The clarity in Uchiha Yue's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan shimmered as his consciousness swiftly retracted from the illusory realm. The genjutsu world, an intricate projection of his will, dissipated completely from around him.
"Well, it's about time I left," he murmured to himself.
His gaze briefly rested on the peacefully slumbering Hinata Hyuga. She lay curled under the covers, her expression soft and unaware, with no signs of waking soon. With no sound nor ripple of chakra, Uchiha Yue vanished from the room like a whisper on the wind—an illusion himself, leaving behind no trace of his presence.
Although Yue hadn't taken a blood sample in the conventional sense—no incisions, no visible harm—his planted parasitic spore technique, similar in principle to Torune Aburame's microscopic venomous beetles, had already harvested Hinata's cellular essence from close proximity. The operation had been clinical and efficient.
From the outside, it may have seemed he wasted time inside the illusion. However, the genjutsu world was one he controlled entirely, including the passage of time. Though he'd spent what felt like hours inside with Hinata, only a minute or less had passed in the real world. It was a technique reminiscent of Itachi's Tsukuyomi, though Yue's version was more malleable due to his evolving ocular powers.
Granted, accelerating time consumed more pupil power than usual, but with Yue's perfected Sage Body and the regenerative traits of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, the toll was negligible. His chakra reserves had already begun recovering before he'd even exited the room.
Time moved on quietly.
His infiltration and exit remained undetected by the Hyuga Clan's elite sensory network, which was otherwise capable of sensing foreign chakra. Even the vigilant sentries guarding the Hyuga compound had not noticed a thing.
However, moments after his departure, Hinata stirred.
Her eyebrows twitched lightly. Then, with a faint gasp, her eyes opened wide. "Huh? 793? When did I fall asleep? Is it… still night?"
She sat upright, blinking. Her lavender-tinted Byakugan-less gaze swept the moonlit room in confusion. "Also… did Brother Hokage already leave?"
Stretching and rubbing her eyes, Hinata's gaze fell on the nearby alarm clock. What she saw made her expression shift to one of surprise.
"The time… it's the same as before?"
She hurried to the clock and examined it carefully. The digital face showed a date and time she distinctly remembered seeing before falling asleep. But the clock wasn't broken—its ticking and display were perfectly functional.
"Strange… is this a Genjutsu?"
Unable to find a reasonable explanation, she murmured, "Forget it! I'll ask Sister Xia."
The eldest daughter of the Hyuga clan, Hinata had a personal attendant. Her maid, Hyuga Xia, rested in the adjacent room for such situations. Hinata walked to her door, her bare feet making soft taps on the polished wooden floor.
"Sister Xia? Are you awake?"
She knocked softly.
There was a pause, then a startled response from within. "Ah! Miss Hinata? Please wait a moment!"
Clearly caught off guard by the late-night call, Hyuga Xia scrambled to make herself presentable. A minute later, she opened the door, dressed hastily but respectfully.
"Miss, is everything alright?" she asked with a puzzled tone, noticing Hinata's sleepwear and disoriented expression.
"Sister Xia, what's today's date? And has Father returned?"
Xia blinked, then answered, "Today is October 16th, Miss. As for the clan head, he's still deployed to the Mist Front—he won't return anytime soon."
This answer made Hinata's eyes widen again.
"I see… thank you, Sister Xia. You can go back to rest—I won't trouble you further."
With a courteous nod, Hinata turned around and walked swiftly back to her room, ignoring the questioning gaze trailing behind her.
As she closed the door and leaned against it, her face lit up with realization.
"So… it was Brother Hokage."
She threw herself onto her bed and whispered with excitement.
"Before he left, he did say I might feel strange when I woke up… so that's what he meant."
Although Uchiha Yue had done everything to make his presence in the illusion feel like a dream, he'd left Hinata subtle cues—remnants of memory and intent carefully embedded in her subconscious—so that when she woke, her instincts would guide her to the truth.
Whatever thoughts were stirring in Hinata's heart, Yue had already moved on.
Back in his secluded training chamber, he now sat cross-legged. Before him floated three sealed vials containing distinct bloodline samples. His eyes gleamed with sharpness.
"Three unique genetic lineages," he muttered. "Let's begin with the Uzumaki Sage Body."
Of the three, the Uzumaki blood was his current focus. With both the Senju-derived Sage Body and the residual enhancements from the Uchiha lineage already integrated into his system, adding the Uzumaki bloodline—famed for their immense vitality and chakra reserves—promised immense synergy.
Without further delay, Yue initiated the fusion process.
Time passed quietly.
Moments later, his form flickered with ethereal chakra. A torrent of life energy surged through his body, so dense and rich that his cells seemed to sing. But this wasn't the end.
An unfamiliar sensation soon bloomed within his mind—an all-encompassing awareness.
"This is… Kagura Shingan?" Yue muttered, eyes narrowing.
This legendary sensory technique, famously used by Karin Uzumaki, was now part of him. But unlike Karin's limited radius, Yue's version was vastly more potent.
He extended his senses experimentally—and gasped.
Hundreds of kilometers in every direction were now visible to his chakra perception. Countless chakra signatures—civilian and shinobi alike—shone like lanterns in a sea of darkness.
"Incredible…"
"In the manga, Karin's range was already impressive, but mine… this is on a completely different scale."
"With my Sage Body enhancements, and my lineage approaching the Ōtsutsuki standard, this is only the beginning."
Eyes gleaming with ambition, Yue sat in silence, immersed in his thoughts. His power was evolving. His path diverging ever more from the human realm into something higher.
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