'I... what's happening to me?'
For a moment, memories flashed by like a waterfall of sensations. The last thing that Hyuga Rao felt was the cold touch of steel on his neck. The drawing of his blood.
The assaulting pain that had coursed through his spine.
An undeniable lethality that should have rendered him dead.
'No...'
He could swear he felt the slash of four vorpal blades, synchronized to perfection. A well-placed, impossibly-calculated cut.
One that could've been simplified had a single attacker used a longer blade.
But no, it seemed like those... ghosts... favored the kunai more than the sword. Thus, their attack required more than a single cut.
Four different attacks, woven into one.
As if swung by a single person.
And one person alone.
Yet...
'I remember four faces.'
No...
'It was one person... What..?'
Rao's memories were blurry. He didn't even know where he was. The world was dark. All he had for company was the vague consciousness that told him he was alive.
He couldn't feel his body.
All there was...
Was pain.
'Ack..!'
Unable to even scream, pain assaulted him from all sides. Every single part of him was jolted by a thunderous torment. One that he could have never imagined possible.
'Is this... hell?'
Suddenly the pain was amplified. His consciousness slipped in and out of existence. The only signifier of the passage of time was the nature of the pain that he felt.
Every second was equivalent to a year. His life continued to flash before him as if he was forced to experience death again and again.
Yet every time he approached the cold embrace of oblivion, something would yank him back.
Renewing the pain that he had felt just moments ago.
It was only when the pain rose, suffused into what should have been his eyes, that he was finally freed.
'Finally,'
He thought to himself, succumbing to slumber.
'...Peace and quiet.'
***
Suguru's injuries had worsened in the span of a mere few minutes.
The burns that littered his skin refused to heal. His lips had been sliced open by the air that whizzed past him, bleeding iron into his mouth.
Forced to revive the heads with every failed attempt, his life force had been severely depleted.
The Cards of Cursing cursed more than those he used it on.
Its mere existence demanded a sacrifice he had never accounted for.
'I should have tested this more.'
This was the price he had to pay due to the small timeframe he had. Throwing away safety for immediate results was burning through his youth.
In a mere few minutes, his youthful body had fallen. Wrinkles aplenty covered his face in layers and darkened eye bags drooped down his cheek.
His joints creaked with every flicker and his blood had thinned out.
It looked as if he had aged decades in mere moments.
However...
'I've done it,'
In his hands were two pairs of Byakugan, plucked out of the heads of the Hyuga he had killed. Beside him were his clones — still wearing the visage of a youthful Hiryu Suguru.
They looked at each other with a blank expression, rapidly making calculations with their visual prowess.
"The price was steep." One clone said, his eyes gleaming with the vibrance of the Ketsuryugan.
He had been tasked with creating an artificial blood flow to keep the brain alive. Mixing the main body's blood into the heads, he was able to maintain a certain standard of survival.
Basically, he was a pseudo-heart for two different heads.
"Indeed," The other clone bit his lip, the famed Sharingan shone with its mitsudomoe markings. "We need to figure out a way to recoup our lost life force before we succumb to... old age."
"We failed exactly 76 times with the first head, and 43 times for the second." The final clone, with his Shinrakugan focusing solely on the main body, spoke last. "I feel like we could've increased the efficiency. If we studied more under the Senju, our use of life force would've been less wasteful."
Suguru nodded to himself upon hearing his clones' analyses. After scribbling in his notebook and storing the extra pair of Byakugan, he closed his eyes.
His clones disappeared into clouds mid-leap.
While still moving based on his weakening instincts, he poured chakra into his eyes once more.
'Kaisugan!''
The Byakugan in his hands dissolved into a viscous, honey-like chakra. Then, like moths drawn to a flame, this chakra poured into his shattered irises.
Mending them.
Dyeing them in their hues.
The mended irises then turned completely white. Excess chakra wrapped around the blood vessels around his eyes, supplementing the pure white eyes he now had.
Suguru weaved a hand seal.
[Snake].
'Byakugan!'
The blood vessels near his temples bulged as a large amount of strain was put on his eyes. Then, the world expanded before him.
Different from the way the Shinrakugan allowed him to peer through large distances, the Byakugan no longer necessitated the need to move his head.
The 360-degree view was a very useful tool.
'Mixing this with my Kaisugan...'
Something that wasn't possible before was now at his fingertips.
—Crack.
The Byakugan cracked, creating pieces of white that dissolved into his eyes.
Now, he seemed completely blind, with not a hint of distinction in his eyeballs. Pure white eyes in their entireties.
Paradoxically, however...
His vision expanded into the great distance. An all-seeing vantage point wherever he went.
When before, he had to focus on something within his Kaisugan's range, now, he could see everything within the seventy-five-kilometer radius. It was an unparalleled ability to see all things.
"Kekeke,"
A cackle escaped Suguru's lungs.
"This is the true [All Seeing White Eye],"
Nothing could defeat this sense of liberation — this exhilarating sense of omniscience. Even the world beneath his feet was clear for him to see.
All the caves, crevices, and secrets buried beneath the earth were available for relentless observation.
'Though...'
Had his injuries not been as it was at the moment, his laughter would've been beautiful. Now, however, with his deteriorating body, iris-less eyes, and burns aplenty...
'I look like a monster.'
Feeling his waning capabilities, Suguru realized that he had to address his aged body as soon as possible.
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