Illusion of Light and Shadow

After skillfully getting Sister Keiko to be candid with him again, Shimura Kentei couldn't help but remark, "Sister Keiko's Light Illusory Technique has leveled up again—it's definitely at C-Rank now!"

But that made sense; Shimura Keiko was three years older than him, fifteen this year, right in the middle of rapid growth and development, so it was normal for her illusionary arts to improve.

Forcing down the heat in his chest, Shimura Kentei set about copying his fiancée Miss's body data.

The method for copying body or object data was simple: just use the hand marked with the black cauldron to gently stroke every part of it.

It had to be thorough, or it wouldn't work—that was the main reason he'd used the medicine first.

After an indescribable copying session, Shimura Kentei began dressing his fiancée Miss back up, making sure nothing was missed before nodding in satisfaction. But the next moment, his whole body froze.

Shimura Keiko's originally closed eyes suddenly snapped open, a cold light flickering within that made his sphincter clench.

Just as he was about to stammer out an excuse, a spear tip pressed against a vital appendage, its icy edge nearly making him retract it into his abdomen.

"I thought you'd have the guts to go all the way, but you're this timid?"

"I was just giving Sister a full-body massage to relax your muscles and bones, helping you sleep better."

Shimura Kentei smiled calmly, signaling he was a proper man.

He hadn't expected his fiancée Miss to not fall for it this time, even enduring to let him finish copying her body data.

Were ninjas really this patient these days?

"Do you take me for a fool?"

Face cold, Shimura Keiko was actually quite disappointed inside.

She'd long sensed something was off. Around this time every year, she'd fall into a deep sleep at this little man's place. Today, she'd deliberately held her breath and pretended to be unconscious to see what he was up to—only to find out he was this perverted.

But he was just a brat with the nerve to touch but not the guts to go all the way... no, with limited guts. He only dared to use his hands, not the real thing.

"So there's no room for negotiation?"

Glancing at his fiancée Miss holding the Bright Silver Spear, then at his own unarmed self, Shimura Kentei sighed. He really didn't want to unleash that anti-girl weapon of his.

"Bring out whatever tricks you have!"

Face still cold, Shimura Keiko wanted to see how much this little man had grown in the past few months.

"You forced my hand!"

"Rip!"

A fierce glint flashed in his starry eyes. Shimura Kentei manipulated Chakra Threads to grip his clothes at various points, then pulled with both hands, tearing them off to reveal his natural anti-girl weapon.

"Shameless!"

Instinctively raising a hand to cover her eyes, Shimura Keiko hadn't expected this little man to use such a despicable move.

Then she felt her wrist tighten, twisted behind her back by a tremendous force. A pair of strong arms locked around her waist, her legs were pinned, and her fingers and toes were bound with Chakra Threads, forcing her into a posture where it was hard to exert strength.

He'd even connected her hair to the Chakra Threads—if she tried to break free by force, she'd definitely rip out all her hair and end up bald.

"Sister Keiko, do you submit?"

Grinning wickedly, Shimura Kentei knew this move would work. After all, Sister Keiko was still just a girl. When she'd bathed him as a child, it was nothing, but now his body had grown fast, nearly adult-sized, and his assets were more than generous—making it a true anti-girl weapon.

"You're ruthless. I submit!"

Struggling hard and finding she couldn't break free, and seeing the little man's grin grow even more lecherous, Shimura Keiko had no choice but to concede, inwardly cursing her own carelessness.

"That's a good girl!"

Smiling in satisfaction, Shimura Kentei stopped channeling the Super Strength Technique and Super Speed Technique, releasing his fiancée Miss from his hold.

"Hand over your latest versions of Super Strength Technique, Super Speed Technique, Skin Tempering Technique, Bone Forging Technique, Muscle Tendon Changing Technique, Muscle Growth Technique, Marrow Cleansing Technique, Body Strengthening Technique, Meridian Nourishing Technique, Spirit Nurturing Technique, and that Tai Chi Fist—all of them!"

Sitting down on the bed in a huff, Shimura Keiko signaled for her little man to cough up the goods. She was very angry right now, and it would take some compensation to calm her down. At the same time, she was full of anticipation.

Though outsiders thought her little man was a waste, and even she had initially believed it, three years ago she'd truly recognized his monstrous talent and insight.

She'd been at yesterday's Ninja Academy graduation ceremony too, hidden in the shadows, watching the whole scene where this little man slammed that Anbu ninja into the ground.

That seal-less D-Rank Super Strength Technique was something he'd developed on his own, with no outside help, and without crippling himself.

That kind of talent was truly astonishing, and it was because she'd discovered this secret that she'd accepted this little fiancé back then.

As for being groped all over just now...

She was going to marry this little man sooner or later anyway; being touched a bit early was no big deal. Besides, when she'd bathed him as a kid, she'd touched and flicked him plenty of times.

Was this karma?

"Wait here!"

Replying, he walked to a corner of the room, lifted a floorboard, and revealed a large box.

Dragging out the meter-twenty-square box and setting it by the bed, he used chakra to undo the Fuinjutsu seals on it.

"All of these?"

Staring at the box stuffed full of massive scrolls, Shimura Keiko was a bit stunned.

These scrolls were no small things—each one was a meter twenty long, over thirty centimeters in diameter.

If all of them really recorded the training methods for those techniques, just reading through them would take ages, let alone actually practicing them.

"Not entirely, of course!"

Shimura Kentei shook his head slightly, indicating there was more to it, which eased Shimura Keiko's mind a little.

At least it wasn't all of them, or that would have been a real trap.

But his next words nearly made her want to punch him with a tiny fist. Kentei picked up the smallest scroll, only three centimeters in diameter, and said, "This one is the blueprint for my battle suit. The rest are the training methods for the techniques."

Keiko looked at the tiny scroll in her young man's hand, then at the ten massive scrolls in the box, each thirty centimeters in diameter, and felt her vision go dark.

"Even an S-rank jutsu scroll is that small. Why do you have to make these D-rank techniques so huge?"

She picked up one of the giant scrolls and unrolled it, finding it filled with text the size of mung beans. She shot him a resentful glance.

The E-rank set she'd gotten three years ago was sizable, but nowhere near this insane. This single scroll alone had to contain at least a million characters.

"The human body is a very precise system. Even a small mistake can lead to irreversible results, so I had to write it in detail. Besides, these are just drafts. You can organize them while you're at it. There are blank scrolls and ink in the cabinet."

Kentei grinned, proud of his achievements.

This was the fruit of years of effort. To develop these techniques for improving physical fitness, his replicas in the Black Cauldron Space had died countless times. Every single word was soaked in his blood and sweat—and bird feathers from his nest.

This was another use for the replicas in the Black Cauldron Space. Though he only had one replica, unlike Shadow Clones which could split into many, it was the most authentic body, identical to his original in every way.

Any jutsu developed using the replica could be directly practiced by his original self. And since the replica wasn't afraid of injury or death, he could push it to the limit without restraint.

Even if training the body in the Naruto world didn't have much future, far inferior to the neighboring One Piece world, at least he could ensure his physique wasn't a weakness. He didn't need to become a humanoid monster like in One Piece, but he should at least reach the level of Six Paths Madara, who could take a direct hit from Night Guy!

Keiko shot him another resentful look but said nothing. She rolled the scroll back to the other end and started reading from the beginning.

Kentei thoughtfully took a huge blank scroll from the cabinet and placed it beside his fiancée. He then grabbed some blank paper and began to copy... no, to create and write.

The novel Ninpō Sōkyū, starring Sarutobi Hi no En as the protagonist, was almost finished. A little overtime today and he'd be done.

That's right, he was copying books—at least ninety percent of it. He just needed to tweak some settings to fit the Ninja World's concepts, and throw in a few short stories he'd seen on small websites to add some spice.

In his past life, the culture of the island nation had always invaded. There was no helping the action films and adult films—those were genuinely lacking—but everything else was frustrating, especially Japanese manga. The most popular were the three brothers of Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece.

This time, he, Shimura Kentei, would take Chinese culture and spread it through this other world. Let these friends from the island nation, who were living pretty well, see what Chinese culture really meant—what it meant to be profound and vast.

As for why he could still remember every novel he'd read in his past life so clearly, it wasn't because his brain was extraordinary. It was because the replica in the Black Cauldron Space was powerful enough.

The replica in the Black Cauldron Space possessed all of the original's memories, even those the original had long forgotten. That was how he could remember everything from his past life.

"You've already trained yourself to split your mind four ways?"

After reading the scroll for a while, Keiko was about to pick up her pen when she noticed her young man's flashy writing style and felt a bit nauseated.

Kentei was lying back in a rocking chair, using four Chakra Threads extending from his hands to hold four pens, writing on four sheets of paper at once—and each paragraph was different.

She looked at his comfortable writing style, then at the pen in her own hand, and felt utterly defeated.

"This is nothing. Elder Chiyo of Sunagakure can use Chakra Threads to control ten puppets simultaneously in battle!"

Kentei wasn't satisfied with this achievement. Elder Chiyo could control the Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu in combat, and her strength wasn't weak even at the True Kage Level.

And Chiyo's grandson, Sasori of the Red Sands, was even more impressive. He pulled off the Hundred Puppet Performance, controlling hundreds of puppets at once. That was a real feat.

Compared to those two, his achievement was nothing.

"You want to become a puppeteer?"

Keiko thought it over and realized that being a puppeteer might actually suit her young man.

She knew his physical condition well. As a premature baby, he had no talent for chakra training. After all these years, his chakra reserves hadn't even reached the minimum standard for a Genin.

Moreover, his body's acupoints hadn't fully developed in the womb, and later mutations made it impossible for him to form hand seals for jutsu. The orthodox ninja path clearly wasn't for him. Becoming a puppeteer might be a good alternative.

After all, puppeteers controlled puppets in battle. They didn't need to release jutsu, consumed very little chakra, and excelled at prolonged fights.

With their current wealth, they could afford to build some powerful puppets and gain considerable strength.

"Puppeteers have no future!"

Kentei shook his head slightly. He'd once considered becoming a puppeteer but had given up.

The main issue was the Puppet Technique's limitations. In the Naruto world, the highest achievements in puppetry belonged to Chiyo and Sasori. Looking at their performances, they barely reached the True Kage Level, and weren't even top-tier within that rank.

Unless he could build a Gundam. Unfortunately, in his past life, while he wasn't a bad student, he was still a million miles away from being a genius. He didn't have that kind of skill.

At best, he could make a Gundam model.

Besides, puppeteers had clear weaknesses and could be severely countered. Most importantly, Konoha had no tradition of puppetry.

"But some of the essence of puppetry is worth borrowing!"

Kentei shifted the topic and looked at the battle suit blueprint scroll beside him, filled with a sense of accomplishment.

Though Konoha had no puppetry tradition, during the first Ninja World War, they had collected many puppet remnants from Sunagakure and studied some things from them.

He had obtained a copy of that research. Combining it with his past-life knowledge of physics, he had finally designed a magnificent battle suit.

Just as Kentei was lost in thought about that splendid battle suit, a faint feminine fragrance wafted over, and then his cheeks were pinched by two soft, small hands.

"You're not even a Genin yet. Don't aim too high. When you were little, you were such a cute kid. How did you turn out like this?

This kind of attitude is just asking for a beating, you know?"

Pulling at the young man's cheeks, Keiko was annoyed by his smug demeanor, as if he looked down on the whole world.

Too arrogant, too shameless!

This woman admits your natural talent is strong, but your body is a total waste—balance the two out and you're just mediocre. Whether you'll even grow to the level of a jonin in the future is an unknown!

At the same time, Shimura Kentei once again fell under the illusion of his fiancée, Miss. But it wasn't the light-based Light Illusory Technique from before; it had shifted to a dark-style Canyon Illusory Technique—the terrifying canyon that had buried countless summoners.

"You little pervert!"

Sensing someone's staring gaze, Shimura Keiko, having snapped back to reality, quickly covered her collar and stood up straight, shooting a coquettish glare at him.

This kid's mind was way too precocious!