Exchanging Eyes

A piece of trivia:

The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were not a monolithic group. In fact, each member harbored irreconcilable conflicts with the others, stemming from the fact that the seven sword-wielders belonged to different departments.

Suikazan Fuguki belonged to Kirigakure's pursuit force, while Kushimaru Kuriarare and Jūzō Biwa were part of the Mizukage's direct Anbu. Munashi Jinpachi and Gari belonged to the surprise attack unit, and Raiga Kurosuki was a member of a special squad that carried out high-difficulty missions for the Mizukage, likely belonging to a Jonin Squad.

The mysterious Third Mizukage of Kirigakure precisely controlled the delicate balance among the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, making these desperadoes serve him.

However, Kushimaru Kuriarare and Munashi Jinpachi, two individuals with completely different personalities and extremely poor compatibility, managed to cross departmental lines and even form the "Ruthless Duo." There was no other reason than:

Exploding Blade Shibuki and Nuibari could form a perfect synergy.

The advantage of both these ninja swords was their extreme lethality; a direct hit meant certain death or severe injury. However, their drawback was that in situations with transparent intelligence and frontal assaults, it was difficult to pin down the enemy. Nuibari required pre-laid threads, while Exploding Blade Shibuki's attacks were straightforward and easily predicted.

But once combined with Kushimaru Kuriarare's speed, which was no less than that of Hyuga Yu at this moment, and Munashi Jinpachi's advantage in power and area-of-effect damage, when the two sword-holders cooperated with feints to buy the other time and opportunity to land a hit, the situation would rapidly turn around!

Just like now—

After opening the Third Gate and quickly defeating Ao with Taijutsu and intelligence advantages, Hyuga Yu faced these two.

In just two rounds, One of his arms was blown off, and one of his eyes was blinded.

However, Hyuga Yu's expression remained unfazed. Knowing the specific names of his enemies, these outcomes were within his predictions.

His mission was to retrieve the Main Family's Byakugan;

His objective was to rescue Hyuga Natsu and Hyuga Tetsu.

In this regard, Hyuga Yu had already completed two-thirds of his goals.

What he needed to do next was to give these two fellows in front of him an unforgettable memory, and to buy time for Hyuga Natsu to disengage from the battlefield.

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At this moment, Hyuga Yu, at the cost of one Byakugan, flipped backward in mid-air, stepping on air to escape the range of Kushimaru Kuriarare's Thread Ninjutsu: Earth Spider Stitch.

While avoiding being severed at the leg and trapped in an inescapable situation, He immediately deactivated the Eight Gates state and, in mid-air, condensed four chakra needles in his palm, inserting them sequentially into his Indang, Jingming, Zanzhu, and Taiyang acupoints. Simultaneously, he peeled off a talisman sticker from behind his ear.

Using the chakra needles to block several meridians connected to his eyes, severing the eye's connections, and disrupting the central nervous system of his brain, he then activated a sealing array pre-inscribed on his body.

Hyuga Yu's only functional Byakugan was instantly plunged into darkness.

At this point, Hyuga Yu, with his empty, white, single eye, approached the Main Family member.

A small hand gently took his, raising his palm, which glowed with the "Curse Removal Technique," and placed it on the eye socket of the Main Family member, Hyuga Genko.

Simultaneously, The Caged Bird activated!

Hyuga Genko's hand seals instantly sent the signal to activate the Caged Bird curse mark in his brain!

But, very quickly, this command was distorted in Hyuga Yu's chaotic central nervous system into activating the "Sealing Technique: Sealing Array."

The sealing array inscribed on his body activated before the Caged Bird's erroneous activation, but this only bought Hyuga Yu less than half a second.

The Caged Bird erupted immediately!

Intense pain surged!

However, Hyuga Yu remained impassive. Years of attempts had long since allowed him to locate the central nervous system responsible for the Caged Bird's pain and sever that nerve in advance.

Anyone who had frequently endured the Caged Bird knew:

The Caged Bird activated in sequence, first inflicting pain, then destroying the eyes, and finally damaging the brain.

It was like a meticulously programmed procedure, each step executed swiftly and precisely.

But, What would happen when this program encountered an unexpected error?

At this moment, Hyuga Yu dug out Hyuga Genko's two Byakugan one by one, silently counting the seconds in his heart, sensing all the signs of the Caged Bird's activation.

The chakra within his body began to uncontrollably gather towards the Caged Bird curse mark, and soon, a cyan chakra, the same color as the Caged Bird curse mark, surged from the mark.

As soon as this cyan chakra appeared, it immediately rushed towards Hyuga Yu's eyes along the meridians.

His remaining left eye began to swell, compress, and distort in its socket!

The next instant, "Bang!"

Hyuga Yu's last Byakugan imploded within its socket, turning into a pool of pus.

Next, A surge of blue Chakra pouring from the Caged Bird cursed seal on his forehead bypassed the severely damaged ocular meridians as perceived by Hyuga Yu, rapidly rushing towards his brain.

Hyuga Yu's heart constricted instantly, feeling as if a cold snake had slithered up his spine.

He immediately raised his palm, inserting the two Main Family Byakugan from his palm into his eye sockets. In a time measured in microseconds, he reconnected the two Byakugan to the optic nerves, tiny vascular tissues, and the tendons between the four rectus muscles, disregarding any post-operative effects in favor of pure speed.

Finally, he connected the eyeballs to the severed ends of the rectus muscles within the eye sockets!

The next second, The blue Chakra of the Caged Bird cursed seal, which had been rampaging inside Hyuga Yu's mind, suddenly halted.

It was only one millimeter away from Hyuga Yu's brain!

And at this moment, "It" seemed somewhat bewildered.

"It" had clearly destroyed Hyuga Yu's Byakugan, and the next step was to destroy his brain, plunging Hyuga Yu into brain death immediately.

But just then, A pair of Byakugan with extremely high purity had appeared in Hyuga Yu's eye sockets!

For a moment, this Chakra was caught in a dilemma between the options of [returning to destroy the Byakugan] and [directly destroying the brain].

The person who designed the logic for this cursed seal probably never expected someone to exploit its bug in such a perilous way.

Finally, This blue Chakra stopped between the meridians of Hyuga Yu's eyeballs and brain, lingering for a while before suddenly and forcefully surging back towards the new pair of Byakugan Hyuga Yu had just equipped!

"Not good!"

Hyuga Yu's heart tightened instantly.

At this moment, The Caged Bird had not executed the command to destroy his brain but had chosen to retreat.

This meant it was likely preparing to execute the command to destroy the eyes again, followed by the brain!

However, Hyuga Yu now had no other Byakugan to swap in and use to exhaust this Caged Bird Chakra by repeating the process. Furthermore, his current environment did not support another eye-swapping attempt.

Outside, it was still a battlefield!

At this moment, Hyuga Yu's heart felt like a drawn bowstring; he didn't dare to breathe deeply, fearing that if he inhaled, his brain would explode in this extremely unstable and dangerous state!

However...

To Hyuga Yu's surprise--

As if touching some indefinable boundary, This blue Chakra, contrary to its previous ferocious demeanor, touched the newly equipped Byakugan with an extremely gentle and soothing manner.

The moment they made contact, This blue Chakra, whose quality far surpassed any type of Chakra Hyuga Yu had ever encountered, silently and slowly merged into Hyuga Yu's eyes.

A hazy white light gradually appeared before Hyuga Yu's eyes.

His eyes felt a little itchy, And his new Byakugan seemed to be undergoing a subtle transformation.

Within the eyeballs, a new "organ" was growing.