Crow Forest.
This forest was located at the tail end of the Hidden Mist's encirclement, which meant that to reach this place, one would have to traverse horizontally through the entire elliptical perimeter of the Hidden Mist's surrounding formation.
The good news was that there weren't many enemies along the way.
The bad news was that although Crow Forest was called a forest, it was abnormally arid. The trees were all withered branches and dead leaves, spaced far apart from each other, with no tree paths to support ninja mobility.
In other words, once he arrived here, Hyuga Yu would be unable to use tree path mobility to create distance from the dozens of Hidden Mist ninja pursuing and converging from behind.
He would be trapped here.
If there were no reinforcements, he could only wait to die.
And after relying on the chakra amplification gained from his Byakugan's mutation to arrive here at full speed,
at this point, Hyuga Yu no longer had any hidden cards left to play.
Thirteen years of accumulation, a concentrated burst of preparation,
Byakugan Invisibility Technique, research and application of Byakugan chakra principles, Wind Release: Vacuum Blade, the Third Gate of the Eight Gates, Eight Trigrams Life Gate Burst, and over a dozen medical ninjutsu copied with the Byakugan.
This was the entirety of Hyuga Yu's capabilities as a ninja.
At this moment,
inside Crow Forest.
"Huff... huff..."
Hyuga Yu leaned against a bare banyan tree, catching his breath for a moment, calming the changes in heart rate brought on by intense movement.
After recovering some of his stamina, he pulled out soldier pills from his ninja tool pouch and stuffed a handful into his mouth,
closely monitoring his body's changes while remaining ready for battle at all times.
At this moment,
the mutation of the brand-new Byakugan in his eye sockets was still continuing.
Ever since fusing with that cyan chakra generated by the Caged Bird curse seal, Hyuga Yu had quickly gained his first new ability—
Observation Eye.
Not the Far-Seeing Eye, nor the Insight Eye, but dynamic visual acuity similar to the Sharingan.
Of course, this dynamic visual acuity wasn't particularly strong—roughly equivalent to a single tomoe Sharingan level, at a stage where he could clearly see most ninjutsu and taijutsu movements but couldn't replicate them one-to-one.
Was it useful?
Of course it was useful—in fact, it was precisely the kind of ability Hyuga Yu desperately needed at this stage.
With this dynamic visual acuity, Hyuga Yu's Byakugan now combined Observation Eye, Insight Eye, Far-Seeing Eye, and Clairvoyance Eye all in one, capable of greatly assisting Hyuga Yu in mastering taijutsu, improving his throwing techniques, and even enhancing the accuracy of his archery by more than double.
And soon,
Hyuga Yu gained his second brand-new ability—
Chakra Amplification.
Through internal observation with his Byakugan, Hyuga Yu discovered that the chakra inside his body was transforming at a methodical pace from ordinary sky blue into a mysteriously deep, clear cyan chakra.
This was somewhat similar to Otsutsuki Toneri's cyan chakra that enveloped his entire body when he transformed into Tenseigan Chakra Mode.
Hyuga Yu wasn't certain whether this was the same thing, but he could confirm that the quality and grade of this chakra was clearly higher than ordinary chakra,
and that ninjutsu released with this chakra would be more powerful.
Finally,
there was the change in chakra quantity.
The villagers always said that Hyuga Yu's talent was poor, and even Hyuga Yu himself thought so.
So just how poor was this talent?
It could be understood this way: the amount of chakra he could refine was only one-tenth that of his peers.
Hyuga Yu was born with half a golden spoon in his mouth. His family circumstances were definitely not poor—his parents were high-ranking branch family members who had a life-and-death friendship with the main family elder Hyuga Takahiro,
and the basic training resources Hyuga Yu enjoyed from childhood were essentially equivalent to those of the Hyuga main family.
Expensive medicinal baths, ample and nutritious food, professional basic ninja instruction...
Training in both the Leaf's Strong Fist and the Hyuga's Gentle Fist, working so hard that even Might Duy tearfully acknowledged him,
Hyuga Yu's chakra amount was approximately 2 refined units.
After forcibly opening the Third Gate of the Eight Gates, clearing all the meridian blockages throughout his body, and materializing all of his past efforts and money,
it was merely 5 refined units.
But now—
This situation was undergoing a complete transformation!
His base chakra amount alone, after the Byakugan mutation, rapidly increased from 2 refined units to 4 refined units.
This level could already support Hyuga Yu in accomplishing many ideas he'd conceived in the past but couldn't execute due to insufficient chakra.
Moreover, Hyuga Yu could sense that this change was still continuing—it had simply transformed from a surging tidal wave into a gentle, silent trickle,
and that stream of chakra, after turning cyan, was quietly transforming Hyuga Yu's constitution as it circulated through his meridians,
opening previously blocked meridians,
strengthening previously fragile pathways,
causing Hyuga Yu's physique to continuously evolve toward an unknown direction.
With such a physique and foundation, Hyuga Yu was truly experiencing a rebirth!
His future path would definitely not be limited to Chunin, Jonin, or Elite Jonin,
the scenery of Kage-level,
and even the path beyond Kage—he was qualified to catch a glimpse of them!
But the prerequisite was,
that he still had a future.
At this moment,
in the sky above the nameless forest adjacent to Crow Forest, a flock of birds suddenly took flight in alarm, flapping their wings and fleeing far away.
Hyuga Yu took a deep breath and stood up, supporting himself against the tree trunk.
He didn't immediately activate his Byakugan,
although his chakra reserves had greatly improved compared to before, the enemy he faced was a Hidden Mist force of at least 20 people, including at least 4 Jonin!
He needed to conserve chakra,
to hold out until Hyuga Natsu delivered the message to Root. Aburame Ryoma was a clever man—he would surely understand his current value and the purpose behind his actions.
His ninja sword had been lost, and his bow was still hanging from a tree in the nameless forest,
Hyuga Yu reached for his ninja tool pouch,
which was completely empty.
Finally, he silently pulled a scroll from his storage pouch, extracted a sharp surgical scalpel, and gripped it in his palm.
Hyuga Yu looked coldly toward the entrance of Crow Forest.
Crow Forest and the nameless forest belonged to two different landmasses, with a canyon full of jagged rocks between them. Connecting the two was a steel cable suspension bridge.
If nothing unexpected happened, the enemy would attack from this direction,
and Hyuga Yu rapidly calculated in his mind how to utilize the terrain here.
However,
just then,
"—Flutter flutter!"
In the distance, within the nameless forest, something unexpected seemed to have occurred. More birds were startled into flight, forming an unbroken mass of dark 'clouds,' as if a large force was racing in the complete opposite direction from Hyuga Yu.
A trace of bewilderment flashed through Hyuga Yu's eyes.
A moment later,
the commotion in the nameless forest ended, and from the forest on the other side of the cliff, a man suddenly walked out at a leisurely pace.
A young man with long black hair, stubble, and heavy dark circles under his eyes stepped onto the suspension bridge and slowly walked over.
From the forehead protector on his head, Hyuga Yu identified that he wore a Hidden Leaf headband.
Just like that, this man walked from the other side of the suspension bridge to stand before Hyuga Yu, his face full of irritation.
He looked Hyuga Yu up and down, his gaze lingering for a moment on the scalpel in Hyuga Yu's hand, then let out a dull breath and spoke flatly:
"Let me introduce myself."
"From today on, I'm your handler, Shinraku Tanuki."
"Shinraku... Tanuki?"
Hyuga Yu was slightly stunned, thinking to himself—wasn't this the Root remnant from Boruto who worked on the 'Gozu Tenno' project, that Root technical specialist?
Shinraku Tanuki raised his eyebrows slightly, staring at Hyuga Yu's Byakugan, then shook his head and stated bluntly:
"You're in big trouble."
"What trouble?"
"Aburame Ryoma couldn't hold back the Hidden Mist. There are clever people among them too. Now, he's run off with his men."
"Ao... ran off with his men?" Hyuga Yu was stunned.
This shouldn't be possible!
Based on Ao's displayed fanaticism, those eyes that practically wanted to devour him whole,
how could he calm down?
Shinraku Tanuki snorted with schadenfreude and sneered:
"Soon, the fact that you, a Hyuga branch family member, stole the main family's Byakugan will be known throughout the world."
Hyuga Yu's heart went cold, and he immediately asked: "Then what should I do?"
Shinraku Tanuki thought for a moment, his gaze suddenly shifting to the scalpel in Hyuga Yu's hand, and asked:
"Do you know medical ninjutsu?"
"Yes."
"What's your skill level?"
"Give me a year, and I could make it into the upper ranks of the Medical Corps."
Shinraku Tanuki translated Hyuga Yu's words: "So you haven't mastered the three major A-rank medical ninjutsu yet. Your skills are just so-so."
Hyuga Yu: "..."
"But if your skills were too good, I wouldn't dare use you anyway. You'll do." Shinraku Tanuki looked down at Hyuga Yu and said flatly:
"Be my assistant, and I'll protect you from the Hyuga main family."
Hyuga Yu was stunned, somewhat unable to believe it: "You?"
The future's number one Root remnant, a wanted criminal of the Hidden Leaf, claimed he could withstand the pressure from the Hyuga main family to protect him?
Wait, was this still the Hidden Leaf?
————
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