Inside and outside the tent seemed like two entirely different worlds.
Inside the tent, the charcoal fire blazed brightly again.
Meat sizzled on the grill as the fat heated up, its aroma drifting outward with wisps of white smoke.
Choji stayed beside the grill, his chopsticks barely pausing.
Kiba was wringing out Akamaru's soaked fur, only for Akamaru to shake water all over him, while Naruto lay at the edge of the tent, occasionally looking out at the curtain of rain.
Outside the tent, rain poured down.
Cangyue lay in the middle of the riverbank, letting the rain wash over him.
The Flame and Thunder Swords stood planted in the mud, one on either side of him.
The Flame Sword steamed with white mist, while tiny arcs of electricity occasionally leaped from the Thunder Sword.
Rain struck their scabbards in a rapid, crisp patter.
No one spoke.
Everyone looked from the meat over the fire to Cangyue in the rain, unsure whether to eat first or keep watching.
The atmosphere had become inexplicably awkward.
[Valor Points +13]
Cangyue paid it no mind.
Cold rain fell on his face, dripping steadily from his hair and chin.
His breathing remained even, as though he really had sunk into a dream.
Within his consciousness, the system panel quietly unfolded.
He had enough valor points available now.
[Total valor points earned: 516] [Currently available valor points: 361]
Cangyue did not hesitate.
"Spend 300 valor points."
"Upgrade swordsmanship."
[Valor Points -300] [Swordsmanship upgraded to lv.3]
The instant the notification appeared, Cangyue's consciousness plunged.
Countless unfamiliar, profound insights flooded his mind.
Gripping a sword, drawing it, turning his wrist, stepping forward.
The angles of his cuts, changes in airflow, the transfer of force, even the minute adjustments of each finger during different sword movements-all of it was imprinted directly into his body, as though refined through thousands of repetitions.
In his perception, the downpour was no longer merely a chaotic curtain of water.
Every raindrop had its own trajectory.
They fell from the clouds, shifted with the wind, veered through the air, and finally struck the ground.
Countless raindrops interwove into an ever-changing net.
And the sword was the line that severed that net.
Cangyue's fingers twitched gently.
The Flame and Thunder Swords planted beside him trembled together.
Humm-
The swords' ringing was buried beneath the rain, yet reached his ears clearly.
Cangyue suddenly understood that this upgrade had given him more than greater mastery of technique.
There was something else, something difficult to put into words.
Sharpness, focus, an unwavering drive forward.
As though anything in the world could become a sword wherever his will directed it.
This seemed to be...
Sword intent.
Inside the tent, everyone was still watching Cangyue.
"He's been lying there for ages."
Ino sat beside the fire with her knees hugged to her chest, her gaze repeatedly straying past the edge of the tent.
The rain showed no sign of easing.
A shallow layer of water had gathered on the riverbank, and Cangyue's clothes were completely soaked. Just looking at him made them feel cold.
Ino frowned.
"Is that idiot really going to stay out there until he gets sick?"
"I already called him," Naruto said immediately. "He just ignored me!"
"Then drag him inside," Sakura suggested.
Kiba glanced at the two swords in the rain.
"You going?"
Sakura fell silent.
Cangyue had just pinned Sasuke to the ground with the Thunder Sword.
Now both swords were planted beside him, and no one knew what might happen if they approached rashly.
After a moment's hesitation, Ino pulled over a spare waterproof sheet.
"If calling him won't work, how about bringing him an umbrella?"
She was just about to stand when a piercing ring of steel suddenly overwhelmed the rain.
Clang!
Cangyue's eyes snapped open.
Both his palms struck the ground, launching him out of the pooled water.
Before he had even found his footing, his hands had closed around the sword hilts.
Draw!
Firelight and lightning tore through the curtain of rain together.
The nearest raindrops instantly burst into white mist. Tiny arcs darted through it, lighting up the space around Cangyue.
Everyone inside the tent stopped what they were doing.
Cangyue stepped forward, crossing his swords.
The Flame Sword swept horizontally.
The Thunder Sword slashed diagonally upward.
Neither blade pointed at anyone. He simply wielded them freely in the rain.
He advanced, then spun, the twin swords leaving trails of afterimages beside him.
Water splashed beneath his feet, and before the flying droplets could land, his blades sliced neatly through them.
Where the Flame Sword passed, rain steamed into mist.
When the Thunder Sword swept by, fine arcs flashed along the raindrops and vanished.
At first, Cangyue's movements still seemed somewhat deliberate.
After a few breaths, every move became natural.
As his arm rose, the sword was already where it needed to be.
As his foot came down, his body slipped neatly past the densest rainfall.
The swords moved one ahead of the other, then one above the other, without the slightest hitch between them.
It was as though he was not wielding the swords.
Instead, the two blades were using his body to dance through the rain on their own.
"First he said he was going to grasp sword intent in a dream, and now he's suddenly up practicing."
Kiba held Akamaru, looking utterly speechless.
"Was he even asleep?"
Leaning against a wooden pole, Shikamaru drawled, "Probably sleepwalking."
"Sleepwalking with swords is way too dangerous!" Sakura could not help retorting.
Naruto's eyes, however, grew brighter and brighter.
He did not care whether Cangyue had been asleep. He simply thought this sword dance was even more impressive than the sparring match earlier.
"He must've succeeded in his training!"
"Look, his swords are faster than before!"
Sasuke immediately fixed his gaze on Cangyue.
Naruto's judgment was rarely reliable, but this time, he was right.
Cangyue's swords really had become faster.
And it was not just their speed.
During their earlier spar, Cangyue had relied on the power of the swords themselves and chakra control far beyond a student's level.
Now, things were different.
Every stroke had become clean and decisive.
There were no unnecessary movements, no wasted strength.
Sasuke even found himself imagining something.
Even if Cangyue were holding two ordinary branches instead of the Flame and Thunder Swords, he could still easily slice through a kunai Sasuke threw at him.
[Valor Points +9]
Cangyue glanced at the notification and wielded his swords with even greater enthusiasm.
This was the perfect chance to use his newfound insights to fully familiarize himself with his current swordsmanship.
He took half a step forward.
The Flame Sword swept upward, drawing the white mist into a long line.
The Thunder Sword followed close behind, piercing the mist.
Boom!
The white mist abruptly burst outward to either side.
The rain within several meters of Cangyue vanished all at once.
Ino stared blankly for a moment, then suddenly held out her hand.
Not a single drop landed on her palm.
"Has the rain stopped?"
Her voice was soft, but it immediately caught everyone's attention.
The sound of rain still filled the world outside the tent.
But when they listened closely, those sounds seemed to come from farther away.
Curious, Ino stepped out of the tent.
"Ino, it's still raining outside!" Sakura hurriedly warned her.
Ino had already walked out.
She stood on the completely exposed riverbank and looked up at the sky.
Dark clouds churned overhead.
Rain was plainly still falling, yet her hair and clothes did not get wet again.
"It really has stopped!"
Naruto immediately rushed out of the tent.
He tilted his face upward and waited for quite a while, but no rain fell on it.
Kiba came out carrying Akamaru, and Choji followed with a plate of grilled meat.
Sakura, Tenten, Neji, and Sasuke also stepped out of the tent, one after another.
"How is this possible?"
Tenten walked to the edge of the riverbank and cautiously extended her hand.
The moment her fingertips crossed an invisible boundary, they touched cold rain.
She quickly pulled her hand back.
Droplets trickled from her fingertips.
There was no rain near the tent.
Yet just a few steps away, the downpour continued.
It was as though an invisible wall had split the entire rainfall in two.
Might Guy slowly raised his hand, his expression more solemn than ever.
His palm faced Cangyue.
Though it touched nothing solid, he could feel a faint stinging sensation, as if countless invisible blades were grazing his skin.
He stared at Cangyue dancing with his swords in the rain.
Might Guy took a deep breath.
"The rain hasn't stopped."
Everyone turned to look at him.
Might Guy's voice deepened.
"Cangyue's sword intent has cut off this curtain of rain."
At his words, everyone abruptly looked up.
At last, they could clearly see what was happening overhead.
Countless raindrops fell from high above.
Once it reached the air above the riverbank, however, the rain seemed to strike an invisible greatsword stretching between heaven and earth.
The curtain of rain split down the middle.
The water parted neatly to either side, leaving a clear patch above Cangyue's head untouched by the downpour.
And as Cangyue swung his twin swords, that patch slowly expanded.
Everyone's expressions froze completely.
Ino opened her mouth several times before finally stammering:
"He... really can get stronger by sleeping?!"
[Valor Points +146]
Cangyue's sword strokes paused for a moment.
146 points?
A moment ago, the gains had still been in the single digits or low teens. Now they had jumped straight into triple digits.
Without stopping, Cangyue spun and slashed with his flame sword while checking the sources of these Valor Points.
Might Guy, Sasuke, Neji, and the others had indeed experienced considerable emotional fluctuations.
But the source accounting for the largest share was hidden inside Naruto.
The Nine-Tails!
A flicker of surprise crossed Cangyue's eyes.
He had always focused on stunning the people around him, completely overlooking the special audience member hidden inside Naruto.
In terms of strength, the Nine-Tails was unquestionably among the very strongest in the Shinobi World.
The Valor Points earned from powerful beings far exceeded those from ordinary people.
Cangyue's thoughts raced.
Perhaps he ought to stir things up around Naruto more often from now on.
Meanwhile, in the sealed space inside Naruto.
The Nine-Tails, which had been lying behind the iron gate, suddenly stood up.
Its nine tails swept through the standing water, sending great waves surging outward.
Its bestial eyes widened as it stared through Naruto's senses at the boy wielding twin swords outside.
Although the seal restricted its body, it did not completely cut off its perception of the outside world.
Over the years, the Nine-Tails had seen plenty of humans.
The arrogant, the foolish, the insane-they were everywhere.
Cangyue was rather eccentric, but still within the bounds of what it could accept.
But someone whose strength suddenly skyrocketed after a nap?
It had truly never seen anyone like that before.
The Nine-Tails' senses were far keener than those of the students in the tent.
It could tell with certainty that Cangyue had not deliberately concealed his strength earlier.
That incredibly sharp aura really had appeared abruptly at some point just moments ago.
The change had been so fast that it made no sense.
If Cangyue had previously been a burning candle, then the moment he opened his eyes, that faint flame had suddenly become a dazzling lamp.
There had been no buildup.
No transition.
He had merely lain in the rain for a while, then suddenly mastered sword intent.
The Nine-Tails slowly approached the iron gate, its breath washing over the bars.
Outside, Cangyue happened to swing his final stroke.
The blade slashed through the air.
The invisible sword intent enveloping the riverbank burst apart, and the rainwater gathered on either side lost its barrier and poured back toward the center.
The downpour fell once more.
Yet no one returned to the tent.
They stood in the rain, staring blankly at Cangyue as he stood with his swords in hand.
Inside the sealed space, the Nine-Tails' pupils narrowed to fine slits.
For the first time, it made a point of remembering this human's name.
Kambara Sogetsu.
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