The three ninjas seated at the table all came from major clans and had hearty appetites. Even Rin, who had been taught manners and elegance from a young age, was no exception.
In fact, Rin's appetite was even bigger than theirs. Yan couldn't understand why she ate less than Rin despite being almost the same height.
Yan gave Rin a once-over, then turned away in a huff.
Yayoi followed Yan's gaze to Rin.
Well, her nutrition all went to the right places. That's our Rin.
At such a young age, she was already showing off things other people shouldn't have.
"Rin, if anything's bothering you, you can share it with us. We'll keep it a secret."
Yan asked curiously after Rin finished her grilled meat.
Yan's impression of Rin was average, but she didn't ignore her.
Yan was also quite interested in Rin.
At school, Yan was first in the class, while Rin was second.
Yan was quite interested in the person who was always right behind her.
Still, Yan was confident Rin wouldn't surpass her.
She had always been that confident.
"Heh. It's just the fate of the Branch Family—the Caged Bird. What's there to hide? It's a curse seal used to enslave the Branch Family."
Rin gave a bitter laugh at Yan's words, her voice threaded with bitterness and despair.
"The Byakugan. For the Branch Family, these eyes are a curse!"
Perhaps she had decided she had nothing left to lose. Rin didn't spare the Main Family's pride at all; her words brimmed with resentment and anger.
Yayoi and Yan instantly turned into attentive listeners, quietly hearing Rin out.
Yayoi's earlier guess had been right: Rin really was from the Branch Family. He just didn't know why she hadn't been branded with the Caged Bird yet.
Since they were in a corner with no one nearby, Rin's voice went unheard.
"I'm done eating. Goodbye, Miyoshi-kun. Goodbye, Yan."
Rin wiped her mouth. Seeing the two of them quietly listening to her complaints warmed her heart. She hesitated, as if she wanted to say more, but in the end, she simply said goodbye and left the yakiniku restaurant alone.
"Poor Rin-chan."
"Is the Caged Bird really as terrifying as she said?"
The two of them thought in completely different ways. While Yan felt sorry for Rin, Yayoi was wondering whether the Caged Bird was truly as powerful as Rin claimed.
The Main Family, which controlled the Caged Bird, could use it to easily curse a member of the Branch Family to death, no matter how powerful they were.
It was unbelievable. Just what kind of terrifying curse seal was it?
Countless ninjas from the Branch Family had been unable to break it to this day, and some even called it fate.
At that moment, Yayoi became more interested in the Caged Bird curse seal than ever before.
"Miyoshi-kun?"
Yan's voice brought him back from his reverie.
"What are you thinking about?"
"I'm just interested in the Caged Bird Rin mentioned."
Yayoi looked at Rin as she walked away and spoke.
"Huh. You have a strange idea of what's interesting, Miyoshi-kun."
Yan gave Yayoi an odd look.
Who'd be interested in something so cruel? What a strange man.
"By the way, Yan, could you give me some of your blood?"
As if he'd just thought of something, Yayoi asked.
Rin's mention of the Byakugan had reminded him of Yan's Sharingan.
And according to Yayoi's memories, there was a great secret behind the union of the Uchiha and Senju.
After all, the Six Paths originated from the Ten-Tails, so the two bloodlines had the same source.
His laboratory had only just started running. He couldn't get much out of studying his own blood for now, so he might as well start with Yan.
"You're not going to do anything weird with it, are you, Miyoshi-kun?"
"What are you thinking?"
"Fine. How are you going to draw it?"
"With a needle."
Under Yan's strange gaze, Yayoi took out a Blood Collection Needle.
"Why do you carry something like that around, Miyoshi-kun?"
"You mean this? I'm studying medicine. It's normal for me to carry a Blood Collection Needle."
"..."
"Based on the experiment report, introducing the blood into a white mouse makes it unusually active within a short time, after which it loses control and goes berserk."
Summer vacation was the perfect time for Yayoi to conduct experiments.
Today, he'd told Yan to amuse herself at home while he caught two white mice.
For this experiment, he introduced his own blood into the mice to see what would happen.
He injected one with diluted blood and the other with undiluted blood.
The results were disappointing. The mice exploded, and their cells died after holding out for a day.
Yayoi figured it was an issue with the blood concentration, so he caught three more white mice.
One got diluted blood, another got blood diluted even further, and the last got blood diluted as much as possible.
But the results were still unsatisfactory. All the mice exploded, though the more diluted the blood was, the longer the mice survived.
The experiment could be considered a failure, but Yayoi wasn't discouraged.
He took out Yan's blood and began testing it.
He put the cells in the blood together with Yan's cells to see what would happen.
The result was the same as before: Yayoi's cells won.
However, they hadn't won by devouring the other cells—or at least, not all of Yan's cells had been devoured.
Some of the cells seemed to have been assimilated after being covered by Yayoi's cells.
It was as though those cells came from the same source. Yayoi's cells accepted and assimilated them.
As expected, their bloodlines both came from the Six Paths, so their genes must contain similarities.
As for the secrets hidden within the two bloodlines, Yayoi would have to uncover them himself.
His memories of Naruto were too distant; all he had left were a few of the most memorable details.
For instance: master the core technology, Orochimaru, the protagonist Naruto, Sasuke, the two great clans of Konoha known for their Eye Techniques, and the Senju.
He'd only watched part of the final battle. Everything else he'd learned from the wild guesses in the comments scrolling across the screen.
But the Six Paths bloodlines of the Senju and Uchiha were real. He'd heard that from his roommate at Kassel and had come across it in videos, too.
The nine Tailed Beasts had merged to become the Ten-Tails, and he'd happened to witness the Ten-Tails descend with his own eyes.
As for the Ninja World's ultimate boss, Kaguya Otsutsuki, he'd only heard about her from his roommate.
That bit of information, casually mentioned by his roommate, was also how he'd first learned about his own bloodline.
Kaguya Otsutsuki had given birth to the Sage of Six Paths. She was also the Ten-Tails, which was why the Sage of Six Paths had the Ten-Tails' bloodline.
It really was unbelievable. There was also a negative consciousness of the Ten-Tails inside him now. He wondered if he could make something happen with a Tailed Beast.
Thinking of this, Yayoi sighed.
He was severely lacking in information.
At least he'd found a direction. There was definitely something suspicious about the genes of the Uchiha and Senju—perhaps they offered an opportunity to strengthen the Divine Tree Bloodline.
After testing Yan's cells several more times, Yayoi carefully recorded the experimental data.
Maybe I can ask Yan to collect blood samples from some of her clansmen.
He still needed to cast his net wide. He couldn't keep pestering Yan alone, and one person's genes were ultimately too limited. Yayoi needed a large number of Uchiha genes for comparison.
Next came the creation of an Alchemical Weapon.
Yayoi's carving skills were already quite good, so he took out the jade he'd bought from the shop.
Holding a carving knife, he began carving Alchemical Circuits—that is, Dragon Script.
This was his graduation project in his previous life: a small jade talisman that lowered its wearer's presence.
It could be called a happy accident, but the effect was definitely practical. It was a lifesaving treasure.
The Alchemical Circuits were naturally Dragon Script used by the academy. However, individual characters had no effect on their own; only combinations of Dragon Script could produce effects similar to Word Spirits.
This was the foundation of Alchemy: using Alchemical Circuits to turn stone into gold and transform the mundane into the miraculous, creating an Alchemical item from nothing.
Unfortunately, it only lasted one hour.
Once that time was up, the jade talisman would shatter on its own and lose all its effects.
At that moment, Yayoi focused his mind and even activated his Word Spirit, Mirror Eye.
With the Mirror Eye's perfect ability to reproduce what it saw, Yayoi flawlessly recreated his previous life's lucky stroke in no time at all.
Before you continue