Chapter 50: The All-Seeing Eye, A Seal Unwritten, A God Ascendant
The northern front against the Kumo-Iwa coalition was a landscape sculpted by raw elemental fury and ceaseless bloodshed. Jagged mountains clawed at perpetually stormy skies, their slopes slick with rain and blood. Here, Konoha's forces clung to precarious defensive lines, pushed to their breaking point by the combined might of two aggressive villages. Kenji Senju, leading his "Unit Kage," moved through this maelstrom with his characteristic chilling efficiency, his official mission to disrupt enemy logistics a perfect cover for his far more sinister hunt.
His nascent Sharingan, though only a single tomoe, combined with his existing array of stolen senses and the Denki Myaku's synaptic acceleration, painted a terrifyingly clear picture of the battlefield. He could see the flow of chakra in enemy formations, anticipate the trajectory of Kumo's lightning-fast attacks, and sense the subtle tremors of Iwa's Doton jutsus before they erupted. His objective, however, lay not in the brute force of these enemies, but in the pale, pupilless eyes of Konoha's own Hyuga deployed to this meat grinder.
He identified his target after days of relentless, covert observation amidst raging battles: a small Hyuga reconnaissance squad operating deep in a contested valley, known for its heavy Kumo presence. One of them, a Branch family member named Hyuga Kenichi, was clearly a seasoned veteran, his Byakugan sweeping the terrain with practiced vigilance. Kenji knew that upon Kenichi's death, the Caged Bird Seal would instantly activate, incinerating the precious dōjutsu. He couldn't allow that.
Kenji didn't engage the Hyuga directly. Instead, he orchestrated chaos. Using his intimate knowledge of the terrain (gleaned from his earth sense) and his mastery over Wind Release, he triggered a massive rockslide on a nearby ridge, timed perfectly to "coincide" with a Kumo lightning-wolf pack patrol he had been tracking. The ensuing pandemonium – panicked Kumo shinobi, disoriented Hyuga, and the fury of the elements – was the smokescreen he needed.
Amidst the confusion, Kenji, a ghost in the storm of rock and lightning, moved towards the Hyuga squad. He saw Kenichi Hyuga fall, struck down by a Kumo Jonin's lightning-infused blade during a desperate attempt to shield a younger teammate. Kenji was on him in an instant, even as the life force began to ebb from the Hyuga's body and the faint, sickeningly sweet scent of activating fuinjutsu – the Caged Bird Seal – began to permeate the air.
This was where his months of poring over Uzumaki sealing lore, his own innate genius for fuinjutsu, and the almost precognitive speed granted by Denki Myaku, came into play. He had theorized a counter, a dangerous, incredibly precise application of deconstructional Uzumaki principles aimed not at breaking the Caged Bird Seal (an impossible feat in seconds), but at temporarily desynchronizing its activation sequence from the host's fading life force.
His hands moved in a blur of intricate seals that no ordinary shinobi could follow, his chakra, guided by his Sharingan's nascent ability to perceive minute energy flows, weaving a complex counter-frequency around the dying Hyuga's head. It was like trying to defuse an infinitesimally small, infinitely complex explosive device in the heart of a hurricane, while simultaneously feeling the potent, unique chakra of the Byakugan resisting, trying to self-destruct. For a terrifying moment, he felt the seal begin its incineration sequence, a searing heat building behind the Hyuga's eyes.
But Kenji's will, his precise chakra control, and the profound depth of his fuinjutsu understanding, prevailed. He felt a subtle click in the energy matrix, a momentary stutter in the seal's destructive cascade. It was a window of perhaps two, three seconds at most.
With the same crystalline tools he had used on Kaiyo Uchiha, moving with a speed that was truly inhuman, he performed the extraction. The Byakugan eyes, pearlescent and still faintly pulsing with the Hyuga's residual chakra, were his. He also took vital tissue samples. The moment the eyes were clear, the Caged Bird Seal on the now-empty sockets completed its grim work, but it was too late. The prize was secured.
He vanished as quickly as he had appeared, leaving behind a scene of utter devastation – a rockslide, a Kumo ambush, and several fallen shinobi from both sides, including the now eyeless Hyuga Kenichi. The specific circumstances of Kenichi's ocular damage, if ever examined closely amidst such carnage, would be attributed to the sheer brutality of the Kumo attack or the subsequent rockfall. No one would suspect the intricate, split-second fuinjutsu intervention.
His official mission objectives were completed with his usual ruthless efficiency shortly thereafter, his unit (or what remained of it after he'd subtly allowed more aggressive Kumo patrols to "stumble" upon his less essential teammates to create further diversions) reporting significant disruption to enemy operations.
Back in his deepest sanctuary, the integration of the Byakugan began. If Hashirama's cells were a deep, resonant ocean of life, and the Sharingan a crimson key to perception and power, the Byakugan was like staring into the heart of a celestial nebula – an all-encompassing, pure white vision that threatened to overwhelm his senses with its sheer clarity and scope. He felt his optic nerves reconstruct, his brain rewiring itself to process the 360-degree chakra sight, the telescopic vision, the ability to see the tenketsu. It was disorienting, painful, but utterly exhilarating.
His nascent Sharingan, still only one tomoe, seemed to react to the Hyuga essence, a strange resonance forming between the two dōjutsus that originated from the same ancient progenitor. He could feel the Hashirama cells within him subtly aiding the integration, their immense vitality helping to stabilize the profound biological changes.
Orochimaru, also active on the northern front, was reportedly making his own gruesome acquisitions, his Edo Tensei puppets becoming more sophisticated, more terrifying. He had even made oblique inquiries through back channels about any "unusual Hyuga casualties," his interest in dōjutsu as keen as ever. Kenji knew the serpent would be an eternal rival in this grim hunt for power.
Jiraiya, meanwhile, was becoming a legend in his own right, his Sage Mode abilities manifesting in spectacular displays of power, turning the tide of battles. Yet, his brow was perpetually furrowed with worry for Tsunade, for Orochimaru, and for the soul of Konoha itself.
Tsunade, ensconced in the Senju compound, continued her research, her love for Kenji her only guiding star in a world she now viewed with utter cynicism. She spoke to him of her theories on chakra pathways and hereditary traits, unknowingly providing him with insights that helped him stabilize his stolen Byakugan and further understand the intricate web of Ōtsutsuki-descended bloodlines.
Kenji Senju now possessed the core genetic legacies of the Senju, the Uchiha, and the Hyuga. The foundations of his apotheosis were laid. His Sharingan flickered with its single tomoe, but behind it, the nascent, all-pervading sight of the Byakugan was beginning to awaken. He could see the world, its chakra, its secrets, its lies, with a clarity no mortal had ever possessed.
The war raged on, a convenient crucible for his terrifying evolution. He was no longer just a collector of abilities; he was a reaver of bloodlines, a silent god walking among men, his true face hidden behind a mask of quiet competence. The path to true Ōtsutsuki-level power was long and fraught with peril, but Kenji, with the All-Seeing Eye now dawning within him, felt an absolute, chilling certainty: he would walk it to its ultimate, devastating conclusion.