"Master!"
"Brother!"
"Brother Sōken!!"
Sōken had barely pushed open the door and stepped one foot inside when a chorus of greetings hit him in the face. Taking a closer look, he realized his newly renovated office was full of little brats. He immediately understood that his lunch break was gone again.
"Toka, shouldn't you be in class at the Ninja Academy right now?"
Sōken walked over and ruffled his little sister's hair, then turned to look at Naruto and... Sasuke standing beside him. He was genuinely puzzled. Naruto was one thing—skipping class was normal for that kid—but why was Sasuke skipping school too?
"School's so boring! They give us blunt shuriken to play with. There's no fun in that."
Toka pouted as she complained.
Her little face was full of displeasure.
"She switched her blunt shuriken for real ones today. The teacher made her stand there until school was out, so she ran off," Naruto came over and whispered the truth.
"I see."
Sōken understood, but didn't think much of it.
During the war, six- and seven-year-old children had gone off to battle with knives and killed people. Now the Ninja Academy was getting more and more soft, and the young people it trained lacked the bloodlust and ferocity a ninja ought to have. If they were thrown onto a battlefield, he'd consider it a decent result if even one in ten made it back alive.
In Sōken's opinion,
a ninja's training
had to involve real weapons. Those blunt toys were no fun at all.
Besides, Sōken had personally taught Toka Shurikenjutsu. He wasn't worried she'd hurt herself. If she were clumsy enough to manage that, she might as well forget becoming a ninja and go home to be a proper young lady.
"So, Sasuke, what's your excuse today?"
Sōken turned his gaze to Haruto.
"Well..." Sasuke stammered, his face turning red.
Sōken looked at his little informant at the Ninja Academy. As expected, Naruto didn't disappoint. The moment Sōken looked his way, he spilled all of Sasuke's impressive deeds from that day. Sasuke had recently learned the Great Fireball Technique under his father's supervision, and during combat class, he couldn't resist showing off by using it...
"...You blew up the school building?"
Sōken's eyes widened.
"No, no! Naruto, don't make things up! I just accidentally knocked down a tiny bit of the school building's wall. Just a tiny bit, really! The building's still standing just fine!" Sasuke argued with Naruto, his face bright red. His lively, energetic appearance made it hard to imagine that in the future he'd become so gloomy and cold.
"The Great Fireball? You learned the Great Fireball already?"
It took Sōken a moment to react.
He'd learned the Great Fireball at five. That was...
Well, learning the Great Fireball at five wasn't really all that surprising. After all, he was Indra's reincarnation, the reincarnation of Indra's chakra in this life. He and Naruto both had extraordinary talent. It was just that, in the original future, their talents had been wasted for different reasons, and so they hadn't shone as brightly as they should have until they were fifteen or sixteen.
"My father taught me," Sasuke said earnestly.
But when he mentioned his father, Sasuke couldn't help smiling. He didn't care whether his father was clan head. In his eyes, his father had more time to spend at home now that he wasn't clan head. Sasuke had hardly ever seen his father smile before, but lately, he'd seen him smile many times.
His father had even spent a lot of time teaching him the Great Fireball Technique!
That was something Sasuke had never dared imagine before!
All of this
had happened only after his father stopped being clan head. So, deep down, Sasuke was glad his father wasn't clan head anymore!
"Good job! But next time you use the Great Fireball at school, remember to aim at an empty area or a pond."
Sasuke blushed and nodded.
Toka, standing nearby, gave a disdainful little snort. Even though they'd all skipped class and come to the Police Force together, the two of them weren't close. To be honest, Sasuke and Naruto got along better than Sasuke and Toka did. They were both Uchiha, and Sasuke admired Sōken quite a bit...
But that wasn't enough to make children friends!
Toka thought Sasuke was clingy, while Sasuke thought Toka was far too wild for a girl. They couldn't stand each other and could never find anything to play together. Naruto, on the other hand, got along with everyone and could play with just about anybody!
Oh, right.
Besides Toka, Naruto, and Sasuke, Sōken's only disciple was in the room too!
As for how they'd all ended up together... well, Kurama Murakumo loved his daughter dearly. To help her recover as soon as possible, he'd simply bundled up her bedding and sent her straight to Sōken's home.
It wasn't all that strange.
Among ninjas, the bond between master and disciple was no less close than that between father and son. Of course, this meant a true personal disciple, not just one of the students assigned to a Jonin for training. A true personal disciple wouldn't just live with their master and train under them. If their master happened to die one day,
the disciple could even take the son's place in handling their master's funeral arrangements!
And so,
the frail Yakumo Kurama moved into Sōken's home and naturally grew familiar with Toka. It was too soon to say whether they were friends; for now, they were still just acquaintances. Perhaps when Yakumo could run around and make a racket with Toka, they'd become true friends.
"All right, go play outside! Don't make a racket in here." After greeting the children one by one, Sōken waved them all out. They were all far too noisy, and he still had important business to take care of!
"Yakumo, how have you been feeling these past couple of days?"
Sōken dragged a chair over and sat in front of Yakumo.
She opened her crimson eyes, and he carefully examined her condition, checking that the seal was holding firm.
"I'm much better than before. I tried walking this morning and made several laps around the yard without getting tired."
Yakumo nodded vigorously.
"As long as it's working. In that case... it looks like I'll have to study Fuinjutsu properly!"
After much thought, Sōken had come up with only two possible solutions to his disciple's problem.
The first was to find a way to strengthen Yakumo's physical energy, perhaps by transplanting Senju or Uzumaki cells to balance out her disproportionate spiritual and physical energy. But that wasn't currently feasible. Sōken didn't have any Senju or Uzumaki cells.
Besides, he didn't have the necessary skills.
That didn't mean there was no way at all. He still had Samehada!
The second option was to find a way to weaken Yakumo's overly powerful spiritual energy, either by sealing it or directly taking it away... After giving it careful thought, he decided to see if he could seal away some of Yakumo's spiritual energy without using his ocular powers.
As for using Konohanasakuya to take his disciple's talent and make himself stronger, Sōken truly had no interest in doing something like that. This vast, frightening spiritual energy was what would allow his disciple to rise to prominence in the future.
In the end,
Sōken chose to pursue both options at once.
On the one hand, he'd use Samehada to slowly help Yakumo build up her physical energy. He had his own training to do, after all, so it would be very slow. On the other hand, he'd study Fuinjutsu and try to temporarily seal away Yakumo's excessively powerful spiritual energy.
Sōken raised his hands and formed Hand Seals,
summoning Samehada, which was happily feeding inside Konoha Prison.
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