If any other guy had said that to one of the Nara Clan princesses, everyone would have considered him a walking corpse. This aggressive Kunoichi tolerated not a single lustful glance toward her, let alone words. And although the clan head refused all suitors wanting to marry this beauty, according to unconfirmed rumors, this "beast" was destined to become the wife of the future clan head—to keep talents in the family and also to prevent him from slacking off.
All Nara Clan members were smarter than most people, so half of Konoha's administrative positions were held by them. But the male part of the clan had a long-standing tendency toward incredible laziness, compensated by the strictness of their wives. If the clan lacked a sufficiently talented, beautiful, and strong-willed girl to marry off to the clan head's son, the great elder and current clan head personally sought the most pedigreed, talented, and strong-willed girls from outside.
Kenshin was extremely lucky that Kasumi felt very positively toward him; otherwise, she would have tried to strangle or bite him, unable to tolerate such an insult. By nature, she was very unyielding and willful. Nara Shikaku gladly supported this trait in his niece and let her grow as aggressive and confident as possible, quietly chuckling at his little son, who awaited such an incredible gift in the future.
Shikaku was in indescribable rage when he learned his niece had gone missing and might have been killed. He immediately mobilized an elite squad of clan Jonin and personally set out to search, arriving at the cave where Kasumi had been trapped on the morning of the 188th day.
"Lord, my people have searched the entire area and mobilized all groups from the surroundings. We caught all three. Kasumi's team confirmed these are the exact rogue ninja she drew to herself."
Shikaku had been in absolute fury all last night as he raced to this godforsaken place at full speed and scoured the forest like some Genin. Hearing that the presumed killers of his beloved niece had been found after all, he grunted and ordered them brought to him.
"Aaaa! Don't kill us, please! Shikaku-sama, spare us—we didn't know!" one of the rogue ninja commander's subordinates cried, throwing himself to his knees. Realizing whose path they'd crossed, he was horrified and immediately begged for his life.
Shikaku said nothing, but the Jonin dragging the rogue ninja grabbed him by the scruff and pulled him away from his lord, not hitting him too hard in the ribs. But what was "not too hard" for a Jonin turned into three broken ribs and spitting up a huge amount of blood for a Chunin.
"Inoyama-san, they're yours," Shikaku said, not bothering to talk to this worthless trash and deciding to trust the brother of the Yamanaka clan head.
The handsome, charming blond smiled, politely nodded to the Nara clan head, then sternly looked at the three and formed several seals, whispering, "Saiko Denshin!"
Three invisible lines immediately formed in the air and pierced the heads of all three rogue ninja, connecting to Yamanaka Inoyama, and from him entered Shikaku's head. Shikaku had voluntarily allowed this line into his mind and could dispel the technique with a single act of will, so without much fear, he began viewing the filtered memories of the three rogue ninja.
In five minutes, Shikaku saw everything. From the ambush on Kasumi's team to her pursuit and the cave ceiling collapse. He clearly saw how the "leader" of the rogue ninja nearly killed his beloved niece several times and called her insulting names countless times.
After the session ended, Shikaku's rage was palpable, and his two subordinates backed away, seeing the shadow of their lord split into countless threads and snake in different directions, chaotically twisting.
Glancing at the rogue ninja commander who had been silent all along, Shikaku took a step toward him, covering five meters in an instant. The rogue ninja leader trembled and squeezed his eyes shut, resigned to his fate. He wasn't a fool and knew survival after meeting a great clan head was impossible. Shikaku's shadows terrified the entire shinobi world, and no one wanted to face him on the battlefield. But the rogue ninja commander was unlucky, and now this incredibly dangerous shinobi was right in front of him.
Not even a second had passed since the Yamanaka clan technique ended when Shikaku was already opposite the rogue ninja commander and instantly delivered a kick. The eyes of all Shikaku's and Inoyama's subordinates narrowed, and they leaped thirty meters to the side just in time.
The rogue ninja commander never even noticed the strike, and his entire body was literally torn into the tiniest shreds. The Elite Jonin's strike was so fast and powerful that it exceeded the speed of sound several times over, and its aftermath shredded the two rogue ninja sitting three meters from their boss. When it was all "long" over, a loud sonic boom cracked, signifying the sound barrier breach. Shikaku had already moved aside by the time the consequences of his burst of anger manifested.
That same not-fully-cleared rubble was completely cleared. All the stones were blasted inward or scattered aside. Huge boulders cracked or broke, and red stains from the shreds of the three rogue ninja's bodies were visible in some places. The shockwave from the Elite Jonin's strike was enough to shatter massive boulders and carve depressions into the mountain. Even the nearby Jonin wiped sweat from their brows, not entirely sure they could survive such a powerful strike if they ever angered the clan head.
The shadows behind Shikaku stopped dancing in all directions, signaling that he had vented part of his rage on the bodies of the three destroyed enemies. But his heart still ached for his beloved niece, whom he had taken under his care after her parents' death. He had promised himself to look after her, and it hurt especially now to realize he might not have kept that promise.