"Yahiko... his eyes are white. This is... the Byakugan, one of the Three Great Dōjutsu!"
"I see it. In that case, he's a ninja from Konoha's Hyuga clan."
"Then... what should we do? We were the ones who attacked him first. If we let him go, it might provoke retaliation from Konoha. Should we kill him?"
"No, Konan."
"This war has gone on for too long, and too many people have died. If we remain bound by the chains of hatred, no one will ever find peace."
"But we've already received intel—Hanzo is trying to make contact with Konoha's Foundation. Konoha... can no longer be trusted."
"Then we must change that!"
In a daze, Hyuga Yu overheard this conversation. He opened his eyes to see an unfamiliar ceiling—no, it could hardly be called a ceiling, but rather the stone roof of a cave.
Stalactites hung down from the blue-gray rocky roof. In the slightly damp environment, their surfaces were coated with a heavy layer of frost and water droplets.
The temperature on his skin felt very low. The Land of Rain in February was close to zero degrees Celsius, and what was falling outside the cave wasn't the usual rain of this country, but snow.
Hyuga Yu threw off the black robe covering his body and frowned slightly. Just as he was about to check his physical condition, a young man with orange hair poked his head into view. "Oh, you're awake?"
Hyuga Yu looked at him. His face remained expressionless, but a deep look of suspicion flashed in his eyes.
He instantly recognized the person before him as none other than Yahiko, the founder of the Akatsuki organization in the Land of Rain!
Combined with the fact that before losing consciousness, he had been attacked by Nagato—the only other person in the current ninja world besides himself who could use Almighty Push—Hyuga Yu immediately made a deduction:
After shaking off Kakuzu, he had turned around and run right into the newly founded Akatsuki at the border of the Land of Rain.
The moment he reached this conclusion, what Hyuga Yu felt wasn't a sense of fate's whimsy or mere coincidence, but rather suspicion.
He couldn't help but suspect whether he had been guided to meet the Akatsuki by White Zetsu hiding in the shadows. Had he become a cog in Madara Uchiha's Eye of the Moon Plan? Or were Madara Uchiha and Black Zetsu plotting something against him from the dark?
Having just attempted to alter the plot of Obito Uchiha's descent into darkness, only to be relentlessly pursued by two Kage-level powerhouses before even meeting Rin Nohara, Hyuga Yu had become extremely sensitive to anything related to Madara Uchiha.
However, Hyuga Yu quickly dismissed this thought. This really might just be an accident.
Influenced by Hyuga Yu, Madara had been forced to clean up the mess over in Kirigakure. Moreover, the Rin Nohara incident was consuming some of his energy. Right now, Madara should be busy dealing with Obito Uchiha and wouldn't have time to further target him.
Furthermore, Hyuga Yu was about to find a new headache for Madara Uchiha—Minato Namikaze.
Encountering the newly formed Akatsuki during this period before Obito Uchiha's corruption, especially right before the critical negotiations with Iwagakure, was undoubtedly a golden opportunity to extend his influence into the Land of Rain and secure a major bargaining chip for those negotiations.
In the original story, Danzo's handling of the Land of Rain incident was irreproachable from Konoha's perspective; he had even executed it quite perfectly—
After the war, the Land of Rain became an ally of Konoha, giving Konoha a significant geopolitical advantage. (Author's Note: See the Chunin Exams arc; the Land of Rain and several other small nations sent ninja to participate in the exams, and these countries were explicitly marked as Konoha's allies in the manga.)
Without prior information, if Hyuga Yu had been in charge, he might not have even done as well as Danzo.
The key to Konoha's failed negotiations with Iwagakure was that the Hidden Rain ninja lost a massive amount of strength during the hunt for the Rinnegan. The disappearance of Hanzo of the Salamander, the "Demigod," caused the Land of Rain to lose its value as a bargaining chip, which in turn affected the final outcome of the negotiations.
But if, armed with future knowledge, he could preserve the effective strength of Hanzo or the Akatsuki and turn them into Konoha's allies, then these negotiations would allow Hyuga Yu to gain immense prestige in Konoha and... visible, massive benefits.
Setting up a laboratory and rapidly increasing his strength required astronomical sums of money. If he relied solely on Konoha's mission system, Hyuga Yu had no idea how many years it would take.
For a moment, Hyuga Yu remained silent. He scrutinized the orange-haired youth before him with suspicion.
Complex emotions flashed through his eyes as he rapidly calculated the potential gains and losses of interacting with the Akatsuki at this time.
Seeing that Hyuga Yu hadn't said anything for a while, Yahiko scratched his head and said apologetically, "Um... I'm really sorry. We mistook you for an attacker and ended up injuring you."
Hyuga Yu shook his head and calmly replied, "It's fine."
Yahiko said, "We did a brief check earlier. Your injuries are very severe. Your ribs are deformed and are putting pressure on your heart. We've done some emergency first aid, but you still need to find a medical ninja for further treatment."
"We don't have a medical ninja in our squad right now, but there should be someone with medical knowledge at our next camp. For now, why don't you stay with us to recuperate? What do you think?"
Hearing this, Hyuga Yu looked down at his deformed chest and frowned slightly.
At this moment, his chakra was almost entirely depleted, and his body had reached its absolute limit after running for several days. Furthermore, the severe injury inflicted on his chest by Yagura Karatachi, along with a scattering of internal and external wounds, indeed required a period of treatment and recuperation.
Hyuga Yu thought for a moment and said bluntly, "I am a medical ninja."
Yahiko was somewhat surprised. Looking at Hyuga Yu's pure white eyes, he asked, "You're a medical ninja?"
Then, as if suddenly remembering, he asked apologetically, "Ah, by the way, I haven't asked yet—what is your name?"
Hyuga Yu stared into Yahiko's eyes. Confirming that Yahiko indeed possessed no intelligence on him, he said slowly, "Hyuga Yu."
"Just an ordinary ninja from the Hyuga branch family."
"I see," Yahiko nodded and smiled. "In that case, Hyuga Yu, just tell me whatever medicine you need, and I'll do my best to get it for you. We'll protect you until your injuries heal."
At this, Hyuga Yu shook his head again and told him bluntly, "It would be best if you didn't keep me around. I was separated from my team during a mission, and I currently have pursuers behind me. Although you did cause me some trouble..."
"However, that's not something worth mentioning to me."
"Taking it upon yourself to keep me here might stem from your ridiculous empathy, but it could bring even greater trouble to you all!"
"Furthermore," Hyuga Yu looked deeply at Yahiko and said, "the strength of the enemies might be far beyond your imagination!"
Right now, Hyuga Yu was also somewhat unsure whether he should deeply involve himself with the Akatsuki, so he simply left the choice to Yahiko.
"If that's the case, then we have even more reason to protect you!" Yahiko's gaze focused slightly, and he said with a smile, "Being severely injured with pursuers on your tail—if we abandoned you now, it would go against our creed."
"Don't worry, we will never leave someone to die!"
Hearing this, Hyuga Yu nodded slightly, then knit his brows. "Your... creed?"
"Who are you?"
Upon hearing this question, Yahiko immediately grinned and laughed. "To create peace without relying on power or military might, to never abandon anyone who needs help—we aim to build a world where everyone can understand each other!"
"That is our creed!"
"I'm Yahiko. Nice to meet you, Hyuga Yu!"
Saying this, Yahiko extended his hand in front of Hyuga Yu, offering him a brilliantly dazzling smile.
Hyuga Yu's gaze flickered slightly. He didn't take the other man's hand. Instead, he just shook his head, let out a scoff, and turned away. "What a naive way of thinking. I hope you don't regret it."
Then, turning away and no longer looking at the trio, Hyuga Yu said in a muffled voice, "Bring me back some Diclofenac Diethylamine Emulgel, Flurbiprofen Cataplasm, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and Acetylcysteine."
"Then we'll be even."
"I'll try my best not to bring any trouble down on you. I'll leave on my own in a month."
Inside the temporary cave shelter, seeing Hyuga Yu refuse to converse further, Nagato and Konan exchanged glances behind Yahiko. Even though he had been rebuffed, Yahiko wasn't upset. He smiled slightly. "Then please rest well. We'll set off for the next location tomorrow morning. I'll go look for the medicine you need nearby right now."
Soon, the three left the cave, leaving only a youth with blue-gray hair and parted bangs named Guiyi to guard the entrance.
Only after hearing the Akatsuki trio walk far away did Hyuga Yu manage to push his upper body up from the straw mat in the cave. Opening his Byakugan, he carefully inspected his physical condition.
At this moment, after using Yang Release: Organic Reincarnation, his body had entered a peculiar state. Hyuga Yu could see that the fusion between the blue-colored chakra and his physical cells had become much tighter!
During the battle with Hiruko, Yang Release: Organic Reincarnation had tangibly extracted "vitality"—this atomic-state microscopic matter. In the process of absorbing the Chimera Beast and creating Wind Release: Super Vacuum Blade, a massive amount of excess, pure "vitality" that couldn't be converted into chakra had remained inside his body.
This stream of pure "vitality" resonated with the Eighteen-Hand Hashirama cells in Hyuga Yu's abdomen. Subtly and continuously, it fused with the cells in his body, constantly driving his physical cells to shatter the threshold of their current activity limit, attempting to push his physical strength past its limits and into a level far beyond.
This could be considered a passive application of Yang Release nature transformation triggered by Yang Release shape transformation—an unexpected pleasant surprise.
In this state, Hyuga Yu's body gained a new trait: [Multiplied Recovery Power].
This wasn't entirely beneficial. In the vision of the Byakugan, old, already scabbed wounds skipped the recovery process at a visible rate and healed completely. On the other hand, new wounds sustained during his escape kept bursting open and worsening due to excessively high cell activity and enhanced blood-producing capacity.
In short, his older bodily functions couldn't keep pace with the speed at which his cells were multiplying and strengthening, forcing them to be dragged upward in a continuous upgrade.
Hyuga Yu's body was locked in a composite state where "destruction" and "rebirth" intertwined.
Under these conditions, the rate at which Hyuga Yu refined chakra slowed down drastically. The refined chakra also had to be channeled into using medical ninjutsu to reinforce his bodily functions and accelerate this process of "adaptation and evolution."
This was somewhat akin to the "cleansing the marrow and altering the tendons" found in fantasy settings. It subtly shifted Hyuga Yu's naturally inferior, Stamina: 2 constitution toward that of a normal person, and even... toward the direction of an Ōtsutsuki.
Hyuga Yu couldn't say whether this was a good or bad thing. He could only roughly estimate the time required to complete this phase of physical evolution: one month.
By his initial estimates, once he finished adapting to this stage, his body would be strengthened to a state equivalent to having previously opened the Third Gate of the Eight Inner Gates. This state would then be permanently fixed as his baseline form. With such a powerful baseline, the boost Hyuga Yu would receive upon actually opening the first three of the Eight Inner Gates would be even greater.
When the time came, with the Eight Inner Gates stacked on top of Hyuga Yu's self-created Wind Release: Flowing Gang of the Twelve Meridians, he could hardly imagine how powerful he would become!
At this moment, Hyuga Yu realized that he might just become the "genius of hard work" that Might Duy often spoke of!
The Eight Inner Gates technique, which had previously been capped at the Third Gate due to his physical limitations, would now be able to open even more gates after grueling training.
Having inspected his physical condition, Hyuga Yu refined a small amount of chakra. Raising his palm, he cast the Healing Resuscitation Regeneration Technique and pressed it against his chest to strengthen the tissue functions there and prevent the injury from worsening. At the same time, he let out a long sigh of relief. "Phew... This isn't bad at all."
"I just need to lay low for a while. During this period, I must avoid engaging in direct combat with anyone if possible. Even if I have to fight, I should try to resolve it using pure Gentle Fist and taijutsu."
"Besides, the Eight Inner Gates... can also be trained further now."
A sharp glint flashed in Hyuga Yu's eyes. Two months ago, the reason he had risked his life to save Master Duy was that Might Duy, as a master, had truly poured his heart out for him—
Even when Hyuga Yu's physical limit capped him at the Third Gate, Might Duy had still unreservedly taught him all the secrets of the Eight Inner Gates technique that he knew.
Except for the Eighth Gate, which Might Duy himself was still attempting to master and thus couldn't teach, Hyuga Yu had already mastered the training methods, required medications, and physical strength specifications for the first seven gates. (This was also why Hyuga Yu had told Might Duy back then that surgical treatment could remedy the side effects of opening the Seven Gates.)
Thinking up to this point, Hyuga Yu painstakingly pushed himself up from the straw mat, clenched his fist, and raised his arm. Using the Wind Release: Flowing Gang to channel the wind, he slammed two heavy punches right onto the cave wall beside him!
The first two punches were completely ordinary, only causing blood to seep from Hyuga Yu's own knuckles.
But immediately after, as his body absorbed the continuously rising counterforce, tenketsu began to light up across his skin like a constellation of stars.
Boom! Boom!
Delivering two punches with the force of a violent dinosaur, Hyuga Yu violently gouged out two massive boulders weighing three tons right from the cave face. Then, shouldering the boulders, he dropped into a horse stance despite his severe injuries!
He trained his physique in a masochistic fashion while simultaneously reinforcing his bodily functions with medical ninjutsu.
This clearly defied common sense, but in his current state, it was actually the fastest way for Hyuga Yu to recover.
The more severe Hyuga Yu's injuries were, the faster his recovery rate became. Conversely, the lighter his injuries were, the closer he would be to exploding from the sheer buildup of energy.
The massive commotion caused by Hyuga Yu's training quickly drew the attention of the Akatsuki members outside the cave.
Konan, rushing inside in a hurry, felt her scalp go numb at the sight. Before Yahiko had left to find the medicine, he had explicitly told her to watch over Hyuga Yu. Yet the moment she turned around, this guy they had just saved was already on the verge of killing himself!
Running over to him, her eyes wide with horror, she shouted anxiously, "Hyuga Yu, are you tired of living?"
Hyuga Yu glanced at her, calmly spat out a massive mouthful of blood, and waved his hand dismissively. "Stay out of this!"
"This is the Hyuga clan's unique way of healing!"
Konan: "..."
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