Evening, Ninja Apartments

  "Knock, knock~"

  "Click~" Temari opehe door, seeing Link standing outside. She smiled and teased, “What is it? Here to ask me out?”

  Sister, I’m only ten, almost eleven. You’re fifteen—practically a!

  Wait, that’s not the point. The idea of a kid my age saying something like “date” feels absurdly out of pce.

  With a straight face, Link said, “Someone wants to see you.” As he spoke, he formed hand seals and activated the summoning teique.

  Temari’s smile didn’t falter, but she instinctively stepped back, muscles tensing. “How do you even know where I live? I—”

  Before she could finish, a translut figure of Baki appeared in front of her. She quickly formed a seal.

  "Release!"

  “You two talk it out.” Link turned a. “Twenty minutes. Don’t fet to hand over the Bde of Wind teique afterward.”

  He wasn’t ied in eavesdropping on their versation. Even if he were, it was unlikely he’d succeed—Baki, as a jōnin, might not have the stro bat power, but his experiend vigince made it nearly impossible to overhear.

  Instead of staying, Li ht. A trade should be all parties to eure cooperation. Sacrifig his reputation for oeique or some likely irrelevant intel wasn’t worth it.

  Baki probably knew more teiques than just Bde of Wind. At least the wind-release teiques Temari used should also be part of his repertoire, creating space for further colboration.

  …

  Ba his apartment, Link immediately felt hoed it was.

  Even though he hadn’t noticed it before, the momehought about moving, the fws of his cozy little home became gringly obvious.

  A small bedroom bined with a kit and dining area felt messy and custrophobic. The bathroom was tiny, and the bathtub was old and cracked.

  "Time to make more shadows."

  Link pulled out the tailed beast chakra cubes and got to work.

  Though he felt uneasy about the potential for shadows to gaiien the future, that was a far-off . For now, every new shadow was an additional asset in battle. He couldn’t afford to dwell on hypotheticals when the immediate bes were clear.

  The risk was a future problem. Right now, all the shadows were under his trol.

  And he had over a hundred chakra cubes left. Although some were wasted during experimentation the previous night, the quantity was still far from Naruto’s usage of the Multi-Shadow e Jutsu.

  As for why some were wasted...

  He had beeing how the amount of tailed beast chakra influehe shadows. The result? No difference.

  As long as the chakra reached a minimum threshold, it could create a shadow. Using more chakra didn’t make the shadow stronger or increase its stamina. However, falling short of the threshold caused the shadow to colpse shortly after being summoned.

  The problem was that he had already cut the chakra into uniform cubes, and each cube tained more than double the required amount. He couldn’t divide them further—chakra scalpels could cut but not merge.

  After skillfully creating three new shadows, Li his energy drain signifitly. One of the shadows quickly handed him a soldier pill, which he swallowed. Another passed him water.

  “This feels oddly familiar…”

  "Bck Shadow Corps—yeah, that's your name now."

  As he y on his bed, rec, he named his growing army of shadows.

  A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts.

  With a flicker of movement, the shadows lifted him off the bed, dressed him ly, and carried him to the door before retreating bato his own shadow.

  Oh, and a couple of shadows stayed behind to tidy up the chakra cubes oable.

  “I kind of see why nobles like being carried around.”

  When he opehe door, Temari stood there with a serious expression. She handed him a sarked with the kanji for “wind.”

  “This is the teique we agreed on.”

  “Thanks.” Link took the scroll, a half-hearted expression of gratitude before starting to close the door.

  “Wait—” Temari pressed her hand against the door. “ I see Baki-sensei again?”

  Temari’s straightforwardness was a stark trast to someone like Asuma, who ofteated to express himself.

  “Maybe,” Link replied ambiguously. He was willing to waste chakra summoning Sasuke’s parents daily because of friendship and mutual be.

  But Temari? Besides being the daughter of the Kazekage, she didn’t seem particurly valuable. She was, at best, a skilled in, maybe reag jōnin level in three years.

  Besides, ohe peace talks ended, she would return to the Sunagakure. They’d have little to no further iion, so there wasn’t much point in building a retionship.

  If Gaara had made such a request, Link might have residered.

  “If you need more teiques, I —” Temari started to propose arade.

  “Fine. One summon for every eique I’ve never seen before.” Link smiled. Fair trade made a difference. He had no issue wasting chakra for aable deal.

  “You’re smatic,” Temari muttered, rolling her eyes.

  Link thought for a moment. “Or mohat works too.”

  It wasn’t like he wasn’t broke—ninja didn’t have a stable iside of missions, and private work was heavily reguted.

  “I look like I have moo you?” Temari asked sarcastically. If she had cash, she wouldn’t be stuck living in a cheap, remote ninja apartment with her brother.

  Her father might be a walking gold mine, but they had arrived in Konoha for war. They hadn’t brought much money and were now cut off from their vilge.

  “Alright. Bye.” Link nontly shut the door.

  Women only slowed down his hand seals anyway.

  "Energy’s almost back to full…"

  He stretched, took a soldier pill in advance, and used Delicate Illness Extra Jutsu on himself—a good habit to ter the cellur damage caused by repeatedly refining chakra.

  Although he wasn’t obsessed with immortality, he didn’t want to die youher.

  After preparing himself, he divided his chakra again, formed hand seals, and summoned another shadow.

  Now, nine shadows stood ly in formation in his small room. Link nodded in satisfa.

  "I’ll keep a dozen chakra cubes in reserve. The rest will all bee shadows."

  Bleam