Naruto: I, Shikotsumyaku, Byakugan Princess

Chapter 183 Master and Disciple Meet
Rumble!
On an inconspicuous cliff on the east side of the Death Forest, a silvery waterfall cascades down the cliff face, its white surface undulating and churning in the pool below.

The area outside the pool is about half a mile in circumference.

Withered grass and dead trees lie drooping, fat crows have their heads separated, and black blood is everywhere.

A gentle breeze rustled the weeds, causing them to stand upright and twist, while the metallic silver threads swayed in the wind, creating ripples like mercury spilling onto the ground.

A stunningly beautiful girl with silver hair and gray eyes stepped down from the boulder, her white robe billowing. She stood side by side with a Yang Release clone carrying a giant horizontal sword and wearing a black robe from the Root faction, both looking towards the distant Hiruzen Sarutobi standing on a treetop.

"Sarutobi-sensei, how have you been!"

When the girl with eyes as bright as stars uttered the word "teacher," Hiruzen Sarutobi felt a sense of unfamiliarity for a moment.

"Grey Glass!"

His aged voice, weathered by time, suppressed his anger as Hiruzen Sarutobi leaped down from the treetop and slowly walked to the two of them.

One white, one black; one tall, one short.

One was blindfolded, exuding a deep and menacing aura; the other had striking gray eyes, like those of a god.

He stared at the two Gray Glass disciples, who looked identical but possessed completely different temperaments and expressions. Beyond anger and shock, he was mostly confused: which one was his disciple, and...?

"What exactly are you doing?"

His eyes were lined with wrinkles. As he walked, the sight of the bizarre corpses scattered everywhere and the desolate, lifeless vegetation was truly horrifying. If he hadn't gone to deliver the compensation money to Naruto this morning, he wouldn't have known that such strange things had happened in the Death Forest.

"Why did you come here in person?" Hui Li did not directly answer Hiruzen Sarutobi's question.

She was indeed very curious.

This place is located deep in the Death Forest, in an extremely remote location.

Logically speaking, the possibility of being exposed in such a short time is not high, and even if it were exposed, since there were no casualties, it might not be taken seriously. Why would it directly provoke the Third Hokage?

Hiruzen Sarutobi snorted coldly.

He was unaware of the unusual situation until this morning. When he arrived at Naruto's house, he found that the boys from Inuzuka, Nara, Akimichi, and Aburame were all waiting at his door, and even Uchiha Sasuke was among them.

They were all dressed in tight-fitting clothes, their ninja tool pouches were bulging, and Sasuke even had a huge shuriken and a bundle of steel wire on his back, looking like they were fully armed.

He quickly realized something was wrong, and after careful questioning, the group stammered out the truth.

Since the last attack by Kumogakure, Nara and the others have deeply felt their own inadequacy and the huge gap between themselves and Hairi.

Now that Hui Li has left the school, it seems he is researching ninjutsu again. We don't know how strong he will be when he comes back. The group is very anxious about this crazy behavior. Every weekend, they go to the Death Forest to train their ninjutsu and fight against the wild beasts in the forest to improve their combat skills.

During this period, they noticed a significant decrease in the number of wild animals in the forest. Yesterday, they ventured deep into the forest to search for them and unexpectedly discovered many strange, rotting carcasses of wild animals.

These beasts looked as if they had undergone implant surgery, each with a bizarre and grotesque appearance.

Since it was already late, Nara Shikamaru, out of caution, did not act rashly. Instead, they went home to adjust their condition and agreed to set off early the next morning to investigate the situation in the Death Forest.

This morning, the group waited for Naruto at the agreed location for a long time, but did not see him. So they came to Naruto's house to look for him.

It turned out that he was too excited to fall asleep the night before, which caused him to be late.

So they simply waited in front of the door.

As Hiruzen Sarutobi listened to the group's excited descriptions of the abnormalities in the Forest of Death, he was both impressed by the inspiration that Hairi had provided for Konoha and, at the same time, felt a chill run down his spine.

The Forest of Death is no joke; it teems with wild beasts and poisonous insects, making it difficult even for genin who have graduated from the Ninja Academy to survive. If all these young talents of Konoha were to perish there, Konoha would be in real turmoil!

After sternly stopping their dangerous behavior, Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to send his ANBU to the Forest of Death to investigate.

But after he got back, the more he thought about it, the more something seemed wrong!
According to Nara Shikamaru's description, the corpses of those wild beasts could not have been formed naturally. It is very likely that someone was experimenting with ninjutsu in the Forest of Death, or even researching the extremely dangerous Yin-Yang Release technique.

Hui Li, who hadn't appeared for a long time, recently used his privileges to borrow many books about medical ninjutsu and cursed seals. Afterwards, he took nearly two months off, saying he was going to develop ninjutsu.

Many things suddenly became connected.

Hiruzen Sarutobi could no longer contain himself and ventured alone into the Forest of Death. Only when he saw the familiar figure in the middle of that desolate dead zone did his hope finally vanish!
Why must we develop dangerous Yin-Yang secret techniques? Danzo did it, Orochimaru did it, and now even Hairi has fallen into it...

Deep disappointment turned into rage; Hiruzen Sarutobi's face hardened, and the wrinkles around his eyes deepened.

"Answer my questions! What are you doing? Why are your eyes normal? Why are there two completely different you? Why is she wearing the Root's uniform? Why did you ignore all advice and develop the forbidden Yin-Yang technique?"

His voice grew louder and louder, eventually turning into a roar.

He truly couldn't understand why, if he had simply followed the established path and grown steadily, Hui Li could have become one of Konoha's top fighters. Why did he choose to collude with Danzo and Root, and develop forbidden techniques that manipulated life?

She looked exactly like a carbon copy of Orochimaru at that moment.

"Teacher, I'm dying."

Smoothing her stray hairs behind her head, Hui Li calmly uttered a startling statement.

Rumble!
The roar of the waterfall immediately subsided, and the anger in his eyes paused.

"you……"

He carefully examined Hui Li's appearance. Her face was fair and delicate, her eyes were bright and sparkling, and she was full of vitality. There was not a trace of death about her.

In comparison, saying he's about to die is more believable than saying he's gray glass.

The emotional light shifted from red anger to surprise, then to gray-blue doubt. Gray Glass knew she had successfully interrupted the other person's rising emotions.

As the so-called one-shot, and then decline, three and exhausted.

This is both military strategy and the way of emotions.

When people are burning with anger, they can't listen to explanations. The more you explain, the angrier they become. But when the emotional chain breaks, many things that seem infuriating are actually just that. Sometimes, many people can't even understand why they were angry at the time.

This is what happens when emotions control reason.

Emotions cannot solve problems; they can only amplify them. She must first interrupt the other person's emotions in order to communicate normally and prevent adding fuel to the fire.

Having achieved her goal of seizing the initiative, Hui Li calmly explained:
Have you ever heard of hematopoietic diseases?

As soon as she finished speaking, Hui Li looked directly at the top of Sarutobi's head, her anger subsiding by a third, and even the clouds of doubt cleared a little. If she had explained directly, it would never have had such an effect on the furious Sarutobi Hiruzen. The more she manipulated her emotions, the more she could perceive how terrifying Kurama's 'sense of good and evil' truly was.

"You...you have a bloodline disease?"

Completely unaware that his emotions had been seen through, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Kairi with suspicion and uncertainty, his voice no longer as angry as before.

He certainly knew what hemophilia was.

That's an incurable disease that only bloodline ninjas, and only those geniuses with extremely high bloodline awakening, can possibly suffer from. It's the legendary genius disease!

Whether Hui Li might have this genius disease is not even a question worth considering; it would be rare if she didn't have it at all.

The ninja world is fair.

Having unimaginable power in childhood inevitably comes at a price, one that no one can escape.

Thinking of the First Hokage, who once dominated the world, and how his body eventually disintegrated due to a bloodline disease, Hiruzen Sarutobi had largely come to believe that Kairi suffered from a bloodline disease.

"The Shikotsu clan members are born with a bloodline disease. During the first stage of awakening, everything is normal. After the second stage of awakening, they will not live past the age of twenty. The higher the level of awakening, the faster they die..."

Seeing that Hiruzen Sarutobi was no longer so angry, Hui Li relaxed her tense body slightly and began to speak leisurely.

Although her chakra and vitality have become much stronger after reversing the Eight Gates, the time is still too short, and she has not yet reached the threshold of 'Kage'.

Samehada's ability to absorb chakra is basically ineffective against Hiruzen Sarutobi, who is skilled in combined fire and earth ninjutsu. In addition, with his domineering taijutsu and various sealing techniques, Sarutobi is actually much more difficult to fight than Obito Uchiha.

"And your awakening level..."

"My Corpse Bone Vein has entered the third stage. Even a god couldn't save me. I have at most six months to live."

Looking at Hairi, who calmly announced his impending death, Hiruzen Sarutobi's anger had unknowingly vanished without a trace. However, a trace of doubt remained in his heart as he asked:

"These are all your side of the story. Why don't you go to the hospital for a checkup?"

"it's useless."

Hui Li knew it would be difficult to gain Sarutobi's trust with empty words. She closed the Sharingan in her palm, and the wound naturally stretched and the granulation tissue repaired until her palm returned to its smooth state and no abnormality was visible. Only then did she control her fingers to squeeze out a section of gray finger bone.

Boom!
The finger bone detached from the fingertip and fell to the ground beneath Gray Glass's feet with a dull thud, like a heavy iron ingot.

Fine, downy gray markings quickly spread outwards from around the skeleton.

What happened next caused Hiruzen Sarutobi's pupils to dilate suddenly. Without any warning, the area covered by the markings turned into a clump of dark gray powder with a series of cracking sounds.

call!
A gentle breeze rustled the weeds, and the dust drifted away with it.

In the deep pit, only a finger bone still lay there quietly.

The gray, deathly markings continued to climb, dust dissipated, and the finger bones continued to sink, as if, if left unattended, this thing could rot straight through to the earth's core.

“All the bones in my body have become like this, even if Tsunade comes, it will be useless. If this power is allowed to develop, I will turn to ashes sooner or later.”

As Hui Li spoke, the blood hole at her fingertip had healed, and the blood vessels automatically grew into the shape of incantations, firmly sealing the newly formed bones.

Facts speak louder than words: she did indeed suffer from hemophilia.

Although she has now been cured by reversing the Eight Gates, she wouldn't have been in such a hurry to develop this technique without it; that's the root of everything.

silence.

Hiruzen Sarutobi fell into a deep silence.

The power of those gray bones was terrifying; it even corroded the ground into dust. He could hardly imagine how Hui Li survived with her entire skeleton transformed into that state, and what kind of pressure and pain she had to endure.

"So you developed the Yin-Yang Escape Technique to save yourself, not to covet that forbidden power." His voice was slightly hoarse, the anger in it had subsided, and even the look in his eyes as he looked at Hui Li was much clearer and gentler.

Developing ninjutsu to cure one's own illness is a perfectly reasonable and justifiable reason, no matter where one goes.

Besides, Gray Glass didn't use humans for experiments; it only harmed some plants and animals during the development process, which is really not a big deal.

From another perspective, the fact that he did not choose to use humans as test subjects, even with such a devastating illness, proves that he still has some sense of reason, making him far better than Orochimaru, who experimented on his own village's ninjas.

I am afraid of comparison in everything.

Thinking of that rebellious disciple who would stop at nothing to achieve immortality, and looking at the exceptionally talented and self-reliant closed-door disciple in front of him despite suffering from a terminal illness, Hiruzen Sarutobi shook his head and sighed, ultimately refraining from uttering any harsh words.

"your eyes?"

Hui Li smiled slightly, and from her softened tone, it was clear that the matter was over.

The bloodline disease is no longer a major concern. The Blood and Flesh Curse Seal has firmly sealed off the mutation of the Corpse Bone Vein. Once the Immortal Body is fully formed, the boundless vitality will be enough to offset the threat of the Ash Bones.

Furthermore, by using the bloodline disease as a pretext for self-inflicted injury, she was able to reveal many secrets to Sarutobi, no longer needing to hide them as before.

"My mother is Hyuga Tenai, the daughter of the Hyuga main family..."

Next, Hairi concealed her 'body manipulation' ability and only told Hiruzen Sarutobi about the Byakugan. Hiding the Byakugan was out of necessity; she didn't want the Hyuga clan to plant the Caged Bird Seal in her, and it wasn't for any ulterior motive.

When Hiruzen Sarutobi heard that she was actually a member of the Hyuga clan, he was greatly shocked. At first, he thought it was just an ordinary sensory ability and didn't take it seriously, but he never thought that it was actually the Byakugan!
It's not his fault.

The Hyuga clan takes their Byakugan very seriously. With the protection of the caged birds, no one would believe that wild Byakugan could exist in the outside world.

No wonder her perception and chakra manipulation abilities are so abnormal!
Suddenly realizing what was happening, Hiruzen Sarutobi continued listening to Hairi's story. When he heard that Hyuga Aoi had been stranded in Kirigakure and had been rescued by the Taketori clan, with whom she had been on good terms for generations, his tightly furrowed brows finally relaxed.

He remembers this very clearly.

When the main Hyuga clan member went missing on the battlefield, resulting in the loss of the Byakugan, the entire Hyuga clan was in an uproar. The main Hyuga clan immediately gathered people to retrieve the Byakugan.

At the time, the war was at its most intense, and the Byakugan's intelligence capabilities were needed on all battlefields in Konoha. Therefore, he forcibly issued the Hyuga clan's summons and released an S-rank mission to reclaim the Byakugan, which was then abandoned.

The missing girl's name was indeed Hinata Tenkui.

Looking at the bulging veins in the corners of Hui Li's eyes as she spoke, he had hesitated to take her as his disciple because of her identity as a member of the Hidden Mist Village. But if she were a member of the Hyuga clan, she would truly be a genuine Konoha ninja.

It seems like I made the right choice in taking on this apprentice!
(End of this chapter)