Starting from a single point and expanding outward—deliberately magnifying the benefits of the matter from personal gain to the welfare of the village itself, all to stir Kakashi's sense of duty.
Strictly speaking, it was hardly an honorable approach.
After all, Hikaru had never intended to make such a thing available to the entire village.
The shinobi system itself was built on ruthless elimination. If that brutal pressure was weakened too much, then a ninja's drive to improve would naturally weaken with it.
And besides, Hikaru had his own selfish motives.
The more powerful something was, the more valuable it became when kept shrouded in mystery.
Even if he ever chose to reveal it, it would only be to certain select individuals—those who had truly rendered extraordinary service to Konoha.
That matter was more or less settled now.
What remained was the construction of a laboratory that truly belonged to ANBU, along with a deeper investigation into Orochimaru.
None of that required Hikaru's constant attention.
In fact, he had noticed that ever since he expanded the Political Affairs Division and established the Two Secretariats System, his own workload had become astonishingly light.
All he really had to do was set the direction ANBU should move in, establish a stricter deadline as a checkpoint, and leave the rest alone.
The two secretariats would gather the managers from Political Affairs as well as the three ministers of the Operations Division, then coordinate, negotiate, and discuss matters as a whole.
Once they reached a workable conclusion, Political Affairs and Operations would split off again, each calling their own subordinates into meetings and discussions.
The various offices under Political Affairs would work out personnel allocation and how to accomplish their assigned goals without disrupting ANBU's long-term growth and internal rotation.
Meanwhile, the three ministers under Operations would gather all their squad leaders and hammer out plans and mission details together.
This entire structure had been laid down by Hikaru.
In modern terms, it was called maximizing individual initiative.
After all, he had spent more than twenty years in his previous life standing on the shoulders of giants. Now he had arrived in a world that didn't even possess the equivalent of a basic civics course.
There were simply too many things he could change—even if only a little.
As for how his subordinates chose to arrange things, Hikaru didn't care overly much.
As long as they didn't violate ANBU's rules or regulations, he wouldn't interfere.
What he wanted was simple.
Results.
"So there's no need for me to personally handle every little thing. I don't even need Shadow Clones for it!"
Walking leisurely through a hidden forest within the Land of Fire, Hikaru felt positively delighted.
Especially when he imagined Hiruzen Sarutobi buried under mountains of paperwork every day, unable to escape.
That image pleased him even more.
On the surface, Hiruzen seemed to embody centralized authority. He looked diligent, conscientious, and personally invested in every matter.
But in Hikaru's eyes, that was nothing more than a man waging war against his own body.
A single person's energy was limited. No matter how capable they were, handling that many affairs alone inevitably created blind spots.
And once those flaws appeared, the damage they caused might not be obvious at first.
But in the long run, it could prove fatal.
Worse still, when one person handled everything, the problem wasn't merely inefficiency.
In Hikaru's opinion, it was practically the speed of a crawling turtle.
"At the very least, he could build a simple cabinet system. The Political Affairs Division already handles document collation and file summaries anyway, so why waste their talents?"
Set up a crude cabinet, let Political Affairs handle the processing, give them limited authority to make recommendations, and reserve final decision-making power for himself.
Wouldn't that be enough?
Honestly, if the Political Affairs Division's responsibilities weren't so broad—if they weren't also directly handling Hokage orders and even certain diplomatic matters—then Hikaru felt that someone like Nara Shikaku, with an IQ that probably surpassed two hundred, would've quit long ago if all he did was sort documents.
Shaking his head lightly, Hikaru dismissed the thought.
Even if he had endless ideas, he had no intention of sharing them with Hiruzen.
Because even if he did, Hiruzen probably wouldn't change much.
Power was poison.
And for a shinobi whose strength was steadily declining with age, power was also the most important bargaining chip ensuring they could still remain at the peak of the ninja world.
"Not everyone is Ōnoki. That old man really does get more monstrous with age."
Ōnoki was nearly an exception among exceptions.
As time passed, he accumulated greater experience and sharper judgment. He could see through countless things at a glance. He knew when to stand firm and what truly mattered.
And instead of weakening with age, he had only become more terrifying thanks to Dust Release and the Lightweight Rock Technique.
Of course, he wasn't without flaws.
Whether because of old age or because stubbornness was just a trait of Iwagakure itself, his personality had become particularly rigid.
And physically, his body had deteriorated to the point that close-quarters combat was hardly his strength anymore.
But those blemishes didn't overshadow the larger truth.
His existence alone allowed Iwagakure to continue developing steadily.
He was the village's greatest stabilizing pillar.
Hikaru walked slowly through the woods. His mind had been wandering through all sorts of random thoughts, but the moment he arrived at the "plantation," every stray distraction vanished.
He carefully swept his senses across the seals around the area.
Only after confirming that none of the barriers he had set up had been disturbed did he finally step inside.
It had been over a week since he planted the powers he brought back.
After the Nine-Tails' last outburst, he had made major gains the very next day. But after what happened with Obito's arm, he had started acting more cautiously.
He'd rather wait longer than come here every day only to get nothing.
That feeling was awful.
Having experienced it once, he had no desire to experience it again.
Besides, during that period he had also been busy arranging the inspection measures against Orochimaru and drafting plans for the laboratory. He might not even have had the time to come personally.
This time, he had planted Kimimaro's bone, Ao's Byakugan, half of Black Zetsu's body, and Obito's arm.
Beyond that, there was also the Three-Tails' chakra, along with the chunk of Hashirama Senju's corpse that had already been buried here before.
One could say that the entire grove was full of all kinds of bizarre things.
"The last time I came here, Hashirama's flesh looked like it was almost done. I wonder how it turned out this time."
"And the high-grade senjutsu chakra seed inside my own body should be basically complete too. I just haven't checked it yet."
"The only question is… what kind of harvest will I get this time?"
The thought of collecting so many gains all at once made Hikaru's heart jump.
Especially when he drew near the trees and felt those dense chakra fluctuations—those alone told him the harvest this time would be extraordinary.
Late that night, within the Uchiha clan compound in Konoha, Uchiha Shin and Saya stood inside a room.
Also present were Shisui and Saya.
The atmosphere in the room was unbearably heavy, as though a storm were gathering in silence.
After so long spent planning and preparing, Shin had finally arranged everything that needed arranging.
They had decided to act.
For Uchiha Shin, it was a painful choice.
This time, they were moving against their own clan.
Among those targets were former comrades-in-arms.
Among them were also the political enemies he still opposed to this very day.
As for the former comrades, perhaps some of them were not truly a problem.
But even so, such actions would still chill the heart.
As for those old political enemies, Shin had decided to follow the line of thinking Hikaru had once given him.
He would send them cleanly to the Pure Land.
They were outstanding clansmen.
They were capable leaders.
As long as they remained alive, they represented hope.
As long as they remained alive, they remained symbols.
People who shared their beliefs would always continue to gather around them.
Their prestige alone could sway the clan's people to either cast down their weapons—
or pick them up.
That kind of symbolic spiritual authority was the last thing Shin wanted left intact.
If cooperation had been possible, then he would have wanted it more than anyone.
But he knew better.
The difference in their positions guaranteed they could never walk the same path.
This was a war where only one side could remain standing.
Either he killed them and made them stop for good—
or they killed him and dragged the entire clan into the abyss.
Shin would never allow them to drag the clan down with them.
Which meant he had no choice but to become the executioner himself.
"Much as I never wanted things to come to this," Shin said, his voice weighed down with helplessness, sorrow, pain, and resolve, "we have no choice now. We must take the next step."
His gaze fell on Shisui and Saya, and then he slowly closed his eyes.
"Saya. Shisui."
"In this moment, you are not my grandchildren."
"You are representatives of ANBU. You represent Senju Hikaru."
"So I need confirmation one last time. What exactly is ANBU's stance?"
Shisui looked slightly confused at those words, but Saya understood her grandfather's meaning instantly.
His caution was extraordinary.
This was his final confirmation of ANBU's position, yes—but it was also his way of protecting them, cleanly cutting them out of tonight's operation.
Likely because he didn't want them to bear too much of the burden.
The burden of turning their hands against their own clan.
"ANBU will fully support Elder Shin's actions."
Saya inclined her head lightly, switching at once into the detached tone of an ANBU operative.
"The four temporary squads from the Second Company of the Third Brigade are already in position. They will coordinate with the Police Force. Please rest assured, Elder Shin."
If Shin was going to move, then naturally the people he could trust most were his own.
And those people came from within the Police Force.
Unfortunately, not everyone in the company under Shin's command could truly be relied upon.
Ever since the falling-out between Shin and Fugaku, many members of his company had begun to waver.
On top of that, the reforms to the Police Force that Shin had pushed through had resulted in many Uchiha clansmen being forced to leave the unit altogether, leaving a great many dissatisfied.
As a result, the number of people Shin could truly use—truly trust—was not very large.
And the number he could mobilize for tonight was even smaller.
Without ANBU's help, he honestly might not have dared to act.
But even with their support, his heart was still pounding.
Because the enemy they faced tonight was an exceptionally troublesome one.
The First Elder—Uchiha Shin's political enemy—had once been a hero of the Uchiha clan. He had distinguished himself in both the First and Second Great Ninja Wars.
Though his aging body could no longer display the might it once had, his position as First Elder still afforded him heavy protection.
Most notably, there was a formidable guard at his side.
No one knew exactly who that man was.
But he had shielded the elder from danger time and time again, like a god descending from the heavens.
At the same time, like a demon lurking in the dark, he had also secretly eliminated countless enemies on the elder's behalf.
As long as that man remained, striking at the First Elder would be difficult.
And yet the First Elder was someone who absolutely had to die.
"Thank you for ANBU's support," Shin said after a long silence, his expression complicated. "But I still have one question."
He looked at Saya seriously.
"Other than those temporary squads… will there be any additional support?"
"Additional support?"
Shisui had fully caught up by now.
He also understood what the earlier exchange between Shin and Saya had truly meant.
This was about protecting them.
About comforting them.
About completely severing their connection to whatever would happen tonight.
But in his heart, he wanted none of this to happen.
Even so, as an ANBU operative, whether he understood or not, he still had to obey.
Especially when the one involved here was the elder who had raised him—the Third Elder, the man Shisui had long regarded as his own grandfather.
There was too much confusion in his heart.
Too much unease.
But he had to fulfill his duty.
He made a decision silently.
Once all this was over, he would investigate the matter properly and learn exactly what had happened behind the scenes.
But the urgent task before them had to be handled first.
"Elder… Elder Shin," Shisui corrected himself, forcing the proper tone, "does that mean there's an especially troublesome enemy involved?"
"Yes."
Shin gave him a faintly gratified look before answering with a helpless sigh.
"There is an Asura at the First Elder's side. With that person there, we won't be able to quietly accomplish what we came here to do."
And quiet was the entire point of tonight's operation.
To eliminate political enemies while pushing the blame onto Orochimaru—that was why ANBU was willing to assist.
Of course, the key lay in pinning everything on Orochimaru.
ANBU itself would not necessarily involve itself in the details of who Shin killed or captured among the Uchiha.
If not for the risk of chain reactions, Shin would actually have preferred to proceed step by step.
But he knew that no matter which side he moved against first, it would immediately put the others on full alert.
"Don't worry, Elder Shin," Saya said quietly at last. "The Minister has already prepared for that possibility. If necessary, one minister will intervene personally."
"Is that so?" Shin nodded slowly and seriously. "Then one last question. The members of those temporary squads…"
"They are all ANBU elites," Saya replied calmly, "and also members of the clan."
"I understand."
Shin exhaled slowly.
"Then I know what must be done."
Shin still remembered Hikaru's words.
This kind of thing had to be done by his own hand.
So when he first learned that Hikaru would send ANBU personnel to assist, he had been deeply confused.
But the moment he heard the words "temporary squads," he had vaguely guessed the truth.
And now that Saya had confirmed it, he understood Hikaru's meaning fully.
This matter was purely an internal affair of the Uchiha clan.
ANBU had nothing to do with it.
If the operation succeeded, then it would count as a test of both Shin and the Uchiha. In return, they would earn greater trust from Hikaru.
If it failed, then those people were Uchiha first and foremost, with no real connection to ANBU at all.
And Shin's failure would become the clan's fate.
"No wonder he kept reminding me this was my own matter. No wonder he still sent people in the end. Just what I'd expect from you, Senju Hikaru…"
Shin had always known Hikaru was ruthless.
But ruthlessness mixed with such depth of calculation still sent a chill down his spine.
Even so, he also knew he had to carry this through.
Had to do it well.
Otherwise, whether ANBU intervened directly or those hawkish fools were allowed to rampage on their own, the clan's end would be the same.
Hikaru, meanwhile, had no idea he had once again been branded ruthless for no reason.
He had sent those Uchiha solely to assist.
That was all.
And to ensure the situation remained under control, he had even kept Kakashi on standby.
Kakashi's progress had been obvious to the naked eye.
Even if, in terms of chakra reserves, he was still charging downhill on a wagon with no brakes.
Still, after more than a year of tempering within ANBU, his strength had risen quickly, and his use of the Sharingan had reached a very respectable level.
Though Hikaru and Kakashi were both busy and didn't spar often, Hikaru had still given him plenty of advice.
Ever since Hikaru had shattered the defensive walls around his heart, Kakashi's trust in him had remained extremely high.
And he had followed Hikaru's guidance with great seriousness.
This Kakashi was no longer walking the same path as the one from the original story—the one who had ended up fighting like a pseudo-Uchiha: taijutsu probing first, ninjutsu bombardment second, Chidori to finish the job.
That well-rounded style looked impressive, but Kakashi's chakra simply couldn't support it.
So Hikaru's advice had been different.
Use a ninja blade in tandem with the Sharingan. Suppress the opponent from the very beginning. End the fight in the shortest possible time.
Then, depending on the circumstances, either finish the enemy with Chidori or take them alive.
One could say that while Kakashi had stepped onto a different road, his strength was rising faster than ever.
"Too bad I'm not an Uchiha," Hikaru mused to himself. "Otherwise I could teach him even more about the Sharingan. In that case, he really might restore the White Fang's glory."
Sitting beneath a tree in the forest, Hikaru kept his eyes closed as he adapted to the changes within.
He didn't know how long he had been there, but judging by his own rough sense of time, it was probably already deep into the night.
From the moment he arrived in the morning and sensed the chakra radiating from the trees, he had decided to remain until the harvest ripened completely.
He could feel it.
The powers planted within those trees had reached their limit.
Any moment now, they would bear fruit.
And events unfolded much as he had expected.
The first tree to yield results was the one grown from Hashirama Senju's flesh.
The instant the tree's violent, eye-catching chakra began to settle down, Hikaru knew he had gained something.
"Detected a special-attribute plant. Analyzing."
"Analysis complete: Mid-grade Wood Release chakra seed."
The system's voice rang clearly in his mind the moment his hand touched the trunk.
By now, Hikaru was more than familiar with that voice.
And yet every time he heard it, he still couldn't help but feel a burst of emotion.
Without this system, there was no way he would have reached his current level.
But after the initial gratitude faded, he couldn't help wanting to complain.
The last time he planted a chunk of Hashirama's corpse, he had at least obtained something like a fragment of Asura's power.
This time, the reward had dropped an entire rank.
Hikaru already possessed Wood Release.
True, he couldn't use it on Hashirama's level—but that comparison was unfair to begin with, considering Hashirama had Asura's power.
What Hikaru would much rather have received was another fragment of Asura's power.
That kind of gain could directly skyrocket his strength.
He still remembered how the first time he received it, his power had leaped to the point where he could face over a hundred Sunagakure shinobi alone.
And among them had been a whole batch of ANBU-level fighters!
That kind of increase was unforgettable.
Especially after Hikaru read the description of this so-called Wood Release reward, his irritation instantly turned into something much more severe.
"Mid-grade Wood Release chakra seed. Requires basic Wood Release and a mid-grade Yang Release secret art to cultivate."
A mid-grade Yang Release secret art?
The moment Hikaru read that, his head practically started spinning.
He truly wanted to improve his Yang Release control.
Even at the basic level, it already let him manipulate the life force within trees, raising his body's regenerative ability to an absurd degree.
It had even allowed him, on the night of the Nine-Tails attack, to ignite the flame of Minato's life and drag the Fourth Hokage back from the brink of death.
The problem was—
where exactly was he supposed to find some so-called Yang Release secret art seed?
Or rather, how was he supposed to further develop his own bloodline, which was still only at the mid-grade level?
"There's something strange here," Hikaru muttered. "My bloodline development is already mid-grade, but my Yang Release secret art is only basic."
"By that logic, even if I raised my bloodline to high-grade, my Yang Release secret art would probably only reach mid-grade."
"And in that case, Wood Release would also only be mid-grade…"
"Unless…"
That question truly baffled him.
No matter how he looked at it, it seemed as if both his Wood Release and his Yang Release were fundamentally capped below the highest rank.
Could it be…
that even Hashirama Senju himself had never reached the system's 'high-grade' category in either Wood Release or Yang Release?
Once that thought entered Hikaru's mind, it refused to leave.
He felt that the idea was almost impossible.
After all, as a transmigrator, no one understood better than he did just how terrifying Hashirama had been.
So there was really only one explanation left.
"It seems the bloodline level defined by the system doesn't refer to the Ōtsutsuki line at all," Hikaru thought silently. "It probably only refers to the most basic level of the Senju bloodline."
At that realization, he couldn't help feeling depressed.
He had always assumed that the system evaluated his bloodline based on the source of the Senju line—
and that the source, naturally, would be the Ōtsutsuki.
But apparently, he had been overthinking it.
The system clearly wasn't evaluating him by Ōtsutsuki standards.
Its reference point wasn't even Asura's bloodline.
It was Hashirama Senju.
And Hikaru couldn't help but wonder whether the version of Hashirama the system used as its standard was one who had already awakened Asura's power… or not.
That line of thought was far too miserable.
Even Hikaru himself refused to dwell on it for long.
In the end, all he could do was sigh helplessly.
But he recovered quickly enough.
The thought was depressing, yes, but it wasn't enough to crush his confidence.
After all, he now possessed something that already let him push beyond ordinary bloodline limits.
Still, he needed to think seriously about how to improve both his Yang Release and Yin Release power.
"A Kekkei Mōra requires the fusion of Yin and Yang Release. My Yang Release is only basic, and my Yin Release hasn't been developed at all."
"I more or less know where I might get a related seed, but that won't be easy either."
"Still, tonight should give me the final answer."
With a helpless shake of his head, Hikaru stored away the mid-grade Wood Release seed that he couldn't cultivate for the time being.
He had actually been dreaming about what high-grade senjutsu chakra combined with mid-grade Wood Release might look like.
Now that hope had been thoroughly dampened.
Mid-grade Wood Release was out of reach for the time being.
The high-grade senjutsu chakra seed, however, was nearly complete.
Even if he had effectively lost half the expected gain, it was still far better than nothing.
And tonight's harvest consisted of much more than just that one thing.
There was no reason to stay too upset.
"Byakugan. Dead Bone Pulse. And the Three-Tails' chakra."
Murmuring those words to himself, Hikaru found another place to sit.
He was deeply curious what form those gains would take.
There was also one more thing on his mind.
Would the little Nine-Tails finally realize, through all this, the true reason it had been nurtured into existence?
At that thought, Hikaru extended his senses toward the young fox.
The result made him laugh helplessly.
The little thing was sleeping soundly.
"Maybe the system arranged it that way," Hikaru muttered. "Looks like I don't need to overthink it."
He stretched lazily—
and at that exact instant, a power that made his heart seize burst outward.
It was suffocatingly destructive, yet at the same time it carried a bizarre sort of all-embracing quality.
The contradiction of those two sensations made Hikaru's entire body shudder.
He had no idea what was happening.
As the power spread, even breathing became difficult.
But just as suddenly as it had appeared, it vanished.
When everything finally settled, Hikaru realized his back was soaked through with sweat.
"What… was that?"
He stared in astonishment at the tree that had now completely returned to normal.
His heart was still trembling. He knew he would never forget that suffocating feeling.
And if he remembered correctly—
that tree was the one grown from Ao's Byakugan.
"Could it be…"
The thought had barely surfaced when his heart began pounding wildly.
The Byakugan was the foundation of the all-seeing eyes.
What kind of power it could ultimately transform into—
that was something Hikaru had always longed to know.
Of course, he absolutely didn't want a raw, original Byakugan.
That thing couldn't even be turned off.
But if what he obtained could be controlled, then there was no way he would willingly pass up such a power.
With that thought, he strode over and placed a hand on the tree.
The system's voice sounded once more in his mind.
"Detected a special-attribute plant. Analyzing."
"Analysis complete: Primordial Byakugan power (mutated)."
Primordial Byakugan power?
The instant he heard that phrase, delight flashed across Hikaru's face.
Since obtaining the system, he had only ever heard it use two kinds of classifications.
One was seed.
The other was power.
If the result was a seed, then he had to spend chakra cultivating it before eventually harvesting the fruit to strengthen himself.
But if the result was power, then it could be used on him directly—
just like the fragment of Asura's power he had received before.
"So it's a power-type reward?"
Hikaru muttered to himself, and his excitement rose immediately.
That outcome was excellent.
"And it says the power has mutated. In that case, what I get most likely won't be the standard Byakugan that can't be controlled."
"But then… what exactly will it be?"
There were far too many mutated paths a Byakugan could take.
Still, no matter how many possibilities existed, the upper ceiling of the eye seemed to point toward the Rinnegan—
or that azure Tenseigan.
Of course, Hikaru still didn't fully know that the Rinnegan in truth emerged only through the power of the Ten-Tails.
Without that influence, the evolved forms of the Byakugan likely ended at something like Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's strange cross-pattern eye—or Ōtsutsuki Hamura's Tenseigan.
But no matter which it might be, either one would be the kind of power that people could only dream of.
Unable to wait any longer, Hikaru drew the power directly into his body.
The next second, unbearable agony engulfed him.
He had experienced something similar when absorbing the fragment of Asura's power.
But this time it was different.
This time, the pain was centered entirely in his eyes.
He sat there in silence, not knowing how much time passed.
It felt as though his eyes were melting apart.
And then, from within those melted eyes, an entirely new pair began to form.
Only when the process finally came to an end did the torment begin to fade.
"It's finally done…"
Feeling the pain in his eyes recede, replaced by a strange and unfamiliar force spreading through them, Hikaru realized his suffering had finally ended.
With that thought, he slowly opened his eyes.
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