The village of Konoha was draped in silence. The air was heavy with mourning as shinobi and civilians alike gathered in solemn unity. Black cloth banners fluttered gently in the wind, bearing the symbol of the Leaf. At the center stood the memorial platform, where the Third Hokage's body rested beneath white sheets, adorned with flowers and incense.
The Sandaime, Hiruzen Sarutobi—the man who had carried the Will of Fire for decades—was gone.
Jiraiya stood near the front, his expression grim, while Kakashi's single visible eye carried a quiet grief. Even the youngest of genin, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, felt the immense void left behind.
Among the crowd, silent and unnoticed, stood a man in a dark cloak—Kirito's shadow clone. Its eyes remained downcast, perfectly imitating the posture of a respectful mourner. But unlike the rest of the village, it carried no grief—only cold calculation.
The clone's mind whispered: Observation complete. The village is vulnerable, scattered. Emotions cloud their judgment. This is the perfect time…
---
Far below, in the underground lab, the real Kirito worked tirelessly. The Byakugan eye floated in a suspension chamber, connected to veins of chakra threads running across the floor. His latest hybrid clone lay strapped to a seal-carved table, its body twitching violently as the experiment advanced.
The clone's veins around the temples bulged as its Byakugan activated, glowing faintly with pale light. For a brief moment, the creature managed to stabilize its vision—seeing through walls, detecting chakra flows even beyond the chamber.
"Excellent…" Kirito muttered, adjusting seals with his hands. "At this stage, it can already see the tenketsu chakra points. If it survives another hour, I can attempt the Gentle Fist replication."
The hybrid clone suddenly screamed, chakra exploding from its pores. The chamber rattled as the sealing array strained to contain the outburst. Kirito's hands moved swiftly, suppressing the surge with black talisman seals. The body fell limp, but the Byakugan remained faintly glowing even in death.
"Another failure," he said calmly, scribbling notes. "But progress nonetheless. These corpses will pave the road to perfection."
---
At the funeral, the silence broke as the village bowed in unison when the coffin was lowered. Tears flowed, and voices whispered the Will of Fire. The clone stood still, unmoved, yet carefully scanning the crowd.
It spotted Jiraiya's tense jaw, Naruto's clenched fists, and even Danzo lurking at the far edge with cold, calculating eyes of his own.
The shadow clone smirked faintly. So many pieces on the board. So many weaknesses…
---
Deep underground, Kirito placed the preserved Byakugan jars back into their case. His cloak swayed as he turned to the wall lined with labeled samples—Hyūga, Senju, Uchiha, Uzumaki. His hand hovered over the Uchiha vial, a sinister thought forming.
"The Byakugan can see everything… but the Sharingan can control everything. Imagine what will be born when they are merged."
The clone at the funeral clenched its fists. The real Kirito in the lab grinned. Together, their voices overlapped in perfect harmony:
"The Will of Fire has died with Hiruzen… Now begins the Will of Evolution."
Beneath the streets of Konoha, while the village wept for its fallen Hokage, Kirito's laboratory pulsed with life and death. The air was thick with chakra residue and the metallic tang of blood. Rows of sealing arrays flickered in dim blue, illuminating stone tables stacked with notes, scrolls, and preserved samples.
At the center, Kirito stood over a tri-layered seal array, where three glowing vials hovered:
Uchiha DNA—a crimson-hued essence, swirling with unstable chakra.
Hyūga DNA—a pale white liquid, its flow calm yet sharp like a blade.
Senju DNA—a vibrant green, radiating vitality and resilience.
Kirito extended his chakra threads into each vial, carefully intertwining them over a living host—a specially engineered clone body. The process was delicate: each bloodline rejected the others, violently lashing out whenever balance was lost.
The clone writhed as its body convulsed, veins tearing open, flesh steaming from the overwhelming chakra fusion. Its skin shifted between pale and red, its chakra signature spiking erratically. For a moment, it looked stable—its Byakugan-like veins faintly emerging at the temples, while a reddish glow flickered in the pupils. But then, cracks spread across its body like shattered glass, and with a sickening sound, it collapsed into ash.
Kirito didn't even blink. He calmly jotted down his notes:
"Failure #27. Hyūga and Uchiha interaction unstable—violent rejection. Senju vitality counters breakdown but not for long. Hypothesis: Senju chakra must serve as the foundation, not the stabilizer."
---
He reset the array and prepared another vessel. This time, he adjusted the ratios—Senju 60%, Hyūga 25%, Uchiha 15%.
The clone screamed as its body began molding differently. Its chakra expanded outward, forming a faint protective layer. Veins emerged along the temples, but instead of activating into Byakugan, the eyes shimmered faintly, struggling to evolve. The clone's arm twitched, forming an incomplete Gentle Fist strike against the restraints. The impact shattered a chunk of reinforced stone.
Kirito's eyes widened slightly.
"Impressive… it instinctively used Hyūga technique without full ocular activation. Progress."
The clone twitched again, this time its chakra surging red, its pupils flickering as if a Sharingan were trying to manifest. But the unstable fusion tore the body apart from within, leaving a bloody husk on the seal.
Kirito exhaled slowly, more fascinated than disappointed.
"The Hyūga and Uchiha are natural enemies… yet both require Senju's vitality to endure. Their true potential lies in harmony, not dominance."
---
On another table, notes and diagrams depicted his vision:
The Senju as the root.
The Hyūga as the sight and precision.
The Uchiha as the power and control.
Together, they would form something greater than any bloodline limit before.
Kirito's fingers trailed across the notes as his lips curved into a cold smile.
"Not a dōjutsu… not merely a fusion… but an entirely new evolution. When perfected, no god, no Hokage, no clan will stand above it."
The underground chamber trembled as he prepared the next array, this time adding fragments of Uzumaki vitality into the formula.
The Will of Fire was buried above. But deep below, the Will of Evolution had begun to sprout.