If he had not been so convinced that "nothing could be changed," resigning himself to making nothing more than empty promises about the future...
If he...
Had only set aside that pointless pride—those stubborn principles—and spoken to his mother sooner...
Then before the list of sacrifices had been finalized...
Before that girl had been dragged to the God Tree...
He could have changed her fate with a single sentence.
"If... if I hadn't run away... If I hadn't avoided those few days..."
Hagoromo muttered to himself.
With every word he spoke, the color drained further from his face, while the emptiness in his eyes was swallowed by ever-deepening agony and remorse.
"...Would Butterfly still be alive?"
"It was me..."
"I killed her..."
"It was my self-righteous belief that I was powerless... and my foolish trust... that pushed her to her death..."
Overwhelming grief and regret gnawed relentlessly at his heart and soul like countless venomous insects.
This was no longer merely the sorrow of losing someone he loved.
It was grief intertwined with crushing guilt...
Rage at his own helplessness...
And despair at the sheer absurdity of it all.
Those emotions were far deadlier than any external blow.
Because they came from within.
They completely overturned every judgment, every choice, and every belief he had held.
"Urgh... AHH—!"
Unable to withstand the emotional shock any longer, Hagoromo's legs gave out beneath him.
He stumbled before collapsing heavily onto both knees.
His fingers dug deep into the earth, the knuckles turning white as his entire body trembled uncontrollably.
"Brother!"
Hamura cried out in alarm and hurried forward to help him.
But the instant his hand touched Hagoromo's shoulder, he froze.
His expression became even more horrified than when he had seen his brother collapse.
His eyes were fixed on Hagoromo's face—
More precisely...
On his eyes.
"Brother!"
"Your eyes...!"
Hagoromo also sensed that something was wrong.
The pure white Byakugan he had inherited from the Ōtsutsuki bloodline had disappeared.
In their place was a brilliant crimson—
As vivid as freshly spilled blood.
Even more astonishing, three jet-black tomoe slowly emerged within the scarlet irises.
They revolved in silence before finally settling into place.
Three Tomoe.
Scarlet eyes.
Black tomoe.
A new dōjutsu—
Different from Kaguya's, yet equally filled with immense power and an ominous aura—
Awakened for the very first time amidst Hagoromo's overwhelming pain, regret, and self-loathing.
Across the shinobi world, everyone who witnessed the scene—
Especially the surviving members of the Uchiha Clan—
Drew sharp breaths in disbelief.
"The Sharingan?!"
"And... that's a Three-Tomoe Sharingan?!"
"The Sage of Six Paths... originally awakened the Sharingan?!"
Within the Heavenly Curtain, Hagoromo's eyes transformed from pure white into crimson, three black tomoe appearing within them.
The revelation struck the shinobi world like a massive boulder crashing into a tranquil lake.
Nowhere was the impact greater than among the two clans most closely tied to ocular powers.
"The Sharingan?!"
"The Uchiha Clan's Sharingan?!"
"And he awakened it directly as a Three-Tomoe Sharingan?!"
"My god! Does the Sage of Six Paths just skip all the intermediate stages?!"
"Is that really the important part?!"
Someone immediately shouted back, his voice nearly cracking with excitement.
"The important part is that his eyes changed from the Byakugan!"
"The Byakugan!"
"The Hyūga Clan's Byakugan evolved into the Sharingan?!"
"How is that even possible?!"
"...Unbelievable."
"So the Byakugan and the Sharingan actually have some kind of evolutionary—or mutational—relationship?"
"This completely overturns everything we know about Kekkei Genkai!"
"How can two completely different dōjutsu be connected like this...?"
Countless shinobi who prided themselves on their knowledge felt as though their understanding of the world had just been shattered.
But others quickly found what seemed like a reasonable explanation.
"What's so impossible about it?"
"Think about it carefully."
"Kaguya herself possessed both the Byakugan and the Rinne Sharingan on her forehead."
"Hagoromo and Hamura inherited the full potential of her bloodline."
"The Byakugan may simply be the Ōtsutsuki's base dōjutsu."
"Then, under extreme emotional stimulation, the dormant power within their bloodline mutated, awakening another ocular ability more closely tied to spiritual and emotional power—the Sharingan."
"That explanation makes perfect sense."
"After all, both dōjutsu originated from the same source."
The theory quickly gained widespread acceptance.
But almost immediately, someone raised an even more practical—and considerably more mischievous—question.
"Then here's the real question!"
someone exclaimed with a grin.
"According to that logic..."
"Doesn't the Hyūga Clan today also have the potential to awaken the Sharingan?"
"They're descendants of Hamura, the Sage of Six Paths' younger brother."
"If Hagoromo could evolve his Byakugan into the Sharingan, then Hamura's descendants should theoretically retain that possibility too, right?"
"If you're putting it that way..."
another person chimed in with an even more teasing tone.
"Then if someone from the Hyūga Clan actually awakened the Sharingan someday..."
"Would that child belong to the Hyūga..."
"...or the Uchiha?"
The jokes and speculation struck the members of the Hyūga Clan like needles.
Within the Hyūga compound, an eerie silence fell before giving way to an uncontrollable uproar.
Members of both the Main House and the Branch House exchanged bewildered looks, their faces filled with disbelief as their understanding of their own lineage crumbled.
Ordinary clan members whispered among themselves, uncertainty evident in every expression.
"Our Byakugan..."
"...can do that?"
A young shinobi from the Branch House touched his eyes in a daze.
"Awaken... and become the Sharingan?"
"Why have we never known this?"
"There's never been any record of such a thing in the clan archives."
"Could it be..."
"That the Hyūga Clan has always possessed power comparable to the Uchiha?"
"We've just never met the necessary conditions..."
"Perhaps some overwhelming emotional shock... or some other special trigger..."
The bold speculation caused a flicker of longing for greater power to flash through a few eyes.
It was quickly suppressed beneath the stern gazes of the Main House elders.
"Absurd!"
"This must be another fabrication of the Heavenly Curtain!"
"Our Byakugan is pure and noble!"
"It is the Eye of Insight."
"How could it possibly transform into a cursed dōjutsu fueled by hatred and emotion like the Sharingan?"
Several conservative elders flatly rejected the notion, unwilling to accept anything that threatened the Hyūga Clan's long-held ideals of purity and heritage.
Yet regardless of their objections...
A seed had already been planted.
The seed of possibility.
Could the Byakugan and the Sharingan truly share the same origin?
Had the Hyūga and Uchiha once been closely related branches of the same ancient bloodline?
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