As the milky-white liquid was injected, Hyuga Asana immediately felt her heartbeat accelerate, and her chakra suddenly surged uncontrollably, converging toward her eyes.
Thump-thump, thump-thump...
The sound of Asana's heartbeat grew louder and louder, to the point that even Orochimaru, who stood nearby, could clearly hear it.
At the same time, faint blue light flickered within Asana's white eyes.
She felt as though her pupils were burning, an intense stinging sensation as if something was set ablaze in her eye sockets.
Caught off guard by the searing pain, Hyuga Asana let out a muffled groan and instinctively raised her hands to rub her eyes.
Seeing this, Orochimaru immediately summoned two small snakes that wrapped around Asana's arms to stop her.
Asana understood that Orochimaru was doing this for her own good. Clearly, something was happening to her eyes, and it was best not to touch them at this moment.
She took a deep breath, clenched her teeth, and endured the transformation in silence.
Unknowingly, two days passed.
During this time, Uchiha Yuan didn't see Asana at all. He sensed something wasn't right, but the Hyuga clan's compound wasn't a place the Uchiha could freely enter.
Orochimaru was also elusive as ever, making it impossible to locate him, which added to Uchiha Yuan's unease.
Meanwhile, Hyuga Asana had been continuously tormented by the burning pain in her eyes for two full days.
Worse yet, as her eyes kept burning, the Caged Bird seal on her forehead seemed to be affected, causing her head to ache as well.
Although she was lying still, sweat poured from her like rain.
Her clothes were long soaked through. Fearing dehydration, Orochimaru gave her water every two hours.
After what felt like forever, the pain in her eyes and forehead grew sharper and sharper.
Waves of agony surged like tides, nearly pushing her into unconsciousness.
Finally, after more than an hour, the pain began to fade, replaced by a cooling, soothing sensation that wrapped around her eyes.
Asana could clearly feel her Byakugan's ocular power changing and, faintly, even subtle shifts in her body.
After a long while, she slowly opened her eyes and sat up on the lab table.
Orochimaru, watching her eyes with interest, handed her a mirror.
"Asana, your eyes have undergone a fascinating transformation."
Hearing this, Asana took the mirror and looked. The once pure-white pupils—like those of every other Hyuga—had changed.
The center of the pupil had turned blue.
Around the pupil, arcs resembling electricity circled continuously, radiating outward.
"Asana, your Byakugan now resembles a deep blue orb of lightning blooming silently. It's truly beautiful," Orochimaru exclaimed.
Asana didn't reply. Instead, she activated her Byakugan with a single thought.
In an instant, she could see Orochimaru's skeleton, chakra pathways, and flowing blue chakra more clearly than ever before.
Her dynamic vision had greatly improved, and the Caged Bird seal's previous limitations on her field of view had disappeared—now she had true 360-degree vision without blind spots, giving her a completely new sensory experience.
Additionally, she discovered a strange new power residing in her eyes.
Asana raised her hand, and a ball of blue chakra appeared in her palm.
She injected the chakra into a corpse nearby—and to everyone's astonishment, the corpse began to move.
Orochimaru's expression grew even more excited. He rushed over to examine the body carefully, then said in puzzlement:
"Strange. This is still a corpse. No signs of life at all. How is it moving?"
"Sensei Orochimaru, I believe this is one of the abilities from my eye evolution—it can make inanimate objects move. I feel it would be especially effective for controlling puppets like those used by the Sand Shinobi."
"An evolved Byakugan that can control puppets? That's inconsistent with the traditional traits of the Byakugan!" Orochimaru remarked.
"I feel the same. By logic, the evolution of the Byakugan shouldn't have gone in this direction."
"Are there any other abilities from your evolved Byakugan?" Orochimaru asked.
Asana shook her head. For now, she hadn't discovered anything else.
"In that case, let's set aside your Byakugan's functions for now. What we really need to research is—why did the Byakugan evolve when exposed to Hashirama Senju's cells?"
"I'm curious about that too." As she spoke, Asana deactivated her Byakugan, causing all the strange phenomena in her eyes to vanish. She casually rolled up her sleeve and extended her fair arm toward Orochimaru.
Orochimaru licked his lips and, using a small scalpel, sliced open her skin to collect blood.
After finishing the extraction, Asana healed the wound using medical ninjutsu and began analyzing the blood with Orochimaru.
After hours of research, they discovered that compared to her earlier blood samples, Asana's DNA had become noticeably more complete.
In other words, Hashirama Senju's cells had, to some extent, filled in the genetic gaps in Asana's Byakugan, enabling it to evolve.
"Two unrelated bloodlines can actually complement each other? And there's no rejection whatsoever. Even though we greatly weakened the activity of the First Hokage's cells, you're still the first to show zero signs of rejection. This is fascinating!" Orochimaru exclaimed excitedly.
"It really is. Sensei Orochimaru, based on this genomic comparison, do you think it's possible that the Senju and Hyuga clans share a common ancestor?" Asana asked.
"That's a very novel hypothesis. We should definitely research it further."
The two spent the entire day in the lab. Eventually, Asana began to feel weak—only then did she realize she hadn't eaten in three days.
The powerful vitality and chakra granted by the First Hokage's cells, combined with the excitement from her Byakugan's evolution, had made her forget hunger altogether.
Now that her body was reacting, Asana realized she needed food. She bid farewell to Orochimaru and left the lab.
She hadn't walked far before Uchiha Yuan suddenly appeared in front of her.
(To Be Continued...)