Watching Yamanaka Yukio fume with frustration, Yuki Seisui obediently stepped out into the hallway.
Joining him were the three other students the teacher had called out by name.
"Minato, why are you here too?"
Akimichi Choza asked curiously while munching on a bag of chips.
"Uh..." Minato scratched his head awkwardly before answering, "I just turned around to check on you guys."
"That's rough," Seisui commented sympathetically, though his tone was anything but serious. Then, with a sudden change of topic, he looked at the others and said, "Wanna head to the training grounds?"
"Huh?" Minato blinked. "But aren't we being punished? We're supposed to stand here, remember?"
"What does the teacher know? This is called balancing work and rest."
"You guys go train, I'll just supervise," Nara Shikaku chimed in from the side. He exchanged a look with Seisui, and both felt an odd sense of camaraderie.
Though one intended to train and the other to slack off, in essence, they were both ditching class.
"Let's go! I'll show you something interesting."
"What kind of interesting thing?" Choza asked, still munching as Seisui pulled him along.
"You'll see when we get there."
Seisui didn't elaborate further, simply dragging Choza along.
Minato stayed behind, glancing at Shikaku. "You're coming too?"
"Mm." Shikaku nodded. "I already know everything they're teaching now. I can always catch up later."
Minato thought about it. That was true, the current lessons were just basic literacy and lectures on the Will of Fire. He and Seisui had already learned all that when they were four.
This time would be better spent training.
"So… shall we go?"
"Let's!"
The two nodded and quickly followed after Seisui.
Back in the classroom, a faint smile curled at the corner of Yukio's lips.
He had known these kids would skip class sooner or later. Better to give them an excuse than keep fighting it. For children from shinobi clans, these lessons were too basic anyway.
Looking around at the remaining clan kids, most of whom were spacing out, he sighed. Kicking all of them out would make him look bad, though.
"This really is a headache."
He scratched his head. In the end, he decided to just let it be. If they wanted to skip class, fine. If not, they could stay put.
Meanwhile, Seisui led the group straight to the improvised training grounds he and Minato had put together.
"This is your training ground?" Shikaku glanced around, visibly impressed. "You guys really pulled this off?"
"Not really." Minato rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Seisui did most of the work, I just helped out a little."
"Hey, Seisui, where's the 'interesting' thing you mentioned?" Choza looked around in confusion. "Nothing here seems particularly cool."
"You'll see," Seisui replied with a mysterious smile. "Wanna see the jutsu that knocked Inuzuka Ryo unconscious?"
"You mean the one that scared him so badly he fainted, thinking he was dead?" Shikaku muttered lazily as he found a spot and lay down.
"If it's that jutsu, I wanna see it too," said Choza, curious. "Ryo described it like it was some secret technique."
"Well then, let's all take a look!"
With a snap of Seisui's fingers, the space around them twisted, and the four boys found themselves standing inside a virtual Duel Arena.
Minato and Seisui stood on one side. On the other side stood Shikaku and Choza.
A glowing barrier shimmered between them.
[Duo Battle Mode Activated]
"This is your kekkei genkai?" Shikaku asked, impressed. "That's pretty amazing."
He tested his shadow possession jutsu, everything felt the same as in reality. He even tried casting a genjutsu release, but there was no change. "Yup, this is really something."
"Carrying your own training ground around with you… that's enviable."
He genuinely meant it. If he had this power, he'd just tell his parents he was training, then come in here and nap to his heart's content.
"Alright, let's get started on ninjutsu training. You can only leave once you've either died or stayed six hours," Seisui said.
"Go ahead. I'll nap for a bit."
Without hesitation, Shikaku lay down again, crossing one leg over the other in utter relaxation.
Seisui gave a helpless shrug. Well, he was a Nara. Nothing unusual there.
Choza, on the other hand, was excitedly wandering around the arena, checking everything out like a kid in a candy store.
"Choza, come back! This place has no edge!" Seisui shouted as Choza nearly disappeared from sight.
A moment later, Choza reluctantly returned.
"Too bad. I wanted to try my Human Boulder technique from over there and roll across the whole arena."
"Huh?" Seisui feigned confusion. "Human Boulder, that's your clan's jutsu?"
"Yup." Choza glanced at the napping Shikaku, then nodded. "It's one of our secret techniques, just like the Nara clan's shadow possession and the Yamanaka's Mind Body Switch."
He scratched his head sheepishly and added, "The three of our families are called the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Our jutsu can be combined."
"Ah, so that's why you three are always together!" Minato exclaimed in realization.
"Let's start ninjutsu practice now." Seisui grinned and pulled a scroll from his pocket.
As he unrolled it, he explained, "While we're in here practicing jutsu, our real bodies outside are also training. We can carry the ninjutsu experience back into reality."
"No need to worry about danger either. If you feel threatened, your subconscious will take over and fight automatically."
"You might even perform better than you normally would."
There was a hint of helplessness in Seisui's voice. If it were possible, he could've used this as a battlefield tactic, drag enemies in and let someone else finish the job inside. But the system clearly didn't allow for that kind of exploit.
"The outside body trains too?" Shikaku suddenly stood up, his eyes sparkling.
"Yep." Seisui nodded, a little unsettled by Shikaku's sudden enthusiasm and took a step back.
"This is… amazing!" Shikaku bowed deeply, then said sincerely, "From now on, please include me in your training sessions!"
Seisui: "…"
This guy is completely shameless, just wants to train by sleeping.
Not that Seisui minded. The Duel Arena was huge. One more person made no difference.
While inside the arena, Seisui could still control his real body, at least enough to avoid the fate of Dan Kato, who was ambushed while using spirit transformation jutsu.
As long as battle mode wasn't activated inside the arena, the system would protect his body if danger arose.
All he could say was: every ounce of muscle and every drop of chakra would be used to the max. Even two of him couldn't beat the system-controlled version of himself.
The day AI surpasses humanity.
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250 Power Stones = Bonus Chapter
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