Chapter 51

Looking at the closed door and feeling the presence of the guards taking their positions, Hiruzen Sarutobi took a deep drag from his pipe and exhaled a puff of smoke, covering his eyes. The traditional headgear of the leader slid slightly down, concealing his face, now somewhat sunken with more pronounced wrinkles.

"Another war," the Hokage whispered quietly. "And how many will perish this time?"

Having lost both parents in the First World War, as well as his teachers, recently becoming a father for the second time, Kami no Shinobi allowed himself a moment of weakness, bitterly contemplating whom he might have to bury this time.

Despite his ruthlessness towards enemies, political "allies" who hindered him, or allies who stumbled in his path, the Third Hokage tried to protect his loved ones, even if sometimes at the expense of his work, unlike Danzo, capable of killing his own mother if it would benefit the glory of Konoha.

And during war, when leaders and their families are targeted first, this becomes particularly difficult.

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"So, most of you have now finally mastered the skills of using shadows from the surrounding environment," proclaimed the elderly Nara, with nearly completely gray hair and two ugly scars crossing the right side of his face horizontally, miraculously avoiding his eye.

"So, in the next session, we will try to divide your attention among several targets instead of just one, as it was before. Those of you who did not achieve satisfactory results today will have to practice at home and demonstrate your progress later."

Such a statement was met with prolonged groans from several of the laziest eight-year-olds present in the spacious hall dedicated specifically to training in clan hidenjutsu - artificial lighting created a large number of shadows, facilitating manipulation for the children.

"No groaning! Take an example from Ryu - he works from morning till night!" frowned the teacher.

"We won't have such stamina even after death!" snorted Inzu, near me.

"After death, you won't care anymore," I snorted back, stretching my legs after the uncomfortable sitting - I hated Japanese traditions that involved no chairs! "You'd better try to listen to sensei's advice instead of trying to nap unnoticed by others!"

"Pfft, who's to say you weren't just left at the Nara clan doorstep as a baby, since you're not at all like the Naras!" 

Yeah, like I could be offended by that nonsense! Idiot!

"Shut up and listen to sensei!" Maya, sitting on the other side, smacked the little one on the head, throwing a guilty glance at me.

Yeah, it's probably genetic - all Nara females are active and tend to resort to physical violence, and their partners are smart but very lazy and passive. And this applies even to women who came into the clan from the outside.

As you can see from my uncle, that's exactly who all the slackers choose for wives. No wonder all the men in our clan are considered henpecked! By the way, almost three times as many boys are born in the clan as girls. We only had three girls out of eight.

"Cough, thanks Maya-chan," nodded the teacher. "So, as I mentioned, at the next session, I will assess all those lagging behind, and we will try to catch several opponents in Kage Mane no Jutsu. That's all, you are free to go."

A dozen lively children aged seven to eight simultaneously bowed and disappeared from the hall within a couple of seconds. Except for me. Firstly, I still had a couple of questions, and secondly - although I was fairly familiar with the kids, I hadn't really made any friends, because I couldn't chat about stupid topics, and there wasn't really time for anything more.

"So Ryu, did you want something?" asked the teacher when he noticed that I wasn't rushing to leave with everyone else.

"I wanted to know if it's possible to achieve such good control over clan hidenjutsu that it wouldn't require using seals?" Ever since I learned about the techniques of pineapple-head shinobi, one question has plagued me - couldn't you just train extra control and manipulate your shadow without all these silly stops and seal formations, when a stationary shinobi becomes an excellent target.

After all, it's enough to impose hand-to-hand combat and the enemy is caught! Considering Nara's weakness in taijutsu, most people familiar with the abilities of shadow users would try to do just that, walking straight into the trap!