Souma spread his senses.
Aside from Naruto, he picked up three chakra signatures nearby. Two were Iruka and Mizuki.
The third—he didn't recognize.
Clearly, they were here for the Book of Creation.
"How many?" Tenzo asked.
"For now, one. No rush. We're already in range," Souma replied calmly.
He was not pleased.
"The Third really… The Book of Creation has a lot of important techniques. How can he use it as bait?"
"Er…" Tenzo faltered.
He didn't know what "baiting" meant exactly, but… it definitely wasn't a compliment.
After a pause, he said, "Everything's under control. And the Book of Creation only holds standard techniques, not like the Scroll of Seals."
"Isn't it possible Naruto would only be able to learn one thing off the Scroll of Seals anyway?"
Souma had already spotted him—
Right now Naruto was sprinting through the forest, a giant scroll strapped to his back.
Souma narrowed his eyes.
There was a distinct formula-mark chakra signature on the scroll.
So that was it.
The Third had already tagged it.
As long as it stayed within Konoha territory, the scroll couldn't escape.
Nothing but a giant lure.
Was the one taking the bait one of Orochimaru's underlings?
Souma considered in silence.
Not far away, Naruto still hadn't noticed them.
Thinking he'd shaken off pursuit, he slumped against a tree and unrolled the scroll.
"Hehe, the Book of Creation. I finally got it. With this I can definitely become a real ninja!"
Naruto grinned as he opened it.
He'd wanted to see the Book of Creation for ages.
He'd even tried to trade his "Sexy Jutsu" for a peek—but the Third never agreed.
Now…
He had time.
The scroll unfurled and the first technique popped into view.
Gentle Fist · Spiral.
"Gentle Fist? What kind of punch is that?"
There was an explanation below.
Naruto read for a long time—
and ended up dizzy.
Gather chakra, split it into multiple rotational states, then drive it into the internal organs from a single point?
He could understand each part individually.
But put it together…
His brain fried.
He scratched his head, dazed, and kept reading.
Gentle Fist · Burst.
Oh, that one looked simpler.
He tried it.
Failed.
Next!
Naruto skimmed each technique in turn, until his gaze landed on:
Taijutsu · Overlimit.
Control the muscles?
That sounded interesting.
"Wait, no— I'm supposed to be looking for Clone Jutsu. None of these are clones. They're useless if I can't graduate!"
Naruto's face went blank.
He flipped through the Book of Creation from start to finish and didn't see a single proper Clone Technique.
Oh—there was one.
Asuma's Ash Clone Explosion technique.
But…
"That's not a real clone either!"
Naruto howled.
"Naruto!"
Iruka flashed in front of him.
"Iruka-sensei!! How did you get here so fast? I haven't even had time to learn anything yet…"
Naruto's face blanched.
He'd only read through a few things.
This was bad.
He couldn't get caught.
His eyes spun as he searched for an escape route.
Iruka, however, asked, "Naruto, how did you know where the Book of Creation was? And just now—what did you mean by 'learn the techniques on it'?"
"Right, that. Mizuki-sensei said if I can learn the things in the Book of Creation and the Scroll of Seals, I'll definitely earn your approval and graduate."
"What?"
Iruka's mind went blank.
Mizuki told him that?
So this was all Mizuki's plot.
He understood immediately.
But the very next moment, he sensed a chilling killing intent.
"Move!"
Iruka shoved Naruto aside.
Thock! Thock! Thock!
A flurry of kunai whistled past.
Even dodging with everything he had, Iruka still took one in the thigh—blood spilling down his leg.
Mizuki revealed himself from the trees.
"Shouldn't we step in?" Tenzo murmured.
"Not yet," Souma replied.
Tenzo hesitated as he watched the fight, but chose not to move.
Souma didn't either.
It looked dangerous, but realistically, Mizuki was nothing special. The real threat was the hidden supporter.
Souma signaled Tenzo with a hand sign, then slipped into the trees, heading for the "third presence" he'd sensed.
Tenzo knew Souma's strength.
He might still be labeled a future special jōnin, but in truth, Souma had already reached entry-level jōnin power—he just lacked seniority on paper.
Even if he ran into an enemy alone, he'd have time to signal.
If Tenzo followed…
He knew his own stealth wasn't as good. Better to let Souma flank from behind and join in once the enemy was forced out.
As for Naruto's situation—
Not a problem.
Mizuki was only a chūnin.
Even if Naruto didn't master a multi shadow clone-level technique and couldn't win, ANBU would step in and bag Mizuki.
The only difference was who got to land the finishing blow.
The hidden enemy, on the other hand, could escape at any time.
Souma closed in quietly.
The chakra signature grew closer—but…
The enemy sensed him too and began fleeing toward the village outskirts.
In an instant, Souma lunged forward and drew his blade.
White Fox flashed.
The other man snapped a kunai into his hand.
Clang—
At the moment of impact, Kabuto realized Souma's strength was monstrous.
What is with this kid's power?
The kunai—and Kabuto's entire body—were knocked away.
His transformation almost broke on the spot.
If not for a few tricks up his sleeve, his shadow clone would've been dispelled on the spot.
What a terrifying sword…
He steadied himself, thoughts racing.
Now he understood why Orochimaru was so wary of Yagyū Souma.
Because—
You never knew what Souma would do next.
A simple, straightforward slash turned out to carry incredible force.
If Kabuto had been any weaker, that blow alone would have ended him.
Souma went in for a second move.
This time, he didn't use his blade.
He used—
Chakra threads.
Then—a binding array.
The formation snapped into place almost instantly, but the enemy was just a little faster.
In the blink of an eye, the figure vanished.
"A shadow clone," Tenzo muttered as he arrived just in time to see the body disperse into chakra.
He frowned.
This was troublesome.
"Did you get the chakra signature?" he asked.
"No. He was extremely cautious. I never got a clean read," Souma said, shaking his head.
But in his heart, he already had a guess—
Yakushi Kabuto.
Among all of Orochimaru's agents in Konoha, only Kabuto's shadow clone could withstand Souma's first strike.
Unfortunately…
Even after realizing it was a shadow clone, Souma hadn't been able to fully activate the binding array in time.
As for other sealing techniques, those would have taken even longer to set up.
Any sealing jutsu needed time.
In that window, the clone could disrupt or dispel itself.
"A jōnin," Tenzo said at last, replaying the scene in his mind.
Only a jōnin could do that.
"He's one of our Konoha shinobi," Souma added. "Orochimaru's man."
The logic wasn't complicated.
Only Orochimaru had both the opportunity and influence to plant a jōnin-level spy inside Konoha.
Tenzo couldn't help feeling uneasy.
Who was he, exactly?
A jōnin-class spy was a major threat in every way.
"Any ideas?" Tenzo asked.
"Huh?"
Souma stared at him in disbelief.
"Tenzo-senpai, what are you saying? You're the ANBU here. Why are you asking me?"
"…Right."
Tenzo scratched his hair.
He'd gotten anxious and blurted it out.
Souma probably didn't even recognize all of Konoha's jōnin, so asking him who the spy really was was grasping at straws.
"Let's deal with Mizuki first," Tenzo decided, turning back.
Souma spread his senses again, pushing his spiritual energy as far as it would go, searching for Kabuto's chakra signature.
In the end, his trail led to—
Konoha Hospital.
Not only that, Kabuto had conveniently arranged a "witness" for himself.
He was with Baicao.
Careful guy, Souma thought.
Even with no one actively watching him, Kabuto left no openings.
Which meant—
There was no way to nudge suspicion onto him just yet.
On paper, Yakushi Kabuto was nothing more than a genin.
Even if he had some hidden talent, it was within acceptable bounds.
No one would believe he was the "jōnin" who appeared earlier.
Forget it.
Thinking too hard wouldn't help.
He'd go home first.
Souma jumped down from the tree and headed back.
Passing Naruto's location, he heard—
"Don't you dare touch Iruka-sensei!"
"I'm going to kill you!"
Naruto's voice was cold and fierce.
Souma stopped and looked toward the clearing, curious.
It seemed that even though the scroll had changed, Naruto's "lines" hadn't.
The only thing unknown was—
what technique he'd managed to pull out of the Book of Creation.
Souma watched quietly.
"Don't be arrogant! A brat like you, I can finish in a single move. Just now it was just a blindside hit," Mizuki snarled.
He wiped the blood from his mouth.
Then he flashed forward and whipped a kick at Naruto.
Souma narrowed his eyes.
Mizuki and Iruka were both standard civilian-born chūnin—but Mizuki was better at taijutsu, while Iruka excelled in ninjutsu and seals.
In a straightforward fight, Mizuki was stronger.
Naruto shouldn't have stood a chance.
Under normal circumstances.
But the current situation was—
Very much not normal.
Naruto's arm was overflowing with chakra, crashing into his muscles with nowhere to go, building further and further like an overpressured boiler.
This was different from Souma's own deliberate chakra control.
Naruto didn't know how to channel it properly, so it just stacked up in his limb, completely out of balance.
And the result—
It was a punch.
Naruto's fist collided with Mizuki's kick.
Then, the massive chakra erupted all at once.
"AAAAH!!"
Mizuki screamed, clutching his leg.
In that instant, the pain had been unbearable, as if his leg no longer belonged to him.
At the same time, blood seeped out from the skin on Naruto's right arm.
Souma's expression went odd.
What was this?
A shabby, self-harming version of his own pseudo-Monster Strength?
Did that exist in the Book of Creation?
Actually… It kind of did.
He vaguely remembered mentioning the principles of a downgraded Monster Strength variant under Overlimit State.
Naruto's version wasn't quite that.
It was more like—
Naruto's own version of Seven Wounds Fist.
Hurting the enemy and himself.
In essence, it was a technique born entirely from a chain of mistakes—a misinterpreted taijutsu-chakra method that somehow… still worked.
And yet, the effect—
It wasn't bad at all.
Right now, Mizuki's condition was definitely worse.
His right leg was bent at a grotesque angle—obviously broken, and probably shattered in multiple places.
How tragic.
Once again, reality proved that civilians could never out-brawl someone with a protagonist-level cheat.
Naruto hadn't even fully "opened up" yet, and he was already like this.
Souma sighed inwardly, then quietly withdrew from the forest.
On the way back, he pondered.
Naruto actually fits that pseudo-Monster Strength style frighteningly well.
Injuries?
Naruto's recovery was off the charts.
For minor injuries, he barely needed treatment before healing on his own.
Of course, the way he used it now was still wrong.
"I'll let Kakashi worry about it. And I should have Kakashi teach him Shadow Clones later."
Naruto absolutely couldn't skip Shadow Clone.
That was his foundational jutsu.
Most of Naruto's later techniques would be built on top of it.
Besides—for that kid, pain and exhaustion were never the real problems.
Not being acknowledged was.
Souma looked up at the night sky.
"Hey, what did Naruto just now use to transform his attack like that?"
From the trees nearby, Kakashi emerged with a puzzled look.
So it really had all been a staged performance.
You could call it the Third fishing for Orochimaru's disciples—
or call it giving Naruto a chance to learn high-level taijutsu as a form of compensation.
Souma was speechless.
Now he wanted to make it up to Naruto?
What was the point of regret now?
The damage was done.
Compensation didn't erase it.
He shook his head and glanced at Kakashi.
"Kakashi-sensei, you were tailing them too, huh? And you still didn't help just now?"
"You were there, weren't you?" Kakashi smiled, then grew serious. "I was going to step in, but I didn't want to scare off the spy. And that guy's shadow clone dispelled too fast."
"He probably didn't expect much to begin with. Otherwise he wouldn't have come with just a clone."
If Souma were Kabuto, he wouldn't have believed it either.
It wasn't that Souma looked down on Mizuki.
But if a mere chūnin could trick a genin into stealing the Scroll of Seals and the Book of Creation, then a jōnin should've been able to assassinate the Hokage by now.
Use your head—that was absurd.
Sending a shadow clone was already Kabuto's limit.
"I think Mizuki acted on his own. The one behind him is probably Orochimaru's man," Kakashi said with a regretful sigh.
From the moment Kakashi joined ANBU, they had been hunting for Orochimaru's hidden assets in Konoha.
Even now, the cleanup wasn't complete.
Orochimaru was just too troublesome.
After a moment, he snapped back.
"Right, you still haven't said what that technique was."
"I don't know."
"Huh?"
"I seriously don't know what Naruto ended up using. Judging from the effect, it looks like he somehow triggered a technique I derived from Monster Strength. But I never wrote it as a standalone entry in the Book of Creation."
"Because it's a derivative?" Kakashi asked.
"That, and because it's unfinished. Without my level of chakra control, anyone else who tried it would almost certainly injure themselves," Souma explained.
He walked as he thought.
Naruto was the most unpredictable shinobi.
Aside from Naruto himself, it was nearly impossible for outsiders to fully understand what was going on in his head.
But if he followed a reasonable line of inference…
A spark flashed through Souma's mind.
"He probably learned Gentle Fist · Burst."
"Ha?"
Kakashi's lone eye widened in confusion.
That thing…
Gentle Fist?
Was Souma messing with him?
Wait.
Naruto obviously couldn't perform a real Gentle Fist—but gathering chakra and detonating it…
If you ignored the Byakugan and internal-meridian aspects and just looked at the sequence of chakra release—
Naruto's performance lined up surprisingly well.
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