February 26th, noon.
In the northern part of Konoha, inside a secret medical base affiliated with the Foundation.
The medical department under the Foundation's umbrella archived the compiled physical examination report of Hyuga Yu into Konoha's highest-security classified files at the fastest possible speed. They immediately delivered it into the hands of Danzo Shimura, who had been waiting right outside the door of the testing room.
At this moment, Danzo leaned on his cane with a solemn expression, using his bandage-wrapped palm to flip open the physical examination report concerning his direct disciple. Then... he discovered that because the middle step of a translator was missing, he could recognize every single word on the report, but when these things were chained together, he surprisingly could not make sense of a single sentence.
What on earth were this ATP, mitochondria, complete blood count, and inflammatory cytokine storm?
Danzo's brow instantly knit deeply, his sinister gaze sweeping through the report line by line, revealing a grave look.
Beside him, the head of the medical department could not help but wipe away his sweat. "Lord Danzo, you are holding it upside down."
Danzo immediately let out a cold snort, telling a blatant lie: "Naturally, this old man knows. This is this old man's... reading habit!"
His gaze swept from the report onto the face of the person in charge before him. Mm, now this I can understand.
"The situation is not optimistic?"
The expression of the person in charge stiffened, and he shook his head. "No, rather, it would be more accurate to say that the situation is far too optimistic."
"Lord Tennin's body... has already grown powerful to a mind-boggling degree, almost as if he were a completely different species!"
Hearing this, Danzo instantly furrowed his brows.
Synthesizing the intelligence gathered by the Foundation, he already harbored a vague conjecture regarding the true strength of his disciple. But this was precisely what Danzo worried about!
Because based solely on the destructive capability described on paper, Hyuga Yu's current strength was highly likely already infinitely approaching that of the First Hokage...
Furthermore, Danzo understood even more clearly that the source of all these changes stemmed from his injection of the Hashirama cells into Hyuga Yu's body.
Allowing Hyuga Yu to inherit a portion of the God of Shinobi's power just like Yamato had been Danzo's original plan. However, the abnormally leaping strength displayed by Hyuga Yu at this time indicated that he was distinct from Yamato, who had only inherited a fraction of the capabilities...
What was even more probable was—
While almost entirely obtaining a strength equivalent to the God of Shinobi, Hyuga Yu had simultaneously inherited the exact Kekkei Genkai disease that caused the God of Shinobi to meet an untimely end.
Having deduced this possibility, Danzo had issued orders early on to completely lock down all intelligence concerning Hyuga Yu from the Land of Rain alliance campaign. Even the rest of Konoha's higher-ups remained completely unaware of exactly how terrifying Hyuga Yu's genuine power was at present.
Inside Konoha at this time, aside from a portion of frontline Foundation operatives who had witnessed Tennin take action with their own eyes and Danzo himself, everyone else's estimations of Tennin's strength remained stuck in the period of the Kirigakure collapse plan.
Thinking up to this point, Danzo took a deep breath and asked in a low voice, "What exactly is the situation?"
Hearing this, the person in charge instantly felt a chill run down his spine, speaking while trembling: "The complete report will require several days to be issued... Furthermore, Lord Tennin's body can no longer be measured by the standards of ordinary shinobi at all, so..."
Danzo's gaze turned cold, and he barked, "You only need to tell me, how much longer can he live?"
The person in charge closed his eyes, as though throwing caution to the wind, and spoke out: "Theoretically, if Lord Tennin merely maintains his current state and does absolutely nothing, he could even achieve immortality!"
"But right now, the Hashirama cells that have been compensating for his consumption have shown signs of depletion. As long as he does not engage in high-intensity combat, an optimistic estimate dictates that the arrival of this decay point is at least... ten years away!"
Hearing these words, Danzo instantly felt a slight sense of relief. Ten years—given Hyuga Yu's level of brilliance, it would not take ten years, or even five years, before Danzo could push Hyuga Yu onto the seat of Hokage.
Danzo asked again, "Is there any method that can resolve this problem?"
"Yang Release."
The expression of the person in charge turned solemn. "Only Yang Release can save Lord Tennin. Furthermore, Lord Tennin appears to have noticed this point as well, as he is currently planning to restart Yang Release experiments at the Konoha Hospital."
Danzo textually knit his brows slightly. "Even higher-generation Hashirama cells won't do?"
The person in charge shook his head, voicing a terrifying truth: "Right now, the Hashirama cells inside Lord Tennin's body have undergone a certain unique transformation, and their activity has long since become no less potent than the original Hashirama cell prototype."
"Even if we inject him with complete Hashirama cells right now, it can only serve to alleviate this decay rather than completely reversing it. Moreover, complete Hashirama cells possess severe rejection reactions, which might conversely worsen this situation."
"..." Danzo lapsed into silence.
He could not help but recall that day several months ago. In order to personally verify Hyuga Yu's capacity and ensure that Hyuga Yu achieved the most perfect state of fusion with the Hashirama cells, Danzo had chosen not to take action on the spot to save Hyuga Yu when he was besieged by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and the Caged Bird. At the same time, he had withdrawn the Foundation forces he had arranged in the rear to call for reinforcements.
This action had prompted the birth of a Tennin as powerful as Hashirama Senju, yet it had also caused the current completely uncontrollable turn of events.
Danzo could not help but ponder whether his requirements for his successor had been far too stringent.
He also could not help but wonder, if given another chance, what choice would he make?
Danzo closed his eyes in deep meditation for a long time. Finally, he slowly opened his sinister, ruthless eyes.
There were no ifs. Even if given another chance, even if he knew the outcome, he would still make the exact same choice!
"One can never pin their hopes upon others. The current result is the most perfect choice this old man could have achieved!"
"Tennin Hyuga Yu is precisely this old man's most perfect masterpiece!"
Danzo leaned on his cane, lightly tapping the floor.
Thud! Thud!
A crowd of Foundation operatives behind him possessing grim auror immediately swarmed forward, rushing into the testing room to bring all personnel present under control.
"Brand every single one of them with the Self-Exterminating Tongue Scroll Seal [Tongue Eradication Sanction Seal]. All intelligence concerning Tennin is to be entirely destroyed."
Danzo turned his head slightly, looking at the Foundation ninja who still remained behind him, asking apathetically, "Where is Tennin right now? What is he doing? Is he resting well in accordance with this old man's orders?"
The Foundation ninja immediately dropped to one knee, reporting: "Lord Tennin is currently at the Konoha Hospital."
"He conducted a examination at the Konoha Hospital as well. After the examination concluded, it appeared he intended to head toward the Archives Library."
"However... it seems he is about to be intercepted by an unexpected individual."
Danzo raised his brows slightly, first issuing an order: "Go and destroy the examination data at the Konoha Hospital, and brand every single one of the individuals in the know with the Self-Exterminating Tongue Scroll Seal."
Following this, he paused before asking, "Who is it?"
The Foundation ninja kneeling on one knee immediately said, "It is that son of the White Fang, the student of Minato Namikaze—Kakashi Hatake."
"Oh?" Danzo recalled the white-haired brat who had run to the Foundation half a month ago requesting an audience with him. After narrowing his eyes in thought for a brief moment, he waved his hand, turning around to step into the deep darkness.
"There is no need to obstruct them. Leave this matter to Tennin to handle."
On the other side, at the Konoha Hospital.
Hyuga Yu was well aware that there were Foundation ninjas tailing his backside, guarding him twenty-four hours a day, so he did not cause trouble for the hospital's medical staff either. The examinations he underwent at the Konoha Hospital were all operated by his own hands. Of course, for tasks that truly could not be managed by a single person, he simply conjured a Shadow Clone.
At this moment, Hyuga Yu could not help but lament that the Shadow Clone Technique created by the Second Hokage was truly convenient.
After obtaining the final examination report capable of yielding results within the day, Hyuga Yu walked out of the CT room. Holding the documents, he walked toward the exit of the Konoha Hospital while reading the report.
Taking a brief glance at the contents of the final examination report regarding the Hashirama cells in his abdomen, it was not a single bit different from his estimations. Following the Yang Release nature transformation of his entire body, the "eighteenth-hand Hashirama cells" located in his abdomen had also undergone changes during this process, completely completing their fusion with Hyuga Yu's own cells and the Zero-Tails sample sealed within his abdomen, becoming a part of Hyuga Yu's body.
Or rather, it resembled a new type of organ.
It was somewhat akin to a "Dantian" found in Eastern fantasy novels, capable of gathering and dispersing the chakra refined from the cells of Hyuga Yu's entire body, providing a colossal amount of vitality while simultaneously possessing a portion of the Zero-Tails sample's function to absorb chakra.
Disregarding the exaggerated output limits of chakra, if one were to convert this system into an immortal cultivation worldview, Hyuga Yu could currently be considered a "Qi Condensation cultivator."
The moment he thought of cultivating immortality, Hyuga Yu—who had obtained the examination report for his new organ—developed a bit of interest. Controlling the "Dantian" exactly like in immortal cultivation novels, he first drove his chakra to manufacture a gaseous vortex inside the "Dantian," completing the phase of "vortex entering the sea."
Following this, he applied precise pressure using Shinra Tensei, compressing the "Qi Sea" to force out a strand of chakra that was compressed to the absolute limit, displaying the shape of a spherical water droplet, completing the phase of "turning the Qi sea into liquid." Finally, he converged these "Dantian spiritual liquids" to further purify, compress, and precipitate them into a solid. Up to this step, everything went exceptionally smoothly.
Then, Hyuga Yu attempted to "Establish his Foundation."
Molding these solids of chakra compressed to the extreme into a "Dantian Platform," immediately afterward, countless grains of chakra compressed into solid dust particles squeezed and collided against one another, and the chakra fluctuations swelled to the absolute extreme!
Ultimately—
BOOM!!!
A terrifying explosion sufficient to blast a mountaintop into powder erupted right inside Hyuga Yu's "Dantian"!
Hyuga Yu's expression changed slightly, and he immediately injected Tenseigan chakra to decompose it.
As for the external manifestation, Hyuga Yu, who was currently traversing the hospital corridor, suddenly halted his steps. His body shuddered violently, after which—Burp!
Resembling a Godzilla roaring in disarray, Hyuga Yu thrashed his head and let out an earth-shattering, thunderous burp, belching a jet of pitch-black, thick smoke out from his mouth.
The hospital building violently shuddered from the thunderous burp!
Very quickly, heads wearing expressions of utter bewilderment poked out one after another from the wards on the second floor of the hospital. Nurses and resident doctors stood up from their workstations one after another, scrambling out to check the commotion, practically believing that some medical rioter had secretly hauled a gas tank into the hospital and ignited it.
Seeing that he had caused a mishap, Hyuga Yu's expression shifted slightly. Before he was exposed, he immediately controlled his Wind Release: Chakra Scalpel to surge out, decomposing the rolling black smoke of the explosion surging from his mouth. Then, he put on a look of profound astonishment, standing in the corridor and looking left and right just like the doctors who had run out of their offices to check the commotion.
A doctor spotted Hyuga Yu and immediately bowed respectfully. "Ah, it is Lord Tennin. Did you happen to see what occurred just now?"
Another doctor who had just run out to check the commotion looked left and right, an expression of uncertainty plastering his face. "Did you all hear that? A massive bang. It sounded almost as if someone was burping? Strange~"
The doctor who had stepped out first immediately refuted: "Are you muddled? If this was a burp produced by a human, it's difficult to imagine exactly how many tons of cola he must have drunk!"
"Lord Tennin, could you grant me an autograph?"
This was a nurse with peach-blossom eyes that were flashing with light, who approached him with deep affection, her small hand fluttering against her chest as she offered a pen to Hyuga Yu.
Hyuga Yu's expression tightened slightly as he took the pen, leaving a string of doctor-styled scribbles that resembled ghost talismans upon the nurse's ample collar line. He spoke with a thoroughly righteous face: "I have no idea. I also just heard the commotion and came out."
Everyone looked at one another. "Truly bizarre..."
"Fantastic! I won't even take a bath for the rest of this year!"
Very quickly, seeing that there was no further commotion in the corridor, the crowd dispersed one after another, returning to their work stations.
Having successfully defused a face-losing crisis, Hyuga Yu shook his head and let out a somewhat disappointed sigh. Sigh... It seems there is no way for me to become a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
The essence of the energy was completely different. A shinobi's chakra was a self-inflicted drain to extract from the world, whereas a cultivator's spiritual energy was the seizing of the world's spiritual essence to nurture oneself. Using something like chakra to cultivate immortality would, predictably, yield absolutely nothing aside from rubbing out a massive bomb...
It is better to be a bit pragmatic...
Hyuga Yu, who had failed at cultivating immortality, did not feel discouraged either. After putting away the report in his hand, he intended to leave the Konoha Hospital and head toward Konoha's Archives Library to find some recent cutting-edge medical literature to study.
He wanted to patch up the lessons he had missed over the past half-year, and incidentally make preparations for the subsequent Yang Release experiments.
Right at this moment—Stare!
Hyuga Yu abruptly sensed a considerably strange gaze locked onto him. Following the direction of the source of this gaze, Hyuga Yu raised his head to look, only to see that at the end of the stairs on the second floor of the hospital, a small figure with long white hair, clad in a black tight-fitting combat outfit and wearing a black face mask, was standing guard there. Raising his head slightly, inside the one black and one red eye revealed by his pulled-down mask, shock, astonishment, and a wave of awkwardness so intense he wanted to dig his toes into the ground suppressed the original numbness and vacancy inside his gaze.
Upon seeing that iconic white hair and the exposed single three-tomoe Sharingan, Hyuga Yu instantly recognized that this individual was Kakashi Hatake.
Seeing this, Hyuga Yu's heart instantly skipped a beat. No way, why is this guy looking at me with that kind of expression? Wait, he couldn't have seen that entire scene just now, right?
Thinking up to this point, Hyuga Yu, who was so awkward he wanted to carve out a three-bedroom apartment beneath his feet, instantly turned around, intending to slip away from the stairs at the other end of the corridor.
However, right at this exact moment, seeing that Hyuga Yu intended to flee, Kakashi Hatake—who had been blocking the stairwell and squatting for a long time—flashed a trace of panic through his eyes. He immediately catalyzed his entire body's chakra, appearing before Hyuga Yu in a Body Flicker. "Wait, Hyuga Yu, don't run!"
If Hyuga Yu truly wished to run, Kakashi Hatake would be unable to give chase. However, having confirmed that Kakashi Hatake had indeed come to find him, Hyuga Yu also halted his steps, looking at the opposite party with a hint of awkwardness. "Ah, it's Kakashi Hatake."
Kakashi raised his head, staring at Hyuga Yu strangely with a gaze carrying a sense of scrutiny. "What were you... doing just now?"
"Just now, that terrifying explosion that occurred inside your body was..."
The corners of Hyuga Yu's mouth twitched slightly, and he did not answer this point.
"Forget it."
Kakashi felt that he wouldn't be able to ask anything anyway, and if they continued chatting about this topic, the atmosphere would only grow increasingly bizarre. He took a deep breath, looking at Hyuga Yu as his face turned solemn.
Following this, Kakashi lowered his head and straight up dropped to one knee right in front of Hyuga Yu. His palm pressed against the ground, gripping tightly as if he were clutching onto the absolute last straw to save his life, speaking in a low voice: "Hyuga Yu... No, Lord Tennin, please, you must help me save Rin!"
"As long as you are willing to perform this surgery, no matter what you require me to do, I am willing!"
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