While Suguru was in his cocoon, the world continued to move.
Itachi got into the Academy, passed its graduation exam, and was set to leave in just one year of attendance.
Orochimaru also left the village a little earlier than expected — he left at about the same time Itachi passed the graduation exam.
The next year, the Hyuga Affair happened as in the original, leading to Hyuga Hizashi's sacrifice. The year after, Itachi unlocked and mastered his Sharingan.
It was as expected of a genius.
However, because of Suguru's influence on the Uchiha clan, Itachi was no longer the only 'genius.' A bunch of other children around his age had unlocked their Sharingan. Though they had yet to master them as Itachi did, their batch was thus labeled as a prodigal generation.
Konoha felt a sense of foreboding.
In the next year, a large batch of Uchiha children became genin while Itachi achieved the rank of chunin. For a moment, the Uchiha clan didn't mind the surveillance that the village had been pressuring them with.
Danzo, who had been hiding in Root's headquarters, started preparing the ingredients for a special meal. He was wary of the sudden growth of talents in the Uchiha clan.
Eventually, the fourth year of metamorphosis arrived. Months went by without any thill, up until the most opportune moment arrived.
It was then— A crack formed in Suguru's cocoon.
***
—Crack!
Shattering like his Kaisugan irises, the cocoon of chakra cleanly broke into a thousand pieces. Suguru, who had been sleeping for four years, was gently stirred. His eyes slowly opened, but no light aggravated his sight.
"I'm back," He muttered as he felt his cocoon dissolving into the wind, returning to its previous state as a part of his body.
"How much time has passed?"
'Kaisugan!'
—Crack!
Glowing in the darkness, Suguru's shattered eyes looked into the distance. He watched an injured Sasuke being carried home by Itachi. He saw a lonely Naruto, roaming the streets of the village while being surrounded by venomous gazes.
"...My assimilation was shorter than expected. Was there something wrong with my calculations?"
Trying to stand up, Suguru noticed that his clothes didn't seem to fit him properly.
"What..?"
His clothes were loose.
Standing up, the operating table that was once as tall as him, seemed larger than before.
"Did my body age backward?" Suguru's mouth hung open, suddenly realizing why there seemed to be a 'negligible' constant in his calculations. He always wondered why there was an extra quantity of energy that never involved itself in the assimilation process.
He gulped. 'To think that it reversed my body's age... That makes sense. It also explains why my earlier mistakes were mistaken. The assimilation reverses my body's aging not because it gives me greater youth, but because it doesn't expend energy to develop my body to the same degree as it was before my assimilation.'
Had Suguru's assimilation taken two more years, his body's age would've been the same when he began his assimilation.
Suguru did the math:
'I was about to turn seven when I started the assimilation. Four years later, I didn't age and instead regressed two years back. So... my body should, by all technicalities, be close to five years old. No... it's currently April. I'm still four, then.'
It had been six years since Naruto's birth.
'So I'm younger than the main cast...'
Suguru's eyes flashed. A mischievous grin spread across his lips.
'Oh, that's perfect.'
***
Looking at the mirror, Suguru realized that his features had changed, ever so slightly. Obviously, other than looking younger, his previous silver hair now had hints of shining gold at the tips. His hair had grown long enough to reach his waist.
His grey eyes had taken on the same sheen as his hair. It was now composed of a beautiful silver instead of a dull, fish-eyed grey.
"I'll change my identity then,"
Suguru made a decision when he saw his face. It would be difficult to explain why the past Kagami Suguru had somehow reversed his aging instead of growing older. He could easily abandon the apartment he previously had.
"I think I'll change my last name."
After a moment of thought, he nodded to himself. He liked Suguru, for it meant excellence. Now, he wanted a name that meant something different from the previous 'Kagami,' or 'mirror.'
"I'll call myself Hiryu Suguru."
[Excellence of a Flying Dragon].
Suguru smiled.
Chuckling to himself, he thought, 'How grandiose of me,'
***
Looking around the lab that Orochimaru had concealed from Hiruzen, Danzo, and even Jiraiya's prying, Suguru suddenly recalled how much knowledge had been left for him to discover for himself.
"Judging from how this place hasn't been discovered, Orochimaru took special care in its preservation."
Not a speck of dust had accumulated despite it being years since someone had last cleaned it up. Suguru could learn a lot just by being inside this laboratory.
He didn't have to leave if he did not want to. Other than being forced to buy food and water outside, Suguru was confident that he could simply hide here and turn his theories into actual techniques.
Especially since...
'Kaisugan!'
—Crack!
Suguru sent his gaze out into the distance. His gaze lingered in front of an unsuspecting civilian. He put his hands together to form a hand seal.
[Bird].
'Dark Release: Vampiric Gaze'
Out from the darkness, shattered irises were manifested into existence. The civilian was stunned by the sudden appearance of a pair of eyes.
"Wha—?"
A mesmerizing force kept him from averting his gaze. In the next moment, he felt a small portion of his strength rapidly leave his body.
A portion of his chakra had been siphoned and disappeared with the pair of eyes.
Since he was not an actual shinobi, he didn't have much chakra. This portion that was siphoned from him was enough to induce fainting.
The civilian lost consciousness in the next second.
However, Suguru already understood the implications of his actions. He was finally capable of utilizing chakra without mirroring other Doujutsu. His talent had also increased slightly, as shown by his earlier feat.
'So I have a few instinctual jutsu..?' He cackled, 'No wonder I feel so hungry! Dark Release is a little scary, now that I think about it. In return for allowing me to have some instinctual jutsu as if I was a wild, hungry beast, but it also gave me the exact traits of the aforementioned beast.'
It was clearly not a simple Kekkei Genkai that absorbed and released chakra all willy nilly. Perhaps that was why the original Hiruko only used Dark Release through his mouth or a mark on his palm.
It was, in a sense, a rather incomplete utilization of Dark Release.
The true Dark Release could affect even one's subconscious desires and alter one's biology to accept foreign chakra. The only side effect was this beastly burning hunger that Suguru couldn't get rid of.
A desire to consume the chakra of stronger beings.
'Have I become a human version of Samehada?' Suguru laughed, 'Honestly, I think I have indeed become such an existence.'
His eyes flashed as he became serious.
"Does this mean that I can become a Tailless Tailed Beast like Hoshigaki Kisame?" A hint of excitement laced his voice.
Suguru mirrored a Sharingan and analyzed his own body. Then, he looked around the lab that Orochimaru had given him. A few ideas coursed through his mind.
"I'm going to have to work on that... When I'm finished building my foundations, I can then enroll in the Academy after Naruto and Sasuke."