Hyuga Kagami naturally had no way of knowing what had transpired in the Hokage’s office.
Having just completed an A-rank mission, he was currently making his way home.
Hyuga Kagami’s parents had died in the war many years ago.
However, as a member of the prestigious Hyuga Clan, he had always been under the protection of his clansmen, so his life had been considerably better than that of the other ninja orphans in the village.
At the very least, he had a detached house left behind by his parents.
Upon returning home, Hyuga Kagami noticed that the interior was spotless.
Clearly, someone had been cleaning the place while he was away on missions, and the only person who would come over to clean his house was Hyuga Rei, to whom he was betrothed.
The engagement had been arranged while Hyuga Kagami’s parents were still alive.
After their deaths, Rei’s family had taken especially good care of him, treating him completely as one of their own.
After shutting the door, Hyuga Kagami took out the Secret Technique of Physical Regeneration he had obtained from Orochimaru.
After carefully studying it for some time, he finally managed to grasp the basic principles behind the technique.
Simply put, it used an extremely specialized method to stimulate the body’s cells with chakra, accelerating cell division to achieve effects such as rapidly healing wounds and quickly restoring chakra.
Judging solely by its effects, this secret technique certainly lived up to its name of “Physical Regeneration,” because it truly did regenerate the body by accelerating cell division.
However, Hyuga Kagami knew that the number of times a person’s cells could divide was limited.
Accelerating cell division was, in effect, accelerating the consumption of one’s lifespan.
In other words, the more frequently this technique was used, the sooner the user would die!
“If I only use it a few times when I’m truly backed into a corner, it could still serve as a powerful trump card!”
As he considered the technique’s drawbacks, Hyuga Kagami suddenly thought of the “Living Corpse Reincarnation” technique that Orochimaru would soon develop, and his heart skipped a beat.
“Once Orochimaru has Living Corpse Reincarnation, he’ll be able to replace his body regularly.
That would completely eliminate this technique’s greatest drawback.
No wonder Orochimaru became practically impossible to kill later on.
Even Itachi could only find a way to seal him away!”
The Secret Technique of Physical Regeneration could not only rapidly heal injuries, but the creation of new cells also provided the body with new sources of chakra.
Thus, if the technique were used without any concern for the consequences, the user would become virtually unafraid of injury while also possessing a continuous supply of chakra. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
For anyone else, this would be no different from suicide.
But for Orochimaru, who was on the verge of developing Living Corpse Reincarnation, if one body wore out, he could simply replace it with another.
It was hardly an insurmountable problem.
At this thought, even Hyuga Kagami couldn’t help but admire Orochimaru.
Although he himself couldn’t use the technique recklessly, there was certainly no harm in mastering another secret technique.
Hyuga Kagami quickly reined in his thoughts and devoted his full attention to learning the Secret Technique of Physical Regeneration.
Whether it was due to the changes in his constitution brought about by the Tenseigan or simply because his chakra reserves had increased, Hyuga Kagami found that he could learn new techniques much faster than before.
Moreover, he had long since become thoroughly familiar with the knowledge of the human chakra pathway system involved in this secret technique.
As a result, it didn’t take him long to master the technique’s chakra circulation method and hand seal sequence.
After completely mastering the secret technique, Hyuga Kagami didn’t hesitate.
He immediately destroyed the scroll containing it.
Ever cautious, he had no intention of keeping any evidence around that could potentially be used against him.
With the secret technique learned, Hyuga Kagami began reflecting on the problems he had encountered during this mission.
Whether it was the Wheel of Will or the Third Kazekage Human Puppet, both were extremely powerful, but neither could be used openly.
They couldn’t serve as conventional combat methods.
The moment he was accompanied by other Konoha shinobi, his options for dealing with enemies would become extremely limited and one-dimensional.
That feeling of having his hands tied had been painfully apparent during this mission.
Therefore, Hyuga Kagami urgently needed a set of combat techniques that he could use openly as part of his everyday arsenal.
Considering his identity as a member of the Hyuga Clan, the most reasonable way for him to acquire more—and stronger—combat techniques was undoubtedly to further develop his Gentle Fist.
“It’s about time I tried learning Rotation!”
The principle behind Rotation wasn’t particularly complicated.
Previously, Hyuga Kagami had been unable to master it because his chakra reserves were insufficient.
But now, his chakra reserves already far surpassed those of Neji Hyuga when he was still a genin.
If Neji had been able to comprehend Rotation on his own, then there was no reason Hyuga Kagami—who already understood its principles and now possessed more than enough chakra—shouldn’t be able to master it as well.
After confirming that no one was around, he wasted no time and immediately began practicing.
There were two major hurdles to mastering Rotation.
The first was gaining precise control over every chakra point in one’s body, while the second was possessing sufficient chakra reserves and being able to control that chakra steadily.
For Hyuga Kagami, however, neither of these posed any real obstacle.
After only a few attempts, he had already managed to produce a rudimentary form of Rotation.
This further proved that the changes the Tenseigan had brought to Hyuga Kagami’s constitution were by no means limited to an increase in chakra reserves.
His powers of observation, sense of balance, chakra control, sensory abilities, and many other aspects had all improved significantly.
“Whew…”
Letting out a soft breath, Hyuga Kagami wiped away his sweat with the towel he had prepared beforehand.
After an entire morning of intensive training, he had more or less mastered Rotation.
Although there was still plenty of room to refine and improve his technique, it was already good enough to use in actual combat.
Having successively mastered the Secret Technique of Physical Regeneration and Rotation, Hyuga Kagami was in quite a good mood.
After taking a brief rest at noon, he once again headed to the Mission Center.
Just like last time, the Mission Center remained quiet, and most of the shinobi coming and going were moving about in a hurry.
Because he now had a record of successfully leading a team through an A-rank mission, coupled with the sheer number of missions piling up at the Mission Center, Hyuga Kagami was exceptionally granted permission to accept A-rank missions.
A-rank missions were generally commissioned by government officials from various countries or by major organizations.
Under normal circumstances, only shinobi of at least Special Jonin rank were qualified to accept them.
As his body gradually adapted to the Tenseigan, Hyuga Kagami’s strength continued to increase with each passing day.
Now that he had also mastered the Secret Technique of Physical Regeneration and Rotation, even without using the Wheel of Will or the Third Kazekage Human Puppet, his raw combat strength had already reached the level of a Special Jonin.
As such, taking on some of the less difficult A-rank missions wouldn’t be a problem.
After briefly looking through the list of A-rank missions, Hyuga Kagami pursed his lips.
At the A-rank level, missions that could be accepted by a single person were exceedingly rare.
Even the occasional mission that did allow a lone shinobi to take it was usually an extremely difficult assignment such as an “assassination”—the kind of mission that required the strength of a Jonin, or even an elite Jonin, to have a reasonable chance of success.
At that moment, Hyuga Kagami realized that not having a reliable teammate with whom he shared good coordination was a serious problem.
Just as he was beginning to get a headache over the matter, a green figure suddenly dashed into the Mission Center…