Chapter 111: The Nemesis Of The Byakugan
“Why! Why won’t you even spare my pregnant wife and our unborn child!” The man’s red eyes blazed as he screamed hoarsely, his hunched figure trembling in the dust.
The other villagers were indeed frightened by those red eyes, and some timidly averted their gazes.
But some villagers pointed at his eyes and said, “See! I told you Lan Shi’s family was trouble!”
“No wonder someone came looking for them—it’s a monster!”
“Jinx! Get out of the village!”
“Lord, we’ll hand over Lan Shi’s family right away. Please spare our village!”
The villagers clamored noisily, completely disregarding the fact that the man and his family they were handing over had lived in the village for over a decade.
The skinny man abandoned by the villagers dug his fingernails deep into the mud, then turned to the mysterious person for help.
Lan Shi crawled on all fours to Menma’s feet, kowtowing repeatedly: “Lord! Please spare my pregnant wife! If you want this bloodline, I’ll go with you!”
Menma looked down at Lan Shi begging for his wife and child’s lives, feeling a slight disappointment.
The red eye bloodline limit family, once known as the Byakugan’s nemesis, had fallen to such a pathetic state with only this one person left, without even family secret technique inheritance. Facing somewhat powerful ninjas, he could only frantically wag his tail and beg, hoping for mercy to spare his family.
At this time, the other villagers had grabbed Lan Shi’s wife.
The heavily pregnant woman was treated roughly, but the villagers felt no shame; instead, they looked at the mysterious person with fawning expressions, hoping to exchange for the village’s peace.
“How tragic.” Menma’s ethereal voice came from behind the mask as he tossed a kunai in front of Lan Shi.
“If you want to live, reclaim your dignity as a ninja.” The voice was like a whisper from hell, lingering in Lan Shi’s ears.
He glanced at his terrified wife clutching her big belly beside him, and at the villagers behind who had pushed them out, then tremblingly picked up the kunai from the ground with his right hand.
Memories hidden for over a decade began to echo in his mind. Even though this branch’s red eye orphan hadn’t been involved in war for many years, the ninja’s instinct still flowed in Lan Shi’s bloodline.
With red eyes, Lan Shi reversed his grip on the kunai. Relying on the instinct triggered by the bloodline limit, he created illusions one after another and blocked the villagers’ perceptions.
Then—
The skinny Lan Shi, thin as a bamboo pole, effortlessly weaved through the villagers, slitting their throats with the kunai.
Blood sprayed, staining Lan Shi’s coarse cloth garments red.
Lan Shi’s blood-colored pupils reflected the village that had raised him for over twenty years and now personally pushed him into the abyss.
Menma merely lowered his mask, coldly watching Lan Shi’s revenge.
Even without Menma’s appearance, years later, Lan Shi and his wife would die of illness, and their child Ranmaru would be seen as ominous by the villagers for awakening the bloodline limit, facing rejection and abuse.
If Kurotsuchi Raiga hadn’t chanced upon pursuing a rogue ninja into this village, Ranmaru’s fate might have been even worse.
The villagers of this village would also be slaughtered by Kurotsuchi Raiga that night.
Now it was merely letting the tragedy end early.
After killing over a dozen villagers, Lan Shi did not eradicate the small village.
Drenched in blood, Lan Shi shakily walked to his wife’s side, embracing his wife who was also trembling from extreme fright, and looked at the mysterious masked man with pleading eyes.
“Let’s go.” Menma didn’t care how many villagers Lan Shi killed in revenge; he only wanted the red eye bloodline limit.
With that, Menma placed his hands on Lan Shi and his wife’s shoulders, using the Flying Thunder God Technique.
In an instant, they arrived at the capital city of the Land of Stars.
In the cold light of the Hoshigakure Base medical department laboratory, Menma stared at the floating crimson eyeball in the glass vessel.
He let out a sigh of admiration: “What a pair of eyes, brilliant like rubies.”
Lan Shi, wearing a white coat, lay on the hospital bed as several of Menma’s shadow clones busily transplanted a pair of bright eyes into him.
“I’ve taken your red eyes. In exchange, I’ll give you a pair of ordinary eyes, provide you protection, a good birthing environment for your wife, and in the future, your clan will serve me for generations.” Menma didn’t like owing anyone, not even taking the red eyes from a fallen bloodline limit ninja clan orphan like Lan Shi.
“I only beg the lord to let my wife and child live ordinary lives. Lan Shi’s life will be dedicated to the lord.” After the surgery, Lan Shi’s eyes were bandaged, and he slightly turned his head toward the direction of Menma’s voice.
“Your physical condition is too poor. The burden of activating the red eyes will only hold you back… Never mind, you’ll understand later.” Menma didn’t elaborate. Lan Shi had lived as an ordinary person for over twenty years without proper ninja training, activating the red eyes purely by instinct.
Thinking of Ranmaru’s also frail body, sometimes too weak to even walk, Menma had reason to suspect their clan’s bloodline was severely diluted, unable to bear the power of the red eye bloodline limit after awakening.
Just like the Kaguya Clan’s Corpse Bone Pulse—the stronger the Corpse Bone Pulse, the more severe the bloodline disease.
Moreover, Lan Shi had no other choice but to follow Menma’s arrangements.
After the shadow clones wheeled Lan Shi’s bed out of the laboratory to the ward, Menma removed the White Three-Eyed Fox Mask.
The little Nine-Tails poked its head out from the fur collar, curiously staring at the two red eyeballs soaking in pale green liquid in the glass test tube in Menma’s hand: “Hey, Menma, I’ve never seen this thing before.”
“Of course you haven’t.” Menma removed his left eye and replaced it with a red eye.
Injecting chakra to connect with this red eye, feeling the entirely new perspective from the red eye, Menma recalled a hypothesis.
All bloodline limits in the Ninja World could be traced back to Kaguya Otsutsuki: Byakugan, Sharingan, red eye, Blood Dragon Eye, and possibly other eye bloodline limits that appeared in the Ninja World’s thousand-year history.
They all traced back to the Otsutsuki Clan.
After the Warring States Period ended, Byakugan and Sharingan became renowned throughout the Ninja World, while red eye and Blood Dragon Eye nearly went extinct.
The red eye’s ability perfectly countered the Byakugan.
Its dojutsu could create chakra illusions, interfering with the Byakugan’s observation based on human chakra meridians, even preventing Byakugan users from detecting the red eye possessor’s approach.
It could also see through objects like the Byakugan, sense chakra, and sense danger.
The chakra illusions created by the red eye had no physical form or attack power, only for interference—combined with the Hiding in Mist Technique, it was indeed hard to counter.
These chakra illusions reminded Menma of a dojutsu once used by Uchiha Madara—“Limbo: Border Jail”!
The shadows created by Limbo: Border Jail couldn’t be detected by ordinary ninjas, nor even by sensory ninjas—only those with the Rinnegan could see them.
The chakra illusions from the red eye were like a weakened version of Limbo: Border Jail, weakened to the point of losing offensive capability, only able to interfere with enemy perception.
The Byakugan evolves to Tenseigan, the Sharingan to Rinnegan—what about the red eye and Blood Dragon Eye’s evolutions?
“Hmm, got the Sharingan, now the red eye too. Next is collecting Byakugan and Blood Dragon Eye.” Feeling the red eye’s new field of vision, Menma began thinking about Orochimaru’s cloning technology.
After all, only one or two red eye and Blood Dragon Eye clanspeople remained—normal breeding was too slow; cloning technology was faster.
“But first, I need to head to the Hyuga Clan Territory for the appointment.” The time on the forewarning letter was approaching.
