"Akito, I... I like you!"
Standing on the Hokage Rock, which was over a hundred meters tall, the entire Konoha Village, stretching for dozens of miles, was completely visible.
Such a scale, rather than calling it a Village, it was more appropriate to call it a city.
Hyuga Akito stepped on the Third Hokage's rock statue, looking down at Konoha, feeling greatly pleased.
The scenery was secondary; what truly made him feel refreshed was stepping on the Old Man's head.
But the girl's voice suddenly entered his ears, causing his mood to plummet.
He had thought this day wouldn't come so soon, but he didn't expect this child to self-destruct in a year...
Hyuga Akito withdrew his gaze from Konoha Village and turned to look at the girl beside him, who was half a head shorter than him.
She had fiery red, waist-length hair; the breeze stirred her strands, bringing a faint, pleasant scent.
A pale yellow outer jacket was tightly bound to her body by a black belt, outlining a slender, graspable waist.
Black leggings covered her knees, delineating the shape of her long, delicate legs.
A very captivating girl.
Hyuga Akito's gaze returned to her flushed little face.
Her eyes darted around, and her hands were clasped together, clearly extremely nervous.
"Kushina, you like me?"
His voice was very calm.
Kushina quietly raised her eyes, only to meet the young man's bright, piercing gaze head-on.
She turned her gaze away like a startled little rabbit: "I... I..."
Hyuga Akito said nothing, simply looking at this adorable girl, his gaze so calm.
"I like you! Please go out with me!"
Kushina closed her eyes, tilted her head back, clenched her small fists, and shouted, her face flushed.
Upon hearing this, a momentary surge of joy welled up in Hyuga Akito's heart, but it quickly turned into bitterness.
"I like you too..."
Very much, very much.
He spoke softly, as if afraid of startling the girl.
"Re... Really?!"
Kushina looked up in surprise.
However, at this moment, Hyuga Akito slowly shook his head: "Kushina, I agree to go out with you, but... at the same time, I intend to break up with you now."
"Phase One, Passive Confession, Achieved."
"Phase Two, Relationship Confirmed, Achieved."
It was as if body information feedback entered his mind, causing him to feel momentarily dazed.
"Wh-What..."
The flush on Kushina's face faded, leaving only a bewildered expression: "Are you joking?"
Hyuga Akito recovered, looking very calm: "No."
"Then... then you don't like me?"
The girl's pretty face turned pale, and tears welled up in her eyes.
"No," Hyuga Akito shook his head again, "I like you, so I'm willing to go out with you, but I've also decided to break up with you right now."
"We've broken up."
He added.
"Phase Three, Active Breakup Achieved, Dojutsu Awakened."
Hyuga Akito felt a burning sensation in his eyes... only then did he confirm that awakening his Dojutsu after breaking up was actually true.
"You!"
Kushina clenched her small fists, and flames seemed to ignite on her fiery red hair: "You're messing with me!"
The name Bloody Red Pepper of the Ninja School wasn't just for show; an enraged Kushina punched him in the chest.
"Bang."
Amidst the dull thud, Hyuga Akito didn't retreat a single step; instead, he rotated his arm, and a kunai suddenly appeared in his hand.
He deliberately brought a hint of mockery to his lips: "You think you can hurt me with just this much strength? Even if I gave you a kunai, you wouldn't be able to."
"You! Bastard!"
Kushina was furious, she grabbed the kunai from his hand and fiercely stabbed it towards his hand.
A hint of relief flashed in Hyuga Akito's eyes.
But the kunai was stopped mid-air by Kushina.
She didn't actually want to hurt him; her actions just looked intimidating.
In a flash of lightning, Hyuga Akito raised his palm and tightly gripped her wrist, simultaneously pushing his body forward.
"Pfft."
The sharp kunai instantly plunged into his chest, tearing through muscle, leaving a rhomboid wound, and bringing extreme pain.
Perhaps Yahiko would do the same in the future... it's a bit masochistically satisfying.
As the pain stimulated his nerves, Hyuga Akito's thoughts were still a jumble.
"Injury level 10%, cell division accelerated 100 times, consumed 20 seconds of life."
"Ah!"
The kunai was pulled out by Kushina with a scream, clanging onto the rock statue, then sliding down, staining the Third Hokage's nose with a bit of fresh red, looking quite comical.
Hyuga Akito actually leaned down to look: "Falling objects from high up... hope it doesn't land on anyone's head."
Blood stained his clothes, and Kushina burst into tears: "You... what are you doing...?"
She stepped forward and grabbed Hyuga Akito's wrist, urgently saying: "Quick! Come with me to the Konoha Hospital!"
But Hyuga Akito turned sideways to avoid her hand, smiling indifferently: "It'll be fine soon, don't worry."
Saying that, he pulled open the front of his clothes, revealing the bloody wound: "See, it's already stopped bleeding."
Kushina froze, rubbing her eyes in disbelief: "How is that possible?"
If it weren't for the lingering trace of blood on Hyuga Akito's chest, she would have almost thought she was under a Genjutsu.
"It's probably because my cell division speed is relatively fast," Hyuga Akito said.
Kushina watched as the bloodline faded over a few minutes, gradually disappearing, and couldn't help but ask: "Will there be any side effects?"
In her understanding, such a healing speed was abnormal.
"Nothing much, just a little life force consumed," Hyuga Akito said as he pulled his clothes back on, "The life consumed by this wound of mine is probably about the same as the Third Hokage smoking a pipe."
"Consuming life..."
Large drops of tears rolled down Kushina's cheeks, the salty taste flowing into her mouth.
"Don't cry, don't cry, this bit of life is nothing," Hyuga Akito waved his hand, "Many people know that smoking a cigarette will reduce their lifespan by five seconds, but they still smoke, right? The Third Hokage's pipe is at most twenty seconds... Hmm, it's fine."
Kushina rubbed her eyes, with a hint of a sob: "Why did you do this?!"
Hyuga Akito paused: "Because of guilt, I suppose."
'I have to find some reason; I can't tell her that if we don't break up, my body will collapse by the time I'm 10, that would only drag her down,' he thought.
"Guilt?"
Kushina looked up at him through tear-filled eyes.
Hyuga Akito nodded: "I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to confirm relationships, only the ambiguity and excitement before dating, so, even though I like you very much, if you confessed, I wouldn't be able to continue keeping things ambiguous with you."
'Only liking ambiguity might not make me a good person, but at least I'm not cheating or scamming money from anyone in one-on-one relationships, so I'm better than a playboy, right?' he thought.
"Only like ambiguity, don't like confirmed relationships?" Kushina widened her eyes, "How could you like something like that?"
A smile appeared on Hyuga Akito's lips: "Kushina, think about this past year, how we slowly grew closer, guessing each other's feelings, secretly hiding our inner stirrings, tossing and turning over a little ambiguity—how wonderful that feeling was!"
As Kushina listened, she clenched her small fists: "So, you pretended not to understand my hints again and again, always keeping me at arm's length, just for... ambiguity?!"
"Yes... that's how it is..."
Hyuga Akito lowered his head.
"You! You bastard!"
The girl turned around angrily.
Hyuga Akito instinctively reached out to pull her, but heard a 'bang' and his hand grasped at empty air.
A piece of broken wood appeared in Kushina's place, landing on the rock statue, while she herself had moved several steps away from him.
"Don't touch me!"
Kushina turned back, her eyes spitting fire.
Hyuga Akito scratched his head: "Substitute Technique, huh...?"
"Hyuga Akito, let me ask you," Kushina took a deep breath, "After you break up with me, are you going to find ambiguity with other people?"
Hyuga Akito put down the hand he was scratching his head with, his gaze falling again, looking at his toes.
Information once again emerged from his mind.
"Available targets: Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, Konan, Tsunade."
There was no room for negotiation then; either his body would collapse, or he would continue courting death until he got cut down...
"Yes..."
His low voice drifted in the breeze, making the girl's eyes even redder.
"You're a bad person!"
The moment tears once again burst from her eyes, Kushina jumped down from the Hokage Rock.
"Be careful..."
Hyuga Akito reached out, but couldn't grasp the girl's clothes.
Then he saw Kushina jump back to the base of the Hokage Rock, crying as she ran into the distance.
"This is the Naruto World, and I'm actually worried something would happen if she jumped down."
Hyuga Akito chuckled self-deprecatingly, then slowly squatted down, covering his chest, eyes welling up: "Ugh... the kunai stab hurts so much..."
Rather than physical pain, it was heartbreak.
Because in this past year, he had invested no less emotion than Kushina.
It was a good thing he could break up immediately after confirming the relationship; if it were after a real, genuine romance, that would truly be torturous.
He hadn't thought about finding loopholes, but this seemingly system-like thing offered no shortcuts.
"It feels very much like a system, but it's not; it doesn't issue missions at all, only transmits information," Hyuga Akito rubbed the corner of his eye with the back of his hand, standing up, "It's like needing to drink water when thirsty, an instinctual need my body tells me..."
He fell silent for a moment, then muttered to himself: "It's too much that such a good person like me was reborn into a body with a time limit that will collapse..."
If it weren't for the crisis of his body's limited lifespan, he might have already gone to apprentice under Ōtsutsuki Ichiraku, as that way he wouldn't have to suffer the torment of his conscience.
"So what exactly is going on with this body?"
He clenched his fists and asked inwardly: "I broke up with Kushina, so I should have successfully awakened?"
"Dojutsu has awakened, can be stimulated to activate with Chakra."
As Hyuga Akito just thought this, instinctive information entered his mind.
"I always feel like this body was stolen, needing to be slowly explored," he looked at his hands, "The problem is, even though I've opened my eyes, how do I activate the Dojutsu?"
"Dojutsu has awakened, can analyze the abilities of the breakup target, including Bloodline Limit."
"Mentally recall the moment Uzumaki Kushina performed the Substitute Technique, for the first analysis."
Hyuga Akito closed his eyes according to the information, recalling that moment.
To his surprise, his mental energy directly depicted Kushina's body, and a transparent-like Chakra pathway system emerged within the girl's body.
Then he clearly saw the combination of Kushina's physical energy and spiritual energy, Chakra surging out, instantly output through the hand seals of the Substitute Technique, her body rapidly dodging, while leaving a piece of broken wood in her original spot as a diversion.
"Is this the principle of the Substitute Technique that was analyzed?"
As Hyuga Akito just thought this, his own spiritual energy suddenly began to operate in imitation of Kushina's, combining with the physical energy extracted from his cells, converging into pale blue Chakra.
At the same time, he instinctively held his left hand in a sword-finger gesture vertically upwards, and his right hand grasped the index and middle fingers of his left hand, forming the 'child' seal.
"Bang!"
The next moment, his body rapidly shifted, leaving behind the distracting broken wood.
"Ah..."
Hyuga Akito was unsteady on his feet and barely managed to stand firm.
"I actually just copied Kushina's Substitute Technique?!"
He looked at his hands.
"Is this the miraculous ability after awakening Dojutsu?"
"Next, I'll try my awakened Dojutsu."
Hyuga Akito finally felt a bit of anticipation: "A dignified Hyuga Clan member without cataracts, who has suffered the Byakugan of his clan, my day to turn things around has come!"
He eagerly extracted Chakra, gathering it through his meridians to his eyeballs.
"Byakugan... Activate!"
In the Naruto World, which hasn't advanced to the tattoo era, how important a pair of cosmetic contact lenses is, is beyond doubt.
Hyuga Akito was already fantasizing about activating the Tenseigan in the future to confront anything and everything.
Hmm? Why did the world turn red for a moment?
Hyuga Akito touched his forehead, but couldn't feel any bulging veins.
His vision wasn't black and white either, but there was a very faint red flash that quickly passed.
A feeling of extreme unease... welled up in his heart...
"Swish!"
And at this moment, his eyes captured a blurry figure, shooting towards him at extreme speed.
Body Flicker Technique!
Seeing the opponent's hooded attire and animal mask on their face, Hyuga Akito immediately determined this was an Anbu Ninja.
I can actually see the Anbu's Body Flicker Technique movement trajectory?
Why?!
The Byakugan is for reconnaissance, but it doesn't have dynamic capture ability!
"Successfully activated one-tomoe Sharingan."
The answer appeared in his mind.
I'm going to die!
"Sharingan!"
At the same time, the Anbu who appeared in front of him instantly exclaimed in surprise: "How could you awaken the Sharingan?!"
Hyuga Akito almost swore out loud.
How should I know why I awakened the Sharingan?!
Me, a branch family member of the Hyuga Clan, awakened the Sharingan of the Ping-Pong family?!
And it was seen directly by an Anbu near the Hokage?
At this moment, Hyuga Akito wished he could strangle this Anbu Ninja in front of him.
Did you have to appear at this moment?!
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