Shadow Leg

"Then how do you suggest we explain it?" Feiyin spread her hands, leaving the mess to Chiba.

"Let's say I found you while I was out hunting and brought you home." Chiba made up an excuse on the spot.

"She didn't look that easy to fool, and that excuse is really overused," Feiyin retorted.

"Then what do you suggest?" Chiba asked.

Feiyin fluttered her beautiful big eyes. "Let's say I'm your little sister. For special reasons, I was sealed inside your body when I was little, and you trained hard and struggled to get stronger for my sake, until last night, when you finally..."

"Stop, stop..." Chiba stared at her. "Have you been reading too many novels? Where did you get all these bizarre tropes?"

"Still better than someone playing Fairy Tail on his computer while watching Hokage on his phone," Feiyin shot back.

"..."

"All right, then. You explain it that way when the time comes. I'm not saying it. It's embarrassing."

"Hmph! Having a little sister like me is the blessing of eight lifetimes!"

"So... you're the Uchiha Clan's dragon maid?" Chiba suddenly remembered an anime from his previous life.

"Then should I say, 'Master~'?" The little girl suddenly gave him a sultry look.

Chiba could feel goosebumps coming on. "Stop, stop, stop. I'm not worthy. You're the young mistress, and I'm your servant."

"Hmph! That's more like it." Feiyin sat down on the bed, her tsundere side back in full force.

"Creak~"

As luck would have it, Chiba's wooden door opened.

"Chiba, why is there a little girl's voice in your room... you..."

Ultear stared in astonishment when she saw the silver-haired little girl sitting on Chiba's bed...

Then, after an explanation...

"Big sister Ultear, that's what happened..."

The little girl blinked her big, dewy eyes and spoke pitifully.

Chiba couldn't even bear to watch.

This girl... she's practically possessed by a drama queen!

No, she's an acting king!

Ultear, meanwhile, had evidently believed Feiyin. She rubbed Feiyin's little head and smiled gently. "It's all right now. Your brother is very strong now. He'll keep you safe."

"Mm!" Feiyin nodded firmly, a bright, innocent smile spreading across her pretty little face. "Big brother has always been strong~"

The corner of Chiba's mouth twitched slightly.

"I've never heard you mention having a little sister before," Ultear said with a smile, tilting her head.

"I was worried she'd be in danger, so I kept her inside my body as long as I could. It might have been a little boring, but it was safe." Chiba joined the ranks of the actors.

Ultear nodded slightly.

"Speaking of which, it's time to train!"

Chiba jumped off the bed, put on his shoes, and hurried toward the door.

Outside, snow was still falling thick and fast. Wearing only a single layer, Chiba shivered all over from the cold. Even so, he gritted his teeth and went outside.

Enduring the cold was another form of ninja training.

He was going to master the Shadow Thirty-Six Forms in earnest.

He had currently completed about half of the Heru body-tempering method, but even that had greatly increased the strength of his body's cells.

He constantly refined Chakra, then used it to strengthen his cells. Chiba howled in pain throughout the process.

Ever since learning Wood Release, however, his body's recovery speed had noticeably improved. It was probably because his Wood Release came from the power of Feiyin, the God Tree, making it much the same in nature as Hashirama Senju's Wood Release.

He seemed to be developing toward a Sage Body.

His eyes were developing toward the Sage Eye, and his constitution toward the Sage Body. Just as Feiyin had said, he really might surpass the Sage of Six Paths someday.

Because this was a world where magic existed.

Feiyin had found a perfect way to integrate magic into her own power system, so at her peak, she had been stronger than the Ten-Tails at its peak.

And as her Jinchūriki, his future was boundless.

Over the next month, he devoted all his energy to practicing the Heru Method.

Then, two months later, he finally completed the first stage of the Heru Method.

He could only say that the further he progressed, the harder it became, just like leveling up in a game.

It had taken him over three months to complete the first stage of the method. For someone training in Taijutsu, that was already extremely fast. And what was the reason?

Naturally, it was because he had Feiyin as his cheat!

Feiyin had said that she now had only as much Chakra left as one Tailed Beast. But even that amount was enough to astonish Chiba. Whenever Chiba exhausted his own Chakra, Feiyin's Chakra would replenish it. Then he would continue using Chakra to strengthen his body's cells, repeating the cycle.

Feiyin's Chakra was a giant power bank.

One that never ran out, at that.

After all, she had her own unique way of producing Chakra. It recovered as fast as a rocket. As long as he didn't squander it all at once, it was essentially limitless.

And Chiba wasn't capable of squandering it all at once anyway.

Thus, he had completely mastered the first stage of Heru in about three months, while others might not manage it in three or five years... or even ten.

He found that his body could no longer improve. It seemed to have reached a saturation point.

Perhaps because of the rules of this world, if he began the second stage of the Heru Method, his physical energy might become too powerful for his mental strength to control.

Being unable to control it... meant his body might stop obeying him, and then he would... lose control and go berserk!

So after that, he focused mainly on training his mental strength.

Completing his training in the Heru Method also allowed him to begin learning the Shadow Thirty-Six Forms in earnest.

Though it was called thirty-six forms, that was really just to make it easier for beginners to learn. Once he had fully mastered and integrated them, every kick would be tremendously powerful.

Of course, every kick in the Shadow Thirty-Six Forms was intricate. But for Chiba, who had the Sharingan, it was better to counter each move as it came.

What he cared about was the power of each kick, not the moves themselves.

In the Shadow Thirty-Six Forms, the "shadow" referred to kicking so fast that an afterimage appeared.

As a famous saying went, speed was power.

The first stage of the Heru Method laid the foundation for the Shadow Thirty-Six Forms.

It not only increased speed, but also greatly increased strength.

Now, smashing a boulder to pieces with his bare hands was incredibly easy for Chiba.

Lifting one was even easier.

He suddenly remembered his Lava Release Armor. He recalled that the Lava Release Armour of Four-Tails Chakra Mode was extraordinarily effective when used with Taijutsu. If he used the Lava Release Armor first, then kicked someone with the Shadow Thirty-Six Forms, the power...

He could hardly imagine it.

It had speed and strength, plus burns from the lava. Its effect was outstanding!

After a kick like that, even an A-Class mage would probably be kicked to death, right?