Leaf Year 50, February 26th, Night, 9:30 PM.
The Foundation Headquarter Base, underground laboratory of the Special Ability Research and Development Department.
With a solemn expression, Hyuga Yu placed the prepared sections of the purple Byakugan respectively under a spectrometer, a gene sequencer, and a confocal microscope.
To the side, Orochimaru looked at the various data displayed on the instruments, as well as the 3D eight-pointed star meridian specimen projected onto the laboratory's large screen—which Hyuga Yu had isolated from the purple Byakugan with a terrifyingly precise surgical ability. He couldn't help but stretch out his tongue and lick his lips. "Tsk, this is truly..."
"Interesting~"
"The core mechanism of the entire eyeball meridian system is just like a fuse in a biological circuit. When you attempt to turn off the switch, it will short-circuit directly, channeling all the energy toward the center of the eight-pointed star, the position of the pupil's center—accelerating the formation of a more condensed power."
At this point, Orochimaru turned his head to look at Hyuga Yu and asked, "Is this what you referred to as the Tenseigan Chakra?"
"But if it is only to this extent, it can at most allow Hizashi Hyuga to obtain a slightly stronger power. There are no shortage of ninja in the Hidden Leaf with this level of strength. Even if he obtains this power, it is impossible for him to defeat you."
"This doesn't seem... worth such a massive expenditure of effort on your part?"
Orochimaru stared at Hyuga Yu, who had left and returned. Remembering the information Hyuga Yu had dropped like a bombshell while approaching him a few hours ago to demand the Cursed Seal of Heaven—as well as during their journey when he requested to be taken immediately to the Foundation base's laboratory—he recalled him saying:
Tomorrow, the Hidden Leaf might encounter a village-destroying level crisis!
"No,"
At this moment, Hyuga Yu shook his head, knit his brows, and said, "That is because right now, it is merely the most rudimentary form of the Tenseigan Chakra."
"Under this form, the purple Byakugan is already capable of granting the user chakra comparable to a Tailed Beast Cloak, strengthening the insight of the Byakugan, and enhancing the penetration and decomposition power of the Gentle Fist chakra, among other abilities."
"But have you ever thought about what this power would become if it takes another step forward?"
Orochimaru's pupils contracted slightly. "Another step forward?"
Hyuga Yu shook his head, choosing to simply demonstrate by actions. He raised his palm, and a pitch-black [Chakra Prayer Bead] soon condensed in the center of his palm. Then, stimulating the Yang Release Tenseigan Chakra, he replicated the 3D purple meridians one-for-one inside the Chakra Prayer Bead.
Soon, this Chakra Prayer Bead transformed into a different appearance. The sphere gradually became transparent, and inside it, temporary purple meridians were constructed one after another, forming a three-dimensional yet flattened eight-pointed star structure.
Holding this sphere that looked like a large, purple Byakugan, Hyuga Yu knit his brows and said, "Your metaphor just now was very accurate—"
"—It is just like a fuse in a biological circuit."
"From the perspective of the Byakugan's host, it is actually more like a converter—it absorbs the host's life force and chakra, and through the conversion of these meridians, forms the most basic state of the Tenseigan Chakra."
"However, once these meridians exceed their carrying capacity, or rather, are forcefully destroyed by an external force, it will immediately trigger the biological circuit fuse mechanism you mentioned—accelerating the formation of the true Tenseigan Chakra."
"So,"
Speaking up to this point, Hyuga Yu slightly stimulated a trace of Fire Release Tenseigan Chakra to flow into the sphere. The meridians inside the sphere were instantly severed by the plasma-state vortex formed by this trace of chakra!
The blowout mechanism was triggered, and the entire "purple Byakugan" lit up with high intensity, all the Caged Bird chakra within it fusing towards the center!
In the next instant, Orochimaru saw that the chakra fusing towards the center quickly condensed into a purple chakra crystal, and cracks began to appear on the crystal's surface.
Crack! Crack!
A violent, unstable energy—comparable to the simultaneous explosion of tens of thousands of explosive tags—was frantically colliding from the inside!
Orochimaru's pupils contracted slightly, and he instinctively wanted to activate the Orochimaru Style Body Replacement Technique.
However, Hyuga Yu merely closed his palm slightly. The purple Byakugan that was about to explode was directly suppressed and decomposed by a stronger chakra, turning back into a pitch-black Chakra Prayer Bead floating in the palm of Hyuga Yu's hand.
Orochimaru stared with a hint of suspicion and uncertainty at the pitch-black sphere in Hyuga Yu's hand. "This is..."
"We will talk about this later. Tell me your opinion."
Orochimaru temporarily suppressed his curiosity about Hyuga Yu's ability, knitting his brows. "You mean to say—"
"—The current Hizashi Hyuga is just like a large bomb?"
"Once the attack is too heavy, it will instantly detonate him."
"That is only one of the reasons." Hyuga Yu shook his head, knitting his brows as he said, "What's more troublesome is that Hizashi Hyuga carries more than 500 pairs of Byakugan with him at all times. Once he is killed or heavily injured, the purple Byakugan in his eye sockets will instantly consume these 500 pairs of Byakugan, forming an even more terrifying thing."
"Even I cannot easily deal with this thing while simultaneously looking after the protection of the Hidden Leaf."
Inside the scroll by Hizashi Hyuga's hand, more than 500 pairs of Byakugan were sealed.
This was the reason why Hyuga Yu had suddenly held back his hand. Hizashi Hyuga was not difficult to kill; even though he already possessed the power of a Kage now, Hyuga Yu could stand 40 kilometers away and snipe him dead with a casual arrow. What was truly difficult to resolve was the giant purple Tenseigan. Once a purple Byakugan was born, it would spontaneously evolve toward the giant purple Tenseigan, and this process was irreversible.
Given the quantity of Byakugan carried by Hizashi Hyuga, once he was killed, under the influence of the purple Byakugan chakra dissipating from his body after his death, the 500 pairs of Byakugan by his hand would instantly trigger the process of Byakugan consuming Byakugan to generate purple Byakugan. Once a large number of purple Byakugan gathered, they would spontaneously drive this "collective will" to plunder even more Byakugan and evolve toward the giant purple Tenseigan.
The reality was that counting the Byakugan stolen by Hizashi Hyuga, there were only around 4,500 pairs of Byakugan in the entire ninja world right now. Even if the eyes of every single member of the Hyuga clan in the ninja world were dug out, it would be completely insufficient for the giant purple Tenseigan to complete its first round of evolution.
And the result of an incomplete evolution was—it would ultimately lose control and explode. Based on a rough calculation of the energy level of the Tenseigan Chakra after the final synthesis of the purple Byakugan, this blast would instantly release over $4.2 \times 10^{18}$ Joules of explosive energy, equivalent to a 1-billion-ton TNT explosion at the center of the Hidden Leaf, reaching a destruction radius of...
120 kilometers!
This was an even more exaggerated range than when Pain flattened the Hidden Leaf!
The most critical thing was that Hyuga Yu did not possess any effective means to halt this process.
He wasn't afraid of the explosion; he could even risk his life to clash energy beams with this thing.
But the people of the Hidden Leaf were terrified of it. Once a wave of explosion hit, Hyuga Yu's scientific research plan wouldn't even have started before the very soil for his research was leveled to the ground. Who could Hyuga Yu even go to for reason then?
The two brothers, Hizashi Hyuga and Hiashi Hyuga, were just like children walking through a bustling market holding the nuclear detonation button. They didn't seem to understand what exactly they were doing right now at all...
At this time, Orochimaru also realized the severity of the problem. Although he didn't know how exaggerated the specific losses would be, if this was a situation that even the Tennin found difficult to handle, the consequences would likely be quite severe.
He looked at Hyuga Yu, knitting his brows as he asked, "But what does this have to do with the Cursed Seal of Heaven?"
Hyuga Yu still held up that Chakra Prayer Bead, explaining, "The Hyuga's chakra possesses the characteristic of penetrating other chakra."
"While the quality of the true Tenseigan Chakra far surpasses the chakra of ordinary Hyuga clansmen, which is to say, the quality level of this chakra is superior to ordinary chakra."
Hyuga Yu manipulated the Chakra Prayer Bead to float before Orochimaru. "You can try attacking it."
Hearing this, Orochimaru raised his eyebrows slightly. Without hesitation, he immediately swung his hand, shooting out more than a dozen entangled large snakes from the sleeves of his white lab coat, coiling toward the Chakra Prayer Bead in mid-air. "Hidden Shadow Snake Hands."
In the next instant, a large number of snakes collided with the surface of the Chakra Prayer Bead. However, a bizarre scene occurred. When these snakes summoned by Orochimaru hit the Chakra Prayer Bead, they turned directly into bursts of smoke.
Meanwhile, the Chakra Prayer Bead remained completely stationary, spinning in mid-air.
"This is..."
Orochimaru knit his brows, looking at his entirely empty palm. "The Summoning Jutsu was reversed and dispelled?"
Although Hidden Shadow Snake Hands was only a C-rank ninjutsu, it integrated the concept of the Summoning Jutsu, directly summoning snakes from Ryuchi Cave. When these snakes touched the Chakra Prayer Bead, the chakra inside their bodies was directly penetrated by the counter-vibrating chakra. In fact, the basic chakra constituting the Summoning Jutsu was directly dismantled. Consequently, without these snakes being injured at all, the mechanism of the Summoning Jutsu erroneously sensed that the summoned snakes had suffered irreversible heavy injuries and canceled the summoning.
Unwilling to give up, Orochimaru raised his hand, formed a few hand seals, opened his mouth, and exhaled!
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
However, when the wild wind touched the Chakra Prayer Bead, it merely caused a few ripples to surface on the bead's face, forcing it back by a few centimeters.
Until the chakra driving the movement of the wild wind touched the Chakra Prayer Bead, it was actually directly decomposed by the Chakra Bead.
From this perspective, the Chakra Prayer Bead substantially already possessed a fraction of the properties of a Truth-Seeking Ball. It couldn't directly decompose things it touched, nor could it cause damage. However, based on that penetration power which was stronger than the Hyuga's chakra, the Chakra Prayer Bead could directly decompose the chakra contained within the vast majority of ninjutsu attacks.
Blocking the activation of ninjutsu from the source.
It was just that this thing was exceptionally difficult to reshape. In addition, Hyuga Yu himself had already formed his own combat system and didn't really need this trait to assist in battle; otherwise... Hyuga Yu could also cosplay as Six Paths Obito.
At this moment, Hyuga Yu looked at Orochimaru and said flatly, "Did you see that? This is what that thing will ultimately form into. Furthermore, once it is fully formed, it will only be larger and stronger than this one of mine."
"The vast majority of ninjutsu will find it difficult to cause damage to it. However, the power of the Cursed Seal of Heaven should be able to."
"Try using the Cursed Seal of Heaven to test it."
Hearing this, Orochimaru thought for a moment. He extended his palm, and another snake emerged from it. It directly opened its large mouth, its two fangs quietly turning black, and bit toward that Chakra Prayer Bead in mid-air.
This time, when the venomous snake's fangs bit into the Chakra Prayer Bead, Orochimaru's snake was not released from the Summoning Jutsu. Moreover, visible to the naked eye, the Chakra Prayer Bead suddenly began to vibrate violently. Finally—Thud!
Signs of petrification appeared on its surface, and it quickly turned into a hollow black stone, crashing directly onto the laboratory floor.
Orochimaru stared with somewhat burning eyes at this petrified Chakra Prayer Bead on the ground, licking the corner of his lips. He wasn't surprised that Hyuga Yu knew the Cursed Seal of Heaven utilized a portion of Sage Jutsu power. He turned his head to look at Hyuga Yu, narrowing his eyes as he said, "So that's how it is... Therefore, you want to use the characteristics of Sage Jutsu to crack this property?"
Looking at the petrified Chakra Prayer Bead on the floor, Hyuga Yu nodded and continued, "I know Sage Jutsu can turn people into stone or animals. And your Cursed Seal of Heaven should be based on the Sage Jutsu of Ryuchi Cave, right?"
"Indeed,"
Orochimaru knit his brows as he looked at Hyuga Yu, opening his mouth to say, "However, the cultivation of Sage Jutsu is not that simple. Without the aptitude, forcing oneself to cultivate this kind of jutsu will result in direct death..."
"Even I can only settle for the next best thing, using the Cursed Seal of Heaven to study this power from a lateral perspective."
"So, what do you want to do?"
Orochimaru smiled merrily as he stared at Hyuga Yu, a trace of eagerness between his brows. "Should I directly bestow this power upon you?"
Naturally, Hyuga Yu wouldn't let Orochimaru bite him directly. Before obtaining Jugo, Orochimaru's research on Sage Jutsu and the Cursed Seal of Heaven was basically making negative progress; the only successful example was Anko Mitarashi.
Even if there was a certain level of confidence in mastering Sage Jutsu through this method, he had no need to take this risk. Therefore, what Hyuga Yu wanted was something else!
At this time, he looked at Orochimaru and spoke in a deep tone, "As far as I know, the way to cultivate Sage Jutsu in Ryuchi Cave is also through the three Great Snake Sages biting with their fangs, directly injecting that so-called 'Natural Energy' into the practitioner's body to master Sage Jutsu."
"Those who fail will directly become food for the Snake Sages."
"And you, Orochimaru... the reason why you haven't cultivated the Sage Jutsu of Ryuchi Cave is not because you lack the aptitude to cultivate Sage Jutsu, but rather—"
"—You dare not take this risk."
"So, I am quite curious—how did you master this ability to inject natural energy into a human body, just like that pack of Snake Sages in Ryuchi Cave?"
Hearing this, Orochimaru's expression instantly changed slightly, as if his weak spot had been pricked. He looked at Hyuga Yu with a hint of suspicion and uncertainty.
"You..."
Hyuga Yu smiled as he looked at Orochimaru. "What you secretly learned at Ryuchi Cave wasn't Sage Jutsu at all, but rather Ryuchi Cave's method of extracting natural energy, right?"
"Orochimaru, what I want... is precisely this technology."
Orochimaru cast a deep glance at Hyuga Yu, his expression slightly stiff as he let out a hoarse chuckle. "What kind of joke are you playing?"
Hyuga Yu raised his palm, once again generating a Chakra Prayer Bead in the center of his hand. In the next instant, the Chakra Prayer Bead began to change color, shifting from a deep, profound black into a dazzling, brilliant golden sphere that resembled a man-made sun!
"I have no time to joke with you."
Hyuga Yu shook his head, staring calmly at Orochimaru. "I have already shared my secrets with you, and even let you know my weakness, Orochimaru~"
"You wouldn't fail to understand what this means, right?"
Orochimaru stared with a face full of wariness at the golden Chakra Prayer Bead in Hyuga Yu's hand. Cold sweat quietly seeped from his forehead as he let out a somewhat stiff, hoarse laugh. "And what if I don't have it?"
"Then that would be a pity—" Hyuga Yu looked at Orochimaru with a sigh, then suddenly straightened his face. "Orochimaru, I am speaking to you now in my capacity as the successor of the Foundation. Currently, it has been verified that you, in your capacity as a Hokage candidate, have pocketed public funds, embezzled Foundation property, and secretly persecuted fellow village ninja to conduct human experimentation..."
"Stop, stop!"
The corner of Orochimaru's mouth twitched slightly as he looked at the Byakugan brat who flipped his stance faster than turning pages in a book. It was as if he was getting to know Hyuga Yu all over again. Remembering that he still needed this brat's support to campaign for Hokage, he could only secretly grit his teeth and compromise with some helplessness, "You brat... follow me."
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