A blazing white, high-temperature fireball condensed in Pakura's palm. Carrying heat waves that twisted the air, it roared toward the distant target. With a boom, the target's surface turned bright red as terrifying heat spread outward.
In that instant,
Mikami Yuu captured the violent changes inside Pakura's body, like a volcanic eruption.
A considerable amount of chakra seemed to be accelerated, compressed, and fused at specific meridian nodes in her body. Alongside that were physiological changes: a surge in blood flow speed, a sharp rise in body temperature, and an instant spike in the secretion of certain glands… details that were very difficult to feel intuitively through data alone.
(Little Phoenix, what do you think?)
Yuu silently muttered in his heart.
Yes, that's right.
One of Yuu's motives for pursuing Scorch Release was the special event for Phoenix Sage Fire Technique. Naturally, at a time like this, he had to call her out to watch too. She might not be able to help, but there was no harm in trying…
After a brief silence,
the galgame system's text box appeared.
[Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: Huh? You're asking me about this?]
Yuu: Isn't this also to fulfill your wish? It's like shopping at a mall. I'll be the one paying, but you still have to pick what you want, right?
[Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: Um… is that comparison right…?]
Although Yuu's analogy was indeed a bit forced, Phoenix Fire did not dwell on it too much. Instead, using his chakra as a medium, she began sensing inside Pakura's body.
The consequence of this was that the chakra Yuu had injected into Pakura quietly grew hot, causing her to groan. Yuu hurriedly focused and controlled it, only then calming the somewhat violent chakra back down.
[Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: I can definitely feel that this woman's chakra is different from yours, little Mikami. Push a little harder and let me see more. Maybe I'll be able to figure something out. Right, Big Sis?]
[Great Fireball Jutsu: …]
Mm… there might be something here?
Yuu withdrew his attention from the galgame system, exhaled lightly, and said, "Again."
Next,
Pakura released Linked Stars and Corona one after another.
Yuu turned his chakra into tendrils, probing into Pakura's body and capturing the flow trajectories of her chakra and the many changes that occurred during her jutsu casting. During this, he occasionally adjusted the strength and angle of his chakra tendrils based on feedback from both Phoenix Fire and Pakura.
"Wait, not there… that's too deep!"
"Ah… slower! It hurts! The chakra's getting tangled together!"
"Hey, Mikami Yuu! You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?! How many times have I warned you? If you keep barging around inside my body like that, hurry up and get out!"
At this point, not only Hebishi—even Namikaze Minato was starting to lose composure.
Wait…
Were these two doing this intentionally or accidentally? How did a kekkei genkai research session end up sounding like they were doing something else? The things they said were way too strange.
It was fortunate Jiraiya-sensei wasn't here. Otherwise, his inspiration would probably explode, and he might write a scene based on these two into the next volume of Icha Icha Paradise…
Yes, that's right.
As Jiraiya's student, Minato wasn't some clueless innocent. After all, the prerequisite for "remaining unstained by the mud" was that one had actually spent time in the "mud."
Besides, he was already twenty years old. In theory, he could marry and have children. Naturally, he had been exposed to this kind of knowledge before.
At this moment, although Minato heard the double meaning in their words, his character did not allow him to imagine his own student in that kind of inappropriate situation. So he could only cough lightly, raise a hand to touch his nose as cover, and drift his gaze toward the wall.
About half an hour later,
Pakura's forehead was beaded with sweat, and more than half her chakra had been consumed. She had used all of her Scorch Release techniques several times each and, at Yuu's request, had also released several ordinary Fire Release and Wind Release techniques.
This was to compare the difference between her kekkei genkai state and her normal state.
"…After messing around for this long, it's time to pull your chakra out, isn't it, little white-hair?"
Pakura let out a long breath and glanced at Yuu behind her.
"More or less."
Yuu nodded.
He had already tried all the experimental items he could think of on Pakura, and they had basically recorded all the data they could. Unless he dragged Pakura off to dissect her, there wasn't much else they could study. So Yuu planned to end things here.
The only issue was that Phoenix Sage Fire Technique hadn't reacted at all afterward, so he didn't know if she had learned anything…
Next,
Yuu returned to the side and asked Hebishi and Rin to help remove the patches from Pakura's body. After that, Minato personally stepped in and sealed Pakura again.
During this process, Yuu vaguely felt that the air around them had turned a little subtle. Hebishi and Minato both looked straight ahead, as though they had tacitly understood something without saying it. Rin's small face was also slightly red, and when she looked at him, she seemed like she wanted to say something but stopped herself. It left him completely confused.
But since none of them said anything, he didn't ask.
Afterward,
Yuu personally escorted Pakura back to her cell.
"Hey."
Before parting, Pakura called out to him, her amber eyes fixed firmly on him. "Don't forget your promise. I want to see the research results you mentioned as soon as possible."
"First, my name isn't 'hey'… ahem. Scientific research takes slow, meticulous work. Right now, we've only completed the initial data collection. After this, the data still needs to be analyzed, organized, and the hypotheses verified. It won't be that fast."
Yuu waved a hand casually. "If you're bored out of your mind, use this time to study the Fire Release scrolls I gave you, or think about what happens after you return to Suna. After all, Suna will definitely try to get you back.
"This period of capture isn't exactly glorious for you. When prisoners are exchanged later, Suna may also have to pay a price. These things could all be used by your rivals as excuses to suppress you."
"…Heh. Isn't that all thanks to you?"
Pakura replied coldly.
"That's not quite right. On the battlefield, each side serves its own master. In the end, everything is decided by strength. If you had won back then, I'd be the one with a headache now… Mm, actually, I might not have a head anymore."
With Sunagakure's short-sighted mindset, and Chiyo's level of hatred for Hatake Sakumo, if they really captured him as "Hatake Yuu," the chance they would directly kill him was very high, rather than holding him as a valuable prisoner to bargain with.
"…"
Pakura pressed her lips together.
To be honest…
She really did have a few rivals in Sunagakure, such as Rasa.
He was a few years older than Pakura and could technically be considered her senior. His strength was decent, but his personality was forceful and stubborn. He had already clashed unpleasantly with Pakura several times. It was only because of their mutual acquaintance, Karura, mediating between them that they hadn't completely fallen out.
If he learned she had been captured by Konoha, ridicule would be unavoidable. Most likely, he would use it to question her ability too.
But…
that should be all, right?
Even if Rasa really disliked her, and even if, with the Third Kazekage missing, Sasori of the Red Sand having left the village, and Chiyo too old and unwilling to become Kazekage, he successfully inherited the position of Fourth Kazekage, could he really set up a trap on purpose and kill a fellow village ninja with solid strength and achievements like her?
That kind of self-mutilating action that harmed the village's interests was practically the same as sending your own brother-in-law to assassinate your biological son… Anyone with even a little brain wouldn't do that.
Pakura thought this in her heart, but her mouth remained cold. "Sunagakure's internal affairs don't need a Konoha ninja like you to worry about them. I know what I'm doing."
"I hope so."
Yuu smiled.
In his view, Sunagakure's geniuses of this generation were all pretty abstract.
One, Sasori of the Red Sand, suddenly assassinated the Kazekage for no good reason and turned himself into a missing-nin. One, Pakura, was big-chested but brainless, poor at judging people, and was sold out and killed by her village in confusion. As for Rasa…
he was an even heavier case.
The first two had some problems, but their actions could still be traced. In the giant mental hospital that was the ninja world, they could roughly count as normal people. Rasa, meanwhile, specialized in imitating a human being. Everything he did was more abstract than the last, and in the end he was run over by Orochimaru like a speed bump.
The fact that Sunagakure let him become the Fourth Kazekage probably meant they had reached the point where they had no talent left and truly had no other choice.
"Alright then. Rest well. Once the research results come out, I'll give you a copy immediately."
Yuu waved and didn't stay any longer. He turned and left the cell.
Pakura was left alone facing the wall. Her brows furrowed slightly as she thought for a while about what Yuu had just said. Then she exhaled lightly, her gaze falling on the Fire Release scrolls on the table. After a brief hesitation, she reached out, picked them up, and opened them one by one to study.
No matter what, for a ninja, improving strength was the first priority.
With a seal placed on her body and no way to mobilize chakra, she could only begin with theoretical study and lay the groundwork for what came after she escaped.
…
Yuu returned to the temporary medical analysis room.
At this moment, Hebishi and Rin were buried in a large pile of recording scrolls and charts printed from the instruments, both frowning deeply.
"How is it, Hebishi-senpai, Rin? Any ideas?"
"Not yet. There's too much data, and the changes are too complicated."
Hebishi rubbed her brow. "Look here. The chakra peak is completely synchronized with sudden surges in secretions from several specific glands. But in theory, these substances shouldn't be capable of producing the effect of instantly evaporating water. I suspect there is some linkage mechanism or catalytic medium we haven't discovered."
"And here. When Pakura condenses high-temperature chakra, part of her cells' mitochondrial structure briefly shows a kind of… how should I put it, overload fluorescence phenomenon. Energy conversion efficiency increases five to ten times in an instant, then returns to normal afterward…"
As Hebishi and Rin explained,
Yuu kept flipping through the dense data and images. His brain worked rapidly, cross-checking the results from the data with what he had personally sensed inside Pakura's body earlier.
A faint spark of insight suddenly flashed by, like a firefly in darkness.
But when Yuu tried to reach out and "catch" it, that flash vanished, leaving only a vague feeling behind.
"Tsk, just a little short…"
Yuu scratched his hair in frustration.
It felt like looking at scenery through a thin veil. The outline was clearly there, but he still couldn't see it clearly.
Rin noticed his frustration and put down the pen in her hand, gently comforting him.
"Yuu-kun, you don't need to rush.
"Developing a kekkei genkai… no, even just analyzing and imitating one is already a top-level problem recognized throughout the ninja world. Even geniuses like Lady Tsunade and Lord Orochimaru would need a lot of time and experiments. We've only just started. With more time, we'll definitely find a direction."
"True."
Yuu looked at Rin's serious little face, and the irritation in his heart eased slightly. He let out a breath.
"Mm. You're right. I was too impatient. Let's organize and archive the data first. Slowly."
The three of them worked for a while longer, organizing the huge amount of data they had obtained today by category.
These materials were quite valuable too. Later, copying a set and submitting it to Konoha would probably be worth a considerable amount of contribution points.
That night,
when Yuu and Rin returned to the barracks, it was already late. Kakashi and Obito, who shared the same room, were already asleep, their steady breathing rising and falling.
Yuu washed up briefly, then spread his arms and lay down on his bed. His mind was still replaying the daytime experiment, the complicated data, and that faint flash of inspiration. But soon, all of that was replaced by heavy drowsiness. He finally closed his eyes, ready to fall asleep.
Just then—
[Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: Hey, hey! Little Mikami! Wake up! Don't sleep!]
[Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: I understood it!!]
"?"
Yuu was startled by the sudden voice. The sleepiness in his mind was instantly scattered, and he abruptly opened his eyes.
"…Little Phoenix? What did you understand? Why are you making noise in the middle of the night…"
Phoenix Fire didn't seem to care about Yuu's words and continued shouting excitedly in the galgame system:
[Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: Hehe, I understood it! I think I know how to become sparkly like that woman!]
[Based on deep observation of the Scorch Release kekkei genkai, Phoenix Sage Fire Technique has successfully comprehended and absorbed part of its light-flame trait. The original Trait · Burst Shot gains an added flash effect.]
"…Holy shit!"
As the galgame system prompt appeared in his vision,
Yuu shot upright, surprise appearing on his face.
Wait… you were serious?
A jutsu having a sudden self-enlightenment moment was actually possible?
As expected of you, Little Phoenix. I knew from the start that you were the cleverest one!
But…
It only added a flash effect?
What use was that…
Yuu immediately sat up, formed hand seals, and slightly opened his mouth. A pale-white fireball emerged, then floated in midair, flickering quietly.