"Eh—!?"
Before Hoshiyomi could even speak, Yugao beside him was so shocked she nearly bit her own tongue.
The little girl stared in disbelief, pointing at the masked Hoshiyomi and stammering:
"Sensei… wh-what did you just say? He… he's Lord Hoshiyomi, the one they call Konoha's Silver Moon?"
Hoshiyomi removed his mask, giving her a half-smiling, half-amused look.
"How's my cosplay? Good enough?"
Yugao stared at his smiling face for a long time, unable to form a full sentence. Her little face flushed red like the evening clouds, and after freezing for a moment, she stomped her foot, covered her face, and ran off.
Seeing Yugao's reaction, Kuugetsu immediately knew her mischievous teacher was up to his usual antics again. She sighed helplessly, but didn't call Yugao back; instead, she turned to Hoshiyomi.
"Sensei, you came so suddenly… is there something you needed to tell me?"
Hoshiyomi led Kuugetsu into the Commander's office before finally speaking:
"It's about your eyes. I've already found a way to fix them. But… you might not like the solution."
Hearing this, Kuugetsu trembled so hard she almost dropped her teacup. She jerked her head up, voice shaking with excitement:
"My eyes… there's really still a way!?"
It was impossible for her not to be emotional. The pain of Mangekyō chakra depletion was something only those who experienced it could understand.
That despair—watching one's vision fade day by day—was so overwhelming that even someone as formidable as Uchiha Madara nearly lost his sanity because of it.
And now, in the midst of that despair, her teacher was telling her there was hope. How could she not be moved?
But after the excitement passed, she calmed again, recalling Hoshiyomi's warning that she might not be able to accept the method. She spoke worriedly:
"Sensei… don't tell me you mean the method Uchiha Madara used—
transplanting the Mangekyō of a close blood relative to evolve it into the Eternal Mangekyō…
That won't work. I no longer have any close family left in the Uchiha clan. Forcing someone to kill their own loved one to awaken another Mangekyō would be useless.
Even if it did work, I could never do something so horrible."
As Uchiha's guardian and practically the Vice-Clan Head, Kuugetsu naturally knew many hidden clan secrets—so this was her first assumption.
But before she could finish, Hoshiyomi flicked her forehead.
"What nonsense are you imagining? How could I ever let you do something so monstrous?"
He then explained everything—how he and Orochimaru had taken the three Mangekyō Samples for research, how Hashirama cells enhanced Mangekyō abilities, and how developed the technique already was.
And to reassure her, he added that with his help, the success rate was extremely high.
Hoshiyomi originally expected Kuugetsu to react with anger or rejection over him and Orochimaru experimenting on ancestral relics and Hashirama cells.
But instead, after hearing his explanation, her eyes grew misty. She looked at him and whispered:
"Sensei… you've been thinking about how to save my eyesight… for all these years?"
Seeing her on the verge of tears, Hoshiyomi scratched his head awkwardly. Something about this whole scene felt… wrong.
Fortunately, the awkwardness didn't last long. Kuugetsu gently wiped her eyes and said:
"I understand. It may be taboo, but… this is the only way I can preserve my vision. I'm willing to undergo the Hashirama cell transplant."
Kuugetsu felt no resistance toward the idea of transplanting Hashirama cells, so everything after that became much easier to handle.
First, Hoshiyomi spoke with Minato and had him approve a long leave of absence for Kuugetsu. Then he brought Kuugetsu straight to Orochimaru's laboratory.
After years of research, Orochimaru had nearly unraveled the full mystery of Hashirama's cells.
With the assistance of Nawaki's cells and Shin's cells, the danger of Hashirama cells had been greatly reduced. With Hoshiyomi helping as well, all of the preliminary preparations were fully completed.
After signaling Kuugetsu to lie down on the operating table, Orochimaru and Kabuto began the transplant procedure.
The surgery itself wasn't complicated. It was simply a matter of injecting the properly balanced Hashirama cells into Kuugetsu's body.
After that, everything depended on Kuugetsu's own physique—and on whether Hoshiyomi's Yin Release chakra was strong enough.
Because this batch of Hashirama cells had been perfectly balanced and stripped of their Wood Release chakra, Kuugetsu didn't feel anything at first when they entered her body.
Only about five minutes later did her body begin reacting.
The so-called "reaction" was just pain and slight paling of the muscles—nothing like the terrifying reaction Nawaki once had, and not a single trace of woodification appeared.
Even so, watching his beloved student writhing in pain on the operating table made Hoshiyomi anxious.
With Orochimaru's permission, Hoshiyomi entered Sage Mode. He infused Kuugetsu with senjutsu chakra containing natural energy to suppress the Hashirama cells and monitor her physical condition.
Under the pressure of Hoshiyomi's senjutsu chakra, the Hashirama cells submitted extremely quickly. They didn't even manage a few attempts at rampaging before settling down obediently, beginning to merge into Kuugetsu's body.
Seeing that the Hashirama cells had stabilized, Hoshiyomi was about to withdraw his senjutsu chakra—
when something unprecedented appeared in his sensory perception.
From Kuugetsu's eyes surged a strange chakra he had never seen before. Though unfamiliar, Hoshiyomi instantly recognized it as Yin Release chakra.
However, its frequency—or perhaps wavelength—was completely unlike ordinary Yin Release.
Under Hoshiyomi's amazed scrutiny, this Yin chakra wrapped itself around the newly entered Hashirama cells with a kind of greedy hunger.
Judging by its behavior, it almost looked as if it planned to devour the Hashirama cells whole.
Hoshiyomi originally thought the Hashirama cells would resist such an invasion, but unexpectedly, they reacted with absolute calm.
As if recognizing a family member coming to bring them home, they willingly merged into that unusual Yin chakra.
Once enveloped, the Yin chakra carrying the Hashirama cells surged back toward Kuugetsu's eyes at incredible speed.
The movement was so fast that Hoshiyomi almost missed it—
but for a brief instant, he caught a glimpse of a power being born within it, something he had never witnessed before.
Unfamiliar, yes—but Hoshiyomi immediately understood what it was.
It was likely the Power of All Creation resulting from the union of Yin and Yang!
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