"What did you just say?! A pair of main-house Byakugan?!"
Jiraiya slammed his palm onto the table so hard the miniature flags on the sand-table bounced, his eyes locked on Danzo in disbelief.
"Lower your voice," Danzo snapped. "Didn't Sarutobi ever teach you restraint?"
Yet despite his scolding tone, the hand gripping the report was shaking uncontrollably.
Main-house Byakugan.
The purest lineage of the Hyuga Clan.
If he could replace his ruined, blind eye with a main-house Byakugan—no, with so many of the main family dead, there had to be more than one pair circulating—
Danzo's thoughts spiraled rapidly, calculations stacking atop one another.
"How could he treat the Hyuga Clan so brutally?" Tsunade muttered, scowling. "And sensei—why didn't he stop Hiroki?"
She was stunned by Hiroki's ruthless methods—and equally unsettled by the Third Hokage's apparent indifference.
That was the Hyuga Clan.
As a Senju descendant, Tsunade harbored a natural goodwill toward great clans. And yet, having watched the Senju dissolve entirely into Konoha, she had little patience for the Hyuga's rigid, archaic hierarchy.
Still… they were part of the village.
And the main house wasn't weak.
"How did he defeat so many Hyuga main-house Jōnin?" she asked aloud.
The mere thought made her head spin.
Those were veterans—some of the Elders had survived the Warring States era itself.
"I doubt anyone could have stopped him," Orochimaru said quietly, a note of awe slipping through his calm tone.
"Lord Danzo, when you arrived in the Land of Rain, you reported that Hiroki killed Rasa in open combat. If that's true, then aside from you and sensei… no one in Konoha could restrain him."
"And sensei," he added softly, "cannot watch him every moment."
Jiraiya and Tsunade both turned toward Danzo at once.
Was it really true?
In their first evaluation, Hiroki had only displayed above-Genin combat ability.
The second time—under specific circumstances—even Tsunade herself might have lost.
But now—
It had been only days.
And he had defeated a Kage candidate?
"Yes," Danzo said at last, repeating the intelligence he had already delivered once before. "Sawada Hiroki killed Rasa single-handedly."
His lone eye bored into Orochimaru.
"Even I cannot guarantee victory against him."
Silence fell.
Danzo had tracked Hiroki's growth from the moment he sensed the boy's potential. As Root's leader—and Konoha's designated shadow—his instincts rarely failed him.
But this—
This was too fast.
From killing Hanzo, to crushing Rasa, to purging the Hyuga—
Everything had unfolded at an impossible speed.
Still…
Danzo felt no regret.
Hyuga. Uchiha. Every great clan—parasites clinging to Konoha's spine, swaggering about on the strength of inherited secrets.
If he, Shimura Danzo, had possessed Sarutobi Hiruzen's power…
He would have purged the Uchiha long ago—the clan their teacher, the Second Hokage, had feared most.
And afterward, he would have trimmed the Hyuga as well.
Jiraiya and Tsunade exchanged stunned looks.
Orochimaru felt the same unease.
As Hiroki's teacher, he knew the boy's limits better than anyone.
And yet—
The growth rate still terrified him.
Too fast.
How long before Hiroki surpassed him as well?
No—perhaps he already had.
The thought made Orochimaru's heart tighten.
Hiroki was not a magnanimous child.
Judging by the Hyuga massacre, he was decisive, ruthless—and entirely unconcerned with tradition.
And Orochimaru knew far too many of his secrets.
His pupils narrowed.
Would Hiroki, once back in the village, settle accounts for that night Orochimaru had appeared uninvited in his room?
"Enough," Danzo snapped, rapping the table sharply. "Forget Hiroki for now. What matters is securing the Land of Rain."
"As long as we hold it, Iwagakure and Sunagakure will be forced to attack elsewhere—stretching their supply lines."
The discussion refocused—
Until Tsunade, still dazed, blurted out the question that froze the room.
"If Hiroki has the Hyuga main-house eyes…"
"What does he plan to do with them?"
"Implant them himself?"
Orochimaru and Danzo exchanged a sharp glance.
Jiraiya stared at Tsunade.
She immediately realized she had spoken too freely.
Give himself the Byakugan?
At that very moment—
Hiroki was thinking the exact same thing.
After dismissing the Hyuga envoys, he studied the pair of pale eyes resting in his palm.
The Byakugan was undeniably useful.
He knew the setting well enough to admit that.
In terms of raw hierarchy, it ranked below the other two great dōjutsu—
Dead last, even.
But that didn't make it worthless.
Ao, the Mizukage's bodyguard, had only two truly impactful moments in the entire story—
Both thanks to a transplanted Byakugan.
First, exposing the Fourth Mizukage's manipulation by Sharingan.
Second, uncovering Danzo's use of Kotoamatsukami during the Five Kage Summit.
According to the databooks, the Byakugan granted near-360-degree vision spanning several kilometers, complete with x-ray perception.
A first-rate auxiliary tool.
If he were a native of this world, he wouldn't hesitate.
But he wasn't.
He was a transmigrator—someone who remembered every panel, every note, every broken ability that came later.
Compared to Mangekyō Sharingan—
Compared to the Rinnegan—
The Byakugan simply didn't measure up.
And with his current strength, acquiring Sharingan wouldn't be difficult. So long as he could endure the Uchiha backlash, it made far more sense to slot in eyes with evolution potential.
Which meant—
Implant them anyway.
Eyes in this world were basically modular hardware.
He could always swap them out later.
With that settled, Hiroki placed his hand on the gift box—
And the familiar chime rang out in his mind.
[Ding~]
[Initializing device…]
[Installing driver for USB camera "My Byakugan"…]
[Driver not found.]
[Please insert installation disc or download the appropriate driver from the manufacturer's website.]
"…?"
Hiroki froze.
So even eyes needed drivers now?