Uchiha orphan, so what if I'm ruthless?

The data on the system panel hadn't just changed today; he had noticed the shifts long ago.

Water Style had risen from A to S, Fire Style from A+ to S, Wind Style from B to A+, Yin Style from A+ to S, and even Lightning and Earth Styles had seen growth.

Most of the credit for these improvements belonged to Orochimaru.

He had spent considerable time and effort to thoroughly digest that ninjutsu scroll.

It wasn't that he was a slow learner, but rather that the scroll contained an overwhelming amount of information.

Orochimaru had written down his entire understanding of ninjutsu, his insights into various chakra nature transformations, and even his concepts for certain forbidden jutsu.

Every page was densely packed with words, serving as incredibly precious experience.

Truth be told, it was no exaggeration to call Orochimaru a true genius in this field.

His thirst for ninjutsu was pure—so pure that he could dedicate his entire life to pursuing it.

While studying these materials, Uchiha Taiga could feel the excitement and intense focus Orochimaru must have had when writing those words.

At his current level, he hadn't completely absorbed all of Orochimaru's insights. Those deeper concepts required time to digest, practice, and truly make his own.

Even so, his ninjutsu capabilities had undergone a qualitative leap.

Uchiha Taiga had to admit that Orochimaru's mastery of ninjutsu was exceptionally profound.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to develop the Living Corpse Reincarnation later on, nor perfect the Reanimation Jutsu to such a terrifying degree.

Such achievements required a profound foundation; they couldn't be piled together with just one or two forbidden jutsu.

Putting it that way, he actually felt like he owed Orochimaru a favor.

Although the scroll was nominally an apology gift, he would remember this favor.

But remembering a favor was one thing; refusing what needed to be refused was another. If Orochimaru thought this would rope him into those shady experiments, he had no chance in hell.

He stood up and closed the living room door.

Drawing the Byakugan from the lottery didn't bring him much pressure. It wasn't really surprising that something like this happened to him. With his current strength, protecting himself was not an issue at all.

As for the Uchiha clan, he had already bulldozed his way through them.

He had cursed them out at the clan meeting, fought them at the compound gates, and thrown money right in Fugaku's face. He had offended everyone, whether he was supposed to or not.

And the result?

He was still living perfectly fine, spending his days fishing, eating, and sleeping. No one dared to provoke him.

So what could the Hyuga clan do?

The Byakugan was their lifeblood, with every pair treated as the clan's core secret. The Branch House's eyes were sealed by the Caged Bird, while the Main House's eyes were strictly protected.

If they found out a pair of Byakugan was out in the wild—and in the eye sockets of an Uchiha, no less—who knew how they would react.

But so what?

If the Hyuga clan really wanted to try and assert their dominance over him when the time came—

He wouldn't mind bulldozing his way through the Hyuga clan, too.

...

Days passed one by one, and in the blink of an eye, over ten days had gone by.

Snow fell intermittently, leaving the roofs of Konoha constantly blanketed in white. There were fewer pedestrians on the streets than during the New Year, but the atmosphere was noticeably more relaxed.

The war on the frontlines continued, but the intensity had been brought under control.

Both Kumogakure and Konoha maintained a tacit understanding of the current stalemate, neither showing any intention of escalating the conflict into an all-out war.

This was good news for Konoha. It hadn't been many years since the end of the Third Great Ninja War, and neither side could afford another massive conflict.

But there was bad news as well.

Kirigakure was getting restless. Intelligence from the borders indicated that ship movements in the Land of Water were far more frequent than usual.

Some speculated that Kirigakure might take advantage of Konoha being pinned down by Kumogakure to stir up trouble on another front.

None of this had anything to do with Uchiha Taiga.

His life continued as normal, completely unaffected.

Every morning, he would wake up and spend some time at the training grounds on the edge of the Forest of Death. He practiced his swordsmanship, threw some shuriken, and occasionally cast a jutsu or two just to keep his skills sharp.

The rest of his time was spent either fishing or reading at home.

At night, he would wash up early, have a drink, watch the snow, and go to sleep.

It seemed like a dull routine, but Uchiha Taiga quite enjoyed it. Only those who had truly experienced exhaustion knew how precious such a peaceful life was.

However, his recent ninjutsu training wasn't as active as before.

He had already learned all the jutsu on Orochimaru's scroll. What he lacked now was personal comprehension and insight, as well as the practical development and application of certain techniques.

These things couldn't be rushed. It wasn't something that could advance by leaps and bounds just by putting in a few extra hours of practice.

Sometimes, he needed to stop, think, and let the knowledge in his head settle.

The time he spent at the training grounds grew shorter, while his fishing trips grew longer. Yet, he returned empty-handed every single time.

He had scoured every river in Konoha that had undergone sudden changes, but the fish simply refused to bite.

It was baffling.

Blanking on a fishing trip really messed with his mindset. Right now, he had the urge to snap his fishing rod in half.

During this period, the changes in his eyes became increasingly obvious. The color of his irises grew lighter by the day.

From the initial black, to dark brown, to a normal grayish-brown, and now to a light brown. The color of his irises had faded to half their original depth. Under the sunlight, it looked as if they were covered in a thin layer of frost.

He never thought about hiding it.

He just left them openly exposed, going about his business as usual.

Grocery shopping on the streets, eating at the barbecue restaurant, fishing by the river—he didn't avoid anyone.

Whoever wanted to look could look. He didn't care.

Uchiha Mikoto visited once more and naturally noticed his eyes.

"Your eyes..."

She expressed her concern, as the change was far too drastic to ignore.

"Is something wrong with your body? Are you feeling unwell anywhere?"

"No."

Uchiha Taiga casually found an excuse to brush it off.

"My visual prowess is increasing, and the color of my eyes changed. It should be related to that."

Uchiha Mikoto wasn't like the others in the Uchiha clan who only cared about the power of the Sharingan. She had watched Taiga grow up, and her concern for him was genuine.

Hearing him say his visual prowess was increasing didn't put her at ease; it only made her worry more.

"Are you sure there's no problem? Do you want to have a medical ninja take a look?"

"No need."

Uchiha Taiga's tone was relaxed.

"I know what I'm doing. Don't worry."

Uchiha Mikoto ultimately didn't press the issue. She knew Uchiha Taiga's temper; if there was something he didn't want to say, no one could force it out of him.

"Well, if you feel uncomfortable anywhere, you must tell me."

"Alright."

...

As his eye color changed, some of the Byakugan's abilities gradually began to manifest in Uchiha Taiga.

First came the x-ray vision.

In the beginning, he could only occasionally see things through a wall.

It was a bizarre sensation, as if his eyes suddenly possessed penetrating power, allowing his gaze to pass through the wall and see into the room behind it.

But it only lasted for a fleeting moment and was highly unstable, working only sporadically.

Later, the ability became more and more stable.

Now, he could see through objects within a radius of several hundred meters.

Standing in the courtyard of the old clan compound, he could see the layout inside the neighboring houses, the pedestrians on the distant streets, and even the microscopic cracks on the exterior walls of faraway buildings.

The angle was a full three hundred and sixty degrees.

Without needing to turn his head or his body, his field of vision covered every direction around him.

Front, back, left, right—he could see it all.

He wasn't used to it at first. It always felt like too much information was flooding his brain all at once, making him a bit dizzy.

But he quickly learned how to filter this information, focusing only on what he needed and ignoring the irrelevant details.

He figured that once his eyes had completely finished fusing, he would fully master this function.

How far or how detailed he would be able to see by then, he wasn't sure yet.

The main issue was that it was currently in a state of passive activation; he couldn't turn it off even if he wanted to.

He was looking forward to it.

When the time came, he wouldn't have to worry about blanking on his fishing trips anymore.

Unsurprisingly, with the changes in his eyes and his refusal to hide them, this transformation was noticed by those who were paying attention.

After all, he was too unique.

He bore the surname Uchiha, yes, but the Uchiha clan were never the only ones keeping an eye on him.

Especially when his eye color grew lighter and lighter, looking more and more like the Byakugan, some people couldn't sit still anymore.

It went without saying who those people were—naturally, they were from the Hyuga clan.

That afternoon, Uchiha Taiga was walking down the street with a dark expression, carrying an empty bucket on his way back from the river.

He was in a terrible mood. With his eyes now capable of x-ray vision, he could naturally see the situation underwater.

There were fish, and quite a few of them too, but the damn things just wouldn't bite the hook!

As he passed by a grocery store, he noticed two people standing across the street.

Two ninjas wearing Konoha flak jackets and forehead protectors.

Their eyes were a bright, piercing white.

The two of them were staring right at him.

More accurately, they were staring right at his eyes.