Hozuki Mangetsu had been spending all his time at the school training ground. Hatake Satoru hadn't seen him in the classroom for a while.
Satoru didn't really care that Mangetsu was messing around downstairs. He never bothered checking where he was during class.
Aside from theory lessons, these students had all survived by fighting and killing.
Things like shuriken and kunai throwing or ninjutsu practice—they could handle that on their own without needing Satoru to teach them anything.
Right after class ended, Satoru was about to leave when he saw Mangetsu standing on the railing, excitedly waving at him.
He ran over right along the railing, full of energy.
"That move we talked about—the Spiral Shadowless Flash-Speed Line! I've totally got it down!"
"Come on, come on! You gotta see it!"
Still yelling with excitement, Mangetsu dragged Satoru over to the school's training ground.
The place itself was honestly pretty half-baked. Even though the school was turning out some real killers, the field looked like it couldn't even handle one proper attack from Satoru.
Before Satoru showed up, the training ground was mostly useless.
Everyone just practiced on real people—who needed a field?
No one used it for so long that no one bothered to take care of it either. The weeds were as tall as a person's calves.
Now the whole place was full of dents and holes from Mangetsu's practice.
He pulled Satoru to stand beside him, pointing at a thick wooden board shaped like a person in front of them.
"It goes like this…!"
Mangetsu quickly formed a few hand signs. The new version of the ninjutsu didn't change the hand signs themselves.
Instead, it required better control of chakra.
Most of them were already used to just blasting out huge waterfall-style jutsu like Water Colliding Wave. A lot of people had been using that way since they were really young.
So changing that now, after all those years, felt really awkward and hard.
Mangetsu was used to the old way too, but hey—geniuses aren't just anyone. They're rare for a reason.
"Water Style: Spiral Shadowless Flash-Speed Line!"
In the blink of an eye, a spinning stream of water shot out from Mangetsu's mouth.
It was about as thick as a pinky finger. The water spun so fast that it even stirred up a little breeze around it.
The speed was crazy fast, and with the added spin, the power was on a whole new level.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
The nearly see-through stream of water shot straight through the wooden board five meters in front of them!
Then, with three dull thuds, it hit three more boards lined up behind it. Each one wobbled slightly, with a hole right through the center of its forehead, the size of a finger.
Even though the boards shook, none of them fell over. They all stayed standing.
Mangetsu looked at Satoru, eyes glowing and breathing heavily, clearly waiting to be praised.
It was the first time he had worked this hard or put so much focus into tweaking a single jutsu.
For a genius like him, pulling this off probably meant most people wouldn't be able to do it at all.
Satoru rubbed his chin with one hand, then used the other to ruffle Mangetsu's soft silver hair.
"Wow~ you got this far in just a few days? That's really impressive."
This guy really is a genius.
Whether it's understanding the theory or improving in practice, he was way ahead of the others his age.
As Satoru looked at Mangetsu, he could already picture a future where this kid, like Shisui, worked for him someday.
Though honestly, that was just a nice thought. Mangetsu still had other uses, so he couldn't be treated the same as Shisui.
"Right?! I've never worked this hard before!"
Mangetsu bounced around happily next to Satoru, looking just like any normal kid who just got praised.
Hatake Satoru stepped forward to check the wooden boards that had been pierced.
Even the last board showed that the water line's force stayed stable the whole way—no drop in strength or changes in direction.
The spinning pattern inside the boards made it clear how the technique worked.
In terms of power and impact, it looked solid.
"Your aim and piercing strength are already good."
"Try to make the water line thinner if you can. Right now, there's still a good chance someone could spot where you are when you use it."
"Once it's thin enough, you'll be able to use it for sneak attacks without any trouble."
Even though Hatake Satoru usually went for flashy, overpowering moves, when teaching Hozuki Mangetsu, he focused on bringing out the full potential of a jutsu.
With Mangetsu's water body technique and Kirigakure Village's thick fog, if you're not using those for stealth or assassinations, you're kind of wasting them.
Mangetsu nodded seriously, clearly thinking over what Hatake Satoru said.
Just as the two of them fell into a short silence, a gust of wind suddenly blew through, making the grass ripple in waves.
"There you are. I was wondering why you weren't in the classroom."
Shisui spoke as he appeared out of nowhere beside Hatake Satoru, not surprised at all to see Mangetsu standing nearby.
He didn't say it out loud, but ever since they came here, it was obvious that Hatake Satoru had taken a real interest in Mangetsu.
It was like he'd taken a violent executioner and actually turned him back into a normal human being.
In a way, he was doing a pretty amazing job as a teacher.
"Any news on Yagura? It's been a while now—"
Obito didn't seem like the patient type. Could the Akatsuki be busy with something else?
Hatake Satoru tilted his head, glancing at Shisui, who had immediately locked eyes with Mangetsu.
Shisui quickly took a step back, smiled a little, and got serious.
"The attack is planned for two days from now. Yagura will take most of the Anbu with him to the Kaguya clan's land."
"Because Genji went out of his way to protect the two of us earlier, Yagura's side started to get suspicious. This plan is probably being kept from Genji."
"The Kaguya clan has been quiet since they moved—my guess is they've already teamed up with Genji, waiting to strike back when Yagura attacks."
Mangetsu stood between the two adults, looking confused as he glanced left and right.
[fuzzy]Wait a minute… this sounds like some top-secret stuff.
And they're just talking about it right in front of him?
"Huh? Isn't this kind of thing… supposed to be classified?"
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