The training ground philosophy of "saving effort"

The next morning, Shuo was woken by the combined efforts of his terrible body clock and the excessively bright sunlight outside his window.

He squinted at the clock on the wall. Eight thirty. Training started at nine.

Ah... what a pain. He buried his face in his pillow, trying to steal another five minutes.

After coming home from ramen last night, he had spent some more time pondering his hypothesis about the Yata Mirror and gone to bed a little late.

Only at eight fifty did he slowly drag himself up, wash, and put on his ninja gear.

He skipped the Uchiha clan clothing and chose an ordinary dark combat outfit.

He raked his fingers through his sleep-mussed black hair in front of the mirror. It did little good, so he simply gave up.

Taking a rice ball he had bought on the way home yesterday from the fridge for breakfast, he ambled out while eating it.

By the time he reached Training Ground Three, it was exactly five past nine.

Minato had already arrived and was smiling as he watched Kakashi guide Obito through corrections to his shuriken throwing.

Rin was practicing the basic chakra control for medical ninjutsu nearby.

The three reacted differently when they saw Shuo turn up right on time with half a rice ball still in his mouth.

Minato's smile stayed unchanged, though his eyes took on a hint of "just as expected."

Kakashi swept his dead-fish eyes over him, seemingly without even the desire to make a snide comment.

Obito's eyes lit up, and he wanted to greet him, only for a glare from Kakashi to stop him.

Rin gave Shuo a friendly smile.

"Morning, everyone."

Shuo swallowed the last bite of his rice ball, offered a muffled greeting, and walked over to Minato. "I'm not late, am I?"

"Just in time."

Minato spoke gently, then clapped his hands to gather everyone's attention. "Today is our squad's first full coordination training session. Our main goals are to understand each other better and work on basic tactics together. We'll start with the simplest exercise-taijutsu sparring in pairs. Obito with Rin, Kakashi with Shuo. Control your strength. Focus on sparring and getting familiar with each other's movements."

As soon as the pairs were announced, Obito protested, "Huh? I want to be paired with Shuo! We're both Uchiha..."

"Dead last, you can't even beat Rin, and you want to challenge someone else?"

Kakashi cut him off coldly.

"What did you say, Kakashi?!"

Seeing another argument brewing, Minato quickly stepped in. "All right, these pairs are only temporary. Let's get started."

Shuo didn't care. Anyone would do. He planned to keep following his "save effort" principle anyway.

He nodded to Kakashi. "I look forward to learning from you."

Kakashi merely gave a grunt, walked to one side of the field, and assumed a standard taijutsu opening stance.

The two took their positions in the field.

At Minato's command, Kakashi moved immediately!

He was fast, closing in without the slightest probing move and driving a fierce straight punch at Shuo's face!

There were clear signs of lightning release chakra stimulating his muscles, and even the rush of his fist carried faint crackles.

Shuo didn't so much as lift an eyelid.

He neither blocked it head-on nor used the Body Flicker Technique.

He simply leaned his upper body back with utter naturalness while pivoting on his left heel, turning his body a little less than half a turn to the right.

Kakashi's fist swept past the tip of his nose.

As Shuo turned, his right elbow rose in a seemingly casual motion, settling precisely against the outside of Kakashi's right elbow joint, where his forward charge had left a small opening. He pressed lightly and guided it aside.

That deft little movement diverted the force of Kakashi's charge, sending him an involuntary half step farther forward.

He reacted extremely quickly, dropping low with the momentum and whipping his left leg toward Shuo's legs.

Shuo had just finished turning and had yet to steady his balance when the sweeping kick came at him.

He neither jumped nor braced himself against it.

Instead, following the remaining momentum of his turn, he slid his left foot across the ground in what looked like a stumble-but in fact planted it precisely in the path of the force behind Kakashi's sweep, hooking his toes upward ever so slightly.

There was little force in that hook, but it disrupted the balance and possible follow-up movements of Kakashi's sweep at exactly the right point.

Kakashi's sweeping leg stalled, forcing him to pull back his strength and adjust.

Meanwhile, Shuo had already used the momentum of that slide to drift another two steps backward, opening the distance again and steadying himself.

The whole sequence flowed seamlessly, with no large movements. It even looked a little casual, like a lazy dance.

Kakashi stopped, his gaze above his mask growing a little more serious.

His opponent had used almost no strength in those exchanges, relying entirely on redirecting force and disrupting rhythm.

That fighting style... was slippery, but also efficient.

"Again."

Kakashi spoke briefly and attacked once more.

This time, he stopped aiming to finish things in one strike and instead increased the frequency of his attacks. Fists, feet, elbows, and knees came in an unbroken stream as he tried to force an opening through speed and pressure.

Shuo continued to focus on dodging and deflecting force.

His movements always seemed half a beat slower than Kakashi's, yet every time, at the last possible moment, he evaded with the smallest movement or lightly brushed, nudged, or guided with some part of his body-an elbow, knee, or shoulder-making Kakashi's attacks miss, veer off course, or lose their follow-through.

On the field, Kakashi's offensive surged like a tide, while Shuo resembled a fallen leaf amid towering waves. He looked ready to be swallowed at any moment, yet always drifted clear by the narrowest margin.

Watching from the sidelines, Minato's eyes repeatedly lit up.

He saw it more clearly: every movement and block Shuo made was calculated with absolute precision, achieving the most effective defense with the least physical expenditure.

And... Minato vaguely felt that some of Shuo's evasive paths seemed to carry an extremely faint, unnaturally slippery quality, like the slight bending of light as it refracted at the surface of water.

Obito watched, dumbfounded. "Shuo... is amazing! He's barely moving, but he's dodging every one of Kakashi's attacks!"

Rin also covered her mouth in surprise. "Kakashi is so fast... how is Shuo doing that?"

After nearly five minutes of fighting, Kakashi's breathing had grown slightly hurried, while Shuo... had barely a few beads of sweat on his forehead and was only breathing a little faster.

Kakashi suddenly stopped and jumped back, fixing his dead-fish eyes on Shuo. His voice betrayed no emotion. "Have you... been using some method to predict my movements?"

Shuo shook out his slightly sore wrists, caught his breath, and looked utterly innocent. "Predict them? No."

He pointed at his eyes. "I just thought... dodging that way seemed to take a little less effort."

Kakashi: "..."

[Ding! Perfectly practiced the principle of "energy conservation and efficiency" in taijutsu sparring, while using "saving effort" as an all-purpose excuse. Imitation Points +25!]

Minato walked over with a smile. "All right, we'll stop here. Kakashi, what did you think?"

Kakashi was silent for a moment before saying, "...Very difficult to deal with."

That was the highest praise he could offer.

Minato nodded and turned to Shuo. "Shuo, your taijutsu style is very distinctive. It emphasizes evasion and disrupting rhythm, with excellent control over stamina and chakra consumption. However, it seems a little weak on offense?"

"Ah, well..."

Shuo scratched his head. "Hitting people... is pretty tiring too. If I don't have to, why do it?"

Obito and Rin: "..."

Minato laughed despite himself. "Fair enough. Next, we'll practice ninja tool throwing and coordination."

The exercise involved Minato quickly tossing targets from different positions around the field, while each pair had to throw shuriken simultaneously and hit the bull's-eyes in a specific order or from specific angles.

It tested their reactions, coordination, and throwing accuracy.

Obito and Rin went first.

They worked fairly well together. Although Obito occasionally rushed ahead, he adjusted in time with Rin's reminders, achieving a hit rate of roughly seventy percent.

Then it was Kakashi and Shuo's turn.

Standing at the edge of the field with several specially made small targets held in each hand, Minato reminded them, "Pay attention. I need you to hit the two targets I throw simultaneously with crossing fire, and the two shuriken must cross in midair without colliding. Understood?"

Kakashi nodded and drew two shuriken.

Shuo also took out two and weighed them in his hand.

"Begin!"

Minato flung up both hands, sending two targets flying into the air, one left and one right, at different speeds and along different arcs!

Kakashi's gaze sharpened. His right hand flashed out like lightning, sending a shuriken straight toward the target on the right with a shrill whistle through the air!

At the same time, he turned slightly and launched the second shuriken from his left hand at a trickier angle, aiming for the rear flank of the left target-this was meant to cross paths with Shuo's shuriken.

Shuo's movements looked much more casual.

He barely even aimed, simply flicking his wrist and throwing both shuriken almost simultaneously.

Their speed was neither fast nor slow, their trajectories unremarkable.

But at the instant he released them, he quietly attached a trace of light energy to the two shuriken.

It wasn't to increase their power, but rather... to use that faint light energy as a medium for "sensing" and "fine adjustment."

His gaze locked onto the two flying targets and Kakashi's two rapidly moving shuriken.

In his mind, his hypothesis about the Yata Mirror stirred vaguely into motion again.

There was no need to control his shuriken's trajectories to deliberately accommodate the others. He only needed... to make a tiny change to their flight environment that favored their crossing.

For example, have air resistance exert an extremely weak influence on one of Kakashi's shuriken at a certain instant, altering its speed or angle on a millimeter scale.

Or perhaps have the unstable film of light on his own shuriken produce a little radiation pressure or a weak repulsive force just before they crossed?

These thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant.

In the air-

The first shuriken Kakashi had thrown struck the right target precisely in the bull's-eye!

His second shuriken, heading toward the rear flank of the left target, looked about to collide in midair with Shuo's shuriken, which was heading toward the front of that target!

At the very instant the two shuriken were about to meet!

The film of light on Shuo's shuriken happened to burst with a soft pop, releasing a small, faint but dazzling golden flash!

The sudden light made Kakashi instinctively narrow his eyes-though wearing a mask meant it had little effect-and the shuriken he had thrown also seemed to be disturbed for an instant by the faint radiation pressure and airflow from the close-range burst, its flight path shifting ever so slightly!

Clink! Thunk!

Kakashi's shuriken grazed the edge of Shuo's, trailing a streak of sparks before burying itself deep in the rear flank of the left target!

Shuo's shuriken, meanwhile, struck firmly in the bull's-eye on the front of the left target!

The two shuriken crossed perfectly, separated by the narrowest margin, and each hit its mark!

The entire process took less than two seconds.

Silence fell over the sidelines.

Obito's mouth hung open. Rin also covered her mouth in surprise.

Even Kakashi stared at the targets slowly falling through the air, looking somewhat stunned beneath his mask.

Minato's eyes lit up, and he turned an intent gaze on Shuo.

Shuo withdrew his hand and shook it out, as though he had merely tossed a couple of pebbles.

He looked at Minato and said in a slightly complaining tone:

"Minato-sensei... could you not throw the targets so fast next time?"

He rubbed his eyes. "That light just now... was a little dazzling. I almost missed."

Minato: "..."

Kakashi slowly turned his head, fixing his dead-fish eyes firmly on Shuo.

Shuo returned his gaze with perfect composure-and innocence.

[Ding! "Cleverly" used your abilities during coordination training to meet a highly difficult requirement, using "complaints" as cover. This behavioral pattern deeply captures Kizaru's essence. Imitation Points +30!]

[Current Imitation Points: 357/500 (required to unlock the next-stage skill "Light-Speed Kick: Proficient").]

Minato finally laughed aloud and walked over to pat Shuo's shoulder. "Shuo, you always manage to surprise me."

He did not expose the clearly unusual flash and change in trajectory, saying only, "Your throwing skills and ability to 'improvise' are outstanding. It seems we need to arrange some more 'interesting' training for you."

Shuo's heart sank.

More "interesting"?

That sounded... like a real pain!

He forced a smile onto his face. "Minato-sensei... I think... the current training intensity... is quite suitable already..."

Minato smiled without speaking, his eyes clearly saying: this was not up for discussion.

Kakashi walked up beside Shuo and coldly left him with a remark quiet enough for only the two of them to hear:

"Next time we train... I'll use lightning release."

Shuo: "..."

He watched Kakashi walk away, then looked at the "kindly" smiling Minato, and finally at the admiring Obito and gentle Rin.

Joining this squad...

Seemed... even more troublesome than he had imagined.

He sighed and looked up at the sky.

The sunlight was glaring.

Just like his mood at that moment.