Back at his apartment, Shinji tended to his affairs.
To counter the Akatsuki's recent attack, Neji and Kimimaro had both unleashed their 'bio-exoskeletons.'
During the fierce battle, something seemed to have changed in the 'bio-exoskeleton,' causing the spiritually awakened 'H' to fall into a deep slumber.
Upon learning of this, Shinji had previously used his 'Jikibi' to investigate.
However, even with 'Jikibi' activated, he found he could no longer connect to 'H,' as if its consciousness had completely vanished.
"Still no good?"
Activating 'Jikibi' once more, Shinji still couldn't sense 'H's' presence, and his expression grew serious.
The unexpected emergence of 'H' had disrupted his 'Rinnegan Plan.'
Yet, it was precisely because of 'H's' appearance that he gained new insights, prompting him to revise his original 'Rinnegan Plan.'
In the new plan, Neji and Kimimaro were no longer candidates for the Rinnegan host. Their roles had shifted from potential hosts to merely providing Byakugan chakra and Kaguya clan chakra.
The critical task of becoming the host had been passed to 'H,' which was why Shinji had transplanted the enhanced pure Byakugan into 'H.'
Stepping onto the balcony, Shinji gazed at the scenery outside.
The village hadn't fully recovered from the war. Construction crews were still repairing buildings and streets damaged in the fighting.
Over time, however, the villagers' panic had gradually subsided, and the streets were quickly regaining their liveliness.
Watching this, Shinji's mind wandered, mulling over his 'Rinnegan Plan.'
In the original timeline, Toneri Otsutsuki obtained the Rinnegan by transplanting a pure Byakugan from the Hyuga clan's main family. By fusing his powerful Otsutsuki chakra with the Hyuga clan's Byakugan chakra, he stimulated the Byakugan's evolution into the Rinnegan.
In simple terms, it was the fusion of 'an Otsutsuki body' and 'Hyuga main family eyes.'
Shinji's 'Rinnegan Plan' took the opposite approach.
To stimulate the Byakugan's evolution into the Rinnegan, he planned to transplant the pure Byakugan of the Moon's Otsutsuki clan into a Hyuga clan body.
Thus, his plan hinged on two elements: 'Otsutsuki eyes' and 'a Hyuga body.'
With Shinji's current understanding of chakra, he knew that whether it was eyes or a body, they were merely vessels for chakra.
The key to awakening the Rinnegan lay in the fusion of two types of chakra.
Whether it was an Otsutsuki body paired with Hyuga eyes or Otsutsuki eyes paired with a Hyuga body, the essence was the same.
That said, there was a prerequisite: while the form of the vessel could change, the quality of the chakra had to meet a certain standard.
In other words, the chakra purity of the Moon's Otsutsuki clan had to match Toneri Otsutsuki's level, and the Hyuga clan's chakra purity needed to at least reach Hinata Hanabi's level.
Purity wasn't simply equivalent to strength.
Since the Rinnegan was a mutation of Hamura Otsutsuki's dojutsu lineage, purity here referred to how closely the chakra resembled Hamura's.
The enhanced pure Byakugan Shinji had transplanted into 'H' was created by forcibly fusing two pairs of the Moon's Otsutsuki branch family Byakugan using 'Susanoo Tomoshibi.' In terms of purity, it might not match the genius Toneri Otsutsuki's, but the gap shouldn't be too wide.
The real challenge was that Neji, as a branch family member, had Byakugan chakra less pure than the main family's Hanabi.
Chakra purity was difficult to improve through training, so Shinji had introduced Kimimaro, a distant relative of the Hyuga from the Kaguya clan, hoping to use Kaguya clan chakra to bring Neji's Byakugan chakra closer to their ancestor, Hamura Otsutsuki.
"I've done everything I can…"
Reviewing his 'Rinnegan Plan,' Shinji found no obvious oversights.
Or rather, if there were any flaws, they exceeded his current understanding of chakra and were beyond his ability to address.
For instance, awakening the Rinnegan required at least a suitable host.
Having been granted a body and eyes, and activated with sentience by the Moon's giant Rinnegan, could 'H' truly qualify as a host?
If 'H' didn't even meet the criteria for a host, Shinji's 'Rinnegan Plan' would be dead in the water.
"For now, all I can do is wait for 'H's' consciousness to awaken from its slumber…"
Shinji shook his head, reining in his scattered thoughts.
He had a gut feeling that 'H's' current slumber might not be a bad thing.
After their previous merges, Neji's Byakugan chakra and Kimimaro's Kaguya clan chakra had shown signs of fusion. As the vessel absorbing and storing these chakras, 'H's' body—the 'bio-exoskeleton'—was the primary site of their merging.
Subtly, 'H' had likely been influenced, and this recent battle might have been a trigger—a catalyst for the quantitative accumulation finally leading to a qualitative transformation!
Realizing this was a critical period, Shinji used 'Jikibi' to order Neji and Kimimaro to keep a low profile, stay in the village, and avoid overexerting their chakra.
He also increased his monitoring of their physical conditions, shifting from sensing them once a day with 'Jikibi' to three times daily—morning, noon, and evening.
Leaving the balcony, Shinji returned to the apartment.
"Koryugan!"
Activating his Koryugan dojutsu, he swapped places with his blood clone in the secret laboratory.
This blood clone wasn't the one that had lost an arm but a new one created post-war using the 'Blood Clone Jutsu.'
Even with the Koryugan's dojutsu power, a damaged blood clone couldn't be sustained long-term. After the war, Shinji had sent a new blood clone to the secret laboratory to replace the injured one.
Arriving at his secret laboratory, Shinji skillfully connected himself to various instruments and checked his physical stats for the day. Though his data showed steady improvement, he frowned.
"Why is the rate of my chakra quality improvement so much slower than Karin's post-surgery?"
After successfully integrating First Hokage cells, Shinji's chakra quality had indeed improved, but for some reason, it lagged significantly behind Karin's data from the same period.
And this gap had become increasingly apparent in recent days…