On the 142nd day, Kenshin got good news from Third and Fourth. Both his sons had learned a joint technique through long training.
Standing in the gym, he watched an incredible sight. His two sons synced hand seals perfectly, then shouted:
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Instead of two fireballs, they formed one giant one a meter and a half across, which shot toward the village dummy a second later but was stopped by an invisible barrier. After half a second of furious flickering against the barrier, the shrunken half-meter fireball broke through and incinerated the wooden dummy to ash.
"Whoa! Even my best Protection Formation couldn't absorb all the damage..." Kenshin muttered, approaching the dummy while enduring the lingering heat. He poked it with a long iron rod and found a half-melted talisman with the formation inscribed on it.
Even Ichiro was quite surprised by his younger brothers' power. He thought that if they sped up the technique, it would become an incredibly fearsome weapon for the Nakayama family.
"Ichiro, train with Third and Fourth. You must learn to make a triple fireball," Kenshin ordered, and all three obeyed without question.
Before leaving the gym, he decided to check his children's "statuses" and see their progress.
Name: Nakayama Ichiro
Age: 20 years
Talent Level: 16
Chakra Quality: 3
Chakra Amount: 3350
Chakra Control: 52%
Name: Third
Age: 20 years
Talent Level: 21
Chakra Quality: 2
Chakra Amount: 3500
Chakra Control: 47%
Name: Fourth
Age: 20 years
Talent Level: 19
Chakra Quality: 2
Chakra Amount: 3400
Chakra Control: 46%
144th day.
Two figures of sturdy men raced through the forest, leaping tree to tree. After half an hour, one stopped abruptly and said to the other:
"Stop, Izao. This place is perfect. We'll hole up here for a few weeks till the heat dies down. They won't find us in these mountains for sure."
"You're right, Toru. After what we did in that city, a punitive squad from Konoha probably came after us. We gotta lay low!" replied the broad-shouldered black-haired man in black pants, black t-shirt, and a gray vest loaded with pockets.
The two men headed quickly to the nearest mountain, but suddenly Izao spotted something odd out of the corner of his eye and stopped short.
"Look, a potato field!" he said in surprise to his comrade.
"You're seeing things. No potato fields here," Toru shook his head but looked anyway—and froze in astonishment.
The two comrades bolted to the potato field and ten seconds later were each holding a big potato.
"Hmm, potatoes for real. But who planted them in this wilderness? We should check—maybe someone lives nearby!" Izao said with a vicious grin, then split up with his comrade to scout the area.
An hour later, they concluded someone definitely lived—or still lived—here. They searched all nearby caves but found nothing, though they weren't upset. They grabbed a sack of potatoes and two snares with live hares, picked a cave, and set up a temporary base there.
"Judging by the snares and potato field, we'll meet the 'owner' of all this splendor any day now—and see what he's made of!" Toru laughed, biting a big chunk of meat from a roasted hare's hind leg.
Kenshin immediately noticed the two intruders and hoped they were just passing through. But when they reached the potato field, he instantly sent his sons a combat readiness command. They'd drilled enemy invasion scenarios many times, so they quickly went on alert and awaited orders.
Kenshin clearly saw all the intruders' movements, but with a slight delay. The info reaching his brain was like echolocation—no colors or precise images, just barely recognizable outlines.
When the uninvited guests started ransacking every cave, Kenshin realized conflict was inevitable and feared they'd somehow find the shelter entrance. When one entered that very cave, Kenshin held his breath, mentally ordering all his sons to prepare for battle—but after a few seconds, he exhaled in relief. The intruder wandered the cave, noticed nothing, and left.
When the two thieves finally stole two hares and a sack of potatoes before hiding in a cave, Kenshin called off his sons and ordered them to train harder, perfecting the combined fireball technique as much as possible. He himself started planning the enemies' elimination.
That they were enemies—he had no doubt. Their behavior showed they weren't Konoha shinobi on a mission deciding to camp in the mountains. In any case, Kenshin planned to wait at least a few days before acting. If by absurd chance these obvious bandits were Konoha shinobi, they'd have to leave by then.
From their observed speed, Kenshin figured they were at least peak Genin, maybe Chunin. Their speed was a bit higher than Ichiro's, so he hoped they'd leave the next day and never return.
To his deepest regret, the next day they didn't leave—instead, they scoured the area even harder. One was a Doton user and collapsed several caves, but then either got bored or it was too taxing, so he gave up and wandered the vicinity.
Kenshin hadn't slept the previous night, long trying to devise a plan. When he finally did, he started sketching a prototype formation, swapping key nodes and making adjustments.
All Kenshin's adult sons trained sweatily, preparing for the coming battle. His two wives were very worried—Natsumi even volunteered to join the attack on the intruders but was refused.
By lunch on the 146th day, all preparations were ready, and Kenshin planned to strike that night.