A "flash" alert above the convoy

At seven in the morning, at the Konoha Gate.

When Shuo arrived on time, yawning, the rest of Team Minato were already waiting there.

Minato looked as gentle and dependable as ever. Kakashi leaned against the wall with his arms folded and his eyes closed, resting. Obito looked around excitedly, while Rin checked her medical kit.

A flatbed wagon drawn by two pack animals stood at the gate. Its load was covered with a tarpaulin and securely lashed down: the medical supplies they would be escorting.

The driver was a somewhat nervous Konoha genin, temporarily assigned to the job.

"Good morning, Shuo."

Minato greeted him with a smile.

"Morning..."

Shuo answered listlessly and took his place at the back of the group.

Practicing with the Yata Mirror yesterday afternoon had taken quite a lot out of him, and he had spent some time that evening studying the theory scroll Minato had given him. He had not slept well.

"Everyone's here."

Minato clapped his hands and looked at them. "The mission is simple. We escort these supplies northeast to the Seventh Border Outpost, on the border with the Land of Hot Water. The route is relatively safe, but we can't let our guard down."

"Kakashi, you'll scout ahead and provide early warning."

"Obito, Rin, take the two sides of the convoy.

"Shuo, you'll bring up the rear with me and watch for threats from the air and at long range. Understood?"

"Understood!"

Obito answered loudly.

Kakashi and Rin nodded.

Shuo added a quiet "Mm."

The convoy set off.

They left Konoha and entered the forest road to the north.

The early-summer morning air was fresh, and sunlight filtered through the leaves in dappled patches.

The road was in good condition, and the pack animals moved fairly steadily.

Shuo followed at the very back of the convoy at an unhurried pace.

Rear guard duty was all right. He did not have to clear the way up front and eat dust, and there was less pressure.

As he walked, he continued replaying fragments of the scroll's theories in his head, occasionally looking up at the sky or scanning the woods on either side.

Minato walked beside him, looking relaxed, but Shuo could feel his teacher's perception faintly covering the entire team and the surrounding area.

They walked for about two hours without incident.

Obito had been tense at first, but when nothing happened, he began chatting quietly with Rin again, discussing the strange plants they saw beside the road.

Kakashi occasionally returned from up ahead to give a brief report on the road conditions, then vanished into the forest ahead again.

Shuo remained quiet, only occasionally raising a hand to grasp at the sunlight coming through gaps in the trees, or staring for a few seconds at a leaf stirring in the wind, as though practicing something.

"Shuo, have you made any progress with your light-sensing exercises?"

Minato suddenly asked, keeping his voice low.

Shuo looked away from a reflective puddle and thought for a moment. "A little, I guess. I can feel... light moving. But using it for early warning or something... it doesn't feel as practical as just looking and listening."

Minato smiled. "There are many forms of perception. Changes in light can sometimes reveal a great deal that the naked eye can't see. For example, an unusual reflection from distant leaves might mean metal. A slight distortion of light in the air could indicate a concentration of chakra or an area of high heat."

Shuo considered that. Minato had a point. His previous Yata Mirror practice had mostly involved trying to interfere with light paths. But what if he reversed that and read the information those paths carried?

He tried concentrating, not to interfere, but to perceive the light in his surroundings in greater detail.

Direct sunlight, reflections from leaves, diffuse reflections from the ground, light scattered by dust in the air...

There was an enormous amount of information, all jumbled together.

His brain could not process it. All he saw were spots of light dancing chaotically before his eyes, leaving him a little dizzy.

"Don't rush. Take your time."

Minato reminded him gently, "Start with the most obvious anomalies. For example, is there anywhere the light tastes a little different?"

The taste of light?

What an abstract way to put it.

Shuo pursed his lips but did as he was told.

He stopped trying to process every detail. Instead, he used his faint ability to sense light energy like a scanner, tasting the surrounding light for any discordant "impurities."

Several minutes passed without him finding anything.

Just as he was beginning to think the exercise was a little stupid and was about to give up-

He suddenly sensed an extremely faint, unnatural fluctuation of light coming from a densely wooded hillside roughly two or three hundred meters ahead and to the left.

It was not a chakra fluctuation. It was more like... something over there had briefly, deliberately reflected the sunlight?

The angle was extremely awkward. If he had not happened to be practicing this kind of light perception, aided by the slight improvement from Light Energy Affinity, he could never have noticed it.

The fluctuation vanished in a flash.

Shuo's steps faltered slightly, and he frowned.

"What is it?"

Minato noticed immediately.

"Ahead and left. The dense woods on the hillside."

Shuo lowered his voice, speaking a little faster than usual. "I think there was a reflection just now. Very brief. It didn't look like an animal or a natural phenomenon."

Minato's gaze sharpened. Without any hesitation, he raised a hand and made several gestures.

Kakashi, who had been scouting ahead, immediately appeared in the treetops beside the road. Clearly, he had received Minato's signal too.

He stared toward the hillside ahead and to the left for several seconds, then gave Minato a slight shake of his head-he had sensed no obvious chakra or signs of life.

Obito and Rin also grew alert and moved closer to the convoy.

The genin driving the wagon nervously pulled on the reins.

Minato gave Shuo a questioning look.

Shuo was not quite sure himself. The sensation had been too vague.

He concentrated and tried sensing that area again.

This time, he caught no obvious reflection, but he vaguely felt that the light in that area seemed a little more... stagnant than its surroundings? As though an invisible film had slightly distorted it and absorbed some of it?

This feeling was even more elusive than the reflection. He even wondered whether he was imagining things from practicing too much.

"I'm not sure..."

Shuo told the truth. "Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me... or it was sunlight reflecting off dew?"

Minato considered it for less than a second before issuing firm orders. "Kakashi, Obito, cover the convoy from either side. Stay alert and proceed slowly through the area ahead. Rin, be ready. Shuo, keep sensing. Give a warning immediately if anything seems off."

The team immediately went on alert and slowed down.

Shuo also focused, his gaze fixed on the hillside ahead and to the left. His hand was already on his ninja tool pouch.

The convoy moved slowly forward, drawing ever closer to the suspicious hillside.

A hundred meters... eighty... fifty...

Just as Kakashi, at the very front, was about to enter the shadow over the road beneath the hillside-

Everything changed!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-!

Dozens of kunai and shuriken tied with explosive tags suddenly shot out from behind bushes and rocks at different points on the hillside!

They were aimed not at Kakashi or the convoy, but at the road and trees ahead of them and to their sides!

Boom, boom, boom, boom-!

A chain of explosions erupted instantly!

Dirt, shattered stone, and wood splinters flew everywhere!

The aim was not to inflict casualties, but to create chaos and block the road!

Immediately afterward, seven or eight masked figures in mismatched clothing leaped from hiding. Most carried swords or kunai as they rushed straight at the convoy's pack animals and genin driver, who had been startled by the explosions and thrown into some confusion!

Two other ninja landed farther back and rapidly formed hand seals:

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

A combination ninjutsu! Wind fed the flames, and a searing fireball a size larger than normal roared toward the supply wagon in the middle of the convoy! Their objective was clear-destroy the supplies!

"Enemy attack!"

Kakashi called out coldly. His already-drawn short blade became a streak of white light as he met the two enemies at the front.

"Bastards!" Obito roared. He formed hand seals and spat out a great fireball of his own, trying to intercept the enemy's combination ninjutsu, but his was considerably smaller.

Rin rushed toward the frightened pack animals and genin driver, trying to stabilize the situation.

Minato had already vanished from his position. A moment later, he appeared beside the convoy, his kunai precisely deflecting two blades swinging at the pack animals.

Shuo moved the instant the explosions began.

Instead of charging at the enemy, he pushed off the ground, leaped lightly upward, and landed on top of the supply wagon.

His gaze swept rapidly across the battlefield.

Kakashi and Minato could handle the enemies in front.

Obito's fireball had barely canceled out part of the combination ninjutsu's power, but the remaining blast was still rushing toward the wagon!

More importantly, out of the corner of his eye, Shuo caught a cold gleam quietly emerging from a crevice higher up the hillside, somewhere he had completely overlooked before-was that a crossbow bolt?

It seemed to be aimed at Rin, who was forming hand seals to respond, or perhaps Minato?

There was no time to hesitate.

Crouched atop the wagon, Shuo instantly drew three shuriken from his ninja tool pouch with his right hand.

Light energy coated them almost instinctively, more smoothly and quickly than ever before!

A much clearer film of pale gold light appeared on all three shuriken at once.

He aimed neither at the roaring remnants of the fireball nor at the dangerous crossbow bolt up above.

His wrist flicked at an odd angle, sending the three shuriken in a narrow fan toward the... air between the fireball's remnants and the wagon?

No. He was aiming at the region of light within that air that had become extremely unstable from the high heat and energy disturbance!

Supported by his newly improved understanding of the Yata Mirror Hypothesis, and with the intense concentration brought on by mortal danger, several "light paths" flashed through Shuo's mind!

The fireball's thermal radiation, the distortion of the air, the trajectories of the shuriken, and the unstable light energy he had attached to them...

Go! Interfere! Guide!

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

The instant the three shuriken entered the heat-distorted air, the films of light on their surfaces flickered violently and erupted almost simultaneously!

It was not a blinding flash, but a more violent, more unstable release of energy!

Humm-!

A dazzling, irregular burst of golden light suddenly exploded in front of the fireball's remnants!

Rather than meeting force with force, it was more like tossing a few "catalysts" into that unstable energy field!

Already disordered after being weakened by Obito's fireball, the remaining flames were disrupted by this sudden burst of light. Their energy structure instantly grew even more chaotic and began dissipating!

Boom!

Less than three meters from the wagon, the fireball's remnants prematurely underwent an incomplete explosion and broke apart!

Most of the energy was directed to either side and upward. Only a small amount of heat and a scattering of sparks reached the top of the wagon, where Shuo casually swept them away with his sleeve.

Almost simultaneously, Shuo's left hand had also been at work.

Without even looking upward, he relied only on his memory of that brief glimpse and his current perception of the abnormal light. He extended his left index finger toward the crevice high on the hillside.

A concentrated point of golden light instantly burst from his fingertip!

It was not a light projectile from Light-Speed Kick, but a thinner, faster golden ray-the rudimentary form of a pinpoint attack he was attempting by compressing Light-Speed Kick's energy to the extreme!

Whoosh-!

The golden light flashed and vanished!

A short cry of alarm and the sharp crack of breaking metal came from the crevice above!

The cold gleam disappeared.

Only after finishing all this did Shuo stand atop the wagon. He brushed off the sleeve the sparks had struck, glanced at the enemies nearby, whom Minato and Kakashi had nearly finished dealing with, then looked at the pack animals Rin had calmed and the driver, who was still shaken.

Finally, he looked up at the now completely silent crevice high on the hillside and pursed his lips.

"First thing in the morning..."

He muttered a complaint, his voice barely noticeable amid the fading echoes of the explosions.

"And it's already this lively..."

"What a way... to disturb a good dream."

He jumped down from the wagon, landing lightly and silently.

[Ding! First successful use of 'Light Energy Interference' during a team mission to neutralize an area-of-effect ninjutsu threat, while precisely destroying an enemy ambush position at range. Tactical assessment: efficient, precise, and extremely 'effortless' (relatively speaking). A perfect demonstration of the essence of Kizaru's style: 'handling trouble at the lowest possible cost'! Imitation Points +50! Critical hit!]

[Understanding of 'Yata Mirror Hypothesis' has greatly increased. Limited interference with and guidance of small- to medium-scale energy disturbances is now possible.]

[Current Imitation Points: 417/500.]

Minato knocked the last enemy unconscious and looked at Shuo, who stood beside the wagon wearing an expression of "just woke up and already being disturbed." Admiration almost overflowed from his eyes.

Kakashi sheathed his blade and looked at the faint trace of golden energy lingering on the hillside. Beneath his mask, the corner of his mouth seemed to move slightly too.

Obito gaped, looking from the dissipated fireball to Shuo. After a long while, he finally managed, "Shuo... what was that jutsu you just used?!"

Shuo yawned.

"Nothing much..."

He rubbed his eyes, his voice carrying the fatigue and dissatisfaction of someone who had just finished working "overtime."

"I just thought... that fireball was too noisy."

Sunlight once again pierced the gradually dispersing smoke and dust, falling on the somewhat battered road, and on Shuo's unenthusiastic profile, which seemed to be gilded with a faint golden glow.