Chapter 3: Level 3 Physical Regeneration
Document in hand—personally signed by Orochimaru himself—Hyuga Ritsu passed through the heavily guarded front-line base without incident. Once beyond the camp gates, his figure flickered through the trees several times before vanishing into the northern forest. He moved through the dark, cold woods with their mottled shadows for roughly six kilometers before stopping.
"Byakugan, activate!"
Ritsu activated his Byakugan.
His pupils turned pure white. Veins bulged around his eyes.
A 359-degree field of vision flooded his mind with the surrounding landscape. He quickly compressed the view back to normal size, then turned to face south. Gradually, he extended his visual range until the front-line base appeared in his sight.
The Byakugan's 360-degree perception with no blind spots, its ability to see kilometers into the distance, and its X-ray vision to perceive chakra pathways—all these abilities could be freely controlled and adjusted. After all, if they couldn't be controlled, these eyes would make even daily life inconvenient, let alone combat.
However, his observation met an obstacle. The entire front-line base was enclosed within a massive spherical barrier. His vision couldn't penetrate it, preventing him from seeing inside clearly. Not that he intended to spy on the base anyway—his primary concern was the path between the camp and his current position.
Everything appeared normal.
No tail following behind.
He scanned the other directions as well. After confirming no abnormalities, he continued his journey with the Byakugan still active.
Caution and vigilance—these were habits forged through countless missions as a shinobi, brushing past death's door time and again.
True, he possessed what most fellow transmigrators enjoyed—a so-called "reincarnation benefit." But his luck wasn't particularly good. Perhaps the goddess in charge of drawing lots had just returned from the bathroom and forgotten to wash her hands, because she'd drawn him an ability called Physical Regeneration.
Level: Level 1 Low Ability User. Specific effect: forms a membrane over ruptured blood vessels to temporarily stop bleeding. Activates automatically without conscious control.
In a world of shinobi, this level of cheat ability was essentially useless.
Ritsu lacked the capital to play the overpowered protagonist, so he could only act with extreme caution. Fortunately, his ability possessed growth potential. From age five when he began training until now—ten years later—his Physical Regeneration had evolved twice.
After the first evolution, his regeneration improved to rapidly heal minor flesh wounds.
After the second evolution, it could self-heal any injury that wasn't fatal or didn't involve missing body parts.
And this was precisely one source of Ritsu's confidence in using the Chimera Technique "incorrectly."
Nine years had passed since he became Hiruko's student at age six. He'd contributed to improving the Chimera Technique himself. According to their research, the technique's greatest difficulty wasn't stealing others' Kekkei Genkai—it was fusing the stolen bloodlines.
Fusion was an extremely dangerous and difficult process that placed severe demands on the user's life force.
The reason Hiruko developed a method to simultaneously steal five Kekkei Genkai wasn't to obtain more bloodlines—it was to use the five elements' mutual generation and destruction to minimize the fusion process's risks.
With two evolutions completed, Ritsu's Physical Regeneration now qualified as Level 3, granting him significantly higher resistance to risk.
Additionally, another source of confidence was his chosen target: the Kaguya clan's Shikotsumyaku.
Tracing their origins, both the Byakugan and Shikotsumyaku came from Otsutsuki Kaguya. Unlike elemental Kekkei Genkai like Ice Release or Lava Release, both directly manifested in physical constitution. This category of bloodline caused more dramatic and obvious changes to the body.
According to his calculations and predictions, fusing the Shikotsumyaku would definitely alter his Byakugan bloodline. It would directly dismantle the Caged Bird Seal's foundation, turning it into a castle in the air that would collapse without attack.
By the time the moon set and stars faded, as dawn approached, Ritsu—who'd traveled all night without rest—finally stopped deep within a desolate forest thick with the scent of wild beasts. He stood before a tall dead tree, crawled into the hollow trunk, and opened a hidden mechanism at the bottom. A passage leading deep underground was revealed.
Ritsu jumped in, rapidly descending the vertical ninety-degree rock wall before landing smoothly.
Inside was pitch black, impossible to see even one's own hand.
But this posed absolutely no problem for the Byakugan. From above, he'd already used it to survey the secret laboratory's condition. Everything was normal. Nothing unusual had occurred during the two days he and Sensei Hiruko were away.
The "valuable material" imprisoned in the laboratory was still alive.
Ritsu walked through the darkness, arriving with perfect accuracy at the cell holding the valuable material.
Snap!
A candle was lit.
The darkness within seven or eight meters was dispelled.
In this cell of less than ten square meters, a man hung suspended. He wore tattered white clothing, his long black hair disheveled, two red dots marked between his brows. His face was fierce. He squinted against the candlelight, and after seven or eight seconds, opened his eyes to look at Ritsu. Instantly, his expression turned crazed as he released a hoarse roar.
"You Hyuga brat, I'll kill you!"
He struggled with all his might.
The chains rattled continuously with clear, crisp clanging sounds.
Ritsu ignored the man's impotent rage.
He'd struck the man's pressure points with Gentle Fist, blocking his chakra flow. Without chakra, no amount of struggling would help.
Instead, Ritsu was pleased by his opponent's tenacious life force.
This man was a jonin from the Mist Village's Kaguya clan who'd awakened the Shikotsumyaku bloodline. His combat abilities were exceptionally fierce. On the front lines, he'd killed quite a few Konoha shinobi. Ritsu and Hiruko had worked together to lure him to an isolated location and, after considerable effort, defeated and captured him alive. They concealed this information without reporting it. Their submitted report claimed they'd lured the target into a trap where explosive tags had blown him to pieces.
Thus, he became the teacher-student duo's private spoils of war.
After all, prisoners with Kekkei Genkai had to be handed over to ANBU once brought back to camp. They'd have nothing more to do with Ritsu or Hiruko, much less be usable for practicing the village-forbidden Chimera Technique.
Ritsu stepped forward and jabbed his right hand sharply at the man's neck. The hoarse cursing stopped abruptly.
The valuable material fell unconscious.
Then Ritsu sat cross-legged before the cell door. He pulled out portable rations and water and began eating and drinking, recovering his stamina from the night's journey. He needed to adjust himself to peak condition before executing the Chimera Technique.
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