"Uh… I didn't mean external injuries. I meant the real reason his body can't heal," Naruto said awkwardly.
Orochimaru's eyes flashed with surprise. "You're right. Kimimaro's bloodline was too powerful, and it caused his Kekkei Genkai Disease to manifest early. His body simply can't take it anymore."
At this point, even Orochimaru seemed regretful.
On the bed, the frail Kimimaro's eyes were dark and dim.
But he wasn't afraid of dying.
What haunted him was that his body had failed to meet Orochimaru-sama's expectations… that he could not offer himself fully to Orochimaru.
After yesterday's fight with Naruto—though it barely qualified as a fight—it ended in complete defeat.
And that made him realize just how fragile his body really was.
Looks like… my life will end without meaning.
Kimimaro stared blankly upward.
Then Naruto turned to Orochimaru again.
"Have you ever tried using the Hyuga clan's bloodline to treat Kimimaro?"
Orochimaru frowned slightly, shaking his head. "Why the Hyuga clan?"
"Try transplanting Hyuga cells into his body. Ideally, give him a pair of Byakugan." Naruto didn't explain—he simply gave the instruction.
Orochimaru thought for a moment. From every angle, Byakugan and Shikotsumyaku didn't seem remotely related.
But once something piqued his interest, Orochimaru became serious.
That was when Naruto suddenly issued a sharp warning:
"But Hinata Hyuga's eyes are off-limits. If you touch them—you'll die. Painfully."
"Oh? Hinata Hyuga?" Orochimaru licked his lips with amused curiosity.
He hadn't expected the usually composed Naruto to reveal such a soft spot.
"I do have a pair of Byakugan on hand," Orochimaru said after a pause.
Naruto wasn't surprised.
After all, Orochimaru had even run Wood Release experiments right under Konoha's nose.
What's a little Byakugan compared to that?
Even with the Caged Bird Seal, Byakugan could still be harvested—from the Hyuga Main Branch.
And back during the war, even Main Branch members had to fight on the front lines.
"Since you have them, then go ahead and transplant them."
Orochimaru looked to Kimimaro, but before he could ask, Kimimaro spoke up:
"If it will help Orochimaru-sama… then do anything you want with me."
Orochimaru nodded and smiled. He turned to Kabuto behind him.
"Kabuto, fetch the Byakugan."
"Yes, Orochimaru-sama."
Kabuto left, returning shortly with a box, which he handed to Orochimaru.
Opening it revealed two glass vials filled with green nutrient fluid.
Floating inside each one was a pale, menacing Byakugan.
"I'll begin now, Kimimaro." Orochimaru moved to the bedside.
Kimimaro's gaze was weak, but there wasn't a trace of fear.
To burn out the last of his fading body for Orochimaru-sama—that alone was enough.
Orochimaru began the eye transplant.
No anesthesia was used.
Yet Kimimaro didn't make a sound.
Compared to the constant agony of the Kekkei Genkai Disease, this pain was nothing.
Orochimaru's skill at extracting eyes was almost surgical. The whole operation took less than two and a half minutes.
He was about to wrap Kimimaro's eyes in bandages so they could recover naturally—
But Naruto stopped him.
"Wait!"
Bandaging and waiting for the body to heal would take too long.
Naruto wasn't about to wait days for results.
He stepped forward and pressed his hand over Kimimaro's eyes, palm glowing with Yang Release chakra—and laced with a trace of Nine-Tails' chakra.
A high-level medical ninjutsu followed.
Scarlet chakra poured into Kimimaro's eye sockets.
Behind them, Kabuto stared at Naruto's hand, utterly stunned.
"This…"
As a medic-nin himself, he had never seen Mystic Palm Technique used to this extent.
Not only could this kid fight—his medical ninjutsu was absurd.
Kabuto was left in awe. Was there really such a genius in the world?
Naruto's red chakra glowed brighter, healing with startling speed.
The neural links behind Kimimaro's transplanted eyes rapidly fused and synchronized.
The Hyuga cells within the Byakugan were also activated by Naruto's chakra, spreading through Kimimaro's bloodstream.
After ten minutes, Kimimaro slowly opened his eyes—revealing pure white pupils.
Compared to his previous green irises, the Byakugan suited him better.
His face, once ghostly pale from illness, now held a faint flush of life.
He wasn't fully healed, but the effect was already beyond expectations.
Orochimaru watched in disbelief.
After years of failed research… just transplanting the Byakugan had such a dramatic effect?
"Kimimaro, how do you feel?" Orochimaru asked curiously.
Kimimaro flexed his limbs, eyes gleaming.
"Better than ever."
"I feel stronger."
The moment he said "stronger," Kimimaro instinctively looked at Naruto. A flicker of fighting spirit flashed in his eyes.
For Kimimaro, who was usually quiet and stoic, to say something like that—it meant he truly felt revived.
Orochimaru turned to Naruto, stunned.
"Naruto-kun… how could a Byakugan transplant heal the Kekkei Genkai Disease from Shikotsumyaku? Are the two somehow connected?"
"I guess," Naruto replied flatly, offering no explanation.
That the Byakugan could suppress—or rather, correct—the incomplete lineage of Shikotsumyaku, relieved much of Naruto's anxiety.
This meant he didn't have to worry about developing the disease himself.
Naruto's hypothesis about the Byakugan's healing properties came from their shared origin.
Both Byakugan and Shikotsumyaku trace back to the same ancestor:
Ōtsutsuki Hamura—younger brother of the Sage of Six Paths.
Just as overuse of the Mangekyō Sharingan leads to blindness—unless offset by Wood Release, which shares a common origin in the God Tree…
Using modern terms, the Mangekyō Sharingan could be considered a genetic defect—thus prolonged use causes vision loss.
Could Shikotsumyaku's disease also be a kind of defect? And could a genetically compatible Byakugan correct it?
That was Naruto's line of reasoning.
And now, from Kimimaro's case—it had been confirmed.
Not only did the Byakugan stabilize Shikotsumyaku, but the two could even enhance one another:
Sharpening the Byakugan's visual prowess
Reinforcing the bone-hardening of Shikotsumyaku
In the original story, Ao of Kirigakure had a transplanted Byakugan.
But like Kakashi's Sharingan, it was permanently active—he couldn't turn it off.
Kimimaro, however, was different.
He could activate and deactivate his Byakugan like any Hyuga.
This did not escape Orochimaru's analytical mind.
He now firmly believed there was some unknown connection between the Hyuga and Kaguya clans.
As a researcher, this discovery thrilled him.
Despite Naruto saying he just "guessed," Orochimaru didn't believe a word of it.
Naruto's strength was enough to kill him in an instant. But it was also these subtle, overlooked insights that made Orochimaru even more wary.
"Kids these days… are terrifying," Orochimaru muttered.