Sage Mode

"Ryosuke's here? Then stay and eat with us. No need to help, just sit over there."

"Thanks, Grandma..." Hyuga Ryosuke grinned, his scheme having succeeded, and returned to the living room.

Hyuga Seisen rolled his eyes at him. "How many times have you used that trick already?"

"Oh, come on. We all know each other so well, don't be so picky."

Hyuga Ryosuke sat on his knees beside the table and poured himself a cup of water.

Watching his carefree demeanor, Hyuga Seisen slowly said:

"Lend me thirty thousand."

"Pfft!"

The fat man sprayed out the water he had just swallowed before he could even gulp it down.

Hyuga Seisen hastily dodged aside.

"Hey! I'm just here for a meal. Are you robbing me?" Hyuga Ryosuke wiped the water from the corner of his mouth and snapped.

"I got hurt. It's for treatment." Hyuga Seisen remained perfectly calm.

"What kind of injury costs thirty thousand? You were only tagging along on a D-rank mission. Don't tell me you got stabbed."

"Yeah. I got stabbed..."

Hyuga Seisen flung the hospital bill at him. "It cost me eighty thousand."

"Eighty thousand?" Hyuga Ryosuke stared at him with wide eyes.

"Was there really any need to go that hard on a mission?"

He lowered his head and glanced at the bill. "Good grief, they really went at you. Don't tell me you cuckolded someone."

"Cut the crap. Are you lending it or not?"

Hyuga Ryosuke stared at him for a while before sighing.

With a pout, he reluctantly took out his wallet.

"It wasn't easy saving up this little money."

He slowly pulled out the bills, counting out thirty thousand ryo as though he were counting three million.

After counting for quite some time, he finally handed them to Hyuga Seisen with great reluctance.

Just as Hyuga Seisen was about to take them, Hyuga Ryosuke suddenly pulled his hand back.

"Wait, I'm having extra servings at dinner."

"Fine!"

"You have to pay me back. I've been saving this to get married."

Hyuga Seisen snatched the bills that Hyuga Ryosuke had been clutching for ages.

"How much could getting married possibly cost?"

"Hey, hey, hey, that's too much." Hyuga Ryosuke pointed at Hyuga Seisen. "Girls throw themselves at you, but I don't have that luck. Swear you'll pay me back."

"Don't worry. I'll pay you back after the next mission."

"With the way you keep spending your own money on missions, that'll be ages from now. How am I supposed to find a wife then?"

Hyuga Seisen raised a hand at that.

"Finding a wife isn't hard. If I can't pay you back, I'll introduce you to one."

"You said it. It's a deal."

Only after watching Hyuga Seisen tuck all the money into his pocket did he look away. His expression turned serious as he asked:

"What exactly happened?"

"There was a bit of an accident."

Hyuga Seisen leaned closer, lowered his voice, and told Hyuga Ryosuke everything he had reported to Yuhi Shinku.

He did not tell Hyuga Ryosuke about the Quincy either.

It was not that he did not trust him. There was simply no need.

The village was full of surveillance. Once he said it aloud, it would no longer be under his control.

In this world, even the dead could not keep secrets, much less the living.

If he said it today, Danzo would have him shipped off to Root tomorrow. After all, long-range attacks were uniquely suited to assassination—exactly Danzo's kind of thing.

When he heard that someone had put a bounty on members of the Hyuga branch family, Hyuga Ryosuke's expression turned serious as well.

"No wonder I vaguely felt like the enemy was after me during my last mission. Good thing there was a jonin on the team."

Thinking back on it, Hyuga Ryosuke still felt a lingering sense of fear.

"They can't get the main family's Byakugan, so they're planning to use the branch family to try and break the Caged Bird." Hyuga Seisen said.

"You'll need to be more careful on missions lately."

Hyuga Ryosuke nodded.

"Dinner's ready!"

"Seisen, Ryosuke, come help carry the dishes."

"Coming, Grandma..."

Time passed quickly, and before he knew it, night had fallen.

His plan to try Sage Mode had been delayed as well.

Early the next morning.

Hyuga Seisen sat on his bed and resumed his attempts at Sage Mode.

Too much natural energy could cause petrification, so Hyuga Seisen had no intention of absorbing natural energy throughout his entire body from the start.

Moreover, his current understanding of Sage Mode came entirely from scattered details in the original work and his own deductions. He still did not know exactly what would happen when he absorbed natural energy.

So he planned to start with his palm and keep the risk within a manageable range.

He would first get a feel for the sensation and speed of absorbing natural energy, then gradually expand the area once he was familiar with it.

"Byakugan!"

Veins bulged around Hyuga Seisen's eyes, and his entire field of vision shifted into black and white.

He located several chakra points at his wrist that connected his forearm and palm, then sealed them one by one with his chakra point-striking technique.

This created a relatively sealed-off area.

He then controlled his palm, opened a chakra point connecting it to the outside, and drew the natural energy he sensed into his palm.

Within the Byakugan's vision, the natural energy floating around him began to stir, thread by thread slipping through the chakra point and slowly drilling into his palm.

Since it was his first time absorbing it, Hyuga Seisen did not dare be too aggressive. He absorbed it slowly, so that any changes would remain within a controllable range.

At first, when the natural energy entered his body, it felt cool and comfortable.

But after a little while, that natural energy began to surge.