"Shuimu, drink it. Once you do, you'll be able to get out."
The man in front of him wore a harmless face and a smile that never reached his eyes.
Shuimu huddled in the dark corner of the cell, gaze full of suspicion.
"Last time I trusted you, I ended up here."
He clenched his jaws. "If I drink that too, I'm afraid I'll die in this place."
The disguised Yakushi Kabuto chuckled softly and lifted the vial, letting the liquid catch the faint torchlight as it swirled.
"Relax. This is a drug to awaken your potential. It will imbue you with the power of a curse mark, allowing you to gain strength on par with a jōnin. Of course…"
He pushed his glasses up with a fingertip.
"…it doesn't come without a price."
That word made Shuimu freeze.
Price.
His eyes narrowed. "…What price?"
"Just a little bit of your life force. Not much."
Kabuto smiled, tone gentle and reassuring.
"A little bit…?"
Shuimu's heart wavered.
A bit of life, in exchange for jōnin-level power, enough to break out of prison and escape Konoha…
That trade was more than acceptable in his eyes.
He hesitated, then still asked warily:
"You're not lying to me?"
"I've never lied." Kabuto replied smoothly. "In fact, last time I also rushed here to save you—but I was stopped by three Konoha jōnin. Otherwise, you'd already be out."
He tilted his head, smiling kindly.
"So? Have you decided?"
"…Fine."
Shuimu gritted his teeth and nodded.
Kabuto's smile widened.
"You won't regret it. But remember—since the cost is small, the duration is also short. It won't last long. You must use that time wisely."
"I understand."
As a shinobi, Shuimu still had basic senses.
All burst-type drugs worked the same way: the greater the cost, the stronger and longer the effect.
If this one only took "a little" life, a short duration was normal.
He took the vial.
The next second, the man in front of him dissolved into a puff of chakra smoke.
"Tch, another shadow clone. That guy's way too cautious."
Shuimu muttered to himself.
The intruder could sneak into a place like this and cast a large-scale genjutsu over the guards. His power was terrifying.
If he wanted Shuimu dead, it would be as easy as flicking an ant.
A jōnin-level infiltrator…
Shuimu's mind spun as he tried to guess the man's identity.
Just in case he got captured again later, knowing who was behind this might earn him a bargaining chip.
"A good chance… what exactly is a 'good' chance?"
He stared at the vial in his hand, mind racing.
At the same time, inside Konoha Hospital…
Kabuto was just putting away his pen and chart, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
"A little bit of life force, hm?"
He hadn't lied.
Not exactly.
The "little" didn't mean Shuimu would sacrifice only a little.
It meant Kabuto planned to leave him only a little.
That dose would fully force open Shuimu's potential, violently injecting curse-mark-like power into his body.
In practice, it was equivalent to force-feeding a pseudo–Curse Mark.
"To get to test the latest revision of my work… you should consider yourself lucky," Kabuto thought to himself.
"At least before you die, you'll be able to take two or three people down with you, won't you?"
Before he left the prison, he'd planted a subtle suggestion of genjutsu in Shuimu's subconscious.
That illusion would whisper to Shuimu when the "right time" appeared.
And the trigger condition was simple:
When Akaton Kō and Ken Bishin entered the prison.
Their squad would be assigned to escort a certain prisoner.
"Don't blame me," Kabuto thought mildly. "I'm only following Lord Orochimaru's instructions."
"Hey, Kabuto. Today I'm teaching you the new nutrient formula for soldier pills. Don't drift off."
A voice called from behind.
Kabuto turned, bowing slightly.
"Yes, Doctor Hyakusa. I'll pay full attention."
Souma, meanwhile, had finished discussing the breathing–activation concept with Kakashi and watched Naruto's team for a bit longer before heading back toward the Forest of Death.
He'd already tossed the "breath-activation" project to Kakashi. That meant he could safely skip that branch of research for now.
"Looks like there won't be any missions today. I can freely burn some Sage chakra and experiment."
The next target: Sage Arts.
The blow he'd landed on Orochimaru earlier had been a triggered counter from sage mode, strictly speaking—not a proper sage technique.
To truly bring out the power of Sage Mode, he needed jutsu tailored for sage chakra.
Right now, his main idea was—
Upgrade his scuffed bootleg version of Monster Strength.
In essence, Monster Strength was just hyper-precise chakra control plus air-pressure shock.
Replacing chakra with Sage chakra would obviously make it stronger.
Whether the side effects would also grow stronger… was another question.
Which was exactly why he needed to test it first.
Inside the forest, Souma gathered Sage chakra and slipped into Sage Mode.
Golden markings spread across his body, his aura instantly rising.
"My Sage Mode already distributes Sage chakra throughout my whole body—that actually makes Monster Strength easier to use. Shame I don't have the real thing, just my knockoff…"
Souma thought for a moment, then lightly threw a punch.
Boom!
A deafening crack split the air.
The tree in front of him shattered directly from his punch, the impact not merely smashing the trunk but piercing through it—
The rock behind it exploded into rubble, the ground splitting open like a spiderweb.
Souma narrowed his eyes in thought.
His budget Monster Strength, when empowered by Sage chakra, actually seemed to have fewer drawbacks?
No—
Not "less backlash."
Rather, with amplified control from Sage chakra plus the increase in raw power, his strikes felt smoother and more stable.
"If that's the case… maybe I can layer in some other ideas, like the principle of Air Palm—turn this into a close–mid hybrid attack when needed?"
Never let the enemy accurately grasp your attack range.
Asuma's old line fit Souma's taste perfectly.
The more seamless the distance transition, the harder it was to defend against.
Souma cancelled Sage Mode, sat cross-legged on a rock, and let natural energy slowly seep into him again while he worked on integrating Air Palm mechanics into his pseudo Monster Strength.
After a good while, his Sage chakra had mostly recovered.
And he'd come up with two solutions.
The first used hand seals.
A single seal would rapidly compress and harden chakra, focusing it into a more controlled blow. The downside was that extra movement—
it telegraphed the attack to anyone observant.
The second required no seals.
But the chakra control needed was much higher.
For Souma, that wasn't a problem.
The first version was perfect for teaching others.
The second was for himself alone.
"Let's try them."
He tested them one after another.
Not long after—
Both versions worked.
Souma let out a slow breath.
"Monster Strength, upgraded. Good."
Next step?
He glanced at White Fox at his waist.
"Test it on kenjutsu? Or Rasengan?"
He was still deciding when his sensory field picked up a familiar chakra signature moving closer.
…Asuma?
A shadow entered the Forest of Death and stopped a short distance away.
Souma turned.
"You're not with your squad today? I thought Team Ten should be back by now."
By his observations from the exchange sessions, the temporary team switch between Team Seven and Team Ten had been a clear success.
Ino and Sakura, Shikamaru and Naruto—all of them had grown.
Things should've gone back to normal.
So Asuma ought to be leading his trio on missions again.
"I gave them a couple of days off." Asuma scratched his beard, looking vaguely guilty. "Told them to train on their own. I'll check their 'self-study results' tomorrow."
"…"
…So you're just looking for an excuse to slack off, right?
Souma stared at him for a few seconds in silence.
He'd thought Kakashi's "reading Icha Icha while pretending to supervise" was already peak laziness.
He had underestimated Asuma.
This guy had directly evolved into:
"You guys go self-train, I've got things to do."
Then ran into the Forest of Death to grind Sage Mode.
Completely shameless.
Asuma's face reddened a little under that silent stare. He coughed awkwardly.
"C—c'mon, I've made progress with Sage Mode recently. I'm just… focused. But after a while, I'm planning to take a C-rank mission. Won't be this free later."
"You too?" Souma raised a brow. "Makes sense. Your team's teamwork is good enough now. As long as it's a proper C-rank…"
Missions could go sideways.
Some started as simple C-ranks but escalated halfway.
Happened all the time.
"Shouldn't be that unlucky," Asuma laughed.
"Yeah." Souma thought.
Except for Naruto's squad, most people wouldn't trigger that kind of plot-level disaster.
At least, not enough to turn things into A-rank nightmares.
Asuma turned to the shattered clearing, finally noticing the destroyed tree and broken rock.
His eyes widened.
"What were you practicing? That power is insane…"
He could also snap a tree with a serious punch.
But the traces here—
This wasn't a simple hit.
The force ran straight through.
More like someone had drilled a shell through the trunk and detonated it behind.
The rock was pulverized. The earth tore open.
He frowned.
"At this rate… even Lady Tsunade's fist might not look like this."
"…You already learned true Monster Strength?"
"No." Souma shook his head. "That's the Senju clan's masterpiece. I can't copy it outright. I just modified my own technique to better suit Sage Mode."
Asuma froze for a beat. Then it clicked.
He was creating custom Sage Arts.
He was… self-designing Sage-style jutsu?!
Asuma felt a complicated mix of emotions.
This kid always took things one step further than everyone else.
Maybe that's what being a prodigy was.
Comparing himself to that…
No thanks.
"By the way, Asuma-senpai, how's your own Sage training?"
"Well…"
He looked embarrassed.
"I need to know your progress to give proper suggestions."
"…"
For some reason, that sentence sounded weird.
But he couldn't deny it.
Right now, when it came to Sage training, Souma was the foremost authority in Konoha.
So Asuma could only swallow his pride and state his situation honestly.
"My duration hasn't improved much. But my entry time is shorter now. Of course, I'm nowhere near you. Just… slightly faster than before."
Souma listened, thought for a bit, then nodded.
"I'm working on using my own specialty—instant on/off toggling—to stretch my effective Sage time. But that method doesn't fit you."
"Yeah. It takes me a while to gather Sage chakra. And that's here, in the Forest of Death. Outside, where natural energy is thinner, it'd be even slower."
"You could try using shadow clones to absorb natural energy and refine Sage chakra for you," Souma suggested. "When they dispel, you can instantly access the accumulated chakra to enter Sage Mode."
Asuma's eyes lit up.
Right.
Shadow clones.
Why the hell didn't he think of that?
Because he wasn't a genius. That's why.
At this point, whatever embarrassment he'd felt was long gone.
He eagerly laid out his exact bottlenecks, hoping Souma would keep throwing out ideas.
"Your main issue is that your spiritual field is too weak," Souma analyzed. "You should try studying genjutsu. Even if you don't become good at illusions, the training will refine your mental control."
He remembered Asuma's weaker areas—genjutsu and chakra work.
Chakra quality was hard to fix.
But spiritual control?
That could be trained—
especially when Asuma had a certain someone beside him who specialized in genjutsu.
"I recall you have a 'good friend' who's very good at illusions, right?"
"…Good friend is… a bit much. We're just classmates. Friends."
Asuma's ears went red.
How did even this little brat know about that?
Does Konoha have any privacy left?
He hurriedly coughed and tried to change the subject.
"I get it. I'll try. Oh, right—Daikoku had to rush back. Before he left, he asked me to formally thank you."
"No need."
"He insisted. Said this is his small token of gratitude."
"Hm?"
Souma glanced down.
Asuma took out a scroll.
He unrolled it casually—and paused.
Written inside was one of Fire Temple's secret techniques:
Lai'go Senjū Satsu
—otherwise known as part of the Sage Lineage techniques.
"To be honest… I really don't need this."
"As he put it—if you can use it, great. If you don't, then just keep it. That's what Daikoku said."
"…Alright, then."
Souma accepted the scroll.
He then asked about Daikoku's gains from this trip.
Asuma didn't know details, just the rough picture:
"From what I heard, he and the Third reached some kind of cooperative agreement. He rushed back to discuss long-term cooperation with the Temple. Also…"
He paused.
"Elder Hakuseki chose to stay behind."
"Mm. Not exactly surprising."
If Fire Temple really intended to deepen ties with Konoha, they needed a liaison.
And that person definitely couldn't be Daikoku himself.
He was the head monk managing the entire Temple.
If he stayed in Konoha full time, what would that make the Fire Temple look like?
In that sense, Hakuseki staying behind was the most reasonable choice.
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