On New Year's Eve, Kakashi met Naruto and Sasuke earlier than fate had originally intended.
With paper strips dangling noisily from his face, his dead-fish eyes rolling back, he finally uttered that infamous line:
"My first impression of you guys? Yeah… I kinda hate you—"
"Enough talk—stick him!"
Hikari, her own face plastered with paper strips, wasn't having it. She waved at Naruto and Sasuke—their hair sticking up like brooms—and dunked a fresh strip into a half-empty cup of water.
Once soaked, they slapped it onto Kakashi's chin, the damp strip hanging like a ridiculous beard. Nearby, Might Guy stifled laughter at his rival's misery.
The five of them—orphans, unbound by tradition or grudges—threw themselves into the night. They laughed, fought, and talked until dawn painted the sky clear and the ground glittered with fresh snow. Only then did Naruto and Sasuke trudge home, their footsteps crunching in the winter silence.
After the New Year, life setd.
Winter was a slow season for missions, and after a few long assignments, Kakashi and Guy had stacked enough coin to follow Hikari's lead—holing up at home like hibernating bears.
Of course, they weren't as lazy as her. Guy kept up his brutal training, often with a certain blond brat trailing behind him like a determined duckling.
Within days, Hikari spotted Naruto in that infamous green spandex, frog-hopping alongside Guy. Soon after, a bowl-cut Lee joined them.
The sight of this bizarre green trio bouncing around Konoha was… something.
Hikari assumed Naruto would become Lee's senior, but Guy hadn't taught him the Eight Gates. Instead, he drilled him in the Strong Fist style.
When she asked why, Guy explained:
"The Eight Gates demand pushing the body to its absolute limit. You bypassed that with your flesh manipulation, but Naruto? His chakra never runs out. Even if he exhausts himself with shadow clones, it just… refills. I've never seen anything like it."
Under Guy's training, Naruto's taijutsu improved rapidly. With shadow clones swarming, even Sasuke—now with his Sharingan—couldn't keep up.
And that burned Sasuke.
The once-proud Uchiha, left behind by the "dead last," trained harder than ever. But without a proper teacher, relying only on dusty clan scrolls, his progress was glacial.
Pride shattered, desperation took hold.
Swallowing his ego, he started showing up at the Hatake compound, begging Hikari for guidance.
Surprised but amused, she obliged—sort of.
Root's archives had plenty of Uchiha techniques, so teaching him wasn't hard.
Then she regretted it.
Talent didn't equal teaching skills.
Slow hand seals? Just don't use them.
Poor chakra control? How was that even a problem?
Clumsy taijutsu? Move better.
She had no frame of reference for these struggles. To her, it was all instinctive.
The only help she could offer was occasional advice on Fire and Lightning nature transformations—and even that was limited.
Her own mastery made his struggles incomprehensible.
Why can't he grasp basic Fire Release? What's so hard about it?
Frustrated and wanting peace, she pointed at Kakashi—lounging with his smutty novels—and dumped Sasuke on him.
Peace at last.
Spring Arrives, School Begins
With winter's end, the Academy reopened.
Hiruzen, as acting headmaster, gave his usual Will of Fire spiel to the new students. Hikari, having joined mid-term, was now a year behind Naruto's class.
She sent a shadow clone to school—no familiar faces among the freshmen.
The Academy's lessons were useless to her now. She only attended to spar with Ino-Shika-Chō, studying their clan techniques for inspiration.
Her body, transformed by the Reverse Eight Gates, had become denser, heavier. She rarely used taijutsu anymore, preferring to stand still, unleashing Water and Earth techniques like an immovable fortress.
Her appearance had changed too.
Her soul, constantly fed by stolen life force, radiated vitality. Her features hadn't shifted, but her skin glowed, her sharp edges softened into an almost ethereal grace. The mysterious key-shaped mark on her forehead only added to her mystique.
She'd become a phenomenon.
A fan club exploded in her wake, devouring the school like a tidal wave. Factions formed, battles waged—new recruits were press-ganged into service before they'd even met her.
Their banner? A stolen photo of her, likely snapped by a snack-bribed Chōji Akimichi.
Hikari hung him from the school gates with a water jutsu as a warning, then let them be.
Fandom, she realized, wasn't about her. It was about them.
Root's Shadow, Progress Unseen
Meanwhile, her Yang Shadow lurked in Root's depths, researching the Sharingan and replicating Mangekyō abilities.
She'd planned to kill Danzō with her main body, but evolution took priority. And Ryōma's slow coup needed time.
Hiruzen's request—minimal bloodshed—meant patience.
Danzō, obsessed with his new arm and Sharingan experiments, stayed hidden. Her influence grew. Root, drawn to strength, began seeing her as its second-in-command.
The Work Continues
With chakra to spare, Hikari split into more shadows—Wind, Fire, Water, Earth—each researching nature transformations and fusion.
Wind & Fire: Combined release, aiming for high-pressure techniques like Water Cutter. Water & Earth: Studying Hashirama's cells, attempting to recreate Wood Release. Main Body: Devouring the Forest of Death, refining Lightning Armor with the Thunder Stone. Black Lightning—Yin-Thunder fusion—was another project.
Progress was steady, if slow.
But she wasn't worried.
The Divine Tree Seed was her ultimate cheat. Even if she couldn't master Kekkei Mōra, she could always force it—absorb the tailed beasts, become the next Ōtsutsuki.
The Reverse Eight Gates ensured growth. All she had to do was consume and wait.
Power didn't inflate her ego. It brought peace.
The strength to protect her loved ones—no more helplessness.
The Eyes Awaken
Slowing down had an unexpected effect.
The tension in her mind eased, triggering her Byakugan's evolution.
Her pupils pulsed, veins clearing like blocked needles yanked free. A strange chakra pooled in her eyes, its appetite staggering—more than a jōnin's total reserves daily.
No wonder her eyes had seemed ordinary before. If they'd evolved alongside her bones, she'd have been drained to a husk like Nagato.
The Sage Body Mystery
Her "Sage Body" wasn't Senju or Uzumaki.
It was something new—forged by stolen life, dense and heavy.
According to Tsunade:
Uzumaki Sage Body: Focused on sealing, sensing, healing (Adamantine Chains, Mind's Eye, Healing Factor). Senju Sage Body: Combat-oriented (Wood Release, Sage Mode, Enhanced Physique).
Hers?
"Muscle Density Amplification."
No wonder she weighed a ton without looking it.
What would the final stage bring?
Another blind box to unlock.
Time Flows
And so, five years passed.