Hours later, the operation room fell silent. The faint hum of seals faded, leaving only the slow sound of Kanae's breathing.
Ryusei leaned back, sweat tracing down his neck. His hands were steady, but his heart pounded.
The sealing patterns dissolved one by one, and the chakra field around Kanae's eyes dimmed to a soft glow. It was done.
He exhaled, shoulders relaxing for the first time in hours. "It's over," he said quietly.
Kanae blinked weakly, her eyelids fluttering open. Her irises, once pale lavender, now shimmered faintly, almost crystalline, but her gaze was unfocused.
She turned her head toward his voice, not his face."I… can't see," she murmured. Her tone was calm, but Ryusei could sense the tremor beneath it.
"It's normal," he said, his voice steady, reassuring. "Your chakra pathways are still adapting. The fusion worked, but your brain needs time to realign with the new ocular channels. Give it a few weeks."
She frowned slightly. "So I'm… blind for now?"
He grinned. "Temporarily. You'll live. Besides," he added lightly, "I'll protect you until then. Promise I won't do anything… bad while you're helpless."
Kanae's lips twitched into a small smile despite herself. "That doesn't sound very reassuring coming from you."
"Oh? You don't trust me after all that work I just did?" he teased. "I could've taken your eyes for myself if I wanted to."
She turned her face slightly toward him, sensing his smirk even without sight. "You wouldn't. Not from me, at least."
Ryusei let out a low chuckle, his tone half-teasing, half-serious. "Not from you, huh? You sound awfully sure of that," he said, leaning closer. Then his voice dropped just a little, almost a murmur. "You've got me there. Not from you. I've got other plans for you."
Kanae's breath caught for a moment, her heart skipping before she turned her head away quickly. "Tch… idiot," she muttered under her breath, but her cheeks were already warm.
For a brief moment, neither spoke. The air between them was different, softer, heavier somehow. She could feel his warmth beside her, his chakra signature steady and familiar. In that silence, something inside her shifted.
Maybe it was the exhaustion, or the relief that she had survived, but when she heard his faint exhale close to her, she suddenly felt an unfamiliar pull.
A small, irrational impulse, to reach for him, to kiss him.
She caught herself halfway and turned her head away quickly, cheeks warming. "Tch… stupid," she thought, scolding herself. "What am I even thinking?"
Ryusei, of course, noticed nothing. His mind was already racing ahead, analytical as always.
"I can't wait to see what those eyes become," he said, half to himself. "Once the integration completes, we'll finally see the result of so much theory and work. Maybe something entirely new—something beyond even the Main Branch."
Kanae smiled faintly at the sound of his excitement.
Even blind, she could picture his expression perfectly—focused, determined, that same quiet intensity that had drawn her in before she even realized it.
"Just don't blow up the lab while I'm stuck here," she said softly.
He glanced at her, amused. "If I do, I'll make sure you're the first to know."
"Idiot."
Her words were faint, but her tone carried warmth this time.
Ryusei smiled quietly, adjusting the seals around her bed one last time before standing. "Rest now. The hard part's over."
As he walked toward the door, Kanae turned her head in his direction again.
She couldn't see him, but somehow, she still followed his presence perfectly.
"Ryusei," she said suddenly.
He paused. "Yeah?"
"…Thank you."
He looked back, though she couldn't see it. For a second, his expression softened.
"Don't thank me yet," he said. "Wait until you open your eyes again."
Then he stepped out, the door sliding shut behind him.
Kanae lay still for a while, listening to his footsteps fade down the corridor.
Her fingers brushed lightly over her bandaged eyes.
"Wait until I open them again, huh…" she whispered to herself.
A small smile tugged at her lips.
She didn't know what her new eyes would show her, but she knew one thing for certain— when she did open them, the first person she wanted to see was him.
***
In fact, the fusion of science and fuinjutsu, where Ryusei had been working tirelessly and progressing lately, wasn't only for Kanae's sake.
In truth, it was a prototype, a stepping stone toward something far greater for himself as well in the future, the biggest game-changer potentially.
Ryusei believed it might one day become the key to transcending mortality itself.
If he ever wanted to ascend, to become something akin to a full-blooded Ōtsutsuki—this was the path.
A question always lingered in his mind: what still limited him?
His genes? His chakra? His human body?
He knew those limits couldn't be surpassed by science alone; it could alter a body, but not to the degree he needed.
The technology to manipulate life down to its genetic essence didn't exist here—and even in his past life's modern world, it hadn't advanced that far.
So he had to bridge the gap himself in another way if he wanted to truly accomplish his "dreams" of reaching the peak in this new life he found himself in after failing in his last.
To do that, he needed a new kind of science—one bound to sealing.
A fusion of biology, chakra, and spiritual architecture.
A fuinjutsu that could rewrite the body, evolve it, reshape its nature.
What he was doing with Kanae's eyes now was only a prototype—his first small experiment toward godhood.
As he left the room after checking on her post-operation stability, Ryusei's mind drifted briefly to the rest of his allies.
Renjiro was still working with that single Byakugan Ryusei had given him months ago.
But after studying the eye's properties for so long successfully, Ryusei had designed a unique training regimen for him, a kind of ocular conditioning system.
It focused on refining Renjiro's conceptual awareness, his instinctive perception of everything within his surroundings, something that fit seamlessly with the Hatake's stealth-based combat style.
The idea came from Kanae herself, from the exercises she had instinctively used as a child to awaken her own unique microscopic vision. That's how he guessed Byakugan could have specialities.
So in theory, "training" the Byakugan wasn't just about relentless effort, in free time, and pushing it outside normal battles or missions.
To awaken more of its inherent yin–yang qualities, one also had to shape it toward something personal, a specialization that aligned with their own strengths, where it could truly make a difference.
Kiyomi, meanwhile, continued refining her Mangekyō Sharingan, but carefully. Ryusei had insisted she not overuse it, aware of the blindness that came from reckless strain. Still, he could tell she was progressing fast, her chakra stabilizing around those conceptual abilities of hers.
It was because Ryusei had advised her correctly that it was wiser to focus on developing the heightened talent and Yin Release sensitivity granted by her Mangekyō, rather than recklessly overusing the Mangekyō itself.
If Kanae's procedure succeeded, he thought, they could finally move forward with the next stage, the complete and safe translation of Hashirama Senju's cellular structure into a living form of other humans, which would eventually completely solve the problem of blindness for Kiyomi.
However, even then, it had always been the longer project.
Pakura, who was also "waiting" for that more time in the future, was also another challenge altogether.
She was now also living full-time around this same large hideout, her Scorch Release making the temperature fluctuate more from time to time around her quarters.
Lately, though, Ryusei had begun to realize that her fiery "rages" weren't really about frustration due to the endless wait for the Senju cell project anymore.
There was a different tone to them now, something sharper, more charged, with an undercurrent that felt almost seductive, even inviting sometimes, beneath all that heat.
Ryusei smirked faintly. "Tantrums," he thought. "Not anger. And she's not even mad at me… she's probably mad at herself, and doesn't even realize why yet."
Their exchanges had started as cautious cooperation, but lately they'd turned into something else, banter, teasing, even subtle flirting that neither of them acknowledged out loud yet.
Ashina was, meanwhile, still somewhere across the Land of Whirlpools, holed up in his private Uzumaki sanctuary, continuing his own business.
Fugaku, on the other hand, remained on the frontlines against Kirigakure. The war there was almost over, Kiri had fractured from internal strife more recently, and Fugaku's forces were pressing the advantage hard.
As for Tsunade, she was still semi-permanently stationed in the northern regions of the Hot Water Country, overseeing operations with Orochimaru to help him with Ryusei's assurances.
Ryusei had expected to hear more from Orochimaru by now, but the man still remained isolated in his command post.
This time, overall, however, it felt different, not like his usual secretive behavior, but like something critical was keeping him there.
Ryusei's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Orochimaru… you better not be dying in there," he muttered quietly to himself. "You're too useful for that."
Still, he couldn't help but hope that whatever was happening in that hidden base would result in something extraordinary.
Orochimaru's unpredictability was dangerous, but it was also the very thing that made him such a valuable ally.
And as Ryusei walked deeper into the quiet corridors of his underground facility, the thought lingered in his mind of seals, genes, gods, and evolution.
He was getting closer.
Maybe not yet divine.
But close enough that even divinity would start to notice more and more.
However, Ryusei also didn't underestimate and count out Konoha completely either, because he knew that the biggest threat coming from that village right now was Tobirama Senju, with full space to act on his own terms, unlike when he was revived during WW4 in that universe.
The man had also probably already forgiven, or at least pragmatically overlooked, what Danzo and Hiruzen did to Nawaki, and now had them acting like obedient dogs at his feet.
With Tobirama's intellect and Hashirama's power and presence, they were a dangerous pair.
Even if this Edo Tensei version of Hashirama wasn't at his absolute peak, he was likely hovering around the Low Six Paths level, roughly on par with Ryusei's current state.
Add to that Sakumo's summoned spirit, they still had Mito Uzumaki too, and Konoha still had more than enough firepower to pose a serious threat if they played their cards right, especially if they worked in tandem with those same divine powers that eyed Ryusei.