Starlight's Mystery

Meanwhile, in a small town on the eastern border of the Land of Fire...

Tokiju stood on the roof of an inn, quietly savoring the moonlight and starlight of the night.

The starlight in particular. He wanted to figure out what made it special as soon as possible so he could better plan his training.

As time passed, Tokiju had been standing on the roof for over four hours.

Uchiha Hikari, a little worried, leaped up onto the roof. Seeing Tokiju still standing there with his eyes closed, sensing the surroundings, she couldn't help frowning.

She knew what he was doing, but even after she'd come right up beside him, he still hadn't reacted.

She couldn't tell whether he'd noticed her long ago or was completely unaware.

The former would be fine, but the latter would be a very bad habit.

Hikari knew Tokiju could absorb the light energy around him.

But if absorbing light energy made him less alert to his surroundings, then she'd just have to train him extra hard from now on.

Just as Hikari was about to go over and give him a piece of her mind, Tokiju raised his index finger to his lips and made a "shh" gesture.

Seeing this, Hikari knew he'd probably noticed her a long time ago.

He just hadn't greeted her right away because he was at a critical moment.

She understood why he'd done it, but she was still a little annoyed.

So Hikari folded her arms with a cold expression and silently watched Tokiju, waiting to see what he was up to.

As time passed, another half hour went by.

Tokiju slowly opened his eyes and finally looked at Hikari, who was sulking a little.

What should you do when your tsundere girlfriend gets moody? Just cheer her up.

Tokiju's lips curled into a playful smile. "Who upset you? Tell me, and I'll teach them a lesson."

Hikari immediately turned her head away and gave a cold snort. "Hmph! You've been standing here for ages. What exactly are you up to?"

At that, Tokiju gave her a mischievous smile. "Oh? You want to know?"

Hikari rolled her eyes at him. "Forget it, then. Don't tell me."

With that, Hikari turned to leave, but Tokiju immediately stopped her.

Feeling Tokiju take her hand, Hikari shot him a cold glance. "What is it? Didn't you say you didn't want to tell me?"

After living with Tokiju in the Sealing Space for nearly two years, she'd long since figured out his personality.

With someone like Tokiju, the more you indulged him, the more he'd push his luck.

In a situation like that, all she had to do was act uninterested, and he'd eagerly tell her everything he'd discovered.

Sure enough, Tokiju held on to Hikari and started chattering away. "All right, all right. I'll stop teasing you. Come over here first. I'll let you experience it for yourself."

As he spoke, Tokiju tugged Hikari closer to him.

Hikari didn't resist, letting Tokiju pull her over.

Before long, the two of them were standing side by side.

Feeling the warmth against her shoulder, Hikari's heart fluttered and her face turned faintly red.

But then she noticed that Tokiju was half a head shorter than she was, and the feeling in her heart instantly cooled, as if someone had poured cold water over it. The mood was gone.

She reached out and patted Tokiju on the head, murmuring, "When are you going to grow taller?"

As if realizing what she'd just said, Hikari immediately looked at Tokiju—and saw him watching her with a playful expression.

Her face, which had returned to normal, flushed crimson again.

Seeing this, Tokiju didn't press his advantage. He knew there was such a thing as taking it too far.

Both he and Hikari might be mature for their age mentally, but their bodies were still too young!

For them, that sort of thing was still too soon.

Besides, given how complicated their situation was, it was hard to say which of them was the child.

"All right, all right. Enough teasing. Let me show you what I found."

After giving Hikari a little shake to signal that she should stop fooling around, Tokiju slowly raised his right hand, as if he meant to grasp the entire starry sky.

Seeing how serious Tokiju was, Hikari quickly composed herself and watched him intently. Before she knew it, her Sharingan had activated.

She sensed countless energies slowly gathering around them, but she didn't know what they were.

Just then, Tokiju's voice suddenly rang out.

He spoke slowly. "O stars, bestow your blessing upon us."

As his words fell, specks of emerald-green starlight appeared in the sky and slowly drifted down around Tokiju and Hikari.

Hikari's Sharingan widened as she stared in shock at the scene before her.

She had never seen anything like it. The starlight was so bright and so pure, as if it contained boundless vitality.

When the starlight entered her body, she felt her vision, which had been growing blurry, slowly begin to recover.

Though the recovery was extremely slow, the ocular power she'd expended using her Mangekyō Sharingan was indeed gradually returning.

Hikari was astonished. She knew that once a member of the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan evolved into a Mangekyō, its ocular power could only be spent, never replenished.

Unless they could transplant a blood relative's pair of Mangekyō Sharingan into their eyes and evolve their own Sharingan into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

Otherwise, the ocular power they expended could never be restored.

What Hikari didn't know was that, in this era, a perfect transplant of Hashirama Cells could offset the strain of the Mangekyō Sharingan through their tremendous life energy.

Just like Obito—if he hadn't had Hashirama Cells to support him, his eyes would have gone blind long ago from using his Mangekyō so much.

Tokiju smiled as he reached out and let the starlight settle on his fingertips, feeling the purest life energy within it.

"Can you feel it? How miraculous this starlight is."

Tokiju played with the starlight on his fingertips and asked Hikari.

Feeling her ocular power slowly recover, delight appeared in Hikari's eyes. "It really is miraculous. I can even feel my ocular power gradually returning."

Hikari imitated Tokiju and held out her hand, letting the specks of starlight fall into her palm.

Seeing this, Tokiju smiled faintly and said nothing more.

The starlight actually had another effect, but Tokiju wasn't sure about it.

If that effect was real, it would be far too incredible.

Just from standing beneath the starlight for a few hours, Tokiju could feel that the amount of chakra in his body had increased.

It wasn't much, but it was definitely more than he could have cultivated in just a few hours.

It felt as if his Sage Body was slowly awakening.