At the center of the testing area, the head of Shinji's golden half-bodied Susanoo flickered with radiant light.
Within Susanoo, Shinji sat cross-legged, his expression grave.
The fusion of the two Byakugan encountered no obstacles. Under the dojutsu power of his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, Susanoo Tomoshibi successfully merged the two pure Byakugan into one.
What Shinji hadn't anticipated was how protracted the process would be.
From the moment he activated his dojutsu, thirty minutes had passed, and the fusion was still only halfway complete.
"Strange…"
Though questions swirled in his mind, Shinji suppressed them.
If he were still using a regular Mangekyo Sharingan, sustaining dojutsu power for such a prolonged fusion might have overburdened his eyes. But with his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, the extended duration merely consumed more dojutsu power.
Time ticked by, and before he knew it, the fusion had taken a full hour.
Throughout, Shinji carefully controlled his perception, ensuring the fusing Byakugan didn't resonate with the giant Tenseigan on the Moon.
Whoosh.
Suddenly, a blinding light flashed from Susanoo's head.
The light was so abrupt that it illuminated the dim testing area like daylight, causing slight discomfort even to Shinji, a dojutsu Bloodline Limit shinobi.
As the light faded, Shinji's expression shifted. "It's done!?"
He noticed that Susanoo's third eye sockets were now empty, ready to house another pair of eyes via Susanoo Tomoshibi. In the second eye sockets, a new pair of Byakugan had formed.
Confirming the fusion's completion, Shinji didn't look up to inspect but closed his eyes.
Susanoo Tomoshibi's control over integrated eyes was immense. As long as the eyes' dojutsu power didn't surpass his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, he could glean nearly all their information through Susanoo Tomoshibi.
"Such powerful dojutsu power."
Sensing it briefly, Shinji let out a gasp of awe.
This newly fused Byakugan far surpassed the previous two in dojutsu power alone and was extraordinarily clear and pure!
Shinji was no stranger to using Byakugan.
With Susanoo Tomoshibi's assistance, his proficiency rivaled that of the Hyuga clan. Based on his experience, he could judge that this fused, enhanced pure Byakugan surpassed all Hyuga Byakugan and might even exceed the Byakugan of Toneri Otsutsuki, the last Otsutsuki descendant on the Moon!
This was evident from the dojutsu power boost it provided.
The power gained from integrating this enhanced Byakugan was nearly equivalent to that from integrating the Koryugan.
And the Koryugan's dojutsu power surpassed that of ordinary Mangekyo Sharingan!
But this wasn't what Shinji truly valued.
His real focus was whether this Byakugan, imbued with Otsutsuki branch family chakra, could commune with the giant Tenseigan on the Moon.
Deactivating Susanoo, Shinji left his secret laboratory, using the cover of night to reach a secluded mountain.
Leaping onto a tree canopy, he gazed at the bright Moon in the night sky and began his experiment.
Almost instantly, with the enhanced pure Byakugan integrated, he easily sensed the giant Tenseigan on the Moon.
"As expected."
He murmured to himself.
Perhaps due to the Moon's unique position, the giant Tenseigan's sensory range enveloped the entire ninja world.
As long as a certain standard—or authority—was met, one could resonate with it.
The highest authority, undoubtedly, was the Tenseigan!
During the Grass Country battle, Kimimaro, in a temporary Tenseigan state, had communed with the giant Tenseigan, effortlessly drawing vast amounts of Tenseigan chakra from the Moon.
The next tier of authority was the pure Byakugan of the Otsutsuki clan.
Otsutsuki members like Toneri and the branch family elder likely fell within this range.
The tier below that was ordinary Byakugan.
Like Neji, who could only faintly resonate with the giant Tenseigan when near it in the temple.
The pure Byakugan Shinji previously integrated, perhaps because he wasn't a descendant of Hamura Otsutsuki on the Moon, had the same authority as Neji, requiring proximity to the giant Tenseigan to sense it.
Now, having fused two pure Byakugan through Susanoo Tomoshibi to create possibly the purest Byakugan in the ninja world, his authority with the giant Tenseigan had upgraded. Even from the ninja world's surface, he could commune with it.
This placed him on the same authority tier as the Otsutsuki branch family on the Moon.
Of course, the giant Tenseigan was formed from generations of Otsutsuki branch family Byakugan. Beyond the inherent authority of their Byakugan, true branch family members had additional authority from their bloodline and sealing curses.
These layered privileges made it impossible for outsiders to seize control of the giant Tenseigan, not even the main Otsutsuki family on the Moon!
Thus, even if Shinji possessed a Tenseigan now, he'd still lose in a contest for control against the branch family.
To claim the giant Tenseigan, one would either need to fully subdue the branch family or eradicate them entirely.
Shinji's risky fusion of this enhanced Byakugan wasn't to vie for control of the giant Tenseigan.
He had one goal: to transform the sentient "biological exoskeleton" from a Tenseigan puppet into an entity with the status of an Otsutsuki branch family member.
Only then could the Otsutsuki branch family be prevented from controlling the exoskeleton via the giant Tenseigan!
Confirming that this enhanced Byakugan held the same authority tier as the Otsutsuki branch family, Shinji returned to the Hidden Leaf without pause. Using Jikibi, he summoned Neji, who had also returned to the village that night.