The next evening, the effects of the milk wore off, and Uchiha Yuan sat up in bed.
Last night, with attribute doubling and activating the fourth stage of Susanoo, he had thrashed the Nine-Tails.
Now that this surge of power had vanished, Yuan felt slightly unaccustomed.
He instinctively glanced at his stat panel and immediately noticed something odd:
Current stats:
Chakra: 1004
Constitution: 290
Ocular Power: 1570
Vitality: 451
Nature Affinity: 4
Level: Lv63 (37/150)
Attribute Points: 0
Yuan clearly remembered that last night his ocular power was only around 1100. How did it suddenly jump by over 400?
Could it be that activating the fourth stage of Susanoo caused his ocular power to increase further?
Thinking this, Yuan immediately teleported outside the village and activated Susanoo.
With the infusion of ocular power, Susanoo swiftly entered its third stage.
Previously, he felt that the third stage was unstable and consumed a huge amount of chakra—but now, it was completely controllable.
As for the fourth stage, he still couldn't activate it.
"Looks like I'll need at least 2000 points of ocular power to use the fourth stage of Susanoo." Yuan muttered to himself.
At the same time, in the Hyuga clan...
After sending Uchiha Yuan back last night, Hyuga Asana returned home.
She didn't like the Hyuga clan, but her parents and elder brother were still there, so she had to check on them.
Despite everything, the Hyuga were a thousand-year-old kekkei genkai clan with deep foundations—so the Nine-Tails' assault hadn't really harmed them.
Once Asana confirmed her family was safe, she planned to leave immediately—but someone had already reported her return to the upper ranks.
Before she could walk out the door, she was blocked by Hyuga Chikazu and two branch family shinobi.
It had been years, and Asana no longer felt much hatred toward Chikazu. To her now, Chikazu was merely a loud, useless weakling flaunting her lineage.
So when she saw her, Asana didn't even pause—completely ignoring her as she walked on.
Chikazu hadn't expected to be ignored and shouted angrily, "Hyuga Asana, stop right there!"
"What do you want?" Asana turned and asked calmly.
"You're my guard! My servant! How dare you ignore me?!"
"After becoming Orochimaru-sensei's disciple, I ceased to be your servant or guard. There is no one in this clan worth guarding," Asana replied emotionlessly.
"You're just a branch member, and you dare act so arrogant?!"
"I'm not being arrogant—just stating facts. Right now, no one in the Hyuga clan is my match. Not even the clan head, Hyuga Hiashi."
"But you're still part of the Hyuga. A branch member at that," came a stern voice. An elder from the main family stepped in.
"Grandfather, why are you here?" Chikazu greeted respectfully.
"You couldn't handle this. Hyuga Asana, I'll give you one chance. Apologize to Chikazu and come with us, or I won't be so polite."
"Elder, are you planning to activate the Caged Bird Seal?" Asana asked with a mocking tone.
"That's the proper punishment for a disobedient branch member."
"Then I'll give you one chance too. Leave with Chikazu now—or I swear, the moment you activate the seal, you'll die."
The elder snorted and activated the Caged Bird Seal.
Asana's head throbbed with immense pain, but she clenched her teeth, summoned the puppet of the Third Kazekage, and used its iron sand to disrupt the activation.
Then she activated her Lightning Release Chakra Mode, transforming into a bolt of lightning and appearing before the elder—gripping his throat with one hand.
"I gave you a chance. You just didn't take it," she said coldly before smashing his skull with her other hand.
Seeing this, Chikazu was frozen in terror. "Y-You... Hyuga Asana, you killed a main house elder?!"
The two branch members fled, likely to report the incident.
Asana ignored them and formed hand seals, summoning Shadiao.
"Shadiao, go tell Uchiha Yuan I'm in trouble. Ask him to come."
Shadiao took flight, heading out of the Hyuga compound.
Asana knew that while she managed to kill one elder with the puppet's help, there were still others—and Hiashi himself.
If they all activated the Caged Bird Seal at once, she couldn't withstand it. Besides, her parents and brother were also in danger. They were her weaknesses.
She hadn't fled immediately after killing the elder for this very reason.
"Hyuga Chikazu, do you know something? I used to really, really want to kill you. I couldn't understand why a useless girl like you could step on my head, and make me call you 'Miss' with such reverence.
Later, I figured it out—but couldn't change anything. So I chose to run away, to avoid the main family entirely.
But today, I suddenly don't want to run anymore. The so-called Hyuga main family—if not for this cursed seal—I could kill you all on my own."
With that, Asana tore off her forehead protector.
Only now did Chikazu realize her seal looked much lighter than usual.
"You… You're undoing the Caged Bird Seal?!" she asked, trembling.
"That's right. Your main family can no longer use the seal to kill me."
"How dare you—"
"Chikazu, after all these years, you haven't changed at all.
For the sake of our childhood, I'll give you one chance. Attack me. If you can force me back even one step, I'll spare you."
Chikazu bit her lip and assumed a Gentle Fist stance.
"Just attack—I won't retaliate."
"You said so!" Chakra flared around Chikazu's palms.
"Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms!"
Asana scoffed, "All these years, and this is all you've got?"
She activated her Byakugan and tilted her body slightly—dodging every strike with ease.
(To Be Continued...)