"Hikari-senpai..."
Hinata was still as shy as ever, making Kamizuki Hikari scratch his head in helplessness.
Compared to the carefree Anko, the heroic Ino, and the tomboyish Tenten who was no less tough than any man, Hinata gave him the feeling of a refined noble lady.
In a wealthy household, without any extraordinary abilities, her personality would be considered an excellent virtue.
But unfortunately, she was the eldest daughter of the Hyuga Clan, which made things rather awkward.
"If you have something to say, just say it. Be a little bolder."
"Okay!"
Hinata responded softly, then looked worriedly at the medical report beside her.
"Is the problem with my body... very serious?"
Hikari laughed. "Who told you there was something wrong with your body?"
Hinata: ???
If there was nothing wrong, then why did Father drag her to the hospital?
Seeing all her thoughts written plainly on her face, Hikari explained, "You were asked to come because of your recent increase in appetite. We conducted a full-body examination so that Clan Head Hiashi could be at ease."
"So that means... I'm fine?" Hinata asked happily.
Heaven knew how devastated she had been when she saw that Tsunade herself was the one examining her. She had thought she was suffering from some incurable illness!
"There are some minor issues, but nothing serious. Starting today, you need to come to the hospital for regular checkups every day. Because you're eating more now and digesting faster as well, we need to make sure your body remains stable. If anyone asks what you've been doing lately, just say you're coming to the hospital to study, arranged by Clan Head Hiashi. Got it?"
Although members of the Hyuga Clan were monitoring Hinata at all times and only shinobi from Konoha could approach her, no one could guarantee that her situation wouldn't attract unwanted attention if it got out.
Hinata couldn't really understand what Hikari meant.
But that didn't matter much to her.
From a young age, Hiashi had taught her to focus on her own duties and be obedient.
Now that she knew there was nothing seriously wrong with her, Hinata decided to return to training.
For her, being able to train together with Naruto was the happiest time of all.
"Hikari-senpai, then I'll go train now!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Hinata ran out. Seeing how joyful she looked, Hikari shook his head helplessly.
'I'm a handsome guy too—no need to run off so fast.'
After organizing the documents, he casually stored them in his sealing space and walked toward the adjacent laboratory.
---
"You sent Hinata off?" Tsunade was conducting a cell observation experiment in the lab. Seeing Hikari enter, she didn't stop.
"She went to find Naruto. Based on your experience, would you say Hinata's condition is favorable or unfavorable?"
As a legendary medical-nin who had traversed the shinobi world for decades, it was only natural to describe Tsunade as knowledgeable and well-experienced.
"My subjective judgment is that it's favorable, but I can't say how it will develop later."
"From my observations, Hinata's body has started to evolve due to her excessive food intake. This evolution began with her internal organs. In other words, she'll be able to eat even more from now on. At the same time, her organ functions are gradually surpassing those of ordinary people."
Hikari nodded, "That matches my own thoughts exactly. Hinata's physical condition is evolving toward a higher level. The only question is how much energy this evolution will require. To clarify—it's not that eating more caused her organs to evolve. Rather, the increased nutrients from her diet have accelerated a pre-existing evolutionary trait."
Tsunade neither agreed nor disagreed with the hypothesis.
The cause was no longer important to her.
What mattered was that Tsunade needed to understand what impact Hinata's subsequent changes would have on Konoha and the Hyuga clan.
"I did a small comparison between Hinata's cells and Hiashi's cells. There's already a slight difference. Additionally, her cells show a very faint suppressive effect on Hiashi's cells, though the assimilation strength is weak."
"In other words, even if someone learned that Hinata is growing stronger, it would be very difficult to mass-produce the same change in the rest of the Hyūga clan using her cells."
"However, this is only for now. As for the future, it's hard to say."
As a Konoha shinobi, Tsunade naturally hoped the Hyuga Clan would grow stronger.
But as the Hokage, what she wanted most was stability for Konoha.
Shinobi are humans, a group of people pursuing power.
Why weren't the Wood Release experiments stopped once they fell into Danzo's hands? It was because some people wanted to use Danzo to test the waters.
Knowing the power of Wood Release, many wanted to see if such a path was feasible.
In the end, it clearly failed. Coupled with Tsunade's return, the Wood Release experiments were completely terminated.
The reason Wood Release could be used for experimentation was because Hashirama's cells possessed invasive and assimilative properties.
Only with sufficiently strong invasion and assimilation could a single cell transform surrounding cells. The Wood Release experiments were built upon this foundation.
Now that Hinata's cells were beginning to show faint traces of the same characteristics, Tsunade couldn't rule out the possibility that someone might try to do something with them down the line.
"Don't worry. Hinata's case is special. No matter what happens, in order to maintain Konoha's combat strength, we must let her fully realize her potential. In my view, Hinata's potential is on the same level as Naruto and Sasuke. Without outside interference, her ceiling is predictable."
In Hikari's view, unless Hinata obtained the Tenseigan from the moon and completed the evolution of her eyes, relying on her body alone to break through to the Six Paths level would likely be impossible even in a lifetime.
Just look at Uchiha Madara—despite being Indra's reincarnation, even after awakening the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, he still needed a prolonged fusion with Hashirama's cells before he could evolve the Rinnegan.
At most, Hinata would experience atavistic evolution, gradually evolving toward the physical form of the Otsutsuki Clan. As for the speed and upper limit of that evolution, it would not exceed Hikari's expectations.
"Fine by me. The stronger Hinata becomes, the safer Konoha will be."
Tsunade agreed with his assessment.
"But don't slack off with Naruto and Sasuke either. Those two have monstrous potential, so it's your job to turn that potential into real strength. With Orochimaru joining the Akatsuki, they may be strengthened again. Evaluating our current strength—it's still not entirely safe."
Konoha was very strong now, that much was true.
But the Akatsuki were no pushovers either. A group of S-rank rogue shinobi gathered together had the power to wipe out entire villages.
Not to mention Orochimaru's involvement—such a scientist was bound to have an enormous impact on the Akatsuki's future strength.
Just thinking about this gave Tsunade a headache.
She glanced at Hikari, whose expression remained calm, and yawned.
"I'm heading back to the Hokage's office. Remember to destroy these experimental materials."
Destroy the materials. Keep the records.
With that, Tsunade left—cool, casual, and without a care.
Leaving Hikari alone in the lab to clean up the mess.