Stars glittered in the night sky like a velvety black backdrop inlaid with countless pearls. Uchiha Tonan walked out of the Naka Shrine, but he didn’t return home. Instead, he headed towards the training ground.
The difficulty level of the Flicker Clone Technique was too high. After all, it was a nin-tai-genjutsu, which was not something ordinary geniuses could easily grasp. Tonan estimated that he would have to invest a great deal of time in it.
He might even need to devour some rations so that his talent would increase to the required standard for this technique. Beast Infestation was comparatively simpler. After all, Tonan had the combined spiritual power of quite a few people. He also could be regarded as a genius worthy of the title.
He activated the Sharingan and scanned his surroundings. After confirming no one was around, he took out a scroll from his ninja bag and opened it. The three tomoe spun rapidly as he memorized the scroll’s content.
Tonan took half an hour to commit everything to memory, before putting away the scroll. He then used Mirror Heaven and Earth Change and controlled the white pigeons lurking in various places to fly over to his location.
Coo, coo
Once the white pigeons’ flocked over to him, landing on him and the ground around him, he bit his finger to draw some blood. He then, turn by turn, fed it to each of the pigeons under his control. Once this was done, he began to form hand seals.
The Beast Infestation technique had two types of hand signs. The first was to transform the ninja beasts, and the second was to make them go berserk during a battle. Tonan began with the transformation signs. This alone consisted of over two hundred hand seals, making it extremely tedious and complex.
Swish
As soon as he completed the last hand sign, Tonan slammed his palm on the ground.
“Secret Technique – Beast Infestation.”
A powerful chakra fluctuation gushed out and entered into the white pigeons. Their appearances began to change at breakneck speed. Their bodies expanded and their pale white feathers turned bright-red. Under the chakra transformation, their feeble-looking beaks also curved little by little, resembling fangs, hard enough to tear their prey apart.
Time passed by, but the pigeons’ bodies continued to grow, their feathers becoming deep shades of blackish-red, akin to a breed of crows.
More than half of Tonan’s chakra had already depleted but this initial transformation must be completed in one go. If not, all his previous efforts would have gone down the drain. Tonan remained expressionless and squeezed out more chakra from his body.
It took him ten more minutes to transform the white pigeons successfully. Their final appearance was like black hawks, especially their pitch-black metallic hooked beaks, which exuded a sense of danger at a glance. The once innocent bird now emitted the aura of a beast.
Tonan stopped using the technique and sighed in relief. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. At this time, these white pigeons immediately reverted to their original form, once again at a speed visible to the naked eyes.
Looking at the current docile pigeons, it was difficult to imagine they were the same fierce creatures from just a moment ago. A lingering change reflected in the pigeons’ eyes that showed a bit of intelligence now.
They kept rubbing themselves against Tonan intimately and were continuously using his chakra to strengthen their physique. But the chakra consumption didn’t exceed his recovery speed.
Tonan could feel that the connection between him and the pigeons had deepened and a strange smile came on his lips. He reached out and scratched a white pigeon’s neck with his finger and said, “If an opportunity presents itself, it might be time to end your meatless diet.”
……
The next day, Tonan got up, washed his face, and cooked a bowl of porridge for himself. He put on his ninja headband, sorted out his tools, and walked towards the Hokage Residence. When he arrived at the entrance, he saw Namikaze Minato and Hatake Kakashi waiting for him.
Tonan bowed apologetically and said, “Sorry, I made you both wait.”
Minato scratched his head and replied with a silly smile, “It’s alright, it’s alright… you are not late. We arrived earlier than the agreed time.” Tonan nodded without saying anything. But seeing the two did not move, he couldn’t help but ask in confusion, “Why aren’t we going?”
Minato seemed like something unfortunate came to his mind. His expression froze a little, and he answered with a guilty conscience, “Let’s just wait a bit longer.”
Just like this, the three waited for another hour before they saw Uzumaki Kushina jog over. Kushina was carrying a white plastic bag that had three lunch boxes in it.
She placed a hand on her hip and lifted the plastic bag with the other. She said, “You all mustn’t have eaten breakfast yet. I specially prepared this for you.”
Minato looked at the sky and sighed. Then very awkwardly, he said, “Thank you very much.” But showed no intention to take the lunch boxes. This was because Minato was familiar with Kushina’s culinary skills, and dreaded it. It could only be described in three words — hard to explain.
Kushina took out a lunch box and first handed it over to Tonan and said, “Come on, Tonan, I made this especially for you. I remember you like bland food.”
Tonan didn’t reach out to take it but kept staring stupidly at the lunch box in her hand. After a few breaths, he slowly raised his head and looked at Kushina. The moment their eyes met, the hypnotic genjutsu in his mind triggered automatically.
Tonan’s eyes seemed to have become a bit clearer, and his expression while looking at Kushina gradually became affectionate…
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Kushina felt that Tonan’s gaze was strange.
Recalling how the Kyubi had said that Tonan had evil intentions towards her, she subconsciously gulped.
“What is this brat thinking today? He isn’t thinking about killing me, is he?”
Tonan pursed his lips, raised his hand, and pushed the lunch box back. He then put his hands on his knees. bowed deeply towards Kushina and said, “Thank you for your kindness, Kushina-senpai. It’s just that I have already eaten in the morning. I’m unable to eat any more now.”
Kushina was stunned hearing his words, and the corners of her mouth twitched. She feigned a smile and said, “That’s alright.”
In her heart, however, she was roaring and shouting.
“Damn it, I woke up early to especially make breakfast, and you didn’t even taste it. If you weren’t so tragic, I would have made you taste my fist today!”
The perceptive Minato noticed that Kushina was on the verge of exploding, and he didn’t dare to rub her up the wrong way. He amicably said, “We’re a bit late and we need to hurry to receive our mission order.”
He hastily pulled Kakashi and Tonan with each hand and rushed towards the Hokage Residence. After the three left, Kushina stomped and threw the plastic bag into the nearby trashcan. “Damn it, I’m angry.”
She placed both hands on her hips, took a deep breath, and shouted in her heart, “Kurama, did that brat have evil intentions towards me again?”
“No.”
“No? He’s sensible.”
“But it was very strange. Not only did he suddenly have no evil intentions towards you, but he seemed to have great goodwill. He has a lot more goodwill towards you than towards Minato. It was very similar to what human children have towards their mothers,” the Kyubi explained.
Kushina was dumbfounded. “Is it because I made him breakfast?”
“It could be. Human minds are too complicated, they change rapidly.” In the tailed beast space, Kyubi closed its eyes after speaking.
Outside, Kushina gave a small smile, and confidence flashed in her eyes, “It seems that children like me when I’m warm and gentle.”
Suddenly, her eyes opened wide, and she exclaimed, “The breakfast I made!” Immediately afterward, she rushed towards the trashcan, startling two stray dogs that were having their meal so much that they ran away with their tails between their legs.
