Chapter 67: Cellular Mutation

Yuto lightly frowned, displaying a "wronged and panicked" expression, and respectfully said, "Lady Meiko..."

"Don't say my name with your filthy mouth?" Meiko Hyuga growled from her throat, stepping forward and grabbing Yuto by the collar, "As a branch family member, your primary duty is always to protect the main family's safety! I ask you, Shinosuke is gone, why are you still alive?"

Yuto's lips quivered as he stammered, "I'm sorry, Lady Meiko, I wasn't on the front lines at the time..."

"Good! Good! You recognize your mistake, the Hyuga family didn't raise you for nothing!" A cold light flashed in the girl's eyes, and her chakra instinctively flowed to her hand, "Then take your apology and go underground with Shinosuke..."

"Enough!" A sudden roar exploded, and an Anbu with a monkey mask instantly appeared between them, tightly gripping Meiko's wrist. Yuto clearly saw the white skin of the girl's wrist being pressed into a few blue and purple marks, indicating the Anbu was genuinely angry.

"Meiko Hyuga, we represent the village. Put away your tantrums. As a shinobi you shouldn't act like this... And more importantly, this is not the Hyuga compound!"

A village envoy, killing an innocent combat personnel on the front lines, and that combat personnel was a disciple of the famous Sannin! Just thinking about it made the monkey-masked man shiver.

If Yuto were to die without resistance, to quell the anger of the troops and Tsunade-sama, the entire group would definitely be skinned alive by the Hokage!

'Ah, girls at this age, always doing reckless things for love...' The monkey-masked man thought, releasing Meiko's hand and standing in front of Yuto, "Yuto Hyuga, you may go now. Thank you for your cooperation."

"Hmph..." The girl snorted coldly, glaring fiercely at the boy, "I command you as a member of the main family, wait for me outside."

At this moment, the monkey-masked man wanted to swallow Meiko whole, "Meiko Hyuga, this is the final warning. In this situation, maliciously targeting combat personnel, I have the authority to-"

"Relax, I won't harm him." Meiko lowered her head, taking a few deep breaths, "I just want to talk."

The monkey-masked man looked at her suspiciously but still kept his body shielding Yuto.

Yuto respectfully bowed.

"Yes, Lady Meiko."

He smiled kindly at the monkey-masked man, then walked out of the room.

Meiko followed him out, and the monkey-masked Anbu could only pray that this girl, foolish in love, wouldn't do something as absurd as killing someone in the street.

...

Yuto found a small, deserted hill and stood on it, looking back, "Lady Meiko, what do you want to say to me?"

The girl removed her mask. Her face was beautiful, her body curvy from years of Gentle Fist training, feminine yet strong. However, the sclera of her eyes were red, indicating she had cried for a long time, likely ever since she received the news of Shinosuke's death.

'She looked pitiful,' Yuto thought. 'Don't worry, I'll find a chance to reunite you two.'

After taking off her mask, Meiko remained silent for a long time.

She had many things she wanted to say—to the deceased Shinosuke, to her father who repeatedly reminded her before she left, and to her little follower, Naoto Hyuga...

But she didn't know what to say to Yuto.

'Maybe it's those eyes similar to mine, even though he's just a branch family member...' the girl sighed in her heart.

When people are vulnerable, they instinctively seek out similar things to talk to, like speaking to a mirror.

"Lady Meiko?"

The girl suddenly looked up, facing Yuto.

"I ask you, before Shinosuke... before he disappeared, did he show any strange behavior?"

"No." Yuto thought seriously. Aside from Shinosuke's corpse condition after his death, he didn't know anything else, "My duties in the unit were different from Shinosuke-sama's, so it was hard to see him, and even if we did meet..."

"You weren't close, I understand that." Meiko looked down at her toes, "I mean... did he ever... mention to anyone... even as a joke..."

"Could you be more specific?"

"..." Meiko remained silent for a long time, then sighed, "Forget it, no matter what I say now, it doesn't matter. Besides, with Shinosuke's personality, he wouldn't tell anyone about such things, not even the closest companions. He was that stubborn."

'Not necessarily,' Yuto thought as he touched his nose. 'Your boyfriend became very obedient after his death, positioning his body in any way I wanted.'

Meiko couldn't guess the thoughts in the boy's mind. After muttering a few words to herself, she turned and left.

Yuto watched the girl's thin figure, tilted his head, and returned to his small room to secretly enjoy his leisure under the covers.

The night passed like that.

The next day, Minato Namikaze called the thirty-two "suspects" together again and, in front of the village envoy, announced the end of the investigation. Everyone was reinstated, and some even received compensatory benefits.

Yuto didn't stay in the camp for long. His attention was now focused on that petri dish, checking with his Byakugan every now and then, fearing the constant temperature environment would fail, causing all the cells to die.

After ensuring no one was following him, he returned to his underground secret base.

None of the traps or alarm devices he had set were triggered. The first thing Yuto did upon returning to the secret room was to check the temperature-controlled incubator.

The situation inside the incubator was completely unexpected.

In vitro cell proliferation, without special intervention, would gather into a lump of cells, generally forming irregular shapes.

However, the stem cells growing in the Hyuga blood essence had taken an unexpected shape.

—A slice the size of one-fifth of a palm!

The edges were extremely smooth, the thickness was a uniform 1 millimeter, and it was blood-red.

The shape was so regular it didn't seem like normal cell growth, as if it had been sculpted by some great force.

Yuto's eyes were burning with excitement. He remembered that before returning to the Konoha camp, the cells in the petri dish were still irregular lumps. After two days away, they had undergone such a transformation.

Although "missing the mutation process" was regrettable, there would be more opportunities in the future. This mutation at least proved that his research direction was correct.

The slightly pure "Otsutsuki bloodline" flowing in the Hyuga main family members body could indeed cause his cells to undergo secondary development.

(End of Chapter)