"You're late, Kōri."
After skillfully weaving through rows of bookshelves and tables and pushing open the door to a silent reading room, the first words Hii Kōri heard were this slightly teasing "scolding."
After all, over the past three years, it had always been the boy waiting for others—never him being late.
Well, judging by appearance, "young man" might be more appropriate now.
The Uzumaki constitution, combined with the superb digestive ability gained through his Binding Vow, had made Hii Kōri's height rapidly growing over these three years—from just over 120 centimeters rapidly growing to above 150 centimeters.
Normally, children his age from ordinary families only reached around 130 centimeters. Even kids from ninja families rarely exceeded 140 by much.
Given this era's productivity and dietary conditions, providing adequate nutrition like in modern times was difficult. This was another main reason Hii Kōri chose "digestive ability" as his Binding Vow's benefit.
"Ah, ran into an acquaintance. Chatted a bit."
Hii Kōri unbuttoned his coat, hung it on the hook behind the door, then sat across from Karura and Pakura. "Didn't keep you waiting too long, did I?"
Though phrased as a question, his tone was quite steady—sounding more like a statement. Knowing the girls as he did, how could he not know when they'd arrive?
"Ehehe~"
As expected, Karura—sprawled on the table—let out a silly, soft laugh more convincing than any verbal response.
Pakura, hands cupping her cheeks, elbows on the table, simply blinked and gave him a faint smile.
Compared to Hii Kōri, the girls' changes weren't as dramatic. Karura's face remained round, though the baby fat was gone. Pakura's figure had grown more slender—probably Fire Nature chakra comes with fat-burning effects.
In another two years, the girls would enter their fastest development period.
"Here's that form you asked me to make."
As Hii Kōri sat down, Karura stood up straight and, with a 'praise me' expression on her face, took a stack of papers out of her bag and slid them across to him.
"Ah, thanks, thanks," he said.
After petting the little rabbit, Hii Kōri picked up the form to review it. All Pakura could do was pout. She couldn't act coquettishly like Karura because of her personality.
But her "advantage zone" lay elsewhere—Karura couldn't spar with Hii Kōri like she could.
Thinking this, the girl gazing absently at Hii Kōri smiled more brightly.
Though accustomed to each other's presence, that didn't mean Karura and Pakura lacked competitive feelings.
A maiden's love wasn't so forgiving.
Hii Kōri, long mentally prepared, didn't interfere. He quietly wrote and drew on the form.
These were various indicators he'd compiled—daily physical conditions, etc. Tabulating them helped him plan their training more easily.
Seeing this, Karura and Pakura began their reading. The silent reading room filled with only page-turning and occasional writing pauses.
Meanwhile, one core of Hii Kōri's "dual-core four-thread artificial intelligence" processed the form. The remaining three threads pursued different research: weapon and puppet designs, Water Release application derivation, and Yin-Yang Release core construction.
After Mataza fully reconciled with his mediocre talent, Chiyo officially taught Hii Kōri puppet technique knowledge.
That said, puppet technique itself held little appeal for Hii Kōri. In his previous life, he'd designed and manufactured Yorozu Kōkichi's puppets—Mechamaru and the final weapon "Ultimate Mechamaru: Absolute Form."
In puppet manufacturing philosophy and experience, he could claim without exaggeration to be far ahead across all Wind Country—the entire ninja world.
After all, this world's puppet technique was pioneered by Second Kazekage Shamon—barely two or three decades old. As a means to bridge the troop gap, puppets still require chakra threads for operation—proof the technique hadn't reached full status.
Yorozu Kōkichi's "Heavenly Restriction"-granted cursed energy range covering all Japan was indeed an unparalleled anomaly. But even so, jujutsu world puppets didn't need manual thread operation like here—let alone fully autonomously acting "cursed corpses."
Combined with design inspiration gathered from various sources, Hii Kōri couldn't take this world's puppet technique too seriously.
When Chiyo manipulated her puppet crashing through the door, he'd instantly spotted its weak spot for this reason.
Still, puppetry's clever details had merit. Hii Kōri was extracting worthwhile aspects, integrating them into his own puppet system, and further optimizing.
Also, creating some handy little tools.
On another note, Hii Kōri, who now possesses Wind and Water natures after receiving Matazaburō's true transmission, had no further room for improvement in Wind Release. He just needed to learn more techniques.
But Water Release differed. Unlike other natures, Water Release resembled Sand's Sand Manipulation—both requiring specific environmental conditions.
Just as Sand Manipulation displays tremendous power in deserts, water-rich environments favored Water Release.
Unlike Wind, Fire, Lightning—which tend to directly convert chakra into elements—Water Release included many techniques utilizing environmental water sources.
This paralleled Earth Release's use of earth and stone. But Earth's materials were far more widely distributed than water.
Hence, performing Water Release in waterless areas was proof of elite Water Release users.
Sunagakure's natural water content apparently couldn't satisfy most Water Release conditions. Even converting water with chakra incurred losses several times higher than in normal environments.
With techniques unusable, Sunagakure naturally lacked Water Release learning materials. Under these circumstances, Hii Kōri could only resort to brain testing.
***
Dive deeper into the story with 30+ advance chapters, available now on Patreon!patreon.com/CNBLUE
If you're enjoying the novel, please consider leaving a review. Your support is crucial and helps the story grow immensely. Thank you!