Hyuga Yu looked at Kakashi Hatake, who was kneeling on one knee before him with a completely defeated expression, his eyes numb and vacant.
He recalled the matter Kakashi had just brought up.
Following the Kannabi Bridge incident where he lost his dear friend Obito Uchiha, less than a month ago on February 4th, Kakashi Hatake had experienced the traumatic event where he nearly stabbed Rin Nohara to death with his own hands.
Although Minato Namikaze had arrived just in time to rescue her due to Hyuga Yu's subtle influence and managed to preserve Rin Nohara's life, she had still undergone a partial Tailed Beast transformation rampage. As a mere ordinary human, Rin Nohara was left with exceptionally severe lingering side effects.
Konoha Hospital optimistically estimated that no medicine could cure her and that Rin Nohara had less than three months left to live. Concurrently, Kirigakure had proposed a ceasefire condition—the return of the Three-Tails.
Under these circumstances, the Konoha higher-ups were already prepared to pronounce Rin Nohara's premature death sentence, extract the Three-Tails sealed inside her body, and hand it over to Kirigakure.
At this moment, Hyuga Yu knit his brows slightly as he looked at Kakashi Hatake in front of him. Without rejecting or agreeing, he simply asked, "As long as I perform this surgery, regardless of success or failure, you're willing to agree to whatever I ask?"
"Yes," Kakashi Hatake replied resolutely.
However, after thinking it over, Hyuga Yu realized he didn't actually have anything that absolutely required Kakashi Hatake's services. The fact that Rin Nohara had ended up in this half-dead state instead of being directly stabbed to death meant Kakashi technically owed him a debt of gratitude.
Furthermore, Rin Nohara's peculiar condition piqued Hyuga Yu's curiosity. Generally speaking, Tailed Beast chakra would passively enhance a Jinchuriki's self-healing capabilities, stamina recovery, and even tremendously augment their physical strength.
It was just like back when Naruto made a bet with Tsunade to master the Rasengan; it was entirely due to the Nine-Tails' influence that Naruto could continuously recover his stamina, heal the injuries caused by the rampaging Rasengan, and frantically cultivate for an entire night under such extreme conditions to finally master the technique.
Ordinarily, Rin Nohara had only undergone a partial Tailed Beast transformation once. A Jinchuriki possessing this kind of passive ability would only need to rest for a period of time—or even just sleep it off—to automatically heal and return to normal.
However, this passive effect, which was highly similar to Yang Release, had completely failed to manifest in Rin Nohara, who was also a Three-Tails Jinchuriki. For Hyuga Yu, who was currently vexed by the difficulty of transitioning Yang Release from a passive nature transformation into an active one, this was undeniably an excellent research subject.
What was the underlying principle behind this?
How did a Tailed Beast actively bestow this capability upon its Jinchuriki?
And by approaching the problem from this direction, could the existing issues with Yang Release be resolved?
Weighing the contributing factors, Hyuga Yu made up his mind to check on Rin Nohara's condition. He simply bypassed Kakashi Hatake, who was kneeling in front of him, and walked straight toward the hospital staircase.
"You..."
Seeing this, Kakashi snapped his head up, stood up, and chased after Hyuga Yu, saying anxiously, "Hyuga... Lord Tennin, I've asked around. The higher-ups are leaning toward accepting the ceasefire terms proposed by Kirigakure."
"If things continue like this—"
"Rin will probably be sacrificed. They'll extract the Three-Tails from her body to return it to Kirigakure. Although Minato-sensei is strongly against it, there's nothing he can do. Given the village's current situation, we can no longer sustain another war..."
"Right now, the only way to avoid this situation, the only way..."
Speaking up to this point, Kakashi Hatake abruptly paused, a look of despair surfacing in his eyes.
Just as he had said, if Konoha was leaning toward accepting Kirigakure's terms and ultimately had to return the Three-Tails, then even if he begged Hyuga Yu to perform the surgery right now and truly managed to save Rin by some miracle, what would be the point of it all?
Was Rin supposed to wake up only to watch herself be killed by her own Konoha comrades, forcing her to endure that despairing reality all over again?
The light in Kakashi's eyes grew increasingly scattered, and his entire demeanor became more and more numb. He looked as though he had been completely hollowed out from this world, resembling a lonely scarecrow swaying helplessly in the wind, fruitlessly staring at everything from his past that he hadn't known to cherish, which was now being ruthlessly stripped away and crushed by this cruel world bit by bit, trampling all that was beautiful until it became a worthless joke.
Yet at the very end, for some unknown reason, Kakashi licked his dry, cracked lips. Gritting his teeth, he stubbornly blocked Hyuga Yu's path once more. He lowered his head, his lips twitching as though he wanted to justify his behavior, but ultimately, he couldn't voice a single word. He merely stood like a silent, short wall blocking the entrance to the stairwell.
From this vantage point, Hyuga Yu's gaze could directly look past the white-haired head in front of him and see the strange looks thrown their way by the passing civilian residents of Konoha on the stairwell behind him.
The thirteen-year-old Kakashi Hatake was only 1.5 meters [4'11"] tall, whereas the 1.7-meter-tall [5'7"] Hyuga Yu stood more than half a head taller than him. Consequently, Hyuga Yu had no choice but to lower his head and look down at Kakashi, a completely speechless expression plastering his face. Pointing at his already activated Byakugan, he opened his mouth and said, "Step aside. I know where Rin Nohara's ward is."
Hearing this, Kakashi shuddered violently. He snapped his head up, staring at Hyuga Yu with an expression of utter disbelief. "You... you're willing to save Rin?!"
"But, you haven't told me what you want me to do yet?"
Only now did Hyuga Yu understand why Kakashi had blocked his path again, and he couldn't help but find it somewhat comical. Hyuga Yu didn't have anything that required Kakashi's assistance, but it seemed that if he didn't give Kakashi a task to perform, this guy would assume that Hyuga Yu wouldn't help him with the surgery.
Seeing this, Hyuga Yu could only give Kakashi a literal roll of his white eyes [Byakugan], letting him figure it out himself. "Do me a favor. Go to the hospital entrance and buy me some breakfast. No triangular rice balls [onigiri], and no miso soup or grilled fish."
Kakashi still felt as though he were dreaming, and couldn't help but confirm once more, "Just that?"
Hyuga Yu nodded. "Just that."
"Are you sure you don't need me to assassinate a political opponent or clean up some dirty loose ends for you?"
"Fine, why don't you go ahead and take out Orochimaru and Minato Namikaze for me right now?"
"..."
Kakashi fell completely silent. As if terrified that Hyuga Yu would go back on his word, he swiftly vaulted right out of the corridor window and dove down, rushing straight toward the Konoha Hospital entrance to buy Hyuga Yu his breakfast.
Konoha Hospital, Inpatient Building, 3rd Floor, Ward 306 (Private Room).
After activating his Byakugan and performing a rough scan, Hyuga Yu quickly located Rin Nohara's ward inside the hospital.
It didn't take long for him to walk from the examination room to Rin Nohara's ward.
He pushed the door open and stepped inside. At first glance, he spotted a "small mound" bound by various sealing formulas and sealing ninja tools right in the center of the ward.
Walking closer, one could clearly see that the entity bound beneath the mound was a "monster" whose anatomical structure was almost entirely different from a human's. She possessed a grotesque physique: a turtle-like shell on her back, a human head, three skeletal tails extending from her tailbone, and limbs that were exceptionally slender and fragile like glass relative to her bulky torso.
Seeing this scene, Hyuga Yu knit his brows instantly. He reached out and pulled back the binding cloth obscuring the monster's head. Hidden beneath it was precisely Rin Nohara's face. However, compared to her original pure and cute countenance, there wasn't a single patch of intact skin left on her face now. Charred flesh peeled outward, and one could only vaguely discern through the silhouette that this was indeed Rin Nohara.
It matched Hyuga Yu's initial deductions perfectly. According to Terai's description at the time, Rin Nohara had suffered full-body burns and skeletal deformation under the partial Tailed Beast transformation. The only reason she had managed to cling to life was due to Minato Namikaze's remarkable sealing expertise, which locked away her final shred of vitality.
This type of injury had already transcended the boundaries of ordinary orthopedics and entered the realm of the supernatural. Relying solely on normal Medical Jutsu could, at most, help Rin Nohara repair the damage sustained under this partial Tailed Beast form, but it could not reverse the process to turn Rin Nohara back into a human.
The root of the problem still lay in the fact that the passive Yang Release effect a Jinchuriki ought to possess had failed to work on Rin Nohara.
As for the root cause of this failure—
Hyuga Yu narrowed his eyes slightly. Extending a single finger, he tapped it against Rin Nohara's forehead, injecting a strand of Tenseigan chakra into her body to reactivate the chakra that had been tightly bound by the various sealing formulas inside her!
In the next instant—Snap! Snap! Snap!
The three sealing straps binding Rin Nohara's tails violently tore open and burst apart!
An ominous surge of chakra fluctuations erupted from the center of the ward. With the seals partially undone, the overflowing crimson chakra instantly surged along the sealing formulas on the binding suit, condensing into a claw of chakra that bared its fangs and brandished its talons as it lunged straight toward Hyuga Yu's face!
Whish!
Simultaneously, the sealing formulas installed within the ward blared a massive alarm!
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
In a mere instant, several formidable chakra fluctuations erupted from multiple directions within Konoha Hospital, rapidly converging toward the location of Rin Nohara's ward all at once.
Hyuga Yu's gaze remained tranquil. Faced with the pouncing assault of the Three-Tails' chakra, he didn't even blink. Clang!
The sharp chakra claw slammed violently against the golden plasma vortex swirling around Hyuga Yu's body, producing a sound akin to metal striking stone!
Meanwhile, Hyuga Yu merely twitched his fingertip. The Tenseigan chakra injected into Rin Nohara's body instantaneously completed its nature transformation, converting into Yang Release: Tenseigan Chakra, and spontaneously manifested the technique Yang Release: Organic Reanimation [Organic Rebirth / Organic Metamorphosis].
Deep green flames suddenly flared up violently in the center of the ward!
This deep green fire scaled Rin Nohara's monster-like torso like an inescapable blaze, entirely incinerating the existing chakra, Tailed Beast chakra, and chaotic sealing formula chakra within her body. In the following breath, the originally aggressive and ferocious Three-Tails chakra fluctuations visibly and rapidly shrumk, swiftly receding from its overflowing state back into the Eight Trigrams Seal located at Rin Nohara's abdomen.
Tranquility returned to the ward once more. Even the unconscious Rin Nohara in front of him suddenly began to display a look of agony on her face. Through her dry, parched throat, she let out a wave of involuntary murmurs: "Kill me, Kakashi!"
"Kakashi, hurry..."
"Kakashi..."
"Obito..."
Hyuga Yu watched this scene without any change in his expression. He simply pulled his finger away from Rin Nohara's forehead, drawing along with it a mass of intertwined dark green and crimson chakra.
Within the mass of chakra, the captured Three-Tails chakra violently thrashed about inside the chakra sphere formed by Yang Release: Organic Reanimation in Hyuga Yu's palm in a completely irregular manner—as if it had entirely lost its sanity and was moving purely on primal instinct.
The core function of Hyuga Yu's Yang Release: Organic Reanimation was to link distinct chakras together. He had previously used it to connect with Hiruko's Chimera beast, instantaneously establishing a mental and physical connection with it to drain it into a desiccated husk.
Yet at this moment, even Yang Release: Organic Reanimation was unexpectedly unable to establish a connection with this strand of Three-Tails chakra. It could only treat it as fuel, converting and consuming it in an exceptionally low-efficiency manner.
"Chakra is the vessel for the spiritual mind."
"Being unable to connect means... the Three-Tails' consciousness does not exist."
"Therefore,"
"Rin Nohara isn't actually a true Jinchuriki right now. She's similar to Kinkaku and Ginkaku, merely obtaining a portion of the Tailed Beast's chakra... Wait, that's not right either. The Tailed Beast is complete, but its spiritual energy is incomplete."
"Which means—"
"What was implanted into her is a complete Three-Tails that lacks a self-awareness and the Three-Tails' own spiritual mind, possessing only primal killing intent, ferocity, and the desire for destruction?"
Unlike Kinkaku and Ginkaku, who possessed unique constitutions and immense strength, Rin Nohara was merely an ordinary Konoha Chunin, and a medical ninja who lacked significant combat prowess at that. She was incapable of subduing this chakra, leaving her with no choice but to allow this chakra to exert a reverse, adverse effect upon her.
Hyuga Yu quickly deduced the root cause of Rin Nohara's illness. Seemingly associating it with something, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes slightly. "And the spiritual will of the Three-Tails is actually manipulated by Madara Uchiha."
"In that case..."
Right at this moment, the door to the ward was flung open with a bang!
Kakashi Hatake, clutching a massive pile of breakfast bags, rushed into the room.
Behind him, Director Shiraishi and Director Matsumoto of Konoha Hospital followed him inside with expressions of hidden anger and gravity. Only after seeing that the person in the room was Hyuga Yu did their countenances soften slightly.
Just as the two directors were about to greet Hyuga Yu and inquire about the situation, a golden flash suddenly erupted in front of a uniquely shaped three-pronged kunai that sat quietly on the ward's windowsill. Flash!
A handsome young man with yellow hair, blue eyes, clad in a blue jumpsuit beneath a green Konoha Jonin flak jacket appeared out of thin air inside the ward, a grave expression on his face and a hint of icy killing intent flickering within his eyes.
And this person was none other than Minato Namikaze!
Minato Namikaze had been at Training Ground 28 on the other side of Konoha just a moment ago, teaching Kushina Uzumaki how to form the Rasengan, when he suddenly perceived that the sealing formula he had deployed at Konoha Hospital had been tripped. He had assumed that Danzo Shimura could wait no longer and was forcing the ceasefire with Kirigakure by dispatching Foundation ninjas to capture Rin Nohara. Without even leaving an explanation for Kushina, he instantly executed the Flying Raijin Jutsu to teleport to Konoha Hospital, intending to intercept the Foundation's attempt to capture his student.
However, upon landing, Minato Namikaze's gaze swept a circle around the ward, only to realize that the situation inside the room was slightly different from what he had anticipated. Upon spotting the sole Foundation ninja in the room alongside the other few individuals, he rapidly pieced together the current state of affairs in less than half a second. The killing intent within his eyes instantly vanished, and his grave expression seamlessly transitioned as he offered a polite bow toward the two hospital directors in the room with an apologetic smile. "Apologies, Director Shiraishi, Director Matsumoto. I came in a bit of a rush and intruded suddenly without using the main entrance."
Director Shiraishi nodded. "Understandable. We also noticed the commotion and just rushed over."
Following this, Director Shiraishi turned his gaze toward Hyuga Yu, who was standing before Rin Nohara inside the ward and seemed to have just performed some action on her, preparing to introduce him to Minato. "Minato, this is..."
"I know." Minato Namikaze cut Shiraishi off, looking toward Hyuga Yu as he revealed a bright, cheerful smile. "You must be that Tennin from the Foundation, Hyuga Yu, correct?"
He stepped forward, reaching up to scratch his head in a slightly apologetic manner as he spoke: "My apologies, I originally intended to come pay you a formal visit today."
"Coming so suddenly, I didn't bring along the gift I had prepared, but—"
Minato Namikaze extended a hand toward Hyuga Yu, smiling brightly. "It's a pleasure to meet you for the first time. I am Minato Namikaze, please look after me from now on."
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