[Power…]

  "Thud!"

  As night fell, Uchiha Sasuke colpsed sideways to the ground. Without dinner, his energy reserves were loed, and the mountial exhaustion became the final straw.

  To be ho, Link had expected him to drop much sooner. He hadn’t anticipated Sasuke sting this long.

  Approag him, Link pressed a hand to Sasuke’s body. Physically, there were no serious issues—just extreme fatigue coupled with mental strain, which had caused him to faint.

  At the start of their training, Link had outlined a pn. However, after disc the secrets of Delicate Illness Extra, Sasuke had thrown caution to the wind, plunging into a frenzy of relentless effort. Pns were discarded entirely.

  In truth, such extreme training—pushing himself past his limits—was Sasuke’s habitual method of effort. This time, though, he had far surpassed even his usual boundaries.

  “How much longer are you going to watch, Kakashi?” Link asked, not b to turn around.

  “Ah, you caught me,” Kakashi Hatake said, stepping out of the bushes. “I was just a little curious about my subordinate.”

  You don’t o expin yourself, Link thought, standing up and looking at the masked man uhe moonlight.

  “You’ve got it rough.”

  “That’s part of being a Jonin instructor,” Kakashi replied, scratg his temple with a finger. “Especially with students as troublesome as you all.”

  “I was kicked back to the Academy once, so don’t call me troublesome,” Link said lightly.

  The two exged words casually. Before long, Sasuke slowly regained sciousness, lying silently on the ground.

  Even with a healed body, the sensation of plete exhaustion and weakness was unbearable.

  "Plop."

  Link tossed him a bag of soldier pills and asked, “Do you need me to walk you home?”

  Sasuke’s trembling harieved a pill, swallowing it with difficulty. After a long pause, he slowly stood up.

  “Sorry. Thank you,” he murmured, his steps unsteady as he left. He didn’t ask for help from his peers or his teacher.

  Like Naruto before him, Sasuke wasn’t ready to have friends or rely on others.

  “Didn’t have dinner, did he? I should take him out for food,” Kakashi said, watg Sasuke disappear into the shadows.

  Link had already begun walking home. He’d sent his shadow ahead to start cooking, and a leisurely stroll back would ensure dinner was ready and waiting.

  Kakashi, notorious for making Yamato pay for ramen, now had his eye metaphorically glued to Sasuke’s back. He was clearly worried about the state of his student.

  “Troublesome kids, all of them…”

  Watg Link leave without a word, Kakashi disappeared into the night with a body flicker.

  …

  A Week Later, Training Ground Seven.

  “Finally… success.”

  Link looked at his hands in awe. Just now, as he attempted Mystical Palm Teique, the chakra vanished into thin air, and somethiraordinary happeo his hands.

  "Swish!"

  At the mere thought of moving his hands, they blurred into a flurry of motion, faster than he could sciously react to.

  The speed… it was incredible.

  His hands moved so quickly that they outpaced his ability to process the movement, as though they were exeg ands ahead of his thoughts. Even f hand seals felt instantaneous and effortless.

  “Only my hands ged… have my palms bee ‘immortal’?”

  Link furrowed his brow in thought. In exge for ing a standard amount of chakra, Mystical Palm Teique only sted a few seds before fading.

  Based on his observations, the more chakra a mutated teique ed, the more powerful it became. This teique should have immeential—but as it stood, all it seemed to do eed up his hands.

  Link activated Mystical Palm Teique agaiering a testing phase.

  "The durability of my hands has slightly increased, but they ’t withstand ninja tools. Speed seems to have no limit, adjusting to my reflexes. The optimal use might be pre-programming plex as, like anding my shadow..."

  After about 30 minutes of iteing, Link still hadn’t pinpoihe teique’s proper application. Unlike his previous teiques, the mutation of Mystical Palm Teique remained elusive.

  Judging by the name, Mystical Palm, the term "palm" clearly referred to his hands. But what about "mystical"? Unlike Substitution Teique or other teiques, where the meaning was straightforward, the mystical aspect of this teique left him stumped.

  As for the increased hand speed…

  He could achieve something simir by actively eling chakra to enhance his body—like with the Body Flicker or sharpening his senses. Using so much chakra for a temporary speed boost seemed wasteful.

  Link could sehat there was something more to the teique—some hidden potential in his hands—but he had no idea how to unlock it.

  "Is this some bizarre Japanese cept, like a ‘Hand Speed Sage’? That’d be ridiculous."

  He found himself missing the absurd dream version of Mystical Palm Teique—the one where he spped legendary sages left and right. At least that had looked cooler.

  "Well, uanding a mutated teique always takes time…"

  Link accepted the situation surprisingly well. He had spent weeks overthinking this teique, so finally pleting it—even without knowing its full potential—lifted a weight off his shoulders.

  "Time to focus ur training."

  Determined, Link threw himself into physical exercises. But within ten minutes, he abandoned his regimen, his expression bnk as he stormed into the woods. Moments ter, he returned with two rabbits in hand.

  "Still b me, huh."

  He had resolved to focus on physical training, but his mi drifting back to the teique, like a mischievous cat scratg at his thoughts.

  Testing the teique on the rabbits, he firmed it cked healing capabilities. Scratches on their bodies showed ion.

  It wasn’t elemental either; toug fire or water yielded no special effects. The teique did grant slight fire resistand marginally improved durability, but nothing game-ging.

  Even stroking the rabbits with his Mystical Palms didn’t produy disible effect.

  Link spent the eernoon and several subsequent days experimenting with the teique. As June gave way to July, he relutly admitted defeat:

  He had exhausted every test he could think of, and the teique’s true potential remained a mystery.

  Perhaps it would only reveal itself through eday.

  "Never mind. One inplete teique won’t ge much. I should focus on dealing with Orochimaru."

  His thoughts turo the looming in Exams.

  "I just hope the story hasn’t diverged too far…"

  Bleam