The Meaning of Hyuga Yu

Among the three great dōjutsu currently existing in the ninja world, The Sharingan, due to its severe burden on non-Uchiha clan members, is rarely plundered. Even if it were, facing the still powerful, volatile, and extremely protective Uchiha clan would be a greater problem.

The Samsara Eye has been lost for a long time and is not present in any nation's intelligence network.

Therefore, The Hyuga clan's Byakugan, which has a small burden on the transplant recipient, great strategic significance, and possesses various peculiar effects, quickly became an object coveted by the major powers of the ninja world.

(PS: For example, the future Ao of the Mist had no difficulty using the Byakugan; the young Hyuga who appeared in the official novel "The Last: Naruto the Movie" was born at this time and also possessed a single Byakugan without side effects.)

But at this time, The Hyuga clan's ancestral Caged Bird curse seal became an insurmountable obstacle.

This caused the major powers and ninja villages of the ninja world, despite coveting the Byakugan, to only focus their attention on the heavily protected Hyuga Main Family.

The difficulty of hunting a member of the Hyuga Main Family can be seen from the forces dispatched by Kirigakure this time; it was almost the scale of mobilizing enough Kirigakure ninja for a localized war, with all of them infiltrating the Land of Fire to conduct covert operations behind enemy lines.

The intelligence work and preliminary preparations behind this were an immeasurable cost.

But at this moment--

A member of the Hyuga Branch Family appeared, one who could withstand the Caged Bird curse seal, extract the Main Family's Byakugan, transplant it into himself, and survive when the Caged Bird was triggered!

This meant that, To some extent, this Hyuga Branch Family member had deciphered the "Caged Bird"!

So, As long as they controlled him, wouldn't it be possible in the future to simply capture Hyuga Branch Family ninja from the front-line reconnaissance units, have them extract the Byakugan, and transplant it into their own village's ninja, thus easily obtaining this highly strategic Kekkei Genkai?

Wouldn't obtaining him mean controlling a Byakugan unit?

From this perspective, The "value" possessed by this Hyuga Branch Family ninja named "Hyuga Yu," after completing this first Byakugan transplant surgery in the ninja world, Began to skyrocket!

In reality, Hyuga Yu could not extract the Byakugan of a Hyuga Branch Family member, nor had he deciphered the Caged Bird at all.

His own Byakugan was easily destroyed after the Caged Bird was triggered, and Hyuga Yu was completely unable to stop this process.

What he truly accomplished was, after the Caged Bird destroyed his Byakugan, using extremely exquisite Medical Ninjutsu, he replaced his eye sockets with a Main Family Byakugan that anyone could have dug out. And by sheer luck, he survived the explosion of the Caged Bird curse seal, whose principles were completely unknown.

He was merely gambling with his life, And, even more fortunately, he won!

This seemingly gift from fate, at this moment, bestowed upon him a false intelligence that was severely misinterpreted.

Hyuga Yu immediately decided to play along with the situation.

The current situation was:

The entire Byakugan leak incident was actually just a bait deliberately released by Root to lure out a bigger fish.

Hyuga Yu didn't know what kind of target required such a valuable bait.

But he knew--

At this moment, Kirigakure's actions were actually under Root's surveillance.

And Hyuga Yu needed to prove that he was more "valuable" or "troublesome" than the target Root truly wanted to hunt, To the extent that, Root would realize that the intelligence could not be leaked, and Kirigakure could not be allowed to take the information back and spread it throughout the ninja world.

Otherwise, there would be greater trouble!

And none of the Kirigakure members present who knew Hyuga Yu's secret could be allowed to escape; they all had to be killed.

Thus, At this moment, the roles of hunter and prey were reversed once again!

At this moment, On the other side, about 4 kilometers away from the nameless forest battlefield, in front of the entrance to an abandoned laboratory.

"What did you say?"

Aburame Ryūma suddenly raised his head and looked at Terai, the Root ninja wearing a bird mask in front of him.

Terai reported in a deep voice, "Hyuga Yu brought back the Byakugan."

"It's just that he used a different method—he transplanted the Main Family's Byakugan onto himself."

Upon hearing this unexpected news, Aburame Ryūma's eyes widened slightly. His gaze, fixed straight through his sunglasses onto Terai, flickered with a hint of incomprehensible confusion.

"Wait, the Caged Bird didn't activate?"

"It activated, but... Hyuga Yu survived."

Aburame Ryūma's expression immediately darkened.

"This is troublesome."

Aburame Ryūma had initially expected Hyuga Yu to complete the mission he assigned in a different way—

Abandon Hyuga Natsu and bring back Hyuga Genko.

People of Root should not possess the luxury of emotions.

Only by being completely heartless could one be without any flaws and reach a level of "invincibility."

This was precisely the kind of person Aburame Ryūma wanted Hyuga Yu to become.

Based on his observations, Hyuga Yu had about a 10% chance of completing this mission after opening the third gate of the Eight Gates and cooperating with the parasitic insects he provided.

But now, Hyuga Yu had proven himself in a way that exceeded everyone's expectations, even the entire Ninja world's.

He not only proved that Hyuga Yu had the capital to resist the Hyuga Main Family, but also that his current "value" far surpassed his identity as a Hyuga Branch Family Ninja.

However, This "value" was for the enemy.

Thinking of this, Aburame Ryūma immediately frowned, his face grim as he reached out to the side.

"Bring me our troop deployment map!"

A Root Ninja quickly handed over an extremely detailed map.

Aburame Ryūma took the map and glanced at it, quickly locating Hyuga Yu's position on the map, as well as his likely escape route—

Crow Forest.

This was a forest located south of the Land of Fire, west of an unnamed forest. Continuing west from this location led to the River Country, sandwiched between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind.

Although they hadn't communicated face-to-face, Aburame Ryūma immediately understood Hyuga Yu's thoughts.

Clearly, Hyuga Yu was a smart person. Since he had chosen to go this far, he would naturally have considered how to conclude things afterward.

However, this consideration seemed exceptionally ruthless.

For his own benefit, to protect the person he wanted to protect, this brat had unhesitatingly used Root as his tool.

Just like that "Darkness of the Ninja"!

Aburame Ryūma couldn't help but ponder inwardly, "Tsk... what kind of person is this brat, really?"

At this moment, a Root Ninja beside him suddenly spoke, interrupting Aburame Ryūma's thoughts.

"Lord Ryūma, what should we do?"

"Mobilize the Root Ninja located at Grass Wave Coast, the unnamed forest, and those currently on the border of the River Country, to proceed to Crow Forest and prepare to annihilate the entire Kirigakure White Eye hunting team there..."

As he spoke, Aburame Ryūma suddenly paused slightly, narrowing his eyes.

After a moment of thought, He suddenly waved his hand, changing his mind.

"Wait,"

Aburame Ryūma pointed at the abandoned laboratory before him.

"Go and call out the guy inside."

"There's no need to mobilize Root from other areas. Terai, you and the third squad will follow behind the Kirigakure pursuit team and stop after dealing with a few Chunin."

"Remember to make a slight commotion."

At this moment, Terai, who was usually inquisitive, did not ask why. He immediately knelt on one knee and accepted the order.

"Yes!"