"I spit!" Pakura spat.
The shadow clones all laughed at Moku Kairen in unison: "All that loud talk — but when it comes to doing it, you're such a coward."
"Enough! Enough!" Moku Kairen shouted, swept his gaze around, and immediately released the Shadow Clone Technique.
"Boom boom boom boom—"
As the shadow clones dispersed, Kairen snapped his fingers; the ropes that bound Pakura burst into flames, and in the blink of an eye she was freed.
"Die!"
Once untied, Pakura sprang at Moku Kairen, swinging a delicate fist upward — it looked like it would hit him in the head.
Moku Kairen casually caught her wrist. Pakura now had very little chakra; such violent movements were burning through her stamina.
"Mu… Moku Kairen… even if you let me go… I won't be grateful to you!"
Kairen sneered, "I don't need you to chase my chickens right now. Later, just remember to take it into your mouth."
"Kairen…"
Kairen scooped Pakura up with force, cradled the dragon-head ornament on her hair, and, under her hateful glare, kissed her small mouth in one long motion.
The mouth was smooth, the flavor sensual — no wonder she was a beauty from the desert.
"Damn it!"
Pakura's eyes widened. Facing such close contact, she suddenly bit down hard and drew blood from Moku Kairen's tongue.
Moku Kairen set her down, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and smiled:
"Desert taste — not bad! I'll mark you today. The next time we meet… I'll find out how deep you are!"
"Kairen!!" Pakura sat on the ground, chest heaving in anger.
She had been molested by a Konoha shinobi — and a low-ranking brat at that. It was an unbearable humiliation!
The bamboo forest fire slowly died down; the firefighting shadow clones and medical shadow clones all vanished. A wave of fatigue rose into Moku Kairen's chest.
He wiped his blade, triggered his rebirth, and stood on the earth unharmed.
He waved at Pakura: "Goodbye, my desert camel!"
"You little brat!" Pakura shouted at Moku Kairen angrily. "I won't forget today. I'll swallow this shame and become strong — strong enough to kill you, strong enough to return every bit of humiliation you gave me."
Moku Kairen waved his hand and transformed into a great hawk, soaring into the sky.
If Pakura could grow strong and kill him, wouldn't that be exactly what he wanted?
If he continued to grow quickly in the days ahead and everyone fell behind, if no one could kill him, wouldn't he be lonely?
Moku Kairen flew with the wind. Another hawk, identical to him, followed closely behind.
The shadow-clone hawk even carried two small, chubby black-and-white bundles on its back.
Moku Kairen's hawk-eyes took a look — they were the two little simpletons from before.
"Why did you bring those two along?" Moku Kairen asked.
The shadow clone replied, "Who in a past life was this awesome? Isn't this the temperament we should have?!"
Moku Kairen nodded. Raising cats is one thing, raising pandas is on another level.
With a thud the shadow clone dispersed — its chakra exhausted.
Moku Kairen glided and caught the two little bears.
"Mm~" the little bears made noises, poking their heads out to look below and then retreating in fright.
Moku Kairen flapped his wings, formed hand seals, and a figure appeared on the hawk's back — it was Kairen.
He had instantly completed the swap between his true body and a shadow clone.
Moku Kairen hugged the two little bears and began to pet them vigorously.
The shinobi world wasn't without pandas — even the Six Paths of Pain had a summoned panda beast!
"When I build my country later, I'll collect all the world's bears, gather them, make them part of the palace — I'll pet them to death myself!"
The hawk shadow clone suggested, "Let's give them names?"
As the naming king, Moku Kairen's head swiveled and he immediately said, "Call them Wolon and Fenchu!"
He picked up the slightly larger little panda and examined it carefully — it was a little female:
"You're Fenchu!"
"Mm~"
Then he pointed at the other little panda: "You're Wolon!"
"Mm~"
The two panda cubs were siblings — Fenchu in front, Wolon following behind.
Moku Kairen sighed, then suddenly thought of the hawk shadow clone from earlier — it seemed to have died several times. Normally a shadow clone should vanish when the original dies.
The hawk shadow clone sitting at his feet understood Moku Kairen's thoughts and naturally responded,
"Boss, thanks to the Hundred Transformations enhancement on the shadow clones, many of the drawbacks have been removed!"
"I see!" Moku Kairen nodded. His multiple shadow clone technique had grown with him and was no longer the simple forbidden technique it once was.
He tested it carefully and concluded after some time.
Aside from the earlier point, the drawback where chakra is evenly split among shadow clones was resolved — Moku Kairen could allocate chakra to his clones as he wished.
Also, the clones could feed back fatigue and pain; Moku Kairen could choose whether to receive them.
He could receive useful information and block useless fatigue memories.
The current multi-shadow-clone technique was essentially a 2.0 version.
Come to think of it — if the drawback that made shadow clones disperse upon the original's death were removed…
Then…
The hawk shadow clone burst into a crow-like laugh: "Caw caw caw… we're invincible! Invincible!"
Moku Kairen laughed like an idiot: "Hahaha… who in this world can still stand against me? I, Moku Kairen, stand above the heavens and thus stand above the heavens!"
Why did he claim invincibility?!
Because of a rebirth bug — when Moku Kairen died and quickly resurrected, negative statuses were cleared and his abundant chakra could again form clones…
In other words, whenever Moku Kairen felt like it, he could form an army of millions and sweep through the shinobi world.
The Wolon and Fenchu in his arms looked at Moku Kairen oddly and thought this monkey must be crazy — he'd been laughing non-stop since earlier.
"Ahem ahem…"
A cold breath blew into Moku Kairen's laughing mouth; he immediately coughed and slowly calmed down his excitement.
After this, what would he have to fear?
If enemies tried to seal him, he'd fly away — in the sky he'd unleash his shadow clone army and simply crush them all.
Moku Kairen looked at Wolon and Fenchu in his arms: "As expected of Wolon and Fenchu — having not one but two can pacify the world. Now that I have two, the shinobi world is splendid; I, in the blink of an eye, will take seven parts of it."
…
They flew over a secluded forest. The hawk shadow clone warned,
"Boss! Boss! I detected a hidden chakra signature!"
Moku Kairen opened his Byakugan; sure enough, a Special Jōnin's chakra was buried inside a mound of earth.
And that chakra was familiar to him — it belonged to Yūten of the Shimura family.
"Looks like this round was laid by the Shimura family!" Moku Kairen murmured.
The hawk shadow clone was full of anger:
"Sure enough, those who wear the same pants as Danzo aren't good people — colluding with Sunagakure and harming villagers. Just that alone could grievously injure his spirit."
"Boss, should we capture him? Use him to force that old Danzo!" the clone proposed.
Moku Kairen shook his head: "No need. Danzo has many tricks up his sleeve, and I have no real attachment to that village. I'll leave whenever I feel like it!"