While Uchiha Hikari was stretching her muscles...
At the Nara Residence, the afternoon sunlight spilled lazily across the courtyard.
Shikamaru was enjoying a stretch of leisure before his life as a workhorse began, free of paperwork, emergency meetings, and "what a drag" affairs. He lay in his room, gazing through the window at the shifting clouds, enjoying the vacation Naruto had granted him.
Suddenly, a powerful, domineering surge of chakra, seemingly capable of piercing the heavens, erupted from the direction of the Hyuga Clan's residence!
Shikamaru practically sprang off the floor, his lazy gaze turning sharp in an instant.
He yanked open his door and flashed into the courtyard, his eyes locked on the Hyuga Clan Compound.
Although the chakra surge had vanished almost as soon as it appeared, its nature and intensity were far beyond anything an ordinary ninja could possess. It even carried an unfamiliar, vaguely terrifying pressure.
"What happened?"
Shikamaru frowned deeply and murmured to himself. The Hyuga Clan had always been known for its strict Main Family and Branch Family system, and its internal affairs rarely caused such a commotion.
A chakra eruption of this magnitude-had a powerful enemy invaded?
Or had something happened within the clan?
Almost simultaneously, the sliding door of the next room was flung open.
Shikaku Nara, the Acting Hokage appointed by the Sixth Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, before his departure, had only been in office for a few days. His hair was somewhat disheveled, and although his eyes were still heavy with sleep, his gaze was already alert. His expression was visibly sour.
He had finally finished dealing with a mountain of documents today and found time to catch an afternoon nap, only to be jolted awake by this sudden chakra surge shortly after lying down.
For an Acting Hokage who needed