Secret Technique: Rain Maiden's Heart

A flurry of thoughts swirled through his mind, yet Soshi did not reveal a single trace of them on his face.

Maintaining a poker face was the hallmark skill of a schemer, one the young man had already mastered to perfection.

He buried his admiration for Director Chosokabe and his disdain for Section Chief Inoue deep within his heart, using absolute rationality to control his actions. Only after handling the messenger with a flawless facade did he allow himself a secret sigh of relief.

The night was already deep, and in order to conserve energy for the mock battle exercise scheduled for 6:00 AM the next day, Soshi switched to a dormant state shortly after seeing his guest off.

However, no sooner had he closed his eyes than his apartment, which rarely saw visitors, welcomed another.

Soshi responded while getting dressed, hesitating for a moment before ultimately deciding to keep the specialized glass fiber on his person.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Yamada-kun... are you already resting?"

Even through the door, Soshi could faintly distinguish the voice of Sarutobi Erina.

Given her illustrious background, the young man naturally felt a sense of affinity toward this teammate he had just become familiar with, so he immediately unlatched the deadbolt while peering through the peephole.

--Under the dim porch light, the little girl's flushed cheeks held a hint of shyness and embarrassment, making her far easier to pity than she had been a few hours ago.

Seeing this, Soshi couldn't help but feel suspicious, wondering what kind of turn of events had driven the young Miss Sarutobi to visit him in the middle of the night.

He reached out to grab the handle, but frowned just before twisting the lock.

...At the same time, Erina outside the door hugged her arms to her chest, her haggard face growing increasingly tense.

"Yamada-kun, is something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing. I forgot I had double-locked the door... It's fine now, I'm opening it for you."

The brief exchange ended quickly, and with the sound of a turning lock, the old wooden door soon creaked open a crack.

By the light of the porch lamp, one could faintly see Soshi's right hand gripping the doorframe and half of his face, which held a mix of confusion and shyness.

"Sarutobi-san, is there something—"

"CRASH!"

Before he could finish, a heavy force struck the door directly from the front!

Sarutobi Erina, who a moment ago had been standing with her arms crossed, looking pitiful and helpless, suddenly erupted into action!

She kicked the door wide open, her clasped hands instantly forming a secret technique seal. Simultaneously, a shadow as dark as ink extended from her feet into the room, quickly and precisely seizing Yamada Soji as he retreated while clutching his nose!

In an instant, an irresistible sense of restraint swept over his entire body, locking down every movement the young man made.

He felt his entire body refuse to obey him, every action now under the control of his opponent.

Seeing the ninjutsu take effect, the "Sarutobi Erina" who had charged into the room immediately revealed a ferocious grin!

Without hesitation, she pulled a kunai from her ninja tool pouch and lunged forward, pressing the sharp blade directly against the young man's brow.

"Got you!"

"Not necessarily."

Facing the imminent killing intent, the disheveled Yamada Soji suddenly wiped away his look of shock and curled his lips into a faint smile.

--In the blink of an eye, the young man who had been held at knifepoint transformed into a puff of smoke and exploded, and the already dim porch light extinguished at the same time!

Sarutobi Erina, who had felt victory was within her grasp a moment ago, felt alarm bells ringing in her heart.

She pushed off the ground to retreat, but having miscalculated a single step, she had already lost the initiative!

...In the silver-gray moonlight, countless crystalline threads fell like lingering rain, refracting the cold glow into an increasingly hazy blur.

The tassel-like rain threads, accompanied by the midnight breeze, rendered the entire scene beautiful and poetic.

Yet, a fatal killing intent drifted in along with the gentle wind!

The slight, chilling sensation of glass fiber touching skin was the very trap the young man had meticulously planned!

"Secret Technique: Rain Woman's Heart."

As soon as the words fell, "Sarutobi Erina" felt a wave of numbness and stinging pain across her skin!

The moment her chakra became chaotic, her figure shifted, instantly reverting from a delicate girl to the silhouette of a middle-aged man!

At the same time, the shadow that had just lunged into the room reversed its attack, covering his entire body to form a layer of pitch-black film.

The glass fibers that had just pierced his body were physically severed by this film, but the portions already deep beneath his skin could not be easily extracted by such means.

Seeing that the pain around his body did not subside, the middle-aged man immediately realized something was wrong!

He reached out to press the light switch in the entryway and shouted out, calling a halt to Yamada Soji, who was just about to "deliver the killing blow."

"Wait, wait! Ugh... Yamada-kun, it's me, Nara Motonari!"

In the critical moment, Teacher Motonari did not blindly charge forward, but instead stepped back to maintain a safe distance, avoiding any further stress response.

Meanwhile, Todo and the real Erina, who had been watching from the end of the hallway, realized the situation had changed and rushed to the door of Soshi's apartment, explaining the circumstances to their teammate with frantic gestures.

"Yamada-kun!"

"Soshi! It's us!"

"Teacher Motonari? Todo-san, Sarutobi-san? What is this..."

The lights were now blazing bright, and having tested the power of his new technique, Soji could no longer continue playing the fool.

He deliberately put on a bewildered expression as he looked at the three of them, listening to them chatter all at once to explain the "unexpected special training" and the "impromptu raid."

Only when the "misunderstanding" was thoroughly cleared up did Soji "suddenly realize" the truth, slapping his palm, and hurriedly invited the three of them into the house.

"So, you're saying that Teacher Motonari was actually trying to teach us that we must remain vigilant on the battlefield at all times, and that's why he deliberately raided our residences on the eve of the mock training to test our alertness and adaptability?"

"That's about the gist of it..."

"And you two?"

"He went to my place first." Akimichi Todo pointed to the bruise around his eye, looking quite embarrassed.

"Th... then he went to mine." Sarutobi Erina was in slightly better shape, though judging by her hairstyle and attire, she had clearly been put through the wringer as well.

"I understand. I appreciate Teacher Nara's painstaking efforts... In that case, Teacher, let me treat your wounds first, shall we?"

"Hiss... thank you, Soji."

The exercise had failed, and he had been tragically countered...

Even though Nara Motonari was not a Jonin who specialized in close-quarters combat to begin with, having been countered by a rookie who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy still made his old face flush with shame.

Coupled with the itching and sharp pain caused by the glass fibers embedded in his skin, his facial control was nearing a total collapse...

In fact, the reason he had failed tonight, aside from the factor of ninjutsu suppression, was primarily due to the defensive mechanism at the hospital that had worked by pure coincidence, as well as Soji's own meticulousness.

The boy and Erina might have been classmates, but before officially forming a team today, they had no deep friendship. There was certainly no talk of exchanging private information like home addresses.

As a relative of the Third Hokage, even if Miss Sarutobi had truly encountered some accident and needed outside help, it was impossible for her to rush to Soji's apartment building in the middle of the night to make a fuss through his door...

Furthermore, the reconnaissance jutsu the hospital had equipped for Soji had not triggered a warning for the impostor's arrival, so the identity of the person outside was naturally self-evident.

The prepared had calculated against the unprepared.

Add in a bloodline secret technique that functioned as a first-encounter kill!

Add in the acting skills of a Best Actor honed since his previous life!

With multiple unfavorable factors combined, how could Teacher Motonari not be defeated?