Whoosh!
The fierce wind howled, air rushing through the hollows outside the door, sounding like ghostly wails.
The Nara brothers, stationed as guards, were the first to notice something off. They emerged swiftly from the shadows, their crimson three-tomoe Sharingan locking onto each other.
Both were at a loss.
They were twins, gifted from a young age with exceptional talent for manipulating shadows, earning them some fame within the Nara clan.
After the Second Hokage's death, Danzo and Hiruzen Sarutobi rallied smaller clans like the Nara and Yamanaka to counter the larger ones. The Nara clan gained political clout as advisors and strategists to the Hokage, with their herbal medicine shops exempt from taxes and prime village land gifted to them. This allowed them to outprice competitors and drive them out of business.
The brothers, however, became political pawns, sent to serve Danzo in Root. Their exceptional Yin Release talent caught Danzo's eye, earning them the chance to have Sharingan eyes transplanted.
Or so Danzo claimed. In reality, the lab needed test subjects for the "Sharingan Transplant Experiment," and they were the guinea pigs.
Whether due to their natural talent or the high compatibility between the Sharingan and the Nara clan's shadow techniques, their control over shadows grew stronger with the eyes' power. They could manipulate any shadow in their line of sight without hand seals.
But the cost of the Sharingan was steep.
The Nara clan wasn't known for large chakra reserves, and the Sharingan's immense drain meant that, despite their potential to become elite Jonin like Ryoma, they remained stuck at regular Jonin level.
Their ability to blend into shadows made them key defenses for Root's base.
Their original names were long discarded, replaced by the impersonal code name "Shadow Guard."
That's right—though they were two people, they shared a single name.
In Danzo's mind, they were just tools, identical in appearance and ability, always together. A single name made managing them easier.
At first, they bought into his ideology, seeing no issue. But then a blindfolded girl casually remarked:
"How can two people share one name? If you can't remember your old names, how about the older brother being Nara Kage and the younger one Nara Ei? Uh, my naming skills might suck, so feel free to switch if you don't like it."
It was the first time they saw the powerful Hikari look embarrassed. It was also the first time they realized they weren't just cold, mechanical defenses for the base—they were flesh-and-blood humans.
From that moment, they quietly kept an eye on her every move.
One morning, when forgotten memories and personalities were inexplicably reawakened, they naturally merged into her shadow, ready to serve.
"Lord Hikari is experimenting with ninjutsu."
"No… we can't disturb her—"
Their speech was halting. Years as tools had irreversibly degraded their language skills.
Thankfully, as twins with a deep connection, they didn't rely on inefficient verbal communication.
Wail!
The ghostly howls persisted from the doorframe.
The unchanging shadows in the corridor crept up the walls. The glowing wall lamps flickered, twisted by the relentless winds from within, as if they might go out at any moment.
The crimson glow of their Sharingan dimmed, replaced by the floating orange-yellow light of the lamps.
Nara Kage and Nara Ei materialized by the door, their Sharingan spinning faster. A massive shadow spread, coating the corridor in darkness.
Meanwhile…
Inside the dim stone chamber, Hikari stood in a pool of lightning, eyes closed, undergoing a miraculous transformation.
The Sage Body, a unique physique of the Sage of the Six Paths, was passed down to Asura. It granted immense vitality, allowing survival even from fatal wounds, and chakra reserves vast as the ocean.
Nagato of the Uzumaki clan destroyed the Hidden Leaf, fought the Nine-Tails, and still had enough chakra to revive the entire village—an unimaginable feat.
Tsunade, the Senju princess, could heal every ninja in the Leaf simultaneously after unlocking her Yin Seal.
And then there were Hashirama Senju and Naruto Uzumaki, chakra monsters who dwarfed any tailed beast except the Nine-Tails.
Over five years, Hikari had devoured life energy from the Death Forest, spanning dozens of kilometers. Every plant and animal became fuel, absorbed through her reversed Eight Gates. She even consumed a significant portion of the Senju Tree's life force.
The dense life energy crystallized into green gems within her cells, causing her weight to skyrocket to over a hundred tons.
Now, as a critical threshold was crossed, that brimming life force was about to erupt.
She was stepping into the mature stage of the Sage Body.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Her heartbeat accelerated wildly, from one beat every ten seconds to seventy per second, then to two hundred.
Her chest heaved rapidly, the white-hot plasma and air vibrating with it. Anyone in the room would feel their body trembling, as if bouncing on a trampoline or floating in the clouds.
Hiss!
The room's temperature soared. The core area around the lightning pool exceeded a thousand degrees, the distorted, superheated air devoid of moisture. In this harsh environment, unbearable for most, Hikari felt an exhilarating comfort.
It was hard to describe the sensation.
It was like becoming an infant again, returning to the womb, nurtured by endless nutrients. Past imperfections were corrected, her body reaching a state of perfection.
Her mind grew foggy as the Sage Body evolved, her mental state ethereal, like riding the wind. Her soul reached new heights under the catalyst of boundless life energy.
Buzz!
As she slipped into a dazed state, something unexpected happened. The gray bones, sealed by her blood-flesh curse, broke free under the Sage Body's advancement, greedily absorbing chakra.
Hikari snapped awake, turning her senses inward.
The compressed life crystals in her body erupted like a supernova. Her cells, already strengthened by Lightning Release chakra mode, lit up like stars in a dark sky.
The gray-patterned bones grew more lustrous, purple chakra pouring uncontrollably into them. The gray-white bone membrane was rapidly overtaken by deathly ash, consuming energy exceeding twenty calories in moments.
If Hikari had let the gray bones evolve during the Sage Body's first stage, she'd likely be a gray skeleton by now, stripped of flesh.
The gray bones were evolving on their own.
She instantly grasped the situation.
As her Sage Body reached its third stage, her Corpse Bone Pulse was also being triggered into its third stage.
As mentioned before:
The Sage Body, Corpse Bone Pulse, and Sharingan each have three stages.
The first stage of the Sage Body gave Hikari enhanced weight—or rather, density. The second stage granted a fear aura.
The first made her body denser than steel, weighing over a hundred tons, with ferocious defense and attack power, shrugging off most ninjutsu with ease.
The second gave her a mental pressure that crushed weaker-willed or physically frail ninja, rendering numbers meaningless. It was during this stage that her chakra reached Kage level.
The Corpse Bone Pulse was simpler.
Stage one allowed crude flesh manipulation, stage two was bone control. After absorbing the Nine-Tails' chakra, she entered an incomplete gray bone state, roughly equivalent to transitioning from a Mangekyo Sharingan to an Eternal Mangekyo.
Once her white bones were fully infused with gray, her Corpse Bone Pulse would officially enter its third stage.
The gray bones, long sealed by her blood-flesh curse, now devoured chakra as if making up for lost time, swallowing her deep purple chakra ocean.
The sound of crashing waves filled her ears. Her heartbeat became so rapid it blurred into a single hum, like an engine roaring in the chamber.
The life key on her forehead spun endlessly. The three glowing orbs of life energy were depleted, revealing three long-hidden gates.
Clang!
Her bones, harder than steel, grated against each other, producing a piercing metallic sound, as if master swordsmen were dueling inside her body. With the endless infusion of life force, the last traces of white vanished from her bones.
It was done!
Hikari's eyes lit up—literally.
Her soul, evolved through life energy absorption, pushed her mental strength and gray eyes forward. The patterns in her irises grew clearer, the embryonic stage of her Byakugan nearing its end ahead of schedule.
Her bloodline limits triggered a chain reaction, evolving in sync under the Sage Body's influence. Even the three-tomoe Sharingan embedded in her palm spun, drawing chakra, as if ready to merge into one.
Rip! Rip!
Without hesitation, she tore the Sharingan from her palm and discarded it. The purple-red nerves and blood vessels dangled limply, like weeds pulled out.
Her Sage Body training was complete. Her Wood Release had molded her body toward Hashirama Senju's level, and she no longer needed this unknown pair of Sharingan.
Even if it could evolve into a Mangekyo, without Indra's chakra, evolving it would waste immense energy. Since it was a transplant, like Kakashi's Sharingan from Obito, any Mangekyo ability would reflect the original owner's soul, not hers.
With her Byakugan nearing completion, her own unique eye technique was about to emerge. Why keep something unnecessary?
Once a treasure, the Sharingan was now a liability, stealing energy from her Byakugan and Corpse Bone Pulse at a critical moment.
Clang!
Another metallic clash rang out as the fully evolved gray bones stopped absorbing chakra, their crystalline sheen fading.
Hikari observed the now-silent bones. Their pure, uniform gray symbolized decay and death, nearly indistinguishable from the original series' Ash-Killing Bones.
That's it? Done so easily?
She was surprised. The Ash-Killing Bones, said to reduce all things to ash, had evolved so smoothly! Aside from needing an absurd amount of chakra, the process felt far less intense than her Sage Body's evolution—
Then, excruciating pain swept through her body, making her tremble. She quickly tried to block her nerves.
Hiss! "No, something's wrong!"
The pain persisted, radiating from her bone marrow, spreading through every inch of her skin and flesh. No amount of nerve-blocking could stop it, and her usually obedient nervous system was completely out of her control.
She knew it wouldn't be that simple!
Her delicate face twisted in agony. Her mental and physical strength surged with the Sage Body's evolution, bringing an indescribable euphoria. The mix of pain and pleasure felt like her mind was splitting, battling itself.
What's going on?
Forcing herself to endure the brain-twisting pain, her glowing eyes shone brighter, her vision zooming to a microscopic level.
Swish…
Her cells, brimming with life force and sprouting milky-white roots, began to transform. Gray-black patterns of decay and death crept across their surfaces.
Cell membranes, plant-like cell walls, and nuclei were invaded by the gray patterns. The crystallized life energy inside clashed with the gray, turning her cells into a battlefield of life and death.
Every second, millions of cells burst and died, while even more new cells sprang to life from the wreckage.
Were her gray bones clashing with her Sage Body?
Hikari wasn't sure if this was normal. Given the Ash-Killing Bones' destructive power, a mere third-stage Sage Body shouldn't withstand their deathly force. It felt more like a selective evolution.
Like how Lightning Release chakra mode selected cells resistant to lightning, the gray bones might be filtering for cells that could endure their deathly power. But the method was brutal—someone with weaker vitality would've already turned to ash under this process.
Ugh!
As she studied her cells, a sharp, needle-like pain stabbed her eyes, followed by a burning heat.
The gray patterns of death were invading her brain and eyes.
Buzz!
The blurry patterns in her irises flickered wildly. Her Byakugan, nearing the end of its embryonic stage, frantically absorbed chakra to convert into eye power, resisting the gray bones' deadly assault.
Boom!
A sound like a ship's engine roared in the silent chamber. The chakra seed in her heart flickered, her bloodline abilities in a frenzy. The Corpse Bone Pulse and Sage Body clashed and evolved, the Sage Body hastened the Byakugan's formation, and the evolved Byakugan linked with the Corpse Bone Pulse—
All her abilities triggered wildly, feeding off each other's energy. Hikari realized with horror that even her third-stage Sage Body could barely sustain this swarm of energy vampires!