"Big sister, I can't stay cooped up in the room anymore. I want to go out for a walk—maybe get some training in while I'm at it."
"…."
At Konoha's temporary lodging prepared for them, Samui was packing when Atsui, unable to sit still, voiced his request.
She wasn't worried about him just going out for a stroll.
That part was fine.
What she feared was her little brother getting other ideas.
After thinking for a moment, Samui said seriously, "Real training?"
"Of course."
"Then train outside the door. Don't go anywhere else."
Samui still wasn't reassured.
If this idiot suddenly decided to gather intelligence for Kumogakure, then Cloud Village would end up carrying a massive black pot.
Atsui was indignant.
"Sis, would I even mess things up just by training?"
"Yes."
Samui nodded coldly and without mercy.
Atsui felt a mouthful of blood rush up—he was nearly choked to death by his own sister's heartlessness. He really just wanted to run and exercise a bit.
How was he supposed to run at the door?
He was about to argue again when—
"Is Jonin Samui here?"
"…."
Samui fell silent for a few seconds, then got up and opened the door. Outside stood a pretty young girl who looked like a Konoha genin.
Samui hesitated briefly. "What is it?"
"Hello. May I ask—did you release a ninja hawk earlier?"
"…."
Samui went quiet again.
To send intelligence back to Cloud Village, she had indeed released a ninja hawk.
After a moment's thought, she nodded. "Yes. I exchanged some information with the Hokage and needed to report it to the Raikage immediately."
"It's like this," Ino said apologetically. "Right now, Konoha has many ninja birds conducting aerial training. Since our system is still being fully established, foreign ninja birds sometimes get caught in accidents. Your hawk may have been injured by one of our birds. We've already given it medical treatment—would you like us to release it for you?"
"No. I'll handle it myself."
Samui answered coldly.
She had to check it personally—what if Konoha swapped out the message?
Besides.
Who knew if this wasn't intentional?
Ninja birds? Their hawks were specially trained—even lightning couldn't affect them. How could ordinary ninja birds knock one down?
Samui stepped out, then turned back and shot Atsui a glare. "Don't run around."
"Yes!"
Atsui replied helplessly.
After Samui left, he didn't dare wander off.
But—
When two figures suddenly came barreling past the street outside the window, running upside down, something in Atsui's brain snapped.
A short while later—
Those two figures appeared again.
And again.
At regular intervals, they kept reappearing from the same direction, sprinting upside down past the end of the street.
"…They're running laps around Konoha like that?"
Atsui stared in disbelief.
Running upside down—that fast, that long?
Did Konoha have monsters like this in taijutsu?!
His heart started itching.
After hesitating a moment, Atsui jumped out the window.
...
"I only asked you to draw her out," Nara Shikaku muttered quietly to Yagyū Souma. "Wasn't it a bit too much to directly injure her ninja hawk?"
Souma shook his head. "It wasn't intentional."
"Huh?" Shikaku looked at him in disbelief. "And you expect me to believe that?"
Souma scratched his head. "How do I put it… I taught Yamashiro Aoba a technique, and he was training with ninja crows. The hawk just happened to get hit."
"???"
Shikaku squinted at him, his expression clearly saying Are you messing with me?
What kind of technique lets ninja crows knock down a Cloud Village mountain hawk?!
Those were elite flying ninja beasts—thunder didn't even scare them!
Even Konoha people wouldn't believe this!
Shikaku's inner complaints overflowed, his face twitching.
"I'm serious. Here—look. It's not an important technique anyway. We'll probably test it on kikaichū later too."
"…Let me see."
Shikaku didn't believe him.
But after taking the notebook and reading a few pages—
He did.
Souma's technique was deceptively simple.
Sound-based ninjutsu.
Crows were naturally noisy creatures. By infusing chakra into sound and exploiting their vocal traits, they could serve as carriers for genjutsu.
The prototype was clearly adapted from Tayuya's flute genjutsu.
The difficulty lay elsewhere.
The real challenge was training the crows to emit chakra at specific frequencies through sound, then having Yamashiro Aoba guide the genjutsu itself.
Fortunately, Aoba picked it up quickly.
Unluckily—
The ninja hawk flew past at the wrong moment.
Shikaku's focus immediately shifted. He no longer cared about the political fallout and lowered his voice.
"Souma, let's put that aside. I want to talk about our two families."
"Hm?" Souma looked at him, puzzled.
"How's our relationship?"
"Very good," Souma replied seriously. "You've taken great care of me, senior. You've helped me countless times. Without you, I wouldn't be where I am today."
That was the truth.
Shikaku's business cooperation allowed Souma to research ninjutsu without worries. He was practically financially independent now.
"Right?" Shikaku slapped his thigh. "We've worked great together. You helped the Aburame advance, stabilized the Yamanaka, gave the Akimichi the Breathing Activation Technique… but us Nara?"
He leaned closer. "We only got some taijutsu guidance! You need secret techniques? I can give those too!"
"You misunderstand," Souma said quickly, waving his hands. "I just didn't think I could optimize yours properly."
"…Not properly?" Shikaku's voice dropped. "So you do have something?"
"I do," Souma admitted. "But your current coordination and application are already near perfect. Further optimization would mainly improve individual combat power."
"No problem! I trust you!"
Shikaku grinned and patted Souma's shoulder. "Once this matter's settled, come by my place. We'll talk it through slowly."
"Deal."
Souma nodded.
The Ino–Shika–Chō trio had taken off—Ino and Chō were soaring, while Shika was still chasing from behind. Of course Shikaku was anxious.
Not to mention—
Shikaku had just helped him by silently guiding Atsui into the setup.
Now three hot-blooded ninja were together.
They'd definitely find common ground.
...
At Konoha Hospital's veterinary division, Inuzuka Hana finished treating the injuries. Samui retrieved her message—untampered.
Fortunately.
She hadn't written anything too explicit. Mostly Akatsuki-related information. Not a word about her suspicions of Konoha.
This precaution paid off.
Then she asked, "What happened? Was it really an accident?"
"Yes. Our apologies," Yamashiro Aoba said quickly. "We were training a ninjutsu. It just happened to pass by."
Samui didn't quite believe him.
Seeing that words weren't enough, Aoba waved his hand. Several crows gathered nearby.
"I'll demonstrate."
"…."
Samui couldn't tell what Konoha was plotting.
But after a moment, she realized—
The crows' calls were off.
Sound genjutsu.
So her ninja hawk had been affected by a sound illusion and fell?
That… actually made sense.
It really was an accident.
She looked at Yamashiro Aoba with disbelief.
Konoha hadn't had sound-based genjutsu like this before.
Clearly—
This was a newly developed technique. They really were training, and it was her hawk that forced them to reveal it.
If anything, Cloud Village benefited.
Samui fell silent, then bowed slightly in apology.
...
"See? She even apologized."
Souma left in a good mood.
Teaching Aoba genjutsu at that timing had some subtle design behind it—but things going this smoothly was still unexpected.
"You're really something else," Shikaku muttered. "What exactly are you plotting by tossing her brother together with Guy and the others?"
"For fun?"
Souma glanced at him, then answered seriously, "Fine. Mostly to build genuine friendship. Let them exchange ninjutsu knowledge—lay groundwork for cooperation between villages."
"That woman's not easy to deal with," Shikaku said, looking toward Samui's direction.
Quiet, not necessarily smarter than him, but calm and thorough. She wouldn't easily give anyone an opening.
Very hard to scheme against.
He took Souma home.
Since he'd given advance notice, Nara Yoshino had already prepared dinner for four.
"Sorry to intrude."
After the meal, Shikaku had Shikamaru fetch a scroll.
Then he brought Souma into the room and handed it over.
"Take a look?"
"Alright."
Souma opened the scroll, scanned it, and fell into thought.
Shadow Possession was an Yin Release nature transformation.
Its essence was turning shadow into substance.
Later techniques—like Shikamaru borrowing Asuma's trench knives to pin enemies—were logical extensions.
The Nara clan had thought of those too.
But—
Chakra metal was too rare.
It couldn't be widely promoted. What Shikaku needed was something that genuinely boosted the entire clan.
Souma narrowed his eyes.
"Shadow Explosion Technique."
"…Explain."
Shikaku leaned in instantly. Shikamaru stared unblinking.
Souma organized his thoughts. "Shadow Possession is Yin Release. You can either use it to transmit mental interference—genjutsu—or directly send chakra into the enemy and detonate it."
Shikaku and Shikamaru exchanged looks.
The former—
They'd considered it, but the Nara clan didn't have Yamanaka-level mental power. Using shadows to transmit genjutsu was too difficult.
The latter—
Their technique already kind of did that. The problem wasn't the jutsu.
It was chakra.
Shikamaru spoke bluntly. "I don't have that much chakra."
"Then absorb it."
"…Huh?"
Shikaku nearly slapped his own thigh.
Right!
Lacking chakra? Absorb chakra first—then explode.
Simple logic.
What's missing, make it up.
Shikaku felt he was grasping something—but something was still missing.
"How do we implement it?"
"Chakra pathways."
"!!!"
Father and son looked at each other.
They understood instantly.
Chakra pathways were convergence points. Hyūga gentle fist and tenketsu techniques worked on this exact principle.
If the shadow could occupy key tenketsu—
Then, combined with chakra absorption techniques, siphoning chakra wouldn't be difficult at all.
Advance Chapters available on Patreon
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