Inside the little café, Hakuto proudly showed off her newly obtained forehead protector to Anya, clearly filled with pride.
Anya sighed, "Although I know it was easy for you to graduate from the ninja academy, there's really no need to rush like this."
"I'm angry."
Though saying that, Hakuto wore a clear smile instead of any sign of anger. She continued joyfully, "From now on, you can't say I'm not qualified to take missions anymore."
Well, given Hakuto's intelligence, she probably didn't need to stay at the academy for very long anyway.
Accepting this fact, Anya asked, "Since you've graduated, who's been assigned as your master? Which team did you get into?"
Hakuto smiled mysteriously. "Tsunade wants me in Team 7."
"I see. Not much of a gambler, but definitely good with calculations."
Clearly still concerned about Hakuto becoming a ninja, Tsunade had forcefully arranged her placement into her own team, conveniently filling the vacancy left by Sasuke.
Anya reminded her, "Missions are not games. Now that you're officially a ninja, I'll train you strictly from now on—you should mentally prepare yourself."
Hakuto replied confidently, "Of course. I knew exactly what I was signing up for."
"Follow me."
The two left the little café, and Anya led Hakuto to their usual training grounds.
Anya slowly pulled a wooden box from her gear.
This rectangular box measured about one arm's length. When opened, five uniquely-shaped metallic objects quietly rested at the bottom. These metal items appeared pitch-black; upon closer inspection, countless tiny seams could be seen across their surfaces. Actually, they were woven together using extremely fine metal threads. As soon as touched lightly, these threads displayed powerful resilience.
"What is this?" Hakuto couldn't hide her intense curiosity.
Anya handed the wooden box to Hakuto, saying, "It's a gift from your Uncle Sasori. Originally, he planned to give it to you after graduation, but apparently, you couldn't wait. Try it out."
After receiving notice from Anya, Sasori immediately stopped everything else to begin crafting bows and arrows specifically for Hakuto, completing them within just a day. Then he used Mabui's [Heavenly Transfer Technique] to send them over. Additionally, besides the bow and arrows, he also included an especially powerful cannon.
This cannon represented Sasori's most advanced weaponry. Based upon Pain's Asura Path, it integrated laser cannons, scatter rockets, and explosive arrows. According to Sasori himself, the bow was meant for precision sniping and silent assassinations, while the cannon served as a weapon for situations involving large numbers of enemies—capable of wiping them all out from extreme distances to compensate for the bow's lack of area attacks.
Anya was genuinely impressed by Sasori's idea. It had never occurred to her before that bows had such a drawback when facing multiple targets. However, this cannon possessed excessive destructive power. She couldn't hand it over to Hakuto just yet—or else imagining her carrying around the heavy artillery and casually declaring something like "Ladies and gentlemen, make way for the future queen of destruction!" would make anyone shiver involuntarily.
Hakuto's fingers glided gently across the metal inside the box, feeling the cold sensation beneath her fingertips and the peculiar sense of unyielding strength. Her brows rose slightly, eyes sparkling with delight. Apparently, hidden mechanisms resided within those seemingly simple pieces of metal.
Slipping each of the five metal pieces onto her fingers one by one, Hakuto adjusted the central metallic component in her palm. A series of crisp metallic clicking sounds followed as, within a very short time, each metal piece extended to different lengths and seamlessly assembled together. In her hand now appeared a pitch-black metallic bow. Immediately after, Hakuto's left hand tightly gripped the bow's body, woven from countless thin metal wires, and the bowstring snapped into place.
Pulling the string lightly with her right hand, she discovered that the bowstring barely bent—it was completely unsuitable for shooting arrows.
Hakuto's eyes suddenly lit up. Previously, when using ordinary bows, she had always needed to hold back her strength. Once too much force was applied, the bow would break. But this one clearly felt different from before.
Channeling chakra into it, she drew the bowstring back a second time—this time using [Monstrous Strength]. Slowly but surely, the bowstring stretched further in her hands until nearly forming a full circle.
Hakuto took a deep breath, relaxed her muscles, and placed an arrow on the bowstring. As the taut string snapped forward across her fingertips at high speed, it created resonance with the long slender black arrow.
She released the arrow, and it shot forward so quickly it vanished from sight.
The sharp tip shot forward instantly from the bow's grip, as if effortlessly drawing a line through the air. The arrow's tail end finally left the bowstring. Whether due to its incredible speed or Hakuto's [Monstrous Strength], a powerful gust burst forth in the air. Then the arrow vanished entirely, moving so fast even Anya couldn't follow its trajectory with her eyes.
At that moment, Anya and her daughter Hakuto were both stunned by that single shot. Anya muttered under her breath, "Sasori, what kind of weapon did you create?"
After a short while, Hakuto hugged the bow tightly in her arms, treating it like a priceless treasure, joyfully saying, "Dad, I must meet this Uncle Sasori you mentioned. I really need to thank him properly."
So saying, Hakuto manipulated the device's mechanism again—the bow instantly retracted into a metallic glove perfectly fitting her hand. It was seemingly designed to fit any hand size. Moreover, the fine threads attached to the metal glove could be used in close combat, sharper than kunai.
Clearly, this was a bow meticulously crafted by Sasori. Hakuto deserved to express her gratitude.
"Come on, let me introduce you to your teammates."
At Konoha Hospital, Naruto was bound tightly to the bed by thick ropes, yet he kept shouting defiantly, "I'm fine now. We don't have time to waste—I need to train harder and become even stronger."
Sakura visited him and said, "No need. You've done more than enough already. I always end up leaning on you while doing nothing myself."
Naruto noticed something off with Sakura's mood and asked, "What's wrong, Sakura? Did something happen?"
"Nothing. Seeing you're so energetic makes me feel better. This time, it's my turn to work hard."
After saying that, Sakura headed toward the door intending to leave.
As soon as she opened the door, she found Anya and Hakuto standing directly across from her.
"Sorry, we accidentally overheard your conversation," Anya shrugged. "But before making decisions, can you at least hear the opinion of your temporary instructor first?"
"Shu, you made it!" Naruto called out. "I've fully recovered. Help me out and untie these ropes."
"All right." Anya waved her hand casually, launching a spectral blade to sever the ropes.
Now that he was free, Naruto rushed over to Sakura and said, "I will definitely bring back Sasuke. This is our lifelong promise."
"Well then, you'll need to train properly," Anya replied, pulling out a document. "I've prepared a set of carefully curated missions for you. Come with me. Along the way, I'll coach and mentor you. If you want to bring back Sasuke, you can't just talk about it without action."
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