A dazzling azure pooled in her pupils, shifting into a mercury-like silver before cascading down, engulfing her flesh.
Crimson muscle fibers twitched like flower petals under sunlight—dancing, pulsing, swelling, and shrinking in eerie synchrony.
Soon, the liquid metal flowed back into her eyes like swallows returning to their nest. Without the *dōjutsu*'s power, the animated flesh gradually stilled.
The living tissue wasn't dead—only dormant, conserving energy until its master called upon it again.
With a thought, *Hikari* willed her slender, pale index finger to split open. A segment of bone, stark white, wriggled free from the red sinew and dropped into her palm. The skin sealed shut seamlessly, subdermal tissue knitting itself back together with fibers so fine even the *Byakugan* would struggle to detect them.
Entwining, stitching, filling, fusing.
Her hollowed finger regained its structure as new bone grew, merging flawlessly with muscle.
*Hikari* clenched her fist.
No trace of abnormality remained. The *chakra* cost? Negligible.
Pinching the extracted bone between two fingers, she observed its metallic sheen.
The bones of a *Shikotsumyaku* awakener were impervious to *kunai*. By all logic, *Hikari*—who only knew the three basic *jutsu*—should've been powerless against material three times harder than steel.
Yet—
Her gaze sharpened.
Under the *Byakugan*'s microscopic vision, roughly **12 billion muscle fibers** contracted in unison. Unthinkable explosive force converged at her fingertips.
Her skeletal frame groaned under the pressure.
***Crack!***
The bone shattered instantly, reduced to dust.
*Hikari* stared at the debris, exhilarated. **She'd crushed steel-hard bone with bare fingers.**
Pure physical strength.
And if she amplified it with *chakra*? How much more terrifying would her body become?
In her past life, studies suggested the human body's 600+ muscles could theoretically generate **25 tons of force**—if they could all pull in one direction. But flesh and bone would collapse under such strain.
Yet here, theory bent to reality.
Or at least, **partially**.
The *Shikotsumyaku*'s flaw was clear: bone protrusions tore through tendons and skin. The canon explanation—that users possessed rapid regeneration—never sat right with *Hikari*.
Biology didn't work that way.
The human body was an interconnected system. Bones, tendons, blood vessels—none operated in isolation.
**A living body wasn't a cadaver on an autopsy table.**
The *Shikotsumyaku*'s true horror wasn't its indestructible bones—**it was the flesh that could adapt to them.**
Muscles splitting and regrowing around shifting bone.
Organs sliding aside to avoid impalement.
Blood vessels detaching and reattaching at will.
**A corpse-like malleability**—the "*corpse*" in *Shikotsumyaku* came before the "*bone*."
But something still felt… *off*.
*Hikari* combed through memories of *Kimimaro* and her clan. None exhibited **this level of control** over their flesh.
The *Shikotsumyaku*'s secret techniques only allowed crude manipulation of major muscle groups and adrenaline surges—nothing like *Hikari*'s precision, her ability to focus **every fiber's force into a single point**.
The difference?
**The *Byakugan*.**
Her transformation began after awakening the *Shikotsumyaku* and overusing her *dōjutsu* while pretending to be blind.
No—**not corruption.** *Activation.*
If *chakra* were merely corrupting her, the flesh should've reverted when the *Byakugan*'s power withdrew.
Instead, it **stayed awake**.
The *Shikotsumyaku* had always possessed this potential—a car without a steering wheel. The *Byakugan* provided the missing controls.
Her earlier grotesque mutations? Just the system **rebooting**.
A bold theory, but not baseless.
The Sage of Six Paths' mother, *Kaguya Ōtsutsuki*, wielded four powers:
- **Senjutsu body** (Senju/Uzumaki)
- **Sharingan** (Uchiha)
- **Byakugan** (Hyūga)
- **All-Killing Ash Bones** (Kaguya clan)
The *Byakugan* and *Shikotsumyaku* were **split fragments of a whole**.
Now, after a millennium, they'd reunited within *Hikari*.
---
She exhaled, sweat-drenched robes clinging to her skin.
What she'd feared was a deadly *kekkei genkai* flaw turned out to be a **blessing**.
Azure *chakra* seeped from her pores, swirling around her like mist. In the sunlight, her silhouette loomed on the wall—a distorted, divine shadow.
No halo of enlightenment crowned her. Instead, hair-thin strands of energy lashed like serpents, weaving a spiderweb of light.
*Hikari* smirked, silver hair crackling with *chakra*.
**"So… this is the so-called *Haretsu no Mai* (Dance of the Foam)."**
---
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