[Dimensional Template System]
[Host]: Rin
[Current Template]: Uchiha Sasuke (Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan stage)
[Innate Skills]:
Ninjutsu: Lightning Release, Fire Release, Basic Three Techniques, Yin Release Chakra.
Ocular Techniques: Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan (No side effects. Includes supreme insight, genjutsu control, Amaterasu, Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi, Perfect Susanoo).
Taijutsu: Uchiha-style Kenjutsu, Sharingan Taijutsu.
[Items Held]: Modified Kusanagi Sword, Wisteria Sachet.
[Dimension Points]: 1,990 (Original total: 51,990 – 50,000 spent on template upgrade).
...
The early morning sunlight had just begun to spill over the walls of the Butterfly Mansion, yet the training ground behind it was already filled with heart-wrenching screams.
"Huff huff huff!! I can't do it! I'm really going to die! I'm going to die!!"
Zenitsu Agatsuma lay sprawled in the mud without a shred of dignity, clutching a wooden post with both hands, his face covered in tears and snot.
His training uniform was already soaked through with sweat, and his legs trembled like fallen leaves in the autumn wind.
"That guy isn't human at all! He's a demon wearing human skin! Who makes someone hold a horse stance while balancing a giant vat full of water on their head? And if even one drop spills, you have to run twenty laps around the yard. That's basically murder!" Zenitsu wailed at Tanjiro, who stood not far away.
Tanjiro currently had a large porcelain vat filled with water balanced on his head while maintaining a perfectly steady horse stance. His face was flushed bright red, and even the scar on his forehead looked ready to split open again, yet he still gritted his teeth and endured.
"Zenitsu… don't talk. If you talk… your breathing will break. Rin san said this is the best way to train core strength and Total Concentration: Constant…"
"Boar Rush! This great me doesn't need this kind of weak training!"
Off to the side, Inosuke Hashibira had no faith in such methods.
He yanked the water vat off his head and, gripping his two serrated Nichirin Blades, charged toward the corridor like a crazed wild boar.
"Take this—Beast Breathing!"
On the corridor..
Rin leaned lazily against a wooden pillar, sitting on the floor with a steaming bowl of miso soup in one hand and a piece of tamagoyaki held between his chopsticks.
Facing the wildly charging Inosuke, he didn't even bother to lift his eyelids.
Half a second before Inosuke's blade could reach him, Rin kept the soup bowl perfectly steady in his left hand while casually flicking his chopsticks forward with his right.
Clack!
The two ordinary bamboo chopsticks struck the flat of Inosuke's blade at the precise point of leverage.
A precise force traveled along the blade. Inosuke's hands went numb instantly, and he lost his balance. Tripping over his own feet, he tumbled across the wooden corridor floor with a thud before finally crashing into the large tree in the yard.
"Eighth time."
Rin slowly placed the tamagoyaki into his mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed before glancing at Inosuke, who was now hanging awkwardly from the tree.
"You can't even touch the hand I use to hold chopsticks. You so-called lord of the mountains, you'd better go back to the mountains and spend a few more years eating acorns."
"Damn it! This great me will try again!" Inosuke roared unwillingly.
"Alright, stop shouting."
A crisp, capable female voice came from the moon gate leading to the inner courtyard.
Shinobu Kocho walked over carrying a black lacquered tray. Today she wasn't wearing her uniform. Instead, she had changed into a simple yet elegant light-purple home kimono.
Her black hair was pinned up with a plain wooden hairpin, with a few loose strands falling beside her fair, slender neck, giving her a gentle, domestic charm.
The moment Zenitsu saw Miss Shinobu appear, it was as if he had spotted his savior. He immediately prepared to rush over and cling to her legs while complaining about Rin's "cruel tyranny."
However, just as he straightened up, he felt a gaze from the corridor that seemed capable of freezing someone into ice.
Zenitsu turned his head stiffly and met Rin's deep, dark eyes.
Although Rin said nothing, Zenitsu's radar-like instincts blared a warning in his mind: If you go over there, you'll die! You'll definitely get chopped into pieces!
"Tan.. Tanjiro! I think we haven't finished today's running quota yet! L-let's go!"
Zenitsu's survival instincts instantly kicked in. He grabbed Tanjiro by the collar, yanked the still-struggling Inosuke down from the tree, and fled the backyard like a whirlwind.
"Those three run faster than rabbits." Shinobu Kocho shook her head helplessly as she watched them escape in panic.
She walked to the edge of the corridor and set the tray in her hands down.
On the tray sat a bowl of medicinal soup with a bizarre pitch-black color, emitting a strong, bitter scent.
"Drink this." Shinobu Kocho crossed her arms and looked down at Rin.
Rin glanced at the bowl of black liquid that looked suspiciously like poison and raised an eyebrow. "What's this? Have you finally decided to murder your husband?"
"Bah! Nothing good ever comes out of your mouth!"
Shinobu Kocho shot him a sharp glare, though a faint blush crept across her fair cheeks. "This is a tonic I brewed using coptis, snake gall, and several strengthening herbs that only grow deep in the mountains. You caused such a huge disturbance in your room last night that the entire Butterfly Mansion could feel a strange energy fluctuation. This morning your face looked paler than usual. Aoi insisted you must be weakened and told me to brew some tonic for you."
Hearing that, Rin nearly choked on his own saliva.
Last night he had spent fifty thousand points to upgrade to the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. The massive surge of Yin Release chakra washing through his body had indeed caused quite a commotion.
After the cleansing of his marrow and chakra pathways, his skin had become noticeably clearer and paler than before.
But in the eyes of these girls, that somehow translated into him being "weakened"?
"Whether I'm weakened or not, shouldn't you know better than anyone?" Rin set down his miso soup and looked at Shinobu Kocho with a half-smile.
"Stop being shameless with me! If someone heard, they'll think we have.. we have.." Shinobu Kocho's beautiful purple eyes widened like an irritated kitten. "Hurry up and drink it! That medicine took three hours to brew. If you dare pour it out, I'll put croton seeds in your dinner tonight!"
Rin sighed. He knew this tsundere butterfly was worried about him, even if her way of expressing it was rather unusual.
He picked up the bowl of pitch-black medicinal soup, tilted his head back, and without even frowning, drank it down in a few gulps.
"It tastes terrible." Rin placed the empty bowl back onto the tray and curled his lip.
Seeing him drink the medicine she had brewed without hesitation, a trace of joy and sweetness flickered in Shinobu Kocho's eyes, though she didn't notice it herself.
She naturally took out a handkerchief, intending to hand it to Rin so he could wipe the corners of his mouth.
But the moment she leaned closer, her movements suddenly froze.
"Wait…"
Shinobu Kocho's eyes, which had just been filled with embarrassment and annoyance, suddenly focused intently on Rin's face.
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12 Advance chapters:Patreon/slept01