Chapter 11: A Sense of Belonging
"If I complete the required training within the allotted time," Neji negotiated, "the rest of the time is mine to use as I please."
"?" Samui's eyes narrowed, then a smile bloomed on her face. "Fine. It's all yours. And if you perform exceptionally well, there might even be a special reward!"
"It's a promise."
"Then stop wasting time. Let's go!"
Samui swung her arms back and shot forward like an arrow released from a bow.
Neji took a deep breath and hurried to catch up.
[You have completed your morning run. Your stamina has increased. Your Basic Taijutsu has improved. EXP +3]
[You have practiced chakra refinement. Your understanding has increased. EXP +2]
[You have used the Byakugan. Your understanding has increased. EXP +1]
At nine o'clock that evening, an utterly exhausted Neji returned to his new home. As he stared blankly into space, the system notifications he hadn't checked during the day popped up in his mind.
Creeak...
The door opened.
Samui walked in and, without a word, scooped Neji up into her arms.
"Wait, Onee-san, what are you doing?" Neji squirmed, his legs dangling in the air.
Samui didn't reply, simply dropping him into a giant wooden tub.
The tub was filled with steaming hot water. Neji's skin instantly turned red, like a boiled shrimp.
"Ah, it's hot!"
He instinctively tried to scramble out.
Seeing this, Samui roughly pushed him back in.
"I know it's uncomfortable, Neji. Just bear with it for a little while," she said, her voice softening as she gently stroked his head. She then took out a packet of powder and sprinkled it into the water.
"This is a precious secret medicine that has been passed down through the Yotsuki clan for generations. One packet costs 100,000 Ryō. It's very expensive."
100,000 Ryō?
Neji's eyebrows shot up. He stopped trying to climb out and, clenching his teeth, sank back into the water.
After a few moments, seeing that Neji was gradually getting used to the temperature, Samui dipped her hands into the water.
"Let me give you a massage. Consider it a reward for all your hard work today."
Neji closed his eyes, letting his mind go blank. "Hiss... Onee-san," he asked through the pleasant sting, "what does this medicine do?"
"It strengthens the body, widens the chakra pathways, and stimulates the body's latent potential to awaken a Lightning Release chakra nature."
"Lightning Release?"
At this, Neji's eyebrows shot up again, his voice filled with excitement. "A secret medicine that can do that actually exists?"
It was common knowledge that chakra natures were innate. You either had one, or you didn't. Possessing multiple chakra natures meant you could learn a wider variety of jutsu, making your fighting style more flexible and versatile with fewer weaknesses. The five basic natures were in a cycle of superiority and inferiority: Fire was strong against Wind, Wind against Lightning, Lightning against Earth, Earth against Water, and Water against Fire. A shinobi with a single nature was at an immediate disadvantage against a user of all five. In a fight between equals, facing an opponent whose nature countered your own meant your chances of victory were slim.
The Third Raikage's dominance over tens of thousands of Iwagakure shinobi, and Sasuke's victory over Deidara, were both partly due to elemental advantages.
As far as Neji knew, there were only three ways to gain a new chakra nature from nothing: practicing specific forbidden jutsu, surgical transplantation, or consuming a Chakra Fruit. The forbidden jutsu included Kakuzu's Earth Grudge Fear and Hiruko's Chimera Technique. Transplants included Hashirama's cells, the Sharingan, the Byakugan, and later, Kabuto's grafting of the Sound Five's cells onto himself. Strictly speaking, apart from the Chimera Technique, these methods were more like workarounds; they didn't grant the body a new innate chakra nature. As for eating a Chakra Fruit, the difficulty was so immense it wasn't even worth considering.
Seeing Neji's astonishment, Samui smiled. "The Yotsuki aren't a clan with a Kekkei Genkai. Many of us gain our lightning nature by soaking in this medicine. But it's only effective on children under the age of ten. If you had come here a few years later, you would never have been able to learn the Cloud's Lightning Release Chakra Mode."
Neji's eyes narrowed. "Onee-san, does that mean I'll have to soak in this medicine for six years?"
"Mhm!" Samui gave his bottom a playful pinch.
"Ouch!"
Neji's jaw ached. 100,000 Ryō a day. That was the equivalent of Asuma's entire bounty in a single year. Did that mean the initial investment to train a single Lightning Release user was over six hundred million Ryō? Was the Hidden Cloud really that wealthy?
As if guessing his thoughts, Samui tapped him on the head. "What are you thinking about? You're receiving special treatment from Lord Raikage. Ordinary Yotsuki clan members don't get this kind of luxury. They soak in batches in a large medicinal pool, and they stop as soon as they awaken their lightning nature. The cost is much lower."
Hearing this, Neji felt a prickling sensation in his nose.
A hadn't just been talking. He was truly raising him as one of his own.
If Neji's decision to defect to the Cloud had initially been a desperate move born of having no other choice, he now felt a true sense of belonging.
Being a Kumo shinobi was pretty great!
At four o'clock the next morning, as Samui stepped out of her room, she found Neji already waiting in the living room.
"Hey, you're up early!" A smile graced the ice beauty's face, her conscience heavy and trembling.
"Onee-san," Neji declared, his eyes burning with determination. "Please increase the training intensity. Wreck me!"
"Alright then. Let's start with a warm-up. Climb to the top of Mount Kumokumo before sunrise. Let's go!"
Day after day of grueling training finally brought about a transformation six months later.
[Congratulations! After prolonged immersion in the secret medicine, your body's potential has been further unlocked. You have awakened a Lightning Release chakra nature.]
[Congratulations! After a long period of training, your Byakugan has advanced to Lv2.]
The first notification made Neji's eyes narrow in focus. He had once asked Samui, and she had told him that it usually took an ordinary Yotsuki clan member two to three years of soaking in the medicine to awaken their lightning nature.
It had only taken him six months.
After a moment's thought, it made sense. The Neji from the original story had become a Jōnin by fifteen with almost no special resources. He was a first-rate genius to begin with.
Neji then focused his mind, his attention drawn to the Kekkei Genkai section of his status.
Kekkei Genkai: Byakugan Lv2 (1/1000)
Effect: The potential for your dōjutsu's growth is limitless. Your range of vision, penetrative sight, and insight will continue to increase as your dōjutsu strengthens.
Reading the new effect description, Neji's eyes narrowed slightly.
There was no upper limit to his Byakugan's growth. That meant it was entirely possible for it to evolve into the Tenseigan through training alone.
This theory wasn't without basis. In the original story, there were two ways the Tenseigan came into being. One was a dōjutsu on the same level as the Rinnegan, created when an Ōtsutsuki from the moon clan transplanted a Byakugan from the Hyūga Main Family. The other was the Giant Tenseigan, which was formed by fusing a massive number of Byakugan together. It was less of an eye and more of a "divine artifact," possessing the terrifying power to destroy worlds.
The former was a dōjutsu, the latter a divine artifact. The dōjutsu Tenseigan was related to bloodline. The Giant Tenseigan, however, was clearly the result of an accumulation of dōjutsu power.
Therefore, as long as he could increase his dōjutsu's power enough, he too could evolve his eyes into a Tenseigan. The Byakugan of the Ōtsutsuki on the moon and the Hyūga in Konoha could not grow limitlessly as his could. Perhaps he would be the only one in history to evolve the Tenseigan on his own.