The Uchiha Challenge

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Before the words had even left his mouth, Naoki realized what he had said. His face immediately darkened, and he muttered, "Right. It is a pig."

The venom sac inside the snake carcass was deadly to wild animals that could not use chakra. The little mottled wild boar had no chakra flowing through its body at all. If it ate the carcass, it was unquestionably dead.

But whether snake venom killed the boar or the boar ate the snake, either way, it was part of nature's cycle.

Naoki had no free time to worry about such trivial things. After storing the venom sac he had just collected, he immediately went looking for other venomous creatures.

After working through the entire morning, Naoki collected venom sacs and venom glands from more than a dozen different species.

On his way back, he also stopped by the market and bought several white mice.

Making a compound toxin was not as simple as mixing every poison together.

Different venoms had different properties. Mixing them recklessly sometimes not only failed to increase toxicity, but instead neutralized part of it and weakened the toxin's killing power.

Because of that, compound toxins often required a large amount of live-test data before they could be tuned properly.

Mixing.

Testing.

Recording.

For almost the entire afternoon, Naoki worked through those steps with meticulous care.

The results, however, were not satisfying.

The venomous creatures in the Forest of Death were still a little too weak. Their toxins could not instantly kill even the test mice, let alone shinobi with chakra.

Still, Naoki had not gained nothing. At the very least, he discovered that one species of moth produced a toxin with an extremely powerful paralytic effect, while a certain poisonous scorpion produced a toxin that accelerated blood circulation.

If those two toxins were mixed together, they could almost instantly paralyze a test mouse's whole body.

He simply had no clear idea yet how to merge the two without damaging their effects. There were other questions too: where was the limit of this compound toxin, and could it be used against powerful shinobi? Those answers would require further experiments.

Toward evening, Suzu arrived at Naoki's home carrying a hot meal.

Seeing the floor full of white mice Naoki had tormented half to death and back again, she asked in surprise, "Naoki, what are you doing?"

While carefully recording the mice's poisoning reactions, Naoki answered casually, "Researching toxins."

Naoki had made no attempt to hide today's work. From going to the Forest of Death that morning to collect toxins, to buying white mice at the market around noon, the whole process had been carried out openly.

Suzu crouched beside him and asked quietly, "Are poisons really useful?"

Like most traditional Hyuga, Suzu had an instinctive aversion to things like toxins. But she was still a shinobi who had experienced war, and she understood that on the battlefield, any method was reasonable as long as it won.

Naoki smiled. "Of course they are useful. They might save my life on a mission someday."

After finishing his records, Naoki cleaned up briefly and ate with Suzu.

Aside from bringing food, Suzu had also brought him a message: Hizashi Hyuga wanted to meet with him.

Hizashi had considerable influence inside the Hyuga Clan, and he was also responsible for the clan's routine communication with the village. Naoki naturally could not refuse his request for a meeting.

That night, inside an izakaya.

Hizashi looked at Naoki and smiled gently. "Why arrange to meet here?"

Naoki casually made up an excuse. "I am now an ANBU directly under the Hokage, so I should keep some distance from the clan as much as possible. It benefits both the clan and me."

The real reason, of course, was that he feared exposing the Tenseigan. After all, the clan compound was full of people coming and going. There was no guarantee some clan member would not suddenly activate their Byakugan.

Meeting privately in an izakaya was different. Hizashi would naturally have no reason to activate his Byakugan here for no reason, so the chance of exposing the Tenseigan dropped greatly.

In truth, this was only Naoki being excessively cautious.

Because of the Byakugan's penetrating vision, Hyuga clan members inside the village were usually careful and rarely activated it casually. After all, using the Byakugan on shinobi from the same village was a form of spying, and no one liked being seen through completely.

Naoki had only invented the excuse on the spot, but Hizashi took it deeply to heart and nodded. "Yes. That is the right way to think. The village's higher-ups are very wary of great clans like ours."

There was no doubt that Konoha's recent arrangements against the Uchiha had also unsettled the Hyuga Clan.

Naoki did not say much on such a sensitive topic. He went straight to the point. "Lord Hizashi, why did you want to meet me this time?"

Hizashi said, "Next month, the village will hold a confidence vote for promotion to jonin."

Under normal circumstances, when a special jonin was promoted to full jonin, a small-scale confidence vote was required. So Hizashi's purpose in meeting Naoki was, plainly put, to ask for his vote.

Hizashi continued, "A very senior special jonin from the clan is participating in this promotion. You are now an ANBU directly under the Hokage and have voting rights, so I hope you can lend the clan some strength in this matter."

After hearing the request, Naoki smiled happily. "Do not worry. I will do everything I can."

At that moment, he clearly felt the change in his own status. Back when he had been a wartime chunin, he had not even qualified to touch matters like this, let alone participate in them.

Now, even a great clan like the Hyuga had moments when it needed him.

Of course, he had answered so readily for selfish reasons too.

Unlike the domineering Uchiha, the Hyuga Clan was far more low-key and steady. Its reputation in the village was also much better than the Uchiha's. Many Konoha shinobi were willing to team with Hyuga clan members for missions. Because of that, the clan was not a burden to Naoki. Instead, it was a large force he could make use of.

After chatting briefly and each getting what they needed, the two left the izakaya.

Early the next morning, just as Naoki was leaving for the Forest of Death to collect more toxins, a figure blocked his path.

The other person asked coldly, "Hey, kid. You are Naoki Hyuga, right?"

Naoki nodded.

The other man toyed with the kunai in his hand as he spoke. "My name is Shinichi Uchiha. I heard you beat Shisui not long ago. I came here today specifically to spar with you. I will make you understand that the Uchiha name is not something anyone can trample on."

Naoki's face sank. "Sorry. I have things to do."

Shinichi snorted. "That is not up to you."

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