"Are you sure you're ready?"

  Link asked for firmation once again.

  Iris patted his chest fidently, exg, "Of course! I have 100% faith in you, Boss!"

  I don’t even have that much faith in myself…

  Link internally grumbled. After a brief hesitation, he raised his hand and reminded him, "If you feel any disfort, let me know immediately. I cel the teique at any time."

  For a week, he had beeing the teique on his own shadow and animal shadows. Only after that did he bring up the idea of testing it on his teammates.

  Both Iris and Ami agreed without a sed thought, which made him start w about potential hidden risks of the Shadow e Teique.

  For Iris and Ami, their feelings toward Link had evolved into admiration, more like idolization than simple camaraderie.

  When someone is exceptionally talented, calm, mature, and sistently helps you succeed, it’s iable that admiration will follow. Over time, repeated success under his guidaurned into blind trust, without sideration for the risks i in experimenting with a eique.

  Blind trust and idealization…

  Watg Iris's cheerful and rexed demeanor as he even chatted with Ami about how amazing the boss's jutsu must be, Link chuckled self-depregly.

  "Indeed, admiration is the furthest emotion from uanding."

  Gathering chakra, dividing it evenly, f seals, and releasing—

  Shadow e Teique!

  Link carefully aiculously separated the shadow beh Iris's feet.

  "Huff~"

  Iris's breathing became momentarily bored. After a pause, he said, "Boss, it feels like I suddenly used up a rge amount of chakra."

  "Are you sure you're okay?" Link didn’t focus oeique itself but instinctively checked on his teammate.

  Taking a deep breath, Iris looked curiously at the shadowless grouh his feet, intrigued by the strange sensation. He casually replied, "I’m fine, just a little tired."

  After a brief pause, Link asked, " you estimate how much chakra you’ve used? Was it about half?"

  Frowning in thought for a while, Iris replied hesitantly, "I think… it might be half?" Then he added, "Anyway, it’s a lot."

  Nodding, Link anded Iris's shadow to stand up and move.

  The speed and strength matched his physical abilities perfectly.

  Based on his prior week of testing, shadows retaihe same physical attributes as their inals. Shadows would e stored energy to heal injuries, but irreparable damage wouldn’t regee. Moreover, shadows could be destroyed without affeg the inal, but harm to the inal or death would directly affect the shadow.

  "Boss," Iris called eagerly. He seemed excited to test his bat abilities against his shadow.

  Link signaled readiness for bat and gave the shadow a simple and: [Fight].

  While trolling the shadows of animals, he had relied on their instinctive behaviors for movement. This was his first time trolling a human shadow other than his own.

  "Bang!"

  Iris and his shadow cshed, mirr each other's taijutsu style. It was like watg a fight between two identical oppos, as though in front of a mirror.

  They tussled for a while before Iris formed hand seals and used a basic e Teique. The shadow targeted the wrong e, and Iris kicked it away, exg, "Boss, it ’t use ninjutsu!"

  As soon as the shadow hit the ground, it reverted to a two-dimensional form before springing bato three dimensions and charging toward Iris again.

  Relentless and fearless, the shadow might injutsu, but its taijutsu prowess made it a formidable foe.

  Once again, the two identical figures cshed. After a flurry of movements, Iris mao knock the shadow away using a clever trick. Gasping, he said, "Boss, my stamina is suddenly draining really fast!"

  "Stop," Link instructed the inal to pause while making the shadow move indepely. "Focus and check—are you losing stamina?"

  Frowning, Iris took a moment to sense his dition before firming, "Yes, I am."

  "When a shadow separates from its inal, it takes half the inal's stamina. Ohat stamina is depleted, it starts draining from the inal. The shadow is the inal's bat instincts but ot refine chakra. Physical attacks barely affect it…"

  Link summarized the characteristics of the teique.

  After some rest, Iris suddenly said, "It's back!"

  Looking up, Link saw that the shadow e had indeed dissipated, with the shadow returnih his feet. However—

  Why?

  Why had the shadow returned before exhausting all the inal's stamina?

  What caused the teique to end?

  With new questions in mind, Link initiated a sed test.

  The sed test yielded the same result: after ing the separated stamina, the shadow began drawing from the inal’s stamina but suddenly terminated, returning to the inal without depleting all his stamina. The duration of the teique even varied slightly, ending soohis time.

  After dug two more tests, Link identified a key factor and realized an important nuance about chakra:

  Chakra and stamina, to some extent, are intergeable. Stamina is a critical raw material for chakra. However, there’s a crucial distin—

  A person's total chakra isn’t the same as their chakra reserves at any given moment, nor does it equate to their total stamina.

  What does this mean? Stamies and replenishes over time. It’s only when stamina is pletely exhausted repeatedly that someone’s reserves are entirely drained.

  However, shadow es divide current chakra reserves at the moment of casting!

  Even his shadow es locked onto the chakra avaible at separation. So, whearget’s entire avaible stamina was ed, the teique ended, but any stamina regained during the process wasn’t ated for.

  In simplified terms:

  If the target’s stamina was 100 points, Link’s shadow teique would immediately drain 50 points, then gradually deplete the remaining 50 points. Ohe reserves hit zero, the shadow would return to the inal.

  But people aren’t static. Stamina replenishes naturally over time.

  Using half his own stamina to deplete a signifit portion of the oppo’s stamina while creating a temporary fighter with equal taijutsu abilities—was it worth it?