Gathering

Sage Art could comprehensively enhance a Ninja's ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. It could even make its user grow more energized the longer they fought. The fundamental reason was Natural Energy.

The mixture of physical energy and spiritual energy was Chakra. Add Natural Energy to it while keeping all three in equal proportions, and it became Sage Chakra.

Natural Energy was quite similar to Hashirama Cells. It could enhance the user's strength, but it was extremely dangerous.

Logically speaking, one needed abundant Chakra to qualify for Sage Art training. However, in Hyuga Mirai's view, abundant Chakra was not a qualification for practicing Sage Art, but a way to reduce the chances of dying.

After all, absorbing Natural Energy was extremely dangerous. If one's Chakra was insufficient, Natural Energy might invade the body in an instant, leaving the practitioner unable to control the three energies within their body and ultimately causing them to die from Natural Energy contamination.

Compared to its risks, the benefits of Sage Art were equally obvious and tempting.

Hyuga Mirai believed that practice produced truth. He had asked Orochimaru for Ryūchi Cave's Summoning Scroll. Although it was for researching Ryūchi Cave's Sage Art, he did not intend to learn Sage Art from a group of snakes.

Even if he were to practice Sage Art, Hyuga Mirai would rely on experiments to gain control of a Sage Mode that belonged to him alone.

When Hyuga Mirai left Orochimaru's Laboratory, he also took a small piece of Hashirama Cells with him. He had requested it from Orochimaru. The amount was not much, but it was enough for Hyuga Mirai to extract the Gene Sequence from the cells, combine it with the Byakugan's Gene Sequence, and develop a new injection.

After returning to the Laboratory, Hyuga Mirai created ten Shadow Clones to speed up his injection research.

During this period, Hyuga Mirai's Chakra reserves had been growing rapidly. He had never neglected his Taijutsu training either. He could already open the Gate of Healing of the Eight Gates, and every time he exhausted his strength, Hyuga Mirai would eat a great deal of food.

Using Yang Release Chakra to stimulate organs such as the stomach allowed food to be digested quickly within his body, replenishing his physical energy. Furthermore, continuously nourishing his body's cells with Yang Release Chakra could make his body even stronger.

Hyuga Mirai was still several months away from turning eleven, yet he had already reached a height of 1.6 meters. Among children his age, he stood head and shoulders above the rest.

In the Laboratory at Konoha Hospital, after the ten Shadow Clones extracted the Gene Sequence from the Hashirama Cells, they began experimenting with the fusion of the Hashirama Cells and Byakugan Gene Sequences. Once they succeeded, Hyuga Mirai would be able to develop the injection.

At that point, not only would he be able to free himself from the Caged Bird Seal on his body, but he could also greatly increase cellular activity, add to his Gene Sequence, and bring himself closer to the progenitor Otsutsuki Clan.

"Original, at this rate, we should succeed within a month."

Hyuga Mirai nodded. I understand. I'll leave it to you.

With that, he left the Laboratory.

If he remembered correctly, today should be the day Yuhi Kurenai had invited him to a gathering. Quite a few Class A students from the same year as him had advanced to Chunin, so Yuhi Kurenai, Hyuga Kiyomi, and the others from that class had decided to hold a small get-together. Yuhi Kurenai had invited him as well.

Other than Hyuga Mirai, not a single student from Class B had graduated early. In a few more months, they would probably be uniformly arranged to take the Genin exam and then sent to the border.

The clashes along the border had been growing more frequent lately. Quite a few Medical-nin had already been transferred to the border front line. Vice-Director Kimura had even hinted to Hyuga Mirai some time ago that before long, it would be his turn to head to the front line.

Therefore, Hyuga Mirai had to develop the injection that could break the Caged Bird Seal before going to the front line. Otherwise, once the war began, he would have no time to continue his research.

Unfortunately, Konoha's Laboratory was not large. Its equipment could accommodate no more than ten people working at once. Otherwise, Hyuga Mirai could have created even more Shadow Clones.

His current Chakra reserves were absolutely at Jonin level. However, he rarely took action, and his identity as a Medical-nin, along with the Sealing Technique he had developed to store Chakra, meant that others still saw Hyuga Mirai as merely a medical Chunin.

Moreover, he was a medical Chunin with exceptional research ability—highly skilled in medicine but relatively weak in combat. Even his strongest technique, the Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms, could only barely deal with weaker Chunin.

"This should be the place."

Hyuga Mirai arrived at the entrance of a barbecue restaurant. It seemed to be a newly opened place, and he had heard the food was quite good, which was why Yuhi Kurenai and the others had chosen it for their gathering.

"Mirai-kun, you're finally here!"

Yuhi Kurenai ran out of the barbecue restaurant, her ruby-like eyes curving into crescents as she smiled at Hyuga Mirai.

"You were the last one. Everyone else is already here. Come in, I'll introduce you."

Yuhi Kurenai tugged Hyuga Mirai into a private room in the barbecue restaurant. More than ten people were already there, seated around two large square tables pushed together, with four barbecue grills in total.

When Hyuga Kiyomi saw Yuhi Kurenai tugging on Hyuga Mirai's sleeve, a trace of anger flashed through her Pure white pupils. That woman said she was going out to order food. So this was what she had in mind?!

"Sorry, everyone. I'm late. I'm Hyuga Mirai of the Hyuga Clan. I'm currently on a team with Kiyomi and Kurenai."

As soon as Hyuga Mirai entered, he smiled and greeted everyone. Of the people here, he had only interacted with Kakashi and Nohara Rin. He had merely crossed paths with the others at school and was not particularly familiar with them.

"Hyuga, come sit down."

The one who spoke was Nohara Rin. After graduating, she had spent a year studying at Konoha Hospital, and she had exchanged greetings with Hyuga Mirai a few times back then.

It was precisely because she had been to Konoha Hospital that Nohara Rin knew how renowned Hyuga Mirai, a peer from the same year as them, was among Medical-nin.

Not only had he developed Healing Tags, but he had also formulated quite a few poisons for killing enemies, as well as Medical Gear.

However, Medical Gear was too expensive to produce. A single piece cost hundreds of thousands or even over a million, and even Jonin would feel pained at the thought of buying one.

Still, the effects were excellent. They provided protection and storage for Ninja tools, while their healing effects far surpassed Healing Tags.

Hyuga Mirai had only made a little over ten of them. Aside from the three he kept for himself, the Third Hokage had taken all the rest.

"Nohara, long time no see."

After greeting her, Hyuga Mirai sat beside Hyuga Kiyomi. This brightened the Main Family Young Miss's mood considerably, but Yuhi Kurenai then sat on Hyuga Mirai's other side, turning Hyuga Kiyomi's clear skies cloudy once more.

Hyuga Mirai was the last to arrive, so after he took his seat, everyone else introduced themselves as well, getting to know one another.

However, Kakashi's presence at this kind of gathering surprised Hyuga Mirai for a moment. This guy had constantly been rejected by other mission teams some time ago and could only take simple C-rank Missions alone in the end.

Logically, Kakashi should not have been in the mood to interact with his Ninja Academy classmates, but after listening for a while, Hyuga Mirai understood the reason.

Kakashi had now joined Namikaze Minato's team and had become teammates with Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin.

Hyuga Mirai glanced around the room. It seemed that only Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin were Genin; everyone else had passed the Chunin Exams.

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