Two Lives, At Last a Bloodline
Konoha, Hyuga Main House, outside the delivery room corridor.
3:17 AM.
Naruto's right index finger was twitching erratically on the outside of his thigh.
He leaned against a wooden pillar in the corridor, his posture seemingly casual, but anyone who knew him well could tell something was wrong—he wasn't putting his hands in his pockets.
With both hands hanging at his sides, he repeatedly clenched and unclenched his ten fingers.
He has been reborn twice.
A corporate slave who never even had a girlfriend in his past life is going to be a father in this one.
The delivery room door was tightly closed.
Inside were Tsunade and three medical-nin.
Four rows of Anbu stood outside the door, their painted masks appearing particularly cold and hard under the dim light of the corridor.
From the end of the corridor to the entrance of the delivery room, there is an Anbu every three meters.
This is not the standard for protecting a pregnant woman.
This is the level of protection used to safeguard a country's top secrets.
"Naruto."
Bai's voice came from the left, as light as the first snowflake of winter falling.
She carried a cup of hot tea, walked to Naruto's side, and slightly bent her knees.
"Have some tea, you've been standing for four hours."
Naruto took the teacup but didn't drink it.
When Bai's fingers touched the side of the cup, he noticed that his fingertips were cold.
The man who could kick Kisame Hoshigaki away with one kick had cold fingertips at this moment.
Bai remained silent.
She simply stood quietly half a step behind him, like an icicle that would never fall.
On the other side of the corridor, Karin sat cross-legged on a bench, her long red hair loose, her arms crossed, her gaze fixed on the door of the delivery room.
Her sensory abilities allowed her to "see" the situation inside more clearly than anyone else.
"The Chakra is stable."
She suddenly spoke, adjusting her glasses, "Both mother and child are fine, don't be so nervous."
His tone was very aggressive.
But after she finished speaking, her own fingers clenched tightly inside her sleeve.
The child had the same blood as her—the blood of the Uzumaki.
She could feel that burning, sun-like life force growing stronger little by little in the delivery room.
At the end of the corridor, Hyuga Hiashi knelt on a futon.
It wasn't just one person.
The five elders of the Hyuga Main House family, three representatives from the branch family, Hiashi himself, and nine Byakugan users knelt neatly at the end of the corridor, facing the delivery room.
Hiashi's lips kept moving.
There was no sound.
It was a prayer.
A feudal patriarch who adheres to a thousand-year-old tradition is now praying to something even older than tradition.
Time passed second by second.
Four o'clock.
4:30.
Five o'clock.
The horizon began to turn white.
The cup of tea in Naruto's hand had long since gone cold; he hadn't touched it.
Then--
"Wow--!"
The cry pierced through the heavy wooden door of the delivery room and through the eardrums of everyone in the corridor.
It wasn't the cry of a normal baby.
The sound had a strange penetrating power, like a great bell being suddenly struck.
The Anbu in the corridor simultaneously stiffened—not because of the volume, but because, accompanied by the crying, a warm, golden energy wave emanated from the delivery room.
It's very light.
But everyone present felt it.
The teacup in Naruto's hand shattered on the ground with a "crack".
He didn't look down.
His gaze was fixed on the delivery room door.
Ten seconds later, the door opened.
Tsunade walked out.
She was still wearing her surgical gown, Strength of a Hundred Seal on her forehead glowed faintly.
Her amber eyes churned with incredibly complex emotions—shock, ecstasy, and a hint of awe that she herself wasn't even aware of.
Her hands held a swaddled baby steadily.
"Naruto."
Tsunade's voice was a little hoarse.
She paused, as if organizing her thoughts.
"It's a boy. Mother and child are both safe."
She took a deep breath.
"But look into this child's eyes—see for yourself."
Naruto stepped forward.
Two steps.
Three steps.
He reached out his hands and took the swaddling clothes.
His movements were extremely light, lighter than anything he had ever done in his life.
The baby in the swaddling clothes stopped crying.
The earth-shattering cry just now seemed to have been merely to announce its arrival, and then fell silent once its purpose was achieved.
Naruto lowered his head.
The baby—with its eyes open.
It wasn't the cloudy, unfocused look of a typical newborn's eyes.
Those eyes were incredibly clear and serene; the white pupils were so pure they seemed unlike anything found in this world.
But what made Naruto catch his breath wasn't the Byakugan itself.
It's deep within the white of Byakugan.
In the deepest part of that pure, silvery-white pupil, starlight is flowing.
Extremely faint, high-purity blue light spots, like Fire Fly in the deep sea, slowly and rhythmically revolve around the center of the pupil.
One lap.
Two laps.
Three laps.
Like a galaxy that hasn't fully rotated yet.
Naruto's pupils contracted sharply.
The system notification sounded in his mind.
[Ding--Detection of the birth of the host's eldest son, Uzumaki Menma.]
[Bloodline assessment completed--]
[Pure Byakugan Bloodline: Perfect Inheritance (Purity Surpasses the Mother's).]
[Uzumaki Sage Body Genes: Perfect Inheritance (Yang Release Affinity: SS Rank)]
[Hidden Dōjutsu potential detection - Tenseigan Prototype confirmed. Current status: Dormant bud.]
[Overall assessment: This child possesses a naturally divine physique. The probability of Tenseigan is 97.3%.]
Naruto's fingers tightened slightly.
It's not nervousness.
It's an extremely primal emotion that surges up from the depths of your bones.
He stared at the baby in his arms.
The baby stared at him too.
Those Byakugan, shimmering with blue starlight, held no fear, no confusion, only an innate tranquility.
It's like looking at someone you've been waiting for a long time.
A "thump" came from behind.
Hyuga Hiashi went from kneeling to prostrating himself in a full-body bow.
His forehead pressed against the cold wooden floor, his shoulders trembling violently.
"The Tenseigan..."
The voice was squeezed out from between his teeth, hoarse, broken, and tinged with sobs.
"The supreme Dōjutsu of the Ōtsutsuki Clan, a legend spanning a thousand years... It's actually... It really is..."
He looked up.
Her face was streaked with tears.
"Naruto!"
Naruto didn't look at him.
He looked down at the child in his arms.
The curve of her lips gradually widened.
From a smile.
He grinned.
Until teeth are visible.
Finally, it turned into an extremely wild laugh that surged from the depths of his chest.
"Good son."
His voice wasn't loud, but everyone in the corridor could hear him clearly.
"Your name will be Uzumaki Menma."
He lifted the baby higher, and the golden morning light streamed in from the window at the end of the corridor, shining directly on the baby's face.
"Remember what your father said—"
Blue starlight swirled in the baby's eyes, reflecting the father's young, arrogant, and domineering face.
"From now on, everyone in the Shinobi World will have to call you 'Grandpa'."
At the end of the corridor.
Karin released her hand from her sleeve, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously curved into a smile.
Blood from the Uzumaki.
As expected, she is the strongest.
Haku stood behind Naruto, watching his back as he carried the child, something welling up in his eyes.
She didn't let it fall.
She merely curved the corners of her mouth into a very, very slight smile.
At the same time.
Amegakure.
The very top floor of the tower.
Deva Path Pain suddenly opened his Rinnegan.
Within the purple pupils, the concentric circles trembled violently.
"This fluctuation..."
His voice was icy, like the scraping of metal.
"... He's gotten stronger again."
Konan emerged from the shadows, clutching a newly received intelligence report in her hand.
"A new variable has emerged in the Nagato Hidden Leaf direction."