Doulo did not keep them waiting for long.
When it came out of the wooden house, it was holding a roll of animal hide, tied around the middle with a leather cord.
Doulo placed the hide on the ground, pressed one end down with a front paw, bit the leather cord, and gently tugged.
The hide unrolled on its own, spreading from beside Shin-chan's feet all the way to the other end of the open space.
The scroll was filled with patterns and writing.
Shin-chan crouched down, both hands propped on his knees, and stared at the characters for quite a while.
"This one," he said very seriously, "looks like a tadpole."
Then he pointed at the one next to it.
That symbol curved into a circle, with two little forks split off at the top.
"This one is a butt."
Uchiha Toru covered his forehead with one hand, momentarily unsure what to say.
Doulo placed its front paw on the first symbol of the scroll. Its claw tip slowly moved down along the row of crooked, winding characters.
"Since the ancestors of the Dog Clan formed a contract with the mountain, this technique has been passed down from generation to generation."
Shin-chan leaned his head closer, looking at the symbols under Doulo's paw that he couldn't understand at all.
"Written here is the complete cultivation method for the Gigantification Technique," Doulo said. "From the most basic chakra circulation to the final gigantic form, every step is recorded here."
Doulo's claw tip moved to the next line.
"Chakra begins from the center of the body and rises along three paths at the same time..."
Uchiha Toru's gaze slowly swept across those symbols.
Doulo's claw tip continued downward.
"One path continues upward along the spine until it reaches the top of the head..."
Doulo stopped and looked at Shiro.
Shiro sat beside the scroll, his tail resting quietly on the ground, his eyes following Doulo's claw tip.
He didn't recognize any of those symbols, but he listened very carefully to every word Doulo read aloud.
Doulo continued, "At the same time, chakra is released outward, forming a... outside the body..."
Shin-chan crouched on the ground, his eyes beginning to spin. Finally, he reached out and poked Uchiha Toru's arm.
"Toru, did you understand that?"
Uchiha Toru shook his head. The arrangement of the images on the animal hide was somewhat similar to the ninjutsu scrolls he had seen before, but also seemed a little different.
Shin-chan couldn't keep crouching anymore. He plopped down on the ground, crossed his legs, placed both hands on his knees, and closed his eyes.
It was quiet for about three seconds.
"Mm..."
His face turned red from straining.
After another three seconds, Shin-chan opened his eyes and looked down at his hands, then at his feet.
Nothing had gotten bigger.
"This doesn't work at all."
Doulo stopped explaining and looked at Shin-chan.
Shin-chan had already lain flat on the ground, limbs spread out, staring at the clouds in the sky.
"All that chakra running around and stuff is too hard. I'll just stay an ordinary kid." He turned his head to look at Shiro beside him. "Shiro, don't forget our promise. After you get big, we'll go look for pretty big sisters together."
"Woof." Shiro barked, as if agreeing.
"Humans truly cannot learn it," Doulo said, lifting its head. "Even among the Dog Clan, only royalty can learn it."
"Why can't the other doggies learn it?" Shin-chan propped up half his body from the ground, a little curious.
"It is innate. Only royal chakra can release the secret technique."
Uchiha Toru's gaze was still on the scroll. "Or rather, only those who learn it are royalty."
Doulo's claw tip stopped on the image in the middle of the hide and did not move.
"If there is a dog that is not of royal blood, but has abnormal talent and can learn it anyway," Uchiha Toru asked, "then after it learns it, does that make it royalty?"
Doulo's tail lightly swept across the ground. It did not answer. It simply lowered its head again, its claw tip continuing to move along the lines on the hide.
"The second stage of the Gigantification Technique is chakra's..."
Shin-chan listened for a while longer.
Doulo's claw tip moved across the animal hide, and the words it read aloud grew longer and longer with each sentence.
Things like "chakra descends along the second path to the ends of the four limbs," and "the resonance frequency between external chakra and internal chakra must remain consistent"...
Shin-chan's eyes began spinning.
"Toru."
"Mm."
"I give up." Shin-chan closed his eyes, his tone as calm as if he were announcing he wouldn't eat green peppers today.
Doulo's explanation continued.
"The key to the third stage lies in controlling the form of chakra as it is released outward..."
Uchiha Toru's gaze remained on the animal hide.
He ran the direction of those lines through his mind, trying to understand them according to the sequence Doulo was reading.
Chakra begins from the center of the body, rises through three paths, gathers at the shoulders, and then...
Then the logic after that stopped connecting.
Uchiha Toru looked for a while longer, then withdrew his gaze from the hide and let out a soft breath.
"I give up too."
Shiro had been sitting beside the animal hide the entire time.
From the moment Doulo began explaining until now, his posture had barely changed. His eyes followed the movement of Doulo's claw tip.
He didn't recognize any of those crooked symbols, and he didn't understand the terms Doulo spoke either, like "chakra resonance" and "form solidification."
Doulo lowered its head, its claw tip resting on the final diagram on the hide, and finished reading the last section.
"...The above is the complete method of the Gigantification Technique."
Doulo lifted its head.
Shin-chan's breathing had become even and long, and there was still a shiny trace hanging at the corner of his mouth.
Uchiha Toru leaned against the wall, eyes closed. It was unclear whether he was resting or truly asleep.
Only Shiro remained sitting there, nodding.
Doulo rolled the animal hide back up, tied it with the leather cord, then walked to Shin-chan and touched the back of Shin-chan's hand with its nose.
Shin-chan abruptly sat up. Before his eyes had even fully opened, his hand was already wiping the corner of his mouth.
"I'm awake, I'm awake."
After saying that, he looked left and right until his gaze finally landed on Doulo.
"It's time to sign the contract."
Doulo placed a scroll in front of Shin-chan and spread it open.
"Use your blood to write your name here." Doulo's claw tip pointed to the blank space at the end of the scroll. "His Highness will use blood to write beside it."
Shin-chan sat up and put his finger in his mouth to bite it. "That hurts."
"Write quickly," Doulo urged.
Shin-chan pressed his finger onto the scroll and began writing his name.
Shiro lowered his head and stretched out his front paw.
Uchiha Toru hesitated for a moment, then took out a kunai and lightly cut Shiro's paw pad.
After seeing blood seep out, Shiro gently stepped on the scroll beside Shin-chan's name.
The two patches of blood slowly spread across the scroll, their edges touching.
The writing on the scroll lit up.
Shin-chan lowered his head and looked at his finger, then at Shiro's paw. "Is it done?"
"It's done," Doulo said.
Shin-chan reached his hand toward Shiro.
Shiro placed his front paw in his palm.
It was as if something had connected between them. It could not be seen or touched, but both of them felt it.
~~~
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