Chapter 21: Sixty Years of Konoha, the Deluxe Stat Panel!
Time flies; the years slip away like a shuttle.
Before they knew it, childhood was drawing to a close.
It was the end of March in Konoha's sixtieth year.
The most extraordinary new generation was finally entering their graduation season.
"Izayoi-kun, wake up—there's the graduation assessment today."
Izayoi had overslept unusually late this morning.
Lost in slumber, he was gently pulled back to reality by a soft female voice.
The owner of that voice sat right beside him, yet she didn't startle him awake—proof of how completely he trusted her.
When he opened his eyes, the girl's outline gradually sharpened in his blurry vision.
A small, delicate face that had long since shed its baby fat, every feature perfectly refined, came into view.
Her jet-black hair, purposefully grown long for six years, fell over her shoulders and down to her waist like silk.
Beneath the white coat and black mesh underlay, her skin gleamed snow-white where it was exposed.
Unlike other members of the Hyuga clan, her pale Byakugan eyes held a faint, ethereal lavender tint, making her gaze sparkle like a precious gem.
Her lips, tinted like cherry blossoms, curved into a slight smile.
She clasped her hands behind her back and leaned over Izayoi to watch him waking.
Locking eyes with Hinata for a few seconds, Izayoi felt somewhat dazed, as if that cute little face, full of baby fat, was just like yesterday.
Then he glanced down, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.
"Hinata, have you… grown up again?"
"Aah…"
Hinata gasped, suddenly realizing how indecent her posture must've been.
She hurriedly drew the coat's fastener up to the top, blushed, and turned away.
Her voice trembled: "I-Izayoi-kun, you should go freshen up. I brought breakfast."
With that, she fled the room in a panic.
Used to teasing his childhood friend, Izayoi stretched and rose from bed.
He headed for the private bathroom just off his room to wash up.
While brushing his teeth, he examined himself in the mirror.
Six years had passed.
The boy who once had black hair, blue eyes, and a face still plump with childhood fat had shed all his immaturity.
His features were now as sharply sculpted as a statue—handsome and defined.
His black hair, cut just to cover his ears, stuck up a little from sleepiness.
Those blue eyes—once the same hue as Uzumaki Naruto's but deeper—suddenly shifted.
His pupils turned white, matching Hinata's, and under the light, they too shimmered with that faint lavender glow.
Yet, unlike before, there were no bulging veins at his temples.
Previously, every time he activated his Byakugan, veins would stand out at his temples.
But since the start of the year, that no longer happened.
Izayoi narrowed his eyes.
Then, a translucent panel—visible only to him and not even reflected in the mirror—materialized before him:
[Host: Izayoi]
[Talent Entries: Otsutsuki Bloodline (Red), Sage Eyes (Red), Prince of the Byakugan (Red), Six Paths Aptitude (Red), Kekkei Genkai: Byakugan (Gold), Chakra Control (Gold), Uzumaki Bloodline (Purple) [+], All-Attribute Physique (Purple) [+], Medical Genius (Blue) [+]]
[Points: 12391]
Six years at the ninja academy had given Izayoi a truly lavish stat panel.
Beyond his original Otsutsuki Bloodline entry, he'd unlocked three more red entries: Sage's Eye (from Uchiha Sasuke), Prince of the Byakugan (triggered by Hinata two years ago and auto-renamed upon fusion), and finally, his own evolved Six Paths Aptitude.
While others hadn't even unlocked a single talent entry, Izayoi already boasted four of the highest known red-level entries.
Even Uzumaki Naruto—the child of destiny with Asura's chakra, half a Nine-Tails, and the Uzumaki blood—fell short of his panel.
Yet, a closer look revealed that although he'd fused Sage's Eye nearly five years ago, no Kekkei Genkai: Sharingan (Purple) or Uchiha Bloodline (Purple) had ever appeared.
The reason?
His Gold-level Kekkei Genkai: Byakugan.
At the end of June in Konoha's fifty-eighth year, Izayoi received his belated birthday gift: a red-level entry from Hinata.
After their fusion, the entry's name changed.
Over the next two years, his chakra pool swelled month by month.
He didn't know how astonishing the chakra reserves of a Sage Body were, but Izayoi was absolutely certain that if Uzumaki Naruto didn't have half of the Nine-Tails and also wasn't malnourished, then relying solely on his Sage Body, Naruto's chakra amount would definitely be far less than his own.
That ocean-like reserve naturally included Yin-Release chakra.
Converted to numbers, his Yin-Release chakra should've already awakened the Sharingan—or even evolved into a Mangekyō Sharingan.
Yet he hadn't awakened his Sharingan.
All the Yin-Release chakra his brain secreted was being siphoned away by his Byakugan, never reaching his eyeballs to spawn a new dojutsu.
Still, that Byakugan had quietly leveled up from Purple to Gold in Konoha's fifty-ninth year.
Since fusing the Prince of the Byakugan entry, his Byakugan's far-vision range had also increased periodically.
Now it reached an astonishing eighty kilometers, with full 360 degree omnidirectional vision and x-ray capability—surpassing even the Uzumaki clan's Kagura Mind's Eye.
Without doubt, Izayoi's sensory techniques had become the era's strongest.
It'd been nearly a year since his Byakugan last upgraded...
"Soon…" he murmured, rinsing his mouth and wiping away foam with a handkerchief.
He touched the corner of his right eye and gazed at the faintly lavender-tinged Byakugan in the mirror.
"I get the feeling the first fetal movement will be close soon."
The setup of the current Izayoi was certainly way out of Otsutsuki Toneri's league.
At nineteen years old, the potential of the other party had already been fully realized, and the Otsutsuki bloodline, as well as the Sage Body, had been nurtured to an extremely high level.
Therefore, he was able to awaken Tenseigan, in a couple of days.
However, at present, both Izayoi's and Otsutsuki Toneri's potential were yet to be realized.
Even if they graft Hinata or Hanabi's Byakugan, they would not be able to awaken into Tenseigan within a couple of days like in the movie.
But, just in case, if they graft Byakugan at the same time, the speed at which Izayoi awakened his Tenseigan would definitely be faster than that of Otsutsuki Toneri.
Sage Eye (Red) was Izayoi's self-confidence.
With both the Sage Eye and the Prince of the Byakugan, Izayoi was equal to opening two speed-up hacks.
At twelve years old, he could potentially awaken the ultimate Dojutsu .
This was even more outrageous than Uchiha Itachi awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan at eleven years old.