To be fair, nothing unusual happened during this patrol. It seemed the encounter between Mikami Yuu's group and Pakura's squad had only been a minor interlude.
That made sense.
After all, Pakura's team had basically been wiped out. Reorganizing a new squad would take time. And although Pakura was a Scorch Release genius, she didn't have any special clan background in Sunagakure, so it was unlikely they would mobilize a large force just because she had lost.
Of course, they still had to stay alert. Uncertain possibilities were no reason to let their guard down.
That evening,
Namikaze Minato returned from Wildfire City.
As usual, Kakashi exchanged the code phrase with him and confirmed his identity using Minato's Flying Thunder God kunai.
After that, Minato began explaining the current situation:
"The Oborozuki Castle outpost has most likely fallen. We've been assigned a new mission: proceed to the Oborozuki Castle area, rendezvous with Inuzuka Tsume's squad, which has already gone ahead, then cooperate with them to gather surviving forces and attempt to retake the outpost.
"As for the reconnaissance and patrol duties in zones 7 through 10, another squad will take over. Once they arrive, we'll move out."
"Retake the outpost?"
Kakashi frowned slightly. This was no longer a simple reconnaissance mission.
Oborozuki Castle wasn't as large as Wildfire City, but Konoha had still stationed several squads there. If Suna had been able to take it down silently, the number of enemies involved was probably not small. Trying to snatch it back from them would obviously be dangerous.
"So something big is finally coming?"
Obito clenched his fist, his expression showing excitement mixed with nervousness.
He still hadn't figured out the "trolley problem," but he at least knew that during wartime, defeating the enemy came first. Only the victor had the room to think.
Mikami Yuu and Rin exchanged a glance without saying anything.
Afterward,
Minato said softly, "Before I returned, the squad taking over our area had already finished preparations. They should arrive here by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. We'll move out then. Until that point, everyone should rest and recover your strength.
"Also…
"Jiraiya-sensei promised earlier that he would prepare some meeting gifts for you. When I went back this time, he specifically mentioned it and asked me to bring these over. You can choose according to your own interests, or exchange among yourselves afterward if you like."
As he spoke, Minato spread out a storage scroll in front of them.
Their gazes were drawn to it immediately. There was a small ninjutsu scroll, two differently bound books, several ninja tools, and a neatly folded set of black soft armor.
Mikami Yuu's eyes went first to the ninjutsu scroll.
"What's this?"
"This is a defensive ninjutsu Jiraiya-sensei developed himself. It's called Ninja Art: Needle Jizō. Its principle is hardening the hair to form a defensive wall. It's very practical."
As Minato explained—
[Ding! Detectable gift · limited skin for Transformation Technique: Needle Jizō!]
Mikami Yuu was delighted.
Good, good, good.
Another skin for Transformation Technique. It looked like giving it as a gift would let him "learn" it.
Functionally, it overlapped a little with Orochimaru's Snake Limb Hardening, but one focused on the limbs and the other on the torso, so they could complement each other well enough. And if he remembered correctly, Jiraiya had a few more hair-related ninjutsu, like Wild Lion's Mane Technique. If he got the chance, he could try to farm those too.
"I'll take this first and have a look. I'll copy a version for you all later."
Yuu directly took Needle Jizō and said that to Kakashi and Obito.
Beside him,
Obito looked at the two books, hesitated, then reached for the one with the more appealing title and read it softly.
"The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi… This book was personally written by Lord Jiraiya? That's amazing! I've got to take this back and study it properly…
"Kakashi, you can have that Icha Icha Paradise. After I finish this one, we can switch!"
"?"
Wait a second—
What the hell?
He really gave out Icha Icha Paradise? Is that… appropriate?
Mikami Yuu froze for a moment, then turned to look.
Kakashi silently picked up Icha Icha Paradise. He first looked at its perfectly ordinary orange cover, then casually flipped open a page.
In an instant,
Kakashi's pupils trembled violently, as if he had seen something unbelievable. His normally lifeless dead-fish eyes suddenly contracted.
But very soon, that shock vanished from his eyes. Expressionless, he closed the book and stuffed it into the inner part of his tool pouch, then responded to Obito's earlier words in a flat voice.
"No need to switch. I'll keep this one."
"…Nice."
Yuu almost burst out laughing beside him.
It seemed he had underestimated the children of this world… Well, actually, even on modern Earth, it wasn't that rare for kids in their early teens to start getting interested in adult material, let alone children in the ninja world, who matured much earlier.
It was just that Kakashi's cold, cool, untouchable image made that quietly pervy action feel absurdly contrasting.
If Obito had been the one to get Icha Icha Paradise first, he would probably already be shouting by now.
Speaking of which…
Did Minato know what that book contained?
Yuu glanced at Minato, who was still smiling gently, and muttered inwardly.
After the others finished choosing,
the remaining set of armor naturally went to Rin. It wasn't especially refined, but it was light and tough, providing protection without hindering mobility. It suited Rin, whose direct combat ability was weaker.
She thanked them and happily accepted it.
Once the gifts were handed out,
Minato clapped his hands again. "Alright. Since there's still a little time today, I'll teach you a very practical jutsu—Shadow Clone Technique."
"Shadow Clone?"
Obito immediately perked up. "The kind of clone jutsu that can create real bodies?"
"That's right."
Minato nodded. "Unlike ordinary E-rank Clone Technique or most elemental clones, this type of clone can fight physically and transmit information. More importantly, after the clone is dispelled, its memories and experience are fed back to the original body. It's very suitable for coordinated combat with the user.
"Of course, as a B-rank ninjutsu, Shadow Clone has a drawback: it consumes a lot of chakra. To start with, it takes about half of your chakra, so you must use it according to your ability…"
Next, Minato began explaining in detail how to allocate chakra for Shadow Clone, the hand seal method, the casting points, and things to watch out for. He also demonstrated it several times on the spot.
As Yuu listened,
he saw the galgame system's text box appear again:
[Clone Technique: Wow! This black outfit looks so cool! Even cooler than Water Clone! Little Yuu, get me a set this cool too, okay? Please?]
"…Fine, fine. I'll get it for you."
[Clone Technique: (cheering and bouncing) Really? Great! Yuu, you're the best! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ Hehehe… new skin… second new skin…]
"…"
Unlike Needle Jizō, Shadow Clone did not trigger a skin prompt.
But this technique probably wasn't an independent romance target. After all, no new [Encounter] had appeared either. Yuu guessed it might be because there was no scroll. He probably had to first record Minato's explanation and write one himself later.
Once Minato finished explaining the principle,
he stopped and let Yuu and the others try practicing.
Kakashi used it very quickly.
To be precise, Kakashi already knew it. Months ago, during their first trip to Wildfire City, he had used it while chasing Obito. It was just that because he was still young and had limited chakra, he didn't use it often.
After casually using it twice, Kakashi went a little farther away, leaned against a tree, and once again pulled out Icha Icha Paradise, reading it by the campfire with no visible expression behind his mask.
Obito and Rin were still practicing the hand seals.
Yuu also practiced for a while, then walked to the side, took out two blank scrolls, and began copying Needle Jizō and Shadow Clone.
The first one was easy. He could just transcribe it directly.
But Shadow Clone was based on Minato's verbal explanation, so the form wasn't very formal. After Yuu finished writing his first version, the galgame system didn't give him any "skin detected" prompt, so he had to take the scroll back to Minato and ask for help.
"Hm? Yuu, is this the part you didn't understand? It's like this…"
After listening to Minato patiently explain it again,
Yuu silently memorized the points, returned, and revised the scroll he had just written several times.
Finally—
[Ding! Detectable gift · limited skin for Clone Technique: Shadow Clone!]
"It worked!"
When no one was paying attention, Yuu quietly tucked the Needle Jizō and Shadow Clone scrolls into his clothes and gifted them through the galgame system to Transformation Technique and Clone Technique.
The two sisters who received skins were delighted.
Clone Technique even smugly called out Great Fireball.
[Clone Technique: Oh my, oh my, Great Fireball, how did you know little Yuu bought new outfits for Big Sis and me again? And they're a black night outfit and a luxurious sable coat, too. Look how cool they are! Hehe, now the three of us sisters have four skins total, twice as many as you and Little Phoenix.]
[Great Fireball Jutsu, Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: …]
[Substitution Technique: …]
[Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: Hmph, it's fine. Little Yuu already promised to prepare new clothes for me. I'll have them soon… right, little Yuu?]
"Ah, right…"
Yuu scratched his head and shifted his attention from Phoenix Fire to Substitution Technique.
As the only one of the Three Basic Jutsu with no skin yet, Substitution Technique seemed to have a little resentment about it.
But there was nothing he could really do.
Compared to her two "big sisters," there really were fewer skins for Substitution Technique. The only ones Yuu could think of right away were Itachi's Crow Clone Substitution and Orochimaru-style Substitution. One of those hadn't appeared yet, and the other would be hard for him to access in the short term.
And in terms of practicality, Substitution Technique: Pseudo-Realm Instant Cast was already enough to handle the vast majority of situations, so Yuu subjectively didn't feel too desperate to get a new version.
He could only comfort Substitution Technique with a few words and leave the rest to fate.
At that moment,
Transformation Technique popped up again:
[Transformation Technique: …Little Yuu, this new outfit you gave me feels a little different… It seems to contain some kind of "activation" material.]
"Oh?"
Yuu paused.
"Activation" itself was a broad concept.
Cell Activation was one type, mainly targeting the nervous system.
As for Needle Jizō, although Yuu hadn't tried it yet, based on Jiraiya's usage in the original story, it seemed to work by using chakra to stimulate hair follicle cells into rapid growth, allowing hair to be used like ninja tools. That was a kind of surface-level cellular activation, theoretically closer to Yang Release.
Thinking about it that way…
Wasn't Transformation Technique: Lifelike Reality, which could achieve actual physical transformation, also evolving from an illusion-like trick toward the domain of Yang Release?
Then could he use Needle Jizō to explore how Cell Activation worked?
Yuu faintly realized he had discovered a blind spot he had overlooked before.
But…
No rush.
Like Mystical Palm, both Shadow Clone and Needle Jizō were fairly advanced ninjutsu. And they had only just been "taught" by Minato and Jiraiya. Even though Yuu already had the title of "genius," learning something one moment and using it the next would be too frightening.
It might also attract unnecessary attention, especially from Uchiha Madara and Black Zetsu. Logically, those two should always be watching Obito's movements from the shadows.
The current Team Minato, because of Mikami Yuu's presence, already had average strength far beyond the original version at this point in the timeline. Because of that, Minato's arrangements for them had clearly become bolder. While their peers like Kurenai and Might Guy were still patrolling around the village, they had already come to the front line.
At this rate,
Yuu couldn't be sure whether the Kannabi Bridge battle would still happen the same way it had in canon.
Before he learned Flying Thunder God, he felt it was best to stay cautious and not draw Uchiha Madara out too early.
"I'll pretend to practice for a few days first. Once enough time passes, I'll use them…"
Yuu thought.
The next day,
Yuu's squad carried out their patrol mission as usual.
By afternoon,
another four-person squad arrived in the area and completed the handover with Yuu's group. After telling them about what had happened earlier, including Pakura's appearance, Yuu and the others followed Minato and rushed toward Oborozuki Castle.
Night was as dark as ink.
On the outskirts of Oborozuki Castle, near a sentry post to the northeast,
several figures quietly crept forward.
"Minato-sensei, is this the southeastern outpost? Don't tell me Suna has already taken it too?"
Obito asked in a low voice.