"Enough! Aoba, stop!"
That familiar voice rang out again. Aoba was certain he had not fallen under a genjutsu or started hearing things.
The Chip System's prompt was normal.
At that moment, four or five masked Anbu ninja appeared with swishes from the surrounding rooftops and behind utility poles.
Then, two figures leaped down from a nearby rooftop.
A tall man with white hair and face paint stood with his arms crossed, looking as though he were enjoying the show.
Beside him, a blond young man with a warm, sunshine-like smile gave Aoba a thumbs-up.
"Lord Jiraiya? Senior Minato?"
The "cloud ninja" surrounded by red sand gave a bitter smile, dispersed the sand, formed hand seals, and released the Transformation Technique.
Poof!
A cloud of white smoke burst forth.
The dark-skinned cloud ninja with a fierce face vanished.
In his place stood a middle-aged man with a pair of distinctive red eyes.
Yuhi Shinku.
Aoba's adoptive father.
The air seemed to freeze at that very moment.
Aoba stared at that familiar face, his mind buzzing even louder.
In that instant, all his tension, fear, and killing intent turned into speechlessness and... the urge to die.
What kind of father was this?
No, this was a father screwing over his son!
"Um... Aoba..."
Yuhi Shinku scratched his head and walked over, intending to pat Aoba on the shoulder, but Aoba sidestepped him.
Shinku's hand froze in midair, and the smile on his face gradually stiffened.
It was over. The kid was angry.
The hard-to-placate kind.
Shinku knew Aoba's personality very well.
It was like taking someone who was already somewhat introverted, stripping away every last layer of their secrets, and making them completely lose it.
This time, he might really have gone too far.
Seeing the expression on his adopted son's