finding an excellent assistant isn't that easy."
Hyuga Yu looked at Yajima and waved his hand. "Until we meet again."
With that, Hyuga Yu's figure vanished from Yajima's sight inch by inch, as if erased by an eraser. "Wind Style: Light Refraction."
This was a special ability he could use after constructing the sixth of the "Twelve Standard Meridians" for his Wind Style: Flowing Steel. It allowed him to wrap flowing wind around weapons or his body to refract light, achieving a form of invisibility.
Pop!
A sound like a pricked balloon echoed in the corridor. Soon, the footsteps of a group of medical ninja arriving from outside the lab rang out. "Director! Are you alright?"
"What happened here?"
"Heavens, did the lab explode? Where is that Root ninja from Konoha?"
It wasn't until he was surrounded by the crowd of ninja that Yajima snapped out of his daze. At that moment, he unexpectedly realized there was something in his hands. He looked down and saw—
Three vials of blood-red "Yang Release Serum."
Meanwhile, the figure that had inspired fear, awe, and a faint, unspeakable rapport in Yajima was nowhere to be found.
For some reason, he suddenly felt a sense of loss, as if he had rejected an opportunity that could have completely rewritten the pain of his past life.
Finally, Yajima took a deep breath, looked up at the doctors and the approaching Hunter-nin, and said in a heavy, solemn voice: "Inform Elder Genji—"
"The Yang Release Serum has been completed! The Elder Council's plan can begin!"
At the same time, across the deep space of the universe, outside the shinobi world, within a floating palace inside the Moon.
A golden, sun-like radiant sphere suddenly trembled slightly!
Deep within the golden sphere, a pattern resembling a snowflake faintly emerged. It was as if a giant had opened its eyes; a "vision" spanning the cosmos instantly fell upon the shinobi world, sweeping across the entire planet!
"An illusion?"
Below the temple, a white-haired man with closed eyes and a withered body slowly raised his head, frowning. "No... the Giant Tenseigan sensed a fluctuation of Tenseigan Chakra!"
"In the shinobi world, a descendant of Ancestor Hamura has transcended the Kekkei Genkai and fused Tenseigan Chakra!"
"And this form... among the seven attributes, it is a Yang Release reaction with an extremely high bloodline density!"
"But..."
The white-haired man looked up in confusion. He slightly opened his eyes, revealing a pair of pure white pupils, and met the gaze of the Giant Tenseigan. His vision seemed to link with it instantly, spanning nearly 400,000 kilometers to sweep through the shinobi world once more. However, no matter how he searched, he could not find the same reaction again.
"It appeared for only an instant and then vanished?"
Cough, cough... cough!
The white-haired man vomited several large mouthfuls of blood, gasping for air. His gaze became sharp in that instant. "Was it an accident, or... does that thief in the lower realm who fused the Tenseigan Chakra know of my existence?"
"Is he... intentionally hiding himself!?"
The white-haired man's expression turned extremely grim. "First, the Gedo Mazo was stolen, and now someone is trying to obtain this dangerous power... The world created by the Sage of Six Paths is truly a failure!"
"The so-called Ninshu is nothing more than a lie the Sage used to deceive himself. Ancestor Hamura was deceived by Him, and we were deceived by Him as well!"
"Such a shinobi world is a mistake. Its entire history is nothing more than a series of meaningless, repetitive cycles. It is not worth protecting, not worth trusting..."
"It must be destroyed!"
The white-haired man raised the hand he had used to cover his mouth. Looking at the blood dripping from it, his eyes darkened. "With my current strength, I can only descend once. After Toneri is born... I must seize that chance to kill this thief and clear all obstacles for Toneri to obtain the Tenseigan!"
"Then... with the Tenseigan, I shall reconstruct the world!"
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