Changing Eyes

A little-known fact:

The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were not a united front. In fact, every one of them had irreconcilable conflicts with the others.

This stemmed from the fact that the seven sword wielders belonged to different departments.

Suikazan Fuguki belonged to Kirigakure's Pursuit-nin Corps. Kushimaru Kuriarare and Jūzō Biwa belonged to the Mizukage's direct Anbu. Munashi Jinpachi and Jinin Akebino belonged to the surprise assault force. Raiga Kurosuki was a member of a squad that carried out high-difficulty missions specifically for the Mizukage, likely under the Jonin Squad.

Kirigakure's mysterious Third Mizukage precisely maintained the delicate balance among the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, making those desperadoes serve him.

However,

Kushimaru Kuriarare and Munashi Jinpachi had completely different personalities and were terribly incompatible. The only reason they could cross departmental lines and even form the "Ruthless Duo" was this:

Exploding Blade Shibuki and Nuibari could form a perfect combination.

Both ninja blades possessed tremendous killing power. Once they struck, the target would either die or be crippled. Yet both also had a weakness: when intelligence was transparent and the attack came head-on, it was difficult to catch an enemy—Nuibari required threads to be laid out beforehand, while Exploding Blade Shibuki's attack paths were too direct and easy to predict.

But once Kushimaru Kuriarare's speed, no less than Hyuga Yu's current Three Gates state, was combined with Munashi Jinpachi's strength and area damage, and the wielders of the two ninja blades coordinated their feints to buy the other side time and opportunities to land a hit, the situation would take a sharp turn for the worse!

Just like now—

After opening the Third Gate, Hyuga Yu could swiftly defeat Ao through Taijutsu and superior intelligence.

Yet after facing these two,

In only two exchanges,

He had one arm blown off and one eye pierced blind.

Still, Hyuga Yu's expression did not change much. Once he learned the enemies' names, all of this had fallen within his predictions.

His mission was to bring back the Main House's Byakugan.

His goal was to rescue Hyuga Natsu and Hyuga Tetsu.

By that measure, Hyuga Yu had already accomplished two-thirds of what he wanted to do.

What remained was to leave these two bastards with an unforgettable memory and buy time for Hyuga Natsu to escape the battlefield.

At this moment,

Having paid the price of one Byakugan, Hyuga Yu stepped on the air and flipped backward in midair, escaping the range of Kushimaru Kuriarare's Longsword Ninja Art: Earth Spider Stitch.

While avoiding having one foot severed and being trapped with no way out,

He immediately deactivated the Eight Gates state. In midair, he condensed four chakra needles in his palm and inserted them one after another into his Yintang, Jingming, Zanzhu, and Taiyang acupoints. At the same time, he tore off a talisman attached behind his ear.

The chakra needles blocked several meridians connected to his eyes, severed the connections to his eyes, disrupted the brain's central nervous system, and activated the sealing restraint array previously carved onto his body.

Hyuga Yu's only remaining Byakugan immediately sank into total darkness.

And then,

Hyuga Yu, his empty white eye wide open, arrived before the Main House.

A small hand gently took his hand, lifted his palm glowing with the Curse Removal Technique, and placed it over Main House member Hyuga Genko's eye sockets.

At the same time,

Caged Bird activated!

The Wei hand seal formed by Hyuga Genko immediately sent the signal to activate the Caged Bird Cursed Seal to the brain!

But soon, that command was distorted within Hyuga Yu's chaotic central nervous system into activating the "Sealing Technique: Restraint Array."

The restraint array carved onto his body activated incorrectly before Caged Bird did, but it bought Hyuga Yu less than half a second.

Caged Bird erupted at once!

Intense pain struck!

Yet Hyuga Yu's expression remained unchanged. Years of experimentation had long allowed him to locate the central nerve responsible for the pain caused by Caged Bird, and he had severed the nerve that sensed pain in advance.

Anyone who had often suffered Caged Bird knew this:

Caged Bird activated in sequence. First came the pain, then the destruction of the eyes, and finally the damage to the brain.

Like a rigorously logical program, every step executed swiftly and precisely.

But,

What would happen when that program encountered an unexpected error?

At this moment,

Hyuga Yu dug out Hyuga Genko's two Byakugan one after another. He silently counted the seconds in his heart, sensing every sign of Caged Bird's activation.

The chakra in his body began gathering uncontrollably toward the Caged Bird Cursed Seal. Soon, a stream of Blue Chakra, the same color as the Caged Bird Cursed Seal, surged out from it.

The instant this Blue Chakra appeared, it rushed through his meridians toward Hyuga Yu's eyes.

His sole remaining left eye began swelling, squeezing, and twisting within its socket!

The next instant,

"Bang!"

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

Immediately afterward,

In Hyuga Yu's perception, a stream of Blue Chakra pouring from the Caged Bird Cursed Seal on his forehead bypassed the eye meridians he had turned into a complete mess and rushed toward his brain.

Hyuga Yu's heart clenched sharply. It felt as though an icy snake had crawled up his spine.

He immediately raised his hand and shoved the two Main House Byakugan in his palm into his eye sockets. Then, in a span of time measured in microseconds, he reconnected the two Byakugan to the optic nerves, tiny nerve and blood vessel tissues, and the tendons between the four rectus muscles in his eye sockets with a method that disregarded all postoperative results and pursued only speed.

Finally, he connected the eyeballs to the remaining ends of the rectus muscles that had been stripped from the eye sockets!

The next second,

The Blue Chakra of the Caged Bird Cursed Seal that had been rampaging through Hyuga Yu's brain suddenly stopped.

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

And at this moment,

"It" seemed somewhat confused.

"It" had clearly already destroyed Hyuga Yu's Byakugan. Its next task should have been to destroy his brain and immediately put Hyuga Yu into a state of brain death.

But at that very moment,

A new pair of extremely pure Byakugan had somehow appeared in Hyuga Yu's eye sockets!

For a moment, this chakra became caught between the options of [return and destroy the Byakugan again] and [directly destroy the brain].

The person who had designed the logic of this cursed seal technique probably had never imagined that someone would exploit its bug in such a perilous way.

In the end,

This Blue Chakra lingered between Hyuga Yu's eyeballs and brain, hesitating again and again.

Then it suddenly surged back toward Hyuga Yu's newly replaced Byakugan!

"Not good!"

Hyuga Yu's heart instantly tightened.

At this moment,

Caged Bird had not carried out the command to destroy his brain and had instead chosen to return.

That meant it would most likely execute the order to destroy his eyes and then his brain all over again!

But Hyuga Yu no longer had any other Byakugan to dig out and replace, nor could he repeatedly perform this process to exhaust this Caged Bird Chakra. Moreover, his current environment did not allow him to attempt another eye replacement.

Outside was still a battlefield!

Hyuga Yu's heart was like a fully drawn bowstring. He did not even dare take a deep breath, afraid that the instant he opened his mouth and inhaled, his brain would violently detonate in this extremely unstable and dangerous state!

However...

Contrary to Hyuga Yu's expectations—

As though it had touched some indescribable boundary,

This Blue Chakra completely changed from its previous savage manner and slowly reached toward Hyuga Yu's newly transplanted pair of Byakugan with an exceptionally gentle, soothing motion.

The instant the two came into contact,

This Blue Chakra, whose quality far surpassed every type of chakra Hyuga Yu had ever encountered, quietly seeped into his eyes like spring rain.

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

His eyes felt somewhat itchy.

And this brand-new pair of Byakugan that now belonged to him seemed... to be undergoing some subtle transformation as well.

Within the eyeballs, some entirely new "organ" was beginning to grow.