Time quickly reached the afternoon.
The location was underground beneath the Wildfire City outpost.
This place had originally been dug out for training special ninjutsu and interrogating prisoners. Both the walls and floor had been reinforced with Earth Release, and barrier runes capable of absorbing chakra had been carved into them. Now, Minato had brought people in to tidy it up a bit, turning it into an excellent experimental site.
Naturally, Minato was present.
After all, someone needed to undo Pakura's Five Elements Seal, and he also had to vouch for Mikami Yuu, ensuring Pakura wouldn't do anything extreme after recovering her chakra. For both of these tasks, Minato, as Yuu's team leader, was the most suitable person.
Hebishi and Nohara Rin were there too.
Both were medical ninja with a certain foundation in cytology, and both were reliable, so Yuu had invited them to help.
Several medical instruments connected to various wires were placed in one corner of the field, their screens glowing faintly. On the table beside them were scrolls meant for recording data in real time. Opposite them stood several specially made heat-resistant targets. Everything was ready.
"…We're here."
Yuu brought in Pakura, whose eyes had been covered. Her hand and foot shackles had been temporarily removed. After the blindfold was pulled away, she looked around the space, her gaze cold.
"Ready, Yuu?"
Minato asked.
"Mm. Thank you, Minato-sensei."
With that,
Minato extended his left hand. Soft chakra light glowed at his fingertips as he gently pressed them against Pakura's abdomen and released the Five Elements Seal.
As chakra flow returned, Pakura instinctively felt the urge to resist, but she quickly suppressed it.
She did think highly of herself, but she wasn't stupid. Right now, the enemy side didn't only have Mikami Yuu, but also the Yellow Flash, who had instantly killed twenty Suna ninja. If she made a move here…
her fate probably wouldn't be much better than those Suna ninja who had died earlier. If she lasted five seconds before dying, that would already count as an exceptional performance.
"Please relax, Miss Pakura."
Hebishi approached with several electrode patches connected to wires and said softly, "We need to place these on several major chakra points and around the heart meridian to monitor changes in your physiological indicators while you use your jutsu. Rin, you'll be responsible for recording the data."
"Alright."
Rin nodded.
At once, Yuu and Minato turned slightly away.
Pakura lifted her upper clothing a little and allowed Hebishi and Rin to place the cool patches on her arms, chest, and back. The other ends of the patches were connected to various medical instruments.
Once everything was ready, Hebishi returned to the instruments and signaled for Pakura to begin.
"Haa…"
Pakura took a deep breath and moved her hands slightly. Feeling the long-missed sensation of chakra rushing through her pathways, she gathered it into her palm, forming a blazing white Scorch Release fireball, then hurled it forward.
Bang—!
The fireball flew over ten meters and struck the target opposite her, splashing apart with a light explosion.
At the same time,
the curves on the instruments fluctuated violently, producing a series of beeping sounds.
"Blood pressure… heartbeat…"
"Hormone levels…"
Hebishi and Rin began recording rapidly.
Yuu also came to the screen, observing the lines of data displayed there and comparing them with the results from earlier blood sample tests, as well as the indicators of ordinary people.
However, the structure of the human body was far too complex. The plant-people of the ninja world were even more so. Facing nearly a hundred different physical indicators and no fewer than ten or twenty hormones and enzymes showing abnormal fluctuations, it clearly wasn't easy to quickly sort out their relationships and find the secret behind Scorch Release.
Thinking of this,
Yuu turned and looked at Pakura, who was currently acting like a Peashooter—condensing fireballs in her palm and throwing them out one after another. He stood up, walked all the way behind her, and extended his right hand. His palm landed on Pakura's back through her clothing.
"? What are you doing?!"
Pakura's body stiffened, and she turned her head to shout in a low voice.
"Don't be nervous. I'm just sensing the trajectory of chakra flow inside your body. Otherwise, looking at those indicator readings alone makes it hard to analyze anything useful."
Yuu explained calmly.
"…Fine."
Pakura sighed.
She was already here.
Since she had agreed to the request to research Scorch Release, there was no point acting coy now. In any case, according to their earlier agreement, all analysis results obtained afterward had to be copied and given to her too—assuming he kept his word.
So,
Yuu inhaled lightly, gathered chakra into his palm, and then tried injecting it into Pakura's body.
"Ngh!"
At that moment, Pakura felt Yuu's chakra pierce into her through the skin of her back, then rub and collide against her Scorch Release chakra inside her meridians. A powerful foreign sensation grew within her, making her body tremble involuntarily.
"No… you're entering too fast! And the amount is too dense! Slow down… otherwise I can't concentrate on controlling my own chakra!"
Pakura couldn't help speaking quickly, expressing the physical discomfort she felt.
In this specific context, those words were actually normal.
But…
"…Eh?"
Hebishi, who had been staring at the instrument screen, froze and abruptly raised her head, shifting her gaze toward Yuu and Pakura.
After confirming that Yuu was simply pressing his palm to Pakura's back and performing chakra sensing, the medical ninja secretly sighed in relief, though her expression became a little strange.
Rin didn't understand it instantly. After all, it was still a little too advanced for her.
But she did notice the "body-connected" posture of the two people in the center of the field. While continuing to record the instrument data, she couldn't help glancing over from the corner of her eye again and again. In her heart, an indescribable sour feeling quietly began to grow.
Yuu didn't notice any of this.
After all, the act of injecting chakra into another ninja's body carried risks for both sides, especially when they were not comrades and were wary of each other. If handled poorly, it could easily cause the chakra inside both bodies to become chaotic and result in internal injuries.
So both Yuu and Pakura were highly focused and extremely cautious right now.
"Begin. Pay attention to the frequency and density of your ninjutsu release. Don't just throw small fireballs. Use the techniques you used before one by one."
"…Got it."
At Yuu's words,
Pakura, who vaguely felt that what she had just said sounded a little off, had no time to think about it. She took a deep breath, suppressed the distracting thoughts in her heart, and focused her mind inward, using a true Scorch Release ninjutsu.
"Scorch Release: Extremely Steaming Murder!"
~~~
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