Is the Byakugan Really Inferior to the Sharingan?

"Lady Tsunade, how could I possibly know what Lord Orochimaru is thinking?"

Hyuga Hane said helplessly, "Perhaps he simply wants to protect his comrades. After all, he's the commander-in-chief at the Mist Village Battlefield."

"Protect his comrades? Orochimaru?"

For some reason, Tsunade felt like laughing, but she couldn't.

If not for the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars, Orochimaru probably would have become Hokage, wouldn't he?

A remarkable Hokage who truly valued his comrades.

But Tsunade could no longer understand the Orochimaru of today.

War...

Tsunade waved a hand listlessly. "You can go."

What did it matter to her what Orochimaru wanted to do?

Let the old man worry about it himself.

She was just a frail kunoichi suffering from hemophobia. What did Konoha's troubles have to do with her?

"Even Tsunade's been called back to help. Looks like we can expect some results."

On the street, Hyuga Hane glanced back toward the laboratory, deep in thought.

As a member of the Hyuga Branch Family, his biggest problem was the Caged Bird, but the Caged Bird couldn't actually kill him.

During his first deal with Orochimaru, he had traded the secrets of the Senju and Uchiha for Orochimaru's guidance and the Spirit Transformation Technique!

Did the body he possessed truly belong to him, when his soul came from outside the Shinobi World?

The results of the earlier Impure World Reincarnation had confirmed that it didn't. And he had already suspected as much when he obtained the Spirit Transformation Technique.

When he used the Spirit Transformation Technique, he sensed the Pure Land's existence and could even travel there directly.

However, he had a feeling that if he entered the Pure Land, it would be difficult to return, so he hadn't tried.

This also meant that, since his soul had come to the Shinobi World, his life and death were no longer tied to his body, but determined by whether his soul survived. His body was merely a vessel for his soul.

The Caged Bird couldn't kill his soul, so it posed little threat to him.

Still, he hadn't come by his current strength easily, and Hyuga Hane had no intention of starting over from scratch. Now that he had taken action, he naturally intended to secure results.

Hyuga Hane's gaze shifted to a kunoichi walking toward the laboratory.

Hyuga Miyuki.

The Branch Family member who had called the Caged Bird ugly that day.

The research into the Byakugan had made some progress. I'll let you test it for me—and add another spark to the current situation.

"Lady Tsunade, how's the research on the Caged Bird coming along?"

When Hyuga Miyuki entered the laboratory, her pretty face was visibly tense.

"Promising." Tsunade glanced at the young woman's lovely face, her tone calm. "In another month, your Branch Family will have a brand-new Caged Bird engraved on you."

Hyuga Miyuki's expression stiffened.

"...I see."

As expected, nothing had changed.

When she got home, Hyuga Miyuki collapsed onto her bed, exhausted and tormented by her thoughts.

Was she really going to go on like this, giving everything to the Main Family just like her parents had?

Remembering how her parents had been forced onto the battlefield because a Main Family shinobi had acted on a whim, only to die there, Hyuga Miyuki clenched her fist.

If the Main Family shinobi hadn't gone to the front lines, her parents wouldn't have had to accompany them as guards.

If not for the Main Family, they wouldn't have been ambushed by the Mist Village...

Giving everything to the Main Family...

"No! Absolutely not!"

She got up from the bed and went to the desk.

She raised two fingers of her right hand before her eyes.

"Release!"

A small barrier dissolved, and the desk drawer opened.

Hyuga Miyuki looked at the scroll inside, her raised hand frozen in midair.

She gritted her teeth. "Whatever his purpose is, I need strength right now!"

Having convinced herself, she snatched up the scroll and began to study it carefully.

The scroll had appeared in her room not long ago.

She didn't know who had put it there or whether it was a trap.

But as a member of the Branch Family, even with both her parents having been Jonin, she had no right to access advanced Gentle Fist training methods.

If she wanted the strength to resist, she had to take it.

The first part of the scroll recorded various Gentle Fist techniques, including Rotation and the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.

But Hyuga Miyuki quickly skipped ahead to the end.

"The Byakugan and the Sharingan are the same type of Kekkei Genkai. The latter's activation and evolution are connected to Yin Release Chakra. What about the former?"

"The Byakugan's visual prowess varies between Hyuga shinobi as well, and this is directly reflected in the range their Byakugan can detect."

"Research shows that this, too, is related to Yin Release Chakra. However, the difference is tiny. The Byakugan's detection range seems to max out at one kilometer, and Yin Release Chakra can only extend it by a few meters."

"The Byakugan is clearly different from the Sharingan. This Kekkei Genkai is remarkably stable. Simply increasing Yin Release Chakra won't make it evolve."

"However, thanks to this stability, its rejection response is astonishingly small, and anyone can receive a transplant. Its visual prowess is also extremely stable, and any Byakugan can perfectly absorb the visual prowess of another."

"What would happen if one Byakugan absorbed the visual prowess of every Byakugan in the Hyuga Clan?"

"The Sharingan's evolution can greatly increase Chakra and even advance to the legendary Mangekyo. It is the power that let the Asura of the Ninja World roam the Shinobi World."

"As one of the three great dojutsu of the Shinobi World, is the Byakugan really inferior to the Sharingan?"

The last section of the scroll read like a record of an experiment. And she was the test subject chosen by the person behind it to continue the research.

But Hyuga Miyuki didn't want to refuse.

The other person had given her two choices.

First, train in the Gentle Fist step by step and eventually become a Jonin of the Hyuga Clan.

Second, inherit the research and continue the experiment.

The first choice would let her live well among the Hyuga—as a high-ranking "slave"—but it wouldn't let her avenge her parents!

After their deaths, she could only bury her hatred deep inside and never show it to anyone.

Because she didn't have the strength to take revenge.

Whether it was the Main Family member who had caused her parents' deaths and might still be alive, or the Mist Village Jonin who had killed them, she was only a Chunin and lacked the strength to avenge them.

Let alone take revenge on the Hyuga Main Family, the source of all this tragedy...

Hyuga Miyuki stared at the words on the scroll—"Is the Byakugan really inferior to the Sharingan?"—and whispered to herself.

I'll prove it for you!

Elsewhere, Hyuga Hane smiled faintly as he activated his Byakugan.

It was about to begin.