Chapter 29: Nine-Tails' Baryon Mode
Atop the high tower, a man and a woman stood in the rain, gazing out at Amegakure shrouded in the rain.
This ninja village, this country, it is weeping.
"That powerhouse hasn't appeared for a long time now."
"Has Zetsu failed to find him too?"
Konan shook her head: "I've already asked. There's no news."
"However, Uchiha Madara told me he has already scouted a very potential candidate for us."
Nagato fell silent for a moment, merely nodding expressionlessly: "...Mm."
"Orochimaru has been hiding in his lab recently researching some kind of immortality. I always feel he will set his sights on your Rinnegan," Konan reminded Nagato.
Nagato said calmly: "God needs fear no one."
However, immortality?
Even the incomparably powerful Sage of Six Paths in mythology could not escape the fate of death.
And that guy Orochimaru thinks he can attain immortality through crooked ways and heretical methods?
Nagato touched his eye sockets: "The limits of innate bloodlines, the gap between human and god levels, are absolutely insurmountable by human effort. Everything Orochimaru does is futile."
...
At this very moment, in the branch family area of the Hyūga clan grounds.
Hyūga Hizashi and Hyūga Neji, father and son, sat facing each other. The atmosphere between them was somewhat heavy.
"Neji."
Hizashi suddenly spoke, breaking the heavy silence: "Do you hate the main family?"
Neji hesitated for a moment, anger showing on his face: "I hate them!"
Hizashi nodded, saying calmly: "I hate them too."
Facing Neji's stunned expression, he continued speaking on his own: "My brother and I were once like you and Hinata – respectful and harmonious. We could argue loudly over small things, beat each other black and blue, but after the fight, we could still apologize to each other and make up."
"But ever since I was branded with the Caged Bird, the main and branch families became an insurmountable chasm between my brother and me. All that remained was coldness and hostility, and it could only be coldness and hostility."
Hizashi looked intently at the silent, head-lowered Neji, his tone becoming serious: "I know you detest the Caged Bird, detest the main family that binds your freedom. But none of that matters."
Neji abruptly raised his head upon hearing this, saying incredulously: "Father..."
"But!"
Hizashi's tone shifted sharply as he admonished: "Although I don't know why, you should not show killing intent towards Hinata!"
Neji opened his mouth to speak, then stopped, then opened it again.
Finally, he lowered his head again, replying: "...Yes."
He actually really wanted to tell his father.
Hinata is no longer the Hinata she once was.
In their previous battle...
He actually... lost to Hinata during sparring.
Lost to... the once weak and easily bullied Hinata!
Creak!!
Neji kept his head down, teeth clenched tightly, fists quietly balling up.
"Clearly, at the beginning, her fists were as weak and timid as always, but why..."
Why did she suddenly seem like a different person?!
That Gentle Fist, carrying forward-charging determination and conviction, delivered with such ruthless decisiveness – could the main family's young lady really throw such punches?!
"Neji, I will open a new path for you, but you must..."
Hizashi glanced at Neji's clenched fists, sighed inwardly, and was about to say something.
Boom!!
The ground beneath them suddenly shook.
Hizashi and Neji's bodies trembled slightly with it.
"Father?"
Neji looked at Hizashi, somewhat bewildered, but Hizashi was also stunned for a moment.
Was that an earthquake?
No.
Hizashi snapped back, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.
That guy...
"Neji, you rest first. I'll be right back."
Without time to explain anything to Neji, Hizashi threw on an outer robe and quickly walked towards the inner courtyard.
He passed through a deep corridor and arrived before a tightly closed room.
"Byakugan!!"
Veins bulged around Hizashi's eyes. After confirming no one was around, he opened the door.
The room's layout inside was no different from a study, but when he pressed a switch on the bookshelf...
Click click click~
A door instantly appeared in the center of the room's floor, revealing a dark staircase leading underground.
Hizashi grumbled inwardly as he descended.
Lights illuminated the passage along both sides.
At the bottom of the passage was an underground space about fifty square meters.
The walls and floor were protected by hard stone slabs, sturdy enough to withstand the impact of an A-rank ninjutsu like Dragon Flame Loud Singing Technique.
But the underground space at this moment...
All one could see was a mess. A huge crater had appeared in the center.
The distillation flasks, test tubes, and vessels originally placed on the table were all shattered, glass fragments scattered throughout the 'secret room'.
Additionally, some research equipment was completely destroyed, none of it reusable.
Only a large container in the corner survived unscathed.
Inside were some plant and animal specimens.
And under the flickering overhead light, a figure stood in the crater, half his face obscured by shadow, the other half completely unfazed.
Still expressionlessly and methodically busy cutting something on a surgical table.
The scalpel moved in his hand as if an extension of his arm; the originally bloody experiment now flowed smoothly like art.
Cutting a slice thin as a cicada's wing, he took a petri dish, placed it under a microscope, and began carefully observing the cellular changes within.
The flesh in this petri dish contained diluted Senju clan bloodline, Nine-Tails chakra, and Naruto's cells as a harmonizing agent.
And Hizashi just stood nearby, staring blankly.
"Whew..."
Ten minutes later, Menma finally stopped his actions, lightly exhaling.
The initial experiments went smoothly.
But just like the previous few experiments,
Once the Nine-Tails chakra combined with external chakra, it became extremely unstable, directly causing irreversible damage to both the host and the Nine-Tails.
A precious experimental material with1 Senju bloodline was thus decomposed.
Unfortunately, research into Nine-Tails chakra still couldn't break through, stalling again at the same point, seemingly hitting a bottleneck.
"What exactly is Baryon Mode? Where did the problem occur?"
Menma recorded the experimental data, placed the petri dish into the 'discarded' area, then rubbed his chin, full of doubt.
"And how did the Cloud Village's Gold and Silver Brothers manage to obtain Nine-Tails chakra by swallowing its flesh raw?"
"Ahem hem!"
Seeing Menma still engrossed in his experiment, Hizashi, who had been waiting for a long time, finally couldn't bear it.
"Eh? Why are you here?"
Menma snapped back to reality, seemingly just noticing him, and looked up at Hizashi.
He licked his dry lips, then reached up to wipe dust from his face.
But this only smeared more blood across his face, appearing particularly terrifying under the dim light.
Seeing this, Hizashi first felt a chill, then quickly composed himself, complaining: "What experiment were you doing again? Making such a huge commotion, aren't you afraid of being discovered?"
(End of Chapter)
---
Read up to 20 Chapters ahead on patreon.com/Fanglin
[Please leave a 5 Star review and power stone for this novel]
*Thank you*