This... this really was...
Who would have thought this child...
In the study, before three flower arrangements, the Third Hokage's eyes gradually widened as he looked at the sheets of white paper in his hands and the patterns upon them. His lips trembled faintly, while voices drifted in from outside: "Dinner, Chiba!" "Go call your father!" "Dinner, old man!" and the like.
Not a single Curse Mark Jutsu example had been missed, nor was there a single error or omission. Every one of them had been successfully fused.
This child had truly mastered it already!
It was unbelievable. In merely two days—even if he had already mastered Sealing Jutsu, possessed some accomplishment and foundation in it—this was still far too fast, far too inconceivable.
Mastering the basics of Curse Mark Jutsu in two days... perhaps no one in the history of the shinobi world had ever done such a thing.
At that moment, even the Third Hokage did not know how to describe his feelings. The sight before him was something he had never imagined.
To be honest, when Chiba had asked for the second half of the Curse Mark Jutsu scroll an hour ago, he had not believed that Chiba had already finished learning the first half, which covered the fundamentals. He had thought Chiba was being too hasty.
However, Chiba had never been the sort of child to rush blindly for quick success. On the contrary, he was remarkably steady and practical in everything he did. Though the Third Hokage had not believed Chiba could master the basics of Curse Mark Jutsu in two days, he had not refused outright. Instead, he had tested Chiba to see whether he had truly learned the fundamentals.
Then, he had asked Chiba to fuse the example patterns one by one. To