Rotation

Hyuga Kagami had already steeled himself.

From the conversation between Mitsui Chuichi and Anko earlier, he had roughly concluded that the so-called "special mission" Mitsui Chuichi had assigned to Oda and Anko was probably to contact the village's spy planted among the Sunagakure Ninja.

But how could the village possibly send two Chunin still under scrutiny to carry out such a secret mission?

It made no sense, emotionally or logically.

So Anko's intuition had been right. This so-called "special mission" was a trap. Perhaps the village truly had abandoned them, Orochimaru's former subordinates, and intended to purge them one by one through seemingly legitimate means.

"Danzo? The Third Hokage? Or the Fourth Hokage?"

The first person Hyuga Kagami suspected was Danzo. Orochimaru's early defection this time was riddled with hidden details. Hyuga Kagami could not determine what role Danzo had played in it, but there was no doubt that Danzo had benefited the most from Orochimaru's defection. By the logic that whoever benefited was the mastermind, Danzo was very likely the culprit who had driven Orochimaru into defecting ahead of time.

If that was the case, then Danzo and Orochimaru had likely fallen out completely. It would only be natural for Danzo to kill Orochimaru's former subordinates who refused to join Root.

The Third Hokage could not be ruled out either. For the sake of so-called stability, he was the sort of person who could truly do many absurdly foolish things. That much could be seen from how he stood by and watched White Fang commit suicide, how he would later pressure the Hyuga Clan—who had acted in legitimate self-defense—to avoid falling out with Kumogakure, forcing Hizashi Hyuga to his death, and how Naruto, the Fourth Hokage's orphaned son, grew up amid the entire village's discrimination and abuse.

As for the Fourth Hokage, Hyuga Kagami felt that it was probably not him.

This was not because he blindly trusted the Fourth Hokage's character. Rather, as a civilian ninja, the Fourth Hokage had neither the support of his own clan nor full authority handed over by the Third Hokage. At present, he likely did not have enough influence to arrange something like this.

At the same time, with the advantage of his age, the Fourth Hokage had no need to hurriedly purge dissidents within the village.

In any case, no matter who was directing this purge from the shadows, Hyuga Kagami had already become their target. He knew that danger hung over his head and could strike at any time.

Day after day passed. A week after Anko's ambush, Hyuga Kagami finally made it safely through the Tenseigan's adjustment period.

The dizziness and stabbing pain vanished completely, replaced by a comprehensive enhancement of his vision.

The Tenseigan possessed some of the Byakugan's abilities, and in terms of minute perception, it far surpassed the Byakugan.

With only ordinary observation, Hyuga Kagami could roughly determine his opponent's next movement by watching the flow of chakra in their body and the contractions of their muscles.

Beyond perception, the greatest change was his chakra reserves.

By conservative estimates, Hyuga Kagami guessed that his current chakra reserves were forty to fifty times what they had been before he injected the genetic solution, already surpassing those of an ordinary Jonin.

In addition, he vaguely sensed that his body had awakened other abilities. However, he was still at the outpost, where Mitsui Chuichi watched his every move, making it inconvenient to explore them one by one.

Suppressing his excitement, Hyuga Kagami finally waited several days for an opportunity to patrol alone.

"Ha!"

With a soft shout, the yellow sand in the distance surged toward Hyuga Kagami's outstretched right hand like floodwaters bursting through a collapsed dam!

With a thought, the rushing yellow sand seemed to crash headlong into a hurricane and was blown far away!

Looking at the sand filling the sky, coming at his command and departing at his gesture, Hyuga Kagami stood in the remote desert with a faint smile curling his lips.

This move combined Pain's Shinra Tensei and Banshō Ten'in. Its principle was likewise attraction and repulsion. In Hyuga Kagami's hazy memories of his previous life, Otsutsuki Toneri on the moon had used this move as well.

"Since it's a Tenseigan ability, I'll call it 'Rotation'!"

After trying Rotation several more times, the initial thrill faded, and Hyuga Kagami gradually discovered its flaw: its effective range was only about fifteen meters, and the farther away the target was, the weaker the effect became.

Hyuga Kagami panted as he frowned.

Most offensive ninjutsu of C-rank or above had an attack range exceeding twenty meters, with some even reaching fifty meters. Kunai, Shuriken, and other thrown weapons launched by skilled throwers could also easily have a lethal range beyond twenty meters.

In other words, once an enemy widened the distance, the Rotation Hyuga Kagami could currently use would only serve some defensive and disruptive purpose.

Setting aside the drawback of its limited range for the moment, the still-panting Hyuga Kagami discovered another shortcoming: the chakra reserves that had previously delighted him.

The forty- or fiftyfold increase in chakra had once thrilled Hyuga Kagami, but after using Rotation repeatedly, he was shocked to discover that his chakra was already running low.

Only then did Hyuga Kagami realize it belatedly.

The forty- or fiftyfold increase in chakra had interfered with his objective judgment, causing him to overestimate his reserves.

In truth, because his previous chakra level had been the standard Genin level and far too mediocre, even after increasing it forty or fifty times, the total amount was not as exaggerated as he had imagined. It merely surpassed the level of an ordinary Jonin.

It was still far from the limitless ability to freely unleash ninjutsu that he had imagined, and even less comparable to Otsutsuki Toneri, who also possessed the Tenseigan yet could play with the moon like a toy.

Hyuga Kagami had always regarded Otsutsuki Toneri as his benchmark, but reality dealt him a crushing blow.

"Why was this happening?"

"Where exactly had it gone wrong?"

"Could my method of evolving the Tenseigan have been wrong?"

Questions surged into Hyuga Kagami's mind one after another.

After being trapped in confusion, anxiety, and even panic for a long while, he finally calmed down. Once he changed his perspective and thought it over, all his previous confusion was easily resolved.

In his memories of his previous life, Otsutsuki Toneri had been the only person with the Tenseigan. Thus, Hyuga Kagami had subconsciously assumed that obtaining the Tenseigan would give him the same strength as Otsutsuki Toneri.

But on second thought, Kekkei Genkai varied from person to person as well!

Even among peers of the Hyuga Clan with the same Byakugan, many were stronger than Hyuga Kagami. Likewise, although they all possessed the Sharingan, before Madara, the vast majority of the Uchiha were nothing more than cannon fodder.

Otsutsuki Toneri was the final descendant of that branch on the moon, a genuine genius who alone inherited everything Otsutsuki Hamura had left on the moon. Even before gaining the Tenseigan, he had possessed Kage-level strength!

Such a person was simply not someone Hyuga Kagami, who had only possessed Genin-level strength, could compare to.

After obtaining the Tenseigan, Otsutsuki Toneri reaching the Super-Kage-level in one stroke had been entirely natural and inevitable.

Hyuga Kagami, who had not even started from the same line, was being unrealistic if he thought a pair of Tenseigan alone would let him catch up to Otsutsuki Toneri's Super-Kage-level strength.

After realizing this, Hyuga Kagami tried some Tenseigan techniques Otsutsuki Toneri had used in his memories. As expected, he could not enter Tenseigan Chakra Mode. As for the move Otsutsuki Toneri used to slice the moon apart, along with techniques such as the all-purpose Truth-Seeking Orb for both offense and defense, they were even further beyond his reach.

"Huh, could entering Tenseigan Chakra Mode require hand seals?"