After lying in bed for two days, Dan Kato felt like his body was starting to rust.
Fortunately, while he was still weak, he wasn't so incapacitated that he couldn't get out of bed. If he had reached the point where he needed someone to help him with his basic needs, his frustration would have likely boiled over into despair.
Before Tsunade left, she told him that once he had recovered a bit, people from the village would come to escort him back for long-term recuperation. However, compared to returning to the village, he much preferred the idea of seeing Tsunade every day.
The problem was that while he'd found the courage to confess his feelings during a life-or-death crisis, now that they were safe, that courage had evaporated. It wasn't just a lack of nerve; it was a deep-seated sense of inferiority.
Given his original strength and status, he might not have been a perfect match for Tsunade's pedigree, but he was at least qualified. Now, having lost his left forearm and become a cripple, he believed in his heart that he was no longer worthy of her.
Yet, there wasn't a shred of resentment in his soul. He had lost an arm and suffered grievous wounds, but he had protected Tsunade. For her, he would have faced death without regret—so what was a mere arm in comparison?
Nawaki stood by the door, watching Dan Kato stare blankly at the curtain of rain. To him, the man looked incredibly awkward, as if several conflicting emotions were warring inside him at once.
"Hatani, what's wrong with Big Brother Dan?"
In the past, Nawaki might have kept such a question to himself or, if he couldn't help it, asked the person directly. Now, however, he had a third option that was quickly becoming a habit: asking Hatani, the "all-knowing answer machine."
"It's nothing," Hatani replied, not even looking up. He was all too familiar with that look. Environments change and people change, but the dynamic between a "simp" and his "goddess" remained eternal. "You should just go over and comfort him."
"Me?"
"Of course. Who else? I'm not Lady Tsunade's brother."
"My sister?" Nawaki blinked, stunned for a moment before the realization hit him. His eyebrows shot up. "No way... Big Brother Dan is so gentle, why would he like a battle-axe like my sister?"
As expected, in the eyes of any younger brother, an older sister is a terrifying force of nature.
"What's so strange about that?" Hatani curled his lip, acting as if Nawaki were the one being naive. He checked the surroundings to make sure Jiraiya wasn't lurking nearby, then leaned in to whisper some gossip. "I'll let you in on a secret: Jiraiya-sensei is actually one of the people who's been carrying a torch for your sister for years. But he's even worse than Dan—he doesn't even have the courage to confess..."
"What are you two whispering about?"
A familiar, booming voice interrupted the gossip session.
"Hehe... nothing, nothing at all! Sensei, I was just heading off to practice Wind Style: Vacuum Wave!" Hatani straightened up instantly, offering a sheepish laugh as he was caught red-handed by the subject of his gossip. He didn't wait for a reply before making a hasty retreat.
Nawaki, however, having just heard such a massive bombshell, stared directly at Jiraiya. His mouth hung open, his eyes full of pure disbelief.
"Big Brother Jiraiya... do you like my sister too?"
Just as Jiraiya was starting to feel unnerved by the kid's stare, Nawaki threw a total "straight ball" of a question.
"Huh? Uh... well, you see..." Jiraiya froze, his tongue suddenly feeling like lead. He stammered for a few seconds, unable to find an answer. "Ahahaha! The weather sure is lovely today, isn't it?"
Jiraiya chose the classic deflection, trying to laugh it off.
Hatani, watching from a distance, shot him a look of pure disdain. If you like her, go for it! You've got the 'childhood friend' setting—don't waste it! And if you're going to deflect, pick a better lie. Look at those raindrops; they're twice as thick as usual. Does that look like 'lovely weather' to you?
Under the porch, Dan Kato wore a look of "I knew it," tinged with a bit of smugness. As a fellow simp, he was very sensitive to the "scent" of his own kind.
But that smugness was quickly replaced by a more complex emotion. They're both Sannin, and they grew up together. They're childhood friends... maybe he really is a better match for her than I am.
Having sparked the drama, Hatani left the spectators to their thoughts and returned to his study of Wind Style: Vacuum Wave.
Nature transformation was proving much harder to master than shape transformation, especially for someone like him who was used to the "natural" feel of the wind. Wind with a sharp, "Kamaitachi" biting edge was rare in nature, and simulating that sensation was difficult.
Fortunately, his experiences across two lives gave him enough perspective to find a workaround.
By visualizing the wind as a "wind blade"—thick at the top and narrow at the bottom—and then constantly refining that blade to be thinner and thinner, he gradually began to feel that hair-splitting sharpness at the edge.
After countless trials, and after sacrificing more than a few strands of hair and sustaining dozens of tiny nicks on his skin, he finally grasped the sensation.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Wave!"
A sharp blade of wind erupted from his mouth, slicing through the rain with a whistle. Although this single blade wasn't even as long as his arm—and looked like an ant compared to the massive version Danzo would later use to "peel" Sasuke's Susanoo—Hatani knew he had succeeded.
He had officially mastered a B-rank Wind Style jutsu.
This alone meant that even if he were to lose his system and his Windranger traits, he had already surpassed sixty percent of the Genin out there. He had the potential to at least reach the rank of Chunin on his own merit.
While his main body broke through with Vacuum Wave, the Shadow Clone he'd assigned to study Vacuum Sphere also made a breakthrough.
Unlike Vacuum Wave, which focused on nature transformation (sharpness), Vacuum Sphere relied on shape transformation. The goal was to split the wind into tiny, bullet-sized chakra spheres and use the mouth as a barrel to fire them in rapid succession.
The difficulty lay in the exquisite chakra control required to "cut" a mass of wind into independent, solid bullets. It sounded easy, but executing it was another story. Unlike liquid water or solid earth, cutting a gas like wind into distinct pieces was incredibly finicky.
At this point, his experience creating Wind Style: Powershot proved vital. Since a mass of wind was hard to cut, he broke the process into three steps.
First, compress the wind into a thin, rope-like strand, similar to the "arrow" of his Powershot. Second, slice the "rope" into segments, like cutting a sausage into bite-sized bullets. Third, launch them.
The process of practicing Vacuum Sphere and the final result gave him a sudden spark of inspiration. Another skill from the hero Windranger began to take shape in his mind.