A Brand New Escaping Rabbit

The afternoon sun spilled over the former site of the Konoha Military Police Force; the seals on the windows had yellowed and curled at the edges, and the signpost in front of the gate was tilted halfway over.

Sasuke walked straight through the narrow alley beside the police headquarters and into the training ground deep within the clan compound.

"Finally, we're making a move!" Black Dog grinned from ear to ear. "If you didn't start training, you'd really rot away at the Ninja Academy, throwing shuriken with a bunch of brats until you're an adult."

Black Dog walked half a step ahead of Sasuke, tilting his head to look at his face: "Escaping Rabbit?"

"Yeah." Sasuke snapped a dead branch underfoot, the crisp crack echoing from the soles of his feet.

"Normally, tamed shikigami don't run around like this, but since a mutation occurred within you, I'm not sure what will happen with Escaping Rabbit."

"You and White Dog are responsible for perimeter suppression. You are not allowed to let them cross the training ground boundary."

"Understood. Why Escaping Rabbit?" Black Dog withdrew his gaze, his pace remaining steady.

"Small size, inconspicuous, and high in number. The body is like a vessel, and since I'm just a child right now, I can't hold much water. In times like these, information is more valuable than combat power."

White Dog ran out to patrol a circle and quickly returned: "No one nearby. These people are quite confident, leaving you alone in a place like this."

"It's not confidence." Sasuke left the stone pedestal and walked toward the center of the training ground.

"It's that they think there's nothing here worth monitoring. What kind of tricks could a child possibly pull off in the ruins of a wiped-out clan?"

"Then they're in for a surprise." White Dog lifted his chin triumphantly.

Sasuke sat cross-legged in the very center of the training ground.

He closed his eyes, placed his hands flat on his knees, and sank his consciousness into his body.

At the bottom of the Cursed Energy Pool lay a layer of dark energy, filled to about twenty percent of its capacity.

Sasuke opened his eyes, stood up, and opened his ninja tool pouch to inspect his gear.

Then, his hands began to form the hand seals for the rabbit.

"Retreat to the stone wall."

White Dog and Black Dog jumped backward simultaneously, landing on the stone wall ten meters away, crouching on either side to watch the center of the field.

The shadow beneath Sasuke's feet suddenly expanded, spreading across the ground into a black disc ten meters in diameter.

The edges of the disc began to churn, emitting a bubbling sound like boiling water.

The first rabbit sprang from the black shadow.

Its body was pure white, its eyes dark red, and its size was only half that of a common wild rabbit. White fur clung to firm muscles, and its two long ears were pressed tightly against the back of its head.

The moment it landed, its hind legs kicked a small crater into the hard earth, sending gravel flying backward.

A second one jumped out immediately after, followed by seven or eight more surging out at once.

Then, the churning at the edge of the shadow intensified, and a white torrent erupted from the blackness all at once.

Dozens of white rabbits lunged toward him simultaneously.

Sasuke had already completed six seals by the time they leaped.

It's good to have skills to use. The hard life I lived before, only being able to use the Ten Shadows to tame shikigami...

His chest swelled, and chakra surged up his throat along his meridians.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique."

Over a dozen fireballs erupted from his mouth, tracing scattered arcs through the air.

The flames slammed into the white rabbit swarm, the exploding sparks igniting the fur of the dozen rabbits in the front row.

Those Escaping Rabbit hit by the Phoenix Sage Fire turned into black sludge before they even hit the ground, splattering onto the hard earth with a wet thud.

But more rabbits continued the charge, stepping over the black mud left by their dissipated companions.

Sasuke stomped his right heel, and the massive shadow disc beneath him instantly deformed.

Driven by the shape transformation of his chakra, the black shadow rose into several half-man-high black barriers, blocking the seven or eight rabbits lunging from the left.

The Escaping Rabbit slammed into the barriers, their front claws raking the surface of the black curtain, emitting a sharp screeching sound like metal scraping against metal.

There were still over thirty charging from the front.

The lingering flames of the Phoenix Sage Fire had not yet dissipated, and he formed seals once more.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

A fireball two meters in diameter roared from his mouth, striking the center of the white torrent head-on.

A dozen rabbits were instantly engulfed by the high heat, turning directly into black sludge before they could even emit a cry.

The wind pressure whipped up by the flames blew several smaller rabbits away, causing them to slam into the stone wall with a dull thud.

Sasuke's left hand reached toward the ninja tool pouch on his outer thigh, his thumb flicking open the leather buckle to hook out three shuriken.

His right hand caught one, while the remaining two stayed clamped between his left fingers.

An Escaping Rabbit leaped from the smoke of the flames, rising above his head and lunging straight for his face with outstretched claws.

Sasuke swung his right arm upward, the shuriken slicing into the rabbit's soft belly from bottom to top.

At the same time, he tilted his body to the left, the rabbit's claws grazing past his right earlobe.

The shuriken in his right hand sliced horizontally through the wound on his abdomen, severing the rabbit's body in mid-air before it dissolved into black mud that splattered onto his shoulder.

The moment his feet touched the ground, two shuriken already flicked from between the fingers of his left hand.

One struck the eye socket of a rabbit to his front-left, while the other pierced the hind leg joint of a rabbit kicking toward him from the rear-right. Both rabbits collapsed, twitched twice on the ground, and dissipated.

Sasuke had been holding out for about three minutes since the start, and the number of Escaping Rabbit began to dwindle slowly.

"White! Black!"

The last shuriken between his right fingers was released.

Both dogs leaped down from the stone wall simultaneously.

White Dog stepped onto the top of the shadow barrier, used the momentum to vault behind the tail end of the rabbit swarm, bared his teeth, and began barking loudly to drive them forward.

Black Dog flanked from the side, keeping his body low, and used a threatening posture to force the scattered rabbits on the edge back into the main group.

Under the pincer attack of the two dogs, the Escaping Rabbit lost their offensive rhythm and finally gathered back together.

Now.

Sasuke formed hand seals, and the Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique was unleashed with a thunderous roar once more.

The flames exploded directly in the center of the white, huddled mass of rabbits.

This time, the Great Fireball completely swallowed the entire swarm.

Scattered black sludge splattered everywhere, staining the center of the training ground a sticky, dark hue.

Sasuke didn't have time to catch his breath before he spotted two rabbits that had slipped through the net, darting out from the blind spot of the flames and lunging straight for his ankles.

Too close; there was no time for hand seals.

He blocked with his left hand—the rabbit bit into the flesh between his forearm and wrist, its teeth sinking in about two millimeters.

His right hand drew a kunai from his ninja pouch and slashed horizontally, cutting the rabbit's throat.

The last one lunged at his chest during a gap in his breathing, its claws tearing his collar apart.

White Dog bit the rabbit's hind leg from the side and flung it straight into the air.

Escaping Rabbit, subjugation complete.

"This version of Escaping Rabbit... it really is different." Sasuke hunched over, hands braced on his knees.

The original Escaping Rabbit, while also capable of group charges, were fragile, and their bite force was negligible.

These rabbits, fed on a mixture of chakra and cursed energy, were different; the power in their hind legs could crack gravel, their teeth could pierce skin, and even their offensive formations were more complex than the original.

The pincer maneuver from all sides just now was certainly not an instinctive behavior.

This version of the Ten Shadows Technique was already completely different from the original rules; he would have to spend time studying the fusion mechanism.

Sasuke leaned back and collapsed onto the gravel ground.

His spine hit the stones with a dull thud.

From his chest to his shins, he was covered in stains of sweat and blood, his collar hanging loosely over his collarbone.

Several wounds on his arms from the rabbit bites were still oozing blood, but they were shallow enough to stop on their own without bandages.

The sky above was cut into irregular shapes by the large trees surrounding the training ground, and sunlight leaked through the gaps in the leaves, shining on his face.

White Dog walked over and lowered his head to sniff the wounds on his arm.

"Heh, looking a bit pathetic, aren't you? But this master isn't tired yet!"

"You were slacking off from start to finish, of course you aren't tired." Sasuke looked at the branches overhead, his voice listless.

"Who's slacking off!" White Dog's fur stood on end. "Didn't you see me driving all the scattered rabbits back? And that last one—"

"It's fine." Sasuke cut off his defense and closed his eyes. "At least you're stronger than before. I still have to thank you."

The complaint White Dog was halfway through stuck in his throat.

He huffed, lay down on the gravel beside Sasuke's head, rested his chin on his front paws, and tapped his tail against the ground with a rhythmic thwack-thwack.

"Finally realize my importance now?" White Dog muttered under his breath.

The sound of rolling gravel came from the direction of the training ground entrance.

White Dog sprang up from the ground instantly: "Someone's coming."

Sasuke opened his eyes and turned his head toward the pile of rubble at the entrance.

Sakura climbed up from behind the debris, one hand bracing against a nearby rock, her waist bent as she gasped for air.

The center of the training ground presented a scene she had never seen before.

The gravel on the ground had been scorched into several charred patches, and black mud was everywhere, slowly seeping down through the gaps in the stones.

And Sasuke lay right in the middle of this black sludge, his clothes torn in places, bloodstains marking his left arm and collar.

Both the white and black dogs turned toward her simultaneously.

"Sasuke-kun..." Sakura's voice sounded as if it were blocked by something; she couldn't get the first word out, and it took a hard swallow before she could force the words out.

"...What on earth are you doing?"