Shadow Stirs

Sasuke was practically a little invalid now. Though it was nothing serious, he still did not need to see his guests out. Shikaku and Shikamaru took Naruto home with them.

Only after they had left did Sasuke feel comfortable checking the kitchen.

Chicken soup, chicken soup... that had been a free-range chicken raised for half a year... Luckily, the big pot had not tipped over. He had probably only knocked the ladle down.

He wondered what it would feel like once Teacher Shikaku's medicine wore off. After washing up, he climbed into bed, pulled the blanket over himself, and waited for judgment.

Although he had failed to meet today's physical training target, he had gained plenty in ninjutsu.

If secret techniques were not bloodline limits, then theoretically anyone could learn them. Their methods of inheritance might be somewhat special, but the founding ancestor had to have had some cultivation method that created something from nothing.

The Nara Family's Shadow Technique had been discussed quite a bit before. After all, it somewhat overlapped with the Shadow Technique in the anime Jujutsu Kaisen, and their one-leading-three team setup was similar too, so it had once become quite a hot topic.

He would not even think about the Zen'in Family's "Ten Shadows Technique." Though it sounded like a bloodline inheritance, like a bloodline limit, there was apparently a world behind those shadows resembling the Three Great Sage Regions, allowing them to endlessly summon creatures. If the Shadow Technique in Naruto could do that, the Nara Family would have become badass ages ago.

Shadow Technique was Yin Release. He had inherited the bloodline limit of the strongest Yin Release, and tracing things back, if they were not related by marriage, then they were disciples of relatives by marriage. So was it possible... that he could learn Shadow Technique too?

He had more or less figured out the principle. The issue was extracting and practicing Yin Release Chakra. Rather than using the Five Senses, it used shadows as a medium.

He definitely had to saturate his shadow with Chakra before he could talk about controlling it.

As he thought about it, Sasuke's Chakra was instinctively stirred.

Everything before Sasuke's eyes went black.

Dazzling.

What time was it? His head felt heavy and swollen. Though his stomach was empty, he felt a little nauseous, like the after-effects of waking from a drunken sleep without the burden on his stomach.

The little clock by his bed read (03:46).

Clearly, it was not nighttime.

He had slept until the afternoon. He felt genuinely guilty about it.

Naruto was reading manga in the living room.

"Sasuke, you're awake. How are you feeling? Shikamaru came by to see you this morning. He said it was normal for you to get up later today."

Still unwashed, Sasuke was completely foggy-headed. "Got it."

"Since you were still asleep, I fed the little animals out back for you. You haven't paid me in ages. Count it as one day's wages, okay?~"

While brushing his teeth, Sasuke replied, "Mm~" Okay.

"Sasuke, I drank the soup you made yesterday. You don't mind, right? It tasted pretty good."

You drank it already, and now you're asking whether I mind...

After rinsing his mouth clean, Sasuke replied, "You really have no taste for good food. That pot of soup wasn't done simmering yet, and you were already in such a hurry to drink it."

Naruto did not quite understand. "But there was a thick layer of oil floating on top, and it smelled great. I only added a little salt, and it tasted amazing."

"How many days do you think I would need to drink such a huge pot of soup?"

The pot was indeed quite large. Judging by Instant Noodles portions, Naruto guessed, "Three to five days?"

"Exactly, a full three to five days. Do you think the soup would still taste good then?"

"Think about it. I'd simmer that whole pot down until only half remained, then add half a cup of milk. What do you think?"

As Naruto imagined it, tears of disappointment flowed from the corner of his mouth. He muttered to himself, "Then add soy sauce, salt, pepper, and ramen."

"You actually do know how to eat..."

"Then I'll go start the fire and keep cooking it!"

All the best-tasting parts of the chicken had been cut off and saved for braising or cold dishes. Only the chicken carcass had gone into the soup, along with a huge pot of water. It had only been boiled for a little over an hour altogether. It would be strange if it tasted good.

He would take two days off whenever something went wrong with his training. It was a good chance to prepare the Dragon Beard Candy the Nara Family wanted. They had even come to take care of him last night. Forget charging them—he needed to find a way to show them a little more gratitude.

For training, he would first keep up his daily Taijutsu exercises, then start with the Fire Style he knew best...

Then he suddenly remembered Shikaku telling him not to practice Fire Style for the time being. He would choose the gentler Water Style and Earth Style instead.

Three days passed. Besides the individually wrapped Dragon Beard Candy Shikaku had requested, Sasuke prepared several additional kinds of snacks as thanks.

If they were to taste good, they could not be too complicated. The more complicated they were, the greater the chances of messing up. But considering that the dietary culture in the Naruto world did not yet have many new varieties, anything even slightly novel could count as a major breakthrough in the industry.

There were cookies in the Naruto world, so making an upgraded version of peach crisps and butter cookies would not be difficult. Savory and sweet peach crisps, along with assorted cookies inspired by Crown's assortment—the methods were mostly the same, but putting them together in a boxed platter made them look quite varied.

He had originally planned to make them around the New Year, but Naruto had unexpectedly interfered. Now, they came in handy after all.

Five stars out of five, with a difficulty of no more than two stars. Still, they looked more thoughtful than some three-colored dango.

When he delivered the gifts, he naturally stopped by to have Teacher Shikaku check his homework.

Disturbing smoke without opening the Sharingan.

As for whether he used Chakra, Shikaku could not see it. Sasuke could only rely on his own honesty.

With the Sharingan bloodline limit, he was naturally better than an ordinary person at using Yin Release Chakra. Sasuke had shown results in less than a week, and Shikaku did not find that strange at all. Besides, Sasuke trained so hard that he had practically collapsed.

Then he received the next stage of his training task.

"You need to try directly using this energy to control the movements of small animals. Of course, Genjutsu can achieve the same result directly, but the training effect would be somewhat worse."

"Once you complete this training, your Genjutsu control will improve noticeably."

The implication behind Shikaku's words was that once this training was finished, his Yin Release control training would more or less come to an end.

"Yes."

This training was obviously different from the previous ones. The earlier disturbances to smoke could also be achieved with Chakra, but Chakra did not directly interfere with thought.

His teacher had originally suggested using insects such as ants for training, but with the cold weather, they really were not easy to find. The soil in his greenhouse had also been sterilized with fire.

He could only switch to a slightly larger target: the fish in the artificial lake.

Though the surface of the water had frozen over, fish did not hibernate. Unfortunately, he had to keep them alive, so he could not practice Lightning Style and catch fish at the same time.

Sasuke obediently set up a fishing rod and went fishing.

He did not have any impressive fishing skills. He had not liked fishing in his previous life either. He was a complete fishing novice.

If he simply wanted fish to eat, he could casually throw down some Lightning Style and bring up at least three to five fish. Why would he go through all this trouble?

Without any skill, he could only wait for fish to bite.

With nothing better to do, he reviewed his lessons. What had he been thinking about before he fell asleep?

Shadow Technique.

What could Yin Release Chakra do after merging with a shadow? He did not even know whether it had merged in successfully.

What Hand Seal was it again? It seemed to be the "Rat" seal, but he had only seen one or two shots of it in the anime. Since it was not the protagonist, they definitely had not shown the full sequence.

The fishing rod shook, and he hurriedly reached out to grab it.

Grab the fishing rod...

Before he had even moved, a small section of the shadow beneath him abruptly pushed forward.

Sasuke?!

At this point, whether he had caught a fish no longer seemed important.

One more time.

Shadow Technique.

Ripples appeared around his shadow.

The intensity was not enough. He opened the Sharingan. Shadow Technique!

His shadow stretched out nearly a meter.