As Ishiki Kujo moved with the squad, he felt it.
A force.
Pouring steadily into his body.
He knew instantly — Highway Star had struck prey.
He hadn't expected it to happen so fast.
Maybe... Kumogakure shinobi pursuing them?
No time to dwell.
He focused inward, feeling the "nutrients" coursing into him.
Heat bloomed under his skin.
Strength coiled in his muscles.
Minute by minute, Ishiki felt his entire body strengthening — not just physical toughness, but his chakra capacity swelling steadily.
If this reinforcement continued endlessly...
What would he become?
He didn't know.
But he knew one thing:
This was everything he needed.
When the nutrient flow stopped minutes later, Ishiki stood there — stronger than he had been mere breaths ago.
Stronger by leaps and bounds.
It was intoxicating.
He tested chakra refinement.
The difference was obvious — smoother, faster, heavier.
Rough estimate?
His chakra pool had increased by at least fifty percent.
If before, his Shadow Clones could last ten hours...
Now?
Thirteen or fourteen easily.
Ishiki licked his lips.
Eyes burning.
Highway Star wasn't just repairing his body like in JoJo.
It was enhancing it.
Maybe it was because ninjas' bodies were inherently tougher, steeped in chakra.
Maybe Highway Star had evolved after crossing into this world.
He didn't care why.
The results spoke for themselves.
He had found a path —
No cursed bloodlines.
No tailed beasts.
Just raw, incremental evolution.
One risk remained:
If Highway Star got discovered, it might provoke retaliation.
Or worse — expose secrets that needed to stay buried.
Ishiki thought carefully.
Normally, Highway Star's autonomous mode triggered once it passed a kilometer away.
There, it hunted targets based purely on "scent" — a metaphysical scent, tied to the soul.
What if...
He gave Highway Star eyes?
An extra pair.
A Shadow Clone assigned solely to accompany it.
Would the clone interfere with Highway Star?
Would it help?
Unclear.
But if the clone carried a Byakugan Disc, it could act as a perfect scout — helping Highway Star choose better prey.
The problem?
Once the clone dispelled, the Disc would drop.
Recovering it across a battlefield was almost impossible — especially at such distance.
If a Disc fell into enemy hands...
Even if Kumogakure didn't understand it, if Konoha discovered it, someone might connect it to the "Memory-Loss Ninja" case — a link Ishiki could not afford.
Maybe two clones?
One operating Highway Star.
One observing with Byakugan.
By timing their dissolution correctly, he could maintain continuity — swap them out carefully.
Two clones split his chakra sharply.
Three would be too much — weakening all of them to uselessness.
Two was his limit.
The real issue wasn't division.
It was deployment.
How could he get the Shadow Clones far enough — past Aoba's Nin-Crows, past their sensory barriers?
Aoba's detection radius was a monstrous three kilometers.
Smuggling a clone through that net was suicide.
Unless—
Ishiki's hand drifted to his waist scroll.
Inside lay a forbidden technique.
Heavenly Transfer Technique.
Heavenly Transfer couldn't teleport living beings.
But clones weren't truly alive — just chakra constructs.
Maybe...
Maybe he could seal the clone into a scroll?
Heavenly Transfer wasn't teleportation by space-time warping like Flying Thunder God.
It was brutal, physical:
Launching objects through space at unimaginable speed.
Living beings couldn't survive it.
They'd be shredded to mist by air friction.
But sealing a Shadow Clone inside a scroll?
Sending that scroll via Heavenly Transfer?
Feasible.
Better yet, he could program the scroll to automatically unseal at the destination.
Breach Aoba's surveillance without a trace.
The concept was solid.
But the technical execution would be brutal:
Crafting a time-delayed unsealing tag.
Perfectly sealing a chakra-based being.
Masking the enormous chakra surge from Heavenly Transfer itself.
Ishiki pulled out a worn notebook from his back scroll.
A compilation of sealing techniques he had painstakingly copied — some scavenged from Kushina Uzumaki's Disc memories.
He flipped it open, scanning rapidly.
Meanwhile, he kept alert — multi-tasking with ease.
While reading, he pulled down his goggles to hide the glint of his Sharingan, already spinning slowly.
Up front, Kawahara Junji noticed Ishiki's divided attention — and his scowl deepened.
In Kawahara's eyes, a ninja who distracted himself during a mission was negligent.
Irresponsible.
No matter if he was studying.
Kawahara's judgment hardened.
But Ishiki didn't care.
Not even a flicker.
His mind blazed ahead — forging new paths.
New possibilities.
New strengths.