"Is it still not done?"
On a massive rock on the island, Seimei furrowed his brows, sensing the rapidly depleting chakra in the strange space between his eyebrows. He let out a soft murmur.
After a moment's thought, Seimei decided not to take any chances.
He reached out, pulling a metal orb sealed with the Seven-Tails from his ninja pouch.
Then, splitting off a sliver of his focus, he raised his hands to form seals and unleashed the "Chakra Absorption Technique."
In an instant, a stream of tailed-beast chakra—filtered twice through the "Senrō Banshō Seal" and the "Chakra Absorption Technique"—flowed into his body.
He directed it to replenish the dwindling reserves in the space between his eyebrows.
With this, he wouldn't have to worry about running out of chakra anytime soon.
Right now, his Byakugan was like an insatiable black hole, frantically devouring his chakra.
Seimei had a hunch that even if he didn't fill it up all at once, as long as he kept supplying enough chakra later, it wouldn't stop its evolution.
But since he could get it done in one go, unless there was absolutely no other option, Seimei wasn't about to let it stall.
With that in mind, he ramped up the speed of absorbing the Seven-Tails' chakra.
However, while Seimei now had plenty of chakra to spare, the Seven-Tails wasn't exactly thrilled.
Earlier that day, Seimei had already pushed it to the limit of its recovery, siphoning off a million points of chakra. Now, with this sudden extra drain, the Seven-Tails was starting to buckle under the strain.
Inside the sealed space, the Seven-Tails was bound by eight chakra chains, unable to move. Still, the unsteady rise and fall of its aura made its anger crystal clear.
Too bad for it—Seimei didn't care how mad it got. He was laser-focused on extracting its chakra.
Time ticked by, second by second.
The Seven-Tails' condition worsened until it looked like it might not hold out much longer. Just then, Seimei stopped pulling chakra.
It wasn't out of pity, though—his Byakugan had finally stopped absorbing.
Ignoring the barely-conscious Seven-Tails in the sealed space, Seimei shifted all his attention to the Byakugan at his brow.
After soaking up over six million points of chakra, his Byakugan had completed its evolution.
"Panel!"
With a thought, Seimei summoned his proficiency panel.
A familiar light-blue, semi-transparent screen popped up:
---
[Name: Uchiha Seimei]
[Age: 13]
[Physique: 24]
[Spirit: 26]
[Chakra: 213,000 (435,252 → 449,076)]
[Bloodline: Sharingan · Eternal Mangekyō (30/100,000) → (44/100,000)]
[Byakugan (991/1,000) → Byakugan (1/5,000)]
[Skills:]
- Chakra Refinement Technique: Lv6 (3,967/10,000) → Lv6 (4,183/10,000)
- Fire Release · Crimson Lotus Prison Flame: Lv5 (1,325/5,000) → Lv7 (16,025/20,000)
- Fire Release · Thousand Swallow Dance: Lv4 (820/2,000) → Lv5 (3,320/5,000)
- Fire Release · Focused Flame Strike: Lv5 (1,250/5,000) → Lv7 (14,250/20,000)
- Lightning Release · Thunderbolt Sword: Lv4 (800/2,000) → Lv6 (2,800/10,000)
- Lightning Release · Thunder Beast Performance: Lv4 (810/2,000) → Lv6 (110/10,000)
- Earth Release · Black Soil Rain: Lv4 (850/2,000) → Lv6 (1,050/10,000)
- Earth Release · Earth Vein Dragon: Lv4 (750/2,000) → Lv6 (820/10,000)
- Izanagi: Lv6 (6,700/10,000) → Lv7 (1,200/20,000)
- Izanami: Lv6 (6,700/10,000) → Lv7 (1,200/20,000)
- Chakra Scalpel: Lv8 (26,850/50,000) → Lv8 (44,850/50,000)
- Chakra Control: Lv7 (1,450/20,000) → Lv7 (3,500/20,000)
[Perfected Skills:]
- Lightning Release Chakra Mode: Lv7 (0/0); Heart Lock Seal: Lv7 (0/0); Illusion · Mirror Heaven and Earth Shift: Lv9 (0/0); Transcription Seal: Lv9 (0/0).
---
"Well, looks like it worked!"
Glancing at the panel, Seimei muttered to himself as he saw the Byakugan in the bloodline section shift from (991/1,000) to (1/5,000).
Though it still bore the name "Byakugan," the change in its evolution cap confirmed his instincts—after absorbing a massive amount of chakra, his Byakugan had successfully leveled up.
Closing his eyes, Seimei focused on the sensation of the Byakugan at his brow.
Something deep within told him that after this evolution, the eye felt more "in tune" with him.
Plus…
Seimei opened his eyes, yanked off his Leaf Village headband, and raised his hands to form seals. He partially released the "Senrō Banshō Seal" at his brow, exposing the Byakugan beneath.
Then, he concentrated and activated it.
Instantly, everything within a one-kilometer radius came into view.
After savoring the sensation for a bit, Seimei noticed that the precision of his Byakugan had noticeably improved compared to before.
In other words, he could now pick up on finer details.
And that wasn't all.
Focusing harder, Seimei locked onto a tree about a hundred meters away.
In the next instant, his vision snapped to it.
The speed of that shift was faster than before, too.
That meant his reaction time in chaotic battles would be quicker now.
On top of that, there were other small improvements across the board—nothing major, but all noticeably better.
Still, as he'd expected, this evolution didn't bring any dramatic changes to his eye.
Even so, Seimei could clearly feel its potential had grown, with a latent power lying dormant inside, as if waiting for the day it'd burst free.
It got him thinking about how the Byakugan evolved. Unlike the Sharingan's gradual, step-by-step progression, the Byakugan's upgrades seemed to happen all at once.
Seimei figured this hidden power was probably gearing up for the leap to the Tenseigan.
That realization gave him a bit more confidence in its future growth.
He tested the evolved Byakugan for a while longer, getting a handle on its changes, before finally deactivating it.
"Inhale… exhale…"
Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly.
Seimei calmed himself down.
Then he started reflecting on what went wrong this time.
Yeah, wrong.
He'd assumed the Byakugan's evolution would work like the Sharingan's—hit the mark and it'd just happen. He hadn't expected it to need a massive chakra infusion on top of that.
He should've seen it coming.
After all, in his past life, Toneri Ōtsutsuki had gathered a ton of chakra to fuse the Tenseigan.
Sure, his Byakugan wasn't jumping straight to that level, but it was still an evolution. He should've been prepared.
Yet he'd done nothing.
This time, if he hadn't had a decent chakra stockpile in that space between his brows—plus the Seven-Tails as a giant "battery"—the process might've stalled.
It wouldn't have ruined the outcome, but restarting it later would've been a hassle.
And that could've thrown off his training and evolution rhythm down the line.
Who knows what kind of hiccups that might've caused?
So, if he could avoid it, he had to.
This whole thing was a lesson for him.
Next time the Byakugan needed to evolve, he'd make damn sure to stockpile enough chakra beforehand.
Speaking of the next evolution…
Seimei perked up, tapping into the leftover chakra in that strange space to nurture the Byakugan. He wanted to test how much chakra it'd need to keep climbing—and figure out its new limits!
Having completed one evolution, the Byakugan had reset its prior buildup, giving him a clean slate to push its boundaries again.
He had big plans, but reality wasn't quite ready to let him pull it off so fast.