Eye color
It's been two days since I returned to the village and was notified that the operation to save Hinata was successful—with an unexpected surprise at the end.
Some of the damages couldn't be repaired by Nemu or Shizune, so they had to take care of the rest of the wounds and stabilize the ones I would personally treat later.
So, I had to postpone the anti-Zetsu barrier while entering the operating room.
There's a reason I didn't use the golden apple to restore her, and that reason is none other than the right eye she lost and had to be successfully replaced by one of my artificial Byakugan.
I was stunned when they showed me the issue, if it can be called that.
The Byakugan has a whole genetic mess behind it, as Mukai Kohinata demonstrated. Depending on who awakens or implants the dojutsu, various possible changes can occur. Now I was looking at the least expected of all.
An eye with a blue pupil surrounded by a blue and white flower-shaped iris.
None other than the Tenseigan!
To say that I'm confused is an understatement. As far as I remember, I would need to combine the genes of Hyuga and Otsutsuki for a result like this.
And I'm 100% sure I only used the genetic material from Hinata's mother and Hinata herself to make batches of artificial Byakugan. There isn't a single strand of Toneri's DNA in this mix.
My only conclusion is that Hinata's mother must have experienced a mild case of atavism, which, combined with the high purity of her daughter's Byakugan, resulted in this.
But then, why did Hinata never manifest the Tenseigan in the series?
Is it really necessary to change eyes like the Uchiha?
Do the Byakugan I've been selling have the potential to become Tenseigan?
This requires urgent study; I can't keep selling artificial Byakugan if there's a remote possibility that the buyer could obtain these evolved eyes.
Fortunately, my fears were unfounded. Nemu, I, and Tsunade seriously studied the matter and discovered that only two people in the world could switch the artificial Byakugan I made to Tenseigan.
Hinata and Hanabi.
This is related to the (confirmed) case of slight atavism in Hinata's mother, their blood relationship, and the fact that I used this specific gene combination along with a bunch of genetic jargon I won't explain, but the summary is that.
That's why I didn't use the golden apple.
I need to know if Hinata wants to replace her other eye to have a pair of Tenseigan. Yes, others wouldn't even hesitate, but we're talking about Hinata.
Hinata's body will recognize the artificial Byakugan as "her eyes" because they're from the same source. If I give her the golden apple, she'll have to undergo a small genetic readjustment because of the Tenseigan for them to "connect" correctly as if they were her original eyes, and then they WILL be her original eyes.
Hinata will cease to be a Hyuga entirely, but she won't become exactly an Otsutsuki at Kaguya's level. She'll stay in an intermediate-superior point, but everything will be gains.
The pity is that I can't allow her to regain consciousness for at least an additional week, or else the (likely) extreme emotional agitation could push her to a critical point her body couldn't handle properly right now.
So, while we wait for the medical pod to help her recover to the point where she can regain consciousness safely, I'll be finishing the anti-Zetsu barrier.
And boy, that ear was really tricky to handle.
Seriously, I had to prepare a containment chamber as if I were locking up a Klyntar and make sure nothing could enter or leave until I finished with it, including the air.
I even had to incinerate my clothes when entering or leaving! My poor pants...
Also, since I'm the only one without chakra to parasitize and with my elemental body that eliminates any spores, I couldn't ask for help from anyone else to be more at ease.
In fact, the black Zetsu has quite a few similarities with a Klyntar when I think about it, except for the part where it's not stronger than a child on its own.
It's an immortal black blob that needs to find a host to control, coincidence?
Wait a moment!
...
Oh dear, what a big mistake I made on my part!
Why on earth did I settle for an ear from the white Zetsu?
I could have thought of some way to seal or enclose the black Zetsu directly!
Treat the most annoying problem at its root.
I mean, I knew exactly where it would appear, and I have a Uzumaki sealing master in the village. I'm sure we could have worked on something viable.
Or I could have prepared something to trigger a spatial rift to another dimension. It's a bit like sealing it without the need for chakra, since the black Zetsu is unable to use space ninjutsu to return and would be trapped for... enough time, if not forever.
And now that it was injured (at least the original white Zetsu), I fear it will be much more cautious...
Will I have to wait until they kidnap Gaara in two years to locate him again and get rid of that threat?
I'm not going to let that madman do anything to Fu!
"Father?"
Nemu snaps me out of my thoughts and brings me back to reality.
"Yes, connect the blue cable with the green one and the yellow one with the red one," I instructed her as we finished the barrier in the hidden room I prepared for her.
From the outside, it looks like a pedestal where, at the top, there's Sarutobi's crystal sphere, and underneath, it has a bunch of cables connected to another sphere filled with sealed white matter that came from the white Zetsu.
This thing is so filled with seals that look like hundreds of tadpoles swimming in a teaspoon of space, it makes me dizzy just looking at it.
Once everything is in place, we "activate" the pedestal, and a bubble begins to expand around the Heavenly Island until it completely surrounds it and even grows a couple more kilometers.
Perfect.
With this, even if Zetsu were to put spores on someone in the village to try to figure out its location, the spores would simply disintegrate without being able to transmit any kind of information.