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For a long time, Izumi said nothing.
She simply stared ahead, lost in thought, absorbing the weight of everything she had learned.
Finally, she spoke again, voice steady.
"...What do you want me to do?"
Neji didn't even glance up from the device he was assembling a strange helmet constructed from silver wiring and polished chakra conductors.
"Assist with my experiments," he said simply. "Act as my aide."
"Experiments... Aide..." Izumi repeated under her breath, uncertain.
"Correct."
Neji finished his adjustments, stood, and walked over to her.
Without ceremony, he helped her sit up gently but efficiently and fitted the helmet snugly over her head.
"Channel chakra into it," he instructed.
Izumi hesitated. She didn't understand his intentions, but she obeyed. Gathering what little strength she had, she guided a trickle of chakra outward.
Neji activated his Byakugan, monitoring her internal chakra flow with meticulous precision.
"Focus it toward your temples," he guided her calmly. "You'll find two points there that naturally attract chakra."
Despite her exhaustion, Izumi complied. Manipulating chakra with fine control was second nature to a Sharingan user.
A faint glimmer of light blossomed in her mind's eye.
"There's... light," she whispered, astonished.
"Light?" Neji echoed, adjusting the device slightly.
Each tweak he made sharpened the sensation until Izumi gasped softly.
"I can... almost see something... blurry shapes..."
Her heart pounded. It was working.
Neji's voice cut through her awe, calm and impersonal.
"Report everything you feel," he ordered.
Izumi forced herself to focus. "The shapes are clearing... then blurring again... I can make out vague outlines..."
It was crude, primitive but it was a sight.
Incredible sight.
Izumi couldn't help the surge of amazement.
'He built this? He created a tool to restore vision?'
And she was the test subject.
'Is that why he saved me?' she thought. 'To use me as a prototype?'
She had no way of knowing Neji's true capabilities no idea that he had long since restored his own sight. From her perspective, this was his desperate attempt to reclaim what he had lost.
"Good enough," Neji said at last.
He stepped back, and without his body blocking her view, Izumi's vision expanded.
She saw him clearly for the first time.
A boy clothed in white, a plain white eyepatch covering where his eyes should have been. Long dark hair flowed over his shoulders, framing a youthful face that was calm and expressionless, and yet beneath that stillness, something sharper and colder glinted.
So this is Neji Hyuga...
She forced herself to glance around. The room was sterile and harsh, lit only by overhead lamps. No windows. A single staircase led upward, leaking faint light from above.
A basement. A hidden place.
"Can you see properly?" Neji asked.
"Yes."
"Can you focus?"
"Focus?"
He lifted a slip of paper and held it in front of her.
"Can you read what's written here?"
Izumi strained. Squinted.
"No... it's too blurry."
Neji moved the paper farther away, then closer, adjusting the distance.
"And now?"
"Still can't."
He set the paper down and picked up a notebook, jotting down observations.
Izumi couldn't help but peek curiously at his writing.
"Why are you recording 'blurry' and 'can't see'?" she asked.
Neji's pen paused for a heartbeat then continued, ignoring the question.
'He's a little twisted' she realized faintly. 'Is he finding amusement in this?'
Her gaze flicked toward the notes:
"Focus adequate. Maximum vision range untested."
She could only read part of it before the writing vanished behind his arm.
The experience of losing her sight and then regaining it, even in this crude way, left her oddly numb. She hadn't had time to mourn her blindness, consumed as she was by thoughts of the massacre.
The Uchiha Clan... Itachi...
Questions circled endlessly in her mind.
Why had Itachi done it?
Who was the masked man?
Was there something even darker she hadn't seen?
She didn't even notice herself falling silent, lost in the storm of her own thoughts.
Neji closed his notebook with a snap.
"Stop brooding. Focus on recovering," he said coldly. "The truth is simple: Itachi wiped out the Uchiha Clan. The masked man helped him. End of story."
Izumi bit her lip.
She looked so fragile, sitting there in silence, the heavy helmet making her look almost ridiculous. And yet... even now, there was steel in her.
"You..." she said suddenly. "Were you the ANBU I saw that night?"
"Yes," Neji confirmed without hesitation.
"You... harvested Sharingan eyes?"
"I did."
She didn't have to look far for confirmation. A few glass vials sat neatly on a nearby table, each containing the eerie crimson glow of a stolen eye.
"Then... I can't go outside again, can I?"
Neji's lips curled slightly not a smile, exactly, but something close.
"You could," he said. "If you wanted to die."
Izumi managed a faint, bitter smile.
Dead.
That's what she was now.
An Uchiha ghost.
A forgotten casualty.
She bowed her head.
"Was your experiment a success?" she asked quietly.
"A preliminary success," Neji answered. "The device is too bulky now. When I can condense it into proper implants, it will be complete."
"And when it's perfected?"
Neji's voice was almost clinical as he listed the capabilities:
"Full Byakugan-level vision. Sharingan-level dynamic perception. Chakra flow detection. Scent tracking. Thermal imaging. Genjutsu resistance."
Izumi blinked slowly.
Monstrous.
Could such a thing even exist?
"After this... what do you expect from me?"
"Learning," Neji said simply. "Study medical ninjutsu. Learn Earth Release. Expand the underground base. Assist in further experiments."
He paused, then added, voice softer but sharper:
"And if you cooperate... I'll give you a chance to recover your real eyes.
And maybe... a chance to stand face-to-face with Itachi again."
Silence fell.
Then Izumi lifted her head, her gaze steady.
"I understand."
She watched him differently now.
The cold, ruthless Neji she thought she understood was only one side of him.
Beneath the coldness was something else an ambition so vast it was almost terrifying.
So this is a true genius, she thought.
If Neji had known her thoughts, he would've simply smiled and said:
Exactly.
---
Neji rose, casually packing his equipment into his dimensional storage.
Before he left, he pointed toward a cabinet and a small adjoining room.
"Food's there. The bathroom's there. Stay inside. Don't touch anything you don't understand. Don't open the windows."
He gave the instructions calmly as if he were telling her how to borrow a book.
"If you stay quiet, you'll heal fully in a day or two. Then we'll begin properly."
Izumi listened carefully. She understood the stakes.
The world thought she was dead. She had no home left.
She would obey.
"...Okay."
Satisfied, Neji turned to leave.
"I have class tomorrow," he added casually.
The absurdity of it struck Izumi:
This boy, this cold, calculating mastermind, was still a student.
She watched him go, feeling something unfamiliar twist in her chest.
When the door closed behind him, she leaned back against the bed and exhaled slowly.
Is this what it feels like to be hidden away?
To be someone's secret?
'Gold hidden in a private house...' she thought, half amused, half bitter.
'Maybe that's what I've become.'
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[Support with 100 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter]