Among the three great dōjutsu currently existing in the shinobi world,
The Sharingan, due to its extremely severe burden on non-Uchiha clan members, is rarely plundered. Even if plundered, how to deal with the still-powerful, hot-tempered, and extremely protective Uchiha clan at this time is an even bigger problem.
The Rinnegan has been lost for ages and is not even within the intelligence networks of various nations.
Then,
The Byakugan of the Hyuga clan—which places a small burden on transplant recipients, holds great strategic significance, and possesses various peculiar effects—quickly became something coveted by all the great nations of the shinobi world.
(PS: For example: Ao of the Hidden Mist in the future has no difficulty using the Byakugan; Ko Hyuga, who has already been born at this time and appears in the official novel Itachi Shinden, similarly possesses a single Byakugan with no side effects.)
But at this time,
The ancestral Caged Bird curse mark of the Hyuga clan became an obstacle that could not be bypassed no matter what.
This made it so that although the great nations and great shinobi villages of the shinobi world coveted the Byakugan, they could only set their sights on the heavily protected Hyuga main family.
The difficulty of hunting a Hyuga main family member can be seen from the manpower deployed by the Hidden Mist this time—they mobilized almost enough Hidden Mist shinobi to conduct a local-scale war, with all personnel infiltrating the Land of Fire and grouping together for covert operations behind enemy lines.
The intelligence work and preliminary preparations behind this represent an incalculable expense.
But now—
A Hyuga branch family member who could forcibly extract a main family Byakugan despite the Caged Bird curse mark, transplant the main family Byakugan into himself, and survive the triggering of the Caged Bird has appeared!
This means that,
To some degree, this Hyuga branch family member has cracked the 'Caged Bird'!
Then,
As long as they control him, wouldn't they only need to capture Hyuga branch family shinobi from the reconnaissance squads on the front lines in the future, and have him extract the Byakugan and transplant it into their own village's shinobi, easily obtaining this kekkei genkai of great strategic significance?
Wouldn't obtaining him be equivalent to controlling a Byakugan unit?
From this perspective,
The 'value' possessed by this Hyuga branch family shinobi named 'Hyuga Yu,' after completing this first-ever Byakugan transplant surgery in the shinobi world,
Began to skyrocket wildly!
In reality,
Hyuga Yu couldn't extract the Byakugan from Hyuga branch family members, nor had he cracked the Caged Bird at all.
His own Byakugan was just as easily destroyed after triggering the Caged Bird, and Hyuga Yu was completely unable to stop this process.
What he truly accomplished was that after the Caged Bird destroyed his Byakugan, relying on extremely exquisite medical ninjutsu, he filled his eye sockets with a pair of main family Byakugan that anyone could extract, and under ridiculously lucky circumstances, managed to survive the activation of the Caged Bird curse mark whose principles are completely unknown.
He was simply gambling with his life,
And then, even more fortunately, he won!
This thing that was almost equivalent to a gift from fate now granted him a severely misinterpreted piece of false intelligence.
Hyuga Yu immediately turned this situation to his advantage.
The current circumstances were:
The entire Byakugan leak incident was actually just bait deliberately released by the Root to fish out a bigger catch.
Hyuga Yu didn't know what kind of target required such expensive bait.
But he knew—
At this moment, the Hidden Mist's actions were actually under Root's surveillance.
And what Hyuga Yu needed to prove now was that he himself possessed more 'value' or—'trouble'—than the target Root truly wanted to hunt,
To the extent that,
Root would realize that the intelligence couldn't be leaked, couldn't let the Hidden Mist take the intelligence back, or even spread it throughout the shinobi world.
Otherwise, there would be even bigger trouble!
And not one of the Hidden Mist present who learned of Hyuga Yu's secret could be allowed to escape—all must be killed.
Thus,
At this moment, the identities of prey and hunter reversed once again!
At this time,
On the other side, at the entrance of an abandoned laboratory about 4 kilometers from the unnamed forest battlefield.
"What did you say?"
Aburame Ryōma suddenly raised his head, looking at the bird-masked Root shinobi Terai before him.
Terai reported in a low voice: "Hyuga Yu brought back the Byakugan."
"Only, he used another method—he transplanted the main family's Byakugan into himself."
Hearing this unexpected news, Aburame Ryōma's eyes widened slightly, his gaze staring blankly at Terai through his sunglasses, a flash of incomprehension crossing his face.
"Wait, the Caged Bird didn't trigger?"
"It triggered, but... Hyuga Yu survived."
Aburame Ryōma's expression immediately darkened.
"This is troublesome."
Aburame Ryōma had originally expected Hyuga Yu to complete the task he'd assigned in another way—
Abandon Hyuga Natsu and bring back Hyuga Genko.
Root members should not possess the luxury called emotions.
Only by being utterly ruthless could one have no weaknesses, thereby reaching a level of 'invincibility.'
This was precisely the form Aburame Ryōma hoped Hyuga Yu would become.
From what he'd observed, after opening the Third Gate of the Eight Gates, combined with the parasitic insects he'd provided, Hyuga Yu had roughly a 10% chance of completing this mission.
But now,
Hyuga Yu had proven himself in a way beyond everyone's expectations—even beyond the entire shinobi world's expectations.
Not only had he proven that Hyuga Yu possessed the means to resist the Hyuga main family, but he'd also proven that his current 'value' far exceeded his identity as a Hyuga branch family shinobi.
However,
This kind of 'value' was from the enemy's perspective.
Thinking of this, Aburame Ryōma immediately frowned, his face darkening as he extended his hand to the side.
"Bring me our personnel distribution map!"
A Root shinobi quickly handed over an extremely detailed map.
Aburame Ryōma took the map and scanned it, quickly locating Hyuga Yu's position on the map, as well as the direction he might flee—
The Crow Forest.
This was a forest situated in the southern part of the Land of Fire, west of the unnamed forest. Continuing west from here led to the Land of Rivers, sandwiched between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind.
Although they hadn't communicated face-to-face, Aburame Ryōma immediately understood Hyuga Yu's thinking.
Clearly, Hyuga Yu was a smart person. Since he'd chosen to go this far, he naturally had considerations for how to handle the aftermath.
Only, these considerations seemed exceptionally ruthless.
For his own interests, to protect those he wanted to protect, this brat had unhesitatingly used Root as his tool.
Just like that 'Shinobi of Darkness'!
Aburame Ryōma couldn't help but muse darkly: "Tsk... This brat, just what kind of person is he?"
At this time, a Root shinobi beside him suddenly spoke, interrupting Aburame Ryōma's thoughts.
"Ryōma-sama, what should we do?"
"Mobilize the Root shinobi positioned at the Kusanami Coast, the unnamed forest, and currently at the Land of Rivers border to head to Crow Forest, and prepare to annihilate all personnel from this Hidden Mist Byakugan hunting operation there..."
Speaking to this point, Aburame Ryōma suddenly paused slightly, narrowing his eyes.
After pondering for a moment,
He suddenly waved his hand, changing his mind.
"Wait."
Aburame Ryōma pointed at the abandoned laboratory before him.
"Go call that guy out from inside."
"No need to mobilize Root from other locations. Terai, you take Squad Three and follow behind the Hidden Mist pursuit force. After eliminating a few chunin, stop."
"Remember to make a little bit of noise."
At this time, the normally inquisitive Terai didn't ask why. He immediately knelt on one knee and accepted the order:
"Yes!"
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