Grass weaving and Nen

Hiruzen Sarutobi led Setsuna through the last stretch of mixed woodland with practiced ease, arriving at the edge of the reed beds closest to the Hagoromo Clan Territory.

The morning mist had cleared, and sunlight glittered on the surface of the Naka River.

The reed beds stretched along the riverbank, their stalks taller than a person, swaying gently in the breeze with a soft rustle.

"We're far from the battlefield here. Nothing should happen." Hiruzen Sarutobi turned and reached out to help Setsuna.

As for Setsuna, he was getting downright irritated with all this walking.

The furisode looked pretty, but he could barely move his legs in it.

To make matters worse, he was wearing a pair of boat-shaped sandals meant for a proper young lady, leaving him no choice but to shuffle forward in tiny steps.

He had stumbled all the way here and nearly planted his face in the mud several times.

Once again, he confirmed it-cross-dressing was a fucking idiotic idea.

He remembered a series called Hunter × Hunter that his player was always talking about. Kalluto of the Zoldyck family carried out assassinations dressed in equally conspicuous, restrictive women's clothing.

Now that he had tried it himself, Kalluto really was something else.

These fucking authors would do anything to make a character look good.

He held Hiruzen Sarutobi's hand as he stepped down from a rock, but his mind was already turning.

Wait!

An idea flashed through Setsuna's mind.

Hunter × Hunter!

Nen!

Thinking it over, Naruto's basic chakra mechanics were actually quite similar to Nen in Hunter × Hunter.

Extracting and circulating chakra meant mixing spiritual and physical energy within the body, filling the muscles and blood vessels with power to enhance them-that was similar to Nen's "Ten."

Perception involved releasing chakra to survey the surroundings with oneself at the center-that corresponded to Nen's "En."

Coating the body or a weapon in chakra to form a protective layer, or making a weapon longer and sharper-that resembled "Ken," a form of reinforcement.

Might Guy's Eight Gates Released Formation and Asuma Sarutobi's Chakra Blade essentially worked on the same principle.

As for "Gyo," which concentrated that power in the eyes...

Setsuna frowned.

In the Naruto World, that seemed to correspond only to dojutsu kekkei genkai, all innate abilities. He had never heard of an ordinary ninja gaining special vision simply by concentrating chakra in their eyes.

Other ninja did not seem to have done it.

Had no one tried? Or had they tried and failed?

Setsuna thought of how the Sharingan worked: overusing it could cause blindness, and he had no desire to go blind.

Then what would happen if I coated my eyes in chakra without activating the Sharingan?

If I built a chakra circuit in my eyes using Gyo, could it enhance my vision?

Wouldn't that let me escape the Sharingan's limitations?

He had not realized that while every other Uchiha was developing ways to use the Sharingan, he alone feared its side effects and was working hard to develop ninjutsu that avoided its limitations.

If Izuna learned of this idea, he would surely give Setsuna a hard knock on the head. He had always taken pride in the Sharingan. "You're an Uchiha, and you're actually trying to get rid of your dependence on the Sharingan?"

Even if Setsuna knew that, he would simply roll his eyes and carry on. After all, he knew he was no longer a game character who could use the Sharingan endlessly without any side effects.

Just as Setsuna sank deeper into thought, Hiruzen Sarutobi's lowered voice interrupted him.

"Look, you need broad leaves like these to fold a perfect shuriken."

Hiruzen Sarutobi crouched beside the reeds and plucked two broad, thick leaves, his fingers flying.

In just a few seconds, a bright green, grass-woven shuriken appeared between his fingertips.

"Wait, I didn't catch that." Setsuna finally snapped out of his thoughts and immediately leaned closer.

He had already swept the area with his chakra-there really were no signs of Senju ninja.

It seemed the Senju had withdrawn as agreed to ensure the negotiations went smoothly.

Since he could not analyze the Senju's deployment, he had to accomplish his other objective.

"Fold it again. Slower this time." A trace of urgency slipped into Setsuna's voice.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's ears reddened slightly, and a smug look crossed his face.

Getting this unruly princess to soften was no easy feat-he had not so much as blinked while berating Hiruzen before, yet now he had gentled his tone over a tiny grass-woven shuriken.

It gave Hiruzen a peculiar sense of achievement.

"All right. I'll go slower." He unfolded the reed leaves in his hands and started again, slowing his fingers.

"First, fold it in half and tuck this corner in... then turn it over and slip this side into the gap..."

Setsuna copied him, clumsily pinching a reed leaf between fingers that refused to cooperate.

Setsuna glared at the reed leaf snapped in two in his hands, murderous intent flashing in his sanpaku eyes.

Seeing him locked in a battle with a reed leaf, Hiruzen Sarutobi could not help laughing.

"What are you laughing at?!" Setsuna whipped his head up.

"Nothing. I'm not laughing." Hiruzen desperately restrained the corners of his mouth. He took the broken leaf from Setsuna's hand, laid his own hand over Setsuna's, and guided his fingers through folding the final edge.

"You can't press too hard here. Use the pads of your fingers and press gently-"

Setsuna frowned, his full attention fixed on the leaf between his fingertips.

At last, a crooked little creation with four uneven points, but just enough resemblance to a shuriken, took shape in Setsuna's palm.

Setsuna looked down at the hideous thing and fell silent for a long moment.

"What an ugly thing." Despite the disdain in his words, he could not stop the corners of his mouth from rising.

It was the first time since coming to this world that he had made something with his own hands that served no purpose in combat.

It could not hurt anyone, could not protect him, and could not fit into any tactic.

It was the first toy of his life.

His little face, usually full of disdain or impatience, showed a rare excitement befitting a child his age.

He held the grass-woven shuriken up to the sunlight, turning it this way and that.

Watching his profile, Hiruzen Sarutobi thought that the Hagoromo princess really was unruly, but he was also remarkably easy to please.

Last time, Hiruzen's Enma had humiliated the princess in front of everyone. Yet now, a perfectly ordinary grass-woven shuriken had apparently made him forget the whole thing.

If a single grass-woven shuriken could make him this happy, his days spent recuperating before the Buddha must have been unimaginably dull.

Hiruzen began to feel a little sorry for Setsuna.

He remembered what his mother had told him-girls never had it easy.

Even in a small clan like the Sarutobi, with only twenty-odd members altogether, a girl's future in-laws had to be considered from birth. As soon as she was old enough to understand, she had to learn the rules, all so she would not disgrace her clan after marriage and could help secure more resources for it.

Just hearing his mother describe those rules had made him feel suffocated.

And this princess came from a great clan like the Hagoromo. He would only have more rules to follow and a harder life to endure.

Excited, Setsuna plucked another blade of grass, ready to weave a second shuriken.

The first try was practice. This one would definitely turn out better.

As he pinched the leaf and fiddled with it, Hiruzen Sarutobi offered him the reed leaf in his hand.

"You need one that's still green, like this. The yellow ones have already dried out. They're brittle and will crumble when you fold them."

"I know that." Setsuna rolled his eyes and raised his chin, secretly tossing away the half-yellow blade in his hand.

Feigning nonchalance, he snatched the leaf from Hiruzen's hand and turned away, pretending to concentrate on weaving his shuriken.

Hiruzen Sarutobi chuckled behind him.

He thought Setsuna was rather cute, with the way his actions contradicted his dismissive words.

Just then, Setsuna's hands froze.

His ears caught an extremely faint sound-a plop.

A pebble hitting the water.

Almost reflexively, Setsuna seized Hiruzen Sarutobi's wrist and yanked him into a crouch.

That sound did not seem natural. The force and angle suggested someone had thrown it.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had, after all, grown up in a ninja family. He instantly understood that something was wrong, and his naturally cheerful little face turned serious.

After all, one of them was five and a half, and the other was six. Together, they would barely count as a snack for an adult ninja.

Hiding quietly and waiting for the other party to leave was the wisest choice.

Hiruzen Sarutobi glanced down at the hand Setsuna was holding and blushed a little.

He shook his head hard-now was not the time to think about that.

Completely oblivious to Hiruzen Sarutobi's little thoughts, Setsuna focused on extending his chakra through their surroundings and peering across the river through the gaps in the reeds.

He mentally raised his focus points to level four.

Judging by the sound of the stone hitting the water, it had come from somewhere on the opposite bank.

Was it a Senju patrol? A scout?

Or had the Senju hired a rogue ninja to investigate without drawing suspicion?

Then he heard faint voices drifting over from the other side.

"We may be negotiating, and neither clan will act rashly, but we still haven't signed a ceasefire. Coming here without thinking is too dangerous," a boy in his early teens scolded.

"I wanted to find some good stones for skipping. Father promised last time that he'd teach me when he had a moment," another, younger voice replied.

"You don't need to look for stones here, of all places, right now. You can find them just as easily when we get back to the clan grounds," the older boy said.

The younger voice fell. "Father said he was bringing me here to meet a new friend, and then he'd teach us to skip stones. But he still hasn't told me who that friend is or taken me to meet them. Hiruzen's fun, but he always comes and goes in such a hurry... and Father himself is so busy I never even see him."

The older boy was silent for a moment before speaking. "It's time you grew up, too. Stop acting like a child who's never been on a battlefield."

Silence followed.

Then the younger voice brightened again. "But I've got you here, haven't I? I know you'll protect me, Liangzhu-you're a genius who became a jonin at thirteen."

Only the Naka River separated them, but the voices were hard to make out from this bank.

With level-four focus, Setsuna could barely catch scattered words and phrases. Hiruzen Sarutobi could only hear faint voices and could not make out anything they said.

But Setsuna had already reached a conclusion.

The younger one was Naoki Senju, Hashirama Senju's son.

And the boy called Liangzhu, a jonin in his early teens, was most likely a guard the Senju Clan had sent to protect their young heir.

Setsuna's pupils contracted slightly.

Within a second, at least three kidnapping plans had flashed through his mind.

He forcibly suppressed them.

He remembered what Madara Uchiha had said: "Attacking another clan's young children tells every ninja clan that they can attack the Uchiha's children."

Setsuna gritted his teeth.

Besides, the one with him was a jonin. And who did I have?

His gaze fell on Hiruzen Sarutobi.

The six-year-old was crouched nervously beside him, one hand held by Setsuna and the other gripping a kunai. Facing a situation like this without an adult for the first time, he had broken out in a cold sweat.

Ah, he was just a little brat who had only recently started tagging along with the adults.

The gap in strength between the two sides was far too great.

Liangzhu was a jonin, while Setsuna had only a Sarutobi Clan kid who had never even been on a battlefield.

Forget kidnapping. If they actually fought, the two of them together probably would not be enough to handle even one of his hands.

It would be safer to wait until the others left.

Besides-

He thought Madara Uchiha was right.

Targeting young children really was despicable.

Then I'll wait until Naoki Senju is a teenager before going after him.

Setsuna took that thought entirely for granted.

He seemed remarkably confident that he could easily defeat the child of two top-tier ninja, Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki.

Then he lifted his eyes and met a pair of chestnut-brown eyes on the opposite bank.

Fuck! His heart jolted. He certainly did not think this was a coincidence.

They had been spotted.