Moonlit Provocation from ANBU

The following evening, in the backyard of the Senju ancestral estate.

Tsunade sat on the wooden steps of the corridor, gulping down sake. Three empty sake flasks and an overturned teacup lay by her feet, water from the cup seeping into a small wet patch on the floorboards.

Anko was practicing with her blade against a Wood Release training post in the open space at the center of the yard. Every slash cut through the air with a whistle, sweat dripping from her chin onto the dirt.

Yuhi Kurenai sat at the other end of the corridor with her legs together and angled to one side, silently reading a scroll containing the Yin Release condensation method Chiba had given her. Her crimson eyes stood out especially brightly in the fading light.

Chiba stood in the middle of the yard with his hands pressed together. Between his palms, a fist-sized jade-green sphere of light slowly rotated.

"Anko, you're too slow when retracting Hidden Shadow Many Snake Hands. Your shoulder moves first when the vines pull back. Your opponent can predict the direction of your next move just by watching your shoulder."

Anko's blade stopped in midair. She turned and glared at Chiba.

"Can you let me memorize this new sword style before criticizing anything else?"

"Kurenai, there's a typo on the third page of that method. Change the rice radical beside 'jing' to 'qing.' My hand shook when I copied it last night."

Yuhi Kurenai flipped to the third page and took a look.

"Chiba, your hand can actually shake?"

"Someone leaned against my chest for half an hour last night. The blood stopped circulating in my arm."

A faint blush rose across Yuhi Kurenai's face. She raised the scroll two inches higher to hide her expression.

Tsunade took a swig of sake and slammed the flask against the floorboards. The hollow thud rang through the entire backyard.

"Senju Chiba, try flirting with another woman in front of me one more time."

"Lady Tsunade, I'm teaching seriously."

"You call that serious teaching? Did you think I didn't know you held her in your arms last night to adjust her meridians?"

Chiba separated his clasped hands, and the jade-green sphere dissipated from his palms. He turned toward the blonde woman drinking sake on the corridor, his expression so righteous it was shameless.

"That was medical treatment. Lady Tsunade, as the greatest medical ninja in the shinobi world, you should understand best the professional necessity of using chakra to assist in clearing the meridians."

"Don't try to fool me with professional jargon. You know exactly how many extra times you touched her when your left hand was on her back."

Anko planted her blade in the ground, folded her arms, and laughed so hard she doubled over.

"Lady Tsunade, you were secretly watching the whole time? Didn't you say you went back to your room early?"

"Shut up, Anko!"

Yuhi Kurenai slowly lowered the scroll. Her crimson eyes swept across the three of them before finally landing on Chiba.

"Chiba, you told me last night that you only touched my back."

"I did only touch your back."

"Then what did Lady Tsunade mean when she said you touched me a few extra times?"

"That was technique—the standard medical technique for clearing the acupoints on both sides of the spine. Go check Volume Four, Chapter Seven of Konoha Hospital's operating procedures."

Tsunade hurled the sake flask at Chiba. He tilted his head aside, and the flask smashed against the Wood Release training post behind him, breaking into three pieces.

"You really can spin a tale. Do you think I don't know what Volume Four, Chapter Seven says? That chapter is about orthopedic bone-setting techniques. It has absolutely nothing to do with clearing meridians!"

"Lady Tsunade's memory truly is astounding."

"You're praising me now?!"

The backyard's battlefield of romance kept heating up under the evening glow. Anko laughed until she crouched on the ground, Yuhi Kurenai's ears were red as if they were burning, and Tsunade's anger visibly climbed.

Surrounded by three women, Chiba remained utterly at ease. The curve of his lips never changed from beginning to end.

This was daily life at the Senju Main Residence.

"All right, all right. Stop fooling around."

Chiba clapped his hands, and his tone shifted into serious mode.

"Anko, come here. Kurenai, you too. I'll teach you a new coordinated formation."

Anko pulled her blade from the ground, jogged over, and took her place at Chiba's left.

Yuhi Kurenai put away the scroll, came down from the corridor, and stood at Chiba's right.

"I designed this formation around the way your abilities complement each other. Anko will break in at close range and disrupt the opponent's rhythm. Kurenai will cast genjutsu from the rear to interfere with their senses, while I use Wood Release in the center to alter the terrain and create cover and advance routes for you."

Chiba drew a triangle in the open ground between them with his right hand.

"The core of the formation is synchronized information. I'll attach miniature Wood Release vines to your wrists and use chakra pulses to relay battlefield information."

Anko held out her left hand. With a tap of Chiba's fingertip, a green vine as thin as a hair wrapped around her wrist, lying against the surface of her skin and nearly impossible to see.

"Ew, that tickles."

Yuhi Kurenai held out her hand as well, and Chiba wrapped one around her wrist too.

"Good. Now we'll practice transmitting signals."

"I'll send you a simple signal first. Feel what the frequency of the chakra pulse means."

Chiba flicked a finger through the air. Both vines gave a faint twitch at the same time.

"This means attention—something's happening."

Anko nodded.

"Chiba, what's the second one?"

Chiba flicked his fingers twice, and the vines pulsed twice in rapid succession.

"This means immediately retreat to my side."

Yuhi Kurenai's brows shifted slightly.

"And the third?"

Just as Chiba was about to demonstrate the third signal, his body suddenly froze.

Not because he chose to stop, but because his spiritual perception had suddenly caught something.

A chakra fluctuation.

It came from far away—from the summit of Hokage Rock, roughly twelve hundred meters distant.

The nature of that chakra fluctuation was unusual. Sharp, condensed, carrying the ultimate fineness that came from long compression and refinement, like the tip of a needle sharpened ten thousand times.

Sword intent.

Chiba's gaze passed through the backyard wall, over Konoha's clustered rooftops, and settled in the direction of Hokage Rock.

Hokage Rock had become a black silhouette in the twilight. The outlines of the stone faces from the First to the Fourth looked vast and silent beneath the lingering sunset.

Someone stood atop the First Hokage's stone head.

A slender figure with a long sword on her back, her purple hair drifting in the evening breeze.

The chakra signature of ANBU.

Chiba focused his spiritual power on that person like a microscope trained on a specimen slide, seeing the structure of her chakra with perfect clarity.

Female, around twenty. The circulation pattern of chakra in her body was the standard high-speed ANBU type, but unlike ordinary ANBU, an extremely thin membrane of Wind Release chakra covered her body. That membrane compressed her presence to the absolute limit.

If Chiba had not just completed his Yin-Yang balance, raising the range and precision of his perception by several levels, this person's presence could have almost perfectly hidden within the chakra background of Hokage Rock's stone.

More interestingly, she was not hiding.

She stood in the most conspicuous position on Hokage Rock, facing the Senju Main Residence, her sword intent released to a degree deliberately meant to be noticed.

This was a challenge.

Tsunade sensed something from the corridor as well. She lowered her sake flask, her brows drawing together.

"Chiba, there's someone in the direction of Hokage Rock."

"I know. ANBU."

Anko's hand closed around her sword hilt, and she lowered her center of gravity slightly.

"One of the Third's people? How many?"

"One. A woman. A swordswoman."

The corner of Chiba's mouth curved upward.

His spiritual power continued to focus on that figure: purple hair, a slender yet extremely taut body, standard ANBU combat attire clinging to her outline.

The sheath of the long sword on her back bore the Uzuki clan crest.

Uzuki Yugao.

Heir to Konoha-Style Swordsmanship, captain of ANBU Squad Six, and one of the top three active female shinobi in Konoha in close combat.

Chiba summoned the system panel in his mind and gave it a glance.

[Potential romantic target detected: Uzuki Yugao. Current affection: 0. Special tag: Cold Beauty Sword Princess.]

Chiba closed the panel, pulled his hand from his pocket, and flexed his fingers.

"Anko, put away your sword. Kurenai, stand back too. Today's training ends early."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes.

"You're going?"

"The Third sent her to probe me. If I don't go, that old monkey will think Wood Release is the only trick I have."

Chiba took two steps toward the backyard gate, and Anko followed him.

"I'm coming with you."

"No need. I can handle it alone."

Chiba walked beneath a willow tree in the corner of the yard, snapped off an arm-length willow branch, and flicked it twice in his hand. The supple branch drew an arc through the air.

Tsunade rose from the corridor.

"Senju Chiba, you're taking a willow branch to fight an ANBU swordswoman?"

"Lady Tsunade, it's enough."

Chiba rested the willow branch over his shoulder and headed toward the main residence.

When he reached the courtyard gate, he looked back at the three women in the backyard, each wearing a different expression.

Tsunade looked helpless and worried. Anko bit on a bamboo skewer with an eager, entertained grin. Yuhi Kurenai's crimson eyes held complicated concern.

"Don't wait for me to eat. I might be back late."

Chiba disappeared beyond the courtyard gate.

Anko turned to Tsunade.

"Lady Tsunade, he's about to stir up trouble again."

Tsunade sat back down on the steps and reached for another flask of sake.

"That brat is already looking for the next one before the last has even warmed up."

Yuhi Kurenai's face turned red again.