Yahiko: Teacher, I've come to learn from you!

"Phew! That was close! I nearly lost my life!"

Kyosuke wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

At that moment, the other person's blade had been only an inch away from him. He'd come within a hair's breadth of dying!

"They held back. If they'd been trying to kill you, you'd already be dead."

Konan let out a breath, too.

That slash had been so fast there was no way to dodge it. No way to avoid it.

What terrifying speed!

Fortunately...

"Good thing they didn't chase us. Otherwise, even I wouldn't be confident I could get away without drawing too much attention."

Only then did the orange-haired young ninja catch up from behind.

Thinking back to what had just happened, he let out a quiet breath. "Teacher's new student is terrifyingly strong. By the time he's our age, he'll probably be the next generation's White Fang of Konoha."

"I heard Teacher has another student, too. It's a shame we came too late and didn't get the chance to meet him."

Konan sighed.

Yahiko nodded. "I heard he went to Iwagakure."

Then he lamented,

"What a shame!"

Yahiko sighed and sat down in the cave.

"There were too many people around at the time. If we'd approached him in private, we could've asked him to help us get in touch with Teacher."

"Why did you suddenly want to contact Teacher? You've always said that the Land of Rain's problems are for us in the Land of Rain to solve ourselves, and that we shouldn't seek help from Teacher."

Konan was deeply puzzled.

Kyosuke paused as well and looked at Yahiko.

For the past few years, they had worked hard to protect civilians in the Land of Rain. A number of ninjas who shared their ideals had joined them along the way, and Kyosuke was one of those comrades.

However, some time ago, Yahiko had suddenly said that he wanted to come to Yugakure to find Jiraiya.

Konan and Kyosuke hadn't understood why, but they had still come along with him.

"Hmm."

Yahiko pondered for a long while before continuing, "I have a feeling that Teacher has changed."

"Changed?"

Konan looked confused.

Yahiko said, "Konoha sent Teacher to Yugakure to oversee things, which means he was the one pushing this from behind the scenes. The Teacher I knew wouldn't have done something like this."

He paused, then suddenly shook his head. "No, that's not quite right! More accurately, I feel that this is what 'dialogue' truly looks like when used to achieve peace. So I want to ask Teacher about his current ideas and beliefs."

Yahiko's ideal was to achieve peace between the Land of Rain and the surrounding nations through dialogue and mutual understanding, and then change the fate of the pitiful Land of Rain.

The talks between several nations held in Yugakure had given him hope!

Konan's expression shifted as she listened.

Yahiko was exceptionally perceptive. "Is something wrong?"

"No. What you said makes a lot of sense. It just feels strange to me—it doesn't seem like Teacher's style."

What a fast blade!

Yamashiro Aoba rubbed his eyes, then murmured, "Is that guy really not Kakashi?"

"No. Kyohiko's fast, and he chose his timing and target well, but his swordsmanship... Well, his fundamentals are extremely solid."

Namiashi Raidō thought it over for a long time before finally settling on a more positive way to put it.

Kurenai Yuhi's mouth twitched.

"Thanks for taking so long to think of that. Kyohiko's only been training with a sword for about two months, so 'solid fundamentals' really is about the level he's at."

"T-two months?"

Might Guy, Yamashiro Aoba, and Namiashi Raidō all turned to look at the other side.

Good grief!

That was all he'd achieved in just two months?

Namiashi Raidō unconsciously gripped the hilt of his sword. He pressed his lips together, unable to hide the envy on his face.

He wanted talent like that, too!

"What are you talking about? Aren't we going in?"

Kyohiko used the Body Flicker Technique to return.

He'd just gone to check on how Yahiko and the others were leaving.

There were plenty of traps along the way, so pursuing them wouldn't be easy. He'd decided to turn back instead.

"We were waiting for you."

Kurenai Yuhi looked at him with concern. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"No. Those were all harmless traps. They probably don't want to make a big scene, either."

He opened the door and went in.

Everyone sat down and chatted for a while.

Only a few years had passed since the war, and most ninjas had already advanced to Chunin. Those who had graduated recently were mostly still too weak.

For safety's sake, only their two teams were here for now.

"Since there aren't many people anyway, you can rest here for now. We'll make arrangements once Teacher Jiraiya gets here."

"Okay."

By dusk,

Kyohiko was waiting for Jiraiya to return, but—

The system's notification came first.

[You have put the right people in the right positions and led them well!]

[Under your strategic guidance, the village received compensation and gained a fair amount of prestige]

[Reward: Clone Technique increased by 1 level]

Clone Technique?

Kyohiko was surprised.

A moment later, he began to understand why.

For matters that benefited the village, the reward was often an increase to one of his ninjutsu techniques. But this particular incident hadn't actually benefited Konoha very much.

Iwagakure had suffered most of the damage to its reputation.

Besides—

Ōnoki probably didn't care, either.

Iwagakure had recovered extremely quickly. According to Jiraiya, the hawkish faction had been growing stronger in recent years.

Another war was inevitable.

By comparison, the people having an even harder time might be in Kirigakure.

Still,

the reward mattered more to him...

A master-level Clone Technique might one day let him achieve something like Body Flicker Shisui's effect.

Inside the room, Kyohiko carefully sensed the mastery-level Clone Technique.

He'd been secretly studying the technique lately, but hadn't made much progress. To truly improve, he'd need to learn more genjutsu and understand and master more genjutsu knowledge and techniques.

That would take up a considerable amount of his energy.

With this improvement, he could avoid some of that trouble.

"More precise control, using genjutsu methods to guide chakra and influence the enemy..."

With that in mind,

several possible approaches came to Kyohiko.

At present, reaching Shisui's level would be genuinely difficult. Perhaps there was still a chance if his genjutsu reached the grandmaster level.

A more practical approach would be—

Reduce the number of clones.

Next, he could incorporate Shadow Clones to confuse the enemy.

"Worth a try!"

A faint smile appeared on Kyohiko's face.

"What are you thinking about? You're smiling and everything."

Jiraiya's voice came from outside.

Kyohiko snapped back to attention and immediately opened the window.

Jiraiya was crouching on the eaves outside, smiling and looking to be in a good mood.

As soon as the window opened, he jumped inside.

Kyohiko said, "Teacher, I just thought of a way to use the Clone Technique and Shadow Clones together with the Body Flicker Technique to create an even more convincing deception."

"Clones combined with the Body Flicker Technique..."

Jiraiya thought about it briefly and understood what Kyohiko had in mind.

Used properly, this tactic would be terrifying, but it demanded an extremely high level of skill with the Clone Technique.

"That requires an exceptionally high level of mastery over the Clone Technique."

"That's why I wanted to ask you whether you thought it was feasible. By the way—Teacher, there were a few Amegakure ninjas here today..."

Kyohiko explained why he'd brought it up, then told Jiraiya about his encounter with Kyosuke.

At first, Jiraiya didn't react.

But then,

when he heard about the paper ninjutsu...

He immediately stood up, unable to hide his surprise and bewilderment.

"It's her. What are they doing in Yugakure?"

"You know them? No wonder I felt they had some kind of purpose, but didn't mean us any harm. That makes sense if they're old acquaintances of yours."

"Yes. It's something that happened after the war."

Jiraiya's expression grew distant, but he still told Kyohiko what had happened in the past—

He believed Kyohiko was mature enough to think things through and make sound judgments.

"Hmm. Teacher, from what you've said, do you think they might have come because of the Land of Waves agreement?"

"Huh?"

"Isn't the idea of achieving peace through communication and mutual understanding Yahiko's ideal, the one you told me about?"

"This..."

Jiraiya felt that what he'd been doing lately had little to do with communication or mutual understanding.

But—

The more he thought about it, the more he could see a connection. It was just that his way of communicating relied more on forming alliances and using force to pressure the other side into agreement.

So,

had Yahiko come to seek his advice?

And yet, the reason Jiraiya had acted this way in the first place was entirely because of Kyohiko's influence.

If he went to see Yahiko and Konan, should he bring Kyohiko along?

Jiraiya looked at Kyohiko, his gaze gradually turning strange.