The capital faded into a silhouette of sloped roofs and rising smoke as the team moved toward the rendezvous point. Shorai kept his chakra thinned, his muscles still carrying the residual hum of Shadowless Flight from the Silk Chamber.
Eagle, leading the way through the canopy, suddenly slowed and landed on a sturdy oak branch. He didn't turn back, but his voice came clearly through the comms.
"The shadow has withdrawn," Eagle said. "The Root stalker stopped pursuit three kilometers back. He's likely returning to report your 'clumsiness' in the north wing, Shorai."
Shorai exhaled, a small, cold smirk touching his lips. "Let him. To a man like Danzō, a child who struggles with a locked door is far less threatening than one who walks through walls."
"A calculated risk that paid off," Boar grunted, landing beside them. He reached into the specially reinforced wicker basket now slung in Shorai's hands.
Tora, the creature of chaos, let out a low, indignant hiss as Boar's large hand approached. Before the cat could unleash its claws, Boar's fingers flicked with practiced speed, pressing a small rectangular seal tag directly onto Tora's forehead.
The cat's amber eyes rolled back, and it slumped into a deep, rhythmic sleep.
"Sleep tight, majesty," Boar muttered, securing the basket lid. He turned to Shorai. "This formula suppresses conscious will and slows metabolism. It'll keep the beast under until we're ready for the release. We need it fresh and annoying for whatever poor Genin team gets stuck with the retrieval mission."
Shorai nodded, already running the timeline through his head. "So this is the 'manufactured crisis' Grandpa mentioned. We hold the cat, let the panic build, and then let the village play hero."
"Exactly," Cat said as she joined them. "Reliance through relief."
By the time they reached Konoha's gates, the morning sun was high and the village was buzzing with its usual midday energy.
The team went straight to the Hokage Tower. The office doors shut behind them, and Hiruzen's silencing barrier dropped into place like a heavy curtain.
The Hokage leaned back, pipe unlit, his eyes scanning the group. "Report."
Shorai stepped forward, his voice steady as he laid out the infiltration in full: the maid diversion, the mapping of the ventilation routes, the encounter with the special jonin guard, and the capture near the shrine. He omitted nothing, presenting the facts with the clinical detachment he had learned from his mentors.
"The guard recognized ANBU involvement," Shorai concluded. "But he allowed the extraction to ensure the Madam was satisfied. He was… interested in my age."
Eagle stepped forward. "Lord Third, the boy's performance was flawless. He managed the capture and exfiltration while being monitored by a Root operative. He gave them exactly what they expected to see—a talented but struggling Genin—while still securing the target. His choice to use the crawlspace showed a high level of environmental awareness."
Boar gave a rare, hearty chuckle. "He handled the cat better than I did my first time."
Hiruzen's face broke into a broad, paternal smile. He stood, his gaze filled with a pride so deep it made Shorai's chest tighten.
"Shorai," Hiruzen said, his voice resonant, "you have navigated a minefield of politics, shadows, and feline spite. You have proven that you possess not only the skill of a shinobi, but the temperament of an operative."
He lifted one hand in a sharp, formal gesture.
"By my authority as the Third Hokage, I declare this trial passed. Shorai, you are now an official ANBU trainee. Your path in the shadows is formally recognized. Your mentors will now stand with you as teammates, and you will have the chance to know them more closely. That means we must begin thinking of a code name and a mask for you."
"There's no need for that, Lord Third. He already has one." Cat's eyes softened, likely smiling behind the mask.
"It's Fox, sir," Eagle said, amusement slipping into his usually serious tone.
"His performance and skill suit the name, sir," Boar added with a low chuckle.
"Now, I wish I could have seen that with my own eyes. Ha-ha." Hiruzen gave a hearty laugh before gradually settling back into his serious composure on the chair. "We will postpone celebrations for another time. After Tora gets caught."
"Thank you, Lord Hokage," Shorai replied, bowing deeply. The title felt heavy, like a new mask he would have to wear—but one that offered the protection he desperately needed.
"For now," Hiruzen said, leaning back, "we wait. It usually takes about a day for the Daimyō's wife to reach her limit and file the official mission request. When the Madam arrives here screaming for her 'precious Tora,' be ready."
He turned to the three mentors. "Take Shorai and the cat to the southern sector of the Konoha forest. Release it near the designated coordinates once the mission is posted. Let the Genin handle the retrieval."
"Understood," they replied in unison.
Shorai turned to leave, but as he reached the door, realization clicked into place. Team 7—Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura—were still stuck on D-rank missions. This cat mission was the breaking point in the story he remembered, the moment that would make Naruto demand something more and send them directly into the Land of Waves, where they would meet Zabuza Momochi.
"Lord Hokage, may I make a special request?" Shorai suddenly turned back.
"What would that be, my boy?" Hiruzen and the ANBU looked at him with curiosity.
"I believe… it might be fate. This would be a good test for Team 7 to take on this cat mission," Shorai said, smiling.
"Ha-ha. Certainly, I can arrange that." The Hokage's expression turned sly.
"And one small thing… I think Naruto is finally going to reach his limit after that mission." A smirk touched Shorai's face. "Stacking more D-rank missions on him in a single day should finally push him to ask for what he really wants—why he's so determined to prove himself. He wants more 'ninja-like' work."
"Ha-ha. Yes, I've noticed. His annoyance has been growing by the day. I assume you have something specific in mind, Shorai?" Hiruzen leaned in, curious.
"A test for him and his squad—a C-rank mission. Something that would be enough to qualify them for the rank, like a small bodyguard job or something similar. Ideally, one from the same day." Shorai's eyes narrowed, and a crescent smile spread across his face.
"Hm. I was thinking the same thing for a while now. If an appropriate low C-rank comes in that day, I'll arrange it." The Hokage smiled, then narrowed his eyes as well. "You want to join them, don't you?"
"He-he. Yes, Grandpa. It won't be a problem anyway, since I won't be paid. And I can assist Kakashi-san in case someone tries to swindle the village by assigning an incorrect mission rank." Shorai's smile widened, though a trace of anxiety flickered across his face.
"Well…" Hiruzen stroked his beard. "I did promise you at the graduation ceremony. I'll speak with Kakashi about it." He nodded. "Be prepared for when Team 7 brings back the cat."
"Thank you, Lord Hokage. I will." A thin crescent smile touched Shorai's lips, and with a light bow, he walked out of the office.
As he stepped into the hallway, satisfied thoughts ran through his mind. I didn't just catch a cat, he thought. I pulled the first thread in the chain that leads to the Fourth Great Ninja War. The Land of Waves… the real world is about to hit them hard. And I'll be there to watch the ripples.
His turquoise eyes sharpened. He wasn't just the harbinger of fate. He was the one steering its hand.
With Eagle remaining behind to handle the final bureaucratic handoffs and keep an eye on the Daimyō's attendants, Shorai, Boar, and Cat moved out. They avoided the main roads, traveling instead across the village's upper skyline—three blurs of gray and green leaping over the tiled roofs.
They reached the southern perimeter, where the dense Konoha forest began to swallow the sunlight. The air there was cooler, scented with damp earth and cedar. Boar landed first, the grass barely bending beneath his weight.
"Listen up, rookie," Boar said, his voice settling into a mission cadence. "The plan is simple timing. Eagle will be at the Tower. The moment the Madam officially signs the request and the ink is dry, he'll send the signal. Once that happens, we take Tora out of the basket and put it right here on the ground."
Cat stepped forward, her purple hair swaying in the light breeze. "We remove the sleep seal and disappear into the canopy. From there, our job is purely observational. We watch from a distance to make sure the 'target' doesn't wander into restricted zones—or get eaten by a forest predator before the Genin arrive. It has to look as though the cat escaped naturally and has been surviving on its own for hours."
Shorai nodded. He already understood the logic. "A believable accident. Understood."
"Good," Boar said gruffly. "The Madam won't be here until tomorrow morning. That gives you a full day of rest. Use it well, kid. You've earned it."
"Thank you. I have a few refinements I'd like to work on," Shorai said, bowing slightly. "I'll be at my usual spot."
The day disappeared into a blur of rhythmic effort. At his private clearing, the crimson sentry seal pulsed quietly on the tree trunk, its light visible only to Shorai's altered perception—another layer of security atop a genjutsu barrier. He and his shadow clone sat cross-legged beside a rock, a stack of blank storage scrolls spread between them.
Scribe. Burn. Infuse. Engrave. Test.
The needle-thin chakra coating on his finger flickered as they worked on the fuinjutsu engraving method. Each stroke was a delicate negotiation with the paper's structural integrity before the pattern was replicated onto the stone.
"We're getting faster," the clone said, wiping imaginary sweat from its brow. "The stability of the chakra-conductive ink patterns is almost eighty-five percent. But the object imprint is still too unstable. Still, we're one step closer to that 'special project' of yours."
Shorai didn't look up from the scroll. "The project is meaningless if we can't maintain structural integrity and sustain the correct output. Swift Release is a cellular drain. If I want to scale it, I need external anchors."
The clone stood and stretched its limbs. "Actually, I've been thinking about the name. Swift Release. Why limit it to our own nervous system and muscles? If it's a fusion of wind and lightning, then it's a physical law. Why can't we apply it externally?"
Shorai paused, and the tiny chakra beam in his finger flickered out. "External acceleration? Moving an object using wind-lightning acceleration?" He frowned. "Unless the object is made of chakra-conductive alloy, any attempt to fuse the effect onto a weapon's surface wouldn't last for more than a second. Vacuum creation, vibration, and current generation could make kunai incredibly lethal—piercing and cutting through almost anything."
"Hm... It's a brilliant idea in theory, but maintaining a continuous supply of chakra would drain us faster than the "Swift" in Swift Release can make up for."
"That's where you're wrong—or rather, where you're thinking like a ninja and not a scientist," the clone countered, pointing at the scrolls. "We don't need expensive alloys. We have the engraving method. We can create 'Battery Seals' directly onto standard kunai or shuriken."
Shorai's eyes narrowed, his turquoise gaze sharpening. "A seal to sustain the elemental fusion within the object itself…"
"Exactly," the clone grinned. "The seal acts as a stabilizer. It holds the wind-vacuum layer around the metal while the lightning boosts the kinetic energy. You wouldn't need to keep feeding it chakra. You just throw it, and the seal handles the 'Swift' part until impact."
Shorai didn't answer right away. He reached inward and activated the Reality Stone's archive mode. The world slowed. Crimson threads of data wove through his mind as he simulated the physics of a seal-driven projectile.
Simulation: Kunai with engraved Battery Seal. Wind-lightning fusion applied.
Result: kinetic velocity increases by more than 400%.
Thermal resistance: maintained by vacuum envelope
Feasibility: high.
External energy source required.
Analysis: chakra consumption varies with travel distance.
Estimated cost: 2%–50% of total reserves.
Effective range: 10 m–1 km.
Initial velocity exceeds sonic threshold.
Output velocity scales with energy input intensity.
"It works," Shorai whispered, emerging from the trance. "The seal would essentially function as a miniature engine with an added intent. It bypasses the need for my constant focus. I can fire and forget."
"See? I'm the smart one," the clone snickered.
"Now you're the one talking to yourself…" Shorai stared at him like he was an idiot. "We need to either recharge the seal after one or two uses, or find a way to make it self-recharge…"
"Self-recharge? For that to work…" The clone made the same expression.
"As long as there's an energy source around us, it can be exploited. Natural energy, for example." Shorai gave a sly smile.
"Right. But then the seal becomes several times more complex, and its structural stability could be compromised. If we ever pull it off, it'll be a very delicate and time-consuming process," the clone said, this time serious.
"I know. For now, the regular chakra version should suffice. Back to training."
They spent the rest of the night at a feverish pace, testing the first iterations of the "Kinetic Battery" formula and carefully engraving the prototype structure onto a shuriken and a kunai.
The seal slowly took shape as a three-layered design. The central layer was dedicated to energy accumulation. The layer around it handled energy transfer into the core and across the metal's surface to sustain the enhancement. Finally, the outer layer served as both a safety switch and a guide, with an intent-based activation note: elemental chakra detection and the holder's intent for distance limitation.
After hours of sweat, cursing, and turning more than half of his weapon stock into damaged, unusable metal, he finally managed to forge a stable structure for one kunai and one shuriken.
The sound of whistling air and crackling static filled the clearing as the kunai and shuriken blurred through the darkness. The kunai pierced the target and stopped at the rock's surface, while the shuriken struck with such force that it didn't just embed—it shattered the wood and kept going, piercing two massive rocks in succession.
"Damn it. I told you to regulate it with intent!" Shorai snapped at his clone, darting toward the vanished shuriken.
"My hand slipped…" the clone said lazily.
By 2:00 AM, Shorai dispelled the clone. The rush of memory and fatigue hit him like a physical blow, leaving a dull ache behind his eyes that told him he had reached his limit.
He moved silently back to the village, a ghost in the sleeping streets. In his apartment, he took a quick, scalding shower to wash away the forest grit and the smell of ozone, then dressed in another set of grey-green field clothes.
He returned to the designated spot for a short nap as the sky began to turn a bruised purple. Cat and Boar were already there, silhouettes against the pre-dawn mist. Shorai settled into the high branches of a nearby oak, his breathing slowly evening out as he drifted into a shallow, restorative sleep.
The stage was set. The cat was ready. And somewhere in the village, Naruto was about to wake up, completely unaware that Shorai had just designed the very nightmare his team was about to face.