The afternoon sun spilled over the old site of the Konoha Military Police Force. The seals on the windows had yellowed and curled at the edges, and the sign in front of the building hung crookedly.
Sasuke walked straight through the narrow alley beside the Military Police Force and headed deeper into the clan grounds, toward the training field.
"Finally, you're getting started!" White Dog grinned from ear to ear. "If you didn't start training soon, you'd really waste away at the Ninja Academy, throwing shuriken with a bunch of brats until you were grown."
Black Dog stepped half a pace ahead of Sasuke and tilted his head to look at him. "Escaping Rabbit?"
"Yeah." Sasuke snapped a dead branch underfoot. It cracked sharply.
"Normally, a tamed Shikigami won't run wild, but something's changed in you all. I'm not sure what'll happen with Escaping Rabbit."
"You and White will handle the perimeter. Don't let any of them leave the training field."
"Got it. Why Escaping Rabbit?" Black Dog looked away without changing his pace.
"Small, inconspicuous, and numerous. Their bodies are like containers. I'm still a kid, so I can't hold much water. Right now, information matters more than combat strength."
White Dog ran a lap around the area and quickly returned. "Nobody nearby. These people sure are confident leaving you alone in a place like this."
"They're not confident." Sasuke left the stone stool and walked toward the center of the training field.
"They just don't think there's anything worth monitoring here. What could a kid possibly do among the ruins of a clan that's been wiped out?"
"Then they're in for a surprise." White Dog smugly lifted his chin.
Sasuke sat cross-legged in the very center of the training field.
He closed his eyes, rested his hands on his knees, and sank his awareness into his body.
A layer of dark energy had settled at the bottom of his Cursed Energy Pool, filling a little over twenty percent of it.
Sasuke opened his eyes and stood. He checked the tools in his ninja pouch.
Then he began forming the hand signs for a rabbit.
"Move back to the stone wall."
White Dog and Black Dog leaped away at the same time, landing on the stone wall ten meters away. They crouched on either side, watching the center of the field.
The shadow beneath Sasuke suddenly expanded, spreading across the ground into a black disk ten meters in diameter.
The disk's edge began to churn, bubbling like boiling water.
The first rabbit sprang out of the shadow.
It was pure white, with dark red eyes and a body half the size of an ordinary hare. Its white fur clung to tight muscles, and its long ears were pinned flat against its head.
The moment it landed, its hind legs dug a small hole in the hard ground, sending gravel flying behind it.
A second rabbit leaped out, followed by seven or eight more all at once.
Then the churning at the edge of the shadow intensified, and a flood of white rabbits poured out.
Dozens of them leaped at him at once.
Sasuke had already completed six hand signs as they jumped.
It's great to have techniques I can actually use. How miserable was my life before, when all I could do was use Ten Shadows to tame Shikigami?
His chest swelled as chakra surged through his pathways and into his throat.
"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu."
More than ten fireballs shot from his mouth, tracing scattered arcs through the air.
They slammed into the mass of white rabbits. The burst of sparks set the fur of more than ten in front ablaze.
The rabbits struck by Phoenix Flower Fire turned to black mud before they even hit the ground, splattering onto the hard earth.
But more rabbits charged over the black mud left by their vanishing companions.
Sasuke stamped his right heel against the ground, and the enormous shadow beneath him changed shape.
Driven by chakra shape transformation, the shadow rose into several black barriers half a person's height, blocking the seven or eight rabbits pouncing from the left.
The Escaping Rabbits slammed into the barriers, clawing at their surface with their forepaws. A shrill sound like metal scraping rang out.
More than thirty were still charging straight at him.
The last flames from Phoenix Flower Fire hadn't even faded when he formed hand signs again.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
A two-meter-wide fireball blasted from his mouth and struck the center of the white torrent.
More than ten rabbits were swallowed by the intense heat. They turned to black mud without even a chance to cry out.
The pressure from the flames sent several smaller rabbits tumbling through the air. They slammed into the stone wall with dull thuds.
Sasuke reached for the ninja pouch on the outside of his left thigh. He flicked open the leather strap with his thumb and pulled out three shuriken.
His right hand caught one, while the other two remained between the fingers of his left.
An Escaping Rabbit leaped from the smoky flames, soaring higher than his head as it stretched out its forepaws and lunged at his face.
Sasuke swept his right arm upward, and the shuriken slashed into the rabbit's soft belly from below.
At the same time, he leaned left. The rabbit's claws grazed the edge of his right ear.
His right hand followed through, slicing the shuriken across the wound in its belly. The rabbit's body split in two midair, dissolving into black mud that splattered across his shoulder.
The moment he landed, the two shuriken between the fingers of his left hand shot out.
One struck the eye socket of a rabbit to the front left. The other pierced the hind leg joint of a rabbit leaping in from the rear right. Both rabbits fell to the ground, twitched twice, and vanished.
Sasuke had held out for about three minutes since the start. The number of Escaping Rabbits was beginning to dwindle.
"White! Black!"
The last shuriken between his right-hand fingers flew from his grasp.
The two dogs leaped down from the stone wall at the same time.
White Dog stepped onto the top of a shadow barrier and used it to launch himself behind the tail end of the rabbit swarm. He bared his fangs and began barking loudly, driving the rabbits onward.
Black Dog circled around from the side, keeping low as he used a threatening stance to herd the scattered rabbits at the edges back toward the main group.
Caught between the two dogs, the Escaping Rabbits lost their rhythm and finally gathered together again.
Now.
Sasuke formed hand signs, and another Great Fireball Technique roared forth.
The flames exploded right in the middle of the densely packed white rabbits.
This time, the Great Fireball swallowed the entire swarm.
Black mud splattered in every direction, staining the center of the training field with a sticky, dark mess.
Sasuke didn't have time to catch his breath. Two rabbits had slipped through the flames' blind spot and were racing straight for his ankles.
Too close. No time to form hand signs.
He threw up his left arm to block them. One rabbit sank its teeth into the flesh between his forearm and wrist, embedding them about two millimeters deep.
His right hand pulled a Kunai from his ninja pouch and slashed across, cutting the rabbit's throat.
During the moment he took to breathe, the last rabbit leaped onto his chest and tore open his collar.
White Dog darted in from the side, clamped his jaws around the rabbit's hind leg, and flung it into the air.
Escaping Rabbit: tamed.
"This version of Escaping Rabbit... It really is different." Sasuke bent over, bracing both hands on his knees.
The original Escaping Rabbit also attacked in a swarm, but each individual was fragile, and its bite was negligible.
These rabbits, raised on a mixture of chakra and Cursed Energy, were different. Their hind legs could crack gravel when they kicked off, and their teeth could pierce skin. Even their attack formations were more complex than the original's.
That coordinated encirclement from all sides just now had been anything but instinctive.
This version of the Ten Shadows Technique had completely different rules from the original. He'd have to spend time studying how the two systems fused.
Sasuke fell backward onto the gravel.
His back struck the stones with a dull thud.
He was covered in a mixture of sweat and blood from his chest to his calves, and his loose collar hung off his collarbones.
Several bites on his arm were still oozing blood, but none were deep. They would stop on their own without bandages.
The trees surrounding the training field cut the Sky overhead into irregular shapes. Sunlight slipped through the leaves and fell across his face.
White Dog walked over and lowered his head to sniff the wounds on Sasuke's arm.
"Heh, you're looking a little worse for wear. But this great guy isn't tired yet!"
"You did nothing but slack off the whole time, of course you're not tired." Sasuke stared up at the branches, his voice drained of strength.
"What do you mean, slack off!" White Dog bristled. "Didn't you see me herd all the scattered rabbits back? And that last one—"
"Not bad." Sasuke cut off his protest and closed his eyes. "Still, it's better than before. I have to thank you both."
White Dog's complaint caught in his throat.
He snorted and lay down on the gravel beside Sasuke's head, resting his chin on his forepaws. His tail thumped against the ground behind him.
"Now you understand how important I am?" White Dog muttered.
Gravel rolled near the entrance to the training field.
White Dog sprang to his feet. "Someone's coming."
Sasuke opened his eyes and turned toward the pile of rubble at the entrance.
Sakura climbed up from behind it, one hand braced against a nearby rock as she bent over and gasped for breath.
The scene at the center of the training field was one she had never seen before.
The fire had scorched several patches of gravel-blackened ground. Black mud was scattered everywhere, slowly seeping into the cracks between the stones.
Sasuke lay right in the middle of it, his clothes torn in places, bloodstains on his left arm and collar.
The white dog and the black dog both turned to look at her.
"Sasuke-kun..." Sakura's voice sounded choked. She couldn't get the first words out, and had to swallow before she forced them out.
"...What on earth are you doing?"
Before you continue