A cat's battle

"..."

Oto had a point. Zou Hyuga nodded helplessly; his train of thought really did jump around a little too much.

After a moment's consideration, Zou Hyuga asked Oto to summon her ninja cat.

When the smoke cleared, a soaking-wet Bell Cat appeared in the clearing, a fish still dangling from its mouth.

With weeds still clinging to its fur, Bell Cat shook the water off and glanced over lazily. Its expression changed at once.

"You again, Byakugan brat! I'm Oto's summoning beast, not yours!"

Bell Cat instinctively backed away a few steps. It deeply regretted signing the Summoning Contract and taking part in the Byakugan brat's research.

Of course, it wasn't that it disliked research. It regularly studied the anatomy of fish and rodents itself.

What it mainly hated was being studied-being treated as a test subject and toyed with at will. The fur on its head was almost gone.

This one's fur is getting more and more vibrant...

Zou Hyuga marveled inwardly, then activated his Byakugan. The meridians inside Bell Cat had nowhere to hide; every one of them lay exposed before his eyes.

Just as he had expected, after half a month, the natural chakra inside Bell Cat had been almost completely absorbed, becoming part of its own chakra.

In other words, he really could raise a summoning beast's potential to a certain extent.

Bell Cat had noticed this too, which was why its initial resistance had gradually turned into tacit acceptance.

No one would turn down an increase in strength when the price was merely a little pain and discomfort.

I wonder how much stronger Bell Cat actually got.

With that thought in mind, Zou Hyuga walked over to Oto, nudged her elbow, and pressed his palms together in a pleading gesture.

He couldn't test the summoning beast's strength himself. He could only ask Oto Uchiha to do it.

By her own estimate, Oto was at least on the level of a special jōnin. Her three tomoe gave her a certain advantage even against jonin, and she also possessed exquisite swordsmanship.

Sometimes, he even wondered whether Oto had teamed up with him to test her "capacity."

Of course, such thoughts passed in an instant. If he couldn't trust someone he had faced life and death with, he would have to go back to the way he had handled things at the Ninja Academy.

As for his own strength, in his normal state, he seemed able to hold his own against his uncle when the latter fought at chunin level.

He wasn't entirely sure how strong he was in Sage Mode. He could beat Oto Uchiha and kill jonin from enemy villages, so he probably just barely qualified as jonin level.

At any rate, he felt certain he was no match for the Sannin or the Fourth, and he couldn't handle the Hyuga either.

There's really no helping you...

Oto Uchiha gave Zou Hyuga a look that said exactly that, then went to carry out his request, calling Bell Cat over to test its fighting ability.

During this lull, Zou Hyuga turned his attention back to Samehada.

Ever since Bell Cat appeared, Samehada had been hiding in the bushes behind Zou. Was it naturally afraid of felines because its true form was a fish?

Then it ought to be afraid of the Two-Tails, not some little ninja cat.

Zou Hyuga grabbed Samehada, and his chakra began draining away. There was one thing he had always wondered: just how much chakra did he have?

Since he couldn't learn advanced ninjutsu, such as Fire Release: Great Fireball, he had no way to burn through his chakra. Was he supposed to exhaust it all by repeatedly using Medical Ninjutsu?

As time passed, Zou Hyuga felt the chakra steadily draining from his body as he fed it into Samehada, his miniature chakra bank.

Before long, however, Samehada stopped absorbing chakra and lay on the ground, refusing to move.

That's it?

The veins around Zou Hyuga's Byakugan bulged as he looked at Samehada with a hint of disdain.

And this thing was supposed to be the great Samehada? It was a disgrace to ninja blades. He would be better off selling it to help cover living expenses.

Even hundreds of D-rank missions wouldn't earn as much as this lousy blade. But how much would Samehada fetch on the black market?

While Zou Hyuga pondered that, Oto Uchiha finished her test and walked over, carrying Bell Cat by the scruff.

Zou Hyuga took a closer look. Oto Uchiha was completely unharmed, while Bell Cat had lost quite a bit of fur and looked deeply aggrieved.

The result was obvious. Bell Cat was weaker than Oto; it hadn't even touched the hem of her clothes.

Wasn't that a little too weak? It was so weak it hardly seemed like a summoning beast.

"It's weaker than a genin, but it should be stronger than the average chunin. At least it's stronger than the ones guarding the village gate..."

Looking perfectly serious, Oto Uchiha sat on a nearby rock and took out her water flask for a drink.

Zou Hyuga nodded lightly. He understood what Oto meant and now had a rough idea of Bell Cat's strength.

A ninja village's ranks were fixed, but a ninja's combat ability fluctuated. Even the same ninja could have vastly different levels of strength at different ages.

The fifty-fifty guy who fought Zabuza to a draw and the fifty-fifty guy who fought Kaguya Otsutsuki were clearly worlds apart in strength-a bigger gap even than the one between one genin and another.

"Are you all right...?" Zou Hyuga walked over to Oto. He decided to offer his strongest fighter a little encouragement.

Oto Uchiha put down her flask, removed the Goggles covering her hair, and shook her head. "You should check on Bell Cat instead. I went a little hard on it just now..."

"A little?"

Puzzled, Zou Hyuga examined Bell Cat closely and discovered that he had misunderstood the words "a little."

On the surface, Bell Cat had only lost some fur. In reality, its skin and flesh were torn open; only broken bones and damaged organs were missing.

He even wondered whether Oto had secretly learned the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist...

As Zou Hyuga approached Bell Cat, a green glow appeared in his palm-the light of Medical Ninjutsu.

Apart from the three basic techniques, Medical Ninjutsu was the only ninjutsu he had mastered. As for his Wind Release, that was nothing more than self-delusion.

His reason for being unable to master the Rasengan was also quite simple: he couldn't use Gentle Fist to produce a rapidly rotating current of air.

Fortunately, Hyuga ninja generally weren't very good at ninjutsu and mostly relied on Gentle Fist in combat, so he didn't stand out too much.

Just as Zou Hyuga drew near, Bell Cat stopped licking its wounds and stood up, giving him a disdainful look.

"I don't need your Medical Ninjutsu. I'd like to live a few more years! For these injuries, I need compensation in some other form..."

Before Bell Cat finished speaking, its gaze drifted toward Samehada behind Zou Hyuga. Its nose had long since caught the fishy smell. That was a big fish it had never seen before.

Zou Hyuga understood what Bell Cat meant. He took out a few Explosive Tags and handed them over.

It wanted financial compensation. He had no money on him; the only things of equivalent value were Explosive Tags.

Bell Cat gave the Explosive Tags a puzzled look, then accepted them after a brief hesitation. When it came to gifts, it never turned anything down.

And so, after placating Bell Cat, Zou Hyuga fed it some more natural chakra and sent it back.

Once his feline helper was gone, Zou Hyuga looked up at the sky. There was still plenty of time left. Perhaps they could run a drill.

This forest was part of the training grounds anyway. He and Oto could practice tracking and evasion.

It had been a required course at the Ninja Academy and was also one of the basic skills expected of ANBU members.

Though he hated becoming a member of the ANBU, he was already one, so all he could do was make every effort to prepare.

After they agreed on the drill's procedures and rules, Zou Hyuga was just about to begin when he heard a series of meows.

Is Oto deliberately trying to distract me?

Zou Hyuga glanced back at Oto Uchiha, who was looking at him in confusion.

"Oto, are you imitating a cat? Does that mean you've accepted my suggestion?" Zou Hyuga asked.

"?"

Oto Uchiha was a little bewildered. Her gaze involuntarily drifted downward, and she said coldly, "No..."

Then that's strange... Without suspecting anything else, Zou Hyuga called off the drill and began investigating the source of the sound.