The Bone Vein's Softness and Hardness Hid an Even Higher Limit

"Wait until I get the blade, then I'll tell you which way its edge will point."

Yotsuki tucked his hand back into his sleeve, ignored the kunai Sasuke offered him, and walked alone toward the other side of the training ground.

Chiba did not press the matter. He took the kunai and weighed it in his hand.

"Too light."

"You said the same thing last time."

Sasuke tossed over a second kunai.

"This one has added weight. If you still think it's too light, go carry rocks yourself."

"Fine."

"I told you to test the kunai."

"It's all the same."

Naruto squeezed between them and reached for the third one on the table.

"I want to try too. Let's make this clear first—the loser buys ramen today."

"No one's competing with you."

"Chiba, are you afraid of losing?"

Chiba raised his hand and nailed the kunai into the wooden target thirty paces away. The tip pierced the bullseye, leaving only the ring exposed.

Naruto's hand still hung over the table.

"Pretend I said nothing."

After school, Chiba did not remain at the training ground.

Yotsuki had already delivered the message. How Danzo responded would be clear tonight from the number of watchers outside the clan grounds.

The moment he stepped into the western cave, a bone blade flew along the stone wall toward him.

Chiba twisted aside, and a Bone Wood Vine slipped from his sleeve to coil around the end of the bone blade.

"Your injuries healed pretty fast."

"Seventy percent."

Bai Ye walked over from the storeroom. His right leg still lagged half a beat when it touched down, but the old wound on his shoulder had already closed.

"You came back late."

"School."

"Two Root people came by. They stood outside the eastern wall for a while."

"Did they come in?"

"No."

"You did right."

Bai Ye caught the bone blade returned by the vine, flicked his wrist, and retracted its tip into his forearm.

"If I go out, will they see me?"

"They will."

"So I have to keep hiding here?"

"Until I sort out your identity."

"How long?"

"I don't know."

Bai Ye kicked aside the broken tiles blocking his path, revealing a root trench that had been filled in beneath them.

"The storeroom leaks, three bricks are missing from the eastern courtyard wall, and there's only uncooked rice in the kitchen. You call this a place people can live?"

"You've lived here for three days."

"Starting on the fourth day, I count as a person."

Chiba glanced at the patched roof.

The cuts on the boards were uneven, and a nail was missing too, but at least it would no longer leak.

"Who taught you to fix it?"

"There were books in the house."

"That was a record of clan property repairs."

"I could understand it."

"You learned all the characters?"

Bai Ye dodged the question and dragged two wooden posts into the courtyard.

"Want to fight?"

"Your leg hasn't recovered yet."

"So you're afraid of losing?"

"Naruto said that today too."

"Who's that?"

"An idiot who can't beat you."

"How did you answer him?"

Chiba took off his outer robe and draped it over the stone steps. Bone Wood Vines spread along his right arm.

"I made him shut up."

The first bone spike thrust from Bai Ye's palm. There was no probing attack; it went straight for Chiba's throat.

A vine blocked the bone blade from the side, and the internal framework sank half an inch under the impact.

Bai Ye slipped into that opening. Shoulder bone tore through his clothing, and a second bone spike drilled toward Chiba's ribs.

"Still charging straight in."

"If it hits, that's enough."

"Hit first, then talk."

Chiba released the vine blocking the bone blade, and roots beneath his feet dragged loose stones.

The spot where Bai Ye landed collapsed inward. His right leg could not pull free in time, and the shoulder spike grazed past Chiba's clothes.

A knot of vines closed from behind and locked around his waist and abdomen.

"You saw me retreat, so you chased after me."

"You retreated on purpose."

"Before doing what the enemy shows you, ask yourself what he wants you to do."

Bai Ye tugged at the vine around his waist as bone armor spread beneath his skin.

"If you think too long, the person's already run away."

"Still better than chasing into a trap."

"If Kaguya doesn't chase, the people behind will trample her."

"So you're the only one left."

The growth of the bone armor paused for a moment.

Bai Ye lowered his head and bit through the vine at his waist, but the break revealed a pale ring of bone framework.

"Again."

This time, he did not charge directly.

The two circled half a ring from six paces apart. Bai Ye threw a bone blade to the left, but his body cut in from the right.

Chiba evaded the blade tip, and the soil by his feet turned over with it.

A bone spike buried underground thrust toward his abdomen, while Bai Ye used it as cover and threw a punch from the front.

"One more layer."

Chiba raised his arm to block, and the Bone Wood framework clamped onto his opponent's wrist.

"Still two layers short."

"Which two?"

"A way out, and how to survive after you fail."

"Finish the fight first."

Bai Ye spread his five fingers. The wrist bone caught in the clamp actually bent inward.

His originally taut forearm softened. The bone curved around the vine knot, and his palm slipped out from the other side.

The next instant, the bent bone tightened straight again.

The edge of his palm struck Chiba in the chest.

The wooden protective layer dented inward, and two cracking sounds came from the framework inside.

Chiba stepped back, and roots sealed Bai Ye's footing.

"What was that just now?"

"My hand."

"I'm asking about the bone."

"It softened."

"Do it again."

Bai Ye raised his right arm, and a long, thin bone spike emerged from his palm.

At first, it bent freely with his fingers. But after touching a stone in the courtyard, its surface rapidly tightened, and the tip pierced half an inch into the rock.

Chiba slashed at the middle of the bone spike with a kunai.

The blade bounced away, leaving no mark on the spike.

"How much of it can you control?"

"Every part."

"Soft and hard at the same time?"

"Yes."

Bai Ye wrapped the bone spike around a wooden post, keeping its tail curved while the front hardened in an instant.

The bone spike tightened inward, snapping the post in half.

The World Tree skill map unfolded on its own, and a new fine branch lit up beside the skeletal reinforcement node.

[High-level Shikotsumyaku application detected.]

[Target can actively adjust bone density and elasticity.]

[Current bloodline awakening depth exceeds recorded samples.]

Chiba watched Bai Ye for a while.

In the memories of his previous life, Kimimaro had been able to freely draw out his bones, alter their shape, and use density to give them hardness close to steel.

Bai Ye had gone one step further.

His bones could first bypass a defense, then harden at the instant they struck.

"Did you use this in the laboratory?"

"They made my bones hard. Soft Bone would be cut off."

"Why?"

"After being put in bottles, it would return to normal. They thought it was useless."

"Idiots."

Bai Ye retracted the bone spike.

"What do you want to use it for?"

"To teach you how to kill people."

"I already know how."

"You only know how to charge forward."

"As long as I can kill them."

Chiba picked up the broken post and drew three routes on the ground.

"If the enemy is here, there are people behind you, and a trap on the left, which way do you go?"

"The middle."

"Choose again."

"The middle."

"Why?"

"Kill the enemy first."

Bone Wood Vines rose from the ground and pressed Bai Ye into the muddy pit beside him.

Bai Ye pushed up his upper body and spat out the grass roots in his mouth.

"Which side was that?"

"Down."

"Again."

Over the next half hour, seven more pits appeared in the courtyard.

After Bai Ye stepped on the same trip vine for the third time, he did not advance again. Instead, he extended Soft Bone along the ground for two zhang.

The bone spike bypassed the first trap, then encountered a second layer of Root Network underground.

"Found it."

"You only found what I wanted you to find."

The rustle of vine leaves came from behind him.

Bai Ye did not turn around. His shoulder blades extended beneath his clothes, staying soft as they curled around his waist before hardening into blades as they neared Chiba.

The Bone Wood Vines blocked the bone blades in time, locking the two together.

"What about this time?"

"I can live."

"Can you win?"

"Not yet."

"Keep going tomorrow."

Bai Ye retracted the bone from his shoulder, walked over to the stone steps, and picked up Chiba's outer robe.

He did not hand it over right away. First, he wiped the mud from its hem.

"What about those two outside the eastern wall?"

"Let them watch an empty courtyard."

"What if they come in?"

"You guard the western cave. I'll guard the main house."

"You're leaving your back to me?"

"If you wanted to kill me, you would've done it last night."

Bai Ye tossed the robe back to him.

"My injuries from last night haven't healed."

"You can try tonight."

"Wait until I'm fully healed."

"Fine."

As Chiba turned toward the main house, Bai Ye had already picked up the two broken wooden stakes and set them back up in the middle of the courtyard.

The bone spikes behind him did not follow. Instead, they burrowed into the soil along the base of the wall, patching the gap in the Root Network by the western cave.

The next day, the Ninja Academy covered an entire wall with registration forms for the early graduation exam.