"Hmm, no wonder you and Naruto get along so well now."
"You're both so headstrong, and you both get fired up so easily."
Qingwu watched him leave, then unhurriedly turned in the other direction. He had to spread the love.
He had helped Kiba.
He couldn't play favorites and neglect Shino.
Besides, those two were little Hinata's right- and left-hand men.
Without a power boost,
they wouldn't even be qualified to assist little Hinata anymore.
Qingwu couldn't be bothered to search the hard way.
He swept the area with his Byakugan.
His figure vanished.
"Found you~"
Beneath a patch of waist-high grass, he found Aburame Shino. "Damn, you're watching ants fight again."
"No wonder Kiba said you were so good at keeping your cool."
"You really know how to hide."
"You're just amusing yourself down here."
"So you've relaxed your body and mind and turned yourself into an insect paradise..."
Of course a "lifeless object" wouldn't respond. Underground, he relied entirely on the clear fluid secreted by his kikaichū and the ants for nourishment.
He was underground.
He didn't even need to breathe.
His body absorbed natural energy.
He had established an external cycle between his body and that energy, alongside the internal cycle of respiration.
A genius.
Through this method, the kid had actually
come halfway toward a method of training in Sage Mode.
Even Qingwu couldn't help marveling.
Did this count as "learning from nature"?!
Of course it did. Why wouldn't it?
"Shino, come out now."
Unlike Kiba's boisterous restlessness,
"Okay."
He appeared without a sound.
Shino crouched quietly there, his black trench coat almost blending into the shadows.
His head was slightly bowed.
His sunglasses reflected the light filtering between the leaves.
His eyes were impossible to see.
"Give me a moment. I'm doing an experiment..."
He