The days that followed settled into an eerie calm.
By day, she used Root's resources to research advanced methods for evolving the Sharingan. By night, she siphoned chakra from the Hashirama Tree to fuel her main body's development of a new jutsu.
The Sharingan's evolution remained a dead end. Without Uchiha test subjects, she couldn't decipher the structure of the special chakra their brains produced. Her only option was brute-forcing it with massive amounts of life energy.
Naturally, the experiment failed.
The ocean-like vitality of the Hashirama Tree was simply too vast for the Sharingan to absorb. The gap in scale was insurmountable.
No matter how compatible their attributes were, an ant couldn't devour an elephant.
An ordinary three-tomoe Sharingan couldn't suppress that overwhelming power, let alone absorb and evolve from it. If she hadn't acted quickly, the three-tomoe eyes grafted onto the flesh would've been corroded by the Hashirama cells and rendered useless.
To upgrade a pair of three-tomoe Sharingan into Mangekyō, only a monster like Naruto stood a chance.
But even if she succeeded, Naruto would likely lose thirty years of his lifespan in the process. At that point, mastering Sage Mode would be far more cost-effective than chasing the Mangekyō.
Danzo's dream of a Mangekyō army was doomed to fail.
Not that Hikari cared.
An investor's shattered dreams meant nothing to her—a mere employee. She had no intention of following the Sharingan's path to the Mangekyō or the Rinnegan anyway.
After seeing how easily Obito's Kamui was countered, forcing him to flee like a beaten dog, she'd learned her lesson.
The more rigid a technique, the easier it is to exploit.
Once its secrets were uncovered, even the most esoteric dōjutsu became laughably clumsy.
Rather than relying on mysterious eye techniques, she preferred dissecting the knowledge behind them—then recreating them in her own way.
Aside from researching the Sharingan's evolution, she'd also been deconstructing the Kotoamatsukami chakra imprinted in her mind, attempting to replicate it using a regular three-tomoe Sharingan.
In theory, if Izanagi could be replicated, Kotoamatsukami shouldn't be impossible. But reality proved far more complicated.
The mechanics of Kotoamatsukami were uniquely intricate. Even with the Byakugan's hyper-analytical vision, she'd only grasped the basics of its activation sequence.
Key Findings:
Left and Right Eyes Had Different Effects. The left eye (in Itachi's possession) could permanently alter will. Danzo's right eye only allowed temporary modifications—reversible, with a much shorter cooldown (nowhere near the decade-long wait).
But that didn't mean Danzo's version was weaker.
Permanent Kotoamatsukami had a cripplingly long cooldown—usable maybe twice in a lifetime. Danzo's could be spammed, tweaking subconscious commands in real time. Far more flexible.
After extensive analysis, Hikari understood the core mechanism:
Kotoamatsukami essentially implanted a direct command into the target's subconscious via ocular chakra. The victim remained unaware of the command—or even that they'd been manipulated—but their thoughts and actions would naturally align with the implanted will.
Example:
If Itachi used Kotoamatsukami on Sasuke with the command "Protect Konoha," Sasuke wouldn't realize he'd been influenced. Instead, he'd spontaneously recall Naruto, Sakura, and Konoha's virtues, genuinely believing he had chosen to defend the village.
Even if the genjutsu broke, those thoughts would linger—because they felt like his own. There was still a chance he'd uphold the command voluntarily.
This technique involved soul manipulation, conscious/subconscious layers, and other esoteric concepts beyond conventional ninjutsu. Current Yin-release theories couldn't fully explain its logic.
If she ever cracked it, she could name these principles herself—pioneering a new field of soul and mind techniques. A breakthrough rivaling Orochimaru's "Yang-to-Yin Conversion" hypothesis.
For now, Kotoamatsukami replication remained distant. Using a three-tomoe to cast it was already a pipe dream, let alone recreating it with raw chakra. The difficulty matched reversing the Eight Gates.
Compared to her daytime research, nights were monotonous—just Samehada gorging on chakra while she acted as a conduit, relaying energy to her main body and monitoring the Reverse Eight Gates project.
According to her main body, progress was alarmingly smooth. Too exhausted to explain the technical hurdles, it only demanded uninterrupted chakra transfers.
This excited Hikari. She practically lived in the basement now, forcing Samehada to drain the tree daily.
The poor sword had no rest—eat, digest, transfer, repeat. The Hashirama cells' ultra-stable chakra was like chewing sawdust. If not for their decent taste, it would've quit long ago.
Not entirely its fault.
Samehada loved pure chakra—like raw energy from chakra cores or tailed beasts. Hikari's blend was a gourmet feast:
Her own chakra → Fresh greens (light, clean). Isobu's (Three-Tails) chakra → Comfort food (familiar, savory). Kurama's (Nine-Tails) chakra → Luxury delicacy (rich, potent).
After this treatment, Samehada's standards had skyrocketed. Even if the Three-Tails itself showed up, it wouldn't compare to a finger's worth of Hikari's chakra.
In short—it was hers now. Betrayal was off the table.
Samehada could absorb nature-transformed chakra, but digestion was slower and riskier. Its preferences:
Best: Water (native to Isobu), Wind (loose structure, easy to break down). Okay: Yin/Yang (digestible, but no defense against their effects). Worst: Fire/Lightning (defenseless, hated them). Absolute trash: Earth (too dense, "dry and tasteless").
During the Thunderclap Mountain battle, Orochimaru's High-Pressure Water Gun (Water + Wind) was perfect for Samehada—swallowed effortlessly. Ironically, that was how it discovered Hikari's chakra's flavor, sealing its loyalty.
Had she used Fire or Lightning instead, Samehada might've hesitated. Luck or fate?
Hikari wasn't cruel. To prevent Samehada from developing eating disorders, she rewarded it with her own chakra after each Hashirama-cell feast. Motivated by treats, it worked diligently.
Two weeks passed in this routine.
She only returned to the Hatake compound once—finding Might Guy and Kakashi still on missions—before grabbing spare clothes and moving permanently into Root's base.
The Reverse Eight Gates project had hit a critical phase. She extended her leave from the Academy and Hiruzen, citing "a breakthrough in jutsu research" that required isolation.
Academy: Iruka approved instantly, even urging her to "rest properly." (Cue jealous glares from Naruto and Shikamaru.) Hiruzen: Initially pleased, his mood soured at "more jutsu development." Still, he relented with a wave.
She understood his concern. After Orochimaru, he feared she'd stray down the same dark path.
He wasn't wrong.
Orochimaru's Immortality Via Body-Stealing preserved the soul by hijacking flesh. Her Reverse Eight Gates achieved physical immortality by devouring life force.
Two sides of the same coin—both selfish, both taboo in Hiruzen's outdated worldview.
But his disapproval meant nothing. The Reverse Eight Gates was her path to godhood. No one would stop her—not even her teacher.
The more time she spent with Hiruzen, the clearer Orochimaru's (and even Danzo's) grievances became.
His love for Konoha was real. His stubbornness was too.
Countless powerful techniques sat gathering dust in sealed scrolls. Instead of researching Hashirama's cells, why not just summon Hashirama himself?
If Tobirama were revived via Edo Tensei, he wouldn't even need to fight—just develop new jutsu. Konoha's forbidden scrolls could've doubled in size by now.
Was it pride? Shortsightedness?
Uninterested in Hiruzen's hang-ups, Hikari returned to Root.
She practically lived in the basement now. Surprisingly, Chiyuki visited even more often—sometimes murmuring to the tree, other times sleeping against the glass until dawn.
They didn't disturb each other. Over time, an unspoken rhythm developed. Occasionally, they'd chat.
When insomnia struck, Chiyuki shared clan secrets—stories no one else had heard in decades.
In return, Hikari (omitting the Byakugan) recounted her past—the Kaguya massacre, her revenge, her escape.
Kaguya's fall made Chiyuki's eyes dim with shared grief. Fighting Kirigakure ANBU had her clenching her fists in tension. Reaching Konoha finally made her relax.
As they grew closer, Chiyuki's stories grew darker—like decades of loneliness were finally spilling out.
The First and Second Hokages' deaths crippling the Senju. War thinning their ranks further. Desperate attempts to reclaim Hashirama's power backfiring horribly. The clan disbanding to preserve dignity, fading into obscurity.
Then—the bombshell.
"The Fourth Hokage—Minato Namikaze—was half-Senju!?"
Hikari nearly fell off the glass pillar, Samehada wobbling in her grip.
"Technically, yes. I knew his mother. Held him as a baby."
Chiyuki—looking no older than thirty—dropped this casually, as if discussing the weather.
Hikari barely swallowed her next question ("How old are you!?"). With Senju-Uzumaki vitality, Chiyuki might rival Tsunade in age.
**"But he was called a 'prodigy from nowhere'…"
The manga's narrative had blinded her. If even Minato had elite bloodlines, the world was bleaker than she thought.
Chiyuki gave her a look.
"Reaching Kage-level without ample chakra is impossible. You either:
Develop chakra-boosting Yin/Yang secrets (time-consuming). Create a Kekkei Genkai (rare luck). Inherit it from your parents.
Minato had Hokage-tier strength before graduating the Academy. How could he be a 'nobody'?"
Hikari froze.
The deeper she delved into ninjutsu, the clearer the insurmountable gap between elites and commoners became.
With Hyūga-Kaguya heritage, her chakra already dwarfed peers—yet barely reached special jōnin levels. Without tailed-beast chakra, she'd have struggled to match Minato—if at all.
Might Guy burned life force via the Eight Gates. Orochimaru used human experiments and modifications. Jiraiya had natural talent + Mount Myōboku's training.
So how did Minato, with no bloodline or secret arts, spam the Second's Flying Thunder God like it was basic shunshin?
Answer:He wasn't a nobody.
If Minato had partial Senju heritage, everything made sense:
Incomplete Sage Body → Massive chakra reserves. Tsunade's teammate (Jiraiya) as his teacher → Access to elite techniques. Mastering Flying Thunder God effortlessly → Tobirama's legacy. Marrying Kushina (Uzumaki) → Jinchūriki compatibility. Instant Sage Mode → Myōboku's favor.
And let's not forget Naruto—a Senju-Uzumaki hybrid with bottomless chakra.
"So… Orochimaru losing the Fourth Hokage election…"
"Partly political, but not as sinister as you think."
Chiyuki read her thoughts instantly. After weeks together, she no longer saw Hikari as a child.
"Kekkei Genkai require luck. Yin/Yang arts require human experimentation (how all secret clans began).
Orochimaru needed cruelty to grow stronger. Minato just had to act kind to win hearts.
That's why he lost."
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