"There is a child in the Nara clan," Shikaku said. "He was born blind."
Ryu's attention sharpened at once.
Shikaku continued before anyone else could speak.
"He is intelligent. Very intelligent. But the usual path of the Nara clan was not built for someone like him. Strategy depends on information gathering, and without sight he has been cut off from the role our clan was built around. I do not want him to grow up believing that it makes him useless. He needs a place where he can belong, where he can be useful, and where that usefulness can help his mind grow in the right direction instead of turning inward on itself. Lately, he has been having dangerous thoughts. I would rather save the boy before those thoughts become the shape of his life."
Ryu's mind had already moved ahead of the words.
A blind Nara. Born blind, not made blind later. A mind forced to adapt from the beginning.
Ryu glanced at Kaia, Jiyuu, and Yasashii.
Moments ago, they had offered to blindfold themselves for a year to help their brother.
Akihiro still needed a full-time bridge.
"My own thought process relies on [Parallel Thinking] and [Fast Thinking], both of which are unique skills tied to me," Ryu thought. "As a result, my training data is mostly useless to him without those skills. But a Nara mind operates at a higher analytical level while still remaining within normal human limits. He will adapt to the Nara child's training data better than mine."
"A blind Nara," Ryu mused aloud. He looked back at Shikaku. "That works. Kaia and the others are technically a better fit to generate training data, but they have their own limits to push. I only plan to use them occasionally for fine-tuning."
Shikaku gave the faintest nod.
"If you take him under your tutelage and teach him your ways," Shikaku said, "your secrets will remain secrets. The Nara clan will never pry into them. And I was going to support you with the matter of Danzo anyway..."
Ryu understood the immediate value at once.
A child with the right kind of mind. A cleaner base for training data. A way to speed up Akihiro's growth while not pulling another child away from a path.
Ryu only saw the practical value. He did not see the political lock Shikaku had quietly built into the offer.
For now, that did not matter.
"When do I meet him?" Ryu asked.
"Later," Shikaku said. "I will bring him myself."
That settled it.
Before the moment could move on fully, Kaia stepped forward. Her eyes went first to Akihiro, then back to Ryu.
"Are you sure this won't be too much for him?"
It was not a technical question. Ryu understood that immediately. She was not asking about mechanics. She was asking about burden.
"Trust me," Ryu said. "It may look like too much now, but over time it becomes natural. Like breathing. Hard work always pays off."
Kaia studied his face for doubt. There was none.
Then Ryu turned to Hiruzen and pointed toward Naruto.
"Right," Ryu said. "It has been taken care of."
Hiruzen followed the gesture. His eyes rested on Naruto for a brief moment, then returned to Ryu.
Some of the tension left the old man's shoulders. The reason he had come here in person was gone now. The immediate danger around the seal had passed. The fear that the Nine-Tails might push through the breach and turn a crisis into a disaster no longer hung over the compound.
"Good," Hiruzen said.
A short silence followed.
Then he added, "For the thing you asked, I grant you permission to use and teach the Rasengan as you see fit in your family. I will send the inheritance certificate."
Ryu gave a single nod. "Thank you, Gramps."
Hiruzen reached into his robes and withdrew a storage scroll. He held it out.
"This contains what was recovered from Orochimaru's research material," he said. "Your earlier assessment was correct. Most of what was recovered is damaged and of limited use."
Ryu accepted the scroll.
"If you require more," Hiruzen continued, "I can arrange to have additional materials brought from other research centres."
Ryu glanced once at the scroll in his hand.
"I am not expecting much from it," he said, "but some parts can still be repaired or modified to save time."
His eyes lifted to Hiruzen's.
"And I was already planning to build my own equipment."
That answer drew Hiruzen's attention a little more sharply.
"What are you building?"
"Something related to damaged eyes," Ryu said. "For patients whose retinas and optic nerves still work but whose lenses are damaged. The method is simple enough to implement, and it should give results quickly. Then I plan to tackle more complex problems, mostly ocular prosthetics."
That caught more than Hiruzen's attention.
Hiruzen said nothing. He simply nodded, impressed by Ryu's innovative approach to helping those with damaged eyes. He got to see the Ninjutsu solution to this problem and it left Hiruzen intrigued and eager to see the results of his work in the medical field.
*
Inside Naruto, Minato said to Kushina, "So he really is a medical ninja… And the way he talks, he is an exceptional one."
Kushina nodded. "He really cares about this family.... And from the looks of it, they are all adopted."
*
Ryu continued.
"I am prioritising a simpler solution just for the eye lens first because I want to dominate the Medical Council into submission. Those stingy old men tried to block Mother Yuki under Danzo's influence. I plan to become so large that they think twice before trying that with my family ever again."
*
Kushina cursed, "This son of a bitch. When will he die?"
Minato just laughed lightly.
*
The yard fell quiet for a second. They did not heard Kushina but they were all cursing just like her.
"The meeting will be soon," Hiruzen said at last. "Dan and you both need to attend, as it concerns both of you."
His gaze remained on Ryu.
"Whatever you are planning… be sure it works."
Ryu's answer came without hesitation.
"Sure, Gramps, it will work ..." Ryu said with a smile.
Fugaku also extended the same support Shikaku gave Ryu regarding the council meeting. The departures happened quickly after that. Itachi gave Ryu one last measured look. Fugaku's gaze rested on Akihiro for a moment before he turned away. Shikaku said nothing more. Then the three men left with the Hokage, and the atmosphere changed the moment they were gone.
The pressure of office and politics left through the gate with them. The weight of meaning remained.
Kohinata was the one to break the silence.
"The last jutsu you used," he said, "the doping jutsu… is it based on the same chakra control?"
"Yes," Ryu said. "It's a combination of advanced yin-yang chakra control and Rasengan."
"I figured as much," Kohinata replied.
Ryu looked at the people who remained—his family, Dan, Kohinata, the secretary, and the children who had watched him fight, watched him teach, and watched adults speak around them as if something new had just entered the world.
"You just saw me use many jutsu," Ryu said. "The most important ones were the one that lets you see with your eyes closed, the one that physically strengths your body using chakra, the one that lets you make weapons from chakra…"
He raised one hand.
Golden chakra gathered above his palm, condensed, lengthened, and took form. A short blade emerged from light and floated in the air. Several people stared. Ryu let the weapon hover for another second, then dissolved it back into raw chakra.
"And the one at the end," he said, "that pushes the body to the next level. The dangerous one."
No one spoke.
"All of them are based on the same chakra control I was teaching you earlier. That is the first stepping stone to many jutsu."
His gaze moved across them one by one.
"Now you understand how important it is. This is our clan's secret jutsu now. Make sure you learn it perfectly."
Dan stepped in only after Ryu had finished.
"What he is teaching you," Dan said, "is one of the best chakra control methods I have seen in my lifetime. All of you will benefit from it."
Ryu nodded once and continued.
"A powerful foundation is still dangerous if you rush it."
That line shifted the mood of the lesson at once.
"It will take years for you, unlike I did," Ryu said. "Not boasting. My body and mind are built different. Your minds are not like mine. Your memory is not like mine. Your instincts are not like mine. Your learning speed is not like mine. And you do not have passive healing."
A few faces twitched at the bluntness of that. Ryu ignored it.
"I am telling you so you won't be discouraged by slower progress."
That landed much harder.
The children listened in total silence.
"But through the seal placed on you," Ryu said, "you will learn many, many times faster than any regular person would."
Ryu looked at Kohinata and Kaori, giving them a hint. He would talk to them about the seal separately.
They also understood Ryu's intentions and that Ryu needs an answer as to whether they are willing to place trust in him and accept the [InstinctGPT seal] on their bodies.
It hit harder on Kohinata, as he is of Hyuga descent, and the cursed seal is a taboo topic for them. He went to great lengths to hide his Byakugan so as to not be cursed by the [Bird Cage Seal], the main house of the Hyuga clan.
"I have to decide," Kohinata Muaki thought.
Akihiro stood very still, absorbing every word.
"My guess is that in two to three years, you will be able to make chakra weapons like me. May be sooner," Ryu continued. "The next step after that would be reconfiguring your body. And the last would be the doping jutsu I used at the end. Akihiro will focus more on the sensing part of this method."
He paused.
"It may not even be possible for all of you to fully replicate all the jutsus that come with this method. But we will try and try safely and slowly."
Ryu thought, "In those years I had to find a way to make [Chakra Engine] safer for everybody."
"You're awesome, big brother!" Naruto declared.
Naruto broke the tension exactly when it needed to be broken.
Ryu looked at him and replied without missing a beat.
"Tell me something I don't know."
"Teach me to fight like that with my eyes closed," Naruto asked with starry eyes.
Ryu replied, "It will take extra years for you… Can you work harder than everyone here?"
NAruto said, "I can... believe it."
*
Kushina hearing a catchphrase similar to her own made her eyes wet. Minato just smiled at his son's similarity to Kushina.
"He definitely takes after you," Minato said with a smile.
A/N:
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