Swordsmanship Lv. 4, Flying Sword!

[Spend 800 Valor Points to upgrade swordsmanship?]

Cangyue looked at the panel and hesitated for only a moment.

"Upgrade."

[Valor Points -800]

The instant the notification appeared, a vast flood of swordsmanship insights poured into his mind.

Everything before Cangyue's eyes seemed to stand still.

The weight and edges of the Flame and Thunder Swords, the flow of chakra, even the air resistance along every inch of their blades-all became incredibly clear.

Before, he had needed to grip the hilt to attach his sword intent to the blade.

Even when he parted a downpour, the sword had still been an extension of his arm.

Now, everything had changed.

Sword intent surged from Cangyue's body, forming an invisible connection with the Flame and Thunder Swords on the table.

No touching required.

No grip required.

With just a thought, the swords knew where to go.

Cangyue opened his eyes.

The Flame and Thunder Swords on the table trembled gently.

Humm-

The hum of the swords rang through the room.

The two longswords, one purple and one blue, slipped from their sheaths on their own and hovered in midair.

Cangyue raised a finger.

Both swords rose with it.

He pointed left, and both swords shifted left.

He pointed right, and both immediately changed direction.

He suddenly clenched his fist.

Both swords stopped at once.

Their tips were barely half an inch from the wall, yet their blades did not waver in the slightest.

Cangyue's eyes brightened a little.

This was the next level of swordsmanship.

Sword intent could no longer merely cling to a weapon; it could now control swords from a distance through thought.

Whether the sword was in his hand...

Or out of his hand...

It no longer made any difference.

Cangyue pushed open the door and entered the backyard.

The night breeze blew, sending leaves drifting down.

He looked up.

The Flame and Thunder Swords suddenly became two streaks of light, one purple and one blue.

Whoosh!

The Flame and Thunder Sword skimmed over the ground, rounded the stone table, then turned sharply upward along the courtyard wall.

The other sword shot straight into the treetop.

Before a dozen or so falling leaves could reach the ground, the two streaks of sword light crossed through them.

The swords fell silent.

The Flame and Thunder Swords hovered beside Cangyue again.

The leaves their edges had swept through continued drifting through the air. Only when they landed did they split neatly in half.

Cangyue watched for a moment.

Flying Sword attacks were certainly effective.

Not only were they fast, but they could also strike an enemy from different directions.

Combined with sword intent, they would probably leave ordinary ninja unable to tell where either sword was coming from.

But all that was secondary.

What Cangyue truly cared about was something else.

He made the two swords hover side by side, their blades half a foot apart and roughly a person's height above the ground.

Then he went back inside and carried out his bedding.

Spread over the two swords, it formed a narrow bed just the right size.

Cangyue pressed down on it.

A little lumpy.

But that was no big deal.

He brought out a pillow as well, set it near the hilts, then climbed up and lay down.

The blades sank slightly.

With a thought from Cangyue, both swords immediately regained their balance.

He rolled over.

The swords adjusted their angles with him.

Cangyue lay on his side, lay flat, and even crossed one leg over the other. The blades remained steady throughout.

Finally, he pillowed his head on his hands and guided the swords on a slow circuit of the courtyard.

The wind blew beneath him.

The view was more open than when he walked.

The speed was greater than walking, too.

Most importantly!

He no longer had to move himself.

Cangyue was thoroughly satisfied.

As expected, the greatest use of Flying Sword was not killing.

It was getting around.

From this day on, he was done walking.

The next day, at the Ninja Academy.

Iruka stood behind the lectern, taking attendance from a roster.

"Shikamaru Nara."

"Here."

"Ino Yamanaka."

"Here."

"Kambara Sogetsu..."

No one in the classroom answered.

Iruka looked up at the empty seat in the back row.

"Kambara Sogetsu?"

Still no answer.

Naruto turned to look, his face full of confusion.

"Huh? Cangyue's actually late today?"

Holding Akamaru, Kiba remarked casually, "Maybe he overdid his Dream Training last night and still hasn't woken up."

Shikamaru sprawled over his desk and lazily added another possibility.

"Or maybe he just couldn't be bothered to walk."

Sasuke looked at the empty seat without saying anything.

Cangyue was rarely late because of sleep.

He usually arrived at the classroom early, then put his head down on his desk and went back to sleep.

For him to remain absent even during roll call was certainly unusual.

Iruka was about to mark him late when a clear sword hum suddenly came from outside the window.

Humm-

Everyone turned at once.

A streak of purple sword light flashed past the window.

A blue glow appeared right after it.

Hovering side by side, the Flame and Thunder Swords slowly flew into the classroom through the second-floor window.

A thin blanket covered their blades.

Cangyue lay on his side atop the two swords, propping his head up with one hand and holding his breakfast in the other, eating at a leisurely pace.

The flying swords drifted overhead through the classroom.

They were not moving fast.

But they were exceptionally steady.

"Cangyue!"

Naruto was the first to jump up.

"You flew in!"

Cangyue took a bite of his rice ball.

"So I noticed."

"What jutsu is that?"

"Flying Sword."

Naruto's eyes lit up, and he followed alongside the flying swords.

"So you can fly all the time from now on?"

"Yeah."

"What about walking?"

Cangyue fell silent for a moment.

He looked at Naruto as though he had asked a completely pointless question.

"Why would I walk?"

Naruto opened his mouth, but could not find a single argument against that.

Kiba raised a hand and rubbed his eyes.

When he opened them again, the Flame and Thunder Swords were still hovering in midair.

Cangyue was not even touching their hilts.

"He couldn't do that yesterday, could he?"

Kiba looked down at Akamaru.

"Am I still dreaming?"

Akamaru gazed up at the hovering swords and let out a puzzled whine.

Sasuke's gaze stayed fixed on the blades.

Until yesterday, Cangyue had still needed to hold a sword when using his swordsmanship.

Whether he was parting a downpour or overpowering Sasuke with a branch, his power had always centered on Cangyue himself.

Now, both swords had left his hands.

They rose, turned, and stopped without the slightest delay.

Even while Cangyue ate, the swords could avoid the hanging lights and other students on their own.

In just one night, his swordsmanship had changed again.

Sasuke suddenly recalled the downpour at the Riverbank.

Cangyue had lain down to sleep.

After he woke, his sword intent had parted the curtain of rain.

During yesterday's training class, he had also proved to everyone that his chakra would continue circulating on its own even after his body fell asleep.

So this time...

Had he trained in his dreams again?

Ino rose from her seat and approached the hovering swords.

She studied them for a moment before curiously extending a finger.

Her fingertip lightly touched the side of the Flame and Thunder Sword's blade.

The blade was warm, with chakra slowly flowing inside it.

There really was nothing holding it up.

Ino looked up at Cangyue.

"You just lie on them like that? Won't you fall?"

Cangyue swallowed the last bite of his rice ball.

"No."

"What if the swords suddenly go out of control?"

"They won't."

"Why do you just say no to everything?"

Cangyue glanced at her.

The next moment, the Flame and Thunder Swords dipped without warning.

"Ah!"

Ino swayed and instinctively grabbed Cangyue's sleeve.

The swords dropped half a foot, then stopped abruptly just before they touched the desk.

The thin blanket hadn't shifted an inch.

Cangyue was still lying on his side, even lifting his remaining half-cup of soy milk steadily to his lips.

Once Ino recovered, she immediately glared at him.

"You did that on purpose!"

"To prove it to you."

"Fine, but why didn't you warn me first?"

"Why do you think?" Cangyue asked with a teasing half-smile.

Ino's hand froze around his sleeve.

Her first instinct was to let go, but she glanced down at the swords still hovering in midair and ultimately just slid her hand a little lower.

"Tch. I just don't want to fall on someone."

"Sure, sure, sure."

Cangyue murmured his agreement.

The way he seemed to have no intention of calling her out only annoyed Ino even more.

Meanwhile, Naruto waved his hands excitedly beside them.

"Cangyue, let me try getting on too!"

He was just about to leap forward when the Flame and Thunder Sword's sheath rose on its own and pressed against his forehead.

Naruto kept pushing forward with his feet, but he couldn't get even half a step closer.

"Why can Ino hold on, but I can't?"

Cangyue looked at Ino's build, then at Naruto.

"Too heavy."

Naruto's expression instantly froze.

Ino couldn't help laughing, though she quickly put on a stern face again.

Kiba looked from Cangyue to Naruto.

"Can't you carry people on those? Is Naruto really that heavy?"

"It has nothing to do with weight."

Cangyue said with a perfectly straight face, "He'll fidget."

Naruto was about to protest when a furious shout came from the front of the classroom.

"Kambara Sogetsu!"

Iruka clenched the class roster, a vein throbbing at his temple.

"This is a classroom, not a place for you to test new ninjutsu!"

The Flame and Thunder Swords turned in midair.

Lying atop them, Cangyue met Iruka's gaze across the room.

"I wasn't testing anything."

"Then why did you come in through the window?"

Cangyue glanced at the open window, then at the classroom door.

Then he lowered his head to look at the swords beneath him.

"Once you can fly, doors become unnecessary."

The classroom fell silent for a moment.

Shikamaru lay slumped over his desk, a complicated look in his eyes.

Yesterday, he'd thought Cangyue might simply be too lazy to walk.

He hadn't expected to be right.

But when normal people were too lazy to walk, they skipped class or showed up late at most.

When Cangyue was too lazy to walk, he simply had his swords fly him around.

Iruka took a deep breath.

He kept reminding himself.

The graduation exam was almost here.

He couldn't injure a student at a time like this.

And he certainly couldn't make a spectacle of himself in front of the whole class just because one student refused to use the door.

"Go back to your seat."

"And put those swords away!"

Cangyue guided the swords down toward the back row.

The blades stopped beside his seat.

He didn't get off. He merely adjusted his position, hovering above the desk along with the swords.

Iruka's eyelid twitched.

"I told you to go back to your seat!"

"I already did."

"Get down and sit properly!"

"The swords are steadier than the chair."

Another vein bulged on Iruka's forehead.

Naruto hunched over his desk, snickering.

Kiba also buried his face behind Akamaru's back, his shoulders shaking.

Sasuke didn't laugh.

His attention remained on the Flame and Thunder Swords.

From the moment Cangyue entered the classroom until he returned to his seat, he hadn't touched either sword's hilt.

Even while carrying someone through the air, the swords remained under such precise control.

The Cangyue of last night definitely couldn't have done that.

Could Dream Training really let someone reach a whole new level of swordsmanship overnight?

Sasuke instinctively reached for the black cloth in his pocket.

Naruto's chakra control had already changed.

Now Cangyue had mastered Flying Sword after sleeping.

One fact after another was making that once-ridiculous claim increasingly believable.

[Valor Points +100]

A system notification appeared before Cangyue's eyes.

He glanced at the panel.

[Total accumulated Valor Points: 1496]

[Currently available Valor Points: 141]

He'd spent 800 valor points to acquire a flying sword technique.

In no time, he'd earned 100 back.

More importantly, from today onward, even traveling would let him perform valor-worthy deeds along the way.

It was well worth the cost.

Iruka finally gave up on making Cangyue get down.

He slammed the class roster onto the lectern.

"Quiet!"

The laughter in the classroom quickly died away.

Iruka swept his gaze over everyone, lingering a little longer on Cangyue and Naruto.

One had just sneaked a look at the Scroll of Seals and learned the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique and Space-Time Ninjutsu.

The other had flown straight into the classroom lying on two swords.

If these two caused trouble again, the graduation exam might spiral completely out of control.

Iruka raised his voice.

"The graduation exam starts in ten days. Pay close attention during these last few classes!"

"And certain students had better not come asking me to bail them out if they fail."