"There's no need to be so nervous. They're just two relatively unimportant techniques. We're a shared platform—jutsu exchange is perfectly normal."
Yagyū Souma tried to reassure her.
However,
Inuzuka Hana gave a bitter smile.
"We don't have any jutsu valuable enough to exchange."
The breeding techniques, enhanced olfaction methods—those had already been shared.
The only remaining secret art was the Four Legs Technique.
But that was the core secret of the Inuzuka clan. There was no way it could be taught to outsiders.
Fortunately, she didn't have to agonize for long.
Because her mother, Inuzuka Tsume, returned.
Tsume led two massive wolfdogs with her.
One was Hai-maru, who had gone out to fetch her.
The other was her own one-eyed wolfdog—Kuro-maru.
Kuro-maru circled Souma suspiciously.
"Why don't you have a scent?"
"A minor secret technique. Not worth mentioning," Souma said with a smile.
"Impressive."
Kuro-maru lowered his head and returned to Tsume's side.
Only then did Hana realize what had felt off earlier—
Souma carried no scent at all, and not a trace of chakra leakage.
It was as if he simply didn't exist.
This technique completely countered the Inuzuka clan.
"You… um, not many people should be able to use this technique, right? Is it difficult?" Tsume asked, suppressing her usual impatience.
Souma thought for a moment.
"It's quite difficult. At least S-rank learning difficulty. Fully mastering it would be even harder."
Beyond S-rank.
That meant very few people could ever learn it. It wouldn't become something everyone could use.
Tsume felt much more at ease.
"Souma-kun, your techniques are incredible, but their difficulty is always too high. Let me see… this one…"
Tsume opened the scroll—and froze.
After several seconds, she carefully set it down, then opened the scroll Hana had examined earlier: Wild Lion's Mane.
She fell into deep thought.
A ninja guiding the technique while the ninja beast focused solely on chakra control—
That model was absolutely feasible.
Moreover, when combined with the Inuzuka clan's Two-Headed Wolf, these two techniques could be fully realized.
But…
Just as Hana feared—
Among the Inuzuka clan's secret techniques, there was almost nothing left suitable for exchange.
Only when you needed jutsu did you realize how few you had.
After a long silence, Tsume finally spoke:
"I wonder… would you be interested in the Fang Over Fang technique?"
"Fang Over Fang?"
Souma thought for a moment, then recalled it—
The spinning taijutsu.
Inuzuka Kiba's strongest early move. Its power was decent, but it clearly fell off later.
Of course.
That wasn't the Inuzuka clan's fault.
Their taijutsu still belonged within the limits of normal ninja combat. Later enemies were no longer normal.
Did it have development potential?
Souma thought carefully.
Then decisively rejected it.
It wasn't worth further development. His own taijutsu system was already complete—he had no use for an unrelated spinning technique.
Even if improved…
He'd just sell it back to the Inuzuka clan.
Why bother?
Souma shook his head.
"No need. That said, I do have a small suggestion."
"Please speak," Tsume said seriously.
"You're currently researching ninja beast cultivation with the research institute, right? Once there are results, could you sell—or rent—ninja beasts to the village?"
Tsume pondered for a few seconds.
Rent to the village?
Which departments needed that many ninja beasts?
ANBU.
Tsume suddenly recalled a recent rumor—
After Danzō's death, the Third Hokage intended for Souma to take over Danzō's former responsibilities and manage the remnants of the Root operatives.
If that was the case—
She understood immediately.
After a brief consideration, Tsume slammed her palm on the table.
"No need to wait for results. Our clan can provide newly trained ninja beasts right now."
"Not just ninja beasts," Souma added.
"Some that don't qualify as ninja beasts are also needed."
Now Hana was confused.
"Those without ninja beast qualifications… do you mean companion beasts? But they're already large and ferocious. Nobles probably won't like them."
She was also reluctant.
Each dog was raised with care. Noble ladies wouldn't know how to look after them.
"No. I'm suggesting improving the village's Guard Force," Souma said calmly.
"Ever since the Uchiha clan was wiped out, Konoha's guard force has existed in name only. This time, enemies infiltrated the village without anyone noticing."
"I plan to suggest rebuilding the Guard Force—and assigning one dog to each squad."
"Can the Inuzuka clan participate?" Tsume immediately sensed a chance to claim a share of the benefits.
Souma shook his head.
"Nothing's decided yet. I only thought of it today. If the Third Hokage agrees, you can negotiate directly with him."
"Understood."
Souma's idea was simple—use dogs to assist patrol and tracking squads.
Since this was internal village security, they didn't even need full ninja dogs. As long as they could detect and track intruders, that was enough.
Combat would be handled by ANBU and jōnin.
It was a viable approach.
Still…
In the end, the Inuzuka clan benefited again.
Tsume sighed inwardly.
After escorting Souma out of the compound, Hana couldn't help saying,
"Mother… it feels like we gained way too much this time."
"…What choice did we have?" Tsume replied awkwardly. "Our clan really doesn't have any more bargaining chips."
After thinking it over, she irritably scratched her head.
"Just raise ninja beasts properly and help where we can. Oh—wasn't Yamashiro Aoba asking us to research ninja crows? Help him."
"Alright."
Hana nodded.
When it came to ninja beast cultivation, no one in Konoha surpassed the Inuzuka clan.
From Souma's attitude, it seemed he only wanted the Inuzuka clan to contribute more labor and support the village and research institute.
Their techniques, however—
He genuinely wasn't interested.
Tsume felt helpless.
If only Souma had been interested back then, the clan wouldn't have needed to come begging.
The reorganization of the Guard Force had already been discussed within Konoha, but there was no good plan—no manpower.
At its core, Konoha simply lacked ninja.
Compared to Iwagakure, which could mobilize ten thousand ninja around the Third Raikage, Konoha's numbers were always low.
After years of war, this was the weakest Konoha had ever been.
Where would they find guards?
Souma suggested letting genin teams limited to D-rank missions participate. He included this in his proposal and had it delivered to the Third Hokage.
Whether it succeeded didn't matter. He'd done his part.
The Third Hokage was old.
But he still adopted suggestions that truly benefited the village.
Privately, he revealed that the project would likely wait until the next Hokage took office.
The Guard Force positions were currently vacant.
Once the next Hokage came to power, the project could be used to unite various clans and factions.
That was beyond Souma's concern.
He returned home and began writing the second half of the ANBU Training Manual.
The first half covered team coordination and combined techniques.
The latter half focused on ninja tools and new equipment.
As Tenten said—
Even if puppet tools had a low ceiling, when used properly they offered massive advantages from chūnin to jōnin level.
Next was swordsmanship.
This was Souma's specialty. He had the most to write here.
Halfway through, he suddenly felt a surge of energy flow from his brain through his entire body.
This was—
Souma froze, then carefully sensed it.
Under the influence of this power, his body was growing stronger.
"Some kind of physical enhancement feedback," he realized.
He visualized the Bodhi Seed and checked the patterns.
It was feedback from Overlimit State.
"Previously I couldn't sense internal changes so clearly. This clarity must be due to feedback from the sensory-sharing technique."
Effort really did pay off.
Souma was secretly pleased.
He'd been pushing Overlimit State for a long time, but currently only the Akimichi clan was seriously practicing it.
Which reminded him—
How was the Akimichi clan's calorie techniques and the latter stages of the Seven-Day Breathing Method progressing?
"Hopefully soon."
He thought briefly, then continued writing.
Two days later, the manual was complete.
Souma also drafted a proposal on toad oil refinement, though he didn't plan to research it himself.
Instead, he intended to hand it to the Sarutobi clan—
After the Uchiha clan's destruction, the Sarutobi were the strongest Fire Release users left in Konoha.
In addition, he needed to meet with Yamanaka Inoichi.
Although Souma wasn't in a rush, the Yamanaka clan's guards had been lingering near the research institute.
They clearly wanted a serious discussion.
"Alright. Let's handle everything in one trip."
Souma packed up and went out again.
First stop—Asuma and Yūhi Kurenai.
They happened to be in the Forest of Death.
Kurenai was training taijutsu.
Not switching paths—just strengthening her body and testing whether she could enter Overlimit State.
She'd exchanged participation in mental defense research for Overlimit State training.
As for Asuma—
He sat nearby, training Sage Mode.
He'd grown lax recently, but the fight against Kisame made him realize Sage Mode was his future.
Otherwise, that same situation would repeat itself against the Akatsuki.
"Souma?"
Asuma glanced toward the forest, sighing helplessly.
"Do you always keep chakra shielding active now? Doesn't that exhaust you?"
"It's fine," Souma replied.
"It doesn't consume as much chakra as you think. It's for research purposes. I can already suppress my scent well enough, but movements still get detected."
He looked at them.
"Did I interrupt?"
"Not at all," Kurenai said gently. "We chose the Forest of Death so the kids wouldn't run into us."
Souma nodded, clearly unconvinced, making both of them speechless.
Asuma coughed lightly.
"So, Souma—what's up?"
"Something important."
Souma tossed him a scroll, with a few notebook pages tucked inside.
Asuma took one look—
And immediately understood its value.
"This technique belongs to Jiraiya-sama, so I can't trade it. But you can experiment with combined techniques."
"Understood."
Asuma nodded seriously.
"If there are results, I'll write you a report."
"Mm. Kurenai-senpai, I might make a deal with the Yamanaka clan regarding mental attack and defense techniques. Want to come?"
"Me?" Kurenai hesitated. "I don't think I've contributed much…"
She'd already exchanged for one technique. Taking more felt greedy.
"I have a revised mental training method," Souma said halfway—then smiled without finishing.
Kurenai hesitated intensely.
Mental training techniques—
She'd heard of them. She'd once considered researching them herself, but the mental domain was too dangerous.
Now the opportunity was right in front of her.
"…When are we going?"
"Now."
Kurenai immediately followed Souma, leaving Asuma standing there with a complicated expression.
As they left, Souma sent a mental message—
"Asuma, women only get in the way of training. I took her with me—no need to thank me."
Thank you my ass!
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