Various thoughts crowded into Soji's mind, but he showed nothing on the surface.
Keeping one's emotions off one's face was a standard skill for schemers, and the boy had long since mastered it.
He hid both his admiration for Director Chosokabe and his disdain for Director Inoue deep in his heart, controlling his actions with absolute reason. Only after he had dealt with the messenger with impeccable composure did he secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
By then, night had fallen deep. To conserve his strength for the mock battle exercise scheduled to start at six the next morning, Soji quickly switched to sleep mode after seeing his visitor off.
But just as his eyes had closed, his apartment—which rarely received visitors—welcomed another guest.
Soji answered as he got dressed again. He hesitated for a moment, then decided to bring the specially made Glass Fiber with him.
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Yamada-kun... Are you already asleep?"
Even through the door, Soji could just make out Sarutobi Erina's voice.
Given her illustrious background, the boy felt an instinctive closeness toward this teammate he had only just gotten to know. He immediately undid the door's latch, peering outside through the peephole at the same time.
Under the dim porch light, the little girl's flushed cheeks looked bashful and awkward. Compared to a few hours ago, she seemed even more likely to stir his sympathy.
Soji couldn't help wondering what had happened to make the young lady Sarutobi come to his door in the middle of the night to discuss something.
He reached for the handle, but suddenly frowned before turning the lock.
...At the same time, Erina stood outside with her hands clasped to her chest, her haggard face growing more and more tense.
"Yamada-kun, is something wrong?"
"No, it's nothing. I forgot I'd locked the door from the inside earlier... It's fine now. I'll open it for you."
Their brief exchange soon came to an end. With a turn of the lock, the old wooden door quickly opened a crack.
In the light of the porch lamp, one could just make out Soji's right hand braced against the doorframe and half his profile, confusion mingling with a hint of shyness.
"Sarutobi, what is it..."
"Bang!"
Before he could finish, a heavy blow slammed into the door from the front!
The Sarutobi Erina who had been clasping her hands to her chest, looking so pitiful and helpless just a moment ago, suddenly sprang into action!
She kicked the door open, then formed a secret technique hand seal with her hands at her chest. A mass of ink-black shadow immediately stretched from beneath her feet into the room, swiftly and precisely catching Yamada Soji as he backed away, clutching his nose.
In an instant, an irresistible sense of restraint swept over him, locking down his every movement.
His body wouldn't obey him. Every move he made was under his opponent's control.
Seeing that the jutsu had worked, "Sarutobi Erina," who had charged into the room, let out a vicious grin!
Without hesitation, she pulled a Kunai from her ninja pouch, rushed forward, and pressed its sharp edge against the boy's forehead.
"Got you!"
"Not necessarily."
With murderous intent bearing down on him, the battered Yamada Soji suddenly dropped his look of astonishment and curled his lips into a slight smile.
—In a flash, the boy, who had been caught at his most vulnerable, turned into a cloud of smoke and burst apart. At the same moment, the already faint porch light went out!
Sarutobi Erina, who had been sure of victory just a moment ago, was instantly seized by alarm.
She pushed off the ground with her toes and retreated, but one miscalculation had already cost her the initiative!
...Under the silvery moonlight, countless gleaming threads had long been falling like fine, lingering rain, refracting the cold light until it grew even hazier.
The tassel-like strands of rain swayed in the soft midnight breeze, making the whole scene seem beautiful and poetic.
But deadly intent came wafting in with the gentle breeze and rain!
That faintly cool sensation of Glass Fiber touching the skin was the dangerous illusion the boy had carefully prepared!
"Secret Technique: Rain Woman's Heart."
As soon as he spoke, "Sarutobi Erina" felt a stinging itch spread across the surface of her skin!
The instant her chakra fell into disarray, her body changed. In the blink of an eye, the frail young girl's form returned to the outline of a middle-aged man!
At the same time, the shadow that had just rushed into the room turned back on its attacker, covering its own body completely and forming a thin, pitch-black membrane.
The Glass Fiber that had just pierced his body was physically snapped by the membrane, but the parts that had already burrowed beneath his skin couldn't be pulled out so easily.
When the middle-aged man realized the pain around his body wasn't easing, he immediately knew something was wrong!
He reached for the light switch in the entryway and quickly shouted, stopping Yamada Soji, who was about to "finish him off."
"Wait, wait! Argh... Yamada-kun, it's me, Nara Motonari!"
At this critical moment, Teacher Motonari didn't blindly charge forward. Instead, he backed away to keep a safe distance, so as not to provoke any sudden reaction.
Meanwhile, Akimichi Todo and the real Erina, who had been watching from the end of the hallway, realized something was amiss. They hurried to the entrance of Soji's apartment and tried every way they could to explain what was going on to their teammate.
"Yamada-kun!"
"Soji! It's us!"
"Teacher Motonari? Akimichi, Sarutobi? What are you all..."
With the lights on, Soji had no reason to keep pretending he didn't understand what was going on after testing his new technique's power.
He deliberately looked at the three of them in confusion, listening as they talked over one another to explain the "surprise training" and "impromptu ambush."
Only after the "misunderstanding" had been fully cleared up did Soji "suddenly realize" what had happened. He slapped his palm and hurriedly invited them inside.
"So Teacher Motonari did this to teach us that we must stay alert at all times on the battlefield. That's why you ambushed us at home on the eve of the mock exercise, to test our vigilance and ability to react?"
"Something like that..."
"And you two?"
"He went to my place first." Akimichi Todo pointed to the bruise around his eye, looking embarrassed.
"T-then he came to my place." Sarutobi Erina was in a slightly better state, but judging by her hair and clothes, she'd had a rough time of it too.
"I see. Thank you for going to such lengths, Teacher Nara... In that case, let me treat your wounds first?"
"Ah... Sorry for the trouble, Soji."
The exercise had failed, and its planner had been taken down instead...
Though Nara Motonari had never been an elite jonin known for close-quarters combat, he couldn't help blushing with shame at being defeated by a rookie fresh out of the Ninja Academy.
On top of that, the Glass Fiber piercing his skin had left him with an agonizing itch. His control over his expression was nearly at its limit...
In truth, aside from the fact that his jutsu was countered, the main reason he'd failed tonight was that he'd lost to the hospital's accidentally effective security measures—and to Soji's own attentiveness.
—Although Soji and Erina were classmates, they hadn't been close before officially forming a team that day. They had never even exchanged family backgrounds or private information like their home addresses.
Miss Sarutobi was a relative of the Third Hokage. Even if something really had happened and she needed outside help, she wouldn't come all the way to the apartment building where Soji lived in the middle of the night just to make a fuss with him through a closed door...
And since the detection jutsu the hospital had given Soji hadn't raised an alert when the impostor showed up, the identity of the person outside was obvious~
He'd planned for a target who had no idea what was coming.
Add a bloodline secret technique with the element of surprise!
Add the acting skills he'd been honing since his previous life!
With so many factors stacked against him, how could Teacher Motonari possibly have won?
Before you continue