Searching

"And then what?"

"Then? ... Then that merchant somehow came to Konoha. At first, the Anbu suspected he was a spy sent by another village. After undergoing genjutsu interrogation, they learned the whole story."

Hinata let out a soft "oh" and continued to push the rice around in her bowl.

Hyuga Hiashi was very disappointed to only hear a simple "oh" from Hinata.

When he told her about this incident, he had tried his best to make it sound terrifying, but he hadn't expected to not even scare his own daughter.

Hyuga Hiashi expressed his dejection at not seeing his daughter's frightened expression.

He couldn't remember how long it had been since he last held his precious daughter, was it a month... or a year?

Although he had also done this to maintain his dignity as a father.

But shouldn't a three-year-old daughter be at the age where she'd cling to her father's embrace and act spoiled?

Hyuga Hiashi knew that if he went to hug his precious daughter, she wouldn't refuse. But... how could he bring himself to do it!

Setting aside Hyuga Hiashi's intense internal struggle, Hinata was already observing the merchant, who had luckily escaped with his life, from halfway across the village, even beyond the village borders.

On him, Hinata saw the unique aura of that strange creature. It seemed the merchant had been in close contact with a strange creature.

However, why was the merchant so far from the village, and why was the room where he was being held filled with Sealing Jutsu?

Although the room's arrangement was a bit strange, regardless, the merchant wasn't lying.

Incidentally, just a few days after "sealing" most of her eyes' functions, Hinata couldn't help but undo the "seal."

Besides the uncomfortable feeling from her eyes, Hinata thought that her strength was growing too fast, so fast that she was finding it difficult to adapt.

The Inch-Punch cultivation technique and Great Void Sword Qi were fine; with the help of the Idle System, she had a minor enlightenment once a day and a major enlightenment once every three days. There were no situations she couldn't control.

But the Byakugan was different!

Hinata had originally thought the Byakugan would evolve towards the Tenseigan, but she hadn't expected that the Byakugan's evolution over the past three years had been very... simple.

Foresight, X-ray vision, insight – aside from the 360-degree vision without blind spots, the Idle System had been strengthening these three abilities all these years.

They had now been strengthened to an outrageous degree.

This resulted in Hinata finding it strenuous to analyze everything she saw, even with her Immortal Body and highly active brain.

So Hinata had to seal some of her eyes' functions, and then these "seals" became more and more numerous.

Until Hinata completely sealed her eyes...

This was wrong. Strictly speaking, this could be considered avoiding her own power.

Realizing this, Hinata gradually unsealed her eyes.

Actually, Hinata was also courting disaster. Who else would constantly activate their Byakugan, taking in everything within a kilometer radius?

It was only thanks to her Immortal Body that her brain hadn't been fried!

These past few days, Hinata had frequently activated her Byakugan to scan the surroundings of Konoha.

But the entire world was shrouded in that chaotic, distorted power, appearing pitch black to her eyes.

These distorted powers could be considered the natural camouflage of those strange creatures. Furthermore, Hinata's main focus was Konoha and the surrounding few villages; she only glanced at other places briefly. After all, fully activating the Byakugan still put some strain on Hinata.

This led to the appearance of a strange creature going unnoticed. Hinata felt it was a great pity.

If she could have personally witnessed the formation of a strange creature, it would have been a significant source of insight for her.

Since she had confirmed that the merchant had indeed seen a strange creature, the next step was to find the village he mentioned.

But in this era, there could easily be hundreds, even thousands, of similar villages.

Even after finishing her meal, Hinata hadn't found her target.

This was the downside of X-ray vision; with so many things overlapping, she couldn't distinguish one thing from another.

Half an hour later, in Hinata's room.

It took Hinata half an hour to find an abandoned village with multiple bloodstains within its borders.

"This should be it, right?"

Hinata was certain because she saw some bloodstains in this village. In some places, the blood had pooled, leaving behind dark, dried stains.

"Strange, why don't I see any ropes?"

The merchant had said his guards were strangled with ropes, and their bodies were dismembered, leaving no intact corpses.

But now, not only were there no ropes to hang the heads, but there weren't even any bodies.

"Did I find the wrong place? Or did it leave..."

If she had found the wrong place, there were no other villages that better matched the merchant's description.

Hinata concentrated more, trying to find the supposed ropes. If it had truly left, she should at least find traces of its departure.

As time passed, Hinata did indeed see an aura similar to the merchant's on the bloodstains.

If that chaotic, distorted power was like a black mist, then the aura left by those strange creatures would resemble "smoke." It was like the smoke rising from a burning object.

The difference was that the color of the "smoke" left by different strange creatures varied. Although Hinata had only seen two strange creatures.

After a thorough inspection, apart from the traces left by the strange creature, Hinata couldn't find even a single hair of its actual body.

"Did it really leave? Where could it have gone?"

Hinata saw no signs of intelligence on the black shadow. The shadow seemed to be acting purely on instinct.

Then this strange creature, whose true form was unclear and suspected to be a rope, should also have been active around the village.

But Hinata searched an area of dozens of miles around and found no trace of the strange creature, as if it had vanished into thin air.

Hinata stopped searching. Using the Byakugan for an extended period had left her brain feeling fatigued. She had to rest.

Unexpectedly, Hinata, who had intended to close her eyes and rest for a bit, fell asleep immediately.

When she woke up, it was already evening.

"Where is Father?"

Following her usual routine and preparing to eat, Hinata sat down at the dining table only to realize Hyuga Hiashi wasn't there.

"Hiashi went to take care of some matters and will be back shortly," Hinata's mother explained.

That being said, Hinata's mother didn't make Hinata wait for Hyuga Hiashi to return before eating, but rather started now.

Clearly, "shortly" meant "in a little while."