"All right... let's begin."
Hinata took a slow breath and relaxed her body. Standing about five meters away, Shikamaru clicked his tongue, sounding a little unconvinced. "Fine... I've never heard of anyone breaking free of the Shadow Imitation Technique with brute force either. Since you insist, let's give it a try."
"Yeah... come at me."
Hinata could not help becoming a little interested herself. Most ninjutsu in this world could be mapped almost seamlessly onto something like "magic," but the shadow-based secret techniques Shikamaru practiced had a much more distinctively ninja-like flavor. She genuinely wanted to experience one for herself.
"Take this! Shadow Imitation Technique!"
Shikamaru said nothing more. He dropped smoothly into a crouch and formed hand seals with both hands. The pineapple-haired boy's shadow suddenly twitched like a living thing, then shot forward like a rope and seized the shadow beneath Hinata's feet.
"Mm! This feeling..."
The moment the Shadow Imitation Technique caught her, Hinata felt as though her entire body had abruptly been encased in a shell of plaster. An invisible barrier seemed to seal the surface of her body. Her limbs could still exert force, but the moment that force reached the surface, it was as though the barrier absorbed and dissolved it.
"Well? I told you. This ninjutsu may be troublesome, but it's still very reliable."
Seeing Hinata stop moving, Shikamaru did indeed relax. A faint smile appeared on the pineapple-haired boy's face. "Fighting is troublesome, but when it has to be done, it has to be done, right?"
"Good. At least you understand that. And... this technique seems to enforce only the external shape of the body. In other words... it can affect movement at the surface of the target's body, but it can't stop internal muscle activity or the flow of chakra."
Veins rose beside Hinata's eyes as her Byakugan activated. The fact that this Kekkei Genkai, which required chakra to gather before it could be activated, still worked was clear proof of her conclusion. The Shadow Imitation Technique could forcibly control the outer movements of the target's body, but it could not restrict everything happening inside it.
In other words, it could not restrain chakra at all!
"Oh, looks like Hinata's side has already started. Then let's hurry up over here too!"
Naruto excitedly rolled his wrists, then formed the hand seal for the Shadow Clone Technique. Smoke burst outward, and eight Shadow Clones appeared around him at once. There was no question that these were the part of today's training he intended to use.
"Seriously, fighting your Shadow Clones? That's a little boring."
Across from him, Kiba licked the corner of his mouth with a feral grin and patted Akamaru on top of his head. "You're not the only one who can call in backup. You sure you want to do this?"
Naruto folded his arms and gave an outrageously smug snort. Kiba immediately flared up. "Damn it, you stupid fox! Just watch! Before you even finish fighting Choji, every one of those Shadow Clones will be gone!"
"Well... Naruto, I'll warn you first. I can't easily control the force of Human Bullet Tank. If you get hurt, don't blame me."
The rules of the spar were simple. Naruto's real body had to use Divine Sandstorm against Choji while he was in Human Bullet Tank form and succeed in knocking him back. Meanwhile, the Shadow Clones would fight Kiba and Akamaru so Naruto could familiarize himself with the exact attack patterns of Yaotome.
Looked at that way, even the current Naruto was still under considerable pressure. At this point in the story, Choji and Kiba were both among the stronger Genin. Choji was slow, but his strength and defense were excellent, and Human Bullet Tank combined offense and defense. In the original story, he had taken a direct hit from a Sound shinobi's Decapitating Airwaves without a scratch.
Kiba, meanwhile, had fierce taijutsu and rapid movements, with Akamaru supporting him through the Beast Human Ninja Art. Together, they also possessed the powerful secret technique Fang Passing Fang. In the original story, the fight had been almost completely one-sided in Kiba's favor. If Naruto had not tricked Kiba into knocking Akamaru unconscious with the Transformation Technique, then been absurdly lucky enough to stun Kiba with a fart, Kiba would unquestionably have won.
"Then come on, Naruto! We may not have an overwhelming style like Nanto Seiken, but now I'll show you the secret taijutsu of the Inuzuka Clan!"
Kiba tossed a Military Rations Pill (Hyōrōgan) into his own mouth and another into Akamaru's. His fighting spirit surged. With a low shout, the Beast Human Ninja Art activated. Akamaru, now transformed into Kiba, and the real Kiba were almost impossible to distinguish, and their savage eyes made both of them look like beasts preparing to hunt.
"This guy really is something else. Brothers, remember Yaotome's attack zones. Let's go!"
The Naruto Shadow Clone acting as squad leader instinctively grew more serious. But before he could issue another order, a figure flashed before his eyes. A vicious claw strike sent him flying into the air, and with a bang, he vanished in a burst of smoke.
"Ha! Naruto, you're slow! And you call yourself the inheritor of Nanto Wind Martyr Fist? Wind is supposed to be fast! Or is your wind standing still?"
After using his speed to destroy one Shadow Clone with the opening strike, Kiba's confidence rose sharply. Naruto might have been put through the wringer by Hinata and Sasuke for quite some time, but his real combat experience was still lacking. A speed-type ninja like Kiba was especially difficult for him to deal with.
"Don't get cocky! Don't blame us when we make you cry!"
The remaining seven Naruto Shadow Clones roared and charged together. Their objective was to become familiar with Yaotome's attack pattern through close combat, so ninja tools and the Sonic Hand Blade were forbidden. They could only build taijutsu experience bit by bit through hand-to-hand fighting.
"Damn, Kiba really does have some skill."
Standing off to one side facing Choji, Naruto could not help being surprised. Several of his eight Shadow Clones had disappeared almost instantly under Kiba and Akamaru's attacks, and fragments of those memories flowed back into him. His swollen confidence immediately began to settle down.
"All right, Naruto, I'm coming. If you can't take it, I suggest you dodge."
Choji rolled his wrists twice, then formed hand seals. "Multi-Size Technique!"
With a muffled boom, Choji suddenly expanded like a ball. His limbs and head tucked into his enlarged body, and the thing supporting that massive spherical form was, of course, his abundant chakra. In this state, Choji was as solid as a fully inflated rubber ball. He could easily withstand physical attacks that lacked sufficient sharpness and could also turn that same form into a powerful offensive weapon.
"Come on! I'm going to blow you into the sky with Divine Sandstorm!"
Naruto drew a deep breath and genuinely relaxed. The companions gathered here were the same people who had stopped his transformation last time. What was there to fear? Even if that monster attacked him again, these friends would definitely pull him back. Though their methods might be a little rough.
"Huh. That's rare. They're really fired up."
The final group stood on the other side of the field. Watching everyone work so hard, Ino could not help sounding a little nostalgic. "Feels like I haven't seen them all working together like this in ages."
"Of course! Hey, hey, Sasuke-kun... what are we going to do?"
Sakura clung to Sasuke's left arm, her face bright red. She had waited far too long for an opportunity like this! That tyrannosaur Hinata had always been planted beside Sasuke before, leaving Sakura no chance to get close. Now that the predator had finally moved away, divine punishment would surely strike her if she failed to seize the moment!
"Aaaah! Forehead Girl! Don't you dare take advantage of this! Sasuke-kun only needs to practice with me! Get out of the way!"
Furious, Ino seized Sasuke's right arm and craftily rubbed her fried-egg-flat chest against the black-haired boy's sleeve. "Hey, Sasuke-kun, one training partner is enough for you, right?"
"If that's the case, then you should be the one to get lost, Ino-pig! Sasuke-kun only needs me!"
The argument on both sides was enough to overwhelm even Sasuke. Suppressing the irritation in his chest, the black-haired boy finally spoke. "Enough. Stop arguing. You're noisy."
"Yes... sorry, Sasuke-kun."
Sakura and Ino fell silent at once. Only the sparks still flying between their eyes made it clear that neither had abandoned the battle.
"This device takes three people to use. Each of you take one position and feed chakra into it with me."
In front of Sasuke stood a boxlike device resembling a blowpipe. Its main body consisted of one large glass tube that split at the bottom into three thinner glass tubes, each of which could receive chakra.
A small steel ball rested where the larger tube branched. The idea was to feed chakra into the glass tubes and blow the steel ball all the way to the top.
But because the chakra came from three directions, the flow from all three had to be identical. If one side was too strong, that side's chakra would make the steel ball spin in place instead of rising. If one side was too weak, the ball would roll and fall toward that side instead.
Only when the chakra from all three directions matched would the forces pushing the steel ball be equal, allowing it to rise steadily.
The little device resembled a toy built around a steel ball, but in reality it was an extremely difficult chakra-control training instrument.
Ordinary chakra-control training, after all, focused on a single trainee. Tree Walking and Water Walking, for example, only required the user to maintain a stable chakra output of their own.
This steel-ball device, however, demanded that three people maintain stable chakra simultaneously. In effect, it greatly magnified both "chakra instability" and "control over chakra strength" during the exercise. The difficulty did not merely triple; it rose almost geometrically, like three times three times three.
There was no question that this would provide an unparalleled test and training opportunity for Sasuke's lightning control and for Sakura and Ino's chakra control for Medical Ninjutsu.
Standing atop a tall dirt mound, Shino controlled his Parasitic Insects (Kikaichū) and closely monitored the entire training ground. Under Hinata's instructions, his insects had to keep track of everyone's chakra reserves. Hinata had not said it outright, but the intelligent Shino knew perfectly well that the most important person to watch was Naruto, whose chakra was unstable.
Needless to say, monitoring so many people at once was a heavy burden even for him, especially when all of them were engaged in combat or training that consumed chakra at a rapid rate.
But precisely because of that, the training effect would improve dramatically.
"Mm. I've decided. I'll nominate all three of my students for this year's Chunin Exams."
Watching the scene on the training ground, Kakashi nodded, then spoke with a calm expression. "What about you two?"
"Heh."
Asuma and Kurenai exchanged a glance. For once, there was a hint of competition in their eyes. They might indeed be lovers, but they were also teachers who took pride in their own students.
"Do you even need to ask?"