Inspection and Suggestions

The rock surface of the northern training ground had been resurfaced. The old cracks and rubble had been filled in and compacted with Earth Style, leaving the entire field like a slab of water-polished bluestone. Cang stood at the center, his arms hanging naturally at his sides. He formed no hand seals and assumed no stance; he simply stood there quietly, like an old teacher waiting for his students to take their seats. Moonlight poured down from overhead, giving his gray-and-white hair a cold silver sheen.

Light and Shisui stood ten paces away from him, with roughly two steps between them. Light wore a dark training outfit, her black hair tied behind her head, exposing the taut, graceful line of her neck. Shisui stood half a step behind and to her left, his shoulders slightly inclined forward in a posture that could unleash force at any moment without rushing to do so. Both their Rinnegan had emerged on their own. Fine golden threads flowed through the pale violet ripples in Light's eyes beneath the moonlight, while Shisui's deep-purple spirals turned quietly, as though a dark current churned slowly in their depths.

Cang looked at them and raised his right hand, palm up, fingers slightly spread.

"Attack however you want. Don't hold back."

Light moved first. She stepped forward half a pace and thrust her right hand out, fingers pressed together—a terrifying amount of Chakra condensed in her palm in an instant. A low hum sounded through the air as a pale golden beam of Chakra shot from her palm straight toward Cang's chest. The beam was thin, but incredibly fast, like a needle pulled taut into a straight line.

Cang did not dodge. The beam stopped about a palm's width before his chest—not because it had been deflected, but because