"If I finish the assigned training within the allotted time, I can spend the rest of the day however I want."
"?"
Samui narrowed her eyes, then smiled. "Sure, you can spend it however you like. If you do especially well, there'll be a special reward!"
"It's a deal."
"Quit wasting time. Let's go!"
Samui swept her arms back and shot forward like an arrow loosed from its bow.
Neji took a deep breath and hurried after her.
[You went for a morning run. Your stamina increased, and your basic Taijutsu improved. Experience +3]
[You trained in chakra refinement. Your insights improved. Experience +2]
[You used the Byakugan. Your insights improved. Experience +1]
At nine that evening, utterly exhausted, Neji returned to his room. He stared at the panel in his mind as the notifications he hadn't checked during the day popped up one after another.
"Creak!"
The door swung open.
Samui walked in and scooped Neji up.
"Wait, sis! What are you doing?" Neji kicked his legs.
Samui didn't answer. She carried him over and tossed him into a huge wooden tub.
The tub was full of hot water. Neji sat in it, and soon his skin turned red, like a boiled shrimp.
"Ah, it's so hot!"
Neji instinctively tried to climb out.
Seeing this, Samui roughly pushed him back into the tub.
"Neji, I know it's uncomfortable. Just bear with it, and you'll be fine."
Samui rubbed Neji's head, looking a little concerned, then took out a packet of medicinal powder and sprinkled it into the tub.
"This powder is a precious secret remedy passed down through the Yozuki clan for generations. One packet costs a hundred thousand ryo. It's very expensive."
A hundred thousand ryo?
Neji raised an eyebrow. He stopped trying to climb out and gritted his teeth, settling back into the water.
After a while, when Samui saw that Neji was gradually getting used to the temperature, she dipped her small hands into the water.
"I'll give you a massage. Think of it as a reward for working so hard today."
Neji closed his eyes and cleared his mind. "Hiss... Sis, what does this secret remedy do?"
"It strengthens the body, widens the chakra pathways, and unlocks the body's potential, allowing it to produce Lightning Release Chakra."
"Lightning Release Chakra?"
At that, Neji's eyebrows lifted. Excited, he asked, "There's really a secret remedy this miraculous?"
As everyone knew, a person's chakra nature was innate.
You either had it or you didn't.
Mastering multiple chakra natures meant you could learn more ninjutsu, adapt your fighting style, and cover more weaknesses.
The five common chakra natures countered one another.
Fire beats wind, wind beats lightning, lightning beats earth, earth beats water, and water beats fire.
A ninja with only one chakra nature was already at a disadvantage against a master of all five transformations before the fight even began.
When their strength was about equal, facing a ninja whose nature countered yours left you with little chance of winning.
The Third Raikage's battle against tens of thousands of Iwa ninja and Sasuke's victory over Deidara were both partly due to elemental advantages.
As far as Neji knew, there were only three ways to gain a chakra nature you didn't have: learn a special forbidden technique, undergo a transplant, or consume a Chakra Fruit.
Forbidden techniques included Kakuzu's Earth Grudge Fear and Hiruko's Chimera Technique.
Transplants included Wood Release, the Sharingan, and the Byakugan, as well as Yakushi Kabuto's later transplant of cells from the Sound Five.
Strictly speaking, aside from the Chimera Technique, both approaches were mere shortcuts. They didn't actually give the body a new chakra nature.
As for consuming a Chakra Fruit, that was far too difficult to consider.
Seeing Neji's astonished expression, Samui smiled. "The Yozuki clan isn't a Kekkei Genkai clan. Plenty of Yozuki clan members have gained Lightning Release Chakra by soaking in this remedy. And it only works on children under ten. If you'd arrived a few years later, you wouldn't have been able to learn Kumogakure's Lightning Release Chakra Mode."
Neji narrowed his eyes. "Sis, does that mean I have to soak in this remedy for six years?"
"Mm-hmm!"
Samui pinched Neji's bottom.
"Hiss!"
Neji's molars ached.
A hundred thousand ryo a day—that was the equivalent of one Asuma a year.
In other words, training a Lightning Release ninja cost more than six hundred million ryo up front?
Was Kumogakure really that wealthy?
Samui seemed to guess what Neji was thinking and tapped him on the head. "What are you thinking? The Raikage is giving you special treatment. Ordinary Yozuki clan members don't get what you're getting. They soak in medicinal pools in groups, and the treatment stops as soon as they awaken Lightning Release Chakra. That brings the cost way down."
Hearing Samui say that,
Neji felt his nose sting.
Yozuki A hadn't just said it. He really was treating Neji like one of his own and raising him as such.
If Neji had joined Kumogakure before because he'd had nowhere else to turn, now he was beginning to feel that he belonged there.
Kumogakure was too good!
At four the next morning, Samui had just stepped out of her room when she saw Neji already waiting in the living room.
"Hey, you're up pretty early!"
The ice queen smiled, her ample chest swaying.
"Sis, crank up the training. Push me as hard as you can!"
"Fine. Let's start with a warm-up. Climb Tianyun Mountain before sunrise. We leave now."
After half a year of relentless training, Neji finally underwent a transformation.
[Congratulations! After soaking in the secret remedy for a long time, your body's potential has been further unlocked. You have awakened Lightning Release Chakra.]
[Congratulations! After training for a long time, your Byakugan has advanced to Lv2]
The first notification made Neji's gaze sharpen.
He had once asked Samui, and she'd told him that ordinary Yozuki clan members needed two or three years of soaking in the remedy to awaken Lightning Release Chakra.
He'd done it in only half a year.
On second thought, Neji understood why.
In the original story, Neji became a jonin at fifteen without any training resources.
He was a first-rate prodigy to begin with.
Neji focused his mind and looked at the Kekkei Genkai section.
Kekkei Genkai: Byakugan Lv2 (1/1000)
Effect: There is no limit to the growth of your ocular power. Your vision range, ability to see through objects, and perception will continue to improve as your ocular power grows.
Looking at the Byakugan's new effect, Neji narrowed his eyes slightly.
There was no limit to the Byakugan's ocular power.
That meant he could potentially evolve it into the Tenseigan through training.
This wasn't an unfounded theory.
In the original story, there were two ways to evolve the Tenseigan.
One was when the Otsutsuki on the moon seized the Main Family's Byakugan from the Hyuga clan and evolved it into an eye on the same level as the Rinnegan.
The other was the Giant Tenseigan, formed by fusing countless Byakugan. It was less an eye than a "divine artifact," with enough power to destroy the world.
The former was a dojutsu; the latter was a divine artifact.
The dojutsu Tenseigan was tied to one's bloodline.
The Giant Tenseigan, on the other hand, was clearly the result of accumulating ocular power.
So if he increased his ocular power enough, he could evolve his Byakugan into the Tenseigan too.
But the Byakugan of the Otsutsuki on the moon and the Hyuga clan in Konoha couldn't grow without limit like his could. Perhaps he was the only one who could evolve the Tenseigan on his own.
Before you continue