"Father."
Hanabi watched Souma leave, then turned and saw Hiashi standing under the eaves, eyes half narrowed in the direction of the door.
She froze for a moment.
Father… seemed surprised.
He was.
Hiashi was very surprised.
He had assumed that Chakra Needle still had room for bargaining—
that there was space to haggle.
He didn't expect Souma to be so decisive, to simply drop the negotiation on the spot.
And more than that—
From the way Souma spoke, it sounded like he was telling him to "go ahead and try it."
If Hiashi succeeded, there would be no need for a trade?
Such confidence…
Hiashi genuinely couldn't understand where Souma's confidence came from.
That technique wasn't even all that complicated.
"…Very well. I'll try it myself."
Hiashi smiled faintly.
He instructed Hanabi to continue practicing, then stepped to the side of the courtyard and began to work out how to recreate the Chakra Needle.
The concept wasn't difficult.
The hard part was being the first to think of it.
After a bit of thought, he calmly extended his palm—
A slender, highly condensed chakra needle took shape at his fingertip.
Is this really difficult?
So why was Souma so confident?
The doubt in Hiashi's heart only grew.
"Father, are you practicing Chakra Needle?" Hanabi asked carefully.
"What of it?"
Hiashi didn't answer directly.
Hanabi opened her mouth, hesitated, and didn't dare speak.
Hiashi frowned slightly.
Hanabi flinched and blurted out,
"I've seen Chakra Needles before. They're… not quite like yours. The medical-nin's were denser. Stronger."
Hiashi blinked, glancing at his own hand.
Denser. Stronger.
Incredible.
And yet… this wasn't his limit either.
"I heard Souma's Chakra Needle is even stronger," Hanabi continued in a small voice.
"He can release it without hand seals, but no one else can, so they developed the hand-sign version for others instead."
Hiashi fell silent.
The needle he'd just formed wasn't perfect, but it was close.
When it came to ordinary Chakra Needles, he was confident he could match almost anyone.
But Souma's was stronger than this?
"How is that possible…"
He simply couldn't reconcile it.
"F-Father, I'll go back to training now."
Hanabi suddenly felt a sense of impending doom, like she was about to get yelled at.
Hiashi was quiet for a few seconds.
Then he nodded, dismissing her.
Forget it.
He'd test it first. If it didn't work, he could always go back and negotiate.
For normal situations, the Hyūga's Gentle Fist was already strong enough. Its issues only appeared in certain extreme cases.
There was no need to rush a trade.
Hiashi exhaled, left the courtyard, and went to his study—
Where he continued practicing Chakra Needle in silence.
On the other side—
After leaving the Hyūga compound, Souma didn't go anywhere else.
He went straight home to train.
He wasn't worried about his deal with Hiashi.
Confidence comes from strength.
If Chakra Needle were really that simple, Souma wouldn't have specifically offered it as a bargaining chip.
In reality, he had already revised Chakra Needle several times.
Even the one used in the Medical Corps was a modified version.
With hand seals, the difficulty dropped sharply.
But that was just the medical branch.
In the combat version, he had incorporated the principles of chakra spiraling.
Against especially tough defenses, he could unleash a spiral-form Chakra Needle, like a mini Rasengan or drill, to pierce through armor and shields.
And once it penetrated the body—
It could immediately trigger the next step:
Gentle Fist: Spiral.
Hiashi thought Chakra Needle was nothing more than chakra compression.
That was…
a very outsider way of looking at it.
Souma knew just talking would never convince the head of a great clan.
Seeing was believing.
Once Hiashi witnessed it with his own eyes, he would understand the gap.
Negotiating afterward would be much easier.
Souma trained for a while.
The next day, he went to find Tenten.
Danzō had already sent over the four great ninja tools, and Tenten had been studying them nonstop. She'd gained some minor results so far.
She still couldn't completely reproduce them,
but the basic structure and mechanism were already recorded.
Tenten could understand the forging methods and chakra metal techniques, but the more complex arrays and formulas were beyond her.
Souma came to plug the gaps.
Over the next two or three days, whenever he had time, he accompanied Tenten in her research.
Time slipped by quickly.
On the third day—
Souma felt a familiar pulse from the Bodhi seed.
The seventh pattern had appeared.
This new mark was clearly born from his expansion of the Telescope Technique.
The enhancement it brought was in the direction of sensory perception—
He could now feel and understand his own chakra state with far greater clarity.
It didn't boost his outward combat power much.
But—
This was only the beginning.
Once the technique spread and more people used it, the feedback would snowball.
"My sensory ability isn't as direct as a Byakugan's field of vision," he evaluated,
"But it's already on par with many ninjas who specialize in sensing."
Perception wasn't raw combat power.
But a squad without a good scout or sensor was as good as half-blind.
Originally in Team 7, Kakashi handled this role.
Later, it was Sai.
Souma had a vague feeling that his own team might face a reorganization in the future.
He couldn't rely on Kakashi always being there behind them.
So—
Sensing abilities were indispensable.
For him, this was a huge advantage.
He didn't consider it a waste at all.
"Seven marks," Souma murmured. "Three more to reach ten."
He still only suspected something would happen at every "five-pattern" threshold, but that suspicion had already become his goal.
Looking at the seven faintly glowing marks, he couldn't help feeling impatient.
He did a mental count.
Given his current creations, there were probably only two more that had a real chance of generating new patterns in the short term:
One was the kikaichū evolution and medical application project.
The other was the improved chakra storage ninja tool.
As for the Iron-Wall Seal—
It had huge potential, but because of the special origin of the jutsu, he didn't plan to modify it too deeply.
Aside from small-scale uses based on its recognition formula, he wasn't going to push his luck.
The kikaichū medical work would likely bear fruit soon.
The storage tool, on the other hand, was tricky.
He had produced a workable first version, but it required at least four people to use it. The limitations were too big, making it hard to popularize in the short term.
It needed more refinement.
Clang—
A crisp sound rang out by his ear.
Souma turned his head.
Tenten stood behind him, holding a sword and flicking the blade with her finger.
"Wanna try it?"
"Sure."
Souma took the sword, swung it a few times, and commented,
"It's a little light. But it's usable."
"Huh?"
Tenten blinked, then suddenly realized.
"Right, you must've grown again. I made this one based on the weight that was perfect for you before."
Souma nodded.
That made sense.
Boys his age shot up fast, and one of the Bodhi marks was a physical enhancement feedback.
The two effects stacked meant his strength had increased quickly.
"Good thing this is just the first version," Tenten grinned.
"I'll make the next one heavier. I'll keep this one for myself and test it out for a few days. After that I'll forge a new blade with chakra metal for you."
She ran to the side and started engraving characters on the blade.
"Tenten."
The maker always had certain privileges.
Souma watched her work and smiled.
"Not planning to rest or do other training?"
"Forging is training."
Tenten answered without looking up, her carving hand steady.
Once she finished engraving, she flexed her fingers.
"I've already mastered full-body Ultra Limit Mode. My arms are even stronger."
Girls had a natural disadvantage in raw strength.
To swing hammers for hours, Tenten had deliberately trained muscle control in both arms relentlessly.
The results were obvious.
"What about your Earth Release practice?" Souma asked.
"To insulate myself from the forge heat, I use Earth Release chakra to protect my body," she said.
"So it's training too."
As for weapon throwing—
She'd been drilling that for twelve years.
That kind of muscle memory wasn't going anywhere.
Souma chuckled softly.
"It's great, isn't it? Everyone's getting stronger."
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